1956
Ronald Bishop writes that he is teaching and performing tuba in the Cleveland area and at Oberlin College’s Conservatory of Music.
1960
Emma Lou Diemer (PhD) writes that her compositions have appeared in three recent recordings. Before Spring, a work for violin and piano, appears on Feminissimo! Women Playing Music By Women (Albany Records); A Requiem, for woodwind quintet and string quintet, appears on Reflections (North/South Records); and Poem of Remembrance, a work for clarinet and chamber orchestra, appears on St. Petersburg Orchestra (CRS Master Recordings).
1968
Bill Cahn returned to Japan in January for his seventh stint as artist-in-residence at the Showa Academy of Music in Kawasaki. During his two-week residency, Bill taught workshops in freeform improvisation, private lessons for the academy’s percussion students, and coached ensembles.
1970
George Del Gobbo (see ’79).
1975
John Serry ’91 (MM) writes that he performed several concerts in and around Bologna, Italy, beginning in January. In winter 2007–08, he adds, he toured Prague and elsewhere in the Czech Republic. “That was a 12-concert tour, very well attended,” he writes. “I ended up staying all of 2008 in Prague, gigging in the clubs and other jazz venues. Then I took a month vacation in Sicily and came to Bologna.” He invites classmates to view his concert photos on Facebook.
1977
Paul Goldstaub (DMA), a composer and faculty member at Binghamton University, is featured in this year’s Binghamton Research magazine. He details his creative process and talks about the art and the science of composition. The piece was written by Rachel Dickler Coker ’96, who is the editor of the magazine.
1979
Joseph Packales, who died last September, had his Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra premiered posthumously in January. It was performed by Andre Gaskins with the Columbus (Georgia) Symphony Orchestra, conducted by George Del Gobbo ’70.
1985
Todd Beaney (MM) writes that he was honored in October for 20 years of service as music director at Wilton Baptist Church in Wilton, Conn. In addition, he has released a book of contemporary arrangements of hymns and original compositions called Walking in Grace: Hymns of the Christian Life for Piano Solo.
1991
John Serry (see ’75).
1992
Ingrid Gordon and her husband, Alexander Gelfand, announce the birth of their second child, Django Gordon Gelfand, in November 2008. Django joins older brother Lazar Gordon Gelfand, born in 1995.
1995
Peter Fletcher (MM) writes that his latest CD, Peter Fletcher Plays Baroque Music for the Guitar, has been released on Towerhill Recordings. . . . In February, Joseph Johnson was the featured soloist for Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony.
2001
Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey (MM) won two Grammy awards, one for Best Classical Album, and another for Best Opera Recording. Both awards were for his role in the Los Angeles Opera’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. . . . Bill ’00RC (PhD) and Andrea Gross Hixon (DMA) announce the November 2008 birth of their daughter, Julia Marie. She joins big brother David (2). The family lives in Appleton, Wis., where Bill teaches political science at Lawrence University and has received tenure. Andrea teaches oboe at St. Norbert College in De Pere and plays in the Madison and Green Bay symphonies. . . . Michelle Rae Martin Atwood (MM) is completing her DMA in pipe organ performance at Eastman and expects to graduate in May 2009. On July 7, 2007, she married Scott Atwood, a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officer, in Lake Placid, N.Y.
2005
Devin Kelly (MM), a drummer in Los Angeles, has released his first major recording as a leader of the Devin Kelly Organ Trio, entitled First Things First (DPK Records). Devin is the owner of DPK Records, an independent record label specializing in live studio recordings.
2006
Baritone Jonathan Michie ’08 (MM) was a cast member in Music in the Air (Kern/Hammerstein) at New York’s City Center in February.
2008
Jonathan Michie (see ’06).