Class Notes
Eastman School of Music
1968
Bill Cahn, a founding member of the percussion group Nexus and associate professor of percussion at the Eastman School, sends an update. In October, he was a resident guest artist at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. He conducted a world music workshop, “An Introduction to West African Drumming,” focused on the work of the Ewe ethnic group of Ghana. He conducted the same workshop at Longwood University in Virginia, also in October. In November, Bill, Bob Becker ’69E, and the other members of Nexus traveled to Toronto to perform Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps and Holst’s The Planets in two-piano versions played by the piano duo 2x10. In December, Bill traveled to Japan to conduct his 10th residency at the Showa Music Academy in Kawasaki. . . . Keith McClelland performed Frigyes Hidas’s Concerto for Bassoon and Wind Ensemble with the University of Tennessee Wind Ensemble last November. Keith has been a professor of bassoon at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville since 1972 and was principal bassoon of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra from 1972 to 2008.
1969
Bob Becker (see ’68). . . . Joan Regli Paltenstein (see ’66 RC undergraduate).
1972
Ted Piltzecker has released a new CD, Steppe Forward (Corner Mushroom, 2010).
1975
Barbara Sauer Prugh (MM) (see ’66 RC undergraduate).
1981
Nancy Markham Smith, the director of grants development for the Community College of Baltimore County, has been elected to the board of directors of the Council for Resource Development, a national association of community college development officers based in Washington, D.C.
1982
Dave Flippo (MM) has opened a private piano studio in Skokie, Ill.
1984
Rich Thompson (MM) (see ’00).
1985
Jonathan Sturm (MM) sends an update. He writes: “I had a busy year in 2010, performing and writing. In January, I was artist-in-residence with the Des Moines Symphony, which involved performing Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires with the symphony, working with music students in Des Moines area schools and performing with the Des Moines Youth Symphonies. In March, I traveled to Kaliningrad, Russia, where I performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with their orchestra, as well as a chamber recital with the Ames Piano Quartet. Also during 2010, I recorded—with the Ames Quartet—my seventh and eighth CDs for the Dorian/Sono Luminus label. In May, I performed the Piazzolla Four Seasons in Cleveland. In June, I was invited to be the guest violist at Stringwood chamber music camp in Minnesota, where I taught a master class and joined the Artaria String Quartet to perform Mozart’s G Minor String Quintet. I encored that performance with the Artarias in September in St. Paul. In October, three of my own arrangements of violin showpieces premiered in Des Moines. My musicological writing during the year included three articles for a new encyclopedia on African Americans in music, a book review of a recent Cambridge University Press monograph on Jews in Haydn’s music, and a chapter on Louis Spohr’s early opera Faust in a forthcoming book on the topic of Faust in music to be published by Oxford University Press. Filling out the busy year, I accepted a part-time position as visiting professor of chamber music at Drake University in addition to my full-time work at Iowa State University.”
1988
Rob Barrett writes that he has released a CD, Celebration: Songs from the Bible (Third Street Music), as well as a book, Cooking for Dads (self-published), a cookbook drawn from Rob’s Cooking for Dads YouTube cooking show. Rob adds: “Cooking for Dads has been featured on The Today Show, a Barbara Walters special, in the New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, and on many television shows around the country. Cooking for Dads videos have been embedded on millions of websites around the world.” In addition, in October, Rob won the America’s Next Cooking Celebrity contest, sponsored by Better Homes and Gardens. The contest requires participants to upload a video of themselves preparing an original recipe. Rob was one of two finalists invited for a cook-off in the Better Homes and Gardens test kitchen in Des Moines, Iowa. Rob won with his red pepper and sausage pasta.
1989
Brenda Leach (DMA) has released a CD, Windswept (Pro Organo, 2010), featuring four centuries of European organ music.
1991
Oboist Keve Wilson has released her first solo CD, Pure Imagination (Composers Concordance Records, 2010).
1992
The duo vio-LINK-oto, which includes violinist Pia Liptak (DMA), has released a CD, Taking the Scarlet (Centaur Records, 2010).
1997
Mie Matsumura ’99 (MM) writes that she has become the first classical pianist to achieve status as principal artist at the highest level of the Spanish flamenco artist world. She presented her program, Serenata Andaluza, which she describes as “an authentic meeting of flamenco and classical Spanish piano music,” in theaters such as the Lope de Vega Theatre in Sevilla, Villamarta Theatre in Jerez, and Canal Theatre in Madrid. She adds: “Last November, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, honored the Spanish art form of flamenco by adding the music and dance style to its distinguished World Heritage List, thereby establishing flamenco as a bona fide universal art form.”
1999
Mie Matsumura (MM) (see ’97).
2000
Miles Brown and Jenine Lawson ’06 (MA) were married in September 2009. Lee Koratich ’06 (MA) (far left) was a member of the wedding party and Gillian Bell ’05, ’07 (MM) sang during the reception. Miles and Jenine are both graduate students at Eastman, Miles working toward his DMA and Jenine toward her PhD. In addition, Miles released a CD, Share My Life (Brown Cats Productions, 2009), a collaboration with his father, guitarist Steve Brown, and Eastman jazz professor Rich Thompson ’84 (MM). The CD features standards and compositions by all three members of the trio. Miles dedicated the title track to Jenine.
2001
Todd Rewoldt (DMA) has released a CD, Swarmius II: Also Normal (Aleppo Records, 2010), a new methods book, Altissimo Studies for Alto Saxophone: Scales, Arpeggios, Trills, and Selected Passages from the Repertoire (RadnofskyCouper Editions, 2010), and has been promoted to associate professor of saxophone at San Diego State University.
2002
Micaela Gutierrez Schmitz (DMA) has released a second CD as part of the costumed trio, Lady Georgianna, which performs popular songs from the 18th century. She writes: “Entitled All Corseted Up for Christmas, it includes some lesser-known Victorian music hall songs mixed with carols with long traditions. This follows our first CD, Ladies of Misrule, which highlights music of the 18th-century pleasure gardens.” Micaela is director of Early Music in the Vale, a group of early music enthusiasts from the Vale of Evesham region of England; editor of Harpsichord and Fortepiano magazine; and education officer of the Chipping Campden Music Festival in Worcestershire.
2005
Gillian Bell ’07 (MM) (see ’00). . . . Sarah Chan (DMA) writes: “I’ll be giving a New York solo piano debut recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in March. I was selected by New York Concert Artists and Associates to perform in the 2011 Carnegie Emerging Artists Recital Series.”
2006
Jenine Lawson (MA) (see ’00).
2007
Gillian Bell (MM) (see ’00).
2010
Christina Custode released an original Christmas song, The Mistletoe Song, and was named Best Female Vocalist in the Artvoice 2010 Best of Buffalo. She fronts the pop-rock trio Rerun, which performs regularly in downtown Buffalo. She is a general music and vocal teacher with Niagara Falls City School District. She adds: “I’m working on a full length CD project, which is due spring 2011.”
