Class Notes

1969 Max Stern has self-published a limited edition CD, Archive Recordings (1966–2008), about which he writes: “Reflecting on the long personal and artistic journey I have traveled since graduating from Eastman was the impetus for reviewing my files and collecting and arranging forgotten material for the CD. It is a retrospective of personal recordings that have never previously seen the light of day, but, nonetheless, constitute a significant part of my musical autobiography. Variations for String Quartet on a Pergolesi Theme was my very first composition presented at a student composer’s forum, while I was studying in the class of Professor Robert Gauldin. It is performed by my classmates. Sonnet for Orchestra was my first orchestral ever written while in the composition class of Professor Samuel Adler. It was performed at the Spring Festival of American Music under Walter Hendl, then the Eastman School director, and recorded in Kilbourn Hall.”

1970 John McNeill ’73 (MA) writes, “Just an update that after 50 years, I’m hanging up my triangle from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. My first concert was when I was a student at Eastman back in the spring of 1968. As I have often heard said, ‘My, how time flies by.’ I look forward to continuing to support the RPO and Eastman, but this time from being in the audience.”

1975 Keyboardist Leslie Tung (MM) writes that he has released a recording, Theme and Variations (MSR Classics), on which he performs works by Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven on a five-octave Viennese fortepiano, “a replica of the instrument attributed to J. L. Dulcken currently in the Smithsonian.”

1978 Karen Falsetta Snider ’83 (MA) (see ’78 College).

1980 Eric Nemeyer (MM) (see ’85).

1982 Mary Kinder Loiselle was erroneously included in the In Memoriam column of the May-June issue. We are very happy to report that Mary is, as she wrote to us, “very much alive and well.” The record has been corrected, and we apologize to Mary and her friends for the error.

1983 Karen Falsetta Snider (MA) (see ’78 College).

1984 Elizabeth (Betsy) Blades (MM), ’93 (DMA) has published new editions of two of her previous books: A Spectrum of Voices: Prominent American Voice Teachers Discuss the Teaching of Singing (Second Edition) and, coauthored with Samuel Nelson, Singing with Your Whole Self: A Singer’s Guide to Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement (Second Edition). Both editions have been published by Rowman and Littlefield.

1985 Jazz trombonist John Fedchock (MM) was featured on the cover of the April 2018 issue of the International Trombone Association Journal. The cover story, “Perspective and Balance: John Fedchock,” included an interview of John by Eric Nemeyer ’80 (MM) and Tony Garcia (MM), photographs, and a solo transcription and analysis.

1992 Jennifer Hambrick—a poet, musician, and midday host of Classical 101, WOSU Public Media in Columbus, Ohio—sends an update. She writes, “My poem ‘Thorn Tree’ was set to music as an orchestral song by composer Jacob Redd and given its world premiere in April by the McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra of Worthington, Ohio. The performance marked the culmination of ‘The Poet’s Song,’ an innovative project showcasing selected poems in new musical settings, and was conducted by Antonie Clark, assistant conductor of Rochester’s 2017 Gateways Music Festival, in association with Eastman.” Jennifer maintains a blog, Inner Voices, at Jenniferhambrick.com.

1993 Elizabeth (Betsy) Blades (DMA) (see ’84).

1995 Peter Fletcher (MM) will be the featured artist at the Chamber Music Festival of the Black Hills in Rapid City, South Dakota, in July.

1998 Vicente Avella (MM) writes that he’s released his second album, Rising (Pandora’s Boombox Records).

2002 Pianist Mirna Lekic has released a recording, Eastern Currents (Romeo Records), with Ensemble 365, of which she’s a founding member. She writes: “The album presents a journey through contemporary Asian music and features works written in the past 40 years by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Bun-Ching Lam, Ramin Heydarbeygi, Ravi Shankar, Toru Takemitsu, and Ming-Hsiu Yen ’03.”

2003 Ming-Hsiu Yen (see ’02).

2018 Jacek Blaszkiewicz (PhD) (see ’13 College).