Rochester Review, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA
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Conductor Mitch Miller was the subject of a feature story in On the Air
Magazine. The article said, "At 84, he still enjoys a good cigar, keeps an
impossibly busy schedule and loves to please an audience. . . . And yes,
he still loves his work too much to even call it work." In April, Miller
conducted two pops concerts with the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra in Bridgeport,
Conn.
Wayne Barlow '37E (PhD) (see '66).
In January, the Eastman School held its first Gardner Read '37E (Mas)
festival, a four-day retrospective of his music. Concerts included the world
premiere of Read's Piano Concerto with soloist Randall Hodgkinson
and the Eastman Philharmonia. On Feb. 5, the festival ended with Read conducting
the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra in his works. The Sibley Music Library
exhibited Read's writings and scores during the festival.
William Warfield performed with the Greater Spartanburg (S.C.) Philharmonic
and 200 singers from area choruses in a "Celebration of Freedom." The concert,
held in February in Spartanburg as part of Black History Month, included
Martin Luther King's speeches from the civil rights movement.
On Feb. 6, the Cello Sonata by Louis Gordon '49E (Mas), '62E
(DMA) was performed by his son, Joshua Gordon, and pianist Margaret
Kampmeier '85E at Merkin Hall in New York City. The performance was part
of a concert celebrating Gordon's 70th birthday. On March 10, Gordon continued
his birthday celebration by performing his Second Piano Sonata and
Jazz Vignettes
as part of the "Eastman Endeavors" concert presented by Harrington Crissey
'66. (See story, "Coming Up: The Next Eastman
Alumni Concert,"
for more on "Eastman Endeavors.") . . . In April, master flutist Walfrid
Kujala '50E (Mas) was guest soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra, whose members include principal flutist Joanna Bassett
'86E, who was a student of Kujala's at Northwestern University. During his
visit to Rochester, Kujala also gave a master class at Hochstein Music School
for players in the Rochester Flute Association. Kujala is principal piccolo
with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a full-time professor at Northwestern
University. At the time of his visit, Kujala was the subject of a feature
article in the Sunday Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. . . . Mary
Jeanne
van Appledorn '50E (Mas), '66E (PhD) was a feature composer represented
in the Summer 1995 International Peace Concert Tour given by the New York
Inoue Chamber Ensemble with the Oberlin Conservatory String Orchestra. The
Texas Tech University Symphonic Band recorded her Cycles of Moons and
Tides,
recently released on Opus One, CD #170. Her Trio Italiano for trumpet, horn,
and trombone won an award in the 1996 International Trumpet Guild Brass Trio
Composition Competition and recently Trio Italiano and Cycles of
Moons and
Tides were accepted for publication by Southern Music Company. Van Appledorn
reports that a catalog of her music and recordings appears on the World Wide
Web site of the American Music Center at
http://www.amc.net/amc/member/Mary_van_
Appledorn.
Santa Barbara Overture, by composer Emma Lou Diemer (Mas),
'60E (PhD),
was given its premiere by the Santa Barbara Symphony in March. Before the
concert, Diemer was featured in an article about the composition in the
Santa
Barbara News-Press.
Conductor Donald Johanos '52E (Mas) led the Rochester Festival Youth
Orchestra in a Mother's Day concert in the Eastman Theatre, featuring works
by Howard Hanson, Wagner, and Dan Welcher '69E. Johanos is music director
laureate of the Honolulu Symphony. . . . Julius Kovach wrote to
bring us up-to-date on his activities since graduation: "After graduation,
I joined the Buffalo Philharmonic as associate principal violinist. In
1960, I was appointed principal music librarian and held the two positions
concurrently for 33 years. I retired from playing in 1993 and from the library
in 1994. My total service to the BPO was 44 years. Since my retirement, I
am concertmaster and assistant conductor of the Amherst (N.Y.) Chamber Ensemble.
It is an advanced amateur group and we give one concert a month. It is very
enjoyable and I am having the time of my life!"
Norman Heim (Mas), '63E (DMA) has been emeritus professor at the University
of Maryland since 1994. In February 1996, Heim's composition Dance Fantasia
Op. 221 for bass clarinet, cello, and piano was given its premiere by
Due
Boemi in Germany. Heim's book, The Clarinet Sonata: In Outline, was
recently
published by Norcat Music Press. . . . Joseph Henry '53E (Mas), '66E
(DMA) writes, "Three Eastman alums collaborated on the final concert of the
41st season of the Missoula Symphony Orchestra. Our performance hall has
a Morton Theatre organ, which allowed us to feature Nancy Cooper '80E
(Mas), '83E (DMA) as soloist in everything from a silent movie to the Lone
Ranger. Our 'Downtown Hoedown' theme presented broad possibilities, including
concertmaster Margaret Nichols Baldridge '87E, '95E (DMA) playing
the big On the Trail cadenza to bring Nancy on. The concert marked
the conclusion
of my 10th season as the orchestra's music director.". . . Sal Martirano
(Mas)--an emeritus professor of music at the University of Illinois, an
internationally acclaimed composer, and the inventor of what Science
Digest called "the world's first composing machine"--died last November
at the age of 68. In an obituary, the Chicago Tribune quoted his friend,
Michael Holloway, "Sal will be remembered for his powerful music, his support
of young artists, his generosity toward the poor and helpless, and his insistent
manifestation of what is elegant and vital to the world." Among Martirano's
compositions are "Contrasto" for orchestra, "Chansons Innocentes," "O, O,
O, O That Shakespeare Rag," "Cocktail Music" for piano, "Three Electronic
Dances," and "L's G.A." (Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which was called "the
quintessential anti-war piece"). He was a master collaborator and worked
with poets, other musicians, artists, computer scientists, electronic engineers,
and writers. . . . Ron Nelson '53E (Mas), '57E (PhD) has been commissioned
by Leonard Slatkin to compose an orchestral piece for the National Symphony
Orchestra. The piece will be used as part of fanfare for the Kennedy Center's
25th anniversary celebration in October. In 1993, Nelson retired as a professor
from Brown University, where he had taught theory, counterpoint, and
orchestration for 37 years. . . . The Cleveland Orchestra, with
concertmaster William Preucil, was on a European tour this spring.
In the audience at a concert in Vienna, Austria, violinist Susanne Bauer
'61 heard the orchestra for the first time, though she had studied with Preucil
at Eastman.
Pianist Arno Drucker '55E (Mas) and soprano Ruth Landes Drucker
'55E (Mas) presented a master class for singers at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation
in May. In July, the couple celebrated the 10th anniversary of participation
in "Explorations in Singing," a week-long workshop at Marywood College in
Pennsylvania. Ruth Drucker sang in sessions at the Britten-Pears School for
Advanced Musical Studies in England and was a vocal technician for the American
Song Seminar at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut last summer.
At Towson State University, the Ruth Drucker Vocal Fund, established in her
honor upon her retirement last year, sponsored a master class for vocal students
and helped to support a performance by the Towson State University combined
choruses and orchestra. Arno Drucker continues part-time piano teaching and
chamber music coaching at Essex Community College, which he has done since
his retirement from the college in 1995. . . . Henry Ingram
(see '67).
. . . Percussionist Stanley Leonard was featured in an article in
the Greensburg, Pa., Tribune-Review in February. In 1994, Leonard retired
after 38 years as principal timpanist for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra,
which celebrated its 100th anniversary in the 1995-96 season. As a member
of the committee organizing the celebration, Leonard helped to develop a
package of photographs and four CDs that chronicle the orchestra's history.
Leonard also recently recorded Canticle, a CD with the Duquesne University
Alumni Percussion Ensemble.
Robert W. Greenberg '57E (Mas) recently retired as assistant superintendent
in Long Island, New York, and is now principal trumpet of the St. Augustine
Orchestra in Florida and a resident of Palm Coast. . . . George Walker
(DMA), '57E (DMA) received the Pulitzer Prize for his composition,
Lilacs. (For more on Walker, see
Rochester Gazette/Surviving the
Pulitzer.)
Frederick Kopp (PhD) reports that he celebrated his 82nd birthday by
completing work on a new opera, The Sophisticate. "Since then, I've also
written a new song to celebrate the 'debut' of my newest granddaughter--an
event for which I am not totally responsible, but is nonetheless a welcome
and happy one," Kopp writes.
Nicholas Di Virgilio directed a production of Bizet's Carmen in Humbach,
Germany, with University of Illinois students taking lead roles. Di Virgilio
reports that the elementary school opera education and Opera Look-In projects
he directs in Illinois are doing well and Teen Opera will debut in the fall.
. . . Carol Dawn Winkelman (see '66).
John Davison (PhD) (see '66). . . . Ken Murley
'61E (Mas) reports
that his composition Christ Is Born, Alleluia was performed by the
Toccoa,
Ga., Symphony and Chorus in December 1995. Murley's New England Portrait
was performed by the Toccoa Symphony in March. Murley, a freelance composer/
arranger in the Atlanta area, composed the film score for Grit, a film that
was scheduled to be shot in the summer of 1996. . . . Roland Persson
'60E (Mas) writes that he is now in his fourth year of teaching ninth-grade
English at Richmond (Calif.) High School. He is still playing and teaching
music on a private basis.
Pianist Gary Wolf (Mas), '64E (DMA) performed in a concert at the
Dayton (Ohio) Art Institute as part of the Soirees Musicales piano series
in March.
Susanne Bauer (see '52). . . . James
Miltenberger (Mas), '65E
(DMA), a professor of music at West Virginia University, served as judge
of piano events at the 47th annual Young Musician Auditions held in March
in Wheeling, W.Va.
In February, Roger Thorpe (Mas) was inducted into the Big Band Hall
of Fame in a ceremony in Palm Springs, Fla. Thorpe, who has retired from
teaching at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., played in the
brass section of the Glenn Miller Band and with Woody Herman and Les Elgart.
Sammy Kaye nicknamed Thorpe "The Professor." Thorpe now directs and tours
with the band Swing and Sway.
Mitzie Collins played the hammered dulcimer in the third annual Concert
of Traditional Scottish Music in Rochester in April. . . . Bassoonist
Phillip Kolker '67E (Mas) appeared in a concert at the Second Presbyterian
Church in Baltimore, Md., in February. Kolker is principal bassoonist with
the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and a faculty member of the Peabody Institute
of Johns Hopkins University. Kolker is a founding member of the Baltimore
Wind Quintet and also of the early music group Pro Musica Rara, where he
plays baroque bassoon. Kolker is married to soprano Elizabeth Hart '65,
co-chair of the Peabody Preparation Voice Department. . . . John Wyre
(see '68).
Horace Boyer (Mas), '73E (PhD) is the author of How Sweet the Sound:
The Golden Age of Gospel, published by Elliott and Clark Publishing.
The
book covers the period from the 1940s to the 1960s and includes sketches
about Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, James Cleveland, and other gospel artists.
Boyer is professor of music at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst.
Elizabeth Hart (see '63).
Passacaglia and Rondo, a composition by Newel Kay Brown (PhD)
was
commissioned by the Texas Harp Ensemble last January. It received a Dallas
premiere in April and a second performance at Texas Christian University
in Fort Worth. . . . Paul Anthony McRae resigned as conductor of the
Greensboro (N.C.) Symphony Orchestra in December 1995. McRae, who had been
with the orchestra since 1987, left to join a real estate venture in Florida.
In a Greensboro News & Record article at the time, Henry Ingram '54,
a professor at Greensboro College and a freelance critic, says McRae contributed
enormously to the artistic growth of the orchestra during his tenure. . .
. Paula Rothman (see '66). . . . Organist Karl
Tricomi performed
a recital entitled "Heroic Music from Opera and Oratorio," in January at
Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. Tricomi lives in Cherry Hill, N.J.
Recent performances by percussion group Nexus include a concert with the
Toronto Children's Chorus in May and a performance at Carnegie Hall, which
featured works by Nexus members, with The Metro Youth Orchestra of Huntsville,
Ala. In early March, the group was in residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo
Symphony Orchestra in Ontario. Recent compact discs by Nexus include World
Diary and Music for Heaven and Earth. New from Philips Classics is a recording
by Nexus of One last bar, then Joe can sing, a work commissioned by Nexus
and premiered in London in November 1994. The internationally acclaimed group
includes Bill Cahn, John Wyre '63E, Bob Becker '69E,
'71E (Mas), Robin Engelman, and Russell Hartenberger. . . . Steve Gadd
was the subject of the cover story in the April issue of Modern Drummer.
Gadd, who has toured with Paul Simon, Al Jarreau, and Eric Clapton, recently
left New York City to return to Rochester. In the article, Gadd discusses
in detail some of the many recordings on which he has performed. . . .
Hilton Jones (see '86).
Bob Becker '71E (Mas) (see '68). . . . Pianist Paul
Van Ness
performed the Brahms Quintet with the Anderson String Quartet this past
year and appeared with the Plovdiv Chamber Orchestra in Bulgaria. Van Ness
took leave from his work as professor of piano at Cal State University, Los
Angeles, in the winter term 1995 to work on his book on intercultural teaching
of piano. The List-Glenn Institute for Piano and Strings, founded by Van
Ness in 1986 as a memorial to Eastman professor Eugene List and his wife,
Carroll Glenn, presented its 10th anniversary summer festival this year.
The festival, Chamber Music-1996, featured musicians from Turkey, Bulgaria,
Taiwan, and the United States. . . . Compositions by Dan Welcher were
performed at a Mother's Day concert in the Eastman Theatre by the Rochester
Youth Festival Orchestra.
Charlene Campbell Butler writes, "I recently formed a touring opera company
that takes small chamber-style operas to schools, libraries, and senior centers.
Our fall 1995 production was The Telephone and in the spring and fall
of
1996 we perform Sweet Betsy From Pike. I sing the soprano roles, direct
the
productions, and serve as business manager." Butler also sang in the "Eastman
Endeavors" concert presented by Harrington Crissey '66E in Wilmington,
Del., in March 1996. . . . Geary Larrick (Mas) performed three recitals
of percussion music in early 1996 in Stevens Point, Wis. The presentations
featured instruments of Africa, America, and Europe, and music improvised
by Larrick. . . . James Setapen, music director and conductor of the
Amarillo, Tex., Symphony, was featured in a profile in the Amarillo Daily
News in March. Setapen and his wife, Carol, have two children, Ilana, 12,
who plays violin, and Adam, 9, who studies cello. . . . Saxophonist Chris
Vadala appeared as a guest artist with the University of South Dakota
jazz ensembles in April.
In January 1996, flutist Bonita Boyd performed with classical guitarist
Nicholas Goluses in a chamber music performance at the Skaneateles (N.Y.)
Festival. In May, Boyd performed in Rochester in a program honoring late
American composer Leo Sowerby. Boyd is a professor at Eastman.
Pianist Susan Dersnah Fee (Mas), '75E (PhD) and her husband, pianist
George Fee '73, frequently present master classes, lectures, and workshops
nationwide. . . . Vibraphonist Ted Piltzecker was guest composer and
performer with the UMO Jazz Orchestra in Finland in January. He was in residence
for a week, rehearsing the band for a concert of his music at the Royal Cotton
Club in Helsinki. Piltzecker's work, Tango for an Elegant Man, which was
premiered at the Aspen Music Festival, received its first European performance
at the concert. . . . Cecile Saine (see
'81).
Soprano Robin Eaton was soloist for the Schubert Mass in G with the
Syracuse Opera Chorus and Syracuse Symphony in January. Eaton also sang a
recital in November 1995 for Civic Morning Musicals at the Everson Museum
in Syracuse, N.Y. . . . George Fee (see '72). .
. . Chris Koch
has been awarded a Rotary Ambassador Scholarship for one year of music
study in Australia. Koch is pursuing a master's degree in orchestra conducting
at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. . . . The December 1995 issue
of Wake Forest University Magazine featured an article on soprano Teresa
Radomski. Radomski, associate professor of music at Wake Forest, was
involved in a research project entitled "Laryngeal Biomechanics of the Singing
Voice." The article says that in a Cable News Network segment last fall,
"Radomski's vocal cords were front and center as she helped to demonstrate
transnasal fiber optic laryngoscopy, a procedure in which a scenic view of
the voice box is filmed via a tube with a light at the end of it." Radomski
says the research helped her to form a clear image of how vocal cords vibrate.
. . . Suzanne Blum Stearns '75E (Mas) (see '74).
. . . Trumpeters
Jeff Tyzik '77E (Mas) and Allen Vizzutti '74E, '76E (Mas) and
drummer Dave Mancini '74E performed with Doc Severinsen in a Weekender
Pops Concert with the Minnesota Orchestra in January. Tyzik is pops conductor
for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
Louise Goldberg (PhD) received specialized training and certification
as a holistic health counselor from the American Society of Alternative
Therapists, as well as a diploma in transformational counseling from the
Institute of Transformational Studies. Goldberg is also a graduate of the
course of study in the curative aspect of breath, tone, and drumming given
by the Institute for Music, Health, and Education. . . . David Isele
(DMA) was the subject of the "Artists & Their Art" feature in the Tampa
Tribune in December. Isele is professor of music at the University of Tampa
and music director at Tampa's Sacred Heart Church. . . . Dave Mancini
(see '73). . . . Phil Markowitz recently received
his
second composition grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Markowitz,
who teaches composition and theory at Mannes College Jazz and Contemporary
Music School, performed this year at the Lisbon Jazz Festival in July and
at the Lillehammer Jazzfest in Norway, and was a featured soloist in the
Kobe (Japan) Contemporary Music Festival. . . . Baritone Jay Stearns
was soloist along with Marilyn Horne and the National Symphony Orchestra
in John Corigliano's first symphony Of Rage and Remembrance, to be released
on CD in October 1996. He also appeared with Opera Camerata of Washington,
D.C., in the U.S. premiere of Donizetti's Poliuto in June. Stearns and his
wife, Suzanne Blum Stearns '73E, '75E (Mas), sing with the U.S. Army
Chorale in Washington. Jay Stearns is on the vocal faculty of Catholic University
of America. . . . Allen Vizzutti '76E (Mas) (see '73).
. . . Mary
Watkins is general manager of the Kansas City Symphony.
John Serry '91E (Mas) won the grand prize in the Jazziz magazine Key
Players Competition, a keyboard/composer contest judged by Dave Brubeck and
Bob James. The prize included a Steinway grand piano and free full page ads
in the magazine for Serry's CD, released by Telarc International last June.
Serry also composes music for television commercials and wrote the sports
music for CNN's "Headline News."
Vibraphonist Steve Rehbein gave a recital in March at the University
of Nebraska Performing Arts Center in Omaha. Rehbein is coordinator of jazz
studies and percussion and assistant director of bands at the university.
. . . Judith Paniccia Ricker '81E (Mas), '91S (MBA) was the subject
of a feature article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in May.
Ricker,
who played the oboe with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for many years,
is now a senior analyst in business research for Eastman Kodak. Ricker completed
her M.B.A. at the University's Simon School while still performing with the
RPO and teaching at Hochstein Music School. In 1991, she joined Kodak. Ricker,
who is married to RPO clarinetist Ramon Ricker, still plays with Hochstein's
Antara Winds and the Greater Rochester Women's Philharmonic.
Composer and commentator Robert Kapilow performed with The Ying
Quartet '91E as part of a music-discovery series sponsored by the Friends
of Chamber Music in Kansas City, Miss., in February. Kapilow provided a
play-by-play analysis while the quartet performed Beethoven's Second
Quartet.
Allen Gimbel's Sonata for Piano was performed by Jon Klibonoff
at the
Festival of New American Music at Sacramento State University in 1995. Gimbel
also gave a lecture on neo-romanticism and ethics at the festival. He is
associate professor of music at Lawrence University's Conservatory of Music
in Appleton, Wis.
William Copper (see '66).
Christopher Lamb (see '85). . . . Pianist Robert
Siemers E (Mas)
presented a concert in February at Atonement Lutheran Church in Wyomissing,
Pa. Siemers teaches piano at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania and is
a doctoral candidate at Indiana University. . . . Pianist Howard
Spindler (Mas) is the organizer of "Eastman at Washington Square," a
series of free concerts held at lunch time in Rochester at the First Universalist
Church. The concerts ran from February until June and featured student faculty
and ensembles from Eastman and its Community Education Division. The series
opened with a concert by soprano Cecile Saine '72E, accompanied by
Spindler.
Soprano Jane Adler '86E (Mas) made her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony,
with James Conlon conducting Mozart's great Mass in C Minor. She also sang
chamber music on the Bargemusic Series in New York City with Paul Newbauer,
viola, and Ann-Marie McDermott, piano. . . . Violinist Lois Finkel (Mas)
plays with the Charleston String Quartet, which has been in residence at
Brown University for 10 years.
William Eddins '86E (Mas) was guest maestro with the New Hampshire Symphony
at the Portsmouth Music Hall in March.
Margaret Kampmeier (see '48). . . . Mike McKeever
and his wife,
Kathy Mills McKeever (Mas) write they are pleased to announce the
birth of Nathan Malcolm on April 5, 1996. The McKeevers have two other children,
Seth, 4, and Hope, 2. In May, Mike and Kathy were preparing to go overseas
with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Mike will be working in a finance office
in Cameroon, West Africa. . . . Bridget-Michaele Reischl was featured
in an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in December. Reischl, the
first American and first woman to win Italy's Antonio Pedrotti International
Competition for Orchestra Conductors, conducts the Lawrence University Symphony
Orchestra. . . . Stephen Rush continues to teach at the University
of Michigan, where he is the music director of the Dance Department and directs
the Digital Music Ensemble. He recently gave performances of his work in
Paris, Budapest, and San Jose, Costa Rica, and received grants from Meet
the Composer and the International Institute at the University of Michigan.
Rush's recent CD projects include a recording of his electronic chamber opera
Murders in the Rue Morgue, which was scheduled to be released in summer 1996
on MMC Records. Rush's Rebellion for trombone, percussion and piano was scheduled
to be recorded by Joe Alessi and Christopher Lamb '81 of the New York
Philharmonic. . . . Dave Silon '87 (see
'85 River Campus undergraduate).
. . . David Wilborn (Mas), director of bands and assistant professor
of music at Eastern New Mexico University, was recently elected college and
university vice president of the New Mexico Music Educators Association.
He will assume the position in January 1997.
Each spring the Tampa, Fla., area is home to the BONK Festival, a week of
experimental music. The festival began in 1991 when Paul Reller (Mas)
got together with a bunch of fellow Eastman alumni and put on a marathon
concert at the University of South Florida Fine Arts Auditorium. The next
year they expanded the concert to five nights and in 1993 to seven nights,
where it is now. In an article in Tampa's Weekly Planet, Reller describes
BONK's music as "white-collar underground music, because most of the composers
and performers have Ph.D.s." Reller, a professor of composition at the University
of South Florida School of Music, also plays in the rock band Clang with
Corey Jane Holt '88E (Mas), a fellow BONK board member. The festival
has no sponsors or grants or outside funding. All of the composers and musicians
donate their works and their time. The 1996 BONK festival included compositions
by Holt and Reller and by Hilton Jones '68E (Mas), Mikel Kuehn
'93E, Eric Lyon '88E, and David Rogers '89E.
Pianist Donna Coleman (DMA) performed as part of the Philip Lorenz
Memorial Keyboard Concerts at California State University at Fresno in December
1995. Coleman, who is head of the keyboard department at Victorian College
of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia, presented a performance of Charles
Ives' rarely heard Second Pianoforte Sonata: Concord, Mass.
1840-1860.
Aurora for violoncello solo and Wet on Wet for clarinet solo
by Lee
Gannon were performed at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City in
December. The concert, held on World AIDS Day, was part of the Benson Series
Concerts, which commemorate composers and musicians who have died of AIDS.
Symphony No. 1 by Gannon, was performed by the University of Kentucky
Wind
Ensemble at the University of Southern Mississippi in January as part of
the College Band Directors National Association Convention. Gannon's Sonata
for Violoncello & Piano was performed by Gannon and Bradley Mansell
in
a concert at Middle Tennessee State University in April. . . . Eric Lyon
(see '86).
Violinist John Fadial (Mas) and his wife, cellist Beth
Vanderborgh '90E (Mas), comprise the ensemble Duo Nouveau, which toured
Europe and the U.S. East Coast earlier this year with the French quartet
Ensemble Stanislas. Vanderborgh teaches at Adelson-Broaddus College in Virginia
and Fadial teaches at West Virginia University. The couple live in Morgantown.
. . . Organist Michael Farris (DMA) was featured performer in the
1996 Lumpkin Memorial Organ Recital in Columbus, Ga., in February. Farris
is associate professor of music at Eastman. . . . Organist John
Mitchener (Mas), '95E (Mas) teaches at Salem College and the North Carolina
School of the Arts, both in Winston-Salem, N.C. . . . "A Tribute to Dana
School Music Jazz Composers/Arrangers," a concert presented by the Youngstown
(Ohio) State University Jazz Ensembles in February, featured trumpeter
Dave Rivello E (Mas). Rivello, a Dana School graduate, performed his
own compositions and arrangements. Rivello is a freelance composer/arranger
and copyist working in Rochester. . . . David Rogers (see
'86).
Melanie Mitrano, who holds a D.M.A., has recently been appointed assistant
professor of voice and vocal program coordinator at Jersey City State College.
. . . Steve Vacchi is visiting assistant professor of bassoon at Wichita
State University and principal bassoon with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra.
Vacchi was an invited performer at the 1996 International Double Reed Society
Conference in Tallahassee, Fla. . . . Beth Vanderborgh (Mas)
(see
'89).
Organist Douglas Cleveland presented concerts in March at the First
Presbyterian Church in Saginaw, Mich., and in April at St. Peter's Episcopal
Church in Albany, N.Y. . . . Daniel Florio (Mas) writes, "after holding
positions with the Honolulu Symphony, the Canton Symphony, and the Erie
Philharmonic, I recently became a percussionist with the Dallas Symphony."
. . . Robin Kornblith Sneider (see '91
undergraduate). . . . The Ying
Quartet's busy touring schedule included participating in a residency program
in Waterford, Mich., with students from the town's string program, in February
and performing with the Chamber Music Society at Detroit's Orchestra Hall.
Also in February they presented a concert at the Peace Center for the Performing
Arts in Greenville, S.C., and performed with composer and commentator Robert
Kapilow '77E (Mas) as part of a music-discovery series sponsored by the
Friends of Chamber Music in Kansas City, Miss. In March, the quartet appeared
at the Duncan Theater in West Palm Beach, Fla. The Ying Quartet is made up
of siblings Timothy (DMA), Phillip '92E (Mas), Janet
'92E, and David '92E (DMA). (For news of the Yings' recent appointment
to the Eastman faculty, see Rochester In Review/Ying
Quartet to Return as Eastman Faculty.)
Gregory Jones (DMA) received a Fulbright Artist-in-Residence Senior Award
for Greece, 1995-96. During winter break in 1995, Jones directed the Northeast
Missouri State University Jazz Ensemble in a tour of Russia organized by
the Russian Ministry of Culture.
In 1995, Walter DuMelle (Mas) spent his second summer season in Des
Moines performing the role of Figaro in a full orchestra presentation of
The Marriage of Figaro. DuMelle is currently under contract with the
San Diego Opera Education Department's Outreach Program, performing with
five other singers in schools and community centers. He writes, "The hippie
in me is very happy with the life and sights in San Diego." . . . Mikel
Kuehn (see '86).
Chris Jentsch (Mas) has been appointed composer-in-residence for the
1995-96 academic year to work with Fairport (N.Y.) High School jazz
ensembles.
Timothy Muffitt (DMA) is director of the University of Texas Symphony
Orchestra, assistant conductor of the Austin Symphony, and a regular guest
conductor with the Louisiana Philharmonic.
Copyright 1996, University of Rochester