Class Notes
Eastman School of Music
Reunion News
Eastman School classes celebrating reunions
October 20–22, 2006
70th Reunion: 1935 and 1936
65th Reunion: 1940 and 1941
60th Reunion: 1945 and 1946
55th Reunion: 1950 and 1951
50th Reunion: 1955 and 1956
45th Reunion: 1960 and 1961
40th Reunion: 1965 and 1966
35th Reunion: 1970 and 1971
30th Reunion: 1975 and 1976
25th Reunion: 1980 and 1981
20th Reunion: 1985 and 1986
15th Reunion: 1990 and 1991
10th Reunion: 1995 and 1996
For more about Alumni Weekend, visit the Eastman School’s office of Alumni Relations
1948
Marvin Rabin (MM) was awarded the Presidential Medal at Loyola University in
April 2003 “in recognition of 18 years of guidance and support for string
education in the College of Music and a lifetime of leadership and dedication
to music education throughout the world.” He is professor emeritus of
music and director of the Wisconsin String and Orchestral Development Program
at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
1953
Margaret Walsh Palmieri (Mas) (see ’54).
1954
Robert Palmieri (Mas) is editor of the second
edition of Encyclopedia of the Piano. Margaret
Walsh Palmieri ’53 (Mas) is associate editor.
1957
Sydney Hodkinson ’58 (MM) premiered several works in 2003, including Short
Cuts: Dances & Vespers at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas; Drawings,
Set No. 13 at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston; and
Monumentum Pro Umbris and Tela Lacerata at Stetson University in Deland, Fla.
His Overture: A Little Travelin’ Music, for orchestra, Drawings, Set No.
9, for percussion trio, and Requiescant, for chamber sextet, were performed
at the Aspen Music Festival last summer.
1958
Nicholas Di Virgilio, professor of voice at the University of Illinois, writes
to say that more than 50,000 school children have taken part in his 14-year
outreach program, YOPE (Youth Opera Preparation and Education). In 2003, he
gave master classes and adjudicated competitions throughout the United States.
He also stage directed several operas at Illinois. He is planning to retire
in May but will keep busy freelancing.
1959
A profile of Ron Carter was the cover story of the September 2003 issue of Bass
Player magazine.
1962
June Ackroyd ’64 (MM) writes, “I recently gave a faculty recital
at Northern Michigan University featuring music for voice and instruments. I
am completing my 25th year as a member of the music faculty.”
1969
Mary Bickel (MM), ’91W (EdD) (see ’91RC graduate).
1973
Jeff Tyzik ’77 (MM), principal pops conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra and associate professor of jazz studies and contemporary media at
Eastman, made his subscription series debut as the principal pops conductor
for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra last November. Also in November, he conducted
the Omaha Symphony in a pops program of music from the Big Band era, for which
he wrote many of the arrangements.
1974
William DiCosimo and Lisa Coolican were married on August 14, 2003, in Cicero,
N.Y. He is an assistant professor of music industry at Syracuse University.
They live in Cicero.
1975
Waddy Thompson, director of external affairs at the New York Foundation for
the Arts, has written The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grant Writing.
1976
Composer Bradley Nelson’s (DMA) three-movement
choral work For Whom the Bell Tolls had its premiere at the California
Music Educators Convention in Pasadena, Calif., on March 15, 2003. The second
movement of In Flanders Fields was selected for performance by high
school honor choirs in central and northern California, and the entire work
was performed by the Williamsport (Pa.) Civic Chorus. Streaming recordings and
scores are available on Brad’s Web site, www.gladdemusic.com.
1981
William Picher (MM), organist and director of
music ministries at Mary, Queen of the Universe Shrine in Orlando, Fla., has
recorded a new CD, Te Deum.
1983
William Eddins ’85 (MM), resident conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
led the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Chorus, Children’s
Chorus of Greater Dallas, and soloists in two performances of Leonard Bernstein’s
Mass last November.
1986
Donna Coleman (DMA), head of keyboard at the Victorian College of the Arts in
Australia, e-mails to applaud friend and classmate Louis Goldstein ’80
(DMA): “Dr. Goldstein and I were in the first class of students undertaking
the doctor of musical arts at Eastman from 1976 to 1978. He recently has received
sensational critical acclaim for his compact disc recording of American composer
Morton Feldman’s Triadic Memories, considered by some to be the most important
work written for the piano in the 20th century.” Louis is a professor
at Wake Forest University. . . . Jonathan Gilley (see ’87).
1987
Laurann Littleton Gilley (MA) e-mails that she and husband, Jonathan Gilley
’86, “are moving back to New York after six years in San Francisco,
where Jonathan has been music director at City Church of San Francisco. He will
be working for Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and freelancing, and
I will continue working as a vocal coach/accompanist. We have two sons, Jasper,
4, and Jaden, 1.” . . . William Lumpkin, music director of Boston University’s
Opera Institute, joined forces with the university’s theater arts director
to present contemporary opera in last year’s Fall Fringe Festival as a
crossover project. He says of the collaboration, “Students can come learn
to design a set, do a lighting plot, sing, whatever. It feels like we’re
running a little opera company here.”
1989
David Eby toured Turkey last fall as cellist with the fusion band Pink Martini,
performing songs from the group’s second album. David also plays with
the Portland, Ore., opera and teaches and composes music.
1991
Laura Griffiths is the principal oboist for the Cleveland Orchestra. She held
the same position in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1994 through
2003. . . . Oboist Keve Wilson married trombonist Kerry Farrell, a UCLA graduate
and outreach director of the Henry Mancini Institute. They live in Los Angeles.
1992
Percussionist Ingrid Gordon leads the contemporary chamber ensemble Time’s
Arrow, which premiered in October a commissioned work by composer Charles Griffin
that involves community participation in its performance.
1993
Elizabeth Blades-Zeller (DMA) writes to say that her two books published in
2002, Singing with Your Whole Self: The Feldenkrais Method and Voice and A Spectrum
of Voices: Prominent American Voice Teachers Discuss the Teaching of Singing,
are receiving national and international attention. Singing is being translated
into German. Both books have been reviewed in the Journal of Singing and other
publications. . . . Christopher Koch completed his DMA in conducting at the
University of Washington last spring and joined the Bethel College music faculty
in August as an assistant professor. He conducted the Bethel College Sinfonia
for the first time in a concert last November.
1995
Andrea Banke is principal oboist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
. . . Peter Fletcher (MM) e-mailed in October to announce concerts in Atlanta
and Chicago as well as a Midwest tour.
1997
Pianist Jennifer Blyth (DMA), associate professor
of music at Dickinson College, performed in a concert at Dickinson last November.
She is a member of the Helding/Blyth Duo and the Timaeus Ensemble.
1999
Mike Sakash (MM) is an assistant professor of music at Washington & Jefferson
College in Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the Traverser Saxophone Quartet,
which released a CD last fall and will tour Europe this summer.
2001
Thomas Rosenkranz (MM), an Eastman doctoral student and American Pianists Association
fellow, performed in a recital at SUNY College at Brockport last September.
2002
Cellist Sandra Halleran (MM) is a music fellow in the New World Symphony in
Miami.
2003
Danielle McCormick, a master’s degree student at Eastman, appeared as
Maria in the Atlanta Lyric Theatre’s production of West Side Story last
November.
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