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
1953
Raymond Gniewek was a guest violinist with the
Philadelphia Piano Quartet in last March’s Classic Chamber Concert at
Edison Community College in Naples, Fla., where he also lives.
1956
John Perry ’58 (MM) performed Beethoven’s
Second Piano Concerto with the San Bernardino (Calif.) Symphony Orchestra
under the direction of Carlo Ponti in January. John is a professor of music
at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.
1957
Martha Stonequist retired after 17 years as city
historian of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
1958
John Perry (MM) (see ’56).
1963
Chuck Mangione (see ’70). . . . Jerry
Neil Smith (PhD) was commissioned by the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic
to compose a work for high school orchestra. His work, “South of the Border,”
was performed in Chicago at the 2002 clinic by the combined orchestras of Norman
(Okla.) North High School and Wichita (Kan.) East High School. “South
of the Border” has been published by Neil Kjos Music. Jerry also was featured
clarinet soloist and composer at Southwestern Oklahoma State University at Weatherford
in December 2003.
1966
John Russo and his East Hill Classic Jazz Group
performed at LeMoyne Manor in Liverpool, N.Y., last February.
1968
Bill Cahn (see ’69). . . . Pianist Tom
Worrall (MM) was profiled in the Memphis newspaper The Commercial
Appeal last January.
1969
Percussion group Nexus, featuring Bob Becker ’71
(MM) and Bill Cahn ’68, performed with the
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra last December.
1970
Vince DiMartino ’78 (MM) performed with
his DiMartino/Osland Jazz Orchestra at the 30th annual Pittsburgh State University
Jazz Festival in March. . . . Geary Larrick (MM)
writes, “My book Bibliographic Analysis of Percussion Literature
was published in the fall of 2003.” . . . Tenor saxophonist Gerry
Niewood performed with pianist Sara Jane Cion’s quartet at The
Cornerstone in Metuchen, N.J., in March. He also was scheduled to perform with
Chuck Mangione ’63 and a 30-piece ensemble
at Avery Fischer Hall in New York City in April.
1971
Bob Becker (MM) (see ’69).
1973
Rudolph (Sonny) Kompanek (MM) writes, “I
have orchestrated more than 60 feature films. My book, From Score to Screen:
Sequences, Scores & Second Thoughts, The New Film-Scoring Process, will
be published in July. I also teach film scoring classes at New York University.”
1975
Keyboardist John Serry ’91 (MM) performed
at the 606 Club in London last February with a group that included U.K. saxophonist
Dave O’Higgins. He also appeared in Jazz Legends on BBC 3 (his
interview is available on the BBC Web site) and Dick Heath’s Jazz
and Fusion radio program on the Loughborough University station in Leicestershire,
England. He performed at the Bird’s Eye Jazz Club in Basel, Switzerland,
in March, and will remain in Europe throughout 2004.
1976
Percussionist Niel DePonte (MM) was a 2003 Grammy
nominee for best instrumental solo performance with orchestra for his performance
of Tomas Svoboda’s Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra with the
Oregon Symphony, conducted by James DePriest. Niel is the Oregon Ballet Theatre’s
music director.
1977
The New York Times profiled Robert Kapilow
(MM) last year. The article detailed his audience-participation performances
of Beethoven’s piano sonata Les Adieux and Handel’s Messiah.
1978
Vince DiMartino (MM) (see ’70).
1980
Violinist and poet Kate Light ’82 (MM) has
written text and poems for Oceanophony, a full-length concert piece
for children, in collaboration with composer Bruce Adolphe. Oceanophony
was performed in the spring by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, with Kate
as narrator, as well as at Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla, Calif., the American
Museum of Natural History, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in
New York City. A CD was scheduled to be released last spring.
1981
Dan Locklair (DMA), professor of music and composer-in-residence
at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., writes that his Christmas
anthem From East to West was premiered by the Indianapolis Symphonic
Choir last December; The Five Senses, a suite for piano in five movements
commissioned by the Music Teachers National Association, was premiered by pianist
Louis Goldstein at the association’s North Carolina convention last October;
and O Sing to the Lord a New Song (Psalm 96) was premiered by the Wake
Forest University Concert Choir last December. . . . Violinist Madeleine
Mitchell (MM) released two CDs in 2003: British Treasures and,
as part of the trio Triangulus, an album of Hummel piano sonatas. She was a
finalist in the European Women of Achievement Awards for her international performances
and her outstanding work as artistic director of her Red Violin Festival. She
is a professor at London’s Royal College of Music.
1982
Kate Light (MM) (see ’80).
1983
Boston Symphony Orchestra associate principal clarinetist Thomas
Martin performed with the Needham (Mass.) Chamber Players in March.
1984
Dave Glasser ’86 (MM) performed with his
Dave Glasser Quartet in New York City last February. His latest CD is Begin
Again. . . . Jazz pianist Darrell Grant was
profiled in Denver’s Rocky Mountain News. Darrell, a Colorado
native, performed in Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Denver last January. . .
. In February, composer Michael Torke attended
the performance of his orchestral work, Ecstatic Orange, by the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra, and gave a presentation of his music. . . .
Leslie Umphrey (MM) sang the title role in Opera Southwest’s production
of Susannah in Albuquerque, N.M., in February.
1985
John Fedchock (MM) was a 2003 Grammy nominee for
best instrumental arrangement, for “Caribbean Fire Dance,” performed
by his New York Big Band on the group’s CD, No Nonsense. . .
. Jazz composer Maria Schneider (MM), professor
and artist-in-residence at Hunter College, and her 17-piece orchestra presented
the premiere of a composition commissioned by the school.
1986
Bruce Dudley (MM) and his Trio with Strings performed
at the Nashville Jazz Workshop in February. . . . Dave
Glasser (MM) (see ’84). . . . Rita Griffith
is director of the Buffalo Valley Singers.
1991
Duane Prill (MM), organist for Asbury First United
Methodist Church in Rochester, tunes organs for the Parsons Pipe Organ company
in Canandaigua, N.Y. . . . John Serry (see ’75).
1993
Chris Jentsch (MM) (see ’96). . . . David
Russell (see ’66RC undergraduate). . . . Valerie
Watts (DMA), principal flute for the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra,
member of the Oklahoma Woodwind Quintet, and assistant professor of flute at
the University of Oklahoma’s School of Music, performed in the university’s
Sutton Artist Series last January. This is her 14th year in the series.
1994
Pianist Mark Flugge (MM) has recorded a jazz CD,
Familiarity.
1995
Peter Fletcher (MM) performed a new program, “La
Guitare Française,” in Atlanta last February.
1996
Bernadette Diño (DMA) and Chris
Jentsch ’93 (MM) were married in November 2003, the same month
Bernadette passed the New York State bar exam. Chris has been teaching, performing,
and writing a suite for large jazz ensemble on a grant from American Composers
Forum. Bernadette and Chris live in Brooklyn. . . . Composer Jeremy
Gill, former assistant conductor for the Harrisburg (Pa.) Symphony Orchestra,
leads the five-part course, “The Enjoyment of Music,” for Market
Square Concerts. . . . David Hagedorn (DMA) writes,
“I have a new jazz CD, SolidLiquid, that came out in October
2003. I’m on vibraphone with two different rhythm sections of bass and
drums. It’s available from www.artegra.org.”
1998
Jonathan Coo (MM) was accompanist for Belgian
tenor Bartholomeus de Kegel at a performance for the Belgian ambassador to the
Philippines. . . . Christopher Fensom (MM) and
Tara Noval were married on August 2, 2003, at St. Louis Church in Pittsford,
N.Y. Christopher and Tara are members of the Charlotte (N.C.) Symphony. . .
. Harpist Kwak Jung (MM) is chair of the 2008
World Harp Congress, which will be held in Pusan, Korea.
2001
Pianists Ilan Levin (MM) and Eastman doctoral
student Larisa Rozembaigher performed in the concert series, “Classics
on Elmwood,” at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo in February.
. . . Timothy Olsen (MM), winner of the 2002 American
Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition, gave a free recital at
the St. Lucas United Church of Christ in Evansville, Ind., last January. He
played the church’s historic Aeolian-Skinner organ. Tim is Cornell University’s
organist and adjunct instructor at SUNY Binghamton. He is pursuing his D.M.A.
at Eastman.
2002
Laura Karney is cofounder and comanager of Ardesco,
a seven-person nonprofit ensemble. She also owns a reed-making business and
gives private oboe lessons. . . . Megan Sesma
(see ’02RC undergraduate).
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