Class Notes

Eastman School of Music

1946

Frances Paul DeGermain sends an update, reflecting on her experience coming to Eastman from her native Alaska, and on her life since. Her father was a Native American activist and lawyer as well as “a frustrated, heroic tenor who loved opera and had a voice and mind that could mesmerize with his oratory a movie theater full of bureaucrats and carpetbaggers who hated him and were afraid of the Tlingit people.” Now 90 years old and living in Seattle, she continues: “I had voice lessons from an opera singer who trained in Germany just before World War I. So my parents sent me to Eastman in 1942, from Juneau, Alaska, a town of 7,000 people! I didn’t have an audition. Eastman wanted a student from Alaska! I never heard of a Seashore test. I didn’t know anything about theory! I did know how to read music—unusual in a singer at that time. I knew no one! I was shy! I was frightened!” She adds that she enjoyed Herman Genhardt’s course on vocal literature. After returning to Alaska, she got “a bureaucratic job” in the state’s treasury department. “I gave a few recitals and became a choir director in the local Presbyterian Church—who had to pay me, as after all, I had a degree in voice from the famous Eastman School of Music!” In 1959, she moved to Seattle and began work at Boeing and continued singing. “By that time, I had a son, born with rods and cones dyslexia, legally blind. I joined the University Presbyterian Church as a chorister, became a soloist in the Christian Science Church, and joined a chorus that became the basis of the chorus for the Seattle Opera and sang in the 1962 World’s Fair performance of Aida. We were paid for dress rehearsal and performances. We did Tosca and La Traviata. By this time I was a paid chorister at the St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral. So my voice became an avocation. We would do the complete Messiah, which I had studied for a whole semester at Eastman under Dr. Genhardt.” Since retiring from Boeing and St. Mark’s at the age of 65, Frances has turned papers by her late brother on the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 into a book, Then Fight for It! (Trafford). She’s also compiled and edited her father’s papers into a book, The Alaska Tlingit: Where Did We Come From?—Our Migrations, Legends, Totems, Customs, and Taboos (Trafford). “Now I am working on a biography of my Tlingit grandmother.”

1955

John Beck ’62 (MM) (see ’70).

1956

David Fetler (DMA) (see ’86).

1957

Sydney Hodkinson ’58 (MM) writes that the classical music publisher Theodore Presser Company has released three of his works: Three Dance Preludes (1981) for alto saxophone and piano; Chalumeau: A Canonic Prelude (1984) for solo clarinet and electronics; and Brain Drops: Seven Games for Two Pianists (2014). Brain Drops was commissioned by Stetson School of Music faculty member Edit Palmer, who teaches aural training and collaborative piano, and Michael Rickman, who teaches piano and piano literature. . . . Taavo Virkhaus (MM), ’67 (DMA) was invited to Estonia to conduct the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in its performance of his 1995 composition, Violin Concerto no. 2. The performance was part of the Estonian Song and Dance Celebration at the Estonia’s Friends International Meeting, hosted by President Toomas Hendrik Ilves. Taavo, who now lives in Alabama and is conductor emeritus of the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, is part of a prominent Estonian musical family. His father, Adalbert Wirkhaus, who lived from 1880 to 1961, was Estonia’s first professional conductor.

1962

John Beck (MM) (see ’70).

1966

Steven Herbert Smith (MM), ’78 (DMA) writes: “I retired in June 2014 as professor of piano at Penn State and accepted emeritus rank after 42 years. I’m president of the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association and continue to be an active performer, completing a busy season of concerts in 2013–14, including Brahms’s Concerto no. 2 in B-flat with the Penn State Philharmonic and Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with colleagues James Lyon ’83, Kim Cook, and Anthony Costa, in February. In June I performed a solo recital for the American Matthay Association for Pianists’ national meeting in Fort Worth. My compact disc set of Piano Masterworks of Beethoven—11 CDs including all 32 sonatas, nine variation sets including the Diabelli and Eroica, as well as the Bagatelles opus 126 and the Rondos, opus 51—has been released by Soundwaves Recordings. I’m engaged to play Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto with the Nittany Valley Symphony in December 2014.” Steven also wrote the notes on the 2014 recording by composer John Beall ’73 (PhD), Appalachian Inspiration: Appalachian Chamber Music, Vol. 3 (Ravello Records).

1967

Taavo Virkhaus (DMA) (see ’57).

1970

John McNeill ’73E (MA) sends a photo from the Rochester Philharmonic from the orchestra’s concert downtown last July Fourth. Pictured from left to right are percussionists John Beck ’55, ’62 (MM), the former timpanist who occasionally performs with the orchestra, Brian Stotz ’79, Jillian Pritchard-Fiandach ’03, and John.

1973

Composer John Beall (PhD) released a CD, Appalachian Inspiration: Appalachian Chamber Music, Vol. 3 (Ravello Records). John is professor and composer-in-residence at West Virginia University, where he’s been since 1978. Pianist Steven Herbert Smith ’66, ’78 (DMA) wrote notes for the recording. . . . Barbara Rogers was named Minnesota Music Teacher Volunteer of the Year at the state convention of the Minnesota Music Teachers Association last June. She writes: “During my 15 years in Minnesota, I’ve served a two-year term as state certification chair; been a member of both the piano exam development committee for the 2010 syllabus and the judge education and certification advisory board; and been a frequent presenter at state conventions and local association meetings.” Barbara has also adjudicated for Music Teachers National Association and Minnesota Music Teachers Association competitions, as well as for Schubert Club, Thursday Musical, Upper Midwest Music Festival, and Wisconsin Music Teachers Association competitions.” She adds: “During my years on the piano faculty at the University of Northwestern–St. Paul (formerly Northwestern College), several of my students were winners in MTNA, MMTA, Schubert Club, Thursday Musical, and Northwestern competitions, and many have gone on to graduate study in music. My precollege students have been admitted to several prestigious colleges and universities as music majors. Relocated to Lexington, Kentucky, last summer, I look forward to new professional associations and opportunities for growth and service.”

1978

Steven Herbert Smith (DMA) (see ’66).

1979

Brian Stotz (see ’70).

1981

Paul Sturm (MM) writes that he lives in Warren, New Jersey, with his wife, Nancy, and two daughters, Julia and Carolyn. “I’m a very active freelance musician (trumpet and piano) in New Jersey and New York City. My fourth CD, for solo trumpet, is complete.”

1982

Kim Scharnberg sends a photo and an update. He writes: “I’ve recently become artistic associate with Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. I’m the music director for their annual presidential gala that features stars of screen and stage. I’ve orchestrated six Broadway musicals, arranged and conducted for a wide variety of singers, and composed concert music. Last April, I was commissioned by the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music to write a new piece honoring retiring Eastman trombone professor John Marcellus. I live in northwest Connecticut.” 1983 James Lyon (see ’66).

1986

Gerard Floriano (MM), ’95 (DMA) was named artistic director of the Rochester Chamber Orchestra and successor to longtime music director David Fetler ’56 (DMA), beginning in August 2015. The 2014–15 season marks David’s 51st with the orchestra. Gerard has been a guest conductor with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, as well as orchestras throughout Europe, and has served as artistic director of Mercury Opera Rochester and the Rochester Opera Factory.

1992

James Douthit (DMA) has been named associate vice president for academic affairs at Nazareth College in Rochester. James was chair of Nazareth’s music department from 2005 until his new appointment.

1994

Debbie Rohwer (MM), professor and chair of music education at the University of North Texas, writes that she’s begun a term as lead editor for the National Association for Music Education journal Update: Applications of Research in Music Education.

1995

Gerard Floriano (DMA) (see ’86).

2003

Jillian Pritchard-Fiandach (see ’70).

2008

Shauli Einav (MM) writes that his third CD, A Truth about Me (Cristal Records), released last fall in Europe, has been released digitally in the United States and Canada, starting in November 2014.

2013

Weijun Chen won the 2014 American Prize in Composition, student band/wind ensemble division, for his piece “Distance.” He’s pursuing a doctorate in composition at SUNY Buffalo.