Tutti - Fall 2011

tutti. (it.) all. every musician to take part.

Fall 2011 | Volume 13 | Number 1

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ALSO IN THIS ISSUEConvocation2011/2012 Events PreviewStudent, Faculty, and Alumni News

Photo: Greg Helgeson

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

Welcome to the 2011/2012 edi-tion of Tutti. These pages offer abundant evidence that the clarion call of the muse remains strong, even in times of economic uncer-tainty. We celebrate the inspired performances, innovative creativity, compelling teaching, and incisive scholarship that make our school what it is, and that extend to, and benefit from, local, national, and international interchange.

The energy and optimism of our music learning community are contagious and invigorating.

Nevertheless, graduates can sometimes confront a daunting host of economic, artistic, and community relevance challenges that also face the larger world of professional music today. A year ago, I received this email from a graduate:

“I am a recent master’s graduate. I have learned much from wonderful teachers. I am embarking on my new career and am thinking of ways to use my education to benefit others. The university has many talented musicians. It is important to set them up with skills and knowledge to convert their artistic brilliance into careers in which they can share their talents and give back to the community.” —Paraphrased; used by permission

Commenting a few years ago about change in the popular music scene, Ann Powers observed that “What is in flux is that imaginary portal where an artist makes the leap into public consciousness.... In some cases, the very ground where music once emerged has been abandoned.”*

We might apply Powers’s observation to classical music in terms of the essential relationships between artists and audiences, inviting novice listeners into musical meaning and understanding, and the ability and com-mitment of musicians to foster active engagement in

music – which relate directly to career viability. In The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross wrote that when Pierre Boulez was asked why so few major works of the 1950s and 60s became repertory pieces, he replied, “ . . . perhaps we did not take sufficiently into account the way music is perceived by the listener.”

The NEA’s most recent survey of adult participation in the arts documents a declining trend since 1982 in attendance at classical and jazz events. Nevertheless, other data (including website hits on Guitar Hero) show that rates of public interest in making music are trending stronger. One key to expanding audiences may be for musicians to embrace the task of supporting humans’ innate desire to make music.

Ann Powers’s “imaginary portal” idea might suggest that the arts acquire meaning (and musicians acquire perceived worth) as they take up value-added residence within the public conscience. It is the task of musicians to nurture such perceptions by proactively engaging diverse audiences. And it is the responsibility of music schools to promote knowledge for effective engagement, and to integrate concepts of leadership, entrepreneur-ship, and creativity (for example, improvisation and composition) into the curriculum.

The following pages highlight ways the U of M School of Music is assuring excellence and innovation within our school that translate to rich musical opportunities beyond our school. I invite you to consider them care-fully and to let us know how you think we are doing.

Thank you for your support of our students and pro-grams, and for all you do to enhance musical life in your communities.

With gratitude and best wishes,

David

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*Ann Powers, “Is it really buzz we hear, or just static?” Seattle Times, January 21, 2007

Dear Alumni, Friends, and Colleagues,

Tutti is the magazine of the University of Min-nesota School of Music and is published yearly. It supports the school’s community of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends by providing information that highlights events, develop-ments, and trends within the school, connects the school’s many constituencies, and celebrates the achievements of the school’s community.

James A. Parente, Jr. Dean, College of Liberal Arts

David E. Myers Director, School of Music

Lisa Marshall Editor and Writer

Jennifer Schmitt Graphic Designer

Modern Press Printing

THE SCHOOL OF MUSICThe mission of the School of Music is to create and perform music and to apply and impart musical knowledge in all its diverse forms. We are committed to excellence in all scholarly, creative and pedagogical endeavors. We seek to provide the highest quality of professional training in music to students pursuing a broad variety of careers and offer artistic, cultural and intellectual enrichment to the community within and beyond the University of Minnesota.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTAThe University of Minnesota, founded in the belief that all people are enriched by under-standing, is dedicated to the advancement of learning and the search for truth; to the shar-ing of this knowledge through education for a diverse community; and to the application of this knowledge to benefit the people of the state, the nation and the world. The University’s threefold mission of research and discovery, teaching and learning, and outreach and public service is carried out on multiple campuses and throughout the state.

IN THIS ISSUE 2 Letter from the Director

Message from David Myers, director, School of Music

4 Cover Story: Britten Peace Project

6 Convocation 2011: Honoring Philip Brunelle New Creative Studies and Media Division

7 Creative Instructional Residencies Initiatives (CIRIs)

8 Faculty NewsFaculty Retirement: Jeffrey Van, guitarFaculty Performance: Lydia ArtymiwFaculty Award: James DillonFaculty Performance: Adriana ZabalaNew Faculty: Laura Sindberg and Maja RadovanlijaNew Faculty Releases

10 Student NewsOpera Composer and Librettist Collaborate with University Opera TheatreMusic Therapy Students Work with Local Medical ClinicsStudent Profile: Sebastian Rojas-GonzalezMeet New Staff Member: Anabel Wirt, recruitment coordinator

12 Engagement NewsPartnership with the Pros: Minnesota Orchestra and Maestra Marin AlsopEliezer Freitas Santos Works with StudentsBringing Music to YouthLink Opportunity Center for Homeless Youth

14 Alumni NewsBrent Assink: From Teaching Assistant to Executive DirectorAlumna Success: Abbie BetinisAlumna Experience: Julie Himmelstrup

15 2010/2011 Season Highlights

16 Donor Profile: Paula and Cy DeCosse

18 Thank You Donors

20 2011/2012 Season Events Calendar

22 See and Be Seen

23 School NewsFaculty, Student, Alumni, and Staff NewsIn Memoriam

31 School of Music by the Numbers

© 2011 Regents of the University of Minnesota.

All rights reserved.

The University of Minnesota School of Music gratefully

acknowledges program support from Schmitt Music. The School of

Music is an All Steinway School.

4 University of Minnesota School of Music

The University of Minnesota School of Music is embarking on an international project inspired by Benjamin Britten’s transcendent work, War Requiem, a large-scale, non-liturgical setting of the Requiem Mass (Mass for the dead) with nine poems by English poet and fallen World War I soldier Wilfred Owen interwoven throughout the piece.

This project presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for School of Music students and faculty to perform a 20th century master-piece for audiences in four cities across the globe and culminates in concerts in February and March of 2012.

This ambitious collaboration will feature the School of Music’s University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Russell Smith; the School of Music’s University Singers (Kathy Saltzman Romey, director); and Macalester Concert Choir (Matthew Mehaffey, director). U of M School of Music faculty soloists include John De Haan and Philip Zawisza joined by Detmold Hochschüle für Musik faculty soloist Caroline Thomas. In order to fully realize this masterwork, the School of Music will join forces with a global cast of performers including The Minnesota Boychoir (Mark Johnson, director); Kantorei (Axel Theimer, director); Augustana College Choir of Rock Island, Illinois (Jon Hurty, director); members of the Quad Choral Arts (Jon Hurty, director); Quad City Symphony Orchestra


FOUR GLOBAL PERFORMANCES

Hochschüle für Musik Detmold, Germany

February 18 & 19, 2012 Concert Hall

U of M School of Music Minneapolis, Minnesota

March 1, 2012 Ted Mann Concert Hall

Quad City Symphony Orchestra Davenport, Iowa

March 3, 2012 Adler Theatre

Rock Island, Illinois March 4, 2012

Centennial Hall, Augustana College

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conducted by Mark Russell Smith (Davenport, Iowa/Rock Island, Illinois); and the Detmold Hochschüle für Musik’s Orchestra conducted by Karl-Heinz Bloemeke.

The Britten Peace Project is the brainchild of the School of Music’s director of orchestra studies Mark Russell Smith. A self-proclaimed “anniversary guy,” Smith had the idea to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Britten’s War Requiem in a big way. The concept of exploring the prospect of peace in the midst of conflict was a poignant one to Smith, and he believes that the timeless significance and message of the War Requiem would be an inspiration to students.

Britten was commissioned to compose the War Re-quiem for the reconsecration of Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, England on May 30, 1962. The original 14th century Coventry Cathedral was destroyed by the German Air Force in a World War II bombing raid. Britten, a pacifist, was inspired to write a work that not only dealt with the tragedy and human cost of war, but also invoked a spirit of international unity.

The historical significance of the War Requiem’s premiere is not lost on Smith. He shares, “The piece has broad shoulders and comes at the tragedy of war and the hu-man price of war from so many different perspectives that I thought it was the perfect piece for the students to study on many levels other than performance.”

The Britten Peace Project goes beyond performances of the War Requiem. Smith says, “Prior to our rehearsal

week and the Minneapolis performance on March 1, the U of M School of Music will have seminars and classes focusing on the work. I’m teaching a class during the fall semester and other SOM faculty will teach classes about related topics. We’ve invited poets, World War I historians, Benjamin Britten scholars, and others to join in on the discussion. Like all great works of art, the War Requiem was not created in a vacuum and has many influencing factors – histori-cal, poetic, musical, religious, and psychological, to name a few – and it’s personally exciting to me that my colleagues at the School of Music have embraced it with such passion.”

As for School of Music students, Smith says, “There’s no substitute for living through the rehearsal process and then feeling the work come to life. It’s only through intense preparation and getting to know it from the inside out that students begin to understand the work on every level. To prepare, to live with a piece and to put it away and bring it back out, to rehearse and then to bring it to life – there is nothing like that experi-ence and is why I chose this work and every work the orchestra performs with great care. This masterwork and its message will become a part of these students for as long as they live, whether they become profes-sional musicians or not. That is why it is worth all the time and effort and the blood, sweat, and tears it takes to put on this project. Our students will be different because of it. We will all be different because of it. The audience will be different because of it and that’s what great art can do that nothing else can.”

You can make a difference! Please donate to the Britten “Adopt A Student” Fund to help underwrite the travel expense of our student musicians. The Britten Peace Project is an extraordinary opportunity for the School of Music musicians, but we do need your financial support. Interested? Please contact Joe Sullivan at 612/624-8573 or [email protected].

Photos: Maestro Mark Russell Smith conducts the University Symphony Orchestra. Photos by Greg Helgeson.

Media sponsor for the Britten Peace Project


NEW DIVISIONSchool of Music Announces New Creative Studies and Media Division This fall, the School of Music will launch a new division, the Creative Studies and Media Division. The division’s mission will be to propose curricular innovations com-prising increased creative opportunities for students across the School of Music. Faculty members in the new division include Alex Lubet (division head), Guerino Mazzola, Scott Currie, Dean Sorenson, and visiting Speer/Government of Finland professor Erkki Huovinen. These faculty have been piloting courses in improvisation and will now develop proposals for integrating composi-tion, improvisation, cross-arts opportunities, creative technology experiences, and jazz studies into the broader curriculum.

The new division is a result of lengthy fac-ulty discussions of a composition task force report submitted to director David Myers in the spring of 2010. Director Myers notes that, “I appointed a task force of faculty, alumni, and community representatives to consider our composition program in light of how we compare to other major music schools nationally, and to consider the intersections among technology, improvi-sation, and composition. Professor Craig Kirchhoff chaired the group, which offered a number of important recommendations for how we might move forward in accord with changes in the professional world our students will encounter.”

Alex Lubet, professor of composition and new division head, says, “I'm very pleased and proud to be working with energetic, forward-thinking colleagues who recognize the importance of enhancing the creative capacities and real-world needs of our graduates. I believe this division will bring important new dimensions to our curriculum and give students a competitive edge as they move into their professional lives.” This fall, professor Lubet will teach the School of Music's first undergraduate composition class in many years.

The University of Minne-sota School of Music will confer an honorary degree on internationally renowned conductor and artistic direc-tor of VocalEssence, Philip Brunelle on Thursday, Octo-ber 6 at 10 a.m. at the School of Music’s Fall Convocation at Ted Mann Concert Hall. The Doctor of Humane Let-ters is the highest award con-ferred by the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, recognizing individuals who have achieved acknowledged eminence in their field.

School of Music director Da-vid Myers says, “Ever since leaving the University of Minnesota School of Music just a few credits shy of his bachelor’s degree and serving as the youngest member of the Minnesota Orchestra at age 19, Philip has been advancing the art of music performance and assuring access to rich and varied musical opportunities for thousands of people locally, nationally, and internationally. The time has come for the university and music school Philip chose to attend as a young man – the University of Minnesota – to recognize and affirm officially his outstanding lifetime artistic and leader-ship achievements.”

Myers continues, “It was at the School of Music that his career took root when he studied composition with Professor Dominick Argen-to, with whom he maintains his professional relationship, and organ with Professor Ar-thur Jennings. He has been an advocate for the work of Minnesota graduates, such as Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus, as well as other living composers around the world. He is repeatedly invited to university functions as a lead-ing community member, is a stalwart advocate for the University of Minnesota and its School of Music, and has

been asked for his consultation and advice on an arts profile for the university at-large. This award will not simply add to his already lengthy list of distinctions; it shows convincingly that his alma mater honors and celebrates his life of service to a greater good through excellence in the art of music.”

The Fall Convocation will feature keynote speaker Helena Gaunt, assistant principal at Guildhall of London’s School of Music and Drama, on “Becoming a musician in the 21st century” with an emphasis on improvisation and collaborative learning.

SCHOOL OF MUSIC FALL CONVOCATION

Honoring Philip BrunelleFeaturing Keynote Speaker Helena Gaunt (Guildhall School of Music and Drama)

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Eliezer Freitas Santos

The Parker Quartet

Robert Aldridge and Hershel GarfeinDale Johnson

Michael Colgrass

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA SCHOOL OF MUSIC CREATIVE INSTRUCTIONAL RESIDENCIES INITIATIVES (CIRIS)

Parker String Quartet ResidencyKorey Konkol, coordinator This Grammy Award-winning quartet has distinguished itself as one of the preemi-nent ensembles of its generation and will enrich students’ knowledge of string quartet chamber music.

Michael Colgrass ResidencyCraig Kirchhoff, coordinatorPulitzer-prize winning composer will work with composition, music education, and performance students in Performance Excel-lence and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Educational Collaboration and Coaching of OperaAdriana Zabala, coordinatorIntimate training with coaches from the Minnesota Opera, including Minnesota Opera artistic director Dale Johnson.

Noriko Kawai ResidencyMichael Cherlin, coordinatorInternationally renowned solo and col-laborative pianist will give several lecture recitals in collaboration with professor Cherlin’s courses.

Dramma per Musica: Contemporary Approaches to the Art of Creating Music for the StageDavid Walsh, coordinatorFeaturing composer Robert Aldridge and librettist/composer Herschel Garfein in a series of workshop style classes and sym-posia. See page 10 for more information.

Afro-Brazilian Percussion Residency with Eliezer Freitas SantosScott Currie, coordinatorAfro-Brazilian Percussionist will provide expert coaching with professor Scott Cur-rie’s World Music Ensemble. See page 13 for more information.

This academic year, the School of Music is pleased to host the following CIRIs, which will enhance curricular offerings and instruction and provide innovative learning opportunities for students.

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FACULTY PERFORMANCEAdriana ZabalaAdriana Zabala sang the role of Isabella Linton in

Minnesota Opera's production of Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights. The opera, a romantic and tonal adaptation of Char-lotte Bronte's novel, opened at the Ordway in St. Paul on April 16 and ran through April 23. In this historical production for Minnesota Opera, the performance on the evening of the April 19 was recorded by HD cameras for later DVD distribution. Wuthering Heights marks Adriana Zabala’s eighth appearance in a principal role with Minnesota Opera; she has also performed the roles of Rosina, Cherubino, Stephano, Niklausse, and Pinoccio, among others.

In the summer of 2011, Zabala performed the role of Dorabella to rave reviews in Opera Saratoga’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte directed by David Lefkowich.

On November 12, 2010 the School of Music honored professor Jeffrey Van’s 45 years of teaching, composition, and music mak-ing at the University with a concert by the University Singers titled The Music of Jeffrey Van. The program included Van’s compositions Night Sings to Morning, Three Poems of William Blake; A Procession Winding Around Me, Four Civil War Poems of Walt Whitman; The Beatitudes; A Ring of Birds, Six poems by Crane, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Lowell, Whitman; Fourteen Angels; and Moto perpetuo.

School of Music director David Myers says, “We were pleased to celebrate professor Van’s retirement through his transcen-dent music. Professor Van is a vital part of the School of Music faculty and the Twin Cities artistic community through his work with Dominick Argento and The Dale Warland Singers. We wish him well.”

FACULTY RETIREMENT

Jeffrey Van, guitar

FACULTY PERFORMANCELydia ArtymiwThe Minnesota Orchestra invited Lydia Artymiw

and her former student Andrew Staupe (B.M., M.M., piano) to perform the Mo-zart Concerto for Two Pianos at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis on January 12 and January 14, 2011. The Minneapolis Star Tribune said of the performance, “The Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos (with Osmo Vänskä conducting the Minne-sota Orchestra) featured veteran Lydia Artymiw and her former student, Andrew Staupe. The soloists traded phrases back and forth in a dialogue that revealed their accomplished virtuosity. They were clearly reveling in playing off one another. Their joy was infectious.”

Artymiw was also invited to perform a solo concert featuring works by Mozart, Messiaen, and Schumann at the Musical Instrument Museum’s Music Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona on March 5, 2011.

FACULTY AWARDJames DillonThe Royal Philharmonic Society honored professor

James Dillon by presenting him with the Large-Scale Composition Award for Nine Rivers, premiered in Glasgow last November by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Presented at the RPS Music Awards at the Dorchester Hotel in London, Tuesday, May 10, 2011, the jury highlighted the work’s “sheer ambition and the consistency of creative thought sustaining it.” The first ever staging of this marathon four-hour piece was an ambitious artistic collaboration between Glasgow Life and the BBC. One of Scotland’s most internationally acclaimed composers and one of the world’s leading modernists, Nine Rivers is James Dillon’s most influential work. Until the premiere in Glasgow these nine pieces for orchestra, percussion group, voices, and electronics had never before been presented as originally intended. The RPS jury remarked that, “this was an epic conceptual journey, two decades in the making, and an important personal voyage for its composer.”

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Laura Sindberg, music educationLaura Sindberg teaches courses in mu-sic education, including Instrumental Methods and Introduction to Music Education. Prior to her appointment at the University of Minnesota, Sindberg was on the faculty at Lawrence Univer-sity and DePaul University, where she

taught undergraduate and graduate courses (DePaul) in music education and oversaw the music education programs. While at Lawrence, Sindberg conducted the Wind Ensemble of the Lawrence Academy of Music. In 2009/2010, Sindberg launched the Young Band Project of Lawrence Academy—an after-school instrumental music instruction program serving economically disadvantaged fifth grade students. Sindberg’s work in higher education follows a successful career in the public schools.

Research interests include teacher cognition and identity, com-munity engagement and collaboration, and professional develop-ment. Her research goals include bridging research and practice in music teaching and learning. She received a B.F.A. and a M.M. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.

Maja Radovanlija, guitarMaja Radovanlija was born in Belgrade, Serbia and has been playing guitar since the age of nine. She also plays several traditional Balkan instruments and ar-ranges and composes music for guitar. Radovanlija completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Belgrade and

received her master’s and doctor of music at Indiana University. During her studies, she won several prizes at international guitar competitions in Serbia and Bulgaria. Since then, she has performed frequently as a solo and chamber musician. Radovanlija’s inter-ests include musical genres beyond classical, and she performs traditional Balkan music, jazz, bossa nova, experimental, and improvised music.

As graduate student at Indiana University, Radovanlija won second prize at a Latin-American music competition and was included on two compilation CDs produced by the Latin-American Mu-sic Center. She has performed new music written for guitar by D. Freund and A. Travors with guitarist Guido Sanchez. She is especially interested in performing chamber music and is also a founder and artistic director of Balkan ensemble Kermes.

NEW FACULTY

Alex LubetIn Alex Lubet’s new book Music, Disability, and Society on Temple University Press, he challenges the rigid view of technical skill and writes about music in relation to disability studies. Lubet addresses the ways in which people with disabilities are denied the opportunity to participate in music and argues that where music is concerned, disability is a matter of culture, not physical impairment. Choice says, “This fascinating overview of the reciprocal influences of a broad variety of elements is well worth the effort… highly recommended.”

Guerino MazzolaGuerino Mazzola’s book Musical Per-formance: A Comprehensive Approach: Theory, Analytical Tools, and Case Studies (Computational Music Science) was published in January 2011. It is a first sketch of what the overall field of performance could look like as a modern scientific field, but not its stylistically differentiated practice, pedagogy, and history. Musical Performance includes musicological and philosophical aspects of the topic as well as empirical per-formance research and was written following a course for performance students at the U of M School of Music.

Matthew MehaffeyMatthew Mehaffey co-edited and compiled Teaching Music through Performance in Choir, Vol. 3 with Heather Buchanan. Contributors to the publication include Frank Albinde, Philip Brunelle, Bruce Chamberlain, Rodney Eichenberger, and Sandra Snow. This latest volume is ideal for those seeking a deeper understanding of the preeminent music available for high school and college choir. The publication shares insight from lead-ers in the choral profession and is an essential resource for choir directors at all levels.

Wendy Zaro-MullinsIn October 2011, Wendy Zaro-Mullins celebrated the release of her album Fly Home Little Heart at Ted Mann Concert Hall with a concert featuring the album’s line-up of Twin Cities musi-cians including Laura Caviani (piano) and Phil Hey (drums). Zaro-Mullins says, “My music is for anyone who needs a little love and hope in their life. Laura Caviani’s unique arrange-ments reflect my desire to reach out to others.” Proceeds from the sale of Fly Home Little Heart will benefit Suicide Awareness/Voice of Educa-tion (SAVE).

NEW FACULTY RELEASES

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Anna DeGraff (M.M., 2010; D.M.A. candidate, voice/opera, student of John De Haan and David Walsh) performed the role of Sharon Falconer in the University Opera Theatre’s fall 2010 production of Robert Aldridge’s new opera based on novelist Sinclair Lewis’s novel Elmer Gantry. With this production, University Opera Theatre students had the unique experience of working closely with the opera’s composer Robert Aldridge and librettist Herschel Garfein, who traveled from New York City to the School of Music to attend rehearsals and performances of Elmer Gantry.

On working with Aldridge and Garfein, DeGraff says, “It was incredible to hear about my character directly from the people who put her on the page. I was able to read the book and see the movie before working on the opera, but I loved hearing Bob and Herschel speak about their reasons for including each element and scene. Knowing what the music and the dramatic action were meant to tell the audience about a character, or how that scene was essential to the story, really helped me gain a more comprehensive understanding of the piece generally, and of my character specifi-cally. When going from book to opera, Bob and Herschel had to choose which characters to include, which scenes to use, etc. Now when I look at my character in each opera, I am not only looking at the personal side (Who am I? What are my motivations?), but about the overall picture. What does my character do for the story? For the message?”

Aldridge and Gar-fein will return again this year for University Opera Theatre’s Minne-sota premiere of their work Parables in November 2011 (see calendar, page 21 for details) and DeGraff is hoping to be a part of the cast and to work with them again. She shares, “I’m really looking forward to their extended visit and, if I’m cast in a piece they’ve created, to really creating a deeper character with their input. Nothing compares to being able to speak directly with the people who are so creative, so intelligent, and so essential to this art form!”

University Opera Theatre director David Walsh says, “The Parables premiere this spring will continue the important connection we’ve made with Bob and Herschel. The students are gaining a new perspective on the work that not only goes into performing opera, but also creating opera. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our students. This production of Parables and the CIRI workshop with them is an ongoing partnership in support of the development of new American opera, which I see as the mission of University Opera Theatre.”

COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITY

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

Music Therapy Students Work with Local Medical Clinics

Opera Composer and Librettist Collaborate with University Opera Theatre

Left to right: Anna DeGraff, Herschel Garfein, Bergen Baker, Robert Aldridge, and Reyna Sawtell.

During her high school years, Liz Stephanz (master’s equivalency candidate, music ther-apy, student of Michael Silverman) taught violin lessons to a young boy with learning disabilities. They started with five-minute lessons and gradually progressed to hour-long sessions. She and his parents were pleased with the effect that music had on his ability to focus, which improved both his grades

and his social interactions. After pursing a bachelor’s of music in violin performance from Florida Southern College, she found herself still drawn to using music as a thera-peutic tool, and when she found the SOM’s program, she knew it was a good fit.

She says the focus on research and real world skills drew her to the program. Last fall she presented her and her colleague’s research on Autism and music therapy techniques in a poster session at the annual Music Therapy Associations Conference in Cleveland, OH. “I was nervous, being approached by other professionals in the field, but they were so encouraging and so happy that we were doing this research,” she said about the experience.

She says that one of the keys of this program is getting opportunities to work with real

people, including an emphasis on intern-ships, clinicals, and research opportunities. Recently she took part in an experimental study to learn about the effects of music in clinic waiting rooms, playing her guitar in a clinic near campus. Although she was nervous at first, she was encouraged by those singing along and making requests as well as the obvious enjoyment of the staff and nurses who listened in.

Now preparing for her final year in the program, she is excited about her numer-ous career options. She is passionate about helping children with Autism, but with the many connections she has made through the program, she is open to any opportunities that may come her way.

Story and photo by Manon Ibes.

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Interested in attending the School of Music?

Contact Anabel at [email protected]

or 612/624-2847.

The University of Minnesota School of Music is pleased to welcome our new recruitment coordinator Anabel Wirt. This Mendota Heights, Minnesota native and Henry Sibley High School Orchestra alumna spends her free time fiddling, dancing, and performing Old-time and Cajun music in the Twin Cities folk scene and advocating for school music pro-grams. Anabel received her bachelor’s degree in French and international studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania.

On joining the School of Music staff Ana-bel says, “I’m thrilled to be part of the U community and to work with such dedi-cated and talented faculty, students, staff, and alumni. I look forward to connect-ing musicians and the music education community to the wonderful resources, people, and opportunities here at the School of Music."

MEET NEW STAFF MEMBER

Anabel Wirtrecruitment coordinator

STUDENT PROFILESebastian Rojas-Gonzalez M.M., 2011, violin, student of Mark Bjork

Where are you originally from?I am originally from Valparaiso, in the middle of Chile, the thin hot pepper-shaped country of South America. My city is an old and charm-ing port just an hour and a half from the Chilean capital Santiago. Like the Twin Cities, Valparaiso is next to Viña del Mar, famous for being the “garden city,” known for its flowers and beautiful beaches.

What attracted you to the University of Minnesota School of Music?I have a degree in music education from Valparaiso’s Pontifical Catho-lic University and a violin performance degree from its conservatory. After working as a violin teacher for two years, I searched for a master’s program that focused on performance and string education. I found a few of programs in the U.S., but chose the University of Minnesota School of Music because of its Suzuki focused violin education pro-gram. Violin professor Mark Bjork replied kindly to my emails and I knew from that moment that I had to attend to the U of M School of Music. I applied and was selected for a scholarship program in my home government. When I arrived at the U, I discovered that Mark was as nice as I thought, and a very good teacher too! The program itself was very focused on my interests, and I had the possibility to take classes that fit my multiple interests from a class about the art of improvisation in music to a class on Wagner’s Ring Cycle, probably my favorite piece of art ever.

What do you plan to do after graduation? The conditions of my Chilean government scholarship state that I have to go home to work for at least two years. I want to work with young children because I believe that this is where the change in string edu-cation should be made. There is a big movement of youth orchestras in Chile inspired by the Venezuelan music program El Sistema, and there is a large need for string teachers because of this movement. I would also like to perform and there are some part-time opportuni-ties for musicians. It is a good thing that my studies at the School of Music emphasized both education and performance, so along with the possibility of working in the two fields I love, there might be more job opportunities. In the future I’d like to pursue a D.M.A., perhaps in the U.S. again. I like to keep myself busy with academics.

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In April 2011, the University of Minnesota School of Music partnered with the Minnesota Orchestra to undertake the study and performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. This partnership offered a number of mentoring opportunities for School of Music’s University Symphony Orchestra, including a side-by-side rehearsal with the Minnesota Orchestra as well as a reading with guest conductor and music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Marin Alsop at Orchestra Hall. The University Symphony Orchestra performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 under the baton of Mark Russell Smith in a performance preceding the Minnesota Orchestra concert on April 29.

Christa Saeger (D.M.A., cello, student of Tanya Remenikova) shares that the rehearsal with Maestra Alsop was among her favorite musical moments at the School of Music, “While working with Maestra Alsop at Orchestra Hall on Mahler No. 3, I experienced a sense of musical energy and cohesion I have never felt before. She also gave a wonderful talk about the importance of education and community engagement in the arts.”

Maestra Alsop also met with School of Music Engaged Department grant recipients at Ferguson Hall and offered advice and her thoughts on their various community engagement projects based on the innovative work she has done with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Photos: Maestra Marin Alsop leads the University Symphony Orchestra in a rehearsal of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 at the Minnesota Orchestra's Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis.

PARTNERSHIP WITH THE PROS

The Minnesota Orchestra and Maestra Marin Alsop


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Get engaged with the University of Minnesota

School of Music!

Visit our website to learn about engagement opportunities for teachers, students, arts or educa-tion professionals, and community members as well as information on existing programs and volun-teer opportunities.

With the help of a University of Minnesota public engagement grant, and under the direction of the Engaged Department Leader-ship Team, School of Music fac-ulty and students coordinated 14 engagement projects within the past year, including:

African Music Projects Coordinated by Bryce Hayes

Choral Connections: East Meets West

Coordinated by YeJee Choi and Hyung-Jung Ji

Festival of Community Bands Coordinated by

Professor Jerry Luckhardt

Parallaxis: Composition Project with the Minneapolis

Institute of Arts Coordinated by Ishaya Yarison

2010 Summer Chorus Coordinated by Sara Cowan

2010 University of Minnesota Summer Orchestra

Coordinated by Foster Beyers

Visit the Engagement section of our website for a complete list of engagement projects and project overviews.

Find out how you can get involved with the School of Music Com-munity Engagement program, by contact-ing Laura Krider, com-munity engagement coordinator, at 612/624-0071 or at [email protected].

music.umn.edu/engagement

This past year, Afro-Brazilian percussion-ist Eliezer Freitas Santos provided expert coaching in collaboration with professor Scott Currie’s World Music Ensemble and introduced students to important Afro-Brazilian vernacular percussion traditions. Santos will return this academic year as part of the Creative Instructional Residencies Initiative program (see page 7). Professor Scott Currie says, “I’m just thrilled that we’ll be able to host a residency by Bahian master drummer Eliezer Freitas Santos, for a bi-weekly series of open workshops in conjunction with my World Music Ensemble throughout the coming academic year. His immersive musical upbringing in Afro-Brazilian Candomble, professional touring experience (performing styles including Samba, Axé, and Maracatu, just to name a few), and dazzling polyrhythmic virtuosity have helped establish him as one of the top Latin percussionists in the Twin Cities, and made him a real inspiration to the students and community members who attended his engaging master classes over the past year. Moreover, by helping to forge connections with local groups like Centro do Brasil and DrumHeart, offering ensemble members opportunities to play with him at professional nightclub engagements, and even arranging for interested members to march under his leadership in the May Day Parade, he not only shares with students a wealth of invaluable and otherwise inaccessible musical knowledge, but also a vast professional network of community contacts to help them put this knowledge to work in furthering their own musical careers.”

STUDENT OPPORTUNITYEliezer Freitas Santos Works with Students

STUDENT ENGAGEMENTBringing Music to YouthLink Opportunity Center for Homeless YouthIn 2009, Brandon Miller (D.M.A. candidate, voice, stu-dent of Philip Zawisza) began teaching a weekly class in basic music skills and singing technique at YouthLink, a homeless youth resource center for ages 16 to 21 in downtown Minneapolis. The center, which provides a safe and healthy space, meals, medical and legal services,

counseling, GED, and life skills classes, and recreational activities, did not offer a music class prior to Miller’s arrival.

At first Miller taught his new class alone, but soon asked a colleague to team-teach with him. Realizing that the program could benefit from a more focused approach and other music instructors, Miller applied for and received School of Music En-gagement grant money. With these funds, he was able to bring in other area music professionals with expertise in other musical areas. Miller shares, “This has been a great collaborative project and my faculty advisor and mentor Dr. Keitha Hamann, has been supportive of the project from its beginning.”

On what surprised him the most about his project, Miller says, “The fact that the most important thing I am offering as a teacher is not the knowledge I came to im-part. Instead, it’s all the other things: being a good listener, recognizing the talent and ability that is inherent in each individual, being a mentor, allowing the youth to influence the direction of the class, and not being afraid of connecting with someone just because we come from widely different backgrounds.”

Ensemble students marching in the May Day Parade.


After graduating from the University of Minnesota’s Department of Music (now the School of Music) in 1958, Julie (Vin-cent) Himmelstrup paved her own unique career path. She taught elementary school music in Detroit for a year, and studied at the Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada, where she met her husband, cel-list Anders Himmelstrup. In 1963, they made a fateful move to St. Anthony Park in St. Paul. It was in their neighborhood that Himmelstrup was struck with the idea to create a community-based chamber music series. Thirty-two years later her legacy lives on with the renowned Music in the Park Series, which recently merged with The Schubert Club.

Himmelstrup’s U experience took her beyond the traditional conservatory educational track and provided her with a broad liberal arts education. She says, “I was a small town girl introduced to a whole new world in the Twin Cities. I was attending a large University, but the Department of Music was small and provided opportunities for me to sing and to play for singers and instrumentalists. Because of the U’s location, it was convenient to usher for Minneapolis Symphony (now the Minnesota Orchestra) and Metropolitan Opera performances at Northrop Auditorium.”

Himmelstrup recently received the St. Anthony Park Community Foundation’s 2011 Spirit of the Park Award. She was named a 1994 Marvelous Minnesota Woman for her work with Music in the Park Series. In 1997, Himmelstrup was named a Champion of New Music, a national award given by the American Composers Forum. In 2007, she received the CMAcclaim Award from Chamber Music America in recognition of outstanding service and cultural contributions to the community. In 2011, she was presented with the An die Musik Award from The Schubert Club, where she continues as artistic director of Music in the Park Series.

Julie Himmelstrup and her granddaughter Sila riding in the St. Anthony Park Fourth of July parade where Himmelstrup was honored with the 2011 Spirit of the Park award.

ALUMNA EXPERIENCEJulie HimmelstrupB.S., 1958, music education and piano, student of Bernard Weiser

Brent Assink (M.A., 1981, musi-cology), executive director of the San Francisco Symphony, leads one of North America’s most forward-looking arts organiza-tions with a unique combination of business skills and musical pas-

sion. He had his eye on his career for many years and enhanced his musicology degree with a supporting area of business administration.

“My experience at the U’s School of Music deepened and broadened my knowledge about music history and music theory and provided me with different ways of thinking about music. I was a piano major in college and my experience at U gave me a deeper understanding and contextualization of music throughout history. Being a teach-ing assistant and standing up in front of a class of undergrads and teaching music theory, ethnomusicology, ear training, and sight singing helped to prepare me for the next phase of my career.”

As a graduate student at the SOM Assink volunteered with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), where he would later be named manager and president. His time as a volunteer at the SPCO was part of his auxiliary learning while at the SOM and he describes this period as essential to his future career in orchestra management.

For music students looking to follow a similar career track, Assink advises, “Get grounded in the academic understanding of business and music and, with equal passion, attend concerts as often as you can. Talk about them with others. And use all the tools now available to learn about orchestras. I recommend the website of the League of American Orchestras (of which I am a board member): www.americanorchestras.org. Orchestras need strong leaders who bring keen intelligence and abiding passion for symphonic music. And, speaking from 30 years of experience, I can emphatically state that the rewards of working in this field are immeasurable.”

ALUMNA SUCCESSAbbie BetinisM.A., 2007, composition

Abbie Betinis was named one of Na-tional Public Radio’s Top 100 Composers Under 40 and is com-poser-in-residence at The Schubert Club. Her first chorus and orchestra piece Ex-pectans expectavi re-

ceived its world premiere by Boston-based Chorus pro Musica and the New England Philharmonic on June 5 at Jordan Hall in Boston. The Boston Globe said of the work, “The high-light was a world premiere by Abbie Betinis...brooding, dissonant...bold...managed to feel both cathartic and unresolved.”

Betinis’s piece ‘Long Time Trav’ ling, was performed by the New Am-sterdam Singers on May 27 at the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City and the New York Times said of the work, “… the freshest of these pieces was the program’s finale, Abbie Betinis’s inventive, richly me-lodic ‘Long Time Trav’ ling.”

ALUMNUS JOURNEY

Brent Assink: From Teaching Assistant to Executive Director

music.umn.edu 15

Alex Shapiro

Paul Phoenix, acclaimed tenor with The King’s Singers and an avid spokesperson for musicians’ ability to engage diverse audi-ences, gave the School of Music Fall Convocation keynote address on the importance of commu-nity engagement and the arts in Ted Mann Concert Hall on Oc-tober 13, 2011. Phoenix also met with the school’s Engaged Depart-ment Leadership Team.

Last fall marked the 10th anni-versary of the Collage Concert. This anniversary concert honored former U president Robert Bruin-inks and his wife Dr. Susan Hag-strum for their years of service to the University and their abiding support of the School of Music.

Professor Kelley Harness (musicol-ogy) organized the Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, co-sponsored by the Center for Early Modern Studies and the School of Music, at Ferguson Hall from April 7 to 10, 2011. The meeting included concerts by the Rose Ensemble and ¡Sacabuche! (Linda Pearse, Artistic Director).

Rienke Smilde, professor of life-long learning in music and the arts, University of Groningen, Netherlands, discussed the de-mands and rewards of being a career musician in the 21st century at the School of Music’s Common Hour on April 15, 2011 at Ted Mann Concert Hall. Smilde spoke on how European and American music schools are re-inventing the education of musicians and offered examples from her research.

Janet Horvath, associate princi-pal cello of the Minnesota Orches-tra and author of Playing Less Hurt, spoke on health and wellness for musicians at the School of Music’s Common Hour on February 25, 2011 at Ted Mann Concert Hall. Horvath is a recognized authority and pioneer in the area of medical problems of performing artists.

The School of Music’s 2010 Craig and Janet Swan Composer Prize for choral work went to Chi-cago-based composer Zvonimir Nagy. His work, Cantus Jubilus, was premiered by the University Singers under the batons of profes-sors Kathy Saltzman Romey and Matthew Mehaffey on April 30, 2011 at St. Olaf Catholic Church in Minneapolis. The $1,500 prize was awarded formally at the work’s premiere. The Swan Composer Prize is co-administered by the The American Composers Forum and the University of Minnesota School of Music.

The University of Minnesota’s Symphonic and University Bands presented the world premiere of Immersion for Symphonic Band by Alex Shapiro on February 16,2011 at Ted Mann Concert Hall. This three-movement electro-acoustic work inspired by water and water-based life included multi-media visual film art cre-ated by School of Music student Jay’d Hagberg in collaboration with the composer.

Chicago-based ensemble dal niente performed the music of School of Music composition pro-fessor James Dillon at the South-ern Theater on April 3, 2011. The concert was titled “Ensemble Dal Niente: Music of James Dillon” and featured School of Music alumna and Twin Cities soprano Carrie Henneman Shaw.

2010/2011 SEASON

HighlightsRienke Smilde

Janet Horvath

Rose Ensemble

Robert Bruininks and Susan Hagstrum

Paul Phoenix

ensemble dal niente

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Zvonimir Nagy


2011 was a banner year for U of M School of Music conducting students. Visit our website music.umn.edu to see the stories of the conducting class of 2011

and to find out how you can support their work.

In 1997 amateur musicians Paula and Cy DeCosse created a University of Minnesota School of Music conducting graduate fellow-ship dedicated to their friend and mentor James Sample. The DeCosse’s generosity honors the memory of their friend and it supports the education of the next genera-tion of conductors.

The DeCosses performed under the ba-ton of James Sample in the Minneapolis Jewish Community Center Orchestra and were so impressed with him that they asked Maestro Sample to coach them personally. “He taught us lessons in musicianship, not instrument lessons. We wrote notes that we still have on our music. He was a pianist, vocal coach, composer, and organist. He just loved music and he conveyed that love to his students. He worked with Igor Stravinsky and led the premiere of Stravinsky’s choral

and orchestral setting of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ in 1941 in Los Angeles. Jim was a major figure.”

The DeCosses have been in touch with recent recipients of the James Sample Fellowship, Christina Chen-Beyers and Foster Bey-ers, who shared with them that their lives were completely changed because of the James Sample Fellowship. The fellowship not only helped Christina and Foster to attend the University of Minnesota, but it offered Christina the opportunity to live in the U.S. and for them to marry.

On the importance of dedicating funds to conducting, Cy shares, “Generating money for conductors is difficult because you can’t hear them – they don’t play anything. They are the silent ones. In an ensemble or mu-sical group of any kind the conductor is

the one who leads the way and is probably the most important of all.” He continues, “The Minnesota Orchestra sounds better than others because of its current conductor Osmo Vänskä. He has brought great reviews in the New York Times and invitations to play in Europe simply because he is a great conductor. This is also true of the University Symphony Orchestra’s Mark Russell Smith; he brings out the music with his energy. A conductor can make or break an orchestra.”

Paula agrees, “When you give money to the conducting program, you are funding musical leadership. Be as generous as you can. Especially these days when everything is being cut in schools. We have a wonderful musical tradition in conducting in Minne-sota. By stepping up to support conducting, we’re creating a legacy of music leaders for generations to come.”

DONOR PROFILE

Paula and Cy DeCosse

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Like the DeCosses, perhaps there’s a conductor who brought music alive in a positive way for you. Consider honoring that conductor through a designated gift to the conducting program at the School of Music. Funding from the endowed chair in conducting will support the three areas of choral, orchestral, and wind/band conducting. Your support helps the School of Music shape the 21st century conduc-tor – one who relates effectively with diverse audiences through a wide range of musical genres and styles. For more info contact Joe Sullivan at 612/624-8573 or [email protected].

music.umn.edu 17

Richard Orr, BA ’06College of Liberal Arts

AlumniTuttiAd.indd 1 8/12/09 3:22:37 PM


Gifts of $10,000+AnonymousCy and Paula DeCosse Fund—

Minneapolis FoundationCy and Paula W. DeCosseThe James Ford Bell FoundationJohn E. Free Estate

Gifts of $1,000–$9,999AnonymousKenneth J. AlbrechtLydia Artymiw and David GraysonRussell W. BurrisMargot H. and David S. ChattertonMark D. Chatterton and

Julia U. HalbergWendell J. and Marjorie J. De BoerShirley I. DeckerAnn and Gordon Getty FoundationHarrison G. and Kathryn W. GoughDalos W. GrobePaul A. and Margaret M. HaackBonita M. Kozub-FrelsDorothy T. KuetherSteven C. and Sarah J. KumagaiKumagai Family Fund—

Minneapolis FoundationAnne H. and Thomas M. LaMotteDavid E. and Judy L. MyersWilma G. Pierce EstateCraig E. and Janet F. SwanTwin Cities Opera Guild Inc.

Gifts of $250–$999AnonymousAdobe Systems Inc.Earl C. BensonEarl C. Benson and AssociatesBlandin FoundationA. Braginsky and

T. Braginsky-RemenikovaDavid R. and Sharon E. Burris-BrownAnn D. CieslakCynthia F. ChapmanHelen P. ChattertonNorma I. DanielsonAndria R. FennigDavid P. FlemingGeneral Mills FoundationStanley M. and Luella G. GoldbergDonald M. HeathEvelyn E. and George A. HolthusHormel Foods Corp.Sondra W. HoweCatherine and John HughesCarol Oversvee JohnsonEllen A. KniebelIrene A. KnutsonMerritt C. NequetteLesley E. NystromMichael C. NystromTimothy J. RichmondJean W. ScheuAnn Perry SlosserAnne ShainlineChristine M. SorensonMary Beth SorensonRobert L. StableskiMarcia Thoen and Arthur Smith

Gifts of $100–$249AnonymousAT&T FoundationTimothy J. AlmenSteven G. and Anne E. BarnesIris M. BauermeisterElaine and Laurence BaumannGerald and Phyllis BensonNeil A. and Angela S. BitzenhoferWilliam C. BushnellJoanna M. CortrightJason H. EttenCynthia M. GesseleShirley R. and Jacob F. GoossenErnest J. and Gayle M. GormanAnders and Julie HimmelstrupMichael J. and Mary Ann HodappMarian S. HoffmanGale B. HolmquistRoger E. HurdlikCynthia T. and Martin M. IkerMary Kay KaltreiderScott R. and Mary S. KirbyTheodore W. KobsDodd A. and Myrna B. LambertonDorothy E. LambertonJohn K. and Lizabeth O. LaufersLowell E. LindgrenLynn M. and Helen L. LoudenWilliam C. MetcalfeRobin F. MoedeElmo V. and Bernice M. NessMarilee K. and Brian D. OlinK. Richard OlsenTimothy and Susan OlsenLois R. Pearson

Recognizing gifts made July 1, 2010 to May 31, 2011


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We make every effort to properly acknowledge our donors, but occasionally a name is misspelled or omitted. Please let us know your preferences by contacting Joe Sullivan at 612/624-8573 or [email protected]. We’ll correct it in future versions—thanks!

With your help we raised nearly $140,000! Thank you for your generosity to the School of Music!

Max P. RadloffThomas A. RasmussenJulie RichmondTimothy J. RobbleeSean Michael and Natalie RolphAnn L. SchrootenLinda M. and Richard J. SeimeStella B. SickJanice M. Sinclair and Bryan A. NelsonSandra H. SladekAngeline L. SorensonArturo L. SteelyBarbara S. and Kenneth F. TiedeGeorge A. and Marian A. TorenLinda B. and Eric TrygstadKaren L. VinjeLarry F. WardBettye J. and D. Clifton WareDale E. WarlandWells Fargo FoundationMark E. Wise

Gifts of $1–$99AnonymousArlene G. AlmRonald C. and Susan M. AndersonThor M. AndersonAnnie J. BaileyDavid B. and Christine H. BaldwinUri BarneaCarole BastaszHelen M. BaumgartnerElizabeth BeckerJohn D. BeckerMark P. and Nancy F. BjorkAlison A. BondyBoyd and Betty Mast Foundation/

Fidelity Char Gift FundMary E. and Frank D. BroderickLaine B. BryceDavid H. BuchkoskyRoger F. BurgMarilyn R. CathcartJames W. ClarkeRand D. ClaussenSyma C. CohnBonnie F. CoxDonald A. DahlinDean M. DainsbergMelissa J. Dargay

James E. DehnMichael A. and Wendy J. DetroyKitty and John R. EliasonJames A. EngebretsonAugusta E. FlynnGE FoundationSteven P. GlarosDeanna D. GordonRhonda C. GowenJohn and Miriam GriffithsRonald J. GuderianJoseph K. HagedornBonnie M. HarrisonVera and Mary-Susan HeiseKaren A. and Chuck HumphreyJanet JenningsMarie W. JohnsonMargaret L. JohnsonJay and Deanna JuergensSandra A. KarnowskiAnn R. KeelinJ. Evan KelleyCraig J. and Elizabeth J. KirchhoffCarolyn R. KnutsonDawn KuzmaDavid E. LadenKenyon S. Latham, Jr.Cassian K. LeeCarl H. LipkeFrederick H. Lott, Jr. and

Pamela S. LottTimothy S. LovelaceBetty and Boyd MastLarry E. Mc CaghyDeirdre Michael-Mechelke and

Larry A. MechelkeCarl R. MeinckePaul A. MelbyRebecca V. MenkenChristine R. MidhaJulie A. MiesKurt T. MiyashiroYvonne M. and Robert C. MomsenNancy L. and Roger T. MurnaneMary NeeLauren L. NickischJeffrey A. NielsenGarry D. Nord and Elizabeth WeisPatricia M. NortwenSally P. O’ReillyRobert E. OleiskySteven R. Pederson

Ann E. PeterR. Ford PikeRonald R. PoireKathryn J. PollardPatricia and Joseph PuliceJohn C. RenkenBeverly M. RichmanDiane D. RosewallEugene E. RousseauPaul and Barbara Lomas RusterholzKristina M. SchlosserLawrence and Andrea SchusslerKathleen M. ScottMary Ann and Michael H. SextonMartha J. ShaakRebecca P. and John S. ShockleyAnita M. SmisekSheila and Andrew SmudeScott P. SorensonDean and Dawn SorensonAdam V. SrokaNancy St JohnCrystal C. SteinCynthia C. StokesSylvia W. StorvickDaniel K. SturmJohn Tartaglia and Carol E. BarnettJames H. Ten-BenselDouglas L. ThainCynthea R. TholenClyde D. ThompsonBruce D. ThorntonViviane M. and Kenichi TsuchiyaRica J. and Jeffrey W. VanVasiliki S. VillasRichard D. WaggonerSybil A. WakefieldDavid A. WalshRichard P. and Lynne N. WeberCraig and Nancy WeflenVernon D. WendtArdis L. WexlerWilliam J. WielandAnn L. WobigJon K. WogensenFlavia L. ZappaZelle Hofmann Voelbel and Mason

LLPJohn R. ZimmerschiedZizka Music Publishers

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ALL SCHOOL EVENTSSchool of Music Convocation: Honoring Philip Brunelle with Keynote Speaker Helena Gaunt’s “Becoming a Professional Musician in the 21st Century” (Guildhall School of Music and Drama)See page 6 for more information.Thursday, October 6, 2011 • 10 a.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

School of Music Collage ConcertFeaturing more than 300 students and faculty in a non-stop concert showcase!Saturday, October 15, 2011 • 7:30 p.m. Ted Mann Concert Hall

BAND EVENTSWind Ensemble Craig Kirchhoff, conductor. A concert featuring the works of Grammy Award-winning composer and VocalEssence artist-in-residence Michael Daugherty.Tuesday, October 11, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Symphonic Band/University Band: Art inspires Art-music written for theater, painting, song and danceJerry Luckhardt and Alicia Neal, conductors.Thursday, October 20, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Campus BandsWednesday, November 2, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

50th Annual Marching Band Indoor ConcertTickets will be distributed at several locations to be announced. See music.umn.edu for information.Sunday, November 20, 2011 • Time TBARochester Civic Center, Rochester, MN

Wind EnsembleCraig Kirchhoff, conductor. Featuring the world premiere of Gregory Mertl’s Piano Concerto for Piano and Symphonic Winds with Solungga Liu, guest pianist (written for Solungga Liu and the U of M Wind Ensemble). Tuesday, November 22, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Wind Ensemble Chamber EnsemblesCraig Kirchhoff, conductor.Tuesday, November 29, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Symphonic Band/University Band: Featuring John David De Haan, tenorJerry Luckhardt and Alicia Neal, conductors.Thursday, December 1, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Campus BandsWednesday, December 7, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Wind EnsembleThursday, February 9, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Campus BandWednesday, February 22, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

University Band/Jazz IIThursday, April 12, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Band ExtravaganzaFeaturing the Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, University Band, and Campus Bands.Friday, April 27, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

CHORAL EVENTSUniversity Campus Singers, Men’s and Women’s Choruses: A Choral KaleidoscopeBrandon Miller, Andrew Morgan, Matthew Ol-son, Christopher Owen, Kathy Saltzman Romey, Andrew Stoebig, and Kelley Sundin, conductors.Saturday, November 5, 2011 • 7:30 p.m. Ted Mann Concert Hall

University Singers: Around the World in Eighty MinutesKathy Saltzman Romey, conductor. Featuring Twin Cities high school choirs, plus University graduate vocal soloists in a program of global choral music. Thursday, November 10, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Location TBA

University Singers, Men’s and Women’s Choruses: Sounds of the SeasonKathy Saltzman Romey and Christopher Owen, conductors. A program featuring seasonal music from different periods and traditions. Saturday, December 3, 2011 • 7:30 p.m. Ted Mann Concert Hall

Music For a Grand Space!Brandon Miller, Andrew Morgan, Matthew Olson, Christopher Owen, Andrew Stoebig, and Kelley Sundin, conductors. Featuring University Campus Singers, Men’s and Women’s Choruses. Free will offering: suggested donation $10. Sunday, March 25, 2012 • 2:30 p.m. Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Avenue

University Campus Singers, Men’s and Women’s Choruses: Spring Fling!Brandon Miller, Andrew Morgan, Matthew Ol-son, Christopher Owen, Kathy Saltzman Romey, Andrew Stoebig, and Kelley Sundin, conductors.Saturday, April 28, 2012 • 7:30 p.m. Ted Mann Concert Hall

JAZZ EVENTSMinnesota Orchestra Band Directors Jazz Workshop featuring Jazz Ensemble ISaturday, October 1, 2011 • Time TBAFerguson Hall, Room TBA

Jazz Ensemble I and Jazz Combo I present the music of Art BlakeyThursday, October 13, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Jazz Ensemble II and Jazz CombosMonday, October 24, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Jazz Ensembles I and II present: A Wintertime Salute to the Big BandsMonday, December 5, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

University of Minnesota Jazz Festival A concert featuring the U of M Jazz Ensembles and Special Guests the Hornheads.Saturday, February 25, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

2011–2012SEASON EVENTS CALENDAR

Jazz Ensemble I and Symphonic Band present: Meet in the Middle Crossover works for Jazz and Concert BandsFeaturing the premiere of new works by Dean Sorenson and Charles Lazarus (trumpet). Monday, April 30, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

ORCHESTRAL EVENTSUniversity Symphony OrchestraVerdi’s Overture to La Forza del Destino; Claude Baker’s Lamentations (pour la fin du monde) featur-ing faculty soloist Eugene Rousseau, saxophone; Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung; and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Men’s and Women’s Choruses and University Singers, featuring faculty members Jean del Santo, soprano; Adriana Zabala, mezzo soprano; John De Haan, tenor; Philip Zawisza, baritone; and Alexander Braginsky, piano.Wednesday, October 26, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Campus OrchestraFriday, October 28, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

University Symphony OrchestraPerforming Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Rounds; Britten’s Lachrymae featuring the viola competition winner; John Adams’s The Wound Dresser with faculty member Philip Zawisza, baritone; and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1.Monday, December 12, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Campus Orchestra Wednesday, December 14, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

University Symphony OrchestraBritten’s War Requiem performed in collaboration with Hochschüle für Musik Detmold (Germany), the University Singers, Macalester Concert Choir, Kantorei, Quad City Choral Arts (Jon Hurty, director), and The Minnesota Boychoir. Featuring soloists: Caroline Thomas, soprano (Germany); John De Haan, tenor (USA); and Philip Zawisza, baritone (USA). With Karl-Heinz Bloemeke as conductor of the Chamber Orchestra (see page 4 for more information).Thursday, March 1, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Campus OrchestraWednesday, March 7, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Campus OrchestraWednesday, May 2, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

University Symphony OrchestraFeaturing Mahler’s Totenfeier (1888), a performance by the concerto competition winner, and Strauss’s Suite and Final Scene from Der Rosenkavalier.Friday, May 4, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

UNIVERSITY OPERA THEATREW.A. Mozart’s Così fan tutteDavid Walsh, director. Mark Russell Smith, con-ductor.Tickets: $22/$12 students & children. Two for one tickets for U of M students, faculty, alumni, staff, and retirees. 612/624-2345 or tickets.umn.eduThur., Nov. 17 – Sat., Nov. 19, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Sunday, November 20, 2011 • 1:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Robert Aldridge’s ParablesDavid Walsh, director. Kathy Saltzman Romey, conductor. Featuring the University Orchestra, Uni-versity Singers, and Men’s and Women’s Choruses.Tickets: $22/$12 students & children. Two for one tickets for U of M students, faculty, alumni, staff, and retirees. 612/624-2345 or tickets.umn.eduThur., Apr. 19 – Sat., Apr. 21, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Sunday, April 22, 2012 • 2 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

ABOVE AND BEYONDUniversity Brass Choir Alumni: Superman Brass ConcertSunday, October 2, 2011 • 3 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

AZ studio presents Kurt Weill: From Berlin to BroadwayThursday, October 20, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall

CMW ConcertFriday, November 4, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Student Chamber Ensemble GalaEnd-of-semester performances of chamber music by student groups.Friday, December 9, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall

FACULTY EVENTSCreativity in Composition and Improvisation — Theory and PracticeA performance and talk about creativity in com-position and improvisation, in conjunction with the CD project Park & Mazzola (supported by SOM’s COLA fund).Friday, October 14, 2011 • 7 p.m.Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall

All Mozart Concert Featuring Lydia Artymiw (piano), Alexander Fiter-stein (clarinet), Tanya Remenikova (cello), and Annalee Wolf (viola)Friday, October 21 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Lecture/Recital: Johannes Brahms, Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 114 Featuring Alexander Fiterstein (clarinet), Tanya Remenikova (cello), Timothy Lovelace (piano), with commentary by Michael Cherlin. Lecture with live musical samples followed by a performance of the entire work.Sunday, October 30, 2011 • 7 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Noriko Kawai and Mayuko KatsumuraRecital featuring works by Brahms and Schubert.Tuesday, November 15, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall

David Baldwin, trumpet with Aaron David Miller, organWorks by Alan Hovhaness, Johann Georg Albre-chtsberger, Johann Ludwig Krebs, John Gardiner, Jean Baptiste Arban, and Vincenzo Bellini.Sunday, January 29, 2012 • 3 p.m.House of Hope Presbyterian Church797 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul

GUEST/ALUMNI EVENTSThe World Famous Glenn Miller OrchestraKBEM Jazz 88, media sponsorTickets: Adults $34/$29; U of M faculty, staff, alumni, and retirees $29/$25; Seniors $29/$25; Students/Children $20/$18.Thursday, September 8, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

Duo GellandMonday, October 31, 2011 • 7 p.m.Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall

Bergen Woodwind QuintetTuesday, November 8, 2011 • 7:30 p.m.Ted Mann Concert Hall

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Faculty TrioWednesday, February 8, 2012 • 7:30 p.m.Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall

PLEASE NOTE Events are subject to change or cancellation. Events will be added during the course of the semester. This calendar does not list the numerous free student recitals presented each week. For an updated and complete events calendar, visit music.umn.edu or call 612/62-MUSIC. Visit music.umn.edu to sign up for our free weekly e-newsletter. Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

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1. Clarinet faculty member Alexander Fiterstein performs at the 2010 School of Music Convocation. 2. University of Minnesota Marching Band flute mem-bers get ready to perform. 3. William Bryan and Bergen Baker rehearse for the University Opera Theatre's fall 2010 production of Elmer Gantry. 4. Hsiao-Chien Chou performs in the University Opera Theatre's spring 2011 production of Die Fledermaus. 5. Faculty member Matthew Mehaffey (choral) directs the Men's Chorus with guest high school singers for the 2010 School of Music Convocation. 6. Composer-in-residence Carter Pann rehearses with the U of M Wind Ensemble. 7. The Wind Ensemble participates in a recording session with composer Alex Shapiro. 8. The U of M Graduate Trombone Quartet performs at the School of Music Convocation. 9. Symphonic Band members perform the premiere of Alex Shapiro's Immersion. 10. Voice student Anna Laurenzo gives the student address at the 2010 School of Music Convocation. 11. Harpist Ana Leavitt rehearses with the University Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestra Marin Alsop at Orchestra Hall. 12. Former faculty member Paul Haack (Music Education) and wife Maggie Haack pose for a photo with President Robert Bruininks at the pre-concert reception for the 2010 Collage Concert. 13. Faculty members, students, and staff members enjoy a post-Convocation picnic lunch outside of Ted Mann Concert Hall.

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a photographic journey through 2010/2011

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FACULTY NEWS

Akosua Addo (music education) collaborated with Dr. Priscilla Gibson, a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work, to offer a customized Learning Abroad program in Ghana in May 2011. The course was titled “Children’s Musical Play in Intergenerational Ghanaian Families and Care Institutions.” The purpose of this interdisciplinary course in music and social work was to broaden its students’ knowledge about children’s musical play in intergenerational families in Ghana, Africa.

Lydia Artymiw and her former student Andrew Staupe (M.M., 2007, piano) performed the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos twice with the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä at Orchestra Hall in January 2011. Artymiw also performed the Mozart Quintet, K. 452 with principals of the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä playing the clarinet part. In March, she gave a solo recital at the Musical Instrument Museum in Scottsdale, Arizona and had four chamber music performances with Hiroko Yajima, Samuel Rhodes, and Marcy Rosen (at Queens College and for Bargemusic in New York and for the PCMS series in Philadelphia). In September 2011, she performs with the Lviv Philharmonic in Lviv and Ternopil, Ukraine, and in October she performs a solo recital at the St. Albans Cathedral in Britain.

In October, Tom Ashworth (trombone) was invited to be the alumni soloist with the Cali-fornia State University-Fresno Wind Ensemble on the CSU-Fresno’s Gala Centennial Concert featuring outstanding alumni and emeriti faculty and performed in an additional concert with the CSU-Fresno Wind Ensemble. He also presented clinics at CSUF, Fresno City College, Clovis High School, and Kingsburg High School. Ashworth joined the SPCO in concerts, performing Cha-pela’s Li Po and Pintscher’s Songs From Solomon’s Gardens and played under maestro Edo de Waart

for performances of Adam’s Chamber Symphony and Hindemith’s Viola Concerto. He also played lead trombone with the Minnesota Orchestra on Michael Feinstein’s Sinatra Project concerts.

Faculty members Tom Ashworth (trombone) and Gary Bordner (trumpet) participated in two Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) Xplorchestra educational concerts in public schools in the Twin Cities and the Chicago area with the SPCO Brass Quintet featuring Ashworth, Bordner, Lynn Erickson (D.M.A., trumpet), Paul Straka, and Michael Werner (B.M., tuba, music education).

Dean Billmeyer (organ) performed in the closing recital of the Bach Organ Course at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany in August. Billmeyer was the only American participant among 22 organists from ten countries in the course. Billmeyer also visited historic organs in the nearby cities of Naumburg and Rötha. He was appointed organist of the Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church (Mindekirken) in Minneapolis in September. He presented an Advent recital in November at the Church of St. Louis, King of France in Saint Paul, and performed in 15 concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra and SPCO this past season.

Alexander Braginsky (piano) judged the finals of the Texas Piano Teachers Association in Ar-lington, TX. He served as a faculty member for the International Keyboard Institute at Mannes College (NY) where he also performed a solo faculty recital and gave master classes. In August, he participated in the Beijing International Mu-sic Festival and Academy where he performed a solo faculty recital and gave master classes. Braginsky and his students, Denis Evstuhin (D.M.A., 2010, piano), Ivan Konev (D.M.A., 2010, piano) and Anton Melnichenko (M.M. candidate, piano), presented a recital of music for two pianos at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis. Braginsky was also featured in the March/April 2011 issue of Clavier Companion

on the cover of the Summer Camps & Institutes section for his work with the International Keyboard Institute & Festival.

Michael Cherlin (theory/composition) was named editor of Music Theory Spectrum, the official print journal of the Society for Music Theory, published by University of California Press. Cherlin’s term as Music Theory Spectrum editor is 2013 to 2015.

James Dillon’s (composition) upcoming pre-mieres include the U.S. premiere of Nine Rivers for Large Ensemble, Choir and Electronics by ICE, The Crossing, red fish blue fish, and Steven Schick (soloist/conductor) on September 14, 16, and 17, 2011 at the Miller Theatre in New York City; world premiere of Oslo/Triptych by the Cikada Ensemble on November 10 at November Music, Hertongenbosch, Holland and on November 18, 2011 at the Hudders-field Contemporary Music Festival, U.K.; U.K. premiere of String Quartet No. 6 by Quatuor Diotima on November 28, 2011 at the Hudder-sfield Contemporary Music Festival, U.K.; and the world premiere of White Numbers for large orchestra by the Basque National Orchestra on January 26, 27, 30 and 31 and February 1, 2012.

In February, four School of Music faculty vol-unteered at the Minnesota High School Mu-sic Listening Contest state finals. Matthew Bribitzer-Stull (theory/composition), a member of the board of directors, wrote the exams and served as a judge. Kelley Harness (musicology) also served as a judge. James Dillon (compo-sition) spoke as the contest’s keynote speaker. He also dedicated a new work, Fujin for solo piano, to the Music Listening Contest. Noriko Kawai (piano) gave performances of this piece (its world premiere), as well as Dillon’s Charm and Dragonfly.

Alexander Fiterstein’s (clarinet) chamber group, The Zimro Project, was featured on NPR’s Performance Today in July, with their

School NewsSchool of Music News from June 2010 to May 2011


performance of Paul Moravec’s Tempest Fantasy. In December, Fiterstein performed Mercury Soul, written for him by composer Mason Bates at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York. Fiterstein was named in The League of American Orchestra’s Symphony magazine’s 2011 annual listing of emerging artists. He also performed with cellist Steven Isserlis at the 92nd Street Y in New York. In April, Fiterstein debuted with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra in Serbia performing Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. In August, Fiterstein gave the world premiere of Roger Zare’s clarinet concerto Bennu’s Fire at ClarinetFest 2011 in Los Angeles.

James Flegel (guitar) gave solo concerts at the Harold Washington Library (Chicago) in August; the University of Minnesota, Duluth’s Weber Concert Hall in October; and Wheeler Concert Hall at the University of Evansville in October (giving a class there as well). In March, he performed a concert with Linda Chatterton (M.M., 1994, flute) at the St. Paul Central Li-brary. The music was inspired by folk traditions from around the world. Flegel also accompanied soprano Kristin Griffeath in a lecture recital on the guitar/vocal music of Mauro Giuliani at the University of Missouri, Kansas City in April.

Keitha Lucas Hamann (music education), David Myers (School of Music director/music education), and Wendy Zaro-Mullins (voice) presented an invited panel discussion, “Becom-ing an Engaged School of Music,” at the 2011 College Music Society Summit on Community Engagement in Atlanta, GA, in January.

Burt Hara (clarinet), Young-Nam Kim (violin), and Timothy Lovelace (piano) were the featured artists along with Sally Chisholm, Maria Jette, Anthony Ross, Ellen Smith, and Mike Petruco-nis in the season opening concert of Chamber Music Society of Minnesota in October at the Minnesota History Center in the program “Two Viennese Masters: Mozart and Berg.” The trio, along with the Chamber Music Society of Min-nesota, performed a concert tribute to Maestro Stanislaw Skrowaczewski in December at the Minnesota History Center. Skrowaczewski at-tended and spoke about his life as a composer.

Phil Hey (jazz) played New York City’s famed jazz club Birdland in June 2011. He plays there annually with London-based vocalist Stacey Kent as part of her world wide tour with Jim Tomlin-son. In 2010, Roy Haynes performed with Hey, renewing their decades-old acquaintanceship.

Noriko Kawai (piano) performed Alexandre Scriabin’s Prometheus with the La Jolla Sym-phony (Steve Schick, conductor) in October. She received the prestigious German Record Critic Prize (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritikin)

in November for her CD recording (Wergo label) of works by Jordanian composer Saed Haddad, including Piano Etudes Mysterieuses (complete I-VII).

Barbara Kierig (voice) was one of the three judges for the St. Louis District Metropolitan Opera Auditions in St. Louis in November.

Young-Nam Kim (violin) appeared with Charlie Neidich, one of the world’s foremost clarinetists, in a program of works by Mozart, Weber, and Bartok at a concert in February at the Min-nesota History Center. Timothy Lovelace (piano) joined in Bartok’s Contrasts for violin, clarinet, and piano.

Craig Kirchhoff (conducting) gave the keynote address in July 2010 at the American School Band Directors Association banquet and was awarded the national Goldman Award from the association. He was also featured in the August 2010 cover article of School Band and Orchestra Magazine. In the article, “Preparing the Next Generation,” Kirchhoff discussed his musical past, how to prepare music students for the future, and the music program at the University of Minnesota School of Music.

Scott D. Lipscomb (music education) assumed editorship of the Journal of Technology in Music Learning, completed revisions of the seventh edition of his co-authored rock history textbook, and completed initial reviews of chapters for a contracted Oxford University Press volume entitled The psychology of music in multimedia for which he is co-editor and also authored two chapters. During spring 2011, while on a one-semester leave from the University of Min-nesota, he had the opportunity to collaborate with the music education department staff at the Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York City on their opera-based learning program in public schools.

Alex Lubet’s (composition) Minnesota Fringe Festival performance with Mu Daiko was re-viewed positively in the Pioneer Press, Mpls/St. Paul, and KARE 11 News. He keynoted the Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium. His Music, Disability, and Society was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education and “highly recommended” in Choice. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Utah. He appeared on Radio Australia’s Connect Asia. New articles appeared in the International Journal of Inclusive Education and Critical Studies in Improvisation. He spoke at “Bob Dylan and the Law” in New York. His Dylan course was a front-page feature in the Star-Tribune.

Jerry Luckhardt (bands) organized the Festival of Community Bands, which was featured in

the Star Tribune article “Community bands offer fellowship of music.” School of Music alumna Christina Chen-Beyers (D.M.A., 2011, conducting, student of Mark Russell Smith) was also featured in the article.

In October, Tim Maloney (music library) con-ducted a slideshow presentation on Glenn Gould, culled from research and his own personal experi-ences from playing with Gould. This presentation was in conjunction with the screening of the film Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould.

Glenda Maurice (voice, faculty emerita) received the Multi Housing Achievement in Design, Advertising and Community Support award for “Outstanding Innovative Resident Services Day to Day” for developing the first Life Long Learning and Life Enrichment program for senior residents at The Rivers (Burnsville, MN). As classical arts activity associate, Maurice creates classes covering classical music, poetry, and history, bringing in volunteer performers including School of Music faculty. In December, she narrated and produced “Star of Wonder: A Story for Christmas,” featuring participants from Unity Church, Unitarian (St. Paul), Ruth Palmer (director and pianist), and Bejamin Caswell, KrisAnne Weiss, and Adam Dickhoff as soloists.

Guerino Mazzola’s (creative studies) new book Musical Performance is now available from Springer Publishing and is described as a first sketch of what the scientific field of performance could look like. His October 2010 concert (Heinz Geisser and Shiro Onuma, drums and percussion) at Pit Inn Jazz Club in Tokyo was released on the CD Dancing the Body of Time by Cadence Jazz Records. His recital at Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris in December can be found on YouTube. He is president of the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music, which hosted the Third International MCM Conference in June at IRCAM in Paris, where Mazzola gave two talks.

In March 2011, the third volume of Teaching Music Through Performance in Choir—compiled and edited by Heather J. Buchanan and Mat-thew W. Mehaffey (choir)—was published by GIA Publications. Mehaffey presented a session on choosing quality repertoire as part of the National Convention of the America Choral Directors Association in Chicago, IL to go along with the publication. In spring, he also conducted the West Virginia High School All State Chorus and served as an adjudicator for the Oregon State High School Choral Festival.

Fernando Meza (percussion) performed for Shrek: The Musical at the Orpheum Theater in February 2011. The musical was based on the Oscar-winning DreamWorks film.

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David Myers (School of Music director and music education) moderated a panel on higher education and careers in music for the students and parents of the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies in May. He keynoted the national conference of College Music Society in Sep-tember and the national Instrumental Music Teacher Education Symposium in May.

Sally O’Reilly (violin) was honored as Teacher of the Year 2010 by the Thursday Musical Club. She gave the Junior Violin Master Class at the American String Teachers Association Confer-ence in March in Kansas City. While there, she was interviewed on Kansas Public Radio and gave a violin master class at the University of Kansas. In June, O’Reilly returned to the Ber-muda School of Music to give master classes. In August, O’Reilly taught at Italy Summer Music in Pienza.

Karen Painter’s (musicology) freshman seminar class interviewed French filmmaker Michael Prazan in November 2010. Their interview was published in excerpt on the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies website. Prazan’s documen-tary Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades screened at the St. Anthony Main Theater in Minneapolis.

Tanya Remenikova (cello) and Alexander Braginsky (piano) performed at Wayzata Com-munity Church as a part of the Music Series in January. The program included sonatas for cello and piano by Schubert (“Arpeggione”), Debussy, and Chopin. Remenikova and Tom Turner (viola) performed with the Hill House Chamber Players in May. The program included chamber music of Mahler, Poulenc, Debussy, and Mozart and was performed at the Hill House in St. Paul.

Kathy Saltzman Romey (choral) was featured in the Star Tribune review, “Chorale, orchestra present delightful Mozart program.” William Randall Beard wrote, “Minnesota Chorale artistic director Kathy Saltzman Romey’s job is usually to prepare her chorus for other conduc-tors. We should hear her conduct the Minnesota Orchestra more often, if Saturday’s entrée in the Mid-Winter Mozart Festival is any indication.”

Paul Shaw (piano) and Alexander Fiterstein (clarinet) performed as a part of A Musical Marathon: 50 Years of Young Concert Artists at Symphony Space in New York City in Feb-ruary. Fiterstein presented a solo clarinet work by Shulamit Ran, Monologue for Clarinet, and Shaw played one movement of Schubert’s Trout Quintet. The marathon event was featured in The New York Times.

Dean Sorenson (jazz) directed the 2011 Mary-land All State Jazz Ensemble in Baltimore. He

was a featured clinician, composer, and soloist at the 2010 Lawrence Jazz Celebration Weekend in Appleton, WI. He performed his commis-sioned jazz ensemble work, Big Sky, with LU Jazz Ensemble II. His arrangement of Moonlight on the Water (Rebirth), was premiered by the LU Trombone Choir and featured composer Conrad Herwig as soloist. During the past year, he wrote or arranged music for three Minnesota Orchestra programs: Big Band Valentines Celebration, 80s Rewind, and American Riffs. Sorenson also wrote a set of supporting curriculum that is available to visiting schools on the Minnesota Orchestra website.

John Snow (oboe) won the 2011-2012 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Performing Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music. McKnight Fellowships are intended to reward artistic excellence and to support performing musicians who have reached a critical point in their career development. A McKnight Fel-lowship can help an artist set aside periods of time for study, reflection, experimentation, and exploration; take advantage of an opportunity; or work on a new project.

In June, Jeffrey Van (guitar) was recognized as a guest of honor at the Voices XXI 10th An-niversary Gala concert where his new work for guitar and voice Night Sings to Morning received its premiere. He was also a guest performer at The Singers’s (Matthew Culloton, founding artistic director and conductor and School of Music alumnus) concert titled “A Clear Mid-night: Singing Walt Whitman.” The Singers and Van shared the stage with poet Michael Dennis Browne as he read Whitman’s poetry throughout the concert.

David Walsh (opera theatre) was featured in the March issue of Minnesota Magazine in an article about University Opera Theatre and its produc-tion of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. University Opera Theatre students Brianna Farah (B.M., 2011/M.M. candidate, voice, student of John De Haan), John Grau (D.M.A. candidate, voice, student of John De Haan), Laura Lammers (B.M., 2011/M.M. candidate, voice, student of John De Haan) and alumni Laurent Kuehnl (B.M., 2011, voice, student of John De Haan) were also featured.

The Ancia Saxophone Quartet was featured on William Bolcom’s Concerto Grosso for Saxophone Quartet with the Bloomington Symphony in February. Angela Wyatt (saxophone) was the baritone saxophonist with Ancia.

In September, Adriana Zabala (voice) performed in Houston with the NYC-based foundation Sing for Hope. The annual gala fundraiser event benefits Bering Omega Community Services, a foundation that provides support for people living with HIV. Zabala was guest soloist on two Messiah performances in December. She joined the Jacksonville Symphony under the direction of Michael Butterman and the Phoenix Symphony with Maestro Michael Christie. Zabala was the featured soloist with the Syracuse Symphony, under the direction of Michael Butterman, on a concert entitled Broadway Giants: the music of Gershwin, Porter and Ellington. The Syracuse Post-Standard said, “Adding glitter to the golden sounds of the SSO, Adriana Zabala charmed the audience with her song stylings... exhibiting depth and sparkle... and gave a stel-lar performance of Ellington’s ‘I got it bad and that ain’t good.’”

Excerpts from Symphony No. 1 by Judith Lang Zaimont (composition, faculty emerita) were featured on American Public Media’s Composers Datebook syndicated radio show in December. The show is produced in association with the American Composers Forum.

Wendy Zaro-Mullins’s (voice) CD Fly Home Little Heart was released in October 2010 and featured the Laura Caviani Trio, Gordon Johnson (bass), Phil Hey (drums), Pete Whitman (flute/sax), Chris Olson (guitar), Tony Axtell (electric bass), and Daryl Boudreaux (percussion). She was interviewed on KBEM’s Maryann Sullivan Show and was featured in a Jazz Police article in conjunction with the CD release. Her com-munity engagement projects included work with the Viva City Viva City Performing Arts Festival with Marcy Open School, Twin Cities Sacred Singer Workshop (founder/creator/teacher), and artist in residence at Minneapolis Schools. She was awarded a National Seed Grant from the College Music Society and a School of Music Seed Grant for her engagement work.

Former faculty member and SOM alumna Hilree Jean Hamilton (Ph.D., music educa-tion) passed away on January 7, 2011 after a battle with uterine leiomyosarcoma cancer. Most recently, Hamilton was a faculty member of the University of Wisconsin, River Falls music department. A memorial service was held on Saturday, January 22 at River Hills United Methodist Church in Burnsville.

IN MEMORIAM


STUDENT NEWS

Eunhye Grace Choi (D.M.A. candidate, col-laborative piano, student of Timothy Lovelace and Noriko Kawai) recorded four clarinet so-natas by French composer Francois Devienne in March in Florida. The CD will be released internationally on the Naxos label in late 2011. Choi performed at a house concert hosted by the renowned composer and School of Mu-sic alumna Libby Larsen. Joining Choi was clarinetist and soloist Wonkak Kim, and the repertoire included Schumann, Brahms, Berg, Widor, and Adam Berndt.

Sophie Christian (D.M.A. candidate, piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) performed extensive viola repertoire at the Orford Music Festival in Canada in June 2011.

Kai-Wei Chuang (D.M.A. candidate, clarinet, student of Alexander Fiterstein) was a finalist in the auditions for the principal clarinet position of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in Arizona.

Isabella Dawis (B.M. candidate, piano, student of Alexander Braginsky) won the 2011 Mechelke Piano Scholarship Award at a competition held in April at the Mechelke home. Dawis received a $1,500 prize. A competition for the award, open to undergraduate piano majors at the University of Minnesota, is held every other year.

Anna E. DeGraff (M.M. candidate, voice, student of John De Haan) was cast as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto in the summer program La Musica Lirica, held in Novafeltria, Italy. The program ran during June and July 2011.

Betsie Feldkamp (M.M. candidate, voice, student of Wendy Zaro-Mullins) won first place in the Adult Avocational Level at the National Association of Teachers of Singing State Com-petition, which took place in November at St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN.

Paula Gudmundson (D.M.A. candidate, flute, student of Immanuel Davis) received the Min-nesota State Arts Board 2011 Artist Initiative Grant to complete a project to rediscover and perform works for flute from the early 20th century from Argentina by Alberto Williams and Amancio Alcorta. Her research will result in the creation of performance editions and performances in various concerts in spring 2012.

Colin Holter (Ph.D. candidate, composition, student of James Dillon) won the John Donald Robb Composers’ Competition. In March, Holter’s The Recording You Will Now Hear for flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, piano, vi-braphone, violin, and cello had its premiere

performance at the 40th Annual John Donald Robb Composers’ Symposium at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Andrew Lonning’s (B.A. candidate) musical The Swamp was premiered in December at the St. Paul Student Center theater. The Swamp was written, directed, and produced by Lonning and Carmen Wood, with music by Lonning.

Adam Meckler (M.M. candidate, trumpet, student of David Baldwin) had a four-page article published in the International Trumpet Guild Journal, Vol. 35, No. 1, October 2010, titled “Getting to Know Rex Richardson.” The journal is the premier publication for trumpet-ers throughout the world. Meckler also has two solo jazz CDs available.

In September, Eric Nehring (M.M. candidate, guitar, student of Jeffrey Van) performed in a master class with Paris guitarist Roland Dyens. The class was held at the School of Music’s Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall and was co-presented by the University of Minnesota Guitar Department and the Minnesota Guitar Society.

Internationally renowned opera singer Simon Estes invited Bryanne Presley (B.M. candidate, oboe, student of John Snow) to perform with him as part of his Roots and Wings concert tour of Iowa’s 99 counties to benefit the Simon Estes Iowa Educational Foundation. This foundation provides scholarships to graduating Iowa high school seniors with financial need. Presley per-formed in Vinton, Iowa (Benton County) and Manning, Iowa (Carroll County).

Justin Schell (music minor) traveled to Ghana in October with M.anifest—a native of Ghana and one of Minnesota’s rising musical stars—to film the first-ever musical collaboration between M.anifest and his grandfather, world-renowned ethnomusicologist and composer J.H. Kwabena Nketia. The trip is part of Schell’s larger docu-mentary called We Rock Long Distance, which weaves together the stories of M.anifest, Maria Isa, and Tou SaiKo Lee—three Minnesota artists bridging generations through hip-hop.

In October, Cassius Stein (B.M. candidate, guitar, student of James Flegel) performed in a master class with Canadian guitarist Laura Young (now teaching in Barcelona).

Quentin Tschofen (PSEO student, pianist in Jazz Ensemble II, student of Dean Sorenson) traveled to New York City to compete in the 2011 Charles Mingus Jazz Competition and Festival held at the Manhattan School of Music in February. Tschofen is a member of the Dakota Combo, a group of high school students chosen from around Minnesota. The Dakota Combo is

directed by Adam Linz of the MacPhail Center for Music.

Jeremy Wagner (Ph.D. candidate, composition, student of James Dillon) won one of four 2011 McKnight Composer Fellowships, funded by the McKnight Foundation in partnership with the American Composers Forum. These awards, which include $25,000 in unrestricted funds for each recipient, are meant to acknowledge excellence in the field of music composition. The four fellows were chosen from a total pool of 67 applicants.

Maggie Yang (PSEO student, piano, student of Alexander Braginsky) was a winner of MMTA Young Artist Competition. Winners of the competition performed in the Young Artist Recital; first place winners in piano and organ performed in the State Honors Concert in June.

Brett Wartchow (Ph.D. candidate, composi-tion, student of Alex Lubet) won the University of Minnesota Graduate School’s Doctoral Dis-sertation Fellowship for 2011-12 for “Nexus: Composition for Mixed Ensemble and Interactive Electronics.” The Fellowship is a non-service award that carries an academic year stipend of $22,500 plus tuition for thesis credits and/or required dissertation seminars during the academic year and subsidized health insurance. Doctoral Dissertation Fellows participate in a Research Showcase on April 17, 2012 in the Great Hall in Coffman Union.

Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fra-ternity’s Sigma Sigma chapter members received the local Epsilon B Province Chapter Achievement Awards as well as the National Achievement Award.

SOM student winners of the 2011 Schubert Club Competition Finals include: Ping Feng (D.M.A. candidate, piano, student of Alexander Braginsky), Rosalind Leavell (M.M. candidate, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova), and Gar-ret Ross (M.M. candidate, piano, student of Alexander Braginsky).

Brett Wartchow (Ph.D. candidate, composi-tion, student of Alex Lubet), Ishaya Yarison (Ph.D. candidate, composition, student of Alex Lubet), and Nick Zielinski (M.A. can-didate, composition, student of Alex Lubet) presented three works written over the course of an academic semester at Art and Music in April. This was a collaborative project between the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Uni-versity of Minnesota’s School of Music. Each composition explored works of art in the MIA’s collection, including Tom Arndt’s photographs of Minnesota subjects, African sculpture, and Alexander Calder’s mobile, Ahab. The experi-

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mental performances combined sound, vision, and movement.

Preston Duncan (D.M.A. candidate, saxo-phone, student of Eugene Rousseau) was the winner of the 2010 University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Duncan performed Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da Camera for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra with the University Symphony Orchestra in December. Concerto Competition runners-up soprano Carolyn Cavadini (M.M. candidate, voice, student of Jean del Santo) and cellist Na-thaniel Yaffe (M.M. candidate, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova) performed with the Campus Orchestra in March. Cavadini sang “Non Mir Dir” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Yaffe played Haydn’s Concerto in D Major.

As joint winners of the 2010 Kenwood Symphony Competition, Sophie Christian (D.M.A. can-didate, piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) and Jiye Kim (D.M.A. candidate, piano, student of Lydia Artymiw), Ramiro Alvarez (M.M., 2009/D.M.A. candidate, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova), Keith Hilson (M.M. candidate, trombone, student of Tom Ashworth), and Caro-lyn Cavadini (M.M. candidate, voice, student of Jean del Santo) performed with the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Yuri Ivan (D.M.A., 2008, conducting, student of Akira Mori). Christian performed the first movement of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major; Kim performed the third move-ment of the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor; Alvarez performed Dvorak’s Concerto; Hilson performed Wagenseil’s Concerto for Alto Trombone; and Cavadini performed “Non mi dir” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

SOM current students Bergen Baker (M.M. candidate, voice, student of Jean del Santo) and Anna DeGraff (M.M. candidate, voice, student of John De Haan) and alumni Vicki Fingalson (D.M.A., 2008, voice, student of Barbara Kierig), Amanda (Broge) Jenkins (M.M., 2003, voice, student of Wendy Zaro Mullins), Brian Kuhl (M.M., 2006, voice), and Karin Wolverton (M.A., voice) performed in the Minnesota Orchestra’s recent performances of The Magic Flute. Wolverton performed as Pamina, Jenkins performed as Papagena, Kuhl performed as Priest, and Fingalson, Baker, and DeGraff performed as the Three Ladies.

Jenna Chaput (B.M. candidate, music therapy, student of Michael Silverman), Joseph Henry (M.M., 2010/D.M.A. candidate, organ, stu-dent of Dean Billmeyer), Aaron Hirsch (B.M. candidate, organ, student of Dean Billmeyer), Brent Nolte (D.M.A. candidate, organ, stu-dent of Dean Billmeyer), Emily Olson (M.M., 2011/D.M.A. candidate, oboe, student of John

Snow), and Phillip Radtke (B.M. candidate, organ, student of Dean Billmeyer) were fea-tured in the February issue of The Diapason, an international monthly publication devoted to the organ, the harpsichord, carillon, and church music. The students performed a showcase recital in Northrop Auditorium in November on the University’s 1932 IV/108 Aeolian-Skinner organ.

Piano students Kate Yeonjoo Bae, Loren Fish-man, Min Jung Kim, Kevin Hobbs, Eunhye Choi, Sophie Christian (students of Lydia Artymiw), and Eun Kyung Ahn (student of Alexander Braginsky) along with organ students of Dean Billmeyer Brent Nolte, Joseph Henry, and Aaron Hirsch participated in a day-long sequence of five hour-long concerts in Saint Paul in March. This Before Bach’s Birthday Bash anticipated the coming of spring and celebrated the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Minnesota Public Radio’s Pipedreams program, in collaboration with the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (TCAGO) and the Bach Society of Minnesota, collaborated to produce this all-day event.

Jazz Ensemble I (directed by Dean Sorenson) performed on KBEM’s Big Band Scene hosted by Jerry Swanberg in October. The ensemble was featured alongside other prominent Twin Cities big bands.

School of Music winners of Metropolitan Opera District Auditions were Janalyn Bump (M.M. candidate, voice, student of John De Haan), Wei Zheng (D.M.A. candidate, voice, student of Jean del Santo), and Alison Buivid (M.M., 2010, voice, student of John De Haan). These performers competed in the regional competi-tion in February on the Ordway’s Main Stage.

Two Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fra-ternity members received awards from National Headquarters: Aja Majkrzak (B.M. candidate, violin performance, student of Mark Bjork) received the Collegiate Honor Award for her significant contributions to the chapter and to the University; Rachel Vickers (M.M. candidate, voice, student of Barbara Kierig) received the Scholastic Award for the highest grade point average of the graduating seniors in SAI.

The New Music Scrapbook website featured weekly interviews and music by University of Minnesota student and alumni composers. Interviews featured: Richard Yates (M.M., 2009, choral conducting, student of Kathy Romey; M.A., 2010, composition, student of James Dillon), Colin Holter (D.M.A. candidate, composition, student of James Dillon), Zachary Crockett (Ph.D. candidate, composition, stu-dent of Doug Geers and Alex Lubet), Michael Duffy (SOM staff member and M.A. candidate,

composition, student of James Dillon), Joshua Musikantow (Ph.D. candidate, composition, student of James Dillon), Schuyler Tsuda (Ph.D., 2011, composition, student of James Dillon), Brett Wartchow (Ph.D. candidate, composition, student of Alex Lubet), Nick Zie-linski (M.A. candidate, composition, student of Alex Lubet), Jeremy Wagner (Ph.D. candidate, composition, student of James Dillon), and Bob Whalen (D.M.A. candidate, conducting, student of Craig Kirchhoff).

The contemporary music group Ensemble 61, featuring Linda Chatterton (M.M., 1994, flute), Carrie Henneman Shaw (D.M.A., 2009, voice, student of John De Haan), Erik Barsness (B.M., 2001, percussion, student of Fernando Meza), Matthew McCright (D.M.A., 2004, piano, student of Lydia Artymiw), Jesse Langen, Kirsten Broberg, Paul Schimming (D.M.A., 2008, clarinet, student of John Anderson), Tarn Travers, and Joel Salvo (D.M.A. candidate, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova), performed on Classical Minnesota Public Radio. Ensemble 61 is a Twin Cities-based new music group that brings new and experimental works to the public through concerts, education/outreach programs and community engagement.

Colleen Bertsch (M.A. candidate, ethnomu-sicology/musicology, violin) was a 2011/2012 recipient of the McKnight Fellowship for Per-forming Musicians along with her band Orkestar Bez Ime (OBI). OBI is a Balkan dance band that specializes in odd meters and sounds from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Serbia, and Romania. Members include Dee Langley (accordion), Katrina Mundinger (clarinet), Natalie Nowytski (vocals), and School of Mu-sic alumni Scott Keever (B.A., 2009, guitar/mandolin) and Matt Miller (B.M., 2007, bass, student of Chris Brown).

The following School of Music students were winners of the Thursday Musical 2011 Young Artist Competition. College Level: Interme-diate Voice, 2nd Place - Shelley Mihm (B.M. candidate, student of Jean del Santo); Piano, 1st Place - Isabella Dawis (B.M. candidate, student of Alexander Braginsky); Strings, 1st Place - Rosalind Leavell (M.M. candidate, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova); Strings, 2nd Place - Nathaniel Yaffe (D.M.A. candidate, cello, student of Tanya Remenikova); Winds, 2nd Place - Lucas Hopkins (B.M. candidate, saxophone, student of Eugene Rousseau). Senior High Level: Piano, 2nd Place - Mengxi (Maggie) Yang (PSEO, student of Alexander Braginsky).

School of Music voice student winners for the National Association of Teachers of Singing State Competition include: Lower Level Col-lege Women: 1st place - Shelley Mihm (B.M.


candidate, student of Jean del Santo); 2nd place - Elizabeth Windnagel (B.M. candidate, stu-dent of Adriana Zabala); Upper Level College Women: 2nd place - Kaylah Dockter (B.M. candidate, student of Jean del Santo); 3rd place - Sarah Yoder (B.M. candidate, student of Wendy Zaro-Mullins); Upper Level College Men: 3rd place - Mario Perez (B.M. candidate, student of Adriana Zabala); Graduate Level: 1st place - Sidney Walker (B.M. candidate, student of Jean del Santo); 3rd place - Carolyn Cavadini (M.M. candidate, student of Jean del Santo); and Sophomore Women: 2nd place - Beth Leverich (B.M. candidate, student of Jean del Santo).

ALUMNI NEWS

66 Art Bumgardner (M.F.A., voice, student of Roy Schuessler) retired from

his position as professor of music at University of Wisconsin, Superior in 2006. He now resides in Charleston, SC where he teaches voice at College of Charleston and remains active as baritone soloist. During the past year, he performed the bass arias and the role of Pilate in Bach’s St. John Passion as part of the Charleston Bach Festival, Dvorak’s Te Deum and Haydn’s Mass in time of War with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Brahms’ Requiem with Grace Episcopal Choir during the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and Noah in Benjamin Britten’s Noye’s Fludde with Ashley Hall School.

71 James Callahan (M.F.A., 1968/Ph.D., 1971) was given the An die Musik Award

“in grateful recognition of his extraordinary commitment to the musical arts—through performance, composition and education” at the annual meeting of The Schubert Club in June 2010, at the Ordway Center for the Per-forming Arts. Executive director Kathleen van Bergen presented the citation to Callahan. He was invited to the annual meeting to perform a recital on two copies of historic instruments in observance of the 25th anniversary of The Schubert Club Museum.

86 Patricia D. Backhaus (M.M., 1983/ D.M.A., 1986, trumpet) released her

sixth CD, In A Manger—a collection of sa-cred Christmas favorites based on hymn tunes. Backhaus is the trumpeter in the music duo In His Service. Working with Valerie Floeter (keyboards), the group has been performing together since 1998 throughout the U.S., Ger-many, Great Britain, and Switzerland. Backhaus is the music director for the Milwaukee Festival Brass and Milwaukee Festival Youth Brass. She conducts The Studio Orchestra (Madison) and the Shorewood Concert Band. Backhaus is the

founding director of the Soli Deo Gloria Brass, a group of Milwaukee area WELS brass musicians. She has a private trumpet studio and has over 100 brass publications to her name.

88 Sondra Wieland Howe (M.A., 1985, musicology, student of Donna Carda-

mone Jackson/Ph.D., 1988, music education, student of Chad Furman) presented “A Com-parison of Japanese Music Textbooks: Ongaku (1986) and Shōgakuse no ongaku (2005)” at the 23rd ISME Research Seminar, Northeast Normal University Changchun, China in July 2010; and “Student Compositions in the Music Studio” at the 29th ISME World Conference in Beijing in August 2010.

89 Lynn Petersen’s (Ph.D., music theory and composition, student of Domi-

nick Argento and Paul Fetler) Four Songs for soprano and violoncello, based on poems by Ed Noonan, was premiered by the duo Diagenesis in May 2011, with performances in Helena, MT; St. Paul; Chicago; and Boston.

93 Paul Siskind’s (Ph.D., composition, student of Dominick Argento) Clarion

Call was performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony, having won second place in their Audiences of the Future competition. Memoriale was released on a CD by the RoseWind Duo (Equilibrium EQ 92), and RoseWind performed the piece on numerous recitals throughout the U.S., France, and Spain. Siskind continues to regularly serve as an adjudicator for composition contests sponsored by MENC and the NY State School Music Association.

95 John Gilbert (D.M.A., violin, student of Sally O’Reilly), professor of violin at

Texas Tech University and Lubbock Symphony Orchestra violinist, was reviewed in the Lubbock Avalance-Journal ’s article, “Gilbert, Newhouse shine with orchestra.”

Steve Kimball (M.M., percussion, student of Fernando Meza) performed with the Minnesota Orchestra at the Proms in London.

96 Thomas Cooley (voice) performed as the vocal soloist in the Berlioz Requiem

in February for the 20th Carnegie Hall Choral Workshop. He performed Haydn’s Creation with the Indianapolis Symphony in February. He has also performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Na-tional Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa), Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra (Messiah), and Baltimore Symphony. Last spring he ap-peared in a new production of Handel’s opera, Tamerlano, at the Göttingen Handel Festival in Germany. His recent CD releases include the title role in Handel’s Samson with conductor Nicholas McGegan, Mozart’s Mass in C minor

with Harry Christophers and the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, and Schubert’s Mass in A flat with the Deutsche Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Windsbacher Knabenchor.

00 Jeri-Mae Astolfi (D.M.A., piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) partici-

pated in a fall 2010 state-wide tour of new piano music by Wisconsin composers, presented by the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers. The seven-concert tour featured compositions by Stacey Barelos, David Bohn, Jeffrey Phillips Burns, James Chaudoir, James Crowley, Christopher Frye, John Jeffrey Gibbens, Jeff Herriott, Joseph Koykkar, and Ed Martin.

Christopher Gable’s (Ph.D., composition, student of Dominick Argento and Judith Lang Zaimont) opera The Ladysmith Story premiered in Ladysmith, Wisconsin and Minneapolis, Minne-sota in July 2010. The production featured School of Music voice graduates cast in leading roles including: Robb Asklof, Madeline Cieslak Weiss, Tracey Gorman, Chandler Molbert, Bill Murray, Tricia Van Ee, and KrisAnne Weiss. Others SOM students involved in the production included: Kristin Kenning (D.M.A., 2010, voice, student of John De Haan and Da-vid Walsh) director, Stan Rothrock (D.M.A., 2009, conducting, student of Kathy Saltzman Romey and Matthew Mehaffey) conductor, Julian Ward (collaborative piano) musical coach/rehearsal pianist, and Gerald “Brad” Bradshaw (D.M.A., voice) executive producer.

01 Jeri-Mae Astolfi (D.M.A., piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) was awarded

tenure at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh and is now a tenured associate professor of piano and pedagogy there.

Paul Kovacovic (B.M., 1993/D.M.A., 2001, student of Alexander Braginsky) accepted the position of assistant professor of music at Central College in Pella, Iowa.

Karen Gustafson (D.M.A., trumpet, student of David Baldwin) toured Australia with UAF Faculty Ensemble Borealis Brass performing concerts along the south and eastern coasts and a recital/lecture at the University of Wolongong. Borealis Brass released the CD Roman Holidays, produced by David Baldwin, in January 2009. Gustafson has also performed with the Min-nesota Orchestra and the Fairbanks Opera and conducted at the Western Division of the College Band Directors National Conference. Gustafson is assistant professor of trumpet and conductor of the UAF Wind Symphony at the University of Alaska Fairbanks since 2004.

02 Hyeyoung Lee (D.M.A., piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) was pro-

music.umn.edu 29

moted to full professor and dean of the Piano Department at Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, Korea.

03 David France (M.M., violin, student of Sally O’Reilly) was accepted to the

2011/2012 class of Abreu Fellows at New Eng-land Conservatory. The program trains young postgraduate musicians and music educators, passionate for their art and for social change, who seek to guide the development of El Sistema programs in the U.S. and beyond. Upon comple-tion of the program, graduates are required to work on behalf of an El Sistema-inspired program in the U.S. for at least one year with the expectation that Abreu Fellow alumni will be actively involved in the El Sistema movement for years to come.

04 Robb Asklof (M.M., voice, student of Barbara Kierig) was a featured

soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra in the Scandinavian Christmas Concert in December.

Robb Asklof (M.M., voice, student of Barbara Kierig), Vicki Fingalson (D.M.A., 2008, voice, student of Barbara Kierig), Jennifer Bald-win Peden (M.M., 1997, voice), and Jeffrey Madison (M.M. 2007/D.M.A. 2010, voice, student of John De Haan), were featured in the Star Tribune’s review the Skylark Opera’s productions of Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow and Noël Coward’s Bitter Sweet.

05 Corey Hamm (D.M.A., piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) was re-invited to

teach at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at the New England Con-servatory in June 2011 along with noted pianists Ursula Oppens and Stephen Drury. He continues as assistant professor of piano at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC.

Grace Huang (D.M.A., piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) was one of the concerto competition winners at PianoTexas in Fort Worth, TX in June 2011. As a result, she performed the second and third movements of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony under Geoffrey Simon in June. She continues teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

In fall 2010, Matthew McCright (D.M.A., piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) performed new works by Minnesota composers (spon-sored by the Minnesota State Arts Board and American Composers Forum) at Augsburg College (Minneapolis) and Merkin Concert Hall (New York). He had three performances of Tabula Rasa by Arvo Part for The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra series at the Ordway The-atre (St. Paul), and he recorded a solo CD of piano works by Gene Gutche for the Centaur

label. In January and February, McCright per-formed two duo recitals with SPCO cellist Joshua Koestenbaum. In March, he had a solo concert tour with performances in Selangor and Pulau Pinang, Malaysia; Medan, Indonesia; and Bangkok, Thailand. In March and April, he performed duo recitals with flutist Linda Chatterton (M.M., 1994, flute) at Bemidji State University, the Wilmar Arts Center, and for the French Alliance in Minnesota.

Wonny Song (D.M.A., piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) continued his duo recital collabora-tions with Canadian violinist Alexandre da Costa in Montreal; St. Jean, Alma, Richmond, and Shawinigan, Quebec; and for the Nassau Music Society in Nassau, Bahamas in March. He also collaborated with Canadian cellist Arnold Choi for several recitals in Prescott, Quebec. In Febru-ary he performed one movement of Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet for the 50th anniversary YCA concert at Symphony Space in New York. He joined a Canadian piano trio, the Bonifacci Trio, with violinist Julie Anne Derome and cellist Gabriel Prynn. He continues to teach at the Lambda School in Montreal.

06 Alyssa Anderson (D.M.A., voice, student of Glenda Maurice and Law-

rence Weller) performed in November 2010 with the Minnesota Oratorio Society at St. Olaf Catholic Church, Minneapolis in a concert featuring Britten’s St. Nicolas cantata, Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai, and choral music by Dan-iel Pinkham. She is also part of the group La Bonne Chanson, which performed at the Open Doors Music Series annual holiday concert in December 2010 at Saints Martha and Mary Episcopal Church.

Phoebe Dalton (D.M.A., cello, student of Tanya Remenikova) is adjunct professor of cello at St. Cloud State University (SCSU). She was a soloist with the SCSU orchestra at the Min-nesota Music Educators Association Conference in March at the Minneapolis Convention Center, where she performed the first movement of the Elgar Cello Concerto.

Jocelyn Hagen (M.A., composition, student of Judith Zaimont) was named a recipient of the 2010 McKnight Composition Fellowships, funded by the McKnight Foundation. The four fellows were chosen from a total pool of 77 applicants. Hagen’s Amass received its world premiere by The Singers, Minnesota Choral Artists in February under the baton of Mat-thew Culloton (D.M.A., conducting, student of Kathy Romey). Others from the School of Music participating in this event included: Laura Krider (B.M., 2005, music education, student of Jean del Santo), Michael Tambornino (B.M., 2006, voice, student of John De Haan), Linh

Kauffman (D.M.A. candidate, voice, student of Larry Weller), and faculty member Jeffrey Van (guitar).

James Plante (B.M., voice, student of Barbara Kierig) participated in a month’s run of Trial by Jury as Edwin with the Greenville Opera Works, in Greenville, SC.

Kim Sueoka (M.M., voice, student of Lawrence Weller) was the guest performer for composers Carei Thomas, Todd Harper, and Paul Cantrell’s The Indomitable Keys Please! concert in Febru-ary. The annual concert featured music of diverse genres, as well as the release of their new album, The River Inside of Trees. The concert featured songs off the new album as well as new composi-tions written for the concert.

Owen Weaver (B.M., percussion, student of Fernando Meza) was the featured guest along with DJ/rupture at the Southern Theater in December.

07 Nickolai Kolarov (D.M.A., cello, student of Tanya Remenikova) gave

a lecture-performance on Bulgarian folk and art music for Juilliard School instructor Martin Verdrager’s senior elective course in April. For the event, he performed Ivan Spassov’s Burlesque for Cello and Piano. Also, he and his Balkanicus concert were featured on MPR’s website.

Andrew Staupe (B.M., M.M., piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) joined Lydia Artymiw in two performances of the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365 with the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Osmo Vänskä in January at Orchestra Hall. One of the events was broadcast live on Minnesota Public Radio. In February, Staupe made his solo recital debut in Russia, performing at Rachmaninoff Hall at the Moscow Conservatory. He continued his duo recital collaborations with renowned violinist Chee-Yun in February at the Uni-versity of Wyoming, Laramie. In March, he performed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Rice Symphony at Rice University as Rice’s 2010 Concerto Competition winner. In September 2011, he will appear with the Rochester Symphony (MN) performing the Rachmaninoff-Paganini Rhapsody.

School of Music Accountant Ni Li was given an Outstanding Service Award by the College of Liberal Arts. She was honored at a CLA Staff Appreciation Ceremony.

STAFF NEWS


08 Kristin Kusche’s (music educa-tion, student of Fernando Meza)

commentary, “Let music cast its wonderful spell,” was featured in the March 13 edition of the Star Tribune. In her commentary, she reinforced the idea that music is vital, stating “Music is important. What is life without pas-sion and beauty?”

James Price (M.M., percussion, student of Fernando Meza) was appointed director of the National Center for the Arts in his home country of El Salvador, a position that will allow him to establish and oversee the cultural development and establishment of youth orchestras and choirs throughout the country. Price participated in the Marimba 2010 International Festival and Conference where he performed works by Jorge Sarmientos and Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre with whom he will work closely next year in preparation of a recording of several of his compositions.

Former U of M Marching Band Drum Major Andy Richter (B.M., 2001/M.A., 2008, mu-sic education, student of Scott Lipscomb) was featured in the December 2010 issue of SBO (School Band and Orchestra) magazine as one of “50 Directors Who Make A Difference.”

09 Allison Buivid Schardin (M.M., voice, student of John De Haan)

won the Adult Voice Division of the Schubert Club Scholarship competition. She performed at the winners recital in April at Sundin Hall, Hamline University.

Anna Hersey (M.M., 2007, voice, student of Lawrence Weller/M.A., 2009, musicology, student of Kelley Harness) was awarded a grant from the Lois Roth Endowment to present her research on Swedish repertoire at the American Choral Directors Association conference. The Roth Endowment provides funding to current Fulbright scholars for additional projects or research. Hersey was also appointed to the voice faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts camp in Michigan.

Eric McEnaney (D.M.A., collaborative piano/coaching, student of Timothy Lovelace and Noriko Kawai) taped a segment for MPR Clas-sical with soprano Elizabeth Futral. The duo

performed excerpts from La Traviata to promote the Minnesota Opera production.

James Patrick Miller (D.M.A., conducting, student of Craig Kirchhoff) and Heidi Johanna Miller (B.M. 2000/D.M.A. 2009, conducting, student of Craig Kirchhoff) announce the birth of their daughter, Linnea Marsel Miller. Lin-nea was born on June 26, 2010 at 1:15 p.m. in Northampton, Massachusetts, weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces, and was 22 inches long.

Woobin Park (D.M.A., piano, student of Lydia Artymiw) was selected as one of first place win-ners of the American Protégé 2010 International Competition of Romantic Music in the Advanced Category. The winner’s recital was performed in December 2010 in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Park performed solo recitals at the Sumner Museum in Washington, DC and the Lyceum in Alexandria, VA in February 2011. She returned to Korea for solo recital and chamber music performances in Seoul in July and August 2011. She continues to teach at Towson University and Harford Community College in the Washington, DC area.

10 Sally Braybrooks (M.M., saxophone, student of Eugene Rousseau) was hired

by the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the develop-ment department.

Denis Evstuhin (D.M.A., piano, student of Alexander Braginsky) performed selections from Chopin’s 12 Preludes, Op. 28 on American Public Media’s Performance Today in Septem-ber. He received 4th place in the Paderewski International Piano Competition, receiving invitations to festivals in France and Poland. The two week long competition, held in Bydgozcz, Poland, began with 40 participants selected from applicants from around the world. Evstuhin made his New York debut playing a recital at the International Keyboard Festival at Mannes College. Evstuhin was one of 30 contestants from 11 countries invited to participate in Cleveland International Piano Competition in July. The competition began with a field of 241 applicants and was narrowed down to 150 who were invited to audition in different cities. Out of these, 30 contestants—including Evstuhin—were selected to go to Cleveland in July.

Obed Floan (M.M., voice, student of John De Haan) finished his first year of teaching at Oklahoma City University as adjunct professor of voice. During his first year at OCU, he par-ticipated in the Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition in Aalborg, Denmark. Floan will participate in the 2011 Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist Program. While there, he will sing Parpignol in La Bohème and Father Confessor in Dialogues of the Carmelites.

Ian Hodges (D.M.A., guitar, student of Jeffrey Van) composed the musical score for December Man, a main stage production at Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Hodges served as the adjudicator for the guitar classes for the Kiwanis Music Festival in Calgary, Alberta for a week in March 2011. He adjudicated 105 solo performances and 15 ensembles, provided a master class, and coached the ensembles.

In May, Elizabeth Karelse (D.M.A., piano, student of Alexander Braginsky) gave a piano recital series in Okayama, Japan. A review in the Sanyo newspaper stated that, “Her beautiful tone was full of variety. Her exciting performance was often passionate, sometimes melancholy, and other times cheerfully uplifting. Her strong melodic lines deeply moved the hearts of the more than 800 audience members.” Part of the profit was donated to help support education in the Okayama region, a cause that Karelse, a former piano teaching assistant with a secondary area in pedagogy, is passionate about.

Kristin Kenning (D.M.A., voice, student of John De Haan and David Walsh) directed The Match Girl’s Gift: A Christmas Story on the Minnesota Centennial Showboat in 2010. She directed the operetta, The Vagabond King, for Skylark Opera. Currently, Kenning is working on a research project called The Future of Opera for a New Zealand organization. She will meet with artistic and financial directors of numer-ous Canadian and American opera companies, and compile information on their present state and future plans. She was also appointed to a tenure track position at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama as voice instructor and director of opera workshop.

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