Noteworthy CIM scholarships make a difference A new path to greatness: changes coming to Preparatory program The first Future of Music Faculty Fellowship concludes Commencement weekend honored violinist Jennifer Koh and alumni

CIM Scholarships Make a Difference

When Iris and Tom Harvie established the Iris and Tom Harvie Director’s Award in 2019, they knew their gift would help lower the cost of tuition at CIM and extend one exceptional student a life-changing scholarship. What they didn’t know was how rewarding their bond with that one student would become.

Thiago Silva-Correia is a master’s double bass student studying with Derek Zadinsky, assistant principal bass of The Cleveland Orchestra. His first thought upon winning the first Director’s Award in 2020 was how happy he was to be headed to Cleveland, and particularly to University Circle. Even during his brief audition trip, he said he sensed that CIM is “an amazing school with a deep connection to the community.” Thanks to the scholarship, he’s been able to focus on his studies and remain at CIM through the COVID-19 pandemic.

But this gift has also left a meaningful impact on the Harvies. Initially attracted to the idea of supporting CIM students in general, since 2020, the couple has found joy in watching their support transform one extraordinary individual. They’ve witnessed firsthand the profound artistic and personal changes Silva-Correia, along with the rest of his CIM peers, have undergone, and now describe their connection to the bassist as “incredibly meaningful.”

Thiago Silva-Correia

“It is a privilege to support classical music, and we are grateful and fortunate to be able to create a named scholarship,” the Harvies said.

A New Path to Greatness: Changes Coming to Preparatory Program

(photos by Robert Muller)

CIM is committed to ensuring a bright future for classical music and that begins with our youngest students. A year and a half ago, a task force of faculty, staff and board members convened to evaluate CIM’s Preparatory programs. After much research and thoughtful discussion, it reached the enthusiastic consensus that it is time for CIM Prep to move toward a comprehensive model of music education, beginning in August 2022.

At the heart of the new system will be the Academy at CIM, a program inspired by successful models elsewhere and intended to make CIM the preeminent pre-college classical music education center in the Great Lakes region. It will deliver focused musical training in a supportive, collaborative environment wholly committed to seeing students complete their own unique journeys. Complementing the Academy – best suited for students in middle or high school – will be other foundational music education programs as well as the ongoing Young Artist Program for exceptional adolescent musicians seeking Conservatory-style training.

For more information visit cim.edu/academy.

The First Future of Music Faculty Fellowship Concludes

The first Future of Music Faculty Fellowship concluded in late January with a virtual workshop led by Joan Maze, the program’s dynamic facilitator. It was the last of several online gatherings during which 35 fellows learned from faculty of color about careers in academia.

“It was such a pleasure working with such brilliant and accomplished musicians and scholars, and seeing them recognize and realize their power to change and advance the field of music education,” Maze said. “They are the future of music in the academy.”

Through the Future of Music Faculty Fellowship, powered by the Sphinx Organization, CIM designated a valuable space for aspiring music faculty to connect and support each other, a space designed for and led by people of color, with input from expert Black and Latinx voices.

The original vision for the fellowship included a grand in-person finale at SphinxConnect in Detroit. With the pandemic still in full force, however, the event shifted online. It was a fitting end to a program that had been conceived as a 10-day intensive in Cleveland but ultimately took place entirely over Zoom.

No one, though, was disappointed. On the contrary, the fellows consistently noted how important the sessions were to them, how rare the opportunity. Plans for a second edition are already underway. CIM looks forward to reaching another group of rising academic stars.

Alumni: Refer Your Students

The Admission Office has created a referral program to connect with students of alumni. We know that you are incredible teachers and would love to meet your students. Refer your students to CIM here: application.cim.edu/register/alumni_recommendation. Your students can also visit us in person by signing up for a tour: application.cim.edu/portal/cim_tour. If you or your students have any questions about the application or audition process, feel free to connect with us at admission@cim.edu.

Commencement Weekend Honored Violinist Jennifer Koh and Alumni

From left: Jennifer Koh (photo by Jeurgen Frank), Michelle Cann (photo by Steven Mareazi Willis), Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (photo by Shevaun Williams) and Ryan Anthony

CIM’s 2022 Commencement weekend was a star-studded affair. Over two days, no less than four acclaimed artists, including three CIM alumni, received special recognition.

Violinist Jennifer Koh received an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts and delivered the keynote address at Commencement. Pianist Michelle Cann (BM ’09, MM ’10, Schenly/D. Shapiro) was awarded the 2022 Alumni Achievement Award, while composer-pianist Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (MM ’00, Erb/Pastor) received the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award. A second Distinguished Alumni Award went posthumously to trumpeter Ryan Anthony (BM ’91, MM ’93, Zauder).

Cann and Koh also performed at the Luminaries Benefit Concert on May 13 and were joined by Charles Renneker (BM ’20, MM ’22, Damoulakis/Yancich) who performed a piece by Tate.

“CIM could not be prouder of these exceptional members of our community,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Scott Harrison.

Recognized worldwide for intense, commanding performances, Koh is a forward-thinking artist dedicated to exploring a broad and eclectic range of repertoire while also advocating equity and inclusivity in classical music.

Cann, cited by critics as a “compelling, sparkling virtuoso,” made her orchestral debut at 14 and has since performed as a soloist with numerous major orchestras, including The Cleveland Orchestra.

Tate, winner of a 2006 Alumni Achievement Award, is a pianist and composer who uses music to share his Chickasaw culture. He has written for numerous major orchestras and ensembles and his music has been performed throughout the world.

Until his death in June 2020, Anthony had been principal trumpet of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2004, and before that, a member of Canadian Brass. He also won an Alumni Achievement Award in 2001.

Partners for CIM Student Assistance Fund

The pandemic may be waning and musical life returning to normal, but CIM students still need help. Enter the Partners for CIM Student Assistance Fund (SAF), a resource to help students raise the profile of CIM and grow as artists through supporting participation in auditions, competitions, festivals, workshops and recording activities.

Early in the pandemic, the SAF made a generous grant to CIM’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. More recently, as in-person events and travel have resumed, the fund has supported its first composer, Professional Studies student Sami Seif (BM ’21, Fitch), in pursuit of a recording contract, as well as students eyeing competitions.

The SAF is funded entirely by donations from Partners for CIM members as well as other friends of CIM and concert patrons. All funds go directly to students. CIM is the only independent conservatory in the nation with a Student Assistance Fund.

To contribute to this uniquely impactful resource, visit cim.edu/aboutcim/partners-for-cim/join. Click on “Please direct my gift towards” and select “The Partners for CIM Student Assistance Fund.” Your support is greatly appreciated.

Joela Jones Receives Cleveland Orchestra’s Distinguished Service Award

All CIM graduates go on to great things. Some even manage to make history.

Take Joela Jones (BM ’66, MM ’67), the former principal keyboard of The Cleveland Orchestra. When she retired in October after 54 seasons, she did so as both the recipient of the group’s highest honor, a Distinguished Service Award, and its longest serving principal.

Jones deserved the spotlight, which included a short film in her honor, in spades. A child prodigy, the Miami native began her studies at the Eastman School of Music. She then enrolled at CIM, where she earned two degrees under two keyboard legends: Arthur Loesser and Victor Babin.

Her career in Cleveland commenced in 1967, when she made her debut with The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. Hired by renowned music director George Szell in 1968, Jones quickly made herself both versatile and indispensable to every subsequent director, playing not only piano but also organ, harpsichord and celesta in hundreds of performances and premieres, and accompanying the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.

In 1993, Jones joined her husband, Cleveland Orchestra first assistant principal cellist Richard Weiss, on the CIM faculty, thereby compounding her influence on future generations and bolstering her already strong commitment to education efforts by the orchestra. CIM granted her a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2006.

Joela Jones (photo by Hilary Bovay)

“Cleveland has undoubtedly been made richer by Joela’s musical gifts,” said CIM’s Executive Vice President

and Provost Scott Harrison. “We are indeed fortunate to count her among CIM’s most distinguished alumni and faculty.”

Heading into the Next Century at CIM

When CIM Head of Composition Keith Fitch was commissioned in 2019 to write an orchestral piece marking CIM’s centennial, he had no premonition of the work’s future significance. He had no idea it would come to symbolize the school’s resilience.

Its title, “Alee” [ah-LAY], is a nautical term for steering away from bad weather. Fitch said arriving at that one word was almost as tough as writing the music. “It took me a while to come up with a title I thought was appropriate but not too obvious,” he said. “Once I came upon ‘Alee,’ though, everything started to click.”

Formally, the piece is in two sections: a slow opening centered around a long melodic line, followed by the main movement, a collection of smaller sections, each faster than the one before it. “Tempo-wise,” Fitch said, “it’s one long accelerando.”

It’s also new musical territory for Fitch. In keeping with his personal mission to experiment, Fitch said he pushed his “free and/or unmetered” style further than usual by asking percussionists to improvise at a few key points. Others do the same elsewhere, including the principal trumpet, trombones, piano and clarinets.

All this improvising and avoiding trouble applied well to the centennial but took on extra meaning in light of the pandemic and CIM’s determined response. The coup de grâce came March 23, 2022, when the CIM Orchestra gave Alee its premiere at Severance Music Center, led by principal conductor Carlos Kalmar.

“I think Alee is a nice metaphor for the school heading into its next century,” Fitch said.

Dido and Aeneas Film Premieres

Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas may be over 300 years old, but as CIM Opera Theater recently proved, the work still has considerable modern relevance.

Thinking far outside the box during the pandemic, CIM artists in collaboration with Akron’s Red Point Digital produced a film version of the Baroque opera, using the former Westinghouse Factory in Cleveland as an open-air set. The final cut was screened to great acclaim in Mixon Hall on March 18, 2022.

The project kicked off in early 2021 with vocal coaching and chorus rehearsals. Each singer then recorded a solo track, accompanied by harpsichord or cello, and the CIM Orchestra under conductor Harry Davidson recorded the remaining instrumental music. All of this was masterfully stitched together into a single cohesive performance by CIM’s Grammy Award-winning engineer Alan Bise (BM ’94, Knab).

Then all the action shifted to Westinghouse, a large facility on Cleveland’s west side. There, on sunny days in April and May, after most CIM students had already left for the summer, cast and chorus filmed the entire opera, timing it to the soundtrack they’d recorded earlier. Under the visionary leadership of Red Point’s Eric Vaughan, all found a safe space in which to tell the classic story with a savvy, technological twist.

It was a rich learning experience for all. The students, for their part, gained a new appreciation for the deep connection between singing and acting – and what is possible when they’re separated. Everyone, meanwhile, including the faculty, got a hands-on lesson in operatic creativity and passed with flying colors.

(photos by Red Point Digital)

CIM Announces $1 Million Scholarship Gift from Susan Rothmann, Philip Paul and Jeremy Paul

A major gift from CIM Board Chair Susan Rothmann, and her husband and son, Philip Paul and Jeremy Paul, has paved the way for countless future pianists at CIM. With their $1 million bequest, announced in March, the family established the Lola M. and Bruce F. Rothmann Dean’s Scholarship for Piano. The gift, which honors the parents of Susan Rothmann, provides scholarship support to deserving students studying piano full-time.

“Students come here believing this is the place to realize their dream to be a successful classical musician,” said Susan Rothmann. “Let us support those dreams.”

The Rothmann-Paul family joins a growing list of generous CIM donors who have established significant scholarship funds as part of CIM’s Second Century Campaign, whose goal is to lower the cost of tuition and secure CIM’s place as a top independent conservatory. It is the ninth full-ride scholarship fund established as part of the campaign since 2017.

The endowed scholarship is the largest but far from the first gift to CIM from the Rothmann and Rothmann-Paul families. Both Lola M. and Bruce F. Rothmann were longtime CIM board members. They also were active supporters of the arts in Northeast Ohio, volunteering with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Children’s Concert Society of Akron and Tuesday Musical Association, among other organizations. Susan Rothmann herself has been board chair since September 2020.

From left: Philip Paul, Susan Rothmann and Jeremy Paul (photo by Jeremy Paul)

CIM’s Governing Members: Sounds of the Season

Dr. Eugene Blackstone speaking with faculty Dr. Mary Schiller and François Germain and undergraduate voice student Shira Ziv

(photos by Alex Cooke)

Master’s student Sol M. Rizzato performing Play a Simple Melody by Irving Berlin Master’s student Ralph Holtzhauser performing music by J.S. Bach on the Blackstone Pipe Organ

From left: Alina Kobialka and Megan Lin (photo by Michael Morel)

Organ concerts don’t get much more magical than this. In November, CIM’s Governing Members gathered for a recital not at a church or concert hall but in a home. Specifically, the east-side home of Governing Members Dr. and Mrs. Eugene Blackstone. There, on the nation’s third-largest residential pipe organ, a group of student organists presented a slate of works by Bach, Berlin, Duruflé, Langlais, Widor, Stravinsky and CIM faculty Lisa Rainsong (DMA ’99, Brouwer). There was a voice in the mix too, as student soprano Shira Ziv, student of Mary Schiller, joined with organists Ralph Holtzhauser, Sol M. Rizzato, Donald VerKuilen and JoEllen West (all students of Todd Wilson).

To learn more about the Governing Members, CIM’s group of lead supporters, visit cim.edu/governingmembers.

Payne Fund Prize Winners Represent CIM with Asheville Symphony

If any musically inclined residents of Asheville, North Carolina, weren’t familiar with CIM before, they probably are now, after a recent performance there by two of the school’s brightest stars.

In November, violinists Alina Kobialka (BM ’20, MM ’21) and Megan Lin were the soloists in Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with the Asheville Symphony and conductor Darko Butorac. They appeared as the first pair of winners of the Payne Fund Prize, an award to notable musicians granted by the Cleveland-based charitable arm of the Bolton family.

“We’re incredibly proud of Alina and Megan and look forward to celebrating their successes in the years to come,” said Scott Harrison, CIM’s

executive vice president and provost.

Kobialka, an experienced soloist who made her debut at 10 and took second at the 2017 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, transferred to CIM to study with violinist Ilya Kaler. She said her training gave her “complete confidence and versatility” in her Asheville performance.

Lin, a current CIM student and member of the Elless Quartet, expressed gratitude for the support and connections she’s received from teachers Jaime Laredo and Jan Sloman. Lin is a native of Plano, Texas, and was named a Young Master by the Texas Commission on the Arts in 2018. She plays a Scarampella violin donated to CIM by John Bolton.

The Payne Fund was established in Cleveland in 1929 by the late Frances Payne and Chester Castle Bolton. They created the fund to enrich Northeast Ohioans through support of education and cultural initiatives. For decades, the fund has supported many facets at CIM, including scholarships, special campaigns and the Payne Fund Prize.

Four Additions to CIM’s Faculty

From left: Nathaniel Silberschlag, Maximilian Dimoff (photo by Roger Mastroianni), Jessica Lee and Philip Setzer (photo by Jürgen Frank)

Three Cleveland Orchestra members and one renowned string quartet player joined the CIM faculty, bolstering three departments and increasing Cleveland Orchestra representation at CIM to 40.

Three were appointed last summer: Nathaniel Silberschlag, principal horn of The Cleveland Orchestra; Jessica Lee, assistant concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra; and Philip Setzer, founding violinist of the Emerson String Quartet. Maximilian Dimoff, Cleveland Orchestra’s principal bass, returned to CIM in January.

Dean Southern, dean of the conservatory, highlighted their illustrious backgrounds, noting their commitments to excellence and community engagement and the “vibrant energy and joy” in their teaching.

Silberschlag joined The Cleveland Orchestra in 2019 after serving as assistant principal of the Washington National Opera Orchestra. He is recruiting for 2022-23 and will co-teach with Cleveland Orchestra colleague Richard King.

Setzer, a co-founder of the Emerson String Quartet, has been a CIM visiting faculty member since 2018 and is now artistic director of string chamber music. He boasts a vast catalog of recordings and also teaches at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.

Lee, too, has been on CIM’s visiting faculty. She joined The Cleveland Orchestra in 2016 after solo appearances with the Houston, Grand Rapids and Richmond symphonies, and winning the prestigious Concert Artists Guild International Competition in 2005.

Dimoff has been principal of The Cleveland Orchestra since 1997, after seats in San Antonio, Grant Park and Seattle. He led CIM’s double bass department for 17 years before stepping away in 2017. At CIM, where he is recruiting for 2022-23, he joins orchestra colleagues Scott Dixon and Derek Zadinsky.