Opus 9: New dean, José García-León, leans into the spirit of community
Feature | 30
Music at Yale
Cherishing the humanity in music amid the yield of AI
Noteworthy | 16
Dear members of the Yale School of Music community,
MWhat a year it was! And as we prepare for the next, I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude and appreciation for the vibrant community we share at YSM. It has been an extraordinary privilege to become part of this family and to witness firsthand the incredible dedication and passion of the people who define it, from the faculty to the staff, and from the students and alumni to the members of the Board of Advisors.
I am in awe of the outstanding faculty whose expertise and commitment continuously inspire and nurture the talents of our students. Our faculty’s relentless pursuit of excellence and their unwavering support create an environment where every student can thrive and work toward fulfilling their potential.
Equally impressive is the dedication of our staff. Their behind-the-scenes efforts ensure that our institution runs smoothly and effectively, allowing us to pursue our mission of fostering artistic and academic growth. Their hard work and commitment are the backbone of our success, and I am deeply grateful for their contributions.
One of the greatest pleasures this year has been hearing our students’ performances and works and getting to know them personally. Their talent, creativity, and enthusiasm are truly inspiring, and they are a testament to the bright future that lies ahead for the world of music. Watching them grow and succeed has been a highlight of my time here, and I look forward to continuing to assist their journeys in every way we can. The same goes for the network of incredible YSM alumni across several continents. It is a joy to get to know them and find ways to support them.
fying performances every summer, and the impactful Music in Schools Initiative (made possible through the generosity of Yale’s Class of ’57), which nurtures a love of music within the local community for younger students. Together, these programs touch the lives of so many.
Our school is in great health, thanks to the collective efforts of the entire YSM family. We have so much to be thankful for and so much to be proud of. As we look to the future, I am excited about the many possibilities and opportunities that await us. Together, I am confident that we can continue to enrich the lives of all who are part of this wonderful community.
Thank you all for making this year so memorable. I very much look forward to all the great things we will accomplish together next year, including a marvelous concert season (with performances at Carnegie Hall and abroad), the completion of the renovation of the Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments, and the development of an open and community-driven strategic plan for the School.
[Next page] Chief
Beyond our walls, the YSM family includes several remarkable organizations that embody our mission and serve their communities through the power of music. These include the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, which brings renowned musicians together with music students from all over for electri-
With deepest gratitude,
[Cover] Dean José García-León outside of Leigh Hall. Photo by Stephanie Anestis.
[Above] Dean José García-León talks with Michael Yeung ’22MM ’23MMA ’24AD. Photo by Stephanie Anestis.
Piano Technician and Curator Erik Diehl works on one of the School’s Steinways. Photo by Allaire Bartel.
Designers:
Contributors:
[Last page, top to bottom] Samuel Hollister ’18BA ’28DMA conducts the Yale Philharmonia in rehearsal. Photo by Sara Gardner.
A Ruckers harpsichord.
Dean José García-León at a piano in the Glee Club Room. Photo by Stephanie Anestis.
[This page] Soprano Eva Martinez ’25MM performs as Anne Trulove in Yale Opera’s production of The Rake’s Progress. Photo by Matt Fried.
[Next page, clockwise] Emerson String Quartet. Photo by Matt Fried.
A horn player performs Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Yale Philharmonia. Photo by Mark Gellineau.
A close up of a violin part taken during a rehearsal.
A vibraphone, ready for use.
Photo by Sara Gardner. Soprano Renée Fleming visits Yale. Photo provided by artist.
Photo by Sara Gardner.
17,
The number of concertgoers who attended ticketed events during the Yale School of Music’s 2023-2024 season.
Yale Song Lab launches
In fall 2023, a collaboration between the School’s voice and composition programs yielded two nights of performances at Firehouse 12 in New Haven. The Yale Song Lab, founded by Professor in the Practice of Composition Christopher Theofanidis and Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Voice Adriana Zabala, presented its inaugural program, Lift-Off, which featured four public premieres of music written by student composers for student vocalists.
“The opportunity for voice and composition students to collaboratively develop these works from inception to debut with consistent faculty mentorship is something we hope to cultivate for years to come at the Yale School of Music, and last fall’s inspiring event was an auspicious start to this mission,” Zabala said.
Through the Yale Song Lab, singers and composers are paired after exploring and discussing their musical goals with Theofanidis, Zabala, and the other participating musicians. “These conversations,” Zabala said, “cover anything from technical and artistic ideas to the tone, subject, source, and language of potential texts. Once teams are formed and themes and directions are decided, the students begin months of exchange, learning both broad aspects of the scope and technique of the vocal and compositional processes, as well as the highly individual perspective with which each student approaches this work.”
The launch of the Yale Song Lab was the impetus for a new course at the School of Music: New Vocal Works. The class will be offered for the first time in the fall 2024 semester.
[Above]
[Facing page] Loki Karuna gives a talk titled “Music, Activism, and Classical Decolonization.”
Photo by Matt Fried.
Find a composition from the Yale Song Lab on the inside back cover of this issue.
Students perform during the Lift-Off event. Left to right, Alex Smith ’24MM, Carter Johnson ’23MMA ’29DMA, and Elana Bell ’23MMA. Photo courtesy of Adriana Zabala.
Role reversals: the biographical dimensions of The Rake's Progress
In writing the libretto for Stravinsky’s opera
The Rake’s Progress, poets, lovers, and companions W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman were “in certain ways writing about their relationship,” said Langdon Hammer, the Niel Gray, Jr. Professor of English at Yale. The result, Hammer said, is a work that just might be Auden’s “last great love poem,” one that explores the complexities of intimacy through a campy Faustian allegory. The opera tells the story of Tom Rakewell, who leaves his betrothed, Anne Trulove, in the countryside to seek adventure in London only to get more than he bargained for upon meeting the seemingly benevolent Nick Shadow.
Read more via the QR code above.
Artist and activist Loki Karuna encourages “classical decolonization”
In observance of Black History Month, the Yale School of Music’s Office of Equity, Belonging, and Student Life hosted a lecture by activist Loki Karuna titled “Music, Activism, and Classical Decolonization.” Karuna, a bassoonist, media producer, and arts administrator, spoke in February about how the term “classical music” could be broadened to include musical traditions from a wide variety of cultures. The lecture was attended by students from across the University and was followed by a reception catered by Sandra’s Next Generation, a New Haven soul food restaurant.
Dean’s
Prize, fully endowed, renamed for alum
Established in 1996 and supported annually by Serena and Robert Blocker, the Dean’s Prize is the School’s highest excellence award and is given to a member of the graduating class who is selected by the dean in consultation with the faculty. This year, the Dean’s Prize assumed a measure more of distinction, now being fully endowed and renamed in memory of the late School of Music alum Emily Anne Payne ’99MM. The daughter of Serena and former YSM Dean Robert Blocker, Ms. Payne died on August 22, 2022. A cellist, she earned her bachelor of arts degree from UCLA in 1997 and her master of music degree from the Yale School of Music in 1999. While at Yale, Emily studied with Aldo Parisot, performed with the Yale Cellos, sang in the Yale Camerata, and served on the Student Advisory Council. Pianist Elisabeth Tsai ’23MM ’24MMA is the inaugural recipient of the Emily Anne Payne Dean’s Prize.
[Bottom] Charles Ives.
[Facing page, top]
Dean José García-León (center), with Warren Lee ’00MM (left) and Ruda Lee ’15MM ’17MMA.
[Facing page, bottom] Vijay Iyer ’92BS. Photo by Ebru Yildiz.
Norfolk Festival celebrates Ives and the American Tradition
In 1894, the year the Yale School of Music was established, a 20-year-old musician from Danbury name Charles Ives enrolled at Yale College, where he studied what might today be called the liberal arts. Ives also studied music at Yale with composer Horatio Parker, who’d been hired that year and a decade later would become the School’s first dean. Ives died half a century later, in 1954. His work, since then, has been widely regarded as foundational to what’s followed in American concert music.
At the time of this writing, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music was preparing to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Ives’ birth, his music, and the “American tradition” that that continues with such compelling composers as Vijay Iyer ’92BS, from whom the Festival commissioned new music as part of the Musical
[Left] Emily Anne Payne ’99MM. Photo courtesy of her family.
Bridges Project. Works by composers Valerie Coleman, Jessie Montgomery, and YSM Professor in the Practice of Composition Christopher Theofanidis ’94MMA ’97DMA were also programmed for performance this summer.
In addition to new music, the Festival’s six-week chamber music session was set to feature performances by Norfolk Fellows, Festival Artists, the Brentano (YSM’s faculty quartet-in-residence), Dover, and Parker string quartets, and the Imani Winds, of repertoire from J.S. Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, and Amy Beach to Varèse, Bartók, and Philip Glass.
The Festival’s New Music Workshop, headed by Martin Bresnick, YSM’s Charles T. Wilson Professor in the Practice of Composition, and pianist Lisa Moore, was to include Ives as part of the pedagogical program, and the Festival’s annual Choral Workshop, led by Jeffrey Douma, YSM’s Marshall Bartholomew Professor in the Practice of Choral Music, was scheduled to conclude the Festival with a program of music from several centuries.
Learn more about the 2024 Norfolk Chamber Music Festival at the QR code on the left.
Dean García-León visits Hong Kong
In March, Dean José García-León traveled with Yale University President Peter Salovey to Hong Kong, where, at the invitation of Yale’s vice president for alumni affairs and development, Joan O’Neill, García-León addressed the annual meeting of the Yale Asia Development Council, along with Salovey and Yale School of Public Health Dean Megan Ranney. García-León spoke to councilors—Yale alumni and friends—about the School of Music’s history and his priorities and vision for the School’s future. During the trip, García-León visited with Hong Kong-based Yale alums, including School of Music graduates, and representatives from Hong Kong’s cultural ecosystem.
“We have a significant alumni population in Asia and there’s a flourishing musical culture and vitality in Hong Kong and in China,” YSM Director of Development and Alumni Affairs Katherine Darr said. “Keeping those relationships and building new ones is important to the School of Music as a global leader in educating the future classical musicians of the world.”
Ruckers harpsichord boasts
timeless motto, sonorous tone
The Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments at Yale is renowned for its extensive holdings of keyboard instruments that illustrate the evolution of the piano and its predecessors from the mid-16th century to the present.
papers bearing a green-tinted, moiré pattern that emulates the look of watered silk. Vine-patterned ribbons in black and white frame the moiré-patterned fields. Papers with an intricate dolphin motif line the keywell.
The Ruckers harpsichord, most recently maintained by the firm of Rutkowski & Robinette, is an excellently preserved example of the Flemish school of harpsichord making at its height in the middle of the 17th century.
Photos and scholarship courtesy of Susan E. Thompson and the Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments at Yale.
One intriguing instrument in this group is a single-manual harpsichord from 1640, which came to Yale in 1960 as part of the Belle Skinner Collection. It was built in the workshop of Andreas Ruckers, who was a member of a prominent family of keyboard instrument makers active in Antwerp from the late-16th century through the mid-to-late 17th century.
Some of the harpsichords and virginals produced by the Ruckers were decorated with colorful paintings, which likely were executed by artists known to the family, given their membership in Antwerp’s Guild of Saint Luke (painters guild). Other instruments were “papered”—that is, covered with decorative papers that were glued to the interior of the wooden case.
The interior of this Ruckers harpsichord is decorated with rag-based paper printed with several designs. The lid is covered with
The moiré-patterned fields on the lid provide blank canvases for inscribing mottoes of a spiritual or inspirational nature. Here, two such inscriptions—one as meaningful today as it was 400 years ago—reference the attributes of music. Painted in bold Roman letters on the primary, wing-shaped panel are the Latin words: MVSICA LETITIÆ COMES MEDICINA DOLORVM (music is the companion of joy and medicine for sorrows).
On the lid’s rectangular front-flap is the saying: CONCORDIA MVSIS AMICA (harmony is a friend to the Muses), a reference to the goddesses of Greek antiquity who inspired creative endeavors in science, literature, and the arts and who were often depicted in works of art playing musical instruments together.
Instruments by the Ruckers family were highly prized throughout Europe not only for their distinctive decoration but also for their full, sonorous tone.
The Ruckers harpsichord is currently being displayed at the Yale University Art Gallery. The Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments is closed for renovation until the fall of 2025. For more information about its holdings, use the QR code to visit.
CHERISHING THE HUMANITY IN MUSIC AMID THE YIELD OF
AI
In February,several YSM faculty members reported to the Yale Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, assessing the practical pros and cons of AI and posing larger, existential questions about the advancement of the technology.
Conversations about the implications of AI’s place in society were instigated by
Open AI’s release in November 2022 of ChatGPT, an advanced and sophisticated chat bot and virtual assistant. Since then, several other platforms using artificial intelligence technology, including DALL-E, Beatoven.ai, and others, have used fragments of original creative work posted on the internet to generate content with-
Words by: Humans*
out crediting source material, forcing many artists to reckon with the future of their livelihood.
While replication for rearrangement isn’t entirely novel—YSM Assistant Professor Adjunct of Music History Dr. Lynette Bowring, who was among the faculty who met with Yale’s Task Force in February, pointed to the “Musical Ark,” a mid-17th century device with preset musical patterns that allowed laypeople to compose music—the infinite material to which AI has access is.
“It’s a problem, not just for young composers, but for anyone who makes anything,”
YSM Professor (Adjunct) of Composition David Lang, who’s on the board of a nonprofit called Deepmusic.ai, said, “because the AI model seems to be scraping intellectual property wherever it can find it, and putting it in a place where only the tech people who created the model can profit from it. It’s true not only for young composers, but for newspapers, for art, for design—any place where there is material, the business
plan of the people who make these things is about scraping and not paying.”
Composer Ted Moore, who served during the past academic year as associate research scholar at YSM, said the outsourcing of specific kinds of music to AI is almost guaranteed. “Commercial jingles, podcast intros and outros … when music is used in those ways it’s more ephemeral,” he said. “And it’s really not about the music, it’s about serving a certain function, and so that would be replaced quite easily.”
The report the YSM faculty group gave to the University’s Task Force reads, in part: “AI is already reshaping the ecosystems of commercial music production, both by creating music that would otherwise be made by musicians and by fine-tuning the streaming algorithms that shape the musical taste and experience of the vast majority of listeners.”
Legal issues around AI have been well documented. The
*Alexandra Green
rapper Drake was forced to take down his diss track “Taylor Made Freestyle” for its use of AI-Tupac vocals.
Big-name artists like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish left and then returned to TikTok’s online social media platform after a dispute between Universal Music Group and the app over the circulation of AI-fakes. The conflict was resolved after TikTok agreed to remove unauthorized, AI-produced music from the app. But what happens when AI models are increasingly able to break down sounds and provide them to users without an acknowledged, original source? Sure, a billion-dollar artist like Taylor Swift (not to mention, a young white woman) might be able to rally a team of lawyers to tackle the issue of intellectual property, but what about the 18-year-old pianist in a practice room at their state university?
“These artists generate enough money to protect themselves,” Lang, whose music is distributed by UMG, said. “They generate enough money so that publishing companies and
other owners and they themselves have the requisite power to protect themselves. People in the classical music world typically don’t have that much power.” The YSM report states: “The socio-economic results are not limited to popular entertainment but affect classical musicians directly. Many composers of classical music support themselves financially via commercial composition, and some classically trained performers make substantial portions of their living via participation in popular genres. The elimination or reduction of live human employment in commercial musics and the algorithmic homogenization of musical preferences threaten the foundations of the classical music ecosystem as well.” So, what should artists who are not megastars do to protect themselves?
“The general things you have to do to protect yourself are the same things with or without AI,” Lang said. “You
send music out—other people can hear it and abuse it—but that’s true for famous and unfamous composers equally.”
He offered two pieces of advice: “The more personal, the more quirky, and the more committedly individual music we write, the harder it is for us to be replaced. And, from the business point of view, I just think it’s important to know as much as you can where your music is going and how it is being used.”
One area in which unique humanness is safe from technological advancement is the concert hall, where performer and listener connect in a distinct moment in time. “Great performers have the ability to go into a zone where the energy of the listener goes into the energy of the performance,” Assistant Professor (Adjunct) of Violin Tai Murray said. “The ideal of a performer in that moment,” Murray said, “is you have to avail a part of the listener that the lis-
tener didn’t know could exist within themselves. The act of being impressive, the act of just entertaining—these are necessities, I guess—but for a transformative experience, it has to go beyond that.” Setting, story, and, perhaps, a sensitivity to the very possibility of connection. “I’ve had the moment as a performer,” Murray said, “where it’s clear that this very strong bond has been created between this large group of people and me as an individual.”
Murray highlighted an important distinction, in terms of music, between human and artificial intelligence: the idea that performances involve certain decision-making processes that are exclusive to human reactivity. “That’s the thing about the connection between the audience and the performer,” she said. “The performance will change based on signals that come in. AI is sort of unchangeable and already planned. So, I can plan as long as I want in practice, but in the performance, something could happen. It could be 1,000 degrees and my fingerboard is melting—
so I have to compute differently right now. For people who enjoy performing, that change in computing is the enjoyable part.” Murray recounted attending a performance during which the E-string on a violinist’s instrument broke and he was forced, in that instant, to improvise and use the instrument’s A-string, an adjustment he executed beautifully.
Human reactivity can also be a rewarding part of the creative process away from the stage. “AI can be incredible at writing,” YSM Dean José García-León said. “But sometimes the process of going through 10 different drafts is so enriching. There are things that I don’t even think about until I start correcting things. The creative process has so much to do with going through the steps and rewriting things. If you skip that by having AI give you a good draft, you miss out on so many other ideas you could have had in reworking things. It
can save time, but I worry it might take away some of the process of creation that is so beneficial.” And GarcíaLeón doesn’t worry about humans losing touch with “the power of live music.”
“That’s not going to be affected by AI, ever. Just the energy that you have in a performance […] I’m thinking of 100,000 people jumping in a stadium—AI cannot touch that.” YSM’s faculty agree.
“We believe,” the faculty group’s report to the Task Force concludes, “that the coming hegemony of AI across a variety of cultural arenas will precipitate an urgent search for explicitly human ways of knowing and doing, and that we will find them in live performances, be they in the concert hall, public schools, community centers, or open air—wherever human bodies and minds are placed in dialogue with other human bodies and minds by the demands of a musical work and the unscripted impetus of the moment.”
I’M THINKING
—Dean García-León
TENOR DANIEL ESPINAL WINS PRESTIGIOUS MET OPERA COMPETITION
Tenor Daniel Espinal ’24MM was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition following a final-round performance in March. Espinal, who appeared as Tom Rakewell in Yale Opera’s recent production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, was one of five competition winners, each of whom received a $20,000 cash prize and joined a list of past winners that includes Kathleen Battle, Lawrence Brownlee, Renée Fleming, Jessye Norman, and Eric Owens, among other opera luminaries.
“Being named a winner of the Laffont Competition is a tremendous honor,” Espinal said. “Through this process I was able to reach a much wider and more diverse audience than ever before,” thanks to the Met’s livestream and satellite radio channels and to “interviews with various industry professionals.”
“The amount of exposure that I’ve gotten from this experience alone is immeasurable,” Espinal said, “and I have a feeling that I won’t truly know that reach until many years down the line.” Espinal used the prize money to
move to Chicago, where he’ll be an apprentice artist at the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center next season. “Winning this competition has just assured me a certain financial cushion that I’ve never known,” he said.
Gerald Martin Moore, Espinal’s voice teacher and director of the Yale Opera, said, “The whole world watches this competition, so it’s wonderful exposure,” not just for Espinal and the other winners but for all the finalists and semifinalists. That Espinal was named a winner of the Laffont Competition at only 24, Moore said, is a testament to his talent and work ethic, given that some singers try several times to advance through the contest’s various rounds. Espinal’s success certainly reflected the “distinctive color of his voice,” which Moore said Espinal displayed during his audition for the Yale Opera program, and “his natural charisma.” Neither of those qualities can be taught, Moore said. Espinal’s final-round performance with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, under the baton of Evan Rogister, featured a pair of arias: “Salut! Demeure chaste et pure” from
Tenor Daniel Espinal ’24MM. Photo by Matt Fried.
Gounod’s Faust and “De’ miei bollenti spiriti” from Verdi’s La Traviata. Ten singers participated in the Grand Final Concert in March having advanced from an initial pool of 1,500 applicants through district and regional auditions. The concert was hosted by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves.
The Laffont Competition, formerly the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, “is designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers,” according to the Met’s website, which explains that the competition was renamed for Met Board Advisory Director Dominique Laffont and her late husband, Eric, who “have long been among the program’s most dedicated supporters.” Playbill further explains that “the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition is considered a prestigious award for early-career opera singers.”
Espinal, who graduated from the School of Music in May, earned his bachelor-of-music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and has participated in the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program.
Tenor Daniel Espinal performs in Yale Opera’s production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. Photo by Matt Fried.
SAMUEL HOLLISTER, ON PROGRAMMING MAGIC
In February, the Yale Philharmonia performed its annual concert in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Conductor Samuel Hollister ’18BA ’28DMA led the orchestra in a program of music by Richard Rodney Bennett, Jessie Montgomery, Ravel, and Sibelius that he put together in about two minutes. Hollister assembled the program around Bennett’s Marimba Concerto, which percussionist Michael Yeung ’22MM ’23MMA ’24AD performed as the evening’s soloist.
“When Michael mentioned the Bennett Concerto to me I was surprised because I’d never even heard of this composer,” Hollister said, “but as soon as I listened to the opening of it I knew we were listening to music that comes from another world entirely. From the opening tremolo of the marimba to the oboe solo that accompanies it, it’s transporting us to a world of magic.”
Yeung, a winner of the Young Concert Artists’ 2023 Susan Wadsworth Final Auditions and a recipient of the YCA Jacobs Fellowship, “is someone who, when he has a musical idea, lives inside it,” Hollister said. “And I think
MAGIC
’18BA ’28DMA
that kind of commitment is necessary to sell a program that’s so driven by magical storytelling. He really inhabits his expression.”
Once he’d heard the Bennett Concerto, Hollister started thinking about what repertoire “might capture similar curiosity about the magic of the world, and the first thing that came to mind is Sibelius’ Third Symphony.” Hollister has long had a fascination with Nordic orchestral music, in part because his mother’s side of the family is Swedish. “The music of Sibelius and his love of the Finnish countryside and of the mystic serenity of nature is really special to me,” he explained. “I think there’s something almost spiritual about his connection to the Finnish countryside and to nature in the Third Symphony. And it just gives you this good feeling. It’s good-natured, positive music.”
This was the second consecutive year that Hollister led the Yale Philharmonia in its annual concert in Morse Recital Hall. The February 2023 program was marked by “a darkness and a heaviness,” he said, pointing to the mood of Atterberg’s Eighth Symphony, which closed a concert that also included
Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503, with soloist Derek Wang ’24AD.
This past February, the Philharmonia opened the evening with a performance of Montgomery’s Starburst and continued with Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite before performing the Bennett and the Sibelius. “After hearing the Bennett and thinking of the Sibelius and putting the two pieces together, I instantly knew this was a program about good feelings, a good-natured view and outlook on life,” Hollister said. “Expanding the program beyond these two pieces while thinking about Sprague Hall as the venue, it didn’t take me long to think of Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and Montgomery’s Starburst,” he said. “I was thinking about how to highlight the magic of Sprague Hall—thinking about this notion of magic, because Woolsey Hall [where the Philharmonia performs the balance of its season] is an incredibly powerful and rich hall, it’s wonderful for long lines and Romantic epiphanies in the strings and big brass fanfares. It really carries sound wonderfully and does some pretty spectacular
Conductor Samuel Hollister
rehearses with the Yale Philharmonia. Photos by Sara Gardner.
It’s a powerhouse of a piece [...] something to hum as they're walking out of the hall.
Samuel Hollister on Starburst
things to it. Sprague Hall on the other hand is magical and clear. You can hear textures and appreciate their nuances in a way that’s hard to communicate so intimately in Woolsey. So I thought—especially after the success of Le Tombeau de Couperin—why not do another gem by Ravel, the Mother Goose Suite. It fits perfectly with this idea of magic.”
The Mother Goose Suite, though, “begins pianissimo in a very, very intimate and thin orchestration,” Hollister said. “It’s hardly a galvanizing concert opener. So I thought of Starburst by Jessie Montgomery as a short but fiery opening that could set the program in motion.” Montgomery, who recently won a Grammy Award in the “Best Classical Composition” category for a recording of Rounds by pianist Awadagin Pratt and the ensemble A Far Cry, has described Star-
burst in a program note as “a play on imagery of rapidly changing musical colors.” Conducting Starburst “almost feels like I give a downbeat and then suddenly I cast a magic spell,” Hollister said. “It’s a powerhouse of a piece. It’s very short, but it takes this energy, and it runs with it and it never loses it, so it’s a great way to sort of spin this fairy tale and magical storytelling program into existence.”
It was an uplifting program, one Hollister thought offered concertgoers something to take home—“something to hum as they’re walking out of the hall,” he said.
In July, Hollister was named assistant conductor of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He will also serve as the Fred M. Saigh Youth Orchestra Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra.
opus
9 :
NEW DEAN, JOSÉ GARCÍALEÓN, LEANS INTO THE SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY
[Facing page] Dean José García-León. Photo by Stephanie Anestis.
[Previous page] José García-León works with students in the Glee Club Room. Photo by Stephanie Anestis.
Of the classical LPs José García-León had in his childhood home when he was around 6 years old, he was drawn to one in particular: a recording of The Rite of Spring that he described as having “a very scary cover.”
“I was a kid,” García-León said, “so I was super scared of that LP. I didn’t want to touch it. [But] I kept saying, ‘I have to listen to it. I have to.’” One night, he waited until everyone in the house was asleep and placed the
“THE
VALUE OF MUSIC,” DEAN JOSÉ GARCÍALEÓN BELIEVES,
“IS VERY CLEAR.”
record on the turntable.
“I loved it,” he said. “It blew me away … even though I had it on low volume because I was afraid to wake up my parents. I think I heard it like 20 times in a row in the next couple of days. I couldn’t stop. I became obsessed with it.” Asked if that was a transformative moment, he said, “it was, there is no question,” explaining, “I had no idea what I was listening to, but I felt the energy. And it was overwhelming in a good way. It was exhilarating.”
García-León’s favorite thing to watch on TV as a kid in Seville, Spain, was a program that aired on Saturday mornings and featured an orchestra. “I was so obsessed with that program,” he said. Since almost all of his toys were musical instruments, he thought the musicians on TV were “playing a game together for fun—and making music.”
IT BLEW ME AWAY … EVEN THOUGH I HAD IT ON LOW VOLUME BECAUSE I WAS AFRAID TO WAKE UP MY PARENTS. I THINK I HEARD IT LIKE 20 TIMES IN A ROW IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS. I COULDN’T STOP. I BECAME OBSESSED WITH IT.
BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER THROUGH
MUSIC
It’s been one full academic year since GarcíaLeón began serving as dean of the School of Music. His arrival in September marked the first time a new dean had occupied the office in nearly 30 years.
García-León had grown somewhat familiar with the School between 2007 and 2014 when he was associate dean and associate professor of music at the University of New Haven’s College of Arts and Sciences and had learned a bit more about music at Yale while he was dean of academic affairs and assessment at The Juilliard School from 2014 until 2023. He has fond memories of attending School of Music concerts when he first lived in New Haven: Each year, he and his family would mark the dates of Yale’s opera productions, chamber music performances, piano recitals, and other concerts on the calendar.
Still, García-León has spent the past months learning about the School with an open mind through observation and listening to faculty, students, alums, and staff. That’s his approach to any new experience—to gather information without prejudice.
“Every time I go to a new place, the first thing I try to do is connect with people there and find out whatever I can, even in a short time, about how they live,” he said.
Today, García-León hopes that all members of the New Haven community feel welcome in the School’s concert venues, just as he did. It’s part of his desire to open doors
and lessen the distance between people, no matter their stations in life.
“Music is such an incredible way to bring people together,” he said. “It’s communal by nature.” That’s why he hopes to support and strengthen all partnerships the School of Music has with New Haven, including the Music in Schools Initiative, a program supported by a gift from the Yale College Class of 1957, through which graduate-student teaching artists have supported the work of local, public-school music educators for the last 17 years.
“I feel musicians should be very much aware of their surroundings and be part of their local community in every way they can,” said García-León. “It’s sort of our responsibility as artists, but also, if [you’re] trying to reach out to audiences, it starts with your own community around you.”
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José García-León plays the piano in the Glee Club Room. Photo by Stephanie Anestis.
José GarcíaLeón shows off his Rubik’s Cube skills with YSM Video Producer Julian Liby. Photo by Stephanie Anestis.
LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE
Much like a conductor inspires individual members of an ensemble toward a unified interpretation and shared artistic goal, one of García-León’s priorities is building a vision for the School through a strategic plan, but he wants to do it collaboratively. Throughout his career, he’s either led or worked on several similar planning documents, including the one in use at The Juilliard School.
His experience in strategic planning reflects a remarkable analytical acumen that makes him a sought-after music school accreditation adjudicator, and an enthusiastic mechanical puzzler in his spare time (he can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 70 seconds!).
“I want to be sure (strategic planning) is a very inclusive process,” he said, including the School’s Board of Advisors, faculty, students, alumni, and staff. “It needs to be the full community coming together and figuring out what the priorities should be for us as a group.” It’s an exercise in respecting the School’s history while offering students an experience that will prepare them not just to graduate but to thrive as musicians and as individuals, whatever that looks like to each, well after they’ve left Yale.
“I’m hoping that as we go through the strategic-planning process we’ll come up with ideas about how […] we give the students all sorts of different skills with the idea that they can shape their lives” according to their own vision, García-León said. “There are many ways to be happy in life with music, and not just a fixed way to do that.”
To achieve this, we must be willing to imagine a a reality further ahead in time, García-León believes. “We tend to ask ourselves, what do they need today?” he said. “We need to do the training based on what we think is going to be relevant to them moving forward. I know we can’t guess the future, and we can’t pretend to know what’s going to be in music in 15 years, but we can at least try to look at what’s happening now to anticipate what they’re going to need and get them ready for that.”
Having grown up outside of the United States and mentored students from a wide variety of backgrounds as an educator, García-León also understands the importance of diversifying and increasing access to classical music education. He’s empathetic to the hurdles many young musicians face as they transition from high school to college, graduate school, and the beginnings of a career, and he hopes the School’s robust support allows students to cultivate and share their love of music free of financial stressors. One of the institution’s most meaningful achievements is being the first professional school at Yale to offer every enrolled student a full scholarship and living stipend. This scholarship helps the School attract outstanding musicians from around the world, which begets much of its success.
THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC AS A COMMUNITY
Perhaps one of the most important values García-León has already begun to cultivate at the School of Music is that of community, having given “homework” to the students during Convocation at the start of the academic year to get to know one another and “learn a non-musical fact about at least one other student” they didn’t know before.
themselves,” he said. His office overlooks the atrium of the Adams Center, where students lounge daily by the fireplace, chatting or doing homework.
And it’s not just the community within the School of Music that he cherishes, but also the relationship the School has with the Yale and New Haven communities. He’s already meeting frequently with leaders of other musical entities at Yale, “finding meaningful ways to work together” with the Department of Music, the Yale Schwarzman Center, Yale College, and other schools around the University.
“The students, they’re incredible. [It’s] such a joy to hear them play, but also to see them around and being
Like a proud parent (he is a father in his personal life), GarcíaLeón listened to almost every one of the more than 200 concerts the School of Music produced during his first year, either in person or via live stream. He also holds deep appreciation and regard for those who support the students and the School’s mission. “It’s such a small team,” he said of the School of Music staff, recognizing “it takes a lot of dedication, and I can see that across the board.” Many of the faculty are also familiar faces to him, whether as colleagues or as musicians he has long admired from a distance. “It’s such an honor to get to work with them,” he said. “I’ve been a fan of many of them for years, so getting to know them in person and working with them is very thrilling.”
THE
STUDENTS,
THEY’RE INCREDIBLE. [IT’S] SUCH A JOY TO HEAR THEIR WORK, BUT ALSO
TO SEE THEM AROUND AND BEING THEMSELVES.
Without a doubt, it’s the people at the School of Music that first drew García-León to his new role, and it’s those same people who will help him shape future generations of young classical musicians so they can share their enthusiasm for the art form with audiences globally, just as he did as a child when he’d sit with his younger sister, Margarita—now an accomplished cellist and pedagogue—and explain why “Mahler was so great.” Decades later and an ocean away from his childhood home, García-León, the ninth dean of the Yale School of Music, is still “just sharing that excitement” he discovered in his family’s recording of The Rite of Spring with his community, the world.
YSM faculty at work beyond the studio and classroom
Musica pyralis, by Assistant Professor (Adjunct) of Composition Katherine Balch, was co-commissioned and premiered in performances by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. Cellist Zlatomir Fung and the BBC Philharmonic gave the UK premiere of Balch’s Whisper Concerto, the London Sinfonietta gave the UK premiere of Balch’s waste knot, and pianist Tomoki Park gave the world premiere of Balch’s obstenmelodie at the Kozerthaus Berlin with subsequent performances at the Elbphilharmonie and De Singel as part of András Schiff’s Building Bridges Program. Balch was composer-in-residence for Lynn Conservatory’s New Music Festival and will have a new work that she created for Ensemble Modern and an arrangement of Ives’ Central Park in the Dark performed in August.
Boris Berman, the Sylvia and Leonard Marx Professor in the Practice of Piano, performed concerts and gave master classes in various venues, universities, conservatories, and academies in Austria, France, Israel, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States. His recording with Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Viola Ettore Causa of sonatas by Chopin and Brahms was released by Le Palais des Dégustateurs.
A scholarly book edited by Assistant Professor (Adjunct) of Music History Lynette Bowring, Rebecca Cypess, and Liza Malamut received two awards at a meeting of the American Musicological Society. The book, Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy: New Perspectives (Indiana University Press, 2022), earned the Society’s 2023 Ruth A. Solie Award and also received the Publication Award from
the organization’s Jewish Studies and Music Study Group.
Mending Time, a piece by Martin Bresnick, the Charles T. Wilson Professor in the Practice of Composition, was recorded by the PRISM Quartet for a CD titled Mending Wall, which features premieres of works by composers—including Bresnick, George Lewis, Arturo O’Farrill, and Juri Seo—who have found inspiration in the works of poets Robert Frost, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and Waly Salomão. The album was released in December. The PRISM Quartet, a saxophone ensemble, was joined by soprano Tony Arnold and O’Farrill, a pianist, for the recording and for live concert performances that took place in 2022. Bresnick’s Mayn Rue Plats received its New York premiere at Bargemusic in Brooklyn in January. Bresnick composed music for two ballets, Tales of Hopper and The Winter’s Tale, which were scheduled for performances this May and June by the Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Company.
Jeffrey Douma, the Marshall Bartholomew
Professor in the Practice of Choral Music, led the world premiere of Alejandro Viñao’s Poems and Prayers with the Yale Choral Artists and the Percussion Collective, the east coast premiere of Hilary Purrington’s (’17MMA) Words for Departure with the Yale Glee Club and Yale Symphony Orchestra, and a commemorative performance by the Norfolk Festival Orchestra and Chorus of Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, the first work that was performed in the Norfolk Shed. Douma presented conducting master classes at state and divisional gatherings of the American Choral Directors Association and conducted a new recording of YSM Professor (Adjunct) of Composition David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning the little match girl passion for the Cantaloupe label, released in November.
This year’s Ellington Jazz Series, of which Professor (Adjunct) of Music and Director of Yale University Bands Thomas C. Duffy is artistic director, featured performances by Bertha Hope, Fred Hersch, and Linda May Han Oh, whose performance completed the recovery of the 2019-20 COVID-postponed jazz series in celebration of 50/150 years of
Augustin Hadelich at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
Women at Yale. In June, Duffy completed his 22nd international concert tour with the Yale Concert Band in Spain. A clinical professor in Yale’s School of Nursing, Duffy delivered his annual Listening is Not Hearing Stethoscope Auscultation Training intervention to students in the Yale Schools of Medicine and Nursing, and to pre-medical students in Serbia.
Centennial Sessions, an album by the Mingus Big Band, of which Lecturer in Jazz and Director of Yale Jazz Ensembles Wayne Escoffery is a music director, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Escoffery’s Black Art Jazz Collective released a 10th anniversary recording before embarking on a European tour. The Yale-Harvard Battle of the Big Bands resumed at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston after a COVID-imposed hiatus. And the Yale Jazz Ensemble performed at Dizzy’s Club (Jazz at Lincoln Center) in New York in celebration of the late, legendary drummer/composer Max Roach. The program included music from We Insist: Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite, which explores themes related to the Civil Rights Movement. The music was orchestrated and arranged for the ensemble by Michael Philip Mossman. Escoffery also executive-produced an album called This Christmas, which features vocalist Teddy Horangic ’25BA and an all-star lineup.
Lecturer in Harpsichord Arthur Haas received Early Music America’s 2023 Howard Mayer Brown Award for Lifetime Achievement. Haas told Early Music America, “Since my earliest days under the guidance and influence of such notables as Albert Fuller, Kenneth Gilbert, Gustav Leonhardt, and above all, Alan Curtis, I have sought to uncover the glorious secrets of early music and combine that with my own 20th and 21st century sensibilities. I’ve done this in my own playing, and have always tried to impart these ideals to my students.”
Professor in the Practice of Violin Augustin Hadelich completed a European tour during which he performed Dvorák’s Violin Concerto with conductor Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic and finished a residency at the Konzerthaus Berlin. This summer, Hadelich was slated to perform with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Tanglewood Music Center, Ravinia Festival, Bravo! Vail festival, and Hollywood Bowl, respectively. He was also scheduled to perform at the Aspen and Colorado music festivals and in Australia and New Zealand. Hadelich’s forthcoming album, American Road Trip, set for release on Warner Classics in August, will feature music by Ives, Copland, Bernstein, John Adams, Stephen Hartke, Eddie South, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and Daniel Bernard Roumain, with Orion Weiss at the piano.
Associate Professor (Adjunct) and tenor Albert Lee recorded songs by Monica Houghton featuring poetry by Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman for a recording titled A Breath of Air, which was released by Navona Records in March. That month, Lee was a featured soloist with the National Masterwork Chorus in a program called “Justice and Peace” at Carnegie Hall.
Markus Rathey, the Robert S. Tangeman Professor in the Practice of Music History, published a book on the social and political context of Bach’s cantatas titled Bach in the World: Music, Society, and Representation in Bach’s Cantatas (Oxford University Press, 2023). In the past year, Rathey gave talks at a Ligeti conference in Berlin, Germany, a conference on Congregational Music in Oxford, England, and a symposium on music competitions in Lovere, Italy.
Two recordings by Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Guitar Benjamin Verdery, Bach: Transcriptions for Guitar and Bach: Two Generations, were rereleased by the Musical Heritage Society. Verdery and his guitar studio are scheduled to perform in August in Thailand and Vietnam. The concerts were organized by School of Music guitarists Phee Phupaibul ’25MMA and Long Ngo ’24MM
Since the retirement of the Emerson String Quartet, Paul Watkins, the Polak Family Professor in the Practice of Cello, has performed at Alice Tully Hall and in recital at the Yale School Music with Boris Berman, the Sylvia and Leonard Marx Professor in the Practice of Piano. Watkins has given master classes at the
University of Texas at Austin and at the McDuffie School. He has been guest conductor with the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra and a soloist with the Hallé Orchestra under the baton of Thomas Adès and the Aalborg Symphony under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis. In May, Watkins was given an honorary doctorate by The Juilliard School.
Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Voice Adriana Zabala performed Nadia, Mina Fisher’s chamber music play about Nadia Boulanger, at the LunART Festival in Madison, Wisc., and at the American Church in Paris. Zabala sang Berio’s arrangements of songs by The Beatles at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, appeared in recital at the Yale School of Music with pianist and Lecturer in Voice and Opera J.J. Penna, and launched the Yale Song
Lab with Professor in the Practice of Composition Christopher Theofanidis and featuring singers and composers from YSM with a program at Firehouse 12 titled Lift Off! Zabala appeared as a soloist with the Yale Camerata in a performance of Corigliano’s Fern Hill, gave master classes at the Seagle Festival and the New England Conservatory, and served as an adjudicator for Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Opera Competition district auditions in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and Houston, Texas.
[Left] Paul Watkins takes a bow during a performance with the Emerson String Quartet. Photo by Matt Fried.
[Right] Adriana Zabala in Nadia
Class notes
Join us in congratulating our students and alums on their outstanding achievements.
[Facing page] Makana Medeiros ’23MM ’24MMA carries the YSM flag during Commencement. Photo by Mark Gellineau.
1950
School of Music alum and Professor Emeritus of Music Willie Ruff ’53BM ’54MM died in December in Killen, Ala. He was 92. Ruff was on the faculty at Yale from 1971 until his retirement in 2017. Obituaries were published by the School and University and by The New York Times and other media outlets. Read more about Professor Ruff and his legacy on page 70.
1960
The Afro-Cuban Suite by composer, bassist, and educator Jeff Fuller ’67BA ’69MM was premiered by the Yale Concert Band, which commissioned the piece. The performance was conducted by Yale Bands Director Thomas C. Duffy. Jeff Fuller & Friends—Jeff Fuller on acoustic bass, Darren Litzie on piano, and Ben Bilello on drums—released Keep Hope Alive, a collection of jazz tunes that were developed during the pandemic. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the new CD are donated to Ukrainian war-relief efforts.
Pianist Daniel Graham ’63MM released his first novel, Strings, in which “ten-year-old Russian piano prodigy Alexis Koryavin is completing his fifth year at the Institute for Gifted Children in Moscow, unaware that the school’s hidden agenda is to train its students as espionage agents,” Graham’s website explains.
Pianist Althea Waites-Hayes ’65MM is serving in 2023-2024 as the Leonard Stein Resident Artist for Piano Spheres, a Los Angeles organization that “supports and encourages the composition and performance of major new works for the piano,” according to the organization. Waites-Hayes released a new recording of works by Margaret Bonds.
1970
Composer Daniel Asia ’77MM retired as professor
of composition and head of the composition department at the University of Arizona’s School of Music, where he’d been on the faculty since 1988.
Composer Frank White Bennett III ’69MMA ’76DMA died on Feb. 14 in La Verne, Calif., at 82. He is survived by his brothers, Anand Bennett and Gary Bennett ’75MM.
Violinist Davis Brooks ’78MM released his fifth solo album, Lines from Poetry, on Ablaze Records. The album features music for violin and viola by composers Ronald Caltabiano, Richard Einhorn, Frank Felice, Filipe Leitão, and Balee Pongklad.
Sharon Isbin ’78BA ’79MM was inducted into the Guitar Foundation of America’s Hall of Fame and given the organization’s Artistic Achievement Award.
Composer Max Stern ’71 gave a lecture on his Biblical Compositions at the University of Chile as composer-in-residence. Stern’s book The Art of the Music Critic was published by Nova Science Publishers. Stern’s latest CD, Blessings & Praises, was released in October.
Pianist William Westney ’71MMA ’76DMA published his second book, Eros at the Piano: The Life-Energy of Classical Music (Rowman & Littlefield). Westney’s first book, The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self (Amadeus Press), was released in 2003.
1980
In April, pianist Richard Dowling ’87MM performed two all-Gershwin concerts at Bargemusic in Brooklyn in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue.
Employment and Vulnerabilities in the World of Orchestral Musicians: Symphonic Metamorphoses, a 2022 dissertation by violinist Heather Kurzbauer
’82MM, was published by Wolters Kluwer. Kurzbauer’s research has led to advisory roles in the EU.
Violinist Elizabeth Suh Lane ’88MM, founder and artistic director of the Bach Aria Soloists, and the ensemble’s cellist, Hannah Collins ’06BS ’08MM ’09AD, released an album called Le Dolce Sirene on the Reference Recordings label.
Pianist Robert Rocco ’88MM ’89MMA collaborated in recitals of Brazilian, Spanish, and Catalan art song at the Barcelona Festival of Song at the Biblioteca de Catalunya. Rocco performed on a Pleyel grand piano that at one time belonged to composer Enrique Granados.
Antonio Underwood ’87MM was elected to a twoyear term as Mid-Atlantic District Vice-President of the Yale Science & Engineering Association.
1990
Cellists Jesús Castro-Balbi ’99MM and Soo Jin Chung ’11MM ’12AD and violinists Eunsae Lee ’22MM and Suliman Tekalli ’16AD performed with the Sejong Soloists at the Here and Now Music Festival in Seoul, Korea.
Harpsichordist Alexander Bauhart ’99MMA returned to St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Bristol, R.I., as music director. Bauhart served as the congregation’s director of music in the early 2000s.
Guitarist Jeremy N. Grall ’99MM was appointed director of the School of Music at Purdue University Fort Wayne. Grall previously served as an area chair and as Music Department chair at Birmingham-Southern College.
Orchestral conductor Craig Hella Johnson ’95DMA and Conspirare were nominated for a Grammy Award in the “Best Choral Performance” category for a recording titled House of Belonging. Johnson and Conspirare won a Grammy in 2015 for their album The Sacred Spirit of Russia and have received eight Grammy nominations.
Lawrence Loh ’98AD was named music director and conductor of the Waco Symphony Orchestra.
Composer Charles Nichols ’92MM released a new album of music called Crossing the Divide. The album was recorded by the Beo String Quartet for Centaur Records and is available on Apple Music, Naxos Music Library, ArkivMusic, and ProStudioMasters. The album’s cover art was done by Jay Bruns.
Kevin Puts ’96MM was named Musical America’s
Composer of the Year and was appointed a visiting faculty member at The Juilliard School.
2000
Composer Timo Andres ’07BA ’09MM was nominated for a Tony Award in the “Best Orchestrations” category for Illinoise.
Vincent Carr ’04MM, who serves as director of sacred music at Our Lady of the Lake Church in Verona, N.J., was named a fellow of the Royal College of Organists in the UK.
John Young Shik Concklin ’08MM was appointed music director of the Spartanburg Philharmonic in South Carolina. Concklin also serves as music director of the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina and conductor of the Atlanta Music Project.
Guitarist Thomas Flippin ’07MM ’08AD premiered Confluence: Double Concerto for Classical and Blues Guitars by Grammy-nominated composer Chris Brubeck (son of jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck) alongside Grammy-winning blues guitarist Vasti Jackson, D.J. Sparr, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Robert Moody. Flippin’s composition Childhood was premiered at the 15th annual Fret Fest at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. The performance was conducted by Juliano Dutra Aniceto and featured Peabody faculty member Manuel Barrueco’s guitar studio and advanced students from Peabody’s Preparatory division. The performance also featured the guitar-orchestra work Scenes from Ellis Island by YSM Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Guitar Benjamin Verdery. The concert was organized by Peabody Preparatory faculty member Zoë Johnstone Stewart.
Harpist Chaerin Kim ’05MM was elected an associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Pianist Andrea Lam ’03CERT ’04AD was appointed lecturer in piano at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne.
The Sebastians, an early music ensemble directed by Lecturer in Music Jeffrey Grossman and Daniel Lee ’06MM ’08AD, concluded its 11th concert season with a performance featuring a reconstruction of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Les 24 Violons du Roi. The season included a performance of French Baroque music with the Yale Voxtet and performances of Baroque music on period instruments in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Organist Colin Lynch ’06MM was appointed
director of music and organist at Trinity Church in Copley Square in Boston. Lynch oversees and leads all aspects of Trinity’s music program, directing the Trinity choirs and choristers, managing an extensive concert series, and serving as principal organist.
A new recording by Christopher Mallett ’09MM, Justin Holland (1819-1887): Guitar Works and Arrangements, was released on the Naxos label. The album showcases 19th-century African American guitarist Justin Holland’s original compositions and arrangements for solo guitar and includes several world premieres. The album reached No. 14 on Billboard’s “Traditional Classical” album chart.
Composer Marcus Maroney ’00MM ’06DMA began the year with three collaborative premieres: The Telling with NobleMotion Dance was performed in January; Flying First Ward! with The ARTZ! aerial artists and pianist Tali Morgulis was performed in February; and The Book of the Heavenly Cow with poet and video artist T. Lavois Thiebaud and Musiqa was performed in March. Maroney was a featured guest composer at the International Duo Symposium at Northwestern State University in April.
Vancouver Opera and re:Naissance Opera co-produced the world premiere of Sanctuary and Storm, a chamber opera by composer Tawnie Olson ’99MM ’0AD and librettist Roberta Barker. Debi Wong ’10MM served as producer and artistic director, Arianne Abela ’10MM conducted, and YSM alumni Mireille Asselin ’10MM and Dashon Burton ’11MM sang, along with mezzo-soprano Marion Newman.
Conductor Julian Pellicano ’07MM ’09MM was appointed staff conductor of the National Ballet of Canada and will start in the 2024-2025 season. Pellicano will continue to serve as music director of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet but stepped down as associate conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
Choral conductor Joan (Lee) Pi ’00MM ’01AD, director of choral activities and assistant professor at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., served as an adult choir clinician for a church music conference in Massanetta Springs in collaboration with Prof. Doug Brown and Dr. Samuel Springer.
Orchestral conductor Patrick Quigley ’02MM was featured on NBC News in a segment about premiering Edmond Dédé’s opera Morgiane, 137 years after its composition, with OperaCreole and Opera Lafayette in New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and New York. “Dédé was a free person of
color born in New Orleans in 1827 who studied in Paris and was the conductor and composer at the Alcazar Theater in Bordeaux, France, for nearly 40 years,” Quigley explained. “His opera, Morgiane, is the earliest-known opera by a Black American.” Quigley and the above-mentioned ensembles plan to record the work, with Quigley serving as conductor and editor of the first performance edition of the opera.
Organist Iain Quinn ’04MM was promoted to professor of organ at Florida State University. Two new books by Quinn were published in 2023: Music and Religion in the Writings of Ian McEwan (Boydell & Brewer) and Rudolph Ganz, Patriotism, and Standardization of the Star-Spangled Banner, 1907-1958 (Routledge).
Enrico Sartori ’05MM made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Moldova conducting a performance of Davis Brown’s “Icelandic” Suite and Bruckner’s First Symphony in celebration of the latter composer’s 200th birthday. The concert was broadcast on TV and radio.
Trumpeter Erika Schafer ’01MM, a professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, performed with the Fountain City Brass Band at the Brass in Concert Festival in England in November.
YSM’s graduating class in Morse Recital Hall, during Commencement.
Photo by Mark Gellineau.
Performer, educator, and administrator Kate Sheeran ’04MM was named the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. Sheeran previously served as executive director of the Kaufman Music Center in New York City and before that was provost and dean at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Sheeran has also served as assistant dean at the Mannes School of Music at the New School in New York and has held faculty positions at several universities. See QR code in the right column to learn more.
Organist and choral conductor Michael Smith ’03MM was named the new president of the Royal School of Church Music in America. The role involves training singers and supporting music directors.
Violinist Dawn Dongeun Wohn ’08MM ’09AD was appointed assistant professor of violin at the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Wohn’s second album, Unbounded, which was released by Delos, was described as work of “enlightened advocacy” by Gramophone. BBC Magazine said Wohn performs with a “joyful sense of freedom, and a pure, unencumbered tone.”
2010
Andy Akiho ’11MM received a $15,000 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship in Music from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters.
Sandbox Percussion, a quartet comprised of Jonny Allen ’13MM ’14AD, Victor Caccese ’13MM, Ian Rosenbaum ’10MM ’11AD, and Terry Sweeney ’15MM, was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Luke Baker ’18MM won the principal horn position in the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra in Fukuoka, Japan, and earned tenure this year.
Hana Beloglavec ’13MM was appointed assistant professor of trombone at Florida State University and released a solo album titled Bayou Home on Summit Records.
A new setting of the 16th-century carol “What Cheer?” by choral conductor Margaret Burk ’19MM is featured in the collection Carols for Choirs 6 (Oxford University Press).
Composer Natalie Dietterich ’16MM ’17MMA received a MacDowell Fellowship, won a NiefNorf International Call for Scores, and signed with Donemus Publishing in the Netherlands.
On April 8, before the total eclipse, choral conductor Dominick DiOrio ’08MM ’09MMA ’12DMA, who serves as professor of music and chair of choral conducting at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, led the school’s ensemble NOTUS and student instrumentalists in his original
Bassoonist Winfred Felton ’24MM, after graduating from YSM.
by Mark Gellineau.
News
Kate Sheeran ’04MM named dean at Eastman
https://music.yale. edu/news/katesheeran-04mm-nameddean-eastman
Photo
work Eclipse Music for William Shatner, which accompanied the actor’s original spoken-word narration, Welcoming the Darkness. An audience of thousands took in the performance at the university’s Memorial Stadium moments before totality. DiOrio and Shatner spoke via Zoom in preparation for their collaboration. Video of the performance is available on YouTube.
Trumpeter Theo Van Dyck ’18MM released Messages in the Air, a debut album that features six newly commissioned works for trumpet and electronics by Alex Chadwell, Saad Haddad, Tom Morrison, Nathan Prillaman ’13BA, and Connor Elias Way. Messages in the Air is available on all streaming platforms.
Flutist Amir Farsi ’19MM signed with Suòno Artist Management.
Pianist David Fung ’11MM ’13MMA ’17DMA was appointed to the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, joining Yefim Bronfman, Michelle Cann, and Olga Kern in that capacity. Fung continues to serve as a professor at the University of British Columbia and as curator at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver. With a repertoire of more than 60 concertos, Fung continues to work with orchestras and presenters around the world, including, most recently, the Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, with such conductors as Marin Alsop, Gustavo Dudamel, and Stanislav Kochanovsky.
Soprano Leah Hawkins ’15MM won the Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Artist Award.
Composer Robert Honstein ’04BA ’10MMA ’14DMA received a $10,000 Andrew Imbrie Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Honstein released an album of works for percussion, Lost and Found, on New Focus Recordings. Lost and Found draws inspiration from early memories and new parenthood and features performances by cellist Hannah Collins ’06BS ’08MM ’09AD, percussionist Michael Compitello ’09MM ’12MMA ’16DMA, and the percussion trio Tigue.
Lauren Hunt ’13MM was named the Linda VanSickle Smith French Horn Chair and director of brass studies at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Hunt was previously assistant professor of horn at Utah State University.
Eun Young Jung ’13MM ’14AD won a position in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s second violin section.
Syöjätär, a work by composer Bálint Karosi ’14MMA ’18DMA, was a winner in the chamber orchestra and organ category at the International Kaija Saariaho Organ Composer Competition in Helsinki. Karosi’s piece also won the Finnish Composers Association’s Special Recognition Prize. Syöjätär will be performed in 2024 and 2025 by the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, respectively.
Choral conductor Joseph Kemper ’18MM joined the choral faculty at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., as assistant professor of choral music and conductor of the Concordia Chapel Choir and the college ensemble Kantorei. Kemper previously served as visiting professor of music and director of choirs at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash.
In March, pianist Euntaek Kim ’13AD performed all nine of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas in two consecutive solo recitals at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. The performances were a part of an ongoing project in which Kim will record the composer’s complete piano works.
Baritone Paweł Konik ’17MM made his house debut at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as Orest in Strauss’s Elektra and performed the role at Staatsoper Stuttgart and Kölner Philharmonie. Konik returned to Staatsoper Stuttgart to reprise his role as Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff and Donner in Wagner’s Das Rheingold
Trombonist Brittany Lasch ’12MM was appointed assistant professor of music at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.
Composer Robinson McClellan ’06MM ’07MMA ’11DMA, who serves as music curator at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, is curating an exhibition of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes featuring manuscripts of Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky.
Kramer Milan ’16MM ’17MMA served on the percussion faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp in June 2023.
Baritone Dean Murphy ’17MM debuted at Theater an der Wien as Fürst Ottokar in Der Freischütz and at Semperoper Dresden as Schaunard in La Bohème
Marissa Olegario ’15MM was appointed principal bassoonist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in Arizona.
Dr. Andrew Parker ’10MM was appointed associate professor of oboe at the Louisiana State
University School of Music and will begin serving in that role in fall 2024. Parker previously served as assistant professor of oboe and graduate coordinator at Oklahoma State University’s Michael and Anne Greenwood School of Music.
Double-bassist Gregory Robbins ’12MM was appointed director of orchestras and assistant professor of music at Ball State University, in Muncie, Ind.
Tenor Galeano Salas ’13MM was awarded the Bavarian State Opera’s 2023 Festival Prize. Galeano made debuts with Teatro Regio di Torino and Genova’s Teatro Carlo Felice and returned to Teatro Colon and Semperoper Dresden among other houses.
The Extinctionist by composer Daniel Schlosberg ’10BA ’13MM ’14MMA ’18DMA was premiered by Heartbeat Opera, of which Schlosberg is music director, at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in April.
Trombonist Hillary Simms ’18MM joined the American Brass Quintet and the faculty of The Juilliard School and is the first woman to hold either position.
Cornelia Sommer ’16MM was appointed second bassoonist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and began teaching at Oakland University, in Rochester, Mich.
Andrew Stadler ’17MM was appointed second trumpeter of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, adjunct professor of high brass at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, and adjunct professor of trumpet at the University of Arkansas Little Rock.
Collective Brass, a quintet that includes trumpeter Carl Stanley ’15MM, released its third album, Under the Birch Tree, a collection of works by composers Bernhard Crusell, Kjell Roikjer, Waldemar Åhlén, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, and others, including original compositions for brass ensemble.
Bass-contralto Morgan Sullivan ’18MM joined the faculty of The Voice Lab in Chicago, an “LGBT+ led business, created for and by our transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming family,” according to the organization.
Double-bassist Russell Thompson ’19MMA won a position in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
Baritone Edward Vogel ’19MM made his solo debut with the New York Philharmonic singing
Handel’s Israel in Egypt under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell. Vogel recently received the Betty Brummett Award at the Oratorio Society of New York’s annual Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition.
Noël Wan ’16MM was named a winner of Astral Artists’ 2023 National Competition. Wan is the fifth harpist to join the Astral Artists roster in the organization’s 31-year history. See QR code on the next page to learn more.
Violist Christopher Williams ’10MM was named president and CEO of the American Pianists Association in Indianapolis, Ind. Williams previously served as executive vice-president of Concert Artists Guild in New York City.
Soprano Lisa Williamson ’12MM was appointed assistant professor of voice at the Ithaca College School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.
Clarinetist Elisha Willinger ’18MM was named assistant teaching professor at Ball State University, in Muncie, Ind.
Pianist Lucas Wong ’06MM ’07MM ’12DMA received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to support a performance at the Cobbe Collection in Surrey, England. The concert featured the world premiere of Wilhelm Taubert’s piano works, which Wong will record for a Naxos release.
Pianist Xuerong (Kyra) Zhao ’14AD released an album called Vibrant on the Albany Records label. The album features performances of music by Rachmaninoff, Schumann, and Scriabin.
2020
Composer Krists Auznieks ’16MM ’22DMA was elected chair of the board of the Latvian Composers Union.
Composer Brittney Benton ’25MM was selected to participate in the Alba Music Festival Composition Program in Italy, where her Piano Trio No. 1 will be performed by the SOLI chamber ensemble.
Orchestral conductor Stefano Boccacci ’25MMA will assist in productions of Verdi’s Aida and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera at the Immling Festival in southern Bavaria. Boccacci will also coach Italian for the production of Aida
Swan Songs by composer Ethan Braun ’21DMA was premiered by Contemporaneous with Tariq alSabir and Lucy Dhegrae at Roulette Intermedium.
Rachel Breen ’22MM won third prize and a prize for the “best performance of a Mozart sonata” at the Valencia “Iturbi” International Piano Competition.
Composer Matīss Čudars ’23MM won a Latvian Great Music Award in the “Best Concert of 2022” category for a concert with his trio at M/Darbnīca in Rīga, Latvia, performing his original music.
The Callisto Quartet, which includes violinists Cameron Daly ’18BA ’20MM and Gregory Lewis ’19MM ’27DMA and was YSM’s fellowship quartet-in-residence from 2022 to 2024, served as associate artists-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. The quartet performed Mozart’s viola quintets at the chapel with Miguel da Silva of the Ysaÿe Quartet.
Guitarist Joseph Ehrenpreis ’24MM ’25MMA will release an album of arrangements of music by Ólafur Arnalds, performed on an eight-string Brahms guitar. The album will be released on the Etymology Classics label. Ehrenpreis premiered works by Julián Fueyo ’23MM, Keiko Fujiie, Dai Fujikura, Arseniy Gusev ’24MM, Jinhee Han, Madeline Hocking, Cole Reyes, Miroslav Tadic, and Benjamin Webster ’23MMA ’29DMA on a tour that included performances in Hiroshima, Kyoto, Niigata, and Tokyo.
Tenor Daniel Espinal ’24MM was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Read more on Espinal’s win on page 23.
Organist Joseph Ferguson ’24MM was appointed
associate director of music at Trinity Church in Princeton, N.J. The role includes serving as principal accompanist for church ensembles, including three choirs. Ferguson also serves as director of music and directs the Lux Choir at the Episcopal Church at Princeton.
Trio Ondata—violinist Michael Ferri ’21MM ’22MMA, cellist Miriam Liske-Doorandish ’21MM ’22MMA, and pianist Anthony Ratinov ’20BS ’22MM ’23MMA—won first prize and the audience prize at the Chamber Music in Yellow Springs competition in 2023.
Stephanie Fritz ’23MM made her Broadway debut as the horn chair for How to Dance in Ohio. The show is based on Alexandra Shiva’s documentary film.
Laurel Gagnon ’25MMA reached the live rounds of the Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition in Brussels. Gagnon’s Vinola Trio, with clarinetist Li-Jie Yu and pianist Ruoyang Xiang, won third prize at the Music Teachers National Association’s Chamber Music Competition.
Violinist Alexander Goldberg ’22BA ’23MM was awarded a research grant through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Goldberg is studying at the Stauffer Center for Strings in Cremona, Italy.
Soo Min Ha ’21MM ’22MMA won an oboe position in the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
Composers Luka Haaksma ’24MM, Aaron Israel Levin ’19MM ’27DMA, and Harriet Steinke ’22MM ’23MMA were selected to participate in the Blackbird Creative Lab for two weeks in May and June. Haaksma and Steinke recently received Charles Ives Scholarships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Haaksma and Ryan Lindveit ’19MM ’20MMA each won a Morton Gould Young Composer Award from the ASCAP Foundation.
Torrin Hallett ’24MMA served during the 20222023 season as associate principal horn player of the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México.
Composer Dayton Hare ’24MM won a fellowship through the 2024-25 Fulbright-Harriet Hale Woolley Awards in the Arts to serve a residency, for the next academic year at the Fondation des ÉtatsUnis in Paris, to compose music that interacts with climate-change mitigation efforts the city has recently implemented. Hare’s piano trio, An object of some concern, was performed in Atlanta by the ensemble Bent Frequency. The piece was one of six works chosen from more than 500 works submitted in response to a call for scores.
music.yale.edu/ news/alumni-spotlight-harpist-noel-wan
The Yale Brass Ensemble performs at Commencement. Photo by Mark Gellineau.
In August, tenor Michaël Hudetz ’24MMA was scheduled to tour Germany, Spain, and the UK with Masaaki Suzuki’s Bach Collegium Japan. Hudetz also had performances scheduled with the Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble The Crossing.
Nathan Huvard ’19MM ’20MMA served as the guitarist/lutenist/mandolinist for the Broadway revival of Camelot at the Lincoln Center Theater.
Violist Brian Isaacs ’22BA ’23MM won an audition for the Berlin Philharmonic’s Karajan Academy and joined the program.
Composer Sophia Jani ’22MM received a residency scholarship from the Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia. Jani was appointed composer-in-residence at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Carter Johnson ’23MMA ’29DMA and Salome Jordania ’21MM ’22MMA won first prize and fourth prize, respectively, at the 2023 Hauts-de-France International Piano Competition, in Roubaix. Johnson won first prize at the fifth Weatherford College International Piano Competition in Texas.
Pianist Simon Karakulidi ’22MM won the gold medal/City of Pontoise prize at the 2023 Piano Campus Festival International Competition in France. Karakulidi won the silver medal and the audience prize at the 13th Mayenne International Piano Competition, also in France.
Tenor Seiyoung Kim ’24MMA made his debut at the Houston Grand Opera in the world premiere of Meilina Tsui’s The Big Swim. Kim, who will join the Vienna Volksoper’s two-year young artist program in August and sing the role of Harlekin in Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis in February 2025, was slated to make his company debut at the Glimmerglass Festival this summer singing the role of Little Victor Farrell in Elizabeth Cree by
composer Kevin Puts ’96MM and cover the roles of Pane and Natura in Cavalli’s La Calisto. Kim is participating in a workshop of Derek Bermel’s The House on Mango Street that will culminate in a “Pipeline Preview” performance in August.
Composer Soomin Kim ’21MM ’22MMA was selected by New Music USA, through a call for scores, to participate in a workshop called “Inside the Composers and Conductors Studios” at Ravinia’s Breaking Barriers Festival, where the composer’s star/ghost/mouth/sea was to be performed.
The Amnis Piano Quartet—violinist Minkyung Lee ’23MM, violist Matthew McDowell ’24MM, cellist Jenny Bahk ’23MM, and pianist Linda Lee ’23MM—won the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition and earned the bronze medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The ensemble also reached the finals of the Coltman Chamber Music Competition and the semifinals of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and was selected as a Shouse Ensemble at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.
Harpist Subin Lee ’25MM gave her debut recital at the Seoul Arts Center.
Fear No More by composer Aaron Israel Levin ’19MM ’27DMA was included in North Star Music’s publication New Voices of Art Song.
Violinist Gregory Lewis ’19MM ’27DMA was named a winner of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Musical Instrument Bank competition and was awarded the 1768 “Miller” Gagliano.
Wilhelm Magner ’24MM was appointed assistant professor of viola at the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.
At the time of the writing, trombonist Timothy Maines ’24MMA had garnered more than 350,000 followers on YouTube, 300,000 on TikTok, and 145,000 on Instagram through his creation of classical-music content.
Horn player Gabriel Mairson ’19MM ’20MMA won a tenure-track position with the North Carolina Symphony.
Juan Esteban Martinez ’21MM was appointed principal clarinetist of the New Jersey Symphony.
Violist Matthew McDowell ’23MM reached the quarter-final round of the 2024 Primrose International Viola Competition.
Mezzo-soprano Kara Morgan ’24MMA finished in first place and was given a contract at Opera Tam-
service
Dean José García-León with Yale Public Safety
dog, Heidi. Photo by Mark Gellineau.
pa’s D’Angelo Young Artist Competition. Morgan planned to spend the summer participating in the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco before joining Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artist Program, where she’ll make role and house debuts as Stéphano in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia
Ascension, the second album by pianist Michael Noble ’12MM ’14MMA ’20DMA, was released in September 2023. The recording juxtaposes transcriptions of medieval and Renaissance works with pieces composed between 1965 and the present.
César Palacio ’21MM was appointed bass clarinetist of the Phoenix Symphony.
Soprano Juliet Papadopoulos ’24MM made her Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium) debut singing the soprano solo in John Rutter’s Magnificat under the composer’s baton. Papadopoulos performed Pierrot Lunaire at the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna and won the grand prize from the Doug Davis Composition and Performance Endowment at California State University, Bakersfield. Papadopoulos’ summer season was slated to include a return to Carnegie Hall, a tour with the Yale Schola Cantorum performing J.S. Bach’s B-minor Mass, and an appearance as Donna Anna in an Opera Theater of Connecticut production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
Organist David Preston ’24MM reached the final round of the 10th Miami International Organ Competition, where he received second prize and the audience prize.
Anthony Ratinov ’20BS ’22MM ’23MMA won first prize at the Ricard Viñes International Piano Competition in Lleida, Spain, and second prize at the Valencia “Iturbi” International Piano Competition, at which Ratinov also won prizes for the “best performance of Spanish music” and as the “best contestant selected by the audience.” Ratinov placed third at the Concours musical international de Montréal.
Anaglyph: A Repository of Imaginary Languages by composer Kyle Rivera ’24MM was named Chamber Music America’s Commission/New Work of the Year. The work was commissioned by the Cross-Country Chamber Consortium.
Harpsichordist Jonathan Salamon ’17MM ’23DMA was selected as a 2024 Gates Cambridge Scholar and, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will pursue a Ph.D. in music at the University of Cambridge beginning in the fall. In his dissertation, Salamon plans to explore G.F. Handel’s keyboard music.
Flutist Elvin Schlanger ’22MM won the third flute/ piccolo position with the Las Vegas Philharmonic.
Soprano Jaeeun Shin ’24MMA participated in the Queen Elizabeth Competition with support from the School of Music.
Peter Shin ’20MMA received a Charles Ives Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Pianist Alexa Stier ’21MM ’27DMA won third prize, the audience prize, and a prize for the best interpretation of new music at the Olivier Messiaen International Competition in Grenoble, France.
Organist Alexander Straus-Fausto ’24MM performed at the Princeton University Chapel. The recital was broadcast on WWFM. Straus-Fausto will pursue an artist diploma in organ performance at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music after a summer of performances in Boston, San Francisco, and Toronto; at Coventry Cathedral, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey, in England; and at La Madeleine in France.
Cellist William Suh ’23MM ’24MMA won first prize at the 57th Serge & Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Awards, which are sponsored by the Musicians Club of New York. Suh earned first prize at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, resulting in a recital appearance at the Musical Landscapes of Tuscany Festival in 2023 and a future performance with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic.
Ryan Tani ’21MMA was appointed assistant conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Pianist Derek Wang ’24AD was a finalist at the Concours musical international de Montréal.
Horn player Kate Warren ’23MMA, who serves as a Yaffe Post-Graduate Teaching Fellow in YSM’s Music in Schools Initiative, was named the horn soloist for a production of the Tony and Emmy Award winning Broadway show Blast! that was scheduled to embark on a 12-week summer tour of the northern prefectures of Japan, including a twoweek engagement in Tokyo.
Choral conductor Nate Widelitz ’14MM ’26DMA organized the Five Cities Baroque Festival, which presented three concerts over two days in May in Decatur, Ill.
Samantha Wolf ’21MM ’22MMA was appointed to the composition faculty at the University of Alabama and named co-artistic director of the university’s Contemporary Ensemble. In August
[Next page] YSM faculty and staff celebrate Commencement. Photo by Mark Gellineau.
2023, Wolf’s A rose is a rose is a ruse: A Bachelor’s Tale was premiered at the Sydney Opera House by Ensemble Offspring to great critical acclaim. Wolf’s chamber opera Sarah Gets Her Sh*t Together was premiered at the Longy School of Music in March.
Percussionist Michael Yeung ’22MM ’23MMA ’24AD was a winner of Young Concert Artists’ 2023 Susan Wadsworth International Auditions and was named a YCA Jacobs Fellow. Yeung performed in a Winners Concert at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York in November.
Bassoonist Lucas Zeiter ’24MMA won a position with the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra in Japan.
ALUMNI WIN GRAMMY AWARDS
Yale School of Music alumni won Grammy Awards in February as members of two innovative ensembles. Roomful of Teeth, a Massachusetts-based vocal ensemble, won in the “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble” category for Rough Magic, a recording that includes The Isle by YSM alum Caroline Shaw ’07MM, Bits Torn from Words by YSM alum Peter Shin ’20MMA, and works by Eve Beglarian and William Brittelle. Roomful of Teeth’s members include bass-baritone Dashon Burton ’11MM, mezzo-soprano Virginia Warnken Kelsey ’13MM, Shaw, and composer, conductor, vocalist, and ensemble founder and Artistic Director Brad Wells ’98MM ’05DMA
The Harlem Quartet, a New York-based group whose cellist is YSM alum Felix Umansky ’12AD, won in the “Best Classical Compendium” category for a recording of Jeff Scott’s Passion of Bach and Coltrane, which features the quartet, the Imani Winds, writer A.B. Spellman, and a jazz trio consisting of Alex Brown, Edward Perez, and Neal Smith.
More than a dozen other YSM alumni were nominated for Grammy Awards in November. Those musicians were acknowledged in a November blog post; check out the full article via the QR code above.
School hires new directors of operations, communications
Music is spoken here, with passion, conviction, and erudition. Those who support the School’s students, faculty, and performances must, to a degree, understand what the work at hand is, and what it means to make music at Yale.
Last August, the School welcomed Laura Adam and Jenny Chen to the staff. Each previously worked elsewhere on the Yale campus. Adam most recently served the University as assistant director of institutional affairs and before that was manager of music programs and concert production at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. She earned a master-of-science degree in organizational leadership from Quinnipiac University and holds a bachelor-of-arts degree in music from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. It’s that music degree that helps Adam make things happen, organizationally. “The most important capacity I have,” she said, “is to be able to talk operations and music.” Implementation, she explained, requires understanding. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, when the School had to function in near-impossible conditions, Adam said, “I was helping scientists understand music and I was helping musicians understand science.” Among Adam’s primary responsibilities “is to translate to my administrative colleagues the musical needs” of the School, its faculty and students, and the more than 250 concerts those musicians put on.
Translation is a focus of Chen’s, too. Chen grew up playing the violin and performed in community ensem-
Q&A
Stefanos Melas
bles. “I first heard the violin when I was 6, on the radio, and I really loved the sound of it,” Chen said. She earned a bachelor-of-arts degree from Colby College in English and International Studies and a master’s degree from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Professionally, she pursued science journalism. Her work for national publications involved “translating complex neuroscience and environmental science to the lay public—teasing apart ideas, and helping people understand.” Chen came to the School of Music from the Yale School of Medicine, where she was a communications officer. “It’s been really nice to get back to my classical music roots after a long time away,” she said. “Coming back to a field that’s more artistic and applying everything I’ve learned in the outside world to it has been really exciting, bringing that analytical mindset, and also thinking about how we translate the emotions and artistry of a piece to an audience—thinking about how we tell stories that are complex in an emotional and artistic way.”
Music, of course, is a language, and having directors on staff who speak it allows them to facilitate its presentation and communicate to internal and external constituencies what’s going on in and around the School. Like most staffers at YSM, Adam and Chen work behind the scenes. Though they go largely unseen, their careful and dedicated work is on display at every School event, in every disseminated message, and, more subtly, in much of the institution’s day-to-day operations and communications. Adam and Chen, in concert with the rest of the YSM staff, administration, and faculty, and in collaboration with the University, are hugely responsible for making things happen and explaining what’s happening to appropriate audiences.
We recently asked Admissions Coordinator Stefanos Melas several get-to-know-you questions à la the Proust Questionnaire, the standardized Q&A whose roots can be traced to late-19th century confessional exercises, in which the French writer participated, and continues today in the pages of Vanity Fair and other interview settings.
Melas, an accomplished violinist (he has a Ph.D. in performance) was candid in his responses, which gave us insight into who he is.
Who or what were musical influences early in your life?
(My mom and I) stopped in a
local music store. I was immediately drawn to the violin for reasons I can’t even explain. My mom says I saw Itzhak Perlman on Sesame Street, but I don’t remember that.
What are some of your interests outside of music?
Stefanos’ grandfather was a World War II veteran who is portrayed on the Apple TV series Masters of the Air.
(That’s) made me take more time to learn about that period of history, to better appreciate what he went through. He was in a POW camp in Germany for two years. There’s also a documentary
that accompanies the series called The Bloody Hundredth. It’s made me appreciate his sacrifices even more. … He played the clarinet. One of the things that helped get him through (difficult times) was being able to play music.
What are some of your aspirations?
During COVID I took a job working in the classical and jazz content division for YouTube Music. I realized that I missed being in higher education. It’s a really special environment. I hope to be able to support the education of young people in classical music.
YOUR FUTURE AND YSM, STRONGER TOGETHER
Charitable gift annuities at the School of Music
Simple and stable, a Yale gift annuity offers you guaranteed payments for life and the opportunity to make an impact on YSM’s future.
Here’s how it works:
In exchange for your gift, Yale makes fixed payment for life to you or to individual(s) you select. When the annuity ends, the remainder is directed for a purpose at YSM, which you may choose.
Charitable IRA rollover: make a tax-free gift to YSM
Individuals ages 70 1/2 and older can make direct transfers of up to $100,000 per year from individual retirement accounts to qualified charities without having to count the transfers as income for federal tax purposes. Gifts may be counted toward an individual's minimum required
For more information, contact Katherine Darr, Director of Development and Alumni Affairs, at 203 432-8754 or katherine.darr@yale.edu.
Honor roll
The School of Music is grateful for the generous support of its alumni and friends. The following individuals made a contribution between April 1, 2023, and May 1, 2024. To make your gift visit here:
Alumni Fund
Benjamin L. Aldridge ’72BA ’75MM
Richard E. Andaya ’84MM
Gregory N. Anderson ’08MMA ’13DMA
Joshua C. Anderson ’15MM
Katharine Strenge Anderson ’84MM
Sara E. Andon ’96AD
Tanya Anisimova ’94MM ’95MMA
Wing Lam Au ’14MM and Ian Tuski ’15MM
William Il-Hwan Bai ’90MM
Eliot T. Bailen ’80MM ’82MMA ’89DMA
Amanda D. Baker ’00MM
Howard N. Bakken ’67MM
David B. Baldwin ’73MM ’74MMA ’79DMA
Anthony J. Bancroft ’95MM
Carolyn A. Barber ’92MM
Cecylia B. Barczyk ’79MM
James C. Barket ’88MM
Geoffrey W. Barnes ’74MM
Monifa D. Barrow-Wass ’97MM
Janis W. Bass
Julie A. Bates ’94MM
Janna M. Baty ’93MM
Alexander Sylvain Bauhart ’99MMA
David A. Behnke ’77MM
Marco E. Beltrami ’91MM
Teresa M. Berger ’07MAH
Mark E. Bergman ’97MM
Amy Feldman Bernon ’91MM
Jonathan Q. Berryman ’96MM
[Facing page] Pianist Leanne Jin ’24MM ’25MMA. Photo by Matt Fried.
[Above] Harpist Yun Chai Lee ’24MM. Photo by Matt Fried.
[Previous pages, left] Stefanos Melas. Photo submitted.
[Previous pages, right] Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall.
Ivan M. Biglang-awa ’22MSN
Jean S. Bills ’63MM
George S. Blackburn, Jr. ’64BA ’67MM
Serena and Robert Blocker ’95MAH
Julianne M. Borg ’98AD
Michael C. Borschel ’74MMA ’79DMA
Ryan J. Brandau ’06MM ’07MMA ’11DMA
Anna Brathwaite ’03MM
Anthony Carlisle Brooks ’03MM
K. Butler-Hopkins ’78MMA ’82DMA
Robert Carpenter ’65BA ’68MM
Amy R. Catlin ’72MM
Susan Chan ’90MM
Rowell K. Chase
Kenneth A. Chauby ’20MM
Ying-Yin Chia ’20MM
Wayman L. Chin ’83MM
Jaewon Choi ’08AD
Ji Young Choi ’17MM ’18MMA
Diana L. Chou ’19MMA
Tien-Min Chou
David J. Chrzanowski ’95MM
Yvonne C. Cockrell ’83CERT
Gene J. Collerd ’73BA ’74MM
Rosemary Colson ’65MM
Charlotte M. Corbridge
Stephanie G. Cotsirilos ’71MMA ’89JD
Matthew D. Cramer ’17MM
Edward H. Cumming ’84MM ’85MMA ’95DMA
Steven F. Darsey ’85MM ’86MMA ’90DMA
David David ’72BA ’74MM
Preethi I. de Silva ’71MMA ’76DMA
Neena Deb-Sen ’10BA ’11MM
Sharon Dennison ’79MM and Stephen Perry
Irina Faskianos DePatie ’89BA ’90MM
Deborah Dewey ’79MM
Dominick DiOrio ’08MM ’09MMA ’12DMA
Karen DiYanni ’96MM ’97AD
Bill Douglas
Sylvia W. Dowd ’62MM
Robert A. Elhai ’86MM ’88MMA ’95DMA
Rachael Elliott ’00MM
Kathryn Lee Engelhardt ’87MM
Jayson Rodovsky Engquist ’96MM
Joan Osborn Epstein ’76MM
Helen B. Erickson ’69MM
Reena M. Esmail ’11MM ’14MMA ’18DMA
Ethel H. Farny ’66MM
Suzanne Farrin ’00MM ’03MMA ’08DMA and Sebastian Zubieta ’00MM ’02MMA ’09DMA
Grace A. Feldman ’63MM
Kirstin Fife ’86MM
Kenneth H. Freed ’83BA ’87MM
Geoffrey Fuller ’67BA ’69MM
David Chinying Fung ’11MM ’13MMA ’17DMA
Stephen P. Gamboa-Diaz ’16AD
Matheus S. Garcia Souza ’14MM
Richard J. Gard ’02MM ’04MMA ’07DMA
Daniel T. Gien ’94BS ’96MM
Michael J. Gilbertson ’13MM ’21DMA
Alexander Glantz ’93BA
Fern A. Glass Boyd ’78MM
Richard H. Goering ’86MM
Hall N. Goff ’75MM
Jie Gong ’07MM
Barbara Goren ’77BA ’82JD and David Rosen ’69LLB
Daniel M. Graham ’63MM
Wynton Grant ’17MM
John M. Graziano ’66MM ’70MPHiL ’75PHD
Richard F. Green ’68MM ’69MMA ’75DMA
Carol Colburn Grigor ’69MMA
Dhyani D. Gylling ’18MM
Barbara J. Hamilton-Primus ’86MMA ’93DMA
Jiyun Han ‘09MM ’10AD
June Young Han ’96MM ’97AD
Jung Min G. Han ’11MM
Edward D. Harsh ’88MM ’92MMA ’95DMA
Robert L. Hart ’74MM
Troy M. Hascall ’04MM
Eva M. Heater ’91MM
Andrew E. Henderson ’01MM
Alexander E. Henry ’02BA ’03MM
Frank Heuser ’78MM
Darren G. Hicks ’14MM
Leonardo Hiertz ’00CERT ’05MM
Jeffrey P. Higgins ’87MM
Ella A. Holding ’57BM ’58MM
Jee-Youn Hong ’05MM ’06AD
William G. Hoyt ’76MM
Hsing-Ay Hsu ’01MM and Daniel Kellogg ’01MM ’03MMA ’07DMA
Mary Wannamaker Huff ’01MM
Lauren A. Hunt ’13MM
Timothy I. Hurd ’77MM
Maureen L. Hurd Hause ’96MM ’97MMA ’02DMA
Paul A. Jacobs ’02MM ’03AD
Ward M. Jamison ’78MMA ’85DMA
Holland J. Jancaitis ’05MM ’07MMA ’13DMA
Laura Jeppesen ’71MM and Daniel Stepner ’72MMA ’78DMA
Wenbin Jin ’13MM ’09CERT ’15AD
David B. Johnson ’72MMA
Boyd M. Jones ’77MM ’78MMA ’84DMA
Molly S. Joyce ’17MM
Jennie Eun-Im Jung ’01MM ’92AD
Marie Jureit-Beamish ’81MM ’83MMA ’85DMA
Igor Kalnin ’10AD
Hyun-Joo Kang ’02MM ’07AD
Aaron Jay Kernis
Barbara Peterson Kieffer ’81MM
Richard E. Killmer ’67MM ’71MMA ’75DMA
Dong-Geun Kim ’09AD
Ji Hyun Kim ’13AD
Naria Kim ’10MM ’11AD
Nayeon Kim ’12MM ’13AD
Wan-Jung Bona Kim ’03MM
Youyoung Kim
John T. King ’85MM
Richard A. Konzen ’76MM ’77MMA ’84DMA
Krzysztof D. Kowalewski ’01MM ’02AD
Ronald H. Krasney ’75BA
Sheng-Yuan Kuan ’05MM
Sarita Kwok ’05MMA ’06AD ’09DMA
Ellie Kyung ’98BA and Andrew Park ’97BA
Sara L. Laimon ’88MM
Janice B. LaMarre ’11AD
Christian M. Lane ’08MM
Brittany M. Lasch ’12MM
Christopher M. Lee ’02MM
Kangho Lee ’96MM
Eunjung Lee ’03MM
Gee Yun Lee ’07AD
Genevieve Feiwen Lee ’89MM ’90MMA ’94DMA
Hyun Jung Lee ’07AD ’06MM
Hyun-Joo Lee ’08AD
Min Jung Lee ’91MMA ’96DMA
Seunghee Lee ’92MM ’94AD
William B. Lepler ’80MM
Stephane Levesque ’95MM
Sheila Lewis
Jessica Li ’13MM
Linda T. Lienhard ’62MM
Stephanie Y. Lim ’00BA
Jahja Ling ’80MMA ’85DMA
Jaroslaw Lis ’92MM ’94AD
Donald Glenn Loach ’53BM ’54MM
Vincent F. Luti ’67MM ’70MMA ’78DMA
Maija M. Lutz ’63MM
Martha Maas ’68PHD
Paige E. Macklin ’69MM
Shmuel Magen ’77MM
Matthew Lee Mainster ’10MM
Antoine Malette-Chenier ’14MM
Robert C. Mann ’64MM
Lanfranco Marcelletti ’96MM ’97AD
Sheila A. Marks ’60MM
John S. Marshall ’92MM
Katherine M. Mason ’04MM
Thomas G. Masse ’91MM, ’92AD and James Perlotto ’78BS
Lyman McBride ’20MM
Marjorie J. McClelland
Charles M. McKnight ’73MM
Colin Yuen Ming Meinecke ’11MM
Edmund J. Milly ’15MM
Pamela Getnick Mindell ’99MM ’00MMA ’05DMA
Hong-Yi Mo ’06MM
Joanna C. Mongiardo ’98MM
Shelley A. Monroe Huang ’08MM
Adrian K. Morejon ’05MM ’06AD
James R. Morris ’62MM
John-Michael Muller ’05MM
David H. Nadal ’95MM
Thomas Newman ’77BA ’78MM
Tian Hui Ng ’10MM
Abigail Andrews Nims ’07AD
Michael A. Noble ’12MM ’14MMA ’20DMA
Justin Charles O’Dell ’02MM
Lola Odiaga ’66MM
Alan M. Ohkubo ’14MM ’15AD
Tomomi Ohrui ’90MM
Martha ’77MM and Vincent ’73MM Oneppo
John C. Orfe ’01MM ’02MMA ’09DMA
David P. Ouzts ’87MM
Martin D. Pearlman ’71MM
Jill A. Pellett Levine ’93MM ’94AD
Douglas Fife Perkins ’00MM ’01AD
Sarah M. Perkins ’07MM
Gregory M. Peterson ’85MM
Kirsten Peterson ’90MM
Kevin J. Piccini ’85MM
Susan Poliacik ’74MM
Joseph W. Polisi ’73MM ’75MMA ’80DMA ’14HON
Robert J. Redvanly ’80MM
Lois Wetzel Regestein ’61MM
Daniel W. Reinker ’81MM
Mark J. Richards ’81MM
Hildred E. Roach ’62MM
Kay George Roberts ’75MM ’76MMA ’86DMA
Dale T. Rogers ’76MM
Svend J. Ronning ’91MM ’93MMA ’97DMA
Linda L. Rosdeitcher ’59BM
Melissa Kay Rose ’85MM
Jason A. Rubinstein ’88CERT ’91MM
Mark C. Ruchman ’76MD
Sharon L. Ruchman ’73MM
Janna L. Ryon ’00MM
Domenic R. Salerni ’11MM
Robert S. Satterlee ’89MMA ’94DMA
Peter Savli ’95AD
Karen Schneider-Kirner ’90MM ’90MAR
Shannon M. Scott ’87MM
Permelia S. Sears ’74MM
Joseph Shields ’00MM
Jill Shires ’70MMA
Ann Holland Shoemaker ’04MM
Alvin Shulman ’65MM
Bryan R. Simms ’66BA ’69MM ’70MPHiL ’71PHD
James Austin Smith ’08MM
Jennifer L. Smith ’88MM
Rheta R. Smith ’65MM
Changwoo Sohn ’96MM
Steven E. Soph ’12MM
Frank A. Spaccarotella ’73MM
Tram Sparks ’98MMA ’03DMA
Timothy D. Spelbring ’05MM
Philip D. Spencer ’77MM
Daniel J. Stepner ’72MA ’78DMA
Julie M. Stoner ’72MM
Sarah D. Swersey ’89MM
Joseph Talleda ’90MM
Derek Saiho Tam ’11BA
Vance A. Taylor ’04MDiv
Frederick T. Teardo ’05MM ’06MMA ’11DMA
Suliman Tekalli ’16AD
Susan E. Thompson ’79MM
Colleen P. Thorburn ’08MM ’09MMA ’15DMA
Anthony C. Tommasini ’70BA
Diana Tsaliovich ’94MM
Michael C. Tusa ’75BA ’76MM
Joyce M. Ucci ’63MM
Heewon Uhm ’14MM
Antoinette C. Van Zabner ’74MM ’75MMA
John P. Varineau ’78MM
Ferenc Xavier Vegh, Jr. ’92MM
Cheryl R. Wadsworth ’95MM
Althea M. Waites ’65MM
Carol Kozak Ward ’85MM
Elizabeth Ward ’70MMA
Marvin Warshaw ’79MM ’80MMA
Abby N. Wells ’67MM
William F. Westney ’71MMA ’76DMA
Donald F. Wheelock ’66MM
Joseph L. Wilcox ’66MM
Christopher P. Wilkins ’81MM
Christopher J. Williams ’10MM
Gregory C. Wrenn ’92MM
Rodney A. Wynkoop ’73BA ’80MMA ’85DMA
Donna Yoo ’09MM
Sohyang Yoo ’14MM ’15AD
Kyung Hak Yu ’08MM
Lauren K. Yu ’13MM
Kevin Zheng ’18MM ’20MPH
Michael A. Zuber ’14MM
Sebastian Zubieta ’00MM ’02MMA ’09DMA
Series and Patron Programs
Richard J. Abbatiello
Linus Abrams
Nina R. Adams ’69MA ’77MSN
Susan S. Addiss ’69MUS ’69MPH
Andrea Amabile
Linda and Roger Astmann
Judith and Stephen August
Irma Bachman
Karen K. Bacon
Tanvi Banota
William S. Barbee
Franklin C. Basler ’64BA
William P. Batsford ’89MAH
Aleksei Bazhenov
Richard W. Beals ’60BA ’62MA ’64PHD
Sam Bergstrom
Laura Berry
Victor Bers
Joan and Henry Binder ’78MAH
Bill Blewitt
Serena and Robert Blocker ’95MAH
Ferenc M. Bozso
Leslie Brisman ’79MAH
Cynthia D. Brodhead ’72MA
Richard Brown
Frank Neely Bruce
Josephine A. Buchanan
Adrienne Burns
Linda Burt
Teresa C. Burton ’93BA
Jose Y. Capuras
Palomares Carlos
Annping Chin
Michael R. Cohen
Frank M. Colarusso
Joyce K. Craig
Teddi L. Creel
Roseline ’76PHD and Douglas Crowley† ’63
Cynthia F. Cummiskey ’85BA
Barbara D’Ambruoso
Jerome Delamater
Bernadette P. DiGiulian ’83MDiv
Elizabeth M. Dock
Mildred A. Doody ’85JD
Audrey Downe
David R. Dubinsky
Mark Dupuis
Vernon Eng
Robert J. Engling
Devyn Evans
Ray C. Fair ’79MAH
Delaney B. Farris ’23MPHiL
Bruce Fichandler
Paraskevas Filippidis
Terry S. Flagg
Madlyn and Richard Flavell
Anne H. Flitcraft ’77MD
Stephen A. Forrester
Lois Fox
Steven D. Fraade ’89MAH
Ralph W. Franklin
Deborah Fried
Javier Gonzalez ’19MEM
Carolyn P. Gould
Lauretta Grau
Kevin D. Gray ’85MBA
Elizabeth Greenspan ’76BA
Mark Griffin
Christina N. Grohowski
Eduardo A. Groisman ’11MAH
Vincent J. Gustavson
Stephanie Halene ’23MAH
Robert W. Hammond
Lawrence Handler
Thomas J. Handler ’82BS ’88MD
Alexandru Harabagiu
Richard M. Hayden
Robert Heimer ’80MS ’88PHD
Lucas Held
Pablo Hernandez
Cheryl Hewitt
Lois and David Hinman
Mary-Michelle Hirschoff ’70LLB
Aaron Ho
Susan L. Holahan ’62MA ’66PHD ’74JD
Penn Holsenbeck ’68BA
R. P. Hunt ’58BA ’65MAT
Francesco Iachello ’78MAH
Robert A. Jaeger
Heming Jiang
Nelson Johnson
Jennifer L. Julier ’77BA
Samuel Jungeblut
Tatiana Kaplun
Shun-ichiro Karato ’01MAH
Alan Katz
Ivan M. Katz
Diane and David King
Joan and Alan Kliger
Renata Koga
Lisa Kugelman ’83BS
B. J. Lambert
Ann R. Langdon
Penelope Laurans
Judith Liebmann ’69PHD
Yii-Jan Lin ’11MA ’11MPHiL ’14PHD
Avery A. Long
Elizabeth N. Lowery ’78MAR
Tracy MacMath
Maurice J. Mahoney ’82MAH
Marc E. Mann
Ann H. Marlowe
Andron Martin
Michael Martinez
Lee Medoff
John Merriman
Elizabeth Meyer
Irene Miller
Sherrie Monaco
Leonard Munstermann
Marina Nachber
Selin Nalbantoglu
Barbara and William Nordhaus
Melody Ouyang ‘01MM
Todd Pajonas
A. David Paltiel ’85MBA ’89MA ’89MPHiL ’92PHD
Nancy A. Pelaez
Melissa A. Perez
Steven M. Perrett ’76BA ’77MM
M. Anne Peters ’76MFS
Richard L. Petrelli ’65BA ’68MPH
Zaritza O. Petrova ’19PHiL ’19MS
Leann Pham
Jeffrey R. Powell ’87MAH
Stephen Rainey
Julia A. Reidhead ’82BA
Jonathan M. Resnik ’62BA
Ron Reuter
Gary L. Robinson
Scott Robinson
Arthur Rosenfield ’83MAH
Jeff C. Rubin
W. Dean Rupp ’65PHD
Jim R. Scala ’16MAR
Christina Schenker
Paul H. Serenbetz
Kavitha Setlur
Michael J. Shonborn ’99MBA
Elven I. Shum
Lorraine D. Siggins
Clifford L. Slayman ’83MAH
Andrew M. Smulian ’68BA
Alan C. Solomon
Richard Sonder
Wilma Stahura
Violette Takahashi
Bryce Tapp ’22MAR
David D. Thompson
Suzanne Tucker
Antoinette Tyndall ’79MSN
Wendy and James Undercofler
Mary-Jo Warren
Molly Watts
Abby N. Wells ’67MM
David Weyner
Nancy A. White
Michael A. Zuber ’14MM
Endowed Scholarship, Support, and Resource Funds
Kent R. Adams
Denise and Stephen Adams† ’59BA
Joyce Ahrens
Syoko Aki Erle ’69MM
Dmitri Atapine ’05MMA ’06AD ’10DMA
James R. Barry ’83MM
Astrid and John Baumgardner
Nancy Marx Better ’84BA
Serena and Robert Blocker ’95MAH
Mary Beth and Walter Buck
Susan B. Cass
Charles Cloutman
Carole Cowan ’68MM ’69MMA ’80DMA
Jamie Brooke Forseth ’12MBA
Madeleine Forte
Daniel T. Gien ’94BS ’96MM
Glady’s Turk Foundation
Alexander Glantz ’93BA
Susan and Edward Greenberg ’59BA
Mary J. Greer ’78BA ’86MA
Ruth A. Hashimoto
John A. Herrmann ’57BA
Stephen Heyde
Elinor L. Hoover ’89BA
Hammer Huang
Frederick J. Iseman ’75BA
Katie Kessler
Barbara Peterson Kieffer ’81MM
Lori Laitman ’75BA ’76MM and Bruce Rosenblum ’75BA
Penelope Laurans
McGregor N. Lott ’98BA
William A. Owen ’79MM
Elizabeth Sawyer Parisot ’66MM ’70MMA ’73DMA
Eugene A. Pinover
The Presser Foundation
Linda S. Reinfeld ’67MM
William N. Renouf ’71MMA
Dorothy K. Robinson ’87MAH
Melanie and Jean Salata
Dotty Smith and Lionel Goldfrank ’65BA
Timothy D. Taylor ’85MM
Anonymous
William F. Westney ’71MMA ’76DMA
Wei-Yi Yang ’95MM ’96AD ’99MMA ’04DMA
Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments
M. Teresa Beaman ’81BA ’82MM
Emile L. Boulpaep ’79MAH
Guido Calabresi ’53BS ’58LLB ’62MAH ’23LLDH
Robert G. Clark
Victoria K. DePalma†
Stephen S. Herseth ’69BA
Jeffrey S. Kahn ’70BA
Richard D. Kaplan ’66MS ’68MPHiL ’70PHD
Philip J. Kass
David A. Keller
Elias N. Kulukundis ’54BA
Thomas G. MacCracken ’73BA
Craig A. Monson ’66BA
Benjamin Carey Poole ’90MM
William Purvis
Alan D. Seget ’71BA
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
Stephanie L. Wiles
Music in Schools Initiative
James M. Banner ’57BA
Class of 1957
Roderick W. Correll ’57BS ’85MBA
William F. Eaton
Jefferson Freeman ’57BA
Andrew J. Glass ’57BA
Sumiko Higashi
Elvira and Richard Miller
Anne Mininberg
Morris Raker ’57BS
C. Nicholas Tingley ’57BE
Robert S. Walker ’57BA
Derrick Li Wang ’08MM
Yale Alumni Chorus Foundation
Norfolk Chamber Music Festival
Emily Aber and Robert Wechsler
Mary Ackerly ’77JD and J. Michael Sconyers
Bernard R. Adams ’69LLB
Edward Aimes
The AKC Fund
Kathy Albano and Paul Stranieri
Morel and Jeffrey Alexander ’01MAH
Allie and Samuel Anderson
Jane and Richard Andrias
Roger J. Astmann
Linda Astmann
Alan B. Astrow ’76BA ’80MD
Linda M. Austin
Joanna Aversa and Christopher M. Ursini
Ellen Babcock
Elizabeth Bailey
Emily Bakemeier and Alain Moureaux
Susan L. Baker
Stephen Barden
Leonard A. Bass
Battell Arts Foundation
Astrid and John Baumgardner
M. Teresa Beaman ’81BA ’82MM
Sarah Bedell
Barbara and John Beecher ’84MPH
Anne Marie and Jonathan Berger
Amy and Peter Bernstein
Hollister ’02MSN and Paul Berry ’99BA ’07PHD
Charles Berthiaume
Donald A. Bickford ’66BS
Erzsébet and Donald Black
Sara and Les Bluestone
Jeannie and Edward Boehner
Elizabeth Bradford Borden ’04MEM
Heidi Bosek
Jean R. Bradley
Judith Bramson
Karen and Trip Brizell
Jennie Brown
Denise and John Buchana
Margaret E. Burnett
Veronica Burns and Mary E. Fanette
Ann Buxbaum
Steven B. Callahan ’74BA and Randall R. Dwenger
Fiorella Canin
Susan E. Carpenter
Sally Carr and Larry Hannafin
George S. Case
Susan L. Caughman ’83MBA
Roselle K. Chartock
Jane and Oscar Chase ’63JD
Victory Van Dyck Chase and Theodore Chase
Starling W. Childs II
Marlene Childs
Hope Childs
Marvin L. Chin
Gaylien Chun and Matthew Hamer
Marjorie and Roger Clarke
Mary Lou and Michael Cobb
Peter Coffeen and Stephen Getz
Ellen Cohen and Steven D. Fraade ’89MAH
Lewis G. Cole ’54LLB
Suzanne and Edward Colt
Sallie Craig and Douglas H. Huber
George Cronin
Martha J. Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Kate Cusick
Sheila and John D’Agostino
Robert A. Dance ’80MAR and Robert B. Loper
Donna and Richard Davis
Marcos Delgado and C.D. Turnipseed
Anne Dennery
Andrew G. DeRocco
Katharine and Rohit Desai
Dianne Dinnean
Karen DiYanni ’96MM ’97AD
Danielle Docheff and Matthew Manuele
Louise Ducas
Lisabeth During
Daryl W. Eaton
Jane S. Edwards
Susan and Jon Eisenhandler
Bonnie and Clifford Eisler
Bonnie A. Eisler
Cornelia Ellner
Fleur E. Fairman and Timothy Wallach
Scott Falk
John Felton
J. Fernandez
Lois R. Fishman ’72BA
Eileen M. Fitzgibbons
William E. Flowers
Alison B. Fox
Rita and Larry Freedman
Judith N. Friedlander
Dianne and James Friedman
Michael Friedmann
Sara Frischer
William Fuller
Suzanne and John Funchion
Caroline D. Gabel
Martina Gago and Michael Cobb
Adrienne Gallagher and James Nelson
John C. Garrels ’61BA
Linda Garrettson
Elisabeth C. Gill
Alexander Glantz ’93BA
Ellen D. Glass
Elizabeth and Roberto Goizueta ’76BA
Lionel Goldfrank ’65BA
Elizabeth D. and Charles W. Goodyear ’80BS ’11MAH
Ruth Ann Graime
Swadesh Grant
Susan Grant Lewin
Danielle Greenberg and Victor Klebanoff
William and Mary Greve Foundation
Barbara Gridley†
Madelon and Jerald Grobman
Judith and Morton Grosz
Shelley Harms
John Hartje
Sarah and Scott A. Hartman
Ann Havemeyer ’75BA ’79MA ’82MPHiL ’12PHD and Tom Strumolo
George Hawes
Susan and Paul Hawkshaw
Peter S. Heller
Ann Coleen Hellerman
John A. Herrmann ’57BA
Suzanne M. Hertel
Barbara and Gerald Hess
Peter and Mary Hess
Thomas Hlas and Paul Madore
Judith and David P. Howard ’70BA
Maureen L. Hurd Hause ’96MM ’97MMA ’02DMA and Evan Hause
Daphne M. Hurford and Sandy Padwe
Melinda Beth W. Inadomi
Colta and Gary Ives
Paul E. Jagger
James Jasper ’84BA
Leila and Daniel Javitch
Nancy and Blair A. Jensen
Helen Jessup
Jennie Eun-Im Jung ’92AD ’01MM
Llyn Kaimowitz
Ani Kavafian
Doreen and Michael Kelly
Judith and Paul Kennedy
Galene and Richard H. Kessin ’66BA
Judith and Patrick Kiely
Steven Kiernan
Charles Kimball
Bernadette Kinsman
Elizabeth Kitridge and Christopher Little ’71BA
Sara M. Knight
Tomoko Korenaga
Patricia and George Kral
David M. Kurtz ’80MM
Marlene and Myron Kwast
Michael Lachowicz
Sandra Landau and Richard Rippe
Kathryn and Robert Lapkin
Kathrin D. Lassila
Joseph L. Lavieri
Seunghee Lee ’92MM ’94AD
Harleyn and Robert E. Lee
Philip A. Leider
Mark Lenz
Jo-Anne Leventhal
Michael Lewis
Sheila and Allen Liberman
Allen Lipson
Litchfield County Choral Union
Nicholas W. Lobenthal ’83BA
John E. Long
David N. Low ’87MPPM
Maija M. Lutz ’63MM
Albert J. Macchioni ’71BA ’75JD
Susan MacEachron and Michael Halloran
Caitlin C. Macy ’92BA and Jeremy Barnum
Ernest Malecki
Christopher and Joan Maloney
Lenore H. Mand
Edmund Mander
Donna Marconi and John Martin
Bobbi Mark ’76BA
Rob Martin
Judy and Kim Maxwell
Maura May and Martin J. Tandler
Quinn McClean
David McDonald
Ruth and Stephen Melville
Susan and Gerald Metz
Mary E. Miller ’80MPHiL ’81PHD ’78MA
Andrea Seigerman Milstein
Robert M. Milstein ’70BA ’78PHD ’81MD
Roger Mitchell and Frank Peterson
Peter Moodie
Barbara and Richard Moore
David E. Moore
Frank Morelli
Ingrid and Michael Morley
Jeffrey Morrison
Andra Moss and Peter Chaffetz
James Moye
Kristin and Grant Mudge
Alfreda and Christian Murck ’65BA
Jacqueline Muschiano and Andrew Ricci
Valerie Nelson
Emily Nicolson
Janice Pomerance Nimura ’93BA
Norfolk Artists and Friends
Mary E. O’Leary
Dorothy and Robert Pam
Stephen W. Pardee
Frances Pascale
Catherine Perga
Jennifer Perga
Hope Dana and John R. Perkins ’84MA
James Pettit
Adam Pincus
Patricia Platt
Faye Polayes and Jonathan J. Silbermann
Reva and Edward Potter
Nicholas F. Potter
Anton S. Quadri
Sally and Andrew Quale
Donna and Dennis Randall
Margo Rappoport and Michael J. Emont ’74JD
Diane Raver
Eileen Reed and C. A. Polnitsky
Nancy and James Remis
Susan and Peter Restler
Cristin ’88MEM and David Rich ’83BA
Kathy and Curtis Robb
Gary L. Robison
Karin S. Roffman ’04PHD and Melvin Chen ’91BS
Philida and Lyle Rosnick
Lynn B. and Edward W. Russell
Barbara and John Rutledge
Charles Ryan
Tori and Ronnie Rysz
Marion H. Sachdeva
Ellen Scalettar
Marilyn and Richard Schatzberg
Jack Schechter ’73BS
Elizabeth A. Scheel
Elizabeth Schorr and Eric Grossman
Harvey Schussler
Joyce S. Schwartz
Maggie and Adrian Selby
Michael K. Selleck
Julie Shapiro and Allan J. Dean
Harriet Shelare and Thomas R. Shachtman
Kathleen Sherrill
David A. Shifrin
Faye Polayes and Jonathan J. Silbermann
Christine and Frank J. Silvestri ’74JD
Phillip E. Sloan
Nelson Sly
Ileene Smith and Howard Sobel
Bruce Snyder
Howard A. Sobel
Elizabeth and David Sollors
Anne-Marie Soulliere and Lindsey Chao-Yun Kiang ’64BA ’68LLB
Jane M. Spangler
Marcia Sparrow
Monica Spencer ’91BA
Barbara Spiegel and Tom Hodgkin
Claudia and Michael Spies
Susan Spiggle and Tom Martin
Joseph Stannard
Amelia T. R. Starr
Kurt Steele
Richard S. Steen ’72MMA ’78DMA
Bruce Stein ’80BA
Abbe and Peter Steinglass
James Stengel
Catherine and Keith Stevenson
J. W. Streett
Jack Summers
G. A. Swibold
Mary Talbot ’86BA
Sarah ’98MDiv and Nicholas Thacher ’67BA
Jean Thompson
Alex Thomson
Alyson and Chilton Thomson
Roger Tilles
Sandra and Richard F. Tombaugh
Johanna Triegel ’71BA
David Troyansky
Sandra and David Van Buren
Herbert A. Vance ’65BA
Hilary Vanwright
Joanna Vincent and Gordon W. Smith ’65BA
Nancy H. Wadelton
Annick and Eliot Wadsworth
Sukey Wagner
Alexandra W. Walcott
Eric Wanner
Courtney Ward
Mary-Jo W. Warren
Michael Weber
Abby N. Wells ’67MM
Kate Wenner
Phyllis and William N. White
Virginia T. Wilkinson ’62MAT
Susannah and Willard Wood
Donald G. Workman
Wei-Yi Yang ’95MM ’96AD ’99MMA ’04DMA
Helene Young
Richard Zimmerman
† deceased
Composer Kyle Rivera ’24MM. Photo by Matt Fried.
Willie Ruff: the embodiment of inspiration
In December, the School of Music community lost a beloved friend and mentor, a man whose very presence was an inspiration. Professor Emeritus of Music Willie Ruff died on Dec. 24 in Killen, Ala., at age 92, just six years after retiring from the teaching position he’d held for half a century. Ruff, an Alabama native, earned his bachelor-of-music and master-of-music degrees from the School of Music in 1953 and 1954, respectively.
In 1971, Ruff joined the School’s faculty and, a year later, organized an event in Woolsey Hall through which he and the giants of jazz—including Duke Ellington, who’d received an honorary doctorate from the University in 1967, Marian Anderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Mary Lou Williams, and dozens of other musical luminaries—built what Ruff called the “conservatory without walls,” an “invisible institution” through which African American musical traditions could be passed from one generation to the next. The event established the Ellington Fellowship, which over time introduced an estimated 180,000 local public-school children to influential artists, and the Ellington Jazz Series, which continues today.
“The idea was that Yale had an opportunity to build on an already established relationship with Duke Ellington,” Ruff said in 2018. “And Duke Ellington was undisputedly the most admired musical personality in the whole story of African American music—of all genres. I said [to Yale President Kingman Brewster], ‘It’s not just that we want to invite Ellington. We want to give blanket honor to this whole tradition of African American music with Ellington as its titular head. If we’re going to call this a conservatory without walls, then Ellington is obviously the dean.’”
In addition to his work at Yale, which included a classroom in which “America’s musical art form,” jazz, was enthusiastically explored, Ruff served as a musical ambassador around the world.
Ruff’s extraordinary career began in a military band at Lockbourne Air Force Base in Ohio. He joined the Army at just 14, after forging his father’s name on the necessary enlistment documents. While he’d played the drums since childhood, Ruff took up the horn to secure a spot in the service band, and later, at the urging of a peer named Dwike Mitchell, took up the bass. Mitchell, a pianist, became Ruff’s primary collaborator. The two worked together in Lionel Hampton’s band after leaving the service and later formed a duo that delivered jazz to the Soviet Union in 1959 and to China in 1981. Ruff and Mitchell worked
Willie Ruff. Photo by Michael Marsland.
together until the latter’s death in 2013.
In addition to meeting Mitchell in the Army, Ruff, in a sense, met his future. It was at Lockbourne that he read an article in Down Beat magazine in which Charlie Parker was quoted as saying he’d like to study at Yale with composer Paul Hindemith. “I knew nothing about Paul Hindemith,” Ruff said, “but if that’s what Charlie Parker wanted to do, I’m going to look into it.” At Yale, Ruff’s curiosity fomented a lifetime of fascinating scholarship, including his discovery of a connection between African American spirituals, Native American vocal traditions, and a style of Psalm singing practiced in the Scottish Hebrides. That scholarship was the subject of conferences at Yale and the documentary A Conjoining of Ancient Song. So imaginative was Ruff that in 1979 he and Yale Professor John
In memoriam
The School of Music recognizes the passing of these faculty, alumni, colleagues, and friends.
Robert H. Baker ’76MM ’78MMA ’87DMA
Emma Lou Diemer ’49BM ’50MM
Edward H. Higbee, Jr. ’52BM ’53MM
Willie H. Ruff, Jr. ’53BM ’54MM ’18HON
Cynthia T. Stuck ’52BM
Les Thimmig ’69MMA ’74DMA
Raymond Vun Kannon ’53BA ’54BM ’55MM
Andre Watts ’73HON Cora W. Witten ’54BM
Rodgers created a recording, using a synthesizer and computations made in the 1600s by Johannes Kepler, of the sounds of space. Indeed, Ruff was erudite. He was also a gifted raconteur, as exhibited in his memoir, A Call to Assembly: The Autobiography of a Musical Storyteller, which received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for Music Writing.
For those who knew Prof. Ruff, his presence at Yale and everywhere he traveled was a gift. His legacy, important as it is, doesn’t begin to capture the inspiration he offered in any conversation. He will be fondly remembered forever by the Yale School of Music community.
In honor of Professor Ruff’s life and legacy, the Yale School of Music hosted a reception at the Elm City Club that was attended by his family, former colleagues, and Board of Advisors member Anne-Marie Soullière. Guests reminisced about Ruff’s impact on the School and were treated to a jazz performance by Grammy Award-winning saxophonist, Lecturer in Jazz, and Director of Yale’s Jazz Ensembles Wayne Escoffery and bassist Jeff Fuller ’67BA ’69MM.
Shared loves: remembering Claire ’50BM and Bill Dale ’49BM
“There was always, always music around our house,” Karen Dustman said. “Mom would play Mozart to put us to sleep at night. Dad often listened to records over the summer as he prepared for his next semester’s classes.”
Music was the lifeblood of Dustman’s family and the source of the bond between her parents, Claire ’50BM and Bill Dale ’49BM ’50MM. “And their time at Yale truly shaped the rest of their lives,” Dustman said.
“Isn’t it wonderful?”
Claire and Bill took different paths to get to campus, but both shared a love of the piano. “Dad was a first lieutenant in the Army during World War II,” Karen explained, “in charge of a bread-baking detail in India, serving troops on the Burma Road.” Active military service separated Bill from playing music. He had no access to a musical instrument until he returned stateside in June 1946. “Yale auditions were held in late August” of that year, he later recounted in a family history. “I had just a few weeks to prepare for the audition, after years of no keyboard.”
Claire’s piano audition for the Yale School of Music also took place in August 1946. The Oklahoma native stayed with an older brother in Milford while awaiting Yale’s decision. When the news came, she shared it as fast as she could. “Vacation now officially over,” she told her parents, rhetorically, via telegram. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
On campus
Claire (née Christy) and Bill arrived at the School of Music in the fall of 1946 and sat next to each other in two classes, as seating was arranged alphabeti-
cally. It was only natural, and perhaps inevitable, that, as pianists, they would notice the graceful movements of each other’s hands.
“Mom told me how impressed she was that Dad’s notes from lectures looked like perfectly organized outlines,” Monica Dale, one of Karen’s sisters, said, “and he was impressed with her shorthand.”
Claire received Yale’s Julia Silliman Scholarship, named for the youngest daughter of Professor Benjamin Silliman, who studied at the University in the late 18th century. “Mom’s family was by no means affluent,” Karen said. “Funding made a huge difference to both of them, having both come from families without abundant resources. Dad was an orphan at age 13, and the G.I. Bill was also very helpful to him.”
Claire asked Bill to join her and a group of friends at a tea given by then-Dean Bruce Simonds in early 1947. They dated throughout that year and fell in love.
A musical home
The two were married on June 18, 1948, in Dwight Chapel. Two years later they graduated together and soon thereafter started a family and their musical careers. “There were four girls in our household,” Karen said. “Dad got lots of sympathetic looks.”
Music permeated the Dale home. As a performing pianist (The New York Times called him “an unusually gifted artist”) and professor of music at Connecticut College, Bill rewrote his lesson plans every summer while listening to music. “Most of the time, that was wonderful, and the music was fun to listen to,” Karen said.
Claire, who toured with Bill giving two-piano concerts, began teaching students privately. It was “a great way
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to supplement the family income,” Karen remembered, “but as kids we got to listen to Für Elise being murdered a different way every week.”
Bill practiced in a studio. Claire practiced at home. “We found it hilarious that Mom would not stop playing when we asked her questions,” Monica recalled, “but instead answered us in rhythm. She often didn’t pay attention to the question itself, which I could sometimes demonstrate to friends: ‘Mom, Joan and I are going to jump off a cliff and fly to the moon now.’ ‘Just —be—sure that you are home—in— time for dinner,’ she’d chant, without looking up.”
A lifelong love
Yale was a major turning point for both Claire and Bill, one they always appreciated. They held on to several scores and notebooks from their time as students. They also held on to friends. “Mom and Dad both stayed in touch with people they met at Yale for many years,” Karen said. “Their friendships truly were lifelong.”
Speaking of her father, Monica said, “He taught me some of the works he’d learned at Yale, including the Quincy Porter sonata he’d studied with the composer.” When Bill died in 2001, his family requested that donations be made to support financial aid at the School of Music.
“My parents were both so grateful for the music education they received at Yale,” Karen said. “They were proud of it all their lives, and of course they wouldn’t have had each other if their eyes hadn’t met in class. The Yale School of Music meant the world to my parents.”
by Jeffrey McDaniel