Music at Yale Fall 2021/Spring 2022
The Sound of Togetherness: A Return to Place, Purpose Undiminished Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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Students gather for Commencement. Photo by Ian Christmann
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Music at Yale
Letter from the Dean
Dear YSM community, We began the 2021-2022 academic year with cautious optimism, gathering in Morse Recital Hall for Convocation for the first time in two years. Since that moment, we have held on to the belief that our work makes a difference in the lives of those it reaches. Just as we began the year together, we gathered again to mark its end. Alumni from the Classes of 2020 and 2021 returned to be formally recognized as graduates and to join students, faculty, and staff at our annual Honors Banquet and at our 2022 Commencement ceremony, both of which were also held in person for the first time since the pandemic forced us away from one another. Perhaps most encouraging, this past year saw a careful return to the concert hall, where artists and audiences once again shared the magic of live performances. While we announced the appointments of several new members of the YSM faculty, we also said farewell to a number of longtime faculty and staff. Sadder still, each of us in this community has said goodbye to family and friends whom we remember lovingly as part of the fabric of our lives. As we mourn all of those losses, we share a profound frustration over the state of our world—the greed, selfishness, ignorance, fear, and intolerance that fuel the ugly divisions in our society and cause immeasurable suffering.
As you read this issue of Music at Yale, note that ours is a field that rejects the myopic and dangerous us-versus-them mentality. For more than a quarter century I have sat in our concert halls and listened to musical voices that have moved many to tears, and some to action. And I have been reminded, as I told our recent graduates, of what Leonard Bernstein told the Los Angeles Times 50 years ago: “Art never stopped a war and never got anybody a job. That was never its function. Art cannot change events but it can change people.” As violence interrupts the lives of innocent victims of geography and twisted ideologies, as men, women, and children are killed because of the color of their skin, the gender with which they identify, the beliefs they hold, and for no reason at all, I urge you to recognize that what we do, in making music together, is important, for it returns us to a state of wonder—and to hope, which has always been the soundscape of this special place. With warm regards,
Robert Blocker Henry and Lucy Moses Dean of Music
Photo by Matt Fried
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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Music at Yale is a publication of the Yale School of Music P.O. Box 208246 New Haven, CT 06520-8246 music.yale.edu Fall 2021/Spring 2022 issue Editors David Brensilver Katie Kelley Designer Jenny Reed Contributors Katherine Darr Lila Meretzky Send us your news musicnews@yale.edu Follow us yalemusic @yale.music @yalemusic YaleSchoolofMusicOfficial Cover photo: Jordan Costa ’22MMA embraces faculty mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala during Commencement activities on May 23, 2022. Photo by Ian Christmann This page: Peter Oundjian conducts the Yale Philharmonia in Woolsey Hall. Photo by Matt Fried 4
Music at Yale
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Letter from the Dean
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School news
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Feature: The Sound of Togetherness, A Return to Place, Purpose Undiminished
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Class notes
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Alumni news
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Faculty news
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Staff news
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Giving
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In memoriam
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Honor roll
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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school news
Convocation 2021
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he Yale School of Music held its traditional Convocation in September 2021, two years after the last time incoming and returning students, faculty, and staff gathered in Morse Recital Hall to begin the start of a new academic year. In an evening marked by celebration, it was music, most of all, that signaled a shared optimism that had seemed distant a year before. “What, you might ask, could my music and my life bring to a world seemingly intent on annihilating itself?” Dean Robert Blocker asked, explaining, “We bring hope—in consoling strains and bursts of anger, in steady pulse and unending syncopations.” While words from the School’s Dean and other dignitaries, including University President Peter Salovey and Provost Scott Strobel, encouraged new and returning students to feed their curiosities and exercise their voices, performances by the School’s faculty said just as much. Faculty violinist Tai Murray spoke volumes through a performance, with pianist and Deputy Dean Melvin Chen, of Lili 6
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Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps—a performance that woke the hall and filled it with cathartic applause. Faculty cellist Paul Watkins, with Blocker at the piano, played Schubert’s “An die Musik,” returning tradition to the YSM community and reminding those in attendance of their common purpose. Blocker, visibly moved by the opportunity to greet students, faculty, and staff in person, delivered remarks that tapped into an unyielding reliance on hopefulness. In an address titled Who Do You Say You Are? Blocker told students, “Do not let the world tell you who you are … Do not let a critic tell you who you are … Do not let this School, University, or any institution tell you who you are … Listen to your inner voice”—discover and be yourself, the artist, the human, the individual who recognizes “music’s power to bear both the heaviest burdens of our emotional psyches and the soaring imaginations of our minds and hearts.” As much as Convocation celebrated the School’s students, it also offered Blocker a chance to recognize those
“History chronicles the absolute importance of the artistic voice in matters of public morality, for we teach and model values through our artistic and personal choices. Those artistic and personal choices will determine who you are and who you will become.” —Robert Blocker who kept them healthy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and inspired. Blocker presented the School’s Cultural Leadership Citation to Krista Johnson, YSM’s Concert Office Manager (Johnson is now the School’s Director of Student Services) and Health and Safety Leader, and Dr. Stephanie Spangler, the University’s Vice Provost for Health Affairs and Academic Integrity, Title IX Coordinator, Clinical Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Services, and COVID-19
Coordinator, “for what they have done for us and what they are still doing.” The citation recognized Johnson and Spangler “for extraordinary service to music during the global pandemic.” Blocker presented the School’s Gustave Jacob Stoeckel Award to faculty horn player and Director of the Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments William Purvis. The award recognizes individuals who “have made2 extraordinary contributions to the Yale School of Music.”
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Yale University President Peter Salovey announced plans to recommend to the Yale Corporation that faculty clarinetist David Shifrin and faculty cellist Paul Watkins each receive an endowed professorship—Shifrin the Samuel Sanford Professorship, named after the pianist who served on the School’s faculty at its inception, and Watkins the inaugural Polak Family Professorship, which was created in honor of former Yale Provost and current William C. Brainard Professor of Economics Ben Polak, who was in attendance. Shifrin and Watkins were appointed to those named professorships in January 2022. University Provost Scott Strobel formally recognized matriculating students and welcomed anew returning students who could not be welcomed in person the previous year. “How will you influence the world that is yours to share with billions of other fellow human beings?” Blocker asked students in the Convocation address. “Your musical commentaries can bring disparate peoples, creeds, and values to a more meaningful civil discourse,” Blocker said. “History chronicles the absolute importance of the artistic voice in matters of public morality, for we teach and model values through our artistic and personal choices. Those artistic and personal choices will determine who you are and who you will become.”
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Sentimental as the evening was, it was also festive. Convocation attendees left the hall dancing to the rhythms of Trinidadian music performed by the Yale Percussion Group.
1. YSM Dean Robert Blocker makes remarks during Convocation 2. YSM percussionists with Professor Robert van Sice 3. Faculty violinist Tai Murray performs with Deputy Dean Melvin Chen 4. Faculty cellist Paul Watkins performs with Dean Robert Blocker Photos by Harold Shapiro
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school news
Concerts: Year in review
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Students from the Yale School of Music performed a selection of repertoire during the 2021-2022 season, from the familiar to the brand new.
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he Yale Philharmonia performed this past year under Principal Conductor Peter Oundjian and guest conductors Carlos Kalmar and Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Joining the orchestra were soloists Christine Lee ’23AD, YSM faculty member Carol Jantsch, Emily Switzer ’17BA ’19MM,
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Yi-Chen Feng ’21MM ’22AD, and Roberto Granados ’20MM ’21MMA ’22AD in performances of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, Wynton Marsalis’ new Tuba Concerto, Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto, Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, and Takemitsu’s To the Edge of Dream, respectively. The orchestra’s season also featured performances of music by Barber, Beethoven, Lili Boulanger, Brahms, Britten, Jimmy Lopez, Martinů, Mussorgsky, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Stravinsky, and Weber
and concluded with a performance of Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony, “From the New World.” The Yale Opera, led by Director Gerald Martin Moore, opened its season with two Fall Opera Scenes programs of excerpts from operas by Donizetti, Massenet, Mozart, Rossini, R. Strauss, and Verdi. The scenes were performed with collaborative piano and with stage direction from Chuck Hudson. In the second semester, the Yale Opera
presented a gala concert with the Yale Philharmonia, conducted by YSM alum Louis Lohraseb ’15MM, featuring operatic repertoire by Bizet, Donizetti, Gounod, Massenet, Mozart, Rossini, and Verdi, and two performances at the Legacy Theatre in Stony Creek of Handel’s Alcina, with harpsichord, string quartet, and theorbo. Yale Opera’s production of Alcina was directed by Yale School of Drama alum Dustin Wills ’14MFA. The Yale Opera closed its season with two performances, with stage direction from Nicola Bowie and featuring collaborative piano, of Donizetti’s comedic L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) in Morse Recital Hall. The New Music New Haven series, under the artistic direction of faculty composer Aaron Jay Kernis ’83, presented six performances during the year—including the annual New Music for Orchestra concert with the Yale Philharmonia, under the direction of conductor and YSM alum Ryan Tani ’21MMA. The series showcased music by the School’s composition students, faculty composers Kernis, Martin Bresnick, David Lang ’83MMA ’89DMA, and Christopher Theofanidis ’94MMA ’97DMA, then-incoming faculty composer Katherine Balch ’16MM, and YSM alum Caroline Shaw ’07MM. Student composers whose music was performed during the 2021-2022 New Music New Haven season included Matīss Čudars ’23MM, Jack Frerer ’22MM, Julián Fueyo ’23MM, Sophia Jani ’22MM, Soomin Kim ’21MM ’22MMA, Aaron Israel Levin ’19MM ’27DMA, Lila Meretzky ’22MM, Udi Perlman ’26DMA, Marco Adrián Ramos ’23MMA, Harriet Steinke ’22MM, Joel Thompson ’20MMA ’26DMA, Benjamin Webster ’23MMA, and Samantha Wolf ’21MM ’22MMA. Led by Wendy Sharp, Director of the School’s chamber music program, the Lunchtime Chamber Music series presented weekly midday performances
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by YSM students in Morse Recital Hall. The season also featured Vista: Chamber Music, a program in which students performed and offered insight into the repertoire, Bassoonarama, which showcased students from faculty bassoonist Frank Morelli’s studio, recitals featuring students from faculty tubist Carol Jantsch’s studio and faculty guitarist Benjamin Verdery’s studio, a performance by the Yale Percussion Group, led by ensemble Director Robert van Sice, and two evenings with the Yale Cellos, led by ensemble Director Ole Akahoshi. A program of performances by the winners of the School’s annual Chamber Music Competition took place in May, as did a Commencement Concert featuring performances by students from the Class of 2022.
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1. Yale Opera’s production of L’elisir d’amore 2. The Yale Cellos perform in Morse Recital Hall 3. Yale Opera singers Laureano Quant, left, and Greer Lyle perform with the Yale Philharmonia 4. Students perform during a New Music New Haven concert 5. Students perform during the School’s annual New Music for Orchestra concert in Woolsey Hall 6. Faculty tubist Carol Jantsch performs Wynton Marsalis’ Tuba Concerto with Peter Oundjian and the Yale Philharmonia Photos by Matt Fried
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school news
Student Advisory Council elected
Photos appear in the order in which council members are listed below
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n the fall, a new Student Advisory Council was established to convey the student perspective to the YSM administration, and, with the help of Director of Equity, Belonging, and Student Life Albert Lee, “to implement co-curricular programming to support student development beyond the classroom and the studio,” Lee said at the time. Six of the Council’s members were elected by their fellow YSM students, three were appointed by Dean Robert Blocker.
Members elected by area were Elana Bell ’23MMA, voice (voice); Kayla Cabrera ’23MM, viola (strings); Anthony Ratinov ’22MM, piano (piano); Andy Sledge ’20MM ’26DMA, bassoon (brass/ woodwinds); Maura Tuffy ’21MM ’22MMA, choral conducting (conducting, harpsichord, organ); and Samantha Wolf ’21MM ’22MMA, composition (composition, guitar, percussion). Appointed, at-large members were Bridget Conley ’23MM, tuba; Andrew Samarasekara ’23MM, violin; and Yiran Zhao ’23MM, choral conducting. Before the 2021-2022 academic year, the advisory group was appointed by the Dean. “The need for a clearly defined role for this body (became) even more clear as YSM navigated the pandemic,” 10
Music at Yale
“Student input on all facets of the YSM experience is crucial to providing leadership with the kind of information that makes decision-making more informed and the result more positively impactful.” —Albert Lee Lee said in May. “Student input on all facets of the YSM experience is crucial to providing leadership with the kind of information that makes decision-making more informed and the result more positively impactful.” Lee said, “A structure for the Student Advisory Council was proposed and implemented that ensured democratic representation as well as demographic balance on the Council. Dean Blocker’s vision for the Council is that it include both first-year and returning students, that gender equity be considered, and that YSM’s international community be represented.” During the spring term, Student Advisory Council members continually discussed the School’s COVID-19 health-and-safety protocols and how those guidelines
affected the student experience. Other areas of interest and concern that members raised included Council bylaws and future election procedures, protocols for communicating with the School’s Title IX and Discrimination and Harassment and Resource Coordinators, sustainability efforts and initiatives, the availability of gender-neutral bathrooms in YSM facilities, and ways the School’s Office of Career Strategies could “more effectively support student needs,” Lee said, mentioning that Council members also sought solutions for addressing and preventing performance-related injuries, strategies for communicating with YSM’s international community, and mechanisms through which concerns about facilities could be brought to the administration’s attention. As the spring semester drew to a close, students at YSM elected representatives for the 2022-2023 academic year. New at-large members will be appointed in the fall.
Norfolk Festival: It’s about time acclaimed performers and ensembles, among them legendary soprano Dawn Upshaw, the Grammy Award-winning Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and the revered Brentano String Quartet, YSM’s longtime ensemble-in-residence. A Festival Gala/fundraiser in mid-August featured a “piano extravaganza” in which Chen, a pianist, and pianist and YSM Dean Robert Blocker were joined by Festival Fellows for a performance of music by J.S. Bach and Stravinsky.
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or Yale Summer School of Music/ Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Director Melvin Chen, it was “about time” for “as normal as possible” a season as could be expected. That meant students, faculty, staff, and, of course, audiences—and a program that took as its theme Chen’s understated sentiment: “It’s about time.” As has been the Festival’s traditional structure, choral and new-music workshops bookended the six-week chamber-music session, all of which took place in bucolic Norfolk, Conn., in July and August. In addition to performances by Festival Fellows on the Emerging Artist Series, which included a program of works by Fellows who’d participated in the New Music Workshop, audiences were introduced, through the Festival’s Musical Bridges commissioning initiative, to the work of composer and YSM alum Angel Lam ’10AD, whose writing for the pipa, a Chinese instrument, brought internationally renowned virtuoso Wu Man to Norfolk. “Chamber music is not something fixed but something evolving and growing,” Chen has said about the initiative, “and we need to participate in that.” The Festival also presented performances of music by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov (in a program titled “It’s about Time:
Music for Peace”) and YSM alum Krists Auznieks ’16MM ’22DMA, whose work Chen has programmed in recent years, and a program called “Women Through the Ages,” which featured chamber music by Lili Boulanger, Louise Farrenc, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Clara Schumann, and Joan Tower. Music by Ernest Bloch, Aaron Copland, and Adolphus Hailstork was showcased in a program called “Unquestionably American.”
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The Festival’s theme and thematic programs were part of Chen’s overarching vision for the Festival as one that draws audiences who come to Norfolk for “the exploration of an idea” through “pieces they know and don’t know,” Chen said—“to have people come for different reasons than they might have in the past.” The Festival’s decidedly intellectual programming was performed by artists in various stages of their careers, from “emerging artists” to internationally
It was a season that the Norfolk audience was “ready for,” Chen said in another turn at understatement, a summer that celebrated the present while offering a nod to the Festival’s rich past. The future, which Chen and the Norfolk community are leaning into programmatically and in terms of the organization’s home on the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, includes plans for an annex to be built on the Music Shed, which will have air-conditioning units installed, and the conversion of estate buildings to student housing, as Norfolk fellows were previously housed with local families but now live on site during the Festival. New faces appeared at Norfolk this summer, including incoming General Manager Robert Whipple, who succeeds longtime GM Jim Nelson, who’s enjoying a welldeserved, phased retirement. In all, this summer’s Norfolk Festival was both celebration and statement of purpose, an acknowledgment of musical history and a signal of what chamber music ought to look and sound like now and in the years ahead. Correction: The article about the 2022 Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival should have indicated that the original festival, organized by Ellen Battell Stoeckel and Carl Stoeckel, ceased operations in 1923.
1. The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra 2. Wu Man. Photo by Stephen Kahn
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feature
Members of YSM’s Class of 2022 pose for a photo. Photo by Ian Christmann
The
Sound of Togetherness:
A Return to Place, Purpose Undiminished
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raditionally, each academic year at the Yale School of Music is bookended by events attended by the whole of the
YSM community—students, faculty, and staff gathered in Morse Recital Hall to celebrate the work that’s been accomplished and that which has yet to be done. Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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Convocation and Commencement are ceremonies that acknowledge commitment and achievement, respectively, the potential of each individual and of the sum of the larger whole. “How will you influence the world that is yours to share with billions of other fellow human beings?” YSM Dean Robert Blocker asked those gathered for Convocation in September, the first such in-person assembly since 2019. The question, of course, referred to service. Indeed, the School’s mission is to educate and inspire students with exceptional artistic and academic talent for service to the profession and to society, a reminder that the artist does not exist in a vacuum. Alumni Ceremony In mid-May, the School held an alumni ceremony in Morse Recital Hall during which graduates from the Classes of 2020 and 2021, many of whom enjoyed far less time on campus and in the University’s concert venues than they deserved—many of those, singers and those who play wind instruments, in particular, were removed altogether from in-person music-making as a result of the pandemic that continues to hobble a practice and an industry built on togetherness—returned to New Haven not only to walk across the Morse Hall Stage and receive their hard-earned degrees, but to return to what it is that makes them who they are. And much of that has to do with their peers and colleagues. About 65 alums participated in the noontime ceremony and later spent the evening at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale, where current and graduating students gathered with faculty, staff, family, and friends for the first Honors Banquet the School had held in two years. Distinguished only by the years marked on their diplomas, alums represented not an additional set of celebrants but an extension of a community that by nature sustains itself through collaboration. Honors Banquet “It has been an extraordinary journey,” Blocker told those gathered at the Honors Banquet, referring to the distance the 14
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2 pandemic had placed between individuals. The mood of the celebration confirmed that alongside loss has existed the nourishment that fuels the community’s shared purpose. In presenting the School’s highest honor, the Samuel Simons Sanford Medal—whose namesake was the first professor of applied music at the University and one of the School’s founding leaders—to André J. Thomas, Blocker said, “We have been enriched
by your presence.” Thomas, whom Blocker described as “a person who is a complete musician,” served for the past two years as Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting and Interim Conductor of the Yale Camerata. The enthusiasm with which more than 300 event attendees applauded Thomas (and sang “Happy Birthday” to Thomas’ wife, Portia) was evidence of Thomas’ contributions to the School and the wider YSM community.
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Commencement
4 Similar enthusiasm marked the response to Blocker announcing the establishment of the Doris Yarick-Cross Voice Studio, in honor of the retired Professor of Voice and Yale Opera Director (now Professor Emerita of Music), and the Syoko Aki Erle Teaching Studio, in honor of the School’s longest-serving faculty member, to whom Blocker presented the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Service Award. Aki Erle retired at the end of the academic
year after a remarkable 54 years on the faculty. As is tradition, Blocker presented awards to current and graduating students, the announcement of each recipient’s name bringing the room to a state of unrestrained fervor that had been building since the alumni ceremony earlier in the day and continued through the following week to the School’s 129th Commencement—the first in-person graduation ceremony in two years.
Following the University’s Commencement exercises on Old Campus during which composer and YSM alum Caroline Shaw ’07MM was awarded an honorary doctor of music degree, Blocker reiterated to those gathered in Morse Recital Hall for Commencement that getting there had been an “extraordinary journey.” After recognizing those who’d received awards at the Honors Banquet a little more than a week earlier, Blocker presented special prizes to three students— two returning and one graduating. The Harriet Gibbs Fox Memorial Prize, which is awarded to a student who has achieved
1. Alums from the YSM Classes of 2020 and 2021 participate in the School’s 2022 alumni ceremony 2. Dean Blocker addresses alumni 3. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni gather at the Omni Hotel in New Haven for the School’s annual Honors Banquet 4. Students and alumni with faculty clarinetist David Shifrin (seated) Photos by Harold Shapiro
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the highest grade-point average during their first year of study, was given to cellist Ka Yeung Hung ’23MM, who was unable to attend the ceremony. The Horatio Parker Memorial Prize, which is given to a student who best fulfills the lofty musical ideals held by the School’s first dean, was awarded to violinist Anna Lee ’23MMA, who was also unable to attend. And the Dean’s Prize, the School’s highest excellence award, was given to soprano Magdalena Kuźma ’22MM, who joined Blocker onstage to accept the honor. Also honored was faculty bassoonist Frank Morelli, to whom Blocker presented the Gustave Jacob Stoeckel Award for Excellence in Teaching. “Named for Yale’s first professor of music,” Blocker explained, “the Stoeckel Award is presented to a member of the Yale School of Music faculty who, like the award’s namesake, has made extraordinary contributions to the School and, in so doing, has enriched the School and enlarged its role in the nation’s musical life.” Blocker quoted Morelli as saying, 16
Music at Yale
“I believe in my students from the moment they show up, and I want them to believe in themselves the way I believe in them.” Blocker also quoted one of Morelli’s current students, Andy Sledge ’20MM ’26DMA, who recently said, “Working with (Prof. Morelli) has been a process of simplifying and building confidence. He believes in you, he’s ready to advocate for you, and he always reminds you, ‘You’re not here for me, I’m here for you.’” With Deputy Dean Melvin Chen at the piano, Morelli later led those gathered in a performance of Schubert’s “An die Musik,” which is traditionally sung during the School’s Convocation and Commencement exercises. Before being joined by Chen to award diplomas to graduating students, Blocker offered a charge to the Class of 2022. In a speech titled The Choice Is Yours, Blocker told graduates, “Our art must tell the truth about us, about society, and about our planet. Your job is to repair and heal our broken world. How is this possible, you ask, when telling the truth appears
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to be optional for all and a privileged few have a ravenous addiction to power and wealth that has no regard for the sanctity of life? What can our voices, lifted together, do to pierce the evil of racial discrimination and dehumanization of women, both vile and horrific conditions born of ignorance and fear?” Blocker turned to Leonard Bernstein, who, in 1972, told the Los Angeles Times, “Art never stopped a war and never got anybody a job. That was never its function. Art cannot change events but
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it can change people.” We must summon whatever resilience is in us, Blocker said, encouraging the YSM grads to “live your life with courage, compassion, and a sure sense of direction.” As much as Commencement was, as always, a celebration of music itself, it was also, to a heightened degree, an acknowledgment of the value of togetherness. Blocker returned, by way of the work of an unknown author, to a familiar analogy: the lessons geese have to offer. Geese honk, for example, to encourage those
flying ahead of them in formation to keep up their speed. When one is injured, two stay behind to protect the fallen bird. “All of us are on these journeys together,” Blocker said. This was another lesson in the strength of unity, which Blocker stated explicitly through proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone,” he said. “If you want to go far, go together.”
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1. Graduating students wear caps, gowns, and smiles 2. A member of YSM’s Class of 2022 poses for a photo 3. Those graduating from YSM join other graduating students at the University’s ceremony on Old Campus 4. Following the University’s graduation ceremony, students walk from Yale’s Old Campus to Morse Recital Hall for YSM’s 129th Commencement 5. A graduating student enjoys the moment Photos by Ian Christmann
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Class notes Throughout the year, current students and alumni share news of their recent accomplishments and successes. We hope you will join us in congratulating these outstanding musicians as they continue to contribute meaningfully to society and inspire us through their art.
1960 The latest jazz release from Jeff Fuller ’69MM & Friends is Keep Hope Alive, a collection of tunes developed during the pandemic. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the CD will go to Ukrainian warrelief efforts.
1970 Vocalist Sheila Barnes ’74MM ’75MMA was a guest lecturer at the Composers’ Forum at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, Amsterdam University of the Arts, in January. Barnes’ lecture was titled “Issues for Composers in Writing for the Voice.” During the residency, Barnes held one-on-one sessions with students. The event marked Barnes’ third appearance at the forum. Barnes has also lectured on composing for voice at the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme at Britten Pears Arts, in Aldeburgh, England. Violinist Gerald Elias ’75BA/MM authored Cloudy With a Chance of Murder, the seventh installment in the awardwinning Daniel Jacobus mystery series, which takes place in the dark corners of the classical music world. The book was published by Level Best Books. Elias also released a two-CD recording of Pietro Castrucci’s 12 Sonatas, Op. 1. The historically informed, first complete recording of the sonatas reached the No. 1 spot among new chamber music releases on Amazon and is available for streaming on and download from major listening platforms. Contemplating Fire—Joan of Arc, an oratorio by Robert Hart ’74MM, will be premiered in October at the Central 18
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Auditorium in Midland, Mich. The story touches on timeless themes—love and betrayal, power and its denial—as Joan, alone in a prison cell, reflects on the visions, victories, and conflicts that will lead the following morning to death. Are Women People?—The Songs of Lori Laitman, the latest album from composer Lori Laitman ’75BA ’76MM, was released in May 2021 on the Acis label. The issue of women’s suffrage is at the core of the CD and is examined in “Are Women People,” a song-cycle for SATB quartet with piano four-hands that sets to music the words of Alice Duer Miller, Susan B. Anthony, and the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In addition to writing blogs and newsletters as Editor-in-Chief of the blog Classical Archives, Barry Lenson ’75MM launched a classical music vlog. Among the first people Lenson interviewed for the venture was performance artist and composer Rinde Eckert ’75MM.
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1980 Conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor ’82MM was recognized by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as one of 34 naturalized citizens “who have strengthened our nation through their lives and examples.” The recognition was part of the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s annual Fourth of July celebration of immigrants’ contributions to American life.
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Leona Francombe ’81MM published a new musical novel, The Universe in 3/4 Time. The European literary/ musical mystery was set in motion by Francombe’s discovery one winter night of a WWII-era piano on a Brussels street. The book is Francombe’s appeal to serious musicians everywhere to explore the deeper meaning and historical empowerment hidden in their craft. Martin Kluger ’78BA ’80MM recently conducted musicians of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in a program of music by Wolfgang and Leopold Mozart, Haydn, Fauré, and Ney Rosauro.
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In November, Courtney Adrian Rodriguez ’88MM started as Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Mahasarakham University in Thailand. The position was created to accommodate the expanding music department as students return to school from lockdowns and online learning. Dr. Evan Rothstein ’84 was appointed Professor of Chamber Music at the Departmental Conservatory of Music and Dance in Aulnay-sous-Bois, outside of Paris. In 2021, Rothstein’s article “Teaching chamber music to children” was published in an e-book, Diálogos com o Som, Volume 6: Música de Câmara, by the School of Music at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Composer Julia Wolfe ’86MM was named the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall for the organization’s 2021-2022 season. Wolfe’s large-scale compositions were presented at Carnegie Hall throughout spring 2022.
1990 Vocalist Michael Chioldi ’94MM is featured in the title role on Odyssey Opera’s debut recording of the complete opera Henry VIII by Camille Saint-Saëns. The recording includes rediscovered music from the work that had been omitted for more than a century. Clarinetist Kenneth Long ’96MM was promoted to the rank of Full Professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
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8 In August, violist Kyra Philippi ’97CERT was named Instructor of Music and Cultural and Artistic Awareness at the International School Laren and at the Laar & Berg Secondary School in the Netherlands. Composer Eleonor Sandresky ’95MM released a new album of piano and Wonder Suit improvisations on Supertrain Records in November. The Wonder Suit is a wearable set of wireless sensors that trigger discreet processes through movement on electronic
1. Gerald Elias’ Cloudy with a Chance of Murder 2. Are Women People?—The Songs of Lori Laitman 3. Keep Hope Alive, the latest release from Jeff Fuller & Friends 4. Barry Lenson 5. Gisèle Ben-Dor. Photo by J. Henry Fair 6. Leona Francombe’s The Universe in 3/4 Time 7. A performance of Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields at Carnegie Hall. Photo by Richard Termine 8. Eleonor Sandresky demonstrating the Wonder Suit 9. Michael Chioldi in Odyssey Opera’s production of Henry VIII. Photo by Kathy Wittman
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soundscapes and a live feed from the acoustic piano. Percussionist Yousif Sheronick ’91MM established FrameDrumSchool.org, which has more than 600 enrolled students from 52 countries. Sheronick offers instruction in a variety of world percussion, introducing instruments to musicians and audiences alike. Dr. Carol Williams ’97AD was recently appointed Organist and Artist-inResidence at Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta. Dr. Williams was a featured artist at the American Guild of Organists National Convention in July 2022.
2000 Pianist Orlay Alonso ’04MM and his brother, Orlando, released their debut album as the Alonso Brothers. The album, Havanesque, is the brothers’ take on Cuban classics from the 1930s through the 1960s. Featuring original arrangements in a variety of styles, the Alonso Brothers’ recording constructs a vivid soundscape that celebrates Cuba’s diverse culture and rich, yet complex, history. Karisa Antonio ’05MM was appointed the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Director of Social Innovation in September 2020. In this role, Antonio leads the DSO’s efforts to become a better community member and neighbor in the City of Detroit. Over the past year, Antonio developed Detroit Strategy, a new process of respectful community engagement focused on listening, co-design, equity, and impact. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Antonio and the DSO engaged with 63 community organizations and 1,500 Detroiters in the development and implementation of interactive community musical experiences. Elizabeth De Trejo ’01MM, founder and Executive Director of the International School of Voice, received an award in 2021 for excellence in teaching from the Curtis Institute of Music, where De Trejo is a member of the voice faculty. In July 2021 violinist, speaker, and socialjustice advocate Vijay Gupta ’07MM 20
Music at Yale
released a new album featuring the world-premiere recording of When the Violin by Reena Esmail ’11MM ’14MMA ’18DMA, and works by Esa-Pekka Salonen and J.S. Bach. The release is the first in a planned series of six recordings pairing Bach’s six violin sonatas and partitas with contemporary and commissioned works with the goal of “reanimating” and contextualizing the familiar Bach pieces. The American Guild of Organists named Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs ’02MM ’03AD the recipient of the Guild’s 2021 International Performer of the Year Award. The award is considered by many to be the highest honor given to organists by a professional musicians’ guild in the United States.
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Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti ’08MM was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music for with eyes the color of time, for string orchestra. Colin Lynch ’06MM received the Masterwork Music and Art Foundation’s Organ Competition Award, which is designed to aid an emerging musician specializing in organ with their career aspirations and development. Sanctuary and Storm, an opera by composer Tawnie Olson ’99MM ’00AD with a libretto by Roberta Barker, won the 2021-2023 National Opera Association’s Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Composition Competition. Olson’s work was co-commissioned by the Women Composers Festival of Hartford and the Canada Council for the Arts for re:Naissance Opera. Percussionist David Skidmore ’08MM was nominated for two 2021 Grammy Awards as a member of Third Coast Percussion. The ensemble’s album Archetypes received a nomination in the “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance” category. Skidmore was also nominated as one of the composers whose music is featured on the album, as were the quartet’s other members and collaborators. The album was also nominated in the “Best Engineered Album, Classical” category.
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Donna Yoo ’09MM began an appointment in May as Dean of Artistic Administration and Operations at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Yoo previously served as YSM’s Director of Admissions.
2010 Andy Akiho ’11MM was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Seven Pillars, which was composed for Sandbox Percussion. Percussionists and Sandbox quartet members Jonathan Allen ’13MM ’14AD, Victor Caccese ’13MM, Ian Rosenbaum ’10MM ’11AD, and Terry Sweeney ’15MM were nominated for a Grammy Award in the “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance” category for their most recent album, Seven Pillars. The album is a collaboration between the quartet and composer Andy Akiho ’11MM. In December, following the group’s Grammy nomination, Sandbox Percussion and Akiho were featured in a New York Times article about the development of Seven Pillars. Cellist Dmitri Atapine ’05MMA ’06AD ’10DMA and pianist Hye-Yeon Park ’05MM ’06AD were named the new Artistic Directors of The Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City. The organization is one of the nation’s leading presenters of chamber music. Atapine and Park were selected though a national search to become the second artistic directors in the organization’s 46-year history. Choral conductor Maggie Burk ’19MM was recently appointed Director of Choral Activities at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis. Burk will oversee the college’s thriving choral program, conduct its flagship Carthage Choir, oversee the Lakeside Choral Festival, and serve as Artistic Director for the college’s annual Christmas Festival. In August 2022, Mélanie Clapiès ’14MM ’15AD will join the faculty at Butler University, in Indiana, as Assistant Professor of Violin.
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7 Violist Rayna Yun Chou ’19MMA was named one of the 2021 ARTery 25—Artists of Color Transforming the Cultural Landscape in Boston. Chou was recognized for the public art projects Concert for One and Hear the Light. The latter, a large-scale immersive installation, was inspired by YSM Dean Robert Blocker’s 2017 Convocation speech, “Music Among Friends,” and was awarded a 2020 Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship. Emily Cedriana Donato ’19MM was featured as the soprano soloist with Voices of Ascension in a performance, in New York City in April, of J.S. Bach’s B-minor Mass. Donato recently received the Andrew R. Preis Award at the Oratorio Society of New York’s Lyndon Woodside Competition, earning First Place in the competition and a monetary prize.
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Orlay Alonso’s Havanesque Karisa Antonio Vijay Gupta’s When the Violin Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti David Skidmore. Photo by Saverio Truglia Andy Akiho’s Seven Pillars Donna Yoo. Photo by Daniel Lozada Rayna Yun Chou at Concert for One
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The Merz Trio, of which pianist Lee Dionne ’11BA ’13MM ’14MMA ’19DMA is a member, won the 2021 Naumburg Foundation International Chamber Music Competition. In August 2021, New Focus Recordings released Unsnared Drum, the debut solo album from percussionist Michael Compitello ’09MM ’12MMA ’16DMA. Featuring a series of new solo works for the snare drum by composers Nina C. Young, Han Lash ’12AD, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Tonia Ko, Unsnared Drum illuminates the snare drum’s breadth of sonic possibility and the depth of expressivity, revealing an instrument of drama, grace, and heart. Kevin R. Dombrowski ’14MM was appointed Second Trombonist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic for its 20212022 season. Dombrowski also joined the faculty at Valparaiso University as Adjunct Professor of Music in Trombone. David Fung ’11MM ’13MMA ’17DMA joined the piano faculty at the University of British Columbia and was appointed curator of the Steinway Spirio Piano Series at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver. Fung also joined the roster of the elite artist management company Arabella Arts. Fung continues to work with leading orchestras and presenters around the world, most recently as a soloist with the orchestras in Cleveland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Detroit, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York City. Soprano Leah Hawkins ’15MM was named a recipient of the 2022 Richard Tucker Career Grant and received a $10,000 prize. Each year the unrestricted grants are given to outstanding young vocal artists to further their careers. Composers Molly Joyce ’17MM and Ryan Lindveit ’19MM ’20MMA were selected for the 2022 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, a professional training program for early-career symphonic composers. In May, Joyce and Lindveit participated in a series of rehearsals and professional-development 22
Music at Yale
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seminars with the orchestra. The Composer Institute is overseen by composer Kevin Puts ’96MM, who succeeded YSM faculty composer Aaron Jay Kernis ’83 in that role. Organist Dexter Kennedy ’14MM was appointed Director of Music at Trinityby-the-Cove Episcopal Church in Naples, Fla. There, Kennedy will serve as Principal Organist, direct a 12-voice professional choir, and serve as curator of Trinity’s three pipe organs. Kennedy was also named Artistic Director of the Music at Trinity concert series. Throughout 2022 Kennedy will perform the complete organ works of César Franck on tour in honor of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Barbora Kolářová ’14MM released a debut album, Imp in Impulse, on the New Focus/ Furious Artisans label. The recording features music ranging from 1963 to the present by Jean Françaix, Klement Slavický, and Pascal Le Boeuf. The album was voted the “Best of 2020” by An Earful, which described Kolářová’s performance as “spectacular” with “as much personality as skill.” Gapplegate Classical-Modern Review said Kolarova plays with “considerable virtuosity harnessed to a nicely overarching expressivity” with a “personal stamp.” Pianist Henry Kramer ’13AD ’19DMA recently joined the faculty at the University of Montreal. In May 2022, with pianist Thomas Weaver, trombonist Brittany Lasch ’12MM performed the world premiere of Sonata for Trombone and Piano by fellow YSM alum Reena Esmail ’11MM ’14MMA.
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Lasch and Esmail reconnected as S&R Foundation Award winners in 2019, and Lasch commissioned the work thereafter. In February 2022, Scott Leger ’18MM won the audition for the Assistant Principal/Third Horn position at the Louisville Orchestra. Tenor Lucas van Lierop ’17MMA premiered the title role of Orphée in Orphée | l’Amour | Eurydice, a new mixed-media opera inspired by Gluck
and commissioned by the Dutch National Opera, Opera Zuid, and The Nederlands Reisopera, in conjunction with WeMakeVR. Ron Cohen Mann ’16AD started as Instructor of Oboe at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Ontario, Canada, in fall 2021. Kramer Milan ’16MM ’17MMA was appointed Assistant Professor in Percussion and Music Technology at Boise State University.
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Violinist Adelya Nartadjieva ’16MM was named Concertmaster of the Jacksonville Symphony and will join the orchestra at the start of the 2022-2023 concert season. Vocalist Molly Netter ’14MM collaborated with composers on three significant works in March 2022. Netter performed Steel Hammer, by Julia Wolfe ’16MM, with the Bang on a Can All-Stars as part of the composer’s year-long residency at Carnegie Hall, gave the world premiere of Illuminate by YSM faculty composer Katherine Balch ’16MM with the California Symphony, and made a solo debut with the New York Philharmonic singing prayers for night and sleep, by YSM faculty composer David Lang ’83MMA ’89DMA. Sun-A Park ’16AD ’17MMA was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Central Florida, in Orlando.
The Attacca Quartet, which includes violinist Domenic Salerni ’11MM, announced two releases on the Sony Classical label. Real Life, an exploration of electronica, was released in July 2021 and was followed in November by Of All Joys, a meditation on minimalist and Renaissance music. Real Life can be streamed online and Of All Joys is available online and in CD format.
Violinist David Radzynski ’12MM was named Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra in May. Radzynski served previously as concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic.
Pianist Alexei Tartakovsky ’15AD was awarded second prize and the Deutsche Telekom StreamOn Beethoven Award at the 2021 International Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn, Germany.
Dr. David Recca ’14MMA ’18DMA was appointed Artistic Director of the New York City Master Chorale, succeeding Dusty Francis and founder Dr. Thea Kano. Recca’s tenure will begin with the opening of the group’s delayed 15th-anniversary season. Recca also directs the Southern Connecticut Camerata, is Assistant Director of the New Amsterdam Singers, and teaches music theory and ensembles at SUNY Purchase.
2020 Krists Auznieks ’16MM ’22DMA was selected to participate in the 67th International Rostrum of Composers (held October 12-15, in Belgrade, Serbia), a signature program of the International Music Council. Auznieks’ prize-winning piece As One (2021), for voice, chamber orchestra, and electronics, was broadcast over many radio stations in the European
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Lucas van Lierop. Photo by Marco Borggreve Michael Compitello’s Unsnared Drum David Fung. Photo by Daniel Moody Leah Hawkins. Photo by Arielle Doneson Barbora Kolářová’s Imp in Impulse Brittany Lasch Molly Netter The Attacca Quartet’s Of All Joys
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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Broadcasting Union. Auznieks also won a residency commission from IMC and Swedish Radio. In March and April 2022, violist Kayla Cabrera ’23MM embarked on a national tour with the Sphinx Organization’s professional chamber ensemble, Sphinx Virtuosi. Ryan Capozzo ’21MMA and Laureano Quant ’22MMA won contracts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s prestigious Ryan Opera Center Artist Training Program.
and nutrition guidance, Galante helps musicians integrate fitness into their lives. The Heartbeat Music Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 2016 by violinist Ariel Horowitz ’19MM ’20MMA to provide music and cross-cultural education to Diné youth (in grades K-12) on the Navajo Reservation in Crownpoint, N.M., received a $500,000 Accelerator Award from the Lewis Prize for Music. The award will be used to support the
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Harpist Héloïse Carlean-Jones ’20MM recently joined L’Orchestre de la Garde républicaine in Paris. Carlean-Jones was also invited to perform the famous Bach Chaccone in a three-part concert series on the YouTube Channel of the Instrumentarium Salvi in Paris. The three concerts explored the original, the Busoni piano transcription, and the Owens harp transcription. Bassoonist Eleni Katz ’20MM ’21MMA, soprano Magdalena Kuźma ’22MM, and pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner ’20AD were named winners of the Concert Artists Guild’s 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition in New York City in May. The competition winners will receive management contracts and professional development and networking opportunities from CAG, and will perform recitals at Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Music Center in New York City. Kuźma will also receive a European management contract from CAG’s partner organization, Young Classical Artists Trust, and will appear in recital at London’s Wigmore Hall. Trio Ondata, which includes violinist Michael Ferri ’22MM, cellist Miriam Liske-Doorandish ’21MM ’22MMA, and pianist Anthony Ratinov ’20BS ’22MM, won the Silver Medal in the Senior String Division at the 2022 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Charles Galante ’21MM founded a wellness project that focuses on the physical health of musicians. Through training 24
Music at Yale
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project’s growth and advancement over the next five years, allowing the organization, whose assistant director is violinist Gregory Lewis ’19MM ’27DMA, to address accessibility issues and serve more students. In fall 2021, pianist Hilda Huang ’17BS ’19MM ’20MMA joined the roster of Astral Artists. In September 2021, pianist Carter Johnson ’22MMA won first prize at the
The Stanisław Moniuszko International Competition of Polish Music. In July 2021, Salome Jordania ’21MM ’22MMA won third prize at the International ITURBI Piano Competition of València. Jordania also won special prizes for the best performances of works by Mozart and Chopin, and for the best performance of the required piece by a Catalan composer.
Simon Karakulidi ’21MM ’22MMA won second prize in the solo category and third prize in the concerto category at the 23rd Waring International Piano Competition in Palm Desert, Calif. Violinist Gregory Lewis ’19MM ’27DMA was awarded the $6,000 second prize at the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg McLellan Competition, in Canada. After a recorded preliminary round and live semifinal recital round, Lewis performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in the final round on April 20, 2022. Mezzo-soprano Martina Myskohlid ’21MM recently completed a year as ArtistIn-Residence at the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. Season highlights included singing a variety of repertoire with the Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, and Orchestre de l’Agora in venues across Québec. Honoring a Ukrainian heritage, Myskohlid also performed recently in two benefit concerts for the besieged country. Myskohlid covered the role of Second Lady at the Opéra de Montréal in Barrie Kosky’s production of Die Zauberflöte, which had its premiere in May. Nola Richardson ’20DMA appeared as the soprano soloist in performances of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s The Creation with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Orff ’s Carmina Burana with the Master Chorale of South Florida, and Handel’s Messiah with the Kansas City Symphony and the American Bach Soloists. Richardson is featured on a new recording of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion with the Cantata Collective and conductor Nicholas McGegan. Ronaldo Rolim ’20DMA was appointed Professor of Piano at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash. Arlo Shultis ’20MMA was appointed Adjunct Lecturer of Percussion at the Baylor University School of Music.
Alexa Stier ’21MM ’27DMA won the Maurice Ohana Prize at the International Piano Competition of Orléans. Aaron Tan ’20MM ’21MMA won first prize at the 2021 Canadian International Organ Competition, one of the world’s foremost competitions for the instrument. Tan was awarded a monetary prize and professional management. Klavierspiel, a new work for three pianos by composer Ben Wallace ’22DMA, was premiered by pianist Alpin Hong at the Gilmore Piano Festival in Michigan this past April. Hong performed in costume alongside his pre-recorded self in a suite of videogame music stylized in classical forms.
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In November 2021, Kate Warren ’22MMA published The Kate Warren French Horn Routine, a collection of exercises and pedagogy for French horn. The book is available to purchase through katewarrenmusic.com. Warren recently partnered with Conn & Selmer and Smart Music to create and record a comprehensive beginner French horn curriculum. The video series is available on Conn & Selmer’s music education platform, “Music Professor.”
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Violinist Ilana Zaks ’22MM and soprano Magdalena Kuźma ’22MM were semifinalists at the 2022 Young Concert Artists competition.
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Alexei Tartakovsky Kayla Cabrera Ariel Horowitz Martina Myskohlid (right) Aaron Tan Magdalena Kuźma
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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alumni news
Alumni project receives major prize
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he Heartbeat Music Project, an organization that was created in 2016 by violinist and YSM alum Ariel Horowitz ’19MM ’20MMA to provide free music and cross-cultural education to Diné youth on the Navajo Reservation in Crownpoint, N.M., received a $500,000 Accelerator Award from The Lewis Prize for Music in January. The award was established to “provide multi-year support to enable leaders and organizations to make sustained progress toward ambitious community change initiatives,” The Lewis Prize explained in a press release.
“We, until this point, have been a completely grassroots organization,” Horowitz, the organization’s artistic director, said. “We have been sustained by very regular people who love our kids. At the very outset, it was a volunteer effort. I am so proud of what we have 26
Music at Yale
“We have been sustained by very regular people who love our kids. At the very outset, it was a volunteer effort. I am so proud of what we have done with so little these past five years. There is so much that’s possible now.” —Ariel Horowitz done with so little these past five years. There is so much that’s possible now.” Horowitz described receiving The Lewis Prize’s Accelerator Award as a “completely life-changing” moment for the Heartbeat Music Project, its students, and the community. One of those young musicians, then12-year-old violinist and longtime
Heartbeat Music Project student Aspyn, said working with Horowitz and the organization’s teachers and staff “has opened up a whole career path for me. I want to end up doing this as a career, not just a hobby.” Sharon Nelson, the organization’s executive director, pointed out that many families on the Navajo Reservation can’t afford music instruction for their children. “We’re breaking down the walls for these students,” Nelson said. Unemployment on the Navajo Reservation is high, COVID-19 has ravaged the community, and access to Wi-Fi is limited. The Lewis Prize press release explained that “teachings at The Heartbeat Music Project push back on settler colonialism, a system that devalues Indigenous music while elevating Western music genres. By offering Diné and Western music
simultaneously, Heartbeat disrupts the colonial project and provides Diné youth equitable access to heretofore ‘elitist’ knowledge. Students engage in an organic confidence-building process in which they strengthen and give voice to their own culture and reimagine Western music genres, creating emergent artistic traditions that help shape postcolonial local and global musical cultures and are sustained within the greater Navajo community.” “That in itself is almost a revolutionary act,” The Lewis Prize’s CEO, Dalouge Smith, said, agreeing that young people on the Navajo Reservation “need to know their culture in relationship to the Western culture that surrounds them.” The Lewis Prize, established by its namesake, philanthropist Daniel R. Lewis, “believes that music in the lives of young people is a catalytic force to drive positive change in our society,” the organization’s press release said. The Heartbeat Music Project “came to our families’ sides,” said Nelson, who is Diné and serves as assistant professor of Diné culture, language, and leadership at Navajo Technical University, which has hosted the Heartbeat Music Project, at no cost, since the organization’s inception. Violinist and YSM student Gregory Lewis ’19MM ’27DMA (no relation), the Heartbeat Music Project’s assistant director, said the project’s relationship with The Lewis Prize began in 2020 with the receipt of that organization’s $25,000 COVID-19 Community Response Fund grant. “What we saw was the creative youthdevelopment sector stepping up, taking on work that had never been their work before,” Smith said. In the case of the Heartbeat Music Project, that work only intensified. “We connect as many students as we can to music, free of cost,” Lewis said.
That includes providing students with instruments and transportation, and connecting them to teachers outside of the reservation. Those lessons, too, are paid for by the Heartbeat Music Project. Many Diné youth “haven’t seen Western instruments before,” Horowitz said in 2019, upon receiving the Yale-Jefferson Award for Public Service for work related to the Heartbeat Music Project. “Their lived experience is so drastically different from mine.” The Diné people, Horowitz said, face “massive systemic inequity” and “intergenerational trauma.” The Yale-Jefferson Award recognizes “sustained public service that is individual, innovative, impactful, and inspiring” and individuals who “demonstrate service that draws on the Yale community and/ or resources to benefit the world beyond Yale.” A number of Yale School of Music students and alumni have been involved with the Heartbeat Music Project. Other Accelerator Award recipients, including We Are Culture Creators (Detroit, Mich.), RYSE Youth Center (Richmond, Calif.), and INTEMPO (Stamford, Conn.), “are creating spaces for young people to develop artistry and leadership that strengthens themselves and their communities,” Smith said. “Our awardees show us that building trusted
relationships through music with young people gives them the confidence and tools to pursue the full lives they deserve.” Teachers and friends like Horowitz and Lewis have inspired Aspyn. “I see things in them that I want in my future,” Aspyn said. Learn more about the Heartbeat Music Project at heartbeatmusicproject.org.
Photos courtesy of Navajo Technical University
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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faculty news
Aki retires after 54 years
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In August, Aki Erle traveled to Japan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival (originally the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto), of which the Saito Kinen Orchestra is the resident ensemble. “I’m almost the only one left” of the original founders, Aki Erle said.
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ixty years ago, violinist Syoko Aki came to the School of Music from Tokyo to study with faculty violinist Broadus Erle, a member of the Yale String Quartet, which Aki soon joined. Shortly thereafter, in 1968, Aki married Erle and joined the YSM faculty. Remarkably, more than 50 years later—at the end of this past academic year—Aki Erle retired. In a distinguished career that has included serving the renowned Saito Kinen Orchestra as a founding member and concertmaster, Aki Erle has given many concerts around the world— none more memorable, perhaps, than performances, with Prof. Joan Panetti (now Professor Emerita), of Mozart’s complete violin sonatas in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Equally unforgettable are Aki Erle’s appearances with the Yale Philharmonia in performances of Penderecki’s Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra with 28
Music at Yale
the composer conducting. Aki Erle’s contributions to the School of Music and the Yale Summer School of Music/ Norfolk Chamber Music Festival are immeasurable. Even in retirement, the beloved violinist’s spirit and smile will remain at YSM, like the echoes of the music that’s long coursed through the School’s hallways.
“I will miss her warmth and her strong embraces, and the School will miss her formidable teaching and knowledge of the violin and music. What a treasure she is!” —Ani Kavafian
Beyond the trip to Matsumoto, the violinist’s plans include practicing. “That’s my main focus. This is my time to practice—my turn to buckle down and practice,” Aki Erle said, joking that it’s time to “find out if I was right or not” about half a century of musical advice. On a more serious note, Aki Erle said “practicing is really exercising the brain. For me, it’s really wonderful to keep it going.” Asked about saying goodbye to YSM, the longtime faculty violinist said, “I think what I’m going to miss is the young people—their performances.” Students and faculty alike will certainly miss Aki Erle. “I will truly miss the presence of Syoko Aki Erle on the third floor of Leigh Hall, where we both have been teaching for so many years,” faculty violinist Ani Kavafian said. “I will miss her warmth and her strong embraces, and the School will miss her formidable teaching and knowledge of the violin and music. What a treasure she is!” Kavafian, who joined the YSM faculty in 2006, remembers the welcome Aki
Erle offered. “When I first came to Yale, Syoko invited me to come to her home—a gesture of kindness and hospitality, which made me feel immediately welcomed. She showed me her beautiful tower [an architectural feature Aki Erle had added to the house], an homage to her husband, Broadus Erle [who passed away in 1977], her impressive studio, and mementos that take years to build. She is respected and loved by all her students and she leaves a beautiful legacy for all of us.”
“As a teacher, colleague, and friend, Syoko has enriched the YSM community with her grace, devotion, and kindness. Her enduring legacy is the artistic polish and musical insight seen in each of her students, many of whom now hold major positions in the music profession.”
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—Robert Blocker At the School’s Honor’s Banquet in May, Dean Robert Blocker presented Aki Erle with the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Service Award and announced the establishment of the Syoko Aki Erle Teaching Studio at YSM. “As a teacher, colleague, and friend, Syoko has enriched the YSM community with her grace, devotion, and kindness,” Blocker recently said. “Her enduring legacy is the artistic polish and musical insight seen in each of her students, many of whom now hold major positions in the music profession.” 1. Left to right: Oscar Shumsky, Joseph Silverstein, Raphael Hillyer, Syoko Aki Erle, Homer Mensch 2. Syoko Aki Erle 3. Syoko Aki Erle receives the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Service Award from YSM Dean Robert Blocker in May 2022 4. Syoko Aki Erle and Joan Panetti
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Katherine Balch Wigmore Hall. Prof. Balch has taught composition at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, the Mannes School of Music at The New School, and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and has delivered lectures at Harvard University, the Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Peabody Institute, and University of California, Berkeley. Prof. Balch has contributed to journals and magazines, served on juries and boards for the Brooklyn Art Song Society, New York Youth Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, and participated in antiracist and equity working groups at Columbia University. In addition to a master of music degree from the Yale School of Music, Prof. Balch holds a bachelor of arts degree in history and political science from Tufts University, a bachelor of music degree in composition from New England Conservatory, and master of arts and doctor of musical arts degrees from Columbia University.
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omposer and YSM alum Katherine Balch ’16MM joined the School’s faculty in July 2022 as Visiting Assistant Professor, Adjunct, of Composition, following an announcement about the appointment in February. A remarkably accomplished artist, Prof. Balch was awarded the American Academy in Rome’s 2020-2021 Elliott Carter Rome Prize Fellowship in Music Composition and has received honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Serge Koussevitzky 30
Music at Yale
Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, and other institutions. Among those that have commissioned music from Prof. Balch are the Albany Symphony, Bravo! Festival Vail, Chamber Music America, Concert Artists Guild, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Music USA, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, and
Photo by Lanz Photography
Soovin Kim International, Delos, Azica Records, and Stomp/EMI (Korea) labels. Prof. Kim has worked and collaborated with such revered chamber musicians as Jeremy Denk and Mitsuko Uchida and for two decades was the first violinist in the Johannes String Quartet. Today, Prof. Kim is part of the Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio with his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, and YSM faculty cellist Paul Watkins. Prof. Kim’s work with students as a faculty member at the New England Conservatory, the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and Stony Brook University has bolstered an excellent pedagogical reputation, as has an appointment as an international scholar at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. Prof. Kim earned a bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music with prior studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Prof. Kim is the Artistic Director of Chamber Music Northwest and the founder and Artistic Director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival. Prof. Kim also maintains a relationship with the Marlboro Music Festival and has performed with musicians from that organization on a dozen national tours over the course of nearly 15 years.
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n February 2022, the Yale School of Music announced the appointment of renowned violinist Soovin Kim, who joined the faculty in July as Visiting Professor in the Practice of Violin. In addition to teaching a studio of violin students, Prof. Kim will coach chamber music and conduct a master class each semester.
Prof. Kim won first prize at the 1996 Paganini International Violin Competition and has received the
prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award. Prof. Kim also received the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Prof. Kim has performed with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad, presented recitals on the world’s most celebrated stages, and released recordings on the Koch Discover Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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faculty news
James O’Donnell O’Donnell has performed as an organ recitalist in some of the most prestigious concert halls, cathedrals, and churches in the world and has appeared as a soloist with such celebrated ensembles as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Prof. O’Donnell has worked as a conductor with the Academy of Ancient Music, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, BBC Singers, English Concert, and the Yale Schola Cantorum, and is currently Music Director of St. James’ Baroque, in London. Prof. O’Donnell has made more than 50 organ and choral recordings, several of which have garnered such prestigious awards as Gramophone’s Record of the Year and Best Choral Recording. Prof. O’Donnell is past president of the Royal College of Organists and a fellow of the Royal College of Music and the Royal School of Church Music. In 1999, Pope John Paul II bestowed on Prof. O’Donnell the title of Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory. Adapted from a Yale Institute of Sacred Music announcement
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n April 2022, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music announced the appointment of organist James O’Donnell at the ISM and the Yale School of Music. Prof. O’Donnell will join the faculty in January, succeeding Thomas Murray (now Professor Emeritus of Music). Prof. O’Donnell will teach graduate-level organ majors and other students in sacred music and will direct a newly formed professional liturgical vocal ensemble that will serve as a model and vehicle for study for 32
Music at Yale
students preparing for careers in church music and liturgy. One of the most celebrated concert organists, choral conductors, and liturgical musicians of our time, Prof. O’Donnell served for more than 30 years as Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. From 1997 to 2004, Prof. O’Donnell was Professor of Organ at the Royal Academy of Music in London and now serves that institution as Visiting Professor. Prof.
Photo by Suzanne Bosman
faculty news
Alejandro Roca Roca’s pedagogical experience includes the presentation of master classes at Indiana University and the University of Michigan in the United States, Nayang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, Capela di Santa Maria in Curitiba, Brazil,and the University of Valle and the University of the North in Colombia, among other institutions. Prof. Roca earned a master of arts degree in orchestral conducting from the National University of Colombia and a bachelor of arts degree in piano performance from the Antonio Maria Valencia Conservatory in Cali. Prof. Roca also pursued postgraduate studies at Liceu Conservatory in Barcelona.
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cclaimed opera coach and conductor Alejandro Roca joined the School of Music faculty in July 2022 as Lecturer in Music/Opera Coach, following an announcement about the appointment in May. Since 2006, Prof. Roca has served as a conductor and pianist at the Opera of Colombia, in Bogotá. In addition to conducting such ensembles as the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, Cali Philharmonic Orchestra, and Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, Prof. Roca has assisted such renowned conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Josep Caballé Domenech, Hilary Griffiths, and Gérard Korsten, appeared in recital with numerous vocalists around the world, and recorded music by several Latin American composers. Prof. Roca most recently served as Director and Opera Coach of the Opera
2 Workshop at Central University, in Bogotá, and of Scuola Italia’s summer program for young opera singers in Sant’Angelo in Vado, Italy. For the past two years Prof. Roca was a member of the faculty at the University of Antioquia, in Medellín. Prof. Roca has also served as Director of the Cartagena International Music Festival’s academic program.
1. Photo by Jhon Paz 2. Photo by Kike Barona
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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Stephanie Venturino Routledge), and has given presentations at professional conferences in the United States and abroad. Prof. Venturino worked at Eastman as a teaching assistant and at the Eastman Community Music School as a music theory and aural skills teacher. Prof. Venturino is a recipient of the University of Rochester’s Educational IT Innovation Grant, Eastman’s TA Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and the Eastman Community Music School’s Jack L. Frank Award for Excellence in Teaching. Equally at home on the concert stage, Prof. Venturino has extensive ensemble, chamber, and solo performance experience, has been a member of the Eastman Saxophone Project, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, and Musica Nova, and has garnered top prizes at numerous local, regional, and national solo and chamber music competitions.
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tephanie Venturino joined the School’s academic faculty in July 2022 as Assistant Professor, Adjunct, of Music Analysis and Musicianship, following an announcement about the appointment in March. Prof. Venturino earned a bachelor of music degree in music theory and a bachelor of music degree and a performer’s certificate in classical saxophone performance from the Eastman School of Music, where her dissertation—on the concept of resonance
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in French music and music theory from 1900 to 1960—was supported by the University of Rochester’s Raymond N. Ball Fellowship. Prof. Venturino has contributed scholarship to the peer-reviewed journal Theoria: Historical Aspects of Music Theory (forthcoming) and the edited collections Debussy Studies 2 (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press) and Arabesque without End: Across Music and the Arts, from Faust to Shahrazad (2022,
Photo by Blooming Branch Photography
Theofanidis elected to Academy “It’s something you should do as part of your practice,” Theofanidis explained, “apply to things,” develop a sense of continuing that “service to yourself.” Theofanidis earned a master of musical arts degree and a doctor of musical arts degree from YSM in 1994 and 1997, respectively, and has served on the School of Music faculty since 2008. Theofanidis has earned the top award at the Masterprize International Composing Competition, the prestigious Rome Prize, and Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships, among other honors, and the faculty composer’s music has been commissioned and performed by celebrated ensembles around the world. In addition to the professorship at Yale, Theofanidis is the composer-inresidence at the Aspen Music Festival and School and co-directs that organization’s composition program.
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ale School of Music alum and faculty composer Christopher Theofanidis ’94MMA ’97DMA was elected in March 2022 to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Theofanidis and 17 other newly elected artists were formally inducted in May. “New members were elected by vote of the existing membership,” the Academy’s news release explained. “The honor of election is considered the highest form of recognition of artistic merit in the United States.” The news, Theofanidis said, “came out of the blue.” In 2012, Theofanidis won a Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award from the Academy, a $10,000 prize “given to a promising mid-career composer,” according to the organization. In 2018, Theofanidis received a $10,000 Arts and Letters Award in Music and an
additional $10,000 with which to record a piece of music. Theofanidis described the Academy as “a kind of honor society,” a sort of artist colony on an ongoing basis. Membership therein, Theofanidis said, “puts you in contact with a greater circle of artists” than you might otherwise know. It’s nice, Theofanidis said, “to be able to spend time (at Academy events) with a variety of high-level people from different disciplines.” Membership also means having a voice in who receives prizes from the Academy in the future. “It’s a wonderful thing to be associated with, from that standpoint,” said Theofanidis, who encourages students to apply for various grants and awards—to have confidence in their work and “accept the flow of nos.”
Other composers elected to the Academy this year were John Luther Adams, Jennifer Higdon, Annea Lockwood, and David Sanford. In addition to Theofanidis, YSM faculty composers Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis ’83, and David Lang ’83MMA ’89DMA are members of the Academy. YSM alum and faculty composer Katherine Balch ’16MM received a $10,000 Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award in Music from the Academy in February.
Photo by Matt Fried
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Faculty news
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n response to the horrors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Boris Berman, the Sylvia and Leonard Marx Professor in the Practice of Piano, gave a series of performances in support of the Ukrainian people. These concerts featured works by prominent Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, with whom Berman began collaborating in the 1960s in the Soviet Union. The program was recorded and released by Le Palais des Connoisseurs, which also released another recording by Berman of music by Johannes Brahms. As with Berman’s earlier recording of Brahms’ music, the program notes were written by Associate Professor Adjunct of Music History Paul Berry.
In June, Martin Bresnick, the Charles T. Wilson Professor in the Practice of Composition, was Composer-InResidence at the New Music Workshop at the Yale Summer School of Music/ Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Bresnick served in the same capacity, in July, at the Atlantic Music Festival in Waterville, Maine, and in July and August at Greenwood Music Camp in Cummington, Mass. Bresnick is currently working on a commission for the contemporary choral ensemble The Crossing and the Prism Saxophone Quartet. Lecturer in Organ Improvisation Jeffrey Brillhart recently appeared in concert at Philadelphia’s Kimmel 36
Music at Yale
2 Center with the Canadian Brass, two performances by the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia of music by J.S. Bach, J.P. Rameau, Antonio Vivaldi, and Giovanni Sammartini, and conducted the world premiere of David Conte’s Easter Hymn and the Philadelphia premiere of Allan Bevan’s Now Goth forth under Wode. In May, Brillhart led the Singing City Choir and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in a concert in support of Ukraine. In July, Brillhart led a choir tour to Israel and Jordan, with concerts in Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Amman. That tour included a benefit concert for the Jerash refugee camp in Amman. In July, Brillhart taught organ improvisation at the weeklong Royal Canadian College of Organists’ Summer Organ Academy. Assistant Professor Adjunct of Music History Lynette Bowring recently contributed to the new book Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy: New Perspectives, published by Indiana University Press. The book provides an interdisciplinary assessment of the social, cultural, political, economic, and religious circumstances shaping Jewish communities’ multifaceted engagements with music. Prof. Bowring’s chapter, co-authored with Rebecca Cypess, examines how oral and literate cultures were brought into dialogue in Salamone Rossi’s instrumental music and Hebrew motets.
Professor of Choral Conducting Jeffrey Douma recently collaborated with Professor Adjunct of Composition and YSM alum David Lang ’83MMA ’89DMA on a new recording of Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning the little match girl passion, which is slated for future commercial release. Douma also appeared as a panelist for the American Choral Directors Association Eastern Division Conference, conducted at the Choral Escapes Festival in Santa Fe, N.M., and returned to the conducting programs at the University of Birmingham and Zurich’s Hochschule der Künste as a guest lecturer. Douma led the Yale Glee Club in a season that emphasized new music, including works by Arianne Abela, Isaac Lovdahl, Angélica Negrón, Shruthi Rajasekar, Derrick Skye, Joel Thompson ’20MMA ’26DMA, Julia Wolfe ’86MM, and Ayanna Woods. Artist-in-Residence Augustin Hadelich concertized in summer 2022 in the United States and Europe. Hadelich’s engagements included an orchestral tour with the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne that took Hadelich to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the BBC Proms in London, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Hadelich’s summer season also included performances at the Salzburg, Lucerne, Aspen, and Grand Teton music festivals. Hadelich’s recording of books four through six of the Suzuki Violin School was released in June 2021.
After a couple of years with little traveling and performances, Professor in the Practice of Violin Ani Kavafian returned to a summer of festival hopping and performances. In May, Kavafian performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Shaker Village Chamber Music Festival and at the Four Seasons Festival in Greenville, N.C. Kavafian’s summer also included appearances at the Sarasota Music Festival, Heifetz Institute, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Yale Summer School of Music/ Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Vivace International Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire. In April 2022, tenor, Associate Professor, Adjunct, and Director of Equity, Belonging, and Student Life Albert Lee sang a role in Strawberry Fields by composer Michael Torke ’86 at Opera Las Vegas. This is only the second production of the opera since its premiere at the Glimmerglass Festival in 1999. Lee made his London Symphony Orchestra debut in May singing the tenor solo in Adolphus Hailstork’s cantata I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, and also sang on the opening concert of the 2022 International Festival of Arts & Ideas with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, a performance that also featured Metropolitan Opera soprano Harolyn Blackwell and singer/actor Brian Stokes Mitchell.
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In April 2022, violinist, Lecturer in Early Music and YSM alum Daniel Lee ’04MM ’06AD performed as a guest director and soloist with the Washington Bach Consort in a program of concertos by J.S. Bach and G.P. Telemann. Lee was recently named Concertmaster of the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra.
1. Boris Berman 2. Jeffrey Brillhart in performance. Photo by The Philadelphia Inquirer 3. André Thomas (conducting) and Albert Lee (singing) in performance 4. Left to right: Ricky Ian Gordon, Gerald Martin Moore, and Erin Morley. Photo by Andrea Carson
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faculty news
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Music at Yale
Professor in the Practice of Voice and Director of Yale Opera Gerald Martin Moore’s recent engagements have included judging the finals of the Premiere Opera Foundation’s International Vocal Competition in New York City, teaching as Artistic Associate for Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio, a recital tour with soprano Renée Fleming, a recording with soprano Erin Morley for Pentatone, teaching a vocal master class at the San Francisco Conservatory, and teaching the Adler Fellows of the San Francisco Opera. Additional engagements have included those with the San Francisco Opera’s Merola program, the Young Artist Program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Center, Music Academy of the West, and the Ravinia Art Song Festival. In September 2021, the University of the South conferred an honorary doctor of music degree on Professor Emeritus of Music Thomas Murray. Highlighting Murray’s contributions as a teacher, Vice-Chancellor and President Reuben Brigety wrote in a citation: “The early 17th-century organist Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was known in his day as the ‘Deutsche Organistenmacher,’ the maker of German organists. If we in the early 21st century can claim a comparable American ‘Organistenmacher,’ it is Thomas Murray.” Markus Rathey, the Robert S. Tangeman Professor in the Practice of Music History, recently published Sacred and Secular Intersections in Music of the Long Nineteenth Century: Church, Stage, and Concert Hall (Lexington Books, 2022) with co-editor Eftychia Papanikolaou. Rathey’s contribution is a chapter about the reception African American spirituals received in Germany in response to a concert tour by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in the late 1870s. Sacred and Secular Intersections in Music of the Long Nineteenth Century, which includes contributions from scholars in the United States, Europe, and Asia, is the second book in an ongoing research project that explores music and religion in the “long” 19th century. Theology, Music and Modernity (Oxford University Press, 2021),
co-edited with Jeremy Begbie and Daniel Chua, examined the philosophical and theological discourses that took place at the beginning of the 19th century. Sacred and Secular Intersections trains its focus on works and the musical traditions of France, Poland, Russia, and the United States in the later part of the 19th century. Visiting Lecturer in Community Engagement Sebastian Ruth addressed the Oxford University music faculty with a talk called “Music, Social Impact, Emancipatory Pedagogy: Forming Pathways for Musicianship in Complex Times.” Ruth also recently authored a chapter for a forthcoming Routledge book. The essay is titled “Toward Repairing the Social Fabric: Music, Performance, and Pedagogy at Work.” In spring 2022, Ruth’s ensemble, the MusicWorks Collective, performed a concert called “Songs of Refuge.” The program featured a new work by composer Kareem Roustom in collaboration with musicians from the Middle East refugee community. This spring also marked the 25th anniversary of the founding of Ruth’s music education program, Community MusicWorks in Providence, R.I. In March, Lecturer in Percussion Robert van Sice led the Percussion Collective in two performances, on the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s subscription series, of Drum Circles by Professor in the Practice of Composition and YSM alum Christopher Theofanidis ’94MMA ’97DMA, led by conductor JoAnn Falletta. The Percussion Collective also gave a recital in April on the Cornell Concert Series. The program included a performance by an ensemble of female percussionists of Seaborne, by Garth Neustadter ’12MM. James Taylor, Professor in the Practice of Voice and coordinator of the Early Music, Oratorio and Art Song program at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale School of Music, traveled to London in October 2021 to record songs from 20th Century Fox musicals of the 1940s and 1950s with conductor David Charles Abell and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Taylor’s new recording of cantatas and
organ works by Nicolaus Bruhns, led by Masaaki Suzuki, was released on the BIS Records label in March. In June, Taylor presented lectures and master classes at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen, Germany. After two years away, Taylor was excited to return in July to Middlebury, in Vermont, to conduct master classes for the German for Singers program. In July 2021, Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting and Interim Conductor of the Camerata André J. Thomas became the National President of the American Choral Directors Association. The ACDA is the largest choral association in the world, and Thomas is the first person of color to head the organization. Thomas was also recently named an Associate Artist with the London Symphony Orchestra. In May, the compositions of Lecturer in Electronic Music Jack Vees were featured in a performance at Carnegie Hall by the Cleveland-based NO EXIT New Music Ensemble. The concert was organized to celebrate the launch of the international composers group The Collective, of which Vees is a member.
at Wolf Trap Opera. In October, Zabala performed the title role of Nadia Boulanger in the chamber music play NADIA, by Mina Fisher, at Lebanon Valley College. Zabala also joined the Santa Fe Opera in December for the stage premiere of Laura Kaminski and Kimberly Reed’s Hometown to the World. Zabala made her debut with Ópera Tenerife in the Spanish premiere of Florencia en el Amazonas and was an adjudicator for the Metropolitan Laffont Competition San Diego and St. Louis districts, and for the Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition. In June, Zabala returned to Opera Colorado in the role of Manja for a recording of Gerald Cohen and Deborah Brevoort’s Steal a Pencil for Me. In July, Zabala returned to the Berkshire Opera Festival for her role debut as Madeline in Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers. In fall 2022, Zabala will be the soloist in a performance of Hector Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with the Oregon Mozart Players and will join the Madison Symphony Orchestra for a holiday concert led by Maestro John DeMain.
In 2021, Paul Watkins, the Polak Family Professor in the Practice of Cello, conducted The Juilliard Orchestra in two programs and gave online master classes for the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Oslo Philharmonic Academy, and Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, UK. Watkins was also a jury member for the Naumburg Young Artists and Young Concert Artists competitions. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center filmed a short artist profile about Watkins and broadcast some of his recent New York performances. In 2022, Watkins resumed a full schedule with the Emerson String Quartet that has included performances at Carnegie Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with Renée Fleming and Uma Thurman. Mezzo-soprano and Associate Professor Adjunct of Voice Adriana Zabala was appointed Director of the Opera Studio
1. Robert van Sice (at far left) and percussionists at Cornell University 2. James Taylor (at far right) with colleagues 3. Adriana Zabala in Florencia en el Amazonas. Photo by Miguel Barreto, Auditorio de Tenerife
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staff news
Michael Yaffe retires
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ssociate Dean Michael Yaffe retired at the end of October 2021 having contributed immeasurably to the School’s place in the community and its presence on the national stage. From 2006, Yaffe led the development of YSM’s Music in Schools Initiative and was instrumental in advancing the School’s commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Yaffe also oversaw the School’s operational and financial functions with great care and insight and contributed significantly to planning discussions about the School’s future.
Yaffe arrived at Yale after 20 years at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, having led that institution’s Community Division and served as its Executive Director. Prior to that, Yaffe was Assistant Director at the National Association of Schools of Music and headed the Arts Reporting Unit at WAMU, the National Public Radio affiliate in Washington, D.C. “I had known Michael for years when the School received an endowment from the Yale College Class of 1957 with which to formalize the Music in Schools Initiative,” YSM Dean Robert Blocker said in October, “and I believed he was the only person in the country who could reimagine our vitally important Music in Schools program.” 40
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Upon arriving at Yale with a desire to make “music for all” a reality, Yaffe grew YSM’s Music in Schools Initiative into a partnership with the New Haven Public Schools that has served as a model for programs elsewhere in the United States. Through the Initiative, graduate-student teaching artists from YSM support the work of local public-school educators, gaining mentorship experience working with younger generations of musicians in the New Haven Public Schools and in the Initiative’s Morse Summer Music Academy. Under Yaffe’s leadership, the biennial Symposium on Music in Schools, one of the Initiative’s pillars, was developed into a weekend-long policy think tank whose 2017 work yielded the Declaration on Equity in Music for City Students, an exhortation that calls “for every student in every city in America to have access to a robust and active music life.” Beyond the Music in Schools Initiative, Yaffe’s dedication to equity in music helped inform the School’s participation in the University’s Belonging at Yale initiative. Embracing technology as a vehicle for access and the expansion of the School’s programmatic mission, Yaffe spearheaded the effort to stream performances online for audiences around the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Yaffe called
3 on colleagues across the Yale campus in asking Zoom to upgrade its audio capabilities and oversaw the School’s deployment of technology to make the study of music possible for YSM students and faculty when they could not make music in person. “I am so grateful to have worked at a school like YSM, which values the idea of cultural leadership, and at a university like Yale, whose mission supports changing the world,” Yaffe said. “Prime examples of that are the Symposium on Music in Schools and the Music in Schools Initiative here in New Haven, which together have been able to influence our field and broad public policy to help students have access to an active music life.” 1. Yaffe receives YSM’s Cultural Leadership Citation from Dean Robert Blocker during Convocation in 2016 2. Michael Yaffe. Photo by Bob Handelman 3. Left to right: Michael Yaffe, Rachel Glodo and Rubén Rodríguez. Photo by Harold Shapiro
Suzanne Stringer retires Suzanne left the Commons to work as a secretary for the manager of the Yale Law School Dining Hall. After taking some time off from the workplace, Suzanne returned as a University temp, working in various offices until she was offered a full-time position, in 1981, in Yale’s Student Loan Office. Three years later, in 1984, Suzanne joined the YSM staff, first as a department secretary, then, successively, under three deans and through numerous transformative moments in the School’s history, as an administrative specialist, Financial Aid Director, and, in 1999, Registrar (now Student Services Director). Before files were moved online, Suzanne “would physically see every student,” the longtime staff member said. “I knew every student’s name and instrument.”
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irector of Student Services Suzanne Stringer retired in December 2021 after 37 years at the School of Music and more than 40 at Yale University. As Student Services Director (formerly Registrar), Suzanne offered YSM students a welcoming and guiding voice. An area native, Suzanne started working at Yale part-time during high school. Suzanne’s grandmother was a University employee who worked in the Yale Commons Dining Hall, which catered special events on evenings and weekends. “I would waitress those functions with her,” Suzanne explained. While attending the Stone School of Business in New Haven, Suzanne continued to work part-time in the Yale Commons, waitressing and checking students in at mealtime. It was there that Suzanne met future husband Michael, who Suzanne said “came
Before retiring at the end of the fall 2021 semester, Suzanne, who at that point had been part of the Yale community for more than four decades, said, “I’ve been doing it so long it’s my life. … I love the atmosphere of the campus. I like the academic environment.” The Yale School of Music faculty, staff, administration, students, and alumni will miss Suzanne, whose remarkable institutional memory always reflected a sincere dedication to the School’s work and ever-growing global community.
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to Yale as a freshman and never left.” Michael was managing the Commons at the time, having earned a bachelor of arts degree in administrative sciences at Yale in 1977. Michael worked for many years thereafter in the University’s Office of Facilities before retiring in July 2020.
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Suzanne Stringer Suzanne Stringer and husband, Michael, at the YSM Honors Banquet
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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staff news
Staff appointments YSM welcomed several new staff members this year, and a few colleagues moved into new positions. Find a full staff directory at music.yale.edu/contact.
KJ Megan Doran, Program Manager Hometown: Westbrook, Conn. Previous job/position: Admissions Coordinator, Yale School of Music Hobbies: Yoga Favorite composer/artist: Brahms
Timothy Feil, Financial Assistant Hometown: Berwyn, Penn. Previous job/position: Curatorial Assistant, Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments Hobbies: I spend a lot of time cooking and making craft cocktails Favorite composer/artist: Francis Poulenc
Krista Johnson, Director of Student Services Previous job/position: Manager of Concert Programs, Yale School of Music Hobbies: Hiking, photography, wilderness EMT Favorite composer/artist: Jean Sibelius
Aaron Kaplan, Admissions Coordinator Hometown: Syosset, N.Y. Previous job/position: Admissions Assistant, Shepherd School of Music, Rice University Hobbies: Baseball (lifelong New York Yankees fan), Peloton, traveling Favorite composer/artist: James Whitbourn, Eric Whitacre
Elizabeth (Liz) Landau, Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Affairs Hometown: Delmar, N.Y. Previous job/position: Assistant Director of Special Stewardship, Yale University Office of Development Hobbies: Visiting art museums and galleries, record collecting, DIY projects Favorite composer/artist: John Cage
Julian Liby, Video Producer Hometown: Hutchinson, Kan. Previous job/position: Digital Media Strategist, Office of Admissions, Wichita State University Hobbies: Filmmaking, reading, video games, and spending time with the cutest husky in the whole entire world Favorite composer/artist: Joji, Glass Animals, Low Roar
Katherine Ludington, Concert Office Manager Hometown: Brockport, N.Y. Previous job/position: Venue Rental Manager, Tanglewood Hobbies: Textile artist, woodworking, baking Favorite composer/artist: Currently, Lizzo
Justina Sullivan, Coordinator of Music in Schools Initiative Hometown: New Haven, Conn. Previous job/position: Chief of Staff, Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign Hobbies: Hiking, climbing trees, feeding chipmunks, traveling, eating cheese, and meeting new people Favorite composer/artist: Antonín Dvořák
Robert Whipple, General Manager, Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Hometown: West Windsor, N.J. Previous job/position: Executive Director, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Burlington, Vt. Hobbies: Hiking, playing bass, watching movies Favorite composer/artist: Bill Frisell, Sonic Youth
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Coda: an exit interview with Donna Yoo “Because I am very aware that I would not be where I am without mentors in my life,” Yoo said, “I try to be that person for whoever needs that guidance. That’s an important thing I learned from the tightknit culture at YSM.”
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n April 2022, YSM alum and Director of Admissions Donna Yoo ’09MM left the School for a new opportunity: Dean of Artistic Administration and Operations at the Cleveland Institute of Music. It’s a role Yoo had long been working toward. Like many in the field, Yoo was a performance major—Yoo studied horn at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, then at YSM, and finally at Stony Brook University. While pursuing an undergraduate degree in Rochester, Yoo took on a work-study job to create balance. “It was therapy for me,” Yoo explained. “It was a break from a stressful music education, and (from) playing.” In retrospect, Yoo always knew, to a certain degree, that a career shift was all-but inevitable.
At Yale, Yoo worked alternately in the Admissions Office, Yale Philharmonia Office, and Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Office, and continued to work in the Norfolk office while earning a doctor of musical arts degree at Stony Brook. During that time, Yoo’s colleagues at YSM offered a perspective that quelled the fear of stigma that can haunt one who puts down the instrument to pursue a different goal.
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“This definition of success really shifted in my mind,” Yoo said, explaining that at YSM no judgment was levied in reaction to the pursuit of interests outside of performing. A full-time job as Administrative and Operations Associate at Norfolk followed and led to positions, at the School of Music, as Box Office Manager and Concert Programs Coordinator, Director of Communications and Alumni Affairs, and Director of Admissions and Alumni Affairs. Yoo spent the last few years at YSM as Admissions Director, overseeing the rigorous process of recruiting, auditioning, and accepting new generations of ascendant musicians to the School and the wider YSM community.
Yoo cares deeply about the profession and the classical music industry—and about making meaningful change in what both look like. While not looking beyond the deanship at CIM, Yoo said, “I do hope to be given a chance to run a school one day,” insisting that’s not at all about securing a fancy title. “I wish to have an opportunity to run a school that embraces inclusivity in a way that I had hoped to see as a student,” Yoo said, pointing out that the field at large—the classical music industry—is sorely lacking in diversity. “I just want to take a shot at it.”
“Because I am very aware that I would not be where I am without mentors in my life. I try to be that person for whoever needs that guidance. That's an important thing I learned from the tight-knit culture at YSM.” —Donna Yoo Asked about younger musicians who might be curious about shifting gears career-wise, Yoo said, “I want them to be comfortable embracing their curiosity,” explaining, “I knew that I wasn’t obsessed with performing. Prioritize your passion and find your own path. YSM helped me understand there’s just not that one path to success. Be brave, is what I would say.”
1. Left to right: Handsome Dan and his handler, Yale University President Peter Salovey, Donna Yoo, and YSM Dean Robert Blocker at the Alumni Reunion in October 2019 2. Donna Yoo sporting her Yale pride at the Ivy Plus Conference at Princeton
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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giving
Lieberman and Kroll make bequest in Worcester, Mass., where the violinist directed the Holy Cross Chamber Players, and Kroll retired in 2002 as full professor and chair of the historical performance program at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, where the harpsichordist is now Professor Emeritus of Music in historical performance. Kroll taught for several more years, at MIT and Northeastern University, before retiring from teaching altogether to focus on performing, recording, and writing. In 2020, Kroll received Early Music America’s Howard Mayer Brown Award “for lifetime achievement in the field of early music,” as the organization describes the honor. The two continue to perform—“I think we’re getting better!” Kroll joked—as often as they can. “My life really began at Yale as a violinist,” Lieberman said in reflection. Before studying with Broadus Erle at YSM, Lieberman hadn’t seriously contemplated a career in music. And, Lieberman said, “I was a scholarship student at the School of Music. I would not have gone there had I not had a scholarship.”
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a doctor of musical arts degree program, and an invitation to apply, which prompted a return to New Haven, where, rehearsing for a wedding gig at the (now) Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments, Lieberman met Kroll.
iolinist Carol Lieberman ’67MM ’70MMA ’74DMA and harpsichordist Mark Kroll ’71MM, who met as students at the School of Music and were married soon thereafter, recently made a generous bequest that will support a named scholarship fund at YSM. They also plan to leave their instruments and music library to YSM, where those materials will have a permanent home. Lieberman and Kroll have already made an initial donation to the scholarship their bequest will fund in perpetuity.
“We seemed to like the way each other played,” Kroll said, laughing, “and we seemed to like each other.” Kroll remembers that they were playing a Bach sonata when they first met—and that they were being coached by then-faculty harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick.
For Lieberman and Kroll, life together began at YSM. Lieberman earned a master of music degree in 1967 and left shortly thereafter for a job in the Israel Philharmonic working with the likes of Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, and Zubin Mehta. While in Israel, Lieberman received news that YSM was instituting
Lieberman and Kroll were married in 1974, the year Lieberman became the first violinist to earn a DMA from YSM. Since then, theirs has been a life filled with music—performances, recordings, pedagogy, and scholarship. Lieberman retired in 2019 after 34 years on the faculty at the College of the Holy Cross,
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Music at Yale
“We want to give back,” Kroll said of the couple’s bequest. “It’s as simple as that.” For information about including YSM in your estate plans, contact Katherine Darr, Director of Development and Alumni Affairs, at katherine.darr@yale.edu.
Your future and YSM, stronger together Charitable gift annuities: Dependable income for you and your family Whether you are planning for retirement, looking to provide for a loved one, or seeking to maximize your gift, you can support the Yale School of Music while meeting your goals. Simple and stable, a Yale charitable 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 payments 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 ½ 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 distribution, which now is not required until age 72, and designated to any area at YSM.
Gifts that cost nothing during your lifetime There are many ways to support Yale’s future that do not affect you and your family during your lifetime. Including a bequest in your estate plan is one way to leave a legacy. There are also other arrangements, similar to bequests, which are simple, straightforward, and accomplish the same goal.
Sample Rates for Yale Charitable Gift Annuities Age
Immediate
Deferred 3 years
Deferred 5 years
65
4.5%
6%
7%
70
5.5%
7.5%
9%
75
6.5%
9.5%
12%
80
7.5%
12%
12%
For more information about these or other planned giving opportunities, please contact Katherine Darr, Director of Development and Alumni Affairs at 203-432-8754 or katherine.darr@yale.edu. Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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in memoriam
Remembering composer Ingram Marshall became lifelong friends with composer John Adams, who conducted the premier performance of one of Marshall’s bestknown pieces, Fog Tropes, in 1981. In the late 1980s, Marshall moved with his family to Hamden, Conn., where he resided for the rest of his life. In an interview for Yale’s Oral History of American Music (OHAM), Marshall said, “I realized that the way I put my pieces together—they are very fragilely constructed. It’s like when I’m building something I’ve forgotten to put an underpinning beforehand to make it really strong—but I’m going to keep going because I know I’m on the right track.”
By Libby Van Cleve
C
omposer Ingram Douglass Marshall, who served as Lecturer in Composition at the Yale School of Music from 2004 to 2014, died on May 31 at age 80 of complications related to Parkinson’s disease. Born in 1942 in Mount Vernon, N.Y., Marshall earned a bachelor of arts degree from Lake Forest College in Illinois and did graduate work in musicology at Columbia University, where he first encountered electronic music and worked at the legendary Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. After a stint at NYU’s Composers’ Workshop, Marshall attended the California Institute of the Arts, where he received a master of fine arts degree in 1971 and stayed to teach courses in electronic music and textsound compositions. In 1973, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he 46
Music at Yale
During his career, Marshall taught or served as artist-in-residence at the California Institute of the Arts, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Evergreen State College, Brooklyn College, The Hartt School, Dartmouth College, and Yale School of Music. He received awards from the Guggenheim, Fromm, and Rockefeller foundations, the Fulbright Scholar Program, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and had residencies at the American Academy in Rome, the Bellagio Center in Italy, and the Djerassi Foundation in California. Among his many commissions were those from the Kronos Quartet, the San Francisco, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Seattle symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Minnesota Orchestra, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Theatre of Voices, American Composers Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Bang on a Can All-Stars. Marshall also wrote solo pieces for such artists as composer, pianist, and YSM alum Timo Andres ’07BA ’09MM, cellist and YSM alum Ashley Bathgate ’07MM ’08AD, oboist, OHAM director, and YSM alum Libby Van Cleve ’87MM ’88MMA ’92DMA, and
YSM faculty guitarist Benjamin Verdery. “Ingram possessed a gentle and powerful wisdom,” Verdery wrote. “His music cuts to the core of human emotion and experience and will remain timeless.” Although not a career academic, Marshall taught numerous students, including Andres, who said, “His music is full of contradictions and unexplainable things; ephemeral but weighty; vast but never grandiloquent; understated yet unafraid of deep emotion or dramatic gesture.” YSM Lecturer in Electronic Music Jack Vees said, “His deeper artistry may be that he manages to coax out of us our own authentic presence for at least a few minutes.” Marshall is survived by his wife, Veronica Tomasic, his son Clement Marshall, daughter-in-law Samantha Do, and two granddaughters, his daughter Juliet Simon, and two grandsons. He was predeceased by his father, Harry Reinhard Marshall Sr., his mother, Bernice Douglass Marshall, his brother, Harry Reinhard Marshall Jr., and his half-sister, Patricia Jewett. A concert honoring Ingram Marshall will be presented by the Yale School of Music during the 2022-2023 academic year. Adapted from an obituary that was written by Libby Van Cleve and published by the Yale News in June. Portions of this obituary came from liner notes Van Cleve wrote in 2009 for New World Records and were used with permission from the Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc. © 2009. Van Cleve is Director of Yale’s Oral History of American Music.
Photo by Bob Handelman
The School of Music recognizes the passing of these faculty, alumni, colleagues, and friends: Choo-Hi K. Chang ’57BM Laura Chilton Herbert J. Coyne ’49 Rogert Ermili ’62MM Thomas Casey Greene Jr. ’52BA ’54BM ’55MM Ingram Marshall Alexander M. Main Jr. ’49BM Libbe R. Murez ’43BM
John K. Ossi II ’86MM Eckhart H.W. Richter ’49BA ’52BM ’53MM Patricia R. Talbot ’64 Roy Wampler ’51 John K. Wilson ’55MM
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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Honor roll The School of Music is grateful for the generous support of its alumni and friends. The following individuals made a contribution between July 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022. To make your gift, please visit yale.edu/givemusic. Alumni Fund Kent R. Adams Judith R. Alstadter ’66MM ’72MMA ’75DMA Gregory N. Anderson ’08MMA ’13DMA Dmitri Atapine ’05MMA ’06AD ’10DMA Wing Lam Au ’14MM Eliot T. Bailen ’80MM ’82MMA ’89DMA Amanda Dawn Baker ’00MM David B. Baldwin ’73MM ’74MMA ’79DMA Elena G. Bambach ’55BM ’56MM Carolyn A. Barber ’92MM Geoffrey W. Barnes ’74MM Monifa D. Barrow-Wass ’97MM James R. Barry ’83MM Julie Anne Bates ’94MM Alexander Sylvain Bauhart ’99MMA David A. Behnke ’77MM Mark E. Bergman ’97MM Miss Gerda E. Bielitz ’56BM Jean S. Bills ’63MM George S. Blackburn Jr. ’64BA ’67MM Serena and Robert Blocker ’95MAH Michael C. Borschel ’74MMA ’79DMA Ryan J. Brandau ’06MM ’07MMA ’11DMA John Brandon III ’09MM Anna Kay Rachel Brathwaite ’03MM Susan S. Breitung ’86MM Inbal Segev Brener ’93CERT ’98MM Karen L. Burlingame ’85MM K. Butler-Hopkins ’78MMA ’82DMA Miles Wheaton Canaday ’12MM Susan Chan ’90MM Wayman L. Chin ’83MM Diana L. Chou ’19MMA David James Chrzanowski ’95MM Rosemary Colson ’65MM Kim D. Cook ’81MM Charlotte M. Corbridge Steven F. Darsey ’85MM ’86MMA ’90DMA Richard L. De Baise ’67MM ’70MMA Galen H. Deibler ’54BM ’55MM Sharon Dennison ’79MM Irina Faskianos DePatie ’89BA ’90MM Preethi I. de Silva ’71MMA ’76DMA Deborah Dewey ’79MM Dominick DiOrio III ’08MM ’09MMA ’12DMA Karen DiYanni ’96MM ’97AD 48
Music at Yale
Kevin Dolan ’82MM Patrick J. Durbin ’15MM Abigail P. Elder ’17BA ’19MM ’20MMA Robert A. Elhai ’86MM ’88MMA ’95DMA Jayson Rodovsky Engquist ’96MM Helen B. Erickson ’69MM Reena Maria Esmail ’11MM ’14MMA ’18DMA Ethel H. Farny ’66MM Kenneth H. Freed ’83BA ’87MM Jeff Fuller ’67BA ’69MM Richard J. Gard ’02MM ’04MMA ’07DMA Daniel Tran Gien ’94BS ’96MM Richard H. Goering ’86MM Jie Gong ’07MM Daniel M. Graham ’63MM John M. Graziano ’66MM ’70MPhil ’75PhD Barbara J. Hamilton-Primus ’86MMA ’93DMA Edward Duffield Harsh ’88MM ’92MMA ’95DMA Robert L. Hart ’74MM Ruth A. Hashimoto Eva Marie Heater ’91MM Andrew Elliot Henderson ’01MM Melissa Hopwood ’98MM William G. Hoyt Jr. ’76MM Hsing-Ay Hsu Kellogg ’01MM Ching-chu Hu ’92BA William Lee Hudson ’61MM Mary Wannamaker Huff ’01MM Helen K. Hui ’69MM Lauren A. Hunt ’13MM Paul Abraham Jacobs ’02MM ’03AD Wenbin Jin ’13MM ’09CERT ’15AD Thomas F. Johnson ’61BA ’67MM Boyd M. Jones II ’77MM ’78MMA ’84DMA Jennie Eun-Im Jung ’01MM ’02AD Marie Jureit-Beamish ’81MM ’83MMA ’85DMA Igor Kalnin ’10AD Daniel Dixon Kellogg ’01MM ’03MMA ’07DMA Aaron Jay Kernis ’83 Barbara Peterson Kieffer ’81MM Richard E. Killmer ’67MM ’71MMA ’75DMA Dong-Geun Kim ’09AD Youyoung Kim
Richard A. Konzen ’76MM ’77MMA ’84DMA Ronald H. Krasney ’75BA David M. Kurtz ’80MM Sarita Kit Yee Kwok ’05MMA ’06AD ’09DMA Christian Mark Lane ’08MM Theresa E. Langdon ’79MM David Lasker ’72BA ’74MM Christopher Matthew Lee ’02MM Genevieve Feiwen Lee ’89MM ’90MMA ’94DMA Jenny J. Lee ’18MM Kangho Lee ’96MM Stephane Levesque ’95MM Jessica K. Liebowitz ’87BA Linda T. Lienhard ’62MM Alan K. Lighty ’83MM Stephanie Yu Lim ’00BA Jahja Wang-Chieh Ling ’80MMA ’85DMA Donald Glenn Loach ’53BM ’54MM Jo Ann B. Locke ’54BM Vincent F. Luti ’67MM ’70MMA ’78DMA Maija M. Lutz ’63MM Xinhua Ma ’87MM Paige E. Macklin ’69MM Robert M. Manthey ’01MM Sheila A. Marks ’60MM Katherine Mireille Mason ’04MM Thomas G. Masse ’91MM ’92AD Marjorie J. McClelland Michael Meehan Edmund J. Milly ’15MM Chouhei Min ’72MMA Pamela Getnick Mindell ’99MM ’00MMA ’05DMA Robert W. Molison ’60MM Joanna C. Mongiardo ’98MM James R. Morris ’62MM Grant R. Moss ’82MM ’83MMA ’91DMA Miss Joan Maurine Moss ’67MM Thomas Newman ’77BA ’78MM Tian Hui Ng ’10MM Lee Edwin Northcutt ’88MM Alan M. Ohkubo ’14MM ’15AD William A. Owen III ’79MM Hye-Yeon Park ’05MM ’06AD Florence Fowler Peacock ’62MM Sarah Marie Perkins ’07MM
David T. Perry ’13AD Stephen B. Perry ’81MM Gregory M. Peterson ’85MM Kirsten Peterson ’90MM Kevin J. Piccini ’85MM Susan Poliacik ’74MM Joseph W. Polisi ’73MM ’75MMA ’80DMA ’14MDH Benjamin Carey Poole ’90MM Tammy L. Preuss ’87MM James H. Pyle ’78MM Robert J. Redvanly ’80MM Linda S. Reinfeld ’67MM Mark J. Richards ’81MM Gerald M. Rizzer ’65MM Hildred E. Roach ’62MM John Noel Roberts ’77MMA ’81DMA Dale Thomas Rogers ’76MM Svend J. Ronning ’91MM ’93MMA ’97DMA Linda L. Rosdeitcher ’59BM Melissa Kay Rose ’85MM Donald S. Rosenberg ’76MM ’77MMA Jason Arthur Rubinstein ’88CERT ’91MM Robert Scott Satterlee ’89MMA ’94DMA Peter Savli ’95AD Permelia S. Sears ’74MM Alan D. Seget ’71BA Jill Shires ’70MMA Alvin Shulman ’65MM Bryan R. Simms ’66BA ’69MM ’70MPhil ’71PhD James Austin Smith ’08MM Jennifer Louise Smith ’88MM Regan W. Smith ’81MM Rheta R. Smith ’65MM Timothy Charles Snyder ’99MM Frank A. Spaccarotella ’73MM Tram Ngoc Sparks ’98MMA ’03DMA Timothy Dale Spelbring ’05MM Philip D. Spencer ’77MM Richard S. Steen ’72MMA ’78DMA Thomas Jared Stellmacher ’09MM David Emmet Stern ’86BA Julie Margaret Stoner ’72MM Cynthia T. Stuck ’52BM Sarah Deborah Swersey ’89MM Derek Saiho Tam ’11BA Kiyoshi Tamagawa ’83MM Timothy D. Taylor ’85MM Michael C. Tusa ’75BA ’76MM Ian Tuski ’15MM Joyce M. Ucci ’63MM Antoinette C. Van Zabner ’74MM ’75MMA John P. Varineau ’78MM Ferenc Xavier Vegh Jr. ’92MM
Allan D. Vogel ’71MMA ’75DMA Raymond Vun Kannon ’53BA ’54BM ’55MM Cheryl Rita Wadsworth ’95MM Althea Waites ’65MM Derrick Li Wang ’08MM Carol Kozak Ward ’85MM Elizabeth Ward ’70MMA Ian R. Warman ’94MM Abby N. Wells ’67MM William F. Westney ’71MMA ’76DMA Donald F. Wheelock ’66MM Joseph L. Wilcox ’66MM Christopher P. Wilkins ’81MM Gregory Christopher Wrenn ’92MM Wei-Yi Yang ’95MM ’96AD ’99MMA ’04DMA Donna Yoo ’09MM Kyung Hak Yu ’87MM Lauren K. Yu ’13MM Joyce Ship Zaritsky ’63MM Kevin Zheng ’18MM ’20MPH Michael A. Zuber ’14MM Concert Series and Patron Programs Gabriel Alonso Acevedo ’01MA ’03MPhil ’05PhD Anne-Marie N. Allen Susana B. Arias Kimberly Arndt Stephanie Arrell Margaret Arrington Christopher Avallone Ronald G. Benson Marilyn Bergen Lisa Bernard Dorothea Brennan Leslie Brisman ’79MAH Cynthia D. Brodhead ’72MA Gary H. Burgard ’59BA ’60MAT Jack Bussmann Mark A. Caprio ’98MS ’99MPhil ’03PhD Jose Y. Capuras Akash Chakka Roseann Chatterton Harriet S. Chessman ’75MA ’79PhD Michael R. Cohen Candace L. Conklin Andrea Corcoran Patricia Crisco Doris Yarick Cross Anthony Cuomo Barbara D’Ambruoso Pranav M. Daryanani ’22MBA Sheila ’63BFA ’64MFA and
Peter de Bretteville ’63BA ’68MArch Jerome Delamater Mildred A. Doody ’85JD Thomas P. Duffy ’81MAH James B. Farnam ’73BA Cynthia Farrar ’76BA Owen M. Fiss ’74MAH Mark S. Fitzpatrick Thomas M. Fortuna Sr. Gerald Friedland ’91MAH Leah Fritz Andrew Gorzkowski Carolyn P. Gould George Green Debra W. Gregory Lesley Gustafson Valerie L. Hansen ’98MAH Alexandru Harabagiu Jane Henry Cheryl Hewitt Douglas Hill Francesco Iachello ’78MAH Stefan Jans Ken Johnson Samuel Jungeblut Alan Katz Janna King Seunghee Ko Daniel R. Kopti ’78BA Mark J. Lambert Ann R. Langdon Phyllis I. Leggett Simon Lew George Lister ’73MD Elizabeth N. Lowery ’78MAR Margaret M. Luberda Maurice J. Mahoney ’82MAH Ernest Malecki Wendy Marans Dina M. Marchesi Orla and Mithat Mardin Joel Marks Ann H. Marlowe Robert Marra Kathleen Martin Emly M. McDiarmid ’78MFS John Merriman John Moran Priscilla A. Newman ’85MPPM Roy Ogren Michael Packman Diana Paschall Melissa A. Perez Ethan M. Pesikoff Stephen L. Peterson Michael Piraneo Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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honor roll
Patricia A. Preisig ’06MAH and Robert J. Alpern ’05MAH Barbara M. Riley ’73BA ’75MA ’76MPhil John E. Riley Gary L. Robinson Scott Robinson Martha Rowland Woon C. Schickler Robin Schow Paul H. Serenbetz Brice Shipley Diane Sholomskas Michael J. Shonborn ’99MBA Clifford L. Slayman ’83MAH Jennifer Smith Alan C. Solomon Judy Sparer Dennis D. Spencer ’85MAH Elaine Spinato Nancy Starno R. David Thompson ’85MArch Robert B. Toffler Anna Tucker Suzanne Tucker Avery Tung Anthony Venezia Ms. Stuart G. Warner Jonathan F. Weiss Talia E. Weiss Christopher S. Winkler ’07BA Jiaxin Yu ’20MPhil ’20MS Steven Zaslavsky ’22MBA Rose S. Zolnik Endowed Scholarship, Support, and Resource Funds Denise and Stephen Adams ’59BA Syoko Aki Erle ’69MM James Charles Barket ’88MM Serena and Robert Blocker ’95MAH Harold D. Bornstein Jr. ’53MD † Kevin Cobb Yolanda DiLeone Noah Hillel Enelow ’99BA Joan Osborn Epstein ’76MM Sue and Edward Greenberg ’59BA Mary J. Greer ’78BA ’86MA Hersh Gupta ’20BA Helen and Abel Halpern ’88BA Scott A. Hartman John A. Herrmann Jr. ’57BA Carolyn Jantsch Martha Maas Frank Morelli Thomas Murray 50
Music at Yale
Elizabeth Sawyer Parisot ’66MM ’70MMA ’73DMA Eugene A. Pinover The Presser Foundation William Purvis David A. Shifrin Irving Sitnick Myra S. Swallow ’99BA R. Mark Swicegood ’00MM Stephen G. Taylor The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven Rodney A. Wynkoop ’73BA ’80MMA ’85DMA Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments Thomas P. Anderson Alexander Sylvain Bauhart ‘99MMA M. Teresa Beaman ’81BA ’82MM F. Vining Bigelow Ann Bliss Serena and Robert Blocker ’95MAH Emile L. Boulpaep ’79MAH John Burkhalter III Guido Calabresi ’53BS ’58LLB ’62MAH Juliet T. Chon ’85BS Grace Clark Constance Clement John J. Collins ’00MAH Philip J. Conforti Linda Cunningham and Robert Havlena Michael G. Curtis ’66BA ’70MArch Peter K. Dickinson ’60BE Mary J. Greer ’78BA ’86MA Arthur Haas Daniel F. Harkins Allan W. Harpsichords Susan and Paul Hawkshaw Joseph F. Hoffman ’65MAH † Francesco Iachello ’78MAH Donna Jarlenski and Bruce Larkin Boyd M. Jones II ’77MM ’78MMA ’84DMA Susan Rees Jones Richard D. Kaplan ’66MS ’68MPhil ’70PhD Philip J. Kass David A. Keller Elias Nicholas Kulukundis ’54BA Thomas G. MacCracken ’73BA Harry G. Mairson ’78BA Susan J. Marchant ’76MM ’77MMA ’82DMA Ann H. Marlowe Thomas Meacham Elizabeth D. C. Meyer
Craig A. Monson ’66BA George P. O’Leary ’64BS ’66MS ’69PhD E. Anthony Petrelli ’61BA Richard L. Petrelli ’65BA ’68MPH Amanda Pond William Purvis Lynda E. Rosenfeld ’16MAH and Richard M. Weiss Charles Rudig ’77MM Alan D. Seget ’71BA Koichi Shinohara John H. Solum Timothy A. Steinert ’82BA Kurt S. Stenn ’84MAH Marlene and Shepard Stone J. W. Streett John F. Sutton ’55BA ’56MA The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven Erica Warnock Robin W. Winks Gail and Michael Yaffe Constance and Earl Young Music in Schools Initiative James M. Banner Jr. ’57BA Amy Feldman Bernon ’91MM Serena and Robert Blocker ’95MAH Jay Warren Bright ’71MArch Kathryn K. Burchinal Hope Childs Roderick W. Correll ’57BS ’85MBA William F. Eaton ’57BA Stephen V. Flagg ’57 † Christopher Getman ’64BA Andrew J. Glass ’57BA Paul R. Lamar ’67BA Jill P. Levine Robert A. Ludwig Liz Ly Elvira and Richard Miller Victor Thane Norton Jr. ’57BS Morris Raker ’57BS Philip C. Richards ’57BE Kay George Roberts ’75MM ’76MMA ’86DMA Ruben Rodriguez ’11MM Chrysalyne ’91BA ’98MD and Robert Schmults ’91BA C. Nicholas Tingley ’57BE Margaret S. Travers Robert S. Walker ’57BA
Yale Summer School of Music/ Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Mary M. Ackerly ’77JD Bernard R. Adams ’69LLB Joyce Ahrens The AKC Fund Inc Samuel A. Anderson John T. Andrews Jr. Richard T. Andrias Janet B. Ansbro Alan B. Astrow ’76BA ’80MD Joanna Aversa Mary Ayre Emily P. Bakemeier and Alain G. Moureaux Tina Ball Jeremy Barnum and Caitlin Macy John J. Batten John and Astrid Baumgardner M. Teresa Beaman ’81BA ’82MM John R. Beecher ’84MPH Frederick W. Beinecke II ’66BA Alice Belgray Joanne and Warren Bender Jonathan Berger Peter W. Bernstein Charles Berthiaume Nancy Marx Better ’84BA and James Better Donald A. Bickford ’66BS Ann Bliss Serena and Robert Blocker ’95MAH Sara and Les Bluestone Carole J. Boehner Elizabeth Bradford Borden ’04MEM Heidi Bosek Joann Boyd Blake Brasch Joyce G. Briggs Karen and Trip Brizell Jennie and William Brown Burton Budick Jane and David Burgin Margaret E. Burnett Allison Butler Michael Byowitz Celeste Calabotta Steven B. Callahan ’74BA Jill C. Campbell ’87MPhil ’87MA ’88PhD Fiorella Canin David T. Carey Susan E. Carpenter Bradley Carson Susan L. Caughman ’83MBA Nancy and Peter Chaffetz
Oscar G. Chase ’63JD Melvin Chen ’91BS Hope Childs John W. Childs ’65BA Starling Childs Marvin L. Chin Philip L. Cohen ’72MD William Cohen Lewis G. Cole ’54LLB Edward Colt Mark D. Comerford ’97MS ’01PhD Connecticut Community Foundation John R. Coston George Cronin Martha Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs John D’Agostino Robert A. Dance ’80MAR and Robert B. Loper Allan J. Dean Anne Dennery Andrew G. DeRocco Katharine and Rohit Desai Judith and Paul Dorphley Elizabeth Dubbs Louise Ducas Daryl W. Eaton Jon Eisenhandler Bonnie and Clifford Eisler Michael J. Emont ’74JD Robert J. Engling Rebecca Ensworth Richard A. Epstein Fleur E. Fairman ’78BA Rosalee and Nicholas Fanelli Claudia S. Feldman Lois R. Fishman ’72BA Anne H. Flitcraft ’77MD Steven David Fraade ’89MAH Gerald M. Freedman Lawrence Freedman Judith N. Friedlander Michael Friedmann John P. Fulkerson ’72MD William Fuller John G. Funchion Adrienne Gallagher and James Nelson Janice Galloway John C. Garrels III ’61BA Peter Gay Catherine Gevers and John Fernandez Elisabeth C. Gill Ellen D. Glass Nora D. Glass ’82MSN Elizabeth and Roberto Goizueta ’76BA Robert B. Goldfarb William Goldsmith
Charles W. Goodyear IV ’80BS 11MAH Ruth Ann Graime Danielle Greenberg William and Mary Greve Foundation Barbara Gridley Morton E. Grosz Charles C. Halbing Jr. Larry Hannafin Lynne and David Harding William C. Harrop Erzsebet Harsanyi-Black and Donald Black Stephen Hatfield Ann Havemeyer ’75BA ’79MA ’82MPhil ’12PhD Susan and Paul Hawkshaw Peter S. Heller John A. Herrmann Jr. ’57BA Suzanne M. Hertel Barbara and Gerald Hess Peter L. Hess Elizabeth R. Hilpman and Byron Tucker Tom Hlas and Paul Madore David P. Howard ’70BA Sallie C. Huber Daphne M. Hurford Melinda Beth Inadomi Colta and Garrison Ives Paul E. Jagger James Jasper ’84BA Leila and Daniel Javitch Blair A. Jensen Helen Jessup William Joplin Wayne Kabak Lane Kendig Doreen and Michael Kelly Joseph G. Kelly Richard H. Kessin ’66BA Judith and Patrick Kiely Charles Kimball Bernadette Kinsman Robert N. Kitchen Sara M. Knight Daniel W. Kops Jr. Patricia Kral Thomas Kush Myron L. Kwast Sandra Landau and Richard Rippe Annette Landry Carlene C. Laughlin Joseph L. Lavieri Robert E. Lee David Levin Christopher S.V. Little ’71BA Nicholas W. Lobenthal ’83BA David Long Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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honor roll
John E. Long David N. Low Jr. ’87MPPM Maija M. Lutz ’63MM Albert J. Macchioni ’71BA ’75JD Susan MacEachron Joan Maloney Lenore H. Mand Richard S. Marcus John Martin Kim Maxwell Maura E. May ’81BA Zdenek S. Meistrick Stephen Melville Karla and Steve Mercer Ira D. Mickenberg Mary E. Miller ’78MA ’80MPhil ’81PhD Robert M. Milstein ’70BA ’78PhD ’81MD Roger Mitchell Barbara and Richard Moore David E. Moore Jr. Katherine C. Moore Timothy P. Moore Jeffrey Morrison James Moye Grant Mudge Christian Murck ’65BA Jacqueline Ann Muschiano and Andrew Ricci Phyllis Lancaster Nauts Valerie Nelson Joseph Ness Michael D. Nicastro Nichols & Pratt, LLP E. Devere Oakes Ruthann Olsson Thomas Ouimet Dorothy and Robert Pam Judith and Tician Papachristou Frances Pascale Bruce L. Payne ’65MA Catherine Perga Jennifer Perga Kristen Perlman Marie Perrone Allison Pingree and Christian Teal Faye Polayes and Jonathan Silbermann Edward R. Potter ’69MAT Quality Metric Donna and Dennis Randall Nancy and James Remis Peter Restler Cristin G. Rich ’88MEM David B. Rich ’83BA Douglas W. Rick † deceased
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Music at Yale
Gary L. Robison Karin Sabrina Roffman ’04PhD Marc Rosen Arthur Rosenblatt Arnold Rosenblum Edward W. Russell III Marion Sachdeva Raleigh D. Sahl Theodore D. Sands ’67BA Marilyn and Richard Schatzberg Elizabeth A. Scheel Samuel Schestenger Helen E. Scoville Michael K. Selleck Thomas R. Shachtman Joel Sherman Kathleen Sherrill David A. Shifrin Julia Shin Robert A.S. Silberman ’67BA Frank J. Silvestri Jr. ’74JD Gordon W. Smith ’65BA Sharon and Robert Smith Howard A. Sobel David Sollors Anne-Marie Soulliere and Lindsey Chao-Yun Kiang ’64BA ’68LLB Jane Spangler Marcia and Robert Sparrow Barbara Spiegel and Tom Hodgkin John A. Sprague Patricia and Kurt Steele Bruce Stein ’80BA Peter Steinglass James Stengel Keith Stevenson Ann Stranahan Christopher Strangio Paul Stranieri J. W. Streett Richard E. Swibold Steven Tepper Sarah ’98MDiv and Nicholas Thacher ’67BA John Thier Heather N. Thomson Roger Tilles Richard F. Tombaugh Humphrey Tonkin Jack E. Triplett David Troyansky David Van Buren Herbert A. Vance Jr. ’65BA Elizabeth A. Vandeventer
William S. Vaun Nancy H. Wadelton Nancy R. Wadhams Eliot Wadsworth II Susan Wagner Mary-Jo W. Warren Christine Warsaw Robert Wechsler Abby N. Wells ’67MM Kate Wenner John A. Wilkinson ’60BA ’63MAT ’79MAH Virginia T. Wilkinson ’62MAT Werner P. Wolf ’65MAH Susannah and Willard Wood Donald G. Workman Wei-Yi Yang ’95MM ’96AD ’99MMA ’04DMA Donna Yoo ’09MM Helene Young Henry M. Zachs
Yale Opera students Korin ThomasSmith as Harlekin and Amalia Crevani as Zerbinetta in a scene from Ariadne auf Naxos, in fall 2021. Photo by Matt Fried
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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Music at Yale
A student rehearses with the Yale Philharmonia
Fall 2021/Spring 2022
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P.O. Box 208246 New Haven, CT 06520-8246
Students, faculty, and administrators gather for a day of celebration. Photo by Ian Christmann 56
Music at Yale