YSM faculty at work beyond the classroom

News

Paul Hawkshaw creates new edition of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony music.yale.edu/news/ paul-hawkshaw-createsnew-edition-brucknersseventh-symphony

In February, Ensemble Modern gave the premiere of waste knot, for soprano, large ensemble, and amplified Dictaphones, by faculty composer Katherine Balch ’16MM, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic premiered Balch’s all around the sea blazed gold, for sinfonietta, on the orchestra’s Green Umbrella Series. In April, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and cellist Zlatomir Fung premiered Balch’s whisper concerto, and in May the Darmstaadt Staatstheater Orchestra gave the European premiere of the concerto with cellist Maximilian Hornung. Balch was a recipient of New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices grant, through which a new work was co-commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic for the 2024–2025 season.

Following the success of two recordings of music by Brahms and Valentin Silvestrov (Palais des Degustateurs), faculty pianist Boris Berman performed in recitals in New York, Washington D.C., Paris, Brussels, Glasgow, and on various campuses in the United States. He also performed and gave numerous master classes at universities, conservatories, academies, and festivals in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Professor of Music History Lynette Bowring and Professor of Analysis and Musicianship Stephanie Venturino presented papers at the annual joint meeting of the American Musicological Society, Society for Ethnomusicology, and Society for Music Theory in New Orleans, LA. In ‘Hidden Pedagogies’: Strategies for Learning in Early Modern Italy, Bowring surveyed educational strategies in 16th century Italy, seeking resonances between the education of musicians and some pedagogies for literacy, handwriting, and math during that era. Venturino’s paper, Who Is Allowed to Be a Music Theorist? Sarah Mary Fitton and Conversations on Harmony (1855), focused on Fitton’s original theory of augmented sixth chords and her distinctive approach to chromatic scale harmonization, as well as questions about gender and class in music-historical narratives.

Faculty composer Martin Bresnick’s Mending Time was performed in September by the New Thread (saxophone) quartet at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City. Bresnick’s chamber orchestra arrangement of Janáček’s On an Overgrown Path was performed in November at Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia. In January, violinist Jenny Khafagi and pianist Lisa Moore performed Bresnick’s Bitter Suite at Tempo Rubato, in Melbourne, Australia, and at The Neilson during the Sydney Festival.

In January, Jeffrey Douma was appointed the Marshall Bartholomew Professor in the Practice of Choral Music at Yale and was recognized as Choral Conductor of the Year by the Connecticut chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. Douma conducted the premiere of Memory of Water by Garth Neustadter ’12MM with the Yale Choral Artists and faculty percussionist Robert Van Sice’s Percussion Collective and prepared the Yale Glee Club for joint performances with Chanticleer and the Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, which joined the Glee Club for the premiere of Prayer for Deliverance by Joel Thompson ’20MMA ’26DMA, conducted by Arianne Abela ’10MM.

Saxophonist, Lecturer in Jazz, and Director of Yale Jazz Ensembles Wayne Escoffery released his new album, Like Minds, in April on the Smoke Sessions Records label. Escoffery’s previous album, The Humble Warrior, included an interpretation of Benjamin Britten’s Missa Brevis alongside original compositions. Like Minds features collaborations with jazz giants Tom Harrell, Gregory Porter, and Mike Moreno along with Escoffery’s regular quartet.

The Sebastians, a New York-based early music ensemble directed by faculty members Jeffrey Grossman and Daniel Lee ’06MM ’08AD, concluded its 10th anniversary concert season on April 15 with a performance featuring Bach’s Mass in G major. The ensemble includes Yale alumni Lee, Nicholas DiEugenio ’08AD ’09MMA ’14DMA, Ezra Seltzer ’06BA ’07MM, and others.

Faculty violinist Augustin Hadelich appeared as a soloist this spring with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra and concluded a multiyear residency with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, Germany. Hadelich performed Brahms’ Violin Concerto with Principal Conductor Peter Oundjian and the Yale Philharmonia in April.

Paul Hawkshaw’s new critical edition of Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony was published in Vienna as part of the new Bruckner Collected Works Edition. The Yale Philharmonia, led by Principal Conductor Peter Oundjian, premiered the new score in Woolsey Hall in April.

Faculty violinist Ani Kavafian judged the Bowers Competition, Chamber Music Society’s young musicians program, and performed in Alice Tully Hall and at the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival in Florida in April. Kavafian was named Director of the 2023 Vivace Festival and will participate in the Four Seasons, Sarasota, Saratoga, Heifetz Institute, Bridgehampton, Music@Menlo and Lake George festivals.

Works by faculty composer Aaron Jay Kernis ’83 that recently received premieres include Edensongs (with text by Peter Cole), written for the Yale Schola Cantorum, at Woolsey Hall, Grace for cellist Matt Haimovitz, On Hearing Nightbirds at Dusk for harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and Sky Music, performed by YSM students in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Additional performances included a portrait concert featuring a chamber version of Kernis’ Earth, for tenor Nicholas Phan, and Goblin Market at the Curtis Institute of Music in March, and a performance of the orchestral version of Earth by Santa Fe Pro Musica.

Yale Opera Director Gerald Martin Moore’s recent engagements have included master classes for the San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellowship program and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and serving as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Future projects include recording a recital CD with Erin Morley that will also feature longtime YSM faculty member Ransom Wilson, hosting the Metropolitan Opera Radio Quiz, appearing in recitals with Morley and Renée Fleming, teaching and giving master classes at the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, Music Academy of the West, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, and Ravinia Steans Music Institute’s Program for Singers. In February, for the fifth consecutive year, Moore served as Associate Director of Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio with Fleming.

Faculty organist James O’Donnell was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order by King Charles III. The honor followed the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II, for which O’Donnell directed the music.

In September, faculty tenor James Taylor received Voices of Ascension Chorus and Orchestra’s George Perrin Prize for extraordinary contribution to the vocal arts in this country. The organization’s artistic director, Dennis Keene, considers Taylor the great American Bach tenor of his generation and one of the most important vocal teachers in the United States.

Faculty clarinetist David Shifrin organized a Yale Clarinet Celebration in December. The concert, on YSM’s Faculty Artist Series, featured more than 30 School of Music students and alums.

Faculty composer Christopher Theofanidis ’94MMA ’97DMA is writing a clarinet concerto titled Indigo Heaven for Steve Williamson and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for that organization’s 2023–2024 season. Williamson is the orchestra’s principal clarinetist.

News

music.yale.edu/news/ flutist-tara-helen-oconnorjoins-ysm-faculty

In June, New Focus Records will release a new CD by faculty guitarist Benjamin Verdery titled A Giant Beside You, which features four pieces for guitar and string quartet performed with the Ulysses Quartet, which includes cellist and YSM alum Coli Brookes ’13MM ’14AD. The CD includes the world premiere recording of the Quintet for High Strings by YSM alum Bryce Dessner ’98BA ’99MM, Verdery’s A Giant Beside You, and Verdery’s arrangement for guitar and string quartet of Leonard Bernstein’s Sonata for Clarinet. The CD was recorded and produced by YSM Director of Technology Matthew LeFevre.

Faculty cellist Paul Watkins and his colleagues in the Emerson String Quartet embarked on a tour that will be the ensemble’s final slate of performances. The quartet was established in 1976 and will disband in October.

In September, faculty flutist Ransom Wilson received the National Flute Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In November, Wilson was appointed the Camilla Huxford Endowed Chair in Orchestral Studies at the University of Alabama, whose faculty Wilson will join in August having taught at YSM since 1991. In a press release, the University of Alabama said Wilson’s “appointment … will make a tremendous addition to what is already a vibrant, energetic, and highly experienced faculty. His vast skillset and range of experience will provide a new level of leadership for the Huxford Symphony Orchestra, providing outstanding experiences and opportunities for our students.”

Following residencies at the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and festivals in Italy and the Netherlands, YSM faculty pianist Wei-Yi Yang ’95MM ’96AD ’99MMA ’04DMA will give performances and master classes at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu City, Taiwan, and Conservatori Superior de Música de les Illes Baleares in Palma, Spain.

Faculty mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala performed the role of Prince Lelio in the American premiere of Pauline Viardot’s Le Dernier Sorcier at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills in March. That followed the premiere recording Zabala made of the same work on Bridge Records with Camille Zamora, Jamie Barton, and Eric Owens. In May, Zabala reprised the title role in Nadia: A Chamber Music Play at the Hamel Music Center in Madison, Wis., presented by Lunarts, an organization that celebrates women in the arts.