Information on this page is arranged in ascending year order for this decade. It includes Manhattan School of Music historical facts and images from the School's archives, as well as items and quotes submitted by alumni. Each section also includes some Other Highlights of New York City's music history. View the Mysterious & Miscellaneous Photos section at the end and see if you can identify the time, place, and people in the photos. Submit your own memories and photos through the Class Notes section of the Online Community. 1980 Alumni reunion honors faculty members who have taught at the School for 20 years or more. Josephine C. Whitford, dean of students, retires. She is named Dean Emeritus. READ MORE Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • Film musical Fame opens; features appearances by MSM Prep students Anne-Marie McDermott, Maureen McDermott, and Kerry McDermott, as well as alumnus Jonathan Strasser (MM '70), who conducts the film's finale, "I Sing the Body Electric." • Double Fantasy album recorded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION] 1981 The Business of Music: Anatomy of a Career is offered in the spring. Taught by Placement Director Richard E. Adams (MM '61), it is the first course of its kind. Alexandra Honigsberg (BM ’81) writes: “When Richard came to the Placement Office he brought enthusiasm with him – and then he did the Business of Music class and I said, ‘Sign me up!’ and was not disappointed. He was practical, informative, and unfailingly positive. Our big project was to take a mythical string quartet on tour… in the days BEFORE we had computer help! So when I went on to be the tour manager for the country/blues band I was in as fiddle player with my late husband, guitarist/singer/songwriter David Honigsberg, from ’96-’00 (the Don’t Quit Your Day Job Players), that was easy by comparison (well, at least the planning was…). I thought of Richard and that class a lot when we were on tour and had to deal with some chaos and I just chuckled.” At commencement, Margaret Hillis, founder and director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, is featured speaker. She reminds students that it is talent, brains, and discipline that "get one to Carnegie Hall." The New York Brass Quintet begin their residency at MSM; members are Robert Nagel, Allan Dean, Paul Ingraham, John Swallow, and Toby Hanks. Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • Glenn Dicterow (MSM faculty and chair of Orchestral Performance Program) appointed concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta, music director and conductor. • Joan Tower’s Sequoia composed for the New York Philharmonic. • Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha premieres at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. • Wynton Marsalis signs recording contracts for both classical and jazz labels simultaneously. His recording career is influenced by Irwin Katz (Class of BM '51 / MM '52), A&R for Columbia Records. • MTV debuts to New York cable TV subscribers playing music videos 24 hours a day. • While sitting in Tom’s Restaurant at West 112th Street, blocks from MSM, Suzanne Vega composes “Tom’s Diner.” • Martin E. Segal is elected Chairman of the Board of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION] 1982 April — John Crosby conducts a John Brownlee Opera Theater double-bill of Le mariage aux lanternes by Jacques Offenbach and Eine florentinische Tragödie by Alexander von Zemlinsky. While still an MSM student, Dolora Zajick (MM ‘83) wins the bronze medal at the 7th Tchaikovsky International Competition (She is listed in the programme as Dolora-Maria Zaiz). Glenn Dicterow, concert master of the New York Philharmonic, joins the faculty. Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics adapted from T.S. Eliot, opens with Betty Buckley at the Winter Garden Theater (7,485 performances). • Little Shop of Horrors, music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman, with Brooklyn-born Ellen Greene, opens off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theater (2,209 performances). • Violinists Midori and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg make New York debuts. • Conductor Zubin Mehta, Itzahk Perlman, Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, and New York Philharmonic receive Grammy for Best Classical Performance for Isaac Stern’s 60th Anniversary Celebration. [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION] 1983 March – The John Brownlee Opera Theater presents a triple-bill: Renard by Igor Stravinsky, Sancta Susanna by Paul Hindemith (Dawn Upshaw, pictured, sings the lead), and The Ring of Polycrates by Erich Korngold. October — Birgit Nilsson (pictured) teaches a master class, her first anywhere, before a specially invited audience, organized by Dean of Students Peggy Tueller. This begins a series of annual appearances at the School for the next several years. Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • Ellen Taaffe Zwilich becomes first woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize in Composition for her Three Movements for Orchestra (Symphony No. 1). • Jessye Norman makes her Metropolitan Opera debut. • The Next Wave Festival of new music is inaugurated at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. • Popular songs include Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” and Queens-born Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION] 1984 American String Quartet becomes quartet in residence (pictured). Jazz/commercial music major is announced with courses offered are towards a master’s degree. Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • Madonna causes controversy with her performance of her hit single “Like a Virgin” at first annual MTV Video Music Awards. [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION] 1985 Violinist Elmar Oliveira (Class of 1972) receives an honorary doctorate at commencement. American mezzo-soprano Mignon Dunn, pictured here as Azucena for a Metropolitan Opera production of Il trovatore, joins the voice faculty. Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • Leontyne Price gives farewell performance at the Metropolitan Opera. • Compact discs and CD players are introduced. • Dawn Upshaw (MSM alumnus) receives the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Voice Award. • Radio City Music Hall designated a New York City landmark. • Ebony Opera gives the world premiere of Dorothy Rudd Moore’s Frederick Douglass in Aaron Davis Hall at City College. • Sonny Rollins records an album of live solo-saxophone improvisations at MOMA. [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION] 1986 Gideon W. Waldrop, composer, conductor, and former dean of The Juilliard School, becomes president (president until 1989). Dora Zaslavsky Koch, one of the School's first graduates, is given an honorary doctorate for her 60 years of teaching excellence. (Pictured here with her artist-husband John Koch in their New York apartment.) Current faculty member Phillip Kawin (BM '82 / MM '85) writes: “Dora Zaslavsky imparted to me the limitless means of musical expression that are part of the tradition of the great masters. She was extremely instrumental in giving me the insight and necessary tools to communicate through the music. Dora is, and always will be, a guiding force and inspiration to me.” Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • James Levine becomes Artistic Director of the Metropolitan Opera. • Carnegie Hall closes for 7-month, $60 million renovation. • Michael Feinstein records first CD, Pure Gershwin, a collection of music by George and Ira. [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION] 1987 Jazz/Commercial Music department offers new bachelor’s degree program. Jazz Orchestra wins its first Down Beat magazine “Outstanding College Jazz Band of the Year” award, for its first recording, Shades of Time. March — Classical guitar legend Andrés Segovia is awarded an honorary doctorate following a series of master classes. President Gideon Waldrop presided over the special convocation, where Butros Butros-Galli, Secretary-General of the United Nations, gave the keynote address. The Guitar Department is formed under the leadership of Nicholas Goluses (BM '81 / MM '82 / DMA '85). Chérubin by Jules Massenet is presented by the Opera Theatre in March. Susan Graham (MM ’87 / HD ’08) remembers: "The School gave me … opera performances that got reviewed in the New York Times and set me off on a very satisfying career journey. I am forever grateful to Manhattan School of Music." (Pictured is Ms. Graham in the title role.) Gunther Schuller (alumnus of the Preparatory Division) is awarded an honorary doctorate at the May commencement ceremonies. Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • Bang on a Can Festival founded. • John Adams’ opera Nixon in China given New York premiere at Brooklyn Academy of Music. • Les Miserables, music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyrics by Alain Boubil and Herbert Kretzmer, opens at the Imperial Theater (6,680 performances). • Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim, with Bernadette Peters, opens at the Martin Beck Theater (764 performances). [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION] 1988 Frances Hall Ballard, a member of the piano faculty from 1932–81 and benefactress of the music library, is given an honorary doctorate. New recording facilities and a performance space are established in memory of Charles Myers (Class of 1965). Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • David Del Tredici (former MSM Composition Faculty) appointed composer in residence of New York Philharmonic. • New York-born Bobby McFerrin releases Simple Pleasures record, including single, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” • Phantom of the Opera, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, directed by Harold Prince, with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, opens at the Majestic Theater (6,075 + performances). • Irving Berlin declines invitation to attend 100th birthday celebration held at Carnegie Hall. • Atlantic Records celebrates 40th Anniversary with 11-hour concert featuring Phil Collins, Mick Jagger, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and others (Madison Square Garden). [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION] 1989 Peter Simon, pianist and former director of academic studies at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, becomes president (president until 1991). The Honorable Richard Owen (Class of 1960) — a member of the board of trustees, a composer, and a U.S. District Judge — is given an honorary doctorate. Marc Silverman (Class of 1983) is appointed chair of the piano department. Other Highlights of New York City Musical History: • Blue Note jazz recording label celebrates 50th anniversary with Carnegie Hall concert, part of JVC Jazz Festival. • Mannes School of Music joins the New School for Social Research (known now as the New School). [SUBMIT YOUR OWN MEMORIES] [REGISTER FOR THE OCTOBER 2008 REUNION]   Mysterious & Miscellaneous Photos Do you have a photo with unknown people in it or are you just not sure when or where the photo was taken? Send us a copy and we'll help you find out. [HELP US IDENTIFY THESE PHOTOS]   Learn About Other Decades 1940’s | 1950’s | 1960’s | 1970’s | 1990’s | 2000’s AUTUMN IN NEW YORK JOIN US IS MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS WHEN COLORS ARE AT THEIR PEAK TO CELEBRATE MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC'S 90TH ANNIVERSARY. “IT'S GOOD TO LIVE IT AGAIN.” — FROM VERNON DUKE'S "AUTUMN IN NEW YORK"