Welcome to our Alumni News Highlights page!

This page consists of recent activities and accomplishments of our former students from the college division, submitted in the past few months. (To read archived news items, dating back to 2004, click here.) The information on these pages has been submitted directly to us by individual alumni and/or their publicity representatives.

These listings are organized under the last year each alumnus/na attended the School and shows the degree program(s) in which they were enrolled. There is also a section honoring the memory of those alumni and faculty who have passed away in the last few years (In Memoriam).

1940's | 1950's | 1960's | 1970's | 1980's | 1990's | 2000's

In Memoriam

Class Notes Archive (2004 – 2007)

Send us news: Alumni should submit and share their Class Notes with other alumni through our new Online Alumni Community; register now by clicking here.

[Latest updates posted on this page: November 23, 2009]

Questions or corrections for this page, contact John Blanchard at jblanchard@msmnyc.edu

1940’s

Estelle Parnas Oringer (Diploma ’42 / BM ’45), pictured, is still performing at age 96. She plays piano regularly throughout the dynamic JASA senior network and the Kew Gardens Community Center, among other venues.. “I love to watch people do a double take when I slide over from a wheelchair onto the piano bench, and seem 50 years younger when I start to play. I have total memory recall and my fingers work perfectly.” To learn more about Estelle and to view a video feature about her musical life, including being one of the first students at Manhattan School of Music 90 years ago, click here.

Beulah Friedman Strickler (Diploma ’43) is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Fullerton Friends of Music in California, an organization she has led as director for the past 43 years. She will perform as pianist with flutist Eugenia Zukerman in the same composition she played at the very first Fullerton Friends of Music concert. [posted 10/21/08]

Jonathan Sternberg (studies, ’46) was featured in an article in the Philadelphia City Paper that chronicled his long career, including professorships at Eastman and Temple, the artistic directorship of the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, and some 50 commercially released recordings. [posted 10/21/08]

Ludmila Ulehla (BM ’47 / MM ’48) has had two chamber works published by TrevCo Music, Unrolling a Chinese Scroll for Flute, Clarinet, and Bassoon, and Wild Geese for Viola and Bassoon. [posted 3/25/08]

1950’s

Anna Mione (BM ’51 / MM ’52) has had her latest book, The Diva, published by Authorhouse. F&L Primo wrote: “The Diva is a wonderful book by an author whose passion for storytelling is matched only by her passion for opera and music.” [posted 10/21/08]

Clem De Rosa (MM ’52) was admitted in September into the Harlem Jazz Hall of Fame for his achievements in jazz education. [posted 11/23/09]

Roy Eaton (BM ’50 / MM ’52) performed in April at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in a program commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Award. Eaton was the first winner, in 1949. [posted 11/23/09]

Dianne Flagello (BM ’52 / MM ’52 / Honorary Doctorate ’99) has helped to produce another entry in the recorded catalogue of Nicolas Flagello’s oeuvre: his large orchestral work entitled Missa Sinfonica, conducted by John McLaughlin Williams, leading the National Radio Orchestra of Ukraine. “This tremendous new disc from Naxos will be one of the most significant new releases to appear this year on any label,” states Fanfare. [posted 10/21/08]

Joseph Wilder (BM ’53), pictured, was named a 2008 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, an honor awarded to “living legends, those who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz.” [posted 3/25/08]

Kenneth Lane (undergraduate studies, ’51–54) will sing and analyze the musical and dramaturgical techniques of Wagner in his "Ring" heroes and his Rienzi, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan, Walther von Stolzing and Parsifal heroes at the New Yorker Hotel on March 27at 6 PM. Mr. Lane is the director of the Richard Wagner Music Drama Institute of Boonton, New Jersey. He also performed his concert, entitled "Heroes," at the New Life Expo in the spring of 2008. [updated 1/11/42010]

Nancy Bloomer Deussen (BM ’53 / MM ’56) has had many of her works performed this season, including American Hymn and Regalos (Hilo Symphony Orchestra in Hawaii); Trio for Violin, Clarinet and Piano (American Chamber Ensemble in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and the International Alliance of Women in Music conference in Bejing); and A Silver, Shining Strand and Regalos (Winchester Symphony Orchestra in California); Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano by the Del Mar Trio in Los Angeles; Regalos by the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra in North Dakota; Ascent to Victory by the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra in Maryland; A Field in Pennsylvania by the Hershey Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania; and Songs from Victoria Who? and The Message for chorus and piano at Palo Alto Art Center in California. [updated 11/23/09]

Jack Reilly’s (BM ’57 / MM ’58) oratorio for concert choir and jazz ensemble, entitled The Light of the Soul, was performed this April by the Royal Welsh College of Music. Reilly was featured in an extensive article on his career as a jazz pianist and composer in the January/February 2009 issue of International Piano. [updated 11/23/09]

Lynn Strongin (undergraduate studies, ’56–59) is an American poet who now lives and writes in Victoria, British Columbia. Her poetry has most recently been published in Artlife, IRIS, and the Italian publication Storie. Strongin (undergraduate studies ’56–59) has been nominated for the Griffin Award for Excellence in Poetry for her upcoming collection Cape Seventy to be published by Thorp Springs Press. [updated 3/20/09]

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1960’s

Johanna Meier Della-Vecchia (BM ’60) can be seen in a Deutsche Grammophon DVD release of her 1983 portrayal of Isolde, being the first American ever to sing the role at Bayreuth. This production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde is directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. [posted 3/20/09]

Michael Abene (undergraduate studies, ’59–61) has joined with colleague and fellow alumnus Richard Sussman to co-author a textbook, Jazz Composing and Arranging in the Digital Age, to be released by Oxford Press in 2009. The book combines traditional techniques of writing for small and large jazz ensembles with computer-based compositional tools such as notation and sequencing software; there will be a companion website with audio and software examples. [posted 3/25/08]

Peter Horvath (BM ’64 / MM ’65) has retired from the music department at Jericho High School, where he was the orchestra director, after having taught in the Jericho schools for 43 years. [posted 11/23/09]

Captain Kenneth Force (BM ’64 / MM ’65 / PD '70) was featured in the New York Times as he prepared to attend his 11th Presidential Inauguration as Director of the United States Merchant Marine Academy Regimental Band. Having previously written music in honor of first ladies (and even a march for presidential pets), Force is already writing a President Obama march: “I’m checking some of the folk music of Kenya, looking for something with Kenyan roots and American roots. Anyone can write a two- or three-chord march, but the key is to have something unique.”
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Ralph Blauvelt (BM ’64 / MM ’67) announces the publication of his book, From Notation To Music. With over 190 photographs and illustrations, Blauvelt’s book, published by Lulu, describes the ideas that led to his text pieces and graphic ‘visual’ scores and traces the evolution of his ideas through more than eighty compositions. Blauvelt has seen his compositions released on five new CDs. One release, Last Year, contains fifteen compositions/improvisations that explore the “sonic world of mean tone temperament and its expressive qualities.” [updated 11/23/09]

Patricia Guthrie (BM ’66 / MM ’69) has had her first novel, a romantic suspense, In the Arms of the Enemy, released by Light Sword Publishing. Her next work, Water Lilies Over My Grave is scheduled for publication this year. [posted 3/25/08]

James Preiss (MM ’69) can be heard on a CD released by Bachovich Music Publications. He performs three cello suites of Bach in transcriptions for marimba. [posted 3/20/09]

Carl Topilow (BM ’68 / MM ’69) is Conductor and Director of the Orchestral Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music; Music Director and Conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra, a summer music festival based in Breckenridge, Colorado; and Music Director for the Firelands Symphony in Sandusky, Ohio. He co-founded the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, which for the past fourteen seasons has entertained thousands at Severance Hall, Playhouse Square, and in communities throughout Northeast Ohio. Topilow also gives clarinet clinics and master classes as a Yamaha Concert Performing Artists.

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1970’s

Charlotte Miller Sylvia (MM ’71) has been winning composition prizes in the New Haven area; she also performed her songs at Connecticut’s Festival of Arts and Ideas this past summer. [posted 3/25/08]

Noémi Neidorff (BM ’70 / MM ’72) has been named a Trustee of Manhattan School of Music. An active volunteer, she currently serves on several boards, among them the Saint Louis Symphony and the Missouri Historical Society. She is also immediate past Chairman of the KFUO “Classic 99” Radio Arts Board and immediate past President of the National Trustees of the National Symphony in Washington. With her husband Michael, Noémi was recently appointed Co-Chair of the Kennedy Center’s International Committee on the Arts. [posted 11/23/09]

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Elmar Oliveira (BM ’72 / Honorary Doctorate ’85), pictured, can be heard on a 2007 Artek release that includes Nicolas Flagello’s Violin Concerto, left unorchestrated until this recording. A review in Fanfare states: “Oliveira is hand-in-glove with the composer — there is nothing tentative here, every note tells. If the first movement is all singing turbulence, the second is another of the composer’s essays in bleak anguish—bittersweet, hesitant, muted, penetrating. Though not without its thunders and bizarrerie, the third movement is a relaxed romp propelled by brilliant gaiety.” [posted 10/21/08]

Michael Feves (BM ’73 / MM ’74) has recently co-authored and published A Cellist’s Companion: A Comprehensive Catalogue of Cello Literature, the first of this scope. [posted 3/25/08]

Michael Philip Davis (MM ’76) directed a production of Yours, Anne, based on Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, in March. Davis directed a California Opera production of Puccini’s Il tabarro last August in Fresno. [updated 11/23/09]

Joshua Greene (MM ’76) is in his sixth season as an Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. Recent projects include assisting Daniel Barenboim on Tristan und Isolde and James Levine on Orfeo ed Euridice, for which he played harpsichord continuo on all performances. He appeared in the documentary The Audition and is Musical Director of CantaLyrica, a chamber chorus in New Jersey. [posted 11/23/09]

George Manahan (BM ’73 / MM ’76) conducted several productions at New York City Opera this season as their music director, including Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner, which the New York Times described as “a supple, shimmering and, during the frequent bursts of propulsive music, articulate performance.” [posted 3/25/08]

Penny Prince (BM ’74 / MM ’76) is a member of the faculty at Lehman College and continues to perform as pianist and compose musicals. She has written her own version of Cinderella, which was presented at the Riverdale YM-YWHA in September. [posted 10/21/08]

Mercedes Alicea (MM ’77) organized a touching memorial last November at Columbia University’s St. Paul’s Chapel for former faculty member Rose Bampton, attended by several alumni. [posted 3/25/08]

Clifton Anderson (BM ’78) appeared with his quintet at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola this February to showcase his new CD, Decade, his first for Doxy/Emarcy Records. Having a long-time association with Sonny Rollins, Anderson recently produced Rollins’s Grammy-nominated Sonny, Please and the just-released Road Shows, vol. 1, both for Doxy Records. [posted 3/20/09]

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Jared Bernstein (BM ’78), pictured, has been appointed to serve as Vice President Joseph Biden’s economic adviser. Bernstein was deputy chief economist in the Clinton administration and is a member of the Economic Policy Institute. [posted 3/20/09]

Caryn Block (BM ’78) had her two trios for flute, percussion and cello, Arizona Views II and INTERTWINED, reviewed in the November 2009 issue of the Percussive Arts Society’s journal, Percussive Notes. The works were acquired for distribution by Steve Weiss Music earlier in the year, after their successful premiere by the Encore Chamber Players at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA, last fall. The concert program, entitled “Arizona Views,” was devoted to music of the southwest, based on her trio of the same name, originally inspired by a Maxfield Parrish painting. The highlight of the program was the world premiere of Block’s new work INTERTWINED: Seven Vignettes, inspired by select sculptural baskets from the extraordinary basket art collection from Arizona that visited the museum as part of a national tour. [posted 2/5/10]

Mark Steven Brooks’s (BM ’78) CD of compositions was released by Elaterium Records. Entitled Dam(n)age, it presents three works of electro-acoustic music with socio-political overtones and one work for double bass and sampler performed by bassist Robert Black. Mr. Brooks is currently classical music editor for Peer International in NYC as well as being a private music instructor. [posted 3/20/09]

Mitch Rubensky (BM ’78), Music Director of the Bronx High School of Science, has retired after 28 years of teaching. [posted 11/23/09]

Robert Bonfiglio (MM ’79) performed his debut as harmonica soloist this last season with the Pittsburgh Symphony, National Symphony at Kennedy Center, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Orquesta Sinfonica de Principado de Asturias, and the Bochumer Symphoniker. [posted 3/25/08]

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1980’s

Tony de Mare (BM ’80) is presently engaged in the creation and performance of Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano. This concert series will feature the work of some thirty leading contemporary composers, commissioned to create new pieces based on the inspira¬tional source material of Sondheim’s melodies. Composers include Steve Reich, William Bolcom, Ricky Ian Gordon, Milton Babbitt, Jake Heggie, and MSM’s own Nils Vigeland. [posted 11/23/09]

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John Musto's (BM '76 / MM '80), opera, Later the Same Evening, was premiered by the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater in November 2008. Peter David of Musical America wrote: “Musto captures the bittersweet aura of the piece perfectly in a score that never wastes a note or a moment of the audience’s time …. Musto’s many songs are treasures of the American repertory, and here he establishes himself with even more distinction as a skilled opera composer. With all these good things at work, along with the traditional high vocal standards of the Manhattan School’s Opera Theater in full play, the entire performance was close to perfection.” [posted 3/20/09] To read a complete interview with Musto about the new work, click here.

Mark Racz (MM ’80) has been appointed Deputy Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in London, having served for many years at the Birmingham Conservatoire as well as serving on the Board of Govenors of the University of Central England. [posted 3/20/09]

Cliff Jackson (graduate studies,’77–’81), vocal coach at the University of Kentucky School of Music and Associate Professor of voice, has been named 2009 Coach of the Year by the magazine Classical Singer. [posted 11/23/09]

John Kneiling (MM ’81) per¬formed as cellist in Olivier Messaien’s Quartet for the End of Time with the Sofia Ensemble last December, on the occasion of the composer’s cen¬tenary, at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. [posted 11/23/09]

Ann McKinney (MM ’81) is serving on the board of the choral program Joyful Noise, as well as on the board of the chamber music haven Music Mountain. [posted 11/23/09]

Roberta Rust (MM ’81) has seen her solo piano CD Devoted to Debussy released on Centaur Records. Fanfare magazine wrote: “This is quite simply one of the fin¬est Debussy discs I have heard in recent memory.” Rust performed with the Philippine Philharmonic during the 2008 OPUSFEST and also served on the jury for the Ultimate Pianist Competition in Manila. [posted 11/23/09]

Fred Bronstein (MM ’82) has taken over as President and CEO of the St. Louis Symphony, having led the Dallas Symphony for the past five years. [posted 3/25/08]

Fung Ho (MM ’82) is currently serving as Music Director and Conductor of the Olympia Philharmonic and Olympia Youth Orchestras in San Gabriel, California. [posted 3/25/08]

Isabella Eredita-Johnson (BM ’81 / MM ’82) is the director of a successful series in Northport, Long Island, called “Opera Night,” which presents up-and-coming vocalists and promotes the art of singing. She was featured in the New York Times in March. . [updated 11/23/09]

Laura Hamilton (BM ’81 / MM ’82) has been named Acting Co-Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for the 2009–10 season. She also performed in 2008 as guest Concertmaster with the Adelaide Symphony in Australia, the Welsh National Opera, and the American Symphony. [posted 11/23/09]

Philip Kawin (BM ’82 / MM ’85) has been named to the Manhattan School of Music Board of Trustees as a faculty representative. Kawin teaches piano in the Precollege and College divisions and is currently president of the Faculty Council, having been elected the past four consecutive academic years. [posted 3/20/09]

Paul Brantley (BM ’83) recently received two NYC premieres of his compositions: the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, conducted by alumna Alondra de la Parra, gave the premiere of Electric Fan at Town Hall, and SONYC gave the premiere of verse, chorus, bridge for string orchestra at the Kitchen. Brantley also toured Germany and the Netherlands this past May as cellist with the Vienna Teng Quartet and appeared in concert with the Eurythmics’s Dave Stewart at NYC’s Highline Ballroom last September. Brantley has been chosen by publishing agent Bill Holab Music, which will publish Service Music, a work commissioned by the Excelsior Trombone Ensemble. [updated 11/23/09]

Seth Josel (BM ’83) has seen a new solo CD released by New World Records last December, entitled The Stroke that Kills. He made his Carnegie Hall debut with the American Composers Orchestra, giving the world premiere of a work for electric guitar and orchestra. [posted 11/23/09]

Neil Semer (BM ’83) is teaching singing in New York, Toronto, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Cologne, and Frankfurt. His Summer Vocal Institute in Germany is in its twelfth year and his students are singing in major houses around the world. [posted 3/25/08]

Saul Davis Zlatkovski (MM ’84) recently directed the third annual Harp Festival of Philadelphia. He performed the opening recital each year and conducted a master class. [posted 11/23/09]

Brian Doherty (BM ’84 / MM ’85) teaches young drummers at the Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School in the Bronx. “Our students are being exposed to drum basics and ensemble playing with the help of something as simple as a drum pad and a new pair of sticks,” says Doherty. The class, which meets before the regular school day, is now filled to capacity. Besides teaching, he is still active playing the drums in Broadway productions, including Hairspray and RENT. [posted 10/21/08]

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Dawn Upshaw (MM ’85 / Hon. Doc. ’98), pictured, has been awarded a $500,000 grant by the MacArthur Foundation for “breaking down stylistic barriers and forging a new model of a performer who is directly involved in the creation of contemporary music.” Upshaw was featured at the Mostly Mozart Festival last summer in Kaija Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone. Opera News called Upshaw’s performance: “an extraordinary accomplishment; she’s in excellent shape vocally, and she easily sustained Saariaho’s long lines …. Her stamina and clarity were all the more remarkable given the suffering and martyrdom she is required to embody throughout this eighty-minute, vocally demanding monodrama… Upshaw displayed her customary full-bodied commitment and as much dramatic involvement as she could muster.” [posted 3/20/09]

Richard Sussman (MM ’85) has joined with colleague and fellow alumnus Michael Abene to co-author a textbook on Jazz Composing and Arranging in the Digital Age, to be released by Oxford Press in 2009. The book combines traditional techniques of writing for small and large jazz ensembles with computer-based compositional tools such as notation and sequencing software; there will be a companion website with audio and software examples. [posted 3/25/08]

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Carrie Vecchione (MM ’85), pictured (with oboe), can be heard on the Vecchione/Erdahl Duo debut recording It Takes Two… on Centaur Records. All the compositions are original works for oboe/bass duo written since 1997. The Duo recently received a Jerome Composers Commissioning Grant from the American Composers Forum for a new work by Margaret Griebling-Haigh, Askelad and the Seven Silver Ducks, which they premiered last summer at the International Double Reed Society Conference. [posted 3/20/09]

Audrey Axinn (BM '86) has been appointed Assistant Dean at the Mannes College of Music. She remains on the faculty of The Juilliard School where she has been teaching chamber music on the fortepiano and the modern piano for the past six years. [posted 7/31/08]

Emmy Chen (MM ’86) teaches piano at Shih Chien University and Taipei National University in her home country of Taiwan. [posted 3/25/08]

Gennady Filimonov (BM ’84 / MM ’86) was in Ukraine last season playing as a member of the Odeon Quartet and also appearing as violin soloist with the Odessa Philharmonic. [posted 11/23/09]

Paul Kim (BM ’85 / MM ’86) celebrated the centenary year of Olivier Messiaen with a performance of Quartet for the End of Time as well as solo piano works at the Church of the Ascension on Fifth Avenue. He is currently working on a project to record all the Beethoven symphonies as arranged for two pianos by Liszt, with the first volume of this cycle, featuring the Ninth Symphony, having just been released by Centaur Records. [posted 3/20/09]

Valentin Schiedermair (BM ’85 / MM ’86) was appointed Visiting Professor of Piano at Shenzhen University in China and has toured parts of Asia performing and giving master classes. [posted 3/25/08]

Susan Graham (MM ’87 / Hon. Doc. ’08) starred in a new production of Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust at the Metropolitan Opera. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times praised Graham as “an inspired choice as Marguerite …. a lovely blend of rapturous richness and elegant restraint.” Graham received an honorary doctorate from Manhattan School of Music at the May 2008 commencement ceremonies. To read more, click here.

Eric Birk (MM ’88) and Bernadette Hoke (MM ’83) will perform at the Jewish Museum in late October. The Birk and Hoke Duo will be the pianists for “Leonard Bernstein: A Jewish Legacy” as part of the city-wide celebration entitled “Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds” presented by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic. [posted 10/21/08]

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Prudence McDaniel (MM ’88), Marianne Henry (BM ’87 / MM ’90), and Diedra Lawrence (BM ’92), pictured, are members of the Marian Anderson String Quartet, which won the 2008 Guarneri String Quartet Award from Chamber Music America. In July, they were honored with a proclamation from the mayor of Bryan, Texas, where they are in residence. They were also recognized for their commitment to building up their community through their annual MASQ Chamber Music Institute. [posted 10/21/08]

Amy Elizabeth Wheeler (BM ’87) was a winner, along with lutist Jaroslaw Lipski, of Early Music America’s nationwide competition for best early music ensemble in 2008. The duo was showcased at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference in January. [posted 3/20/09]

Dmitry Rachmanov (DMA ’89) has joined the music faculty of California State University–Northridge and been appointed chair of the piano department. [posted 3/25/08]

Robert Auld (BM ’89) is a freelance audio engineer whose work is frequently heard on National Public Radio. A specialist in audio restoration, he was presenter of historical programs at the 2007 Audio Engineering Society convention. [posted 3/25/08]

Judith Youett Muir (MM ’89) is the recipient of the Fund for Excellence in Education from Dutchess Community Foundation for her “Sing Out! Reach Out!” music program at the Hawk Meadow Montessori School in Poughkeepsie. [posted 11/23/09]

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1990’s

Gila Goldstein (MM ’90) gave a solo piano recital in June at Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, Switzerland, at the personal invitation of Ms. Argerich. She also performed the Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos with alumnus Yuan Sheng at the 2nd Opusfest International Piano and Chamber Music Festival in Manila, a festival directed by alumnus Jovianney Cruz. Ms. Goldstein recently began a position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Piano at Schwob School of Music, Columbus State University in Georgia. [posted 10/21/08]

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Shuler Hensley (BM '90), pictured with co-star Roger Bart, has finished his most recent Broadway run starring as "The Monster" in Mel Brooks' musical,Young Frankenstein. Ben Brantley of the New York Times wrote: “the production does offer confirmation of the distinctive, very different talents of Sutton Foster, Shuler Hensley and Andrea Martin. And Shuler Hensley (Judd in the most recent Broadway revival of “Oklahoma!”) is terrific, turning Frankenstein’s monster into the most human character onstage… what really makes it fly is Mr. Hensley’s evocation of the monster’s pleasure in what he’s doing. This big galoot of a mannequin is being seduced by the singular joys of musical comedy and loving it. For the first and only time in the show, so are we.” He is now touring with the show. Hensley sang the title role in the Curtis Opera production of Berg’s Wozzeck. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “His imposing but never woolly baritone found dramatic meaning in the dis¬jointed vocal lines that characterize Wozzeck’s derangement.” [posted 11/23/09]

Thomas Michael Allen (MM ’91) recently appeared on European TV singing with Cecilia Bartoli at the Zurich Opera in Handel’s Semele conducted by William Christie. Other appearances last season included performances with the Chicago Symphony, National Symphony (Washington D.C.), Opera Monte Carlo, and Netherlands Opera. He can be heard in a recent Virgin/EMI release of Purcell’s Divine Hymns with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Allen can be seen as Athamas on the new Decca DVD of Handel’s Semele. His first solo CD, Mendelssohn: Songs with and without Words, has been released by ARS Produktion, in honor of the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s birth. [updated 11/23/09]

Pierre Charvet (graduate studies, ’89–’91) has created a new television show in France about classical music. He writes and hosts Presto!, a weekly, primetime show with millions of viewers. [posted 3/25/08]

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Kimilee Brant (MM ’92), pictured, appeared as Princess Ida in January as the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players opened its 2008 season at City Center. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote: “Kimilee Bryant brought a plush soprano voice and lovely presence to the title role.” March has Kimilee singing The Phantom of the Opera’s Carlotta in Texas, California, and Canada. Bryant is appearing currently as La Carlotta in the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. [posted 11/23/09]

Victor Kioulaphides’s (BM ’84 / DMA ’92) work for mezzo-soprano and mandolin, entitled The Ancient Greek Lyrics, was premiered at the inaugural concert of American Music at the Washington (D.C.) Ethical Society this January. [posted 3/20/09]

Diedra Lawrence (BM ’92), see Marian Anderson String Quartet, ’80s.

Erika Sunnegardh (BM ’92) sang the final scene of Richard Strauss’ Salome this season with the Swedish Radio Symphony, Myung Whun Chung conducting, followed by her first staged Salome at the Florentine Opera. She also appeared at the 2008 Salzburg Easter Festival in a production of Wagner’s Die Walküre conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Sunnegardh appeared in the title role of Richard Strauss’s Salome in a production by the Welsh National Opera. Keith Clarke for MusicalAmerica.com wrote that Sunnegardh “filled the role brilliantly. She was easily the best actress on stage, and her voice was well suited to the considerable demands of Strauss.” [updated 11/23/09]

Barron Coleman (MM ’93) organized a benefit gala concert at Manhattan Center, hosted by actress Lynn Whitfield, for Opera Noire of New York, which he co-founded. [posted 3/25/08]

Gilad Karni (undergraduate studies, ’91–’93) has been appointed as the new viola professor at the Lausanne Conservatoire of Music in Switzerland. Karni taught this summer at the Banff and Aspen Music Festivals. Karni is principal violist of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. [posted 10/21/08]

Deborah Loach (BM ’93) recently won a percussion position with the Mobile Symphony in Alabama. [posted 3/25/08]

Richard Graber (MM ’93) has recently won a position with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal percussion. [posted 3/25/08]

Ruth Ellis (BM ’91 / MM ’93) has recently sung in New York, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah, as she tours with fellow alumnus Scott Holden in a program called “Sing a New Song.” Based in Utah, Ruth has founded the Ruth Ellis Vocal Academy, where she teaches private lessons, master classes, and three children’s choirs. [posted 3/25/08]

Jae-Hee Kim (MM ’93 / PS ’94) recently performed the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto with Korea’s Sung-Nam Philharmonic Orchestra. She also performed the same concerto at the Yonsei University Concert Hall with the Radio-Television National Symphony Orchestra of Moldova. [posted 3/20/09]

Brian Register (MM ’94) has been added to the roster of the Emerging Artists Program sponsored by the Wagner Society of Washington, D.C., who will sponsor him in learning and performing the works of Richard Wagner under the personal tutelage of Evelyn Lear. [posted 3/25/08]

Jay Zhong (BM ’94) has released a new CD of Eugene Ysaye’s Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27, distributed on the Su Mi label. His original composition, Elegy for Iris Chang for violin and piano, was premiered in 2007 at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. [posted 10/21/08]

Gail Archer (DMA ’95) received the following review by the New York Times in January: “While it may seem rash to make the claim so soon, a survey of Messiaen’s organ music performed by Gail Archer is sure to be among the year’s highlights, to judge by the initial installment... Ms. Archer’s well-paced interpretation had a compelling authority. She played with a bracing physicality in the work’s more driven passages and endowed humbler ruminations with a sense of vulnerability and awe.” [posted 3/25/08]

David Begnoche (MM ’95) has accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Trombone at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. [posted 11/23/09]

Yi-Min Cai (BM ’88 / MM ’90 / DMA’95) was awarded the 2008 Academic Affairs Award for Outstanding Teaching by Northern Alabama University, the highest honor bestowed upon faculty. [posted 11/23/09]

Kristjan Järvi (BM ’95) inaugurated the Grafenegg Music Festival in Austria last summer as conductor of the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich in a concert that featured soprano Renée Fleming. Larry L. Lash of MusicalAmerica.com wrote: “The Tonkünstler, the orchestra-in-residence, enjoy the leadership of Järvi, who can be credited with collaborating with Fleming on the adventurous opening program (broadcast live over ORF)…Järvi and his home band could not have selected better vehicles to demonstrate their versatility.” [posted 3/25/08]

Rodney Lancaster (MM ’95) is playing trombone in the orchestra for the first national tour of a new musical based upon the TV series Happy Days, with music by Paul Williams and book by Garry Marshall. [posted 3/20/09]

Jose Llana (undergraduate studies, ’94–’95) has the principal role of the Cheshire Cat in Frank Wildhorn’s new musical, Wonderland, opening this winter at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and heading to New York in the spring. [posted 11/23/09]

Robert Selvaggio (MM ’95) recently had his new CD, Unspoken Dialogue, released by Playscape Recordings, of which Downbeat magazine wrote, “the arrangements make the difference… music that’s thoughtful, slyly subversive.” [posted 3/25/08]

Cynthia Scott (BM ’93 / MM ’95) has seen her new album, Dream for One Bright World, hit the Jazz Week Chart, a history-making first for an all-original, female-vocal CD. [posted 11/23/09]

Emily White (DMA ’95) gave a faculty piano recital at Brooklyn College and performed live on WQXR in the Cervantes Festival hosted by David Dubal this fall. Her essay from her doctoral thesis, a translation from Russian of articles on the pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky, has been used for the liner notes of a new release on the Arbiter label. She continues to teach at the Juilliard Evening Division and at the Brooklyn College Preparatory Center, where she serves as chair of the piano department. White performed works by Karol Szymanowski on a Polish music gala at Carnegie Hall in October. Her recording of the composer’s piano works has been released on Arabesque Recordings. Emily joined the Keyboard Studies faculty of The Juilliard School this spring. [posted 11/23/09]

Tien Hsieh (MM ’95 / PS ’96), pictured, played a solo piano recital in May at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, which the New York Concert Review called “unusually impressive,” “compelling,” and “beautifully organized.” Her world premiere performance of alumnus Glen Cortese’s Elegy was called “affecting, lyrical, introspective.” [posted 10/21/08]

Cornelius Claudio Kreusch (MM ’96) is CEO and founder of MUSICJUSTMUSIC™, a worldwide aggregator and digital distributor with offices in New York and Munich, which allows their artists to sell digital audio content on over 350 online and mobile music sites in 58 countries. Kreusch has seen his company receive the Red Herring 100 Award for Best Private Tech Companies 2009. As a Steinway Artist, he appeared in a solo concert of original, improvised works at New York’s Steinway Hall in November of 2007. He has also released a new solo piano album, Dolomites, on the MJM brand. [updated 11/23/09]

Marc Ramirez (BM ’94 / MM ’96) recently won the audition for Principal Double Bass of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal. [posted 3/20/09]

N’Kenge Simpson Pacurar (BM ’96) appeared at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Room this spring in her one-woman show “Last Diva Standing.” Alumnus Maxime de Toledo was a guest singer. [posted 10/21/08]

Antonio Carlos Defeo (MM ’97) has seen his new composition, Incantation (Echoes of Lost Voices) for chamber orchestra and audio collage, premiered in March. DeFeo was inspired by the Native Peoples Hall at the New York State Museum, where the premiere took place. [posted 11/23/09]

Scott Drewes (BM ’97) is the drummer with the West Point band Jazz Knights. [posted 11/23/09]

Scott Dunn (MM ’97) conducted the NYU Symphony Orchestra in a March concert, billed as “Music and the Movies: The Leonard Rosenman Legacy,” featuring suites from East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause. [posted 11/23/09]

Heather Holden (MM ’97) is on the cover of April’s Flute Talk magazine. She is featured in a five-page interview, along with fellow alumnus Bradley Colten (MM ’97, guitar), her duo partner. [posted 10/21/08]

Jason Moran (undergraduate studies ’95–97) was named a United States Artists Fellow in a program to “nurture, support, and strengthen the work of America’s finest living artists.” Moran premiered his latest work IN MY MIND: Monk at Town Hall 1959 in October, a multimedia performance co-commissioned by Duke University, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Chicago Symphony Hall, and the Washington Performing Arts Society. In a review of recent performances at the Village Vanguard, the New York Sun called him “one of the Big Boys,” “a major pianist,” and “brilliant.” [posted 3/25/08]

Yuan Sheng (BM ’95 / MM ’97) was featured at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes College this summer. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times wrote: “he created a distinct sound world for each [composer], and he shaped the works at hand so thoughtfully that his program seemed kaleidoscopic.” [posted 11/23/09]

Scott Bearden (MM ’98) was named winner of the second annual Irene Dalis Vocal Competition in San Jose, California. Bearden’s $15,000 first prize was augmented by a $5,000 Audience Favorite Award in an American Idol-like voting process. [posted 10/21/08]

Angelo Favis (DMA ’98) has had his second CD, Philippine Treasures, Volume 2, released on the VGO label. He has also recently received tenure at Illinois State University. [posted 3/25/08]

Travis Sullivan (MM ’98) was featured in an April Boston Globe article about his jazz band, Bjorkestra, which plays Sullivan’s arrangements of songs by Icelandic pop singer Bjork exclusively. [posted 10/21/08]

Jane Monheit (BM ’99), pictured, has released her eighth album, entitled The Lovers, The Dreamers and Me, on the Concord Music Group label. [updated 3/12/09]

Sean Nowell (MM ’99) has seen his CD The Seeker released on Posi-Tone Records. All About Jazz wrote: “The Seeker is like a Mariano Rivera fastball: it flies right down Broadway, daring anyone to try and lay a bat on it. That won’t happen, because there’s nothing to do but nod in admiration as the ball flies by, straight and true.” [posted 11/23/09]

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2000’s

Matthew Burns (MM ’00) has returned for a fifth season to New York City Opera, where he sang Masetto in Don Giovanni. Other season highlights include Martín y Soler’s Una Cosa Rara at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro at Opera Grand Rapids, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Colline in La Bohème at Boston Lyric Opera, and his Dayton Opera debut as Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia. [posted 3/25/08]

Deborah Domanski (MM ’00) sang the role of Zenobia this summer in the Santa Fe Opera production of Handel’s Radamisto. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote: “The lovely mezzo-soprano Deborah Domanski sings the courageous Zenobia with luscious sound and lyrical refinement.” [posted 10/21/08]

Simon O’Neill (MM ’00) sang Siegmund in Wagner’s Die Walkure at the Metropolitan Opera this season, having first sung the role in the new Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Reviews describe him as “the star,” “an exemplary Siegmund,” “a towering presence,” “a turbo-charged tenor.” [posted 3/25/08]

Viviane Hagner (Postgraduate Diploma ’00), pictured, made her New York Philharmonic debut in January, performing the Mendelssohn Concerto under the baton of Maestro Maazel; the New York Times called it “a winning performance” and said she “brought an appealing flexibility to the solo line, as well as focused intonation and a sound that was consistently large and projected well without seeming weighty or excessively sugared. Her reading of the Andante was a picture of melting beauty, and in the fast outer movements she played with the kind of virtuosity that makes things sound easier than they are.” She was featured, before her debut, in a New York Times article, where Allan Kozinn wrote: “she has the goods: confident phrasing, rhythmic precision, a flexible and sometimes appealingly earthy tone, all the speed you could want and the maturity to use it expressively.” [posted 3/25/08]

Kyle Barisich (MM ’01) has completed a year and a half on the national tour of Phantom of the Opera and has recently made his Broadway debut with the New York company. [posted 10/21/08]

Benjamin Fox (BM ’01) has been appointed Assistant Timpani/Percussion of the Copenhagen Philharmonic in Denmark. [posted 3/20/09]

Sungji Kim (PS ’01) won second prize in the 2008 Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition in Maryland; first prize at the 2007 Paul Robeson Vocal Competition in Washington, D.C.; and second prize at the 2007 Little Italy Soprano Competition in New York. [posted 3/25/08]

Drew Hemenger (MM ’96 / DMA ’01) had his second string quartet, Three Inner Moments, premiered in Ohio this spring by the Vogler Quartet of Berlin. The Dayton Daily News called it “a decidedly American piece” that creates “metaphoric places where both loss and hope intertwine in poignant harmony—a human experience with significance for all.” [posted 10/21/08]

Isabelle O’Connell (MM ’01) toured Ireland and Germany earlier this year giving a series of solo piano recitals and master classes in contemporary music and extended piano techniques. This spring she toured New Zealand with violinist Gregory Harrington and performed Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen for two pianos at Yamaha Artist Services. In May she toured Australia with CRASH, Ireland’s leading new music ensemble. [posted 10/21/08]

Miguel Zenón (MM ’01), pictured, was awarded a 2008 fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation. The so-called “genius award” is a $500,000 grant over five years to be used for professional development at the awardee’s discretion. Honored as a young musician who “is at once reestablishing the artistic, cultural, and social tradition of jazz while creating an entirely new jazz language for the 21st century,” Miguel Zenón was recognized as both a saxophonist and composer for “expanding the boundaries of Latin and jazz music through his elegant and innovative musical collages” and demonstrating “an astonishing mastery of old and new jazz idioms, from Afro-Caribbean and Latin American rhythmical concepts to free and avant-garde jazz.” To read more, click here.

Donato Cabrera (graduate studies, ’00–’02) has been appointed Assistant Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in April when he conducted the Orchestra with only 24-hours’ notice. [posted 11/23/09]

David Dash (MM ’03) has left “The President’s Own” Marine Band and is now a member of the Naples Philharmonic in Florida. [posted 11/23/09]

Jon Irabagon (MM ’03), pictured, an alto saxophonist based in Queens, won the 21st annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition held in Los Angeles, “securing the most prestigious honor available to a young jazz musician” as stated by the New York Times. [updated 3/11/09]

Stephen Jacobsohn (MM ’03) has been chosen to head the Shriver Hall Concert Series, Baltimore’s “primary importer of recitalists and chamber ensembles,” now in its 44th year. [posted 11/23/09]

Chaerim Kim (BM ’03) was invited to join “The President’s Own” United States Marine Chamber Orchestra in November 2007 as a violinist. Staff Sergeant Kim is performing regularly at White House State Dinners, receptions, and other functions, as well as with the Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. [posted 3/25/08]

George Mathew (Postgraduate Diploma ’03) organized and conducted a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall this January. Entitled “Mahler for the Children of AIDS,” the performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony featured principal artists from such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and New Jersey Symphony, as well as musicians from Mannes, The Juilliard School, and Manhattan School of Music. [posted 3/20/09]

Amy Shoremount-Obra (BM ’01 / MM ’03), pictured, has organized a performance of Lucia di Lammermoor through Opera For Humanity, a not-for-profit organization she founded. The October concert at Symphony Space benefits the Food Bank for NYC and the World Vision Child Sponsorship in Malawi and Cambodia. Ms. Shoremount-Obra will make her New York City Opera debut this season as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. [posted 10/21/08]

Richard David Salvage (MM ’03) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He has received his PhD in Music from the City University of New York. [posted 11/23/09]

Matthew Worth (PS ’04 / MM ’03) is singing this season in the New York Festival of Song, in Die Zauberflöte (Papageno) with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Così fan tutte (Guglielmo) with Opera Naples, and in Carmina Burana with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and the Baton Rouge Symphony. As a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center last summer, he sang Guglielmo in Così with James Levine conducting. Matthew is the recipient of a 2007–08 Sullivan Foundation Award. [posted 3/25/08]

Elaine Alvarez (BM ’02 / MM ’04), pictured, was engaged by Maestro Ricardo Muti to be soloist in the Rossini Stabat Mater for a tour this summer of Italy, Greece, and Spain. Elaine’s unexpected debut last year with Chicago Lyric Opera brought reviews such as: “Luminous” (Chicago Sun-Times), “Conveying lyric pathos seems to come as naturally to Alvarez as breathing” (Chicago Tribune), and “Elaine Alvarez rendered Mimì with an ample, buffed-bronze soprano. . . she displayed a lissome, floated top. . . Her portrayal was, moreover, compellingly characterized, subtly naturalistic and fully drawn . . . an intelligent, musically satisfying performance” (Opera News). She recently sang her first Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Cleveland this fall. [updated 10/21/08]

Raymond Ayers (MM ’04) appeared as Lord Henry Wotton in Lowell Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray with Center City Opera in Philadelphia. Opera News wrote: “Best of all, Raymond Ayers (the aphoristic Lord Henry) showed a high quality baritone with dynamic and coloristic flexibility plus a real gift for meaningful textual delivery.” [posted 3/20/09]

Andrew Beall (BM ’04) had his concerto for solo percussion and orchestra, Affirmation, premiered at Avery Fisher Hall in June 2008. Affirmation, is being endorsed by Dame Evelyn Glennie for performances in the 2009/10 season. He was recently elected president of the Percussive Arts Society New York Chapter. He is also the president of Beall Percussion Specialties and Bachovich Music Publications which recently released CDs and works by fellow alumni and faculty James Preiss, Duncan Patton, Joe Tompkins, Mayumi Sekizawa, and Andy Akiho. [posted 3/20/09]

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Tim Green (BM ’04), pictured, finished second in the the 21st annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition held in Los Angeles this year for saxophonists.To read more, click here. [updated 3/11/09]

Eddy Khaimovich (BM ’04) can be heard with pianist Roy Assaf on their CD Andarta. Bassist Khaimovich also has his own composition, Stuv, featured on the recording. The Origin Records release has been placed on C. Michael Bailey’s “Best Releases of 2008” chart in All About Jazz. [posted 3/20/09]

Rohin Khemani (MM ’04) has been accepted into the teaching artist roster of Young Audiences New York for the 2007–08 academic year. The percussionist’s show, created with fellow alumnus saxophonist Max Wild (MM ’04) and entitled “East Meets West Music as a Universal Language,” takes elementary school children on a fun, educational journey through the world of music. [posted 1/24/07]

Nelson Ojeda (PS ’04) has been appointed Music Director at St. Lydia’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn. [posted 3/20/09]

Brandon Poor (MM ’04), formerly a Young Artist at Glimmerglass and Fort Worth Opera, has been named “Rookie of the Year for 2007” by the Grand Prairie Police Association in Texas. [posted 10/21/08]

Sherisse Rogers (MM ’04) was named the winner of the Monk International Jazz Composers Competition for her work Transitions for big band and string quartet. She is the first women to win this prize, “presented to a composer who best demonstrates originality, creativity, and excellence in jazz composition.” To read more, click here. [updated 3/11/09]

Liam Bonner (MM ’05) will make his Metropolitan Opera debut as Morales in Bizet’s Carmen this sea¬son, also appearing with the company in Thomas’s Hamlet. He returns to Houston Grand Opera for Belcore in L’elisir d’amore. [posted 11/23/09]

Alexandre Moutouzkine (MM ’03 / PS ’05 / Artist Diploma ’06) placed third and was awarded $15,000 in the 17th biennial Cleveland International Piano Competition last summer. He was also awarded the Beethoven Prize (of $2,000), for his “Waldstein” Sonata. In the finals, Moutouzkine performed Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concert with the Cleveland Orchestra in Severance Hall. Moutouzkine was presented in concert at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in January. He has joined the Astral Artists roster as a winner of its 2009 National Auditions. [posted 11/23/09]

Atakan Sari (BM ’05) has been directing a world music ensemble at Cornell and recently returned from Armenia where he played with Martin Berkofsky and the Yerevan Philharmonic. [posted 3/20/09]

Josu De Solaun Soto (BM ’03 / MM ’05) was awarded Top Prize in the First European Union Piano Competition, held in Prague. [posted 11/23/09]

Melissa Wegner (MM ’05) sang the premiere of David Bruce’s Piosenki, a work written for her, at Carnegie Hall as part of the Weill Music Institute’s “Composer and the Voice” workshops at Carnegie Hall. This summer she appeared in Bard SummerScape’s production of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg. [posted 1/24/07]

Sharin Apostolou (MM ’06) was an apprentice with Portland Opera last season. In January, she was called upon as a last-minute replacement to sing the title role in the company’s mainstage production of Handel’s Rodelinda. The Oregonian wrote of the debut: “Apostolou has a lovely, high, clear voice, and her coloratura … was exuberant … she covered the musical terrain without fear.” [posted 10/21/08]

Allegra Brooke (BM '06) is continuing her career with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the Coordinator of Major Corporate Sponsorships, and is currently pursuing her M.S. in Arts Administration from Boston University. [posted 8/27/08]

Sara Caswell (MM ’06) was featured on NBC as part of Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular this year. She performed as jazz violin soloist with the New York Pops on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. [posted 11/23/09]

Kristin Ezell (MM ’06) made her professional New York debut at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall through the Osvaldo Golijov and Dawn Upshaw Workshop for Composers and Singers in April 2007, where she performed the world premiere of Scenes by Johannes Lauer. Ms. Ezell was awarded a full scholarship to be one of the eight members of the inaugural graduate vocal program at Bard College Conservatory of Music under the artistic direction of MSM alumna Dawn Upshaw. This past March, Kristin created the role of Narrator 1 in the world premiere of David Bruce's opera A Bird In Your Ear, which was commissioned by Bard Conservatory. [posted 4/02/08]

Sofya Melikyan (MM ’06) performed the Saint Saens Second Piano Concerto this past summer in Spain. She has also been invited to perform in her native country as soloist with the Armenian Symphony Orchestra in Yerevan. [posted 3/20/09]

Pedro da Silva (BM ’99 / MM ’01 / DMA ’06) was recently promoted to Affiliate Professor of Composition at Long Island University and continues to teach at New York University. He contributed to the film scores of Richard Temtchine’s How to Seduce Difficult Women and the Sundance documentary Tijuana nada más, and can be heard playing guitar on the track of Be Kind Rewind. [posted 3/25/08]

Theresa Tokarowski (BM ’06) appeared on the Rachael Ray show this spring in a segment called “Making fashion trends work for you.” Tokarowski, a consultant with Arbonne International was a top-5 finalist in the 2008 Miss New York Competition. [posted 11/23/09]

Joe Trapanese (BM ’06) has joined the faculty of UCLA as a lecturer in Composition / Theory, specializing in Electronic Music. He recently composed music for a 45-minute dance production at UCLA entitled Bahu - Beti - Biwi (Daughter-in-law, Daughter, Wife), exploring the roles of women in Indian culture. His work as orchestrator and synth programmer for film and television productions includes What Happens In Vegas, Traitor, Dexter, Beethoven’s Big Break, and The Memory Keepers Daughter. [posted 3/20/09]

Jonathan Tuzo (MM ’06) starred in a production of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha by Opera Memphis, which reworked the opera and featured Tuzo as the composer Joplin. [posted 11/23/09]

Emily Albrink (MM ’06 / PS ’07) sang Despina in the Tanglewood production of Così fan tutte last summer under the baton of James Levine; the New York Times called her “delightful and vocally strong and versatile.” She was just accepted into the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist program at Washington National Opera for 2008–10. Next season, Emily will make her Carnegie Hall debut in Osvaldo Golijov’s chamber opera Ainadamar with Dawn Upshaw and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Robert Spano. [updated 3/25/08]

Jean-Olivier Bégin (MM ’07) has received a College TV Award in the Best Composition category for the original music of Operated by Invisible Hands, a short film written and directed by Nicole Brending. The presentation was made in Los Angeles this March before representatives of the motion picture industry. [posted 3/25/08]

Kevin Fagen (MM ’07) recently accepted a position as Music Director at Oakwood Friends School, located in Poughkeepsie. Kevin recently was employed at Civic Orchestra of Chicago as violist. [posted 10/21/08]

Elaine Fukunaga (MM ’07) was recently awarded a 2009 Career Performance Grant from Sigma Alpha Iota. [posted 11/23/09]

Wang Jie (BM ’05 / MM ’07) is a recent recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award. Her full-length opera, Nannan, was chosen by New York City Opera for the 2007 VOX: Showcasing American Composers Festival, making her the youngest composer ever to be given that honor. [posted 3/25/08]

Penny Johnson (DMA ’07) is a contributing author for the Glenn Gould Foundation in Toronto, Canada. [posted 10/21/08]

Jihae Lim (MM ’07) won the New York University Concerto Competition and performed the Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto at the Frederick Loewe Theater in December. [posted 3/20/09]

Kariné Poghosyan (MM ’05 / DMA’07) appeared as soloist at Steinway Hall in April. NY Concert Review wrote: “Attacking the piece [Falla’s Fantasia Baetica] with ferocity, Ms. Poghosyan gave one of the best performances of this piece in memory…. One will eagerly await this pianist’s next performance.” [posted 11/23/09]

Anthony F. Rosado (BM ’05 / MM ’07) has become a Paulist novitiate, joining the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in an August ceremony in Washington, D.C. [posted 10/21/08]

Pablo Sáinz Villegas (Artist Diploma ’07) is currently on an extensive tour as winner of the Parkening International Guitar Competition, performing with such ensembles as the Lexington Symphony Orchestra, Mobile Symphony, South Bay Chamber Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Symphony, and Petrobras Symphony in Rio de Janeiro; he has also given important recitals in Musikverein in Vienna and Spivey Hall in Atlanta. [posted 3/25/08]

Julia Sakharova (PS ’07) recently accepted a position at Alabama Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Concertmaster, having previously been with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. [posted 10/21/08]

Leonhard Straumer (MM ’07) won a position as cellist with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra in Germany. [posted 11/23/09]

Matthew Tutsky (BM ’07) recently won the Principal Harp position with the Boise Philharmonic in Idaho. [posted 11/23/09]

Donald Vega’s (MM ’07) tune, Waling Jane, is featured on the October 2008 Jazziz on Disc – Vol. 8. [posted 3/20/09]

Lauren Jelencovich (BM ’07) made her debut in March with Opera Tampa as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica under the baton of alumnus Anton Coppola. Jelencovich was in the finals of the 2009 Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition and won second prize in the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition. [posted 11/23/09]

Micah Young (BM ’07) made his Broadway debut as pianist/conductor of Spring Awakening. He was subbing on keyboards for Mamma Mia and piano for Chicago, and recently played keyboards in the Broadway production of White Christmas. He was music director for a production of Bye, Bye, Birdie at CAP21 (Collaborative Arts Project Conservatory) and rehearsal pianist for the recent Encores! production of Kern/Hammerstein’s Music in the Air. [posted 3/20/09]

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Daniel Andai (MM ’07 / PS ’08) is the new Concertmaster of the Miami Symphony Orchestra, theculmination of a worldwide search that spanned two performance seasons. Music Director and Conductor Eduardo Marturet states: “Daniel brings exceptional talent, experience and musical sensitivity to his position as Concertmaster. He will be a great asset for the artistic future of our organization.” [posted 3/20/09]

Laura Bohn (MM ’08) is a resident young artist with Syracuse Opera this fall, where she sings the Second Lady and covers Pamina in Die Zauberflöte for the mainstage, as well as appears as Micaela in La tragédie de Carmen for the young artist production. [posted 10/21/08]

Leona Carney (MM ’08) was a featured performer in May at Zankel Hall in a Composer/Singer Workshop with Osvaldo Golijov and Dawn Upshaw. In March, she premiered a new opera entitled Love/Hate, by Jack Perla, with New York’s American Opera Projects. [posted 11/23/09]

Anthony Roth Costanzo (MM ’08) was a finalist in the 2008 George London Competition where he won an “encouragement award” in the finals. The New York Sun wrote: “countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo not only had the most distinctive voice this day, but knew how to husband it intelligently. His ‘Stille Amare’ from Handel’s Tolomeo was electric, icy cold in spots, fiery red in others.” [posted 10/21/08] Costanzo was one of four winners of the National Council Auditions of the Metropolitan Opera announced on February 22, 2009. To read more, click here. [posted 3/20/09]

Sequina DuBose (PS ’08) was recipient of an Encouragement Award for the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, was finalist of the Kurt Weill Foundation Lotte Lenya Competition, and performed at Carnegie Hall as a finalist in the inaugural Accadia Competition for Operatic Voice. [posted 11/23/09]

Kim Benninger Gilman (PS ’08) won a position as fourth horn with the Virginia Symphony. [posted 10/21/08]

Andrea Lam (BM ’08) made it through the semifinal round of the thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and was awarded $5,000. [posted 11/23/09]

Linda Oh (MM ’08) appeared at (Le) Poisson Rouge in NYC this August to promote her upcoming solo album, Entry. In a review of her appearance, Ben Ratliff of the New York Times wrote: “The jolts in Linda Oh’s songs arrive early and continue all the way through...as it barrels ahead, the music’s fear¬less energy seems self-generated.” [posted 11/23/09]

Alondra de la Parra (BM ’06 / MM ’08) was featured last June in the New York Times. Founder of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, she has organized and funded concerts at Town Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Washington’s Kennedy Center, as well as a No Borders international tour. In May, Ms. de la Parra became the youngest member ever to join the board of trustees for the Latin Grammy Awards. The League of American Orchestras presented her with its 2008 Helen M. Thompson Award for emerging music directors, which recognizes not only musical excellence but also administrative and managerial talent. Parra conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas in a sold-out concert at Alice Tully Hall. This spring, she conducted Plácido Domingo in the Washington National Opera’s Gala “Plácido Domingo Sings: From My Latin Soul.” She made her debut with the Columbus Symphony in April and was featured on the cover of Caras magazine, which included a 14-page article and interview. [posted 11/23/09]

Matthew Prendergast (MM ’08) has won the percussion position with the Huntsville (AL) Symphony Orchestra. [posted 11/23/09]

Janelle Reichman’s (MM ’08) composition, Bleep, is featured on the October 2008 Jazziz on Disc – Vol. 8. [posted 3/20/09]

Jeanine De Bique (BM ’06 / MM ’08 / PS ’09) made her debut as soloist (Mater Gloriosa) with the New York Philharmonic in Music Director Lorin Maazel’s farewell performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 this June. [posted 11/23/09]

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In Memoriam

Alumni and Former Faculty Obituaries
(since January 2008 — for obituaries from 2004 – 2007 click here)

Robert Abramson (BM ’65 / MM ’68 / faculty member from 1971–2001) passed away on July 22, 2008. Robert M. Abramson had a long and varied career as a coach, pianist, conductor, composer, author, teacher, writer, and video creator. He taught at every age level in every type of school in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. He was a teacher of teachers and performers at the Juilliard School in the Dance, Drama, Opera, and Instrumental Music departments.He was internationally acclaimed as a leading developer of the methods of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. Mr. Abramson was the founder and director of the Manhattan Dalcroze Institute, which was located at the Juilliard School. His major contributions were in the fields of music, movement, and musicality, and he was known for his gifts of musical improvisation. After many successful years at the Dalcroze School of Music, he left and began directing his own school, the Robert Abramson Dalcroze Institute in New York City. It is there that he and his colleague, Daniel Cataneo (BM '83 / MM '85), taught all of the original Dalcroze solfège, rhythmique, and the original Dalcroze exercises from his first collection of Rhythmique, Gymnastique, and Plastique Animé. Mr. Abramson was the author of Music for Perception and Cognition, published by C.P.P. Belwin; Teaching Music in the 21st Century with Choksy, Gillespie, and Woods, published by Prentice-Hall; Rhythm Games I and II with text and original music composed and performed by the author, published by Warner Brothers; and Teaching Music as a Second Language, a theory, ear-training, and sight-singing method, published by Music and Movement Press. His most recent works were Dalcroze HanDances, a beginner's method for piano, and a video tape, Eurthymics, done with Bob Abramson and published by GIA Publications, Inc. Mr. Abramson was working on a new video, Dances and Movement of the Baroque Instrumental Suites and Operas, which was to be a guide to better rhythmic performance. As a composer, he wrote six documentary film scores; a concerto titled, Dance Variations for Piano and Orchestra, recorded by Angel Records; and a ballet titled, Touch and Go. He has written three song cycles on texts by Whitman and James Joyce, and one set of orchestral songs on text by James Joyce. The Three Old Songs Resung was written because of his interest in extending and renewing the world of American and English folk music as narratives for our own times. Additionally, Mr. Abramson recorded with the famous folk singers Oscar Brand and Jean Ritchie on many recordings for Electra and Traditional Records. Mr. Abramson also taught theory, solfège, rhythmics, piano improvisation, and sight reading at Manhattan School of Music for 30 years.

Betty Allen (member of the voice faculty since 1969 / Board of Trustees since 1984), an internationally renowned mezzo-soprano, educator and administrator, passed away on June 22, 2009. She was president emeritus of the Harlem School of the Arts, where she taught a master voice class, and a member of the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. She appeared as soloist with symphony orchestras under such major conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Pablo Casals, Edo de Waart, Antal Dorati, Istvan Kertesz, Rafael Kubelik, Erich Leinsdorf, Lorin Maazel, Jean Martinon, Charles Munch, Eugene Ormandy, Seiji Ozawa, John Pritchard, Georg Solti, William Steinberg, and Leopold Stokowski. She is especially well known for her performances in Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts. Apart from her symphonic appearances, Miss Allen was an active recitalist. She made her New York recital debut at Town Hall in 1958 and followed with appearances in London, The Hague, Oslo, Berlin, and Montreal. In 1964 she made her formal opera debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. She made her North American opera debut with the San Francisco Opera in 1966 and continued with the Canadian Opera and the Bellas Artes in Mexico City (1971), the New York City Opera (1973), and the Metropolitan Opera’s mini-Met (1974). The Viewing will take place Tuesday, June 30 from 4–8 PM at Benta's Funeral Home: 630 Saint Nicholas Avenue (at West 141st Street), in Harlem.
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Ardyth Alton (member of the faculty from 1969–2005) passed away in February 2008. Dean of Faculty Richard E. Adams writes: “A gifted and active cellist, a dedicated teacher, she was much beloved by her students and colleagues.” Born in Cherokee, Iowa, she was to earn a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and studied at The Juilliard School with Felix Salmond and Leonard Rose. She gave over 1,000 trio concerts and solo appearances throughout North America under auspices of Columbia Artists Management. She taught at the Incontri Musicali Internazionale festival in Italy (1989, 1990, 1991) and was a member of the faculties at New York University, SUNY-Purchase, and the The Juilliard School. She was a member of the MSM Precollege Division since 1969 and the College Division since 1985.

Alba Barbadoro (BM 1963 / MM 1965, theory) passed ways on October 9, 2008. She was 72 and living in Branford Connecticut. The New Haven Register wrote: “Alba Barbadoro’s whole life revolved around music. Having started playing piano at an early age, she went on to become a public school music teacher. “Alba was taking lessons by age 8,” noted sister Irene Asprelli of Orange. “My father loved opera, and she came to love that as well. She also became a member of her school’s glee club. And years later, she introduced my son, Paul, to music.” In later years, when Barbadoro suffered from debilitating arthritis and couldn’t get around easily, a niece would take her to the opera. ‘One time, a friend of hers, an opera singer, came to visit and sang for us while my aunt played the piano,’ said Ilene DeFelice of Orange. ‘My aunt and I would sing Camelot together, and even when she couldn’t move her fingers as well anymore, she would still play the piano.’ Born January 19, 1936, in New Haven, a daughter of Adolfo and Anna Barbadoro, she attended Wilbur Cross High School and the Manhattan School of Music. She taught music at Fair Haven Junior High School and East Haven High School. A parishioner of St. Francis Church in New Haven, Barbadoro was the church’s director of music as well as the founder and conductor of the choir, organist and soloist… Barbadoro also was a member of her local Italian-American and Lions clubs, and had lived in Branford the last 24 years. In her spare time, she liked to go to the beach, attend the theater, watch the A&E Channel and read. Never having married, she enjoyed traveling either by herself or with others, to Italy, Ukraine, California, Arizona, all over New England and Canada.”

Hubert Berberich (BM ’69 / MM ’71, voice) passed away suddenly on June 10, 2009. Berberich was a faculty member at Iona College, where he founded the Iona Singers, and a former instructor for the MSM Preparatory Division. While a student at MSM he participated in the 1967 tribute to American Musical Theater, presented at the Waldorf Astoria and then, at the invitation of President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, at the White House. (see link about this event) Mr. Berberich had a rich career performing and composing as well. He performed a solo at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, and sang the National Anthem at more than 160 Mets games starting in 1986. Berberich served as organist and musical director at St. John's Church in Mahopac. He founded and directed the Candlelight Concert tour in Mahopac, and over the years produced dozens of recordings, including classical, pop, rock, blues, Christmas, ethnic, and solo performances. Berberich performed on many commercial recordings and telecasts with the New York Philharmonic, as well as with Paul McCartney. The academic also taught at Hofstra University, Westchester Community College, and Manhattan College. He is survived by his wife, alumna Janet Sitchenko Berberich, who met Hubert during new student registration at MSM, and his sons, Christopher and Alexander. The family has requested donations be made in Berberich's memory to either the Putnam County Humane Society or the Putnam County Land Trust. (More information here.)

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Earl S. Brown (BM ’72 / MM ’73), pictured, passed away on November 12, 2009. He was 69 and living in Mount Vernon, New York. A singer his entire life, he had retired as a teacher for the New York City school system, where he worked for over 30 years. He is immediately survived by his wife of 40 years, retired opera singer Esther Hinds (Brown); his children Elizabeth Maynard, Emerson Brown, and Erica Buchanan; and five grandsons.

Frances Blaisdell (member of the flute faculty from 1957–1973) passed away on March 11, 2009. The New York Times wrote: “Frances Blaisdell, a flutist who played her way into what was then the male world of orchestral music, becoming one of the early women to play a woodwind instrument with the New York Philharmonic, died on March 11 in Portola Valley, Calif. She was 97. Her son, John, announced her death. In addition to playing with the Philharmonic, Ms. Blaisdell performed with prominent chamber ensembles, on Broadway, at Radio City Music Hall, in vaudeville, and with Phil Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra on the ‘Hour of Charm’ on CBS and NBC radio. She also taught generations of leading flutists. ‘I had lots of opportunities because I was sort of a freak, and people couldn’t imagine a girl flutist,’ she said in an interview printed in The Flutist Quarterly in 2005. Chamber Music magazine suggested in 1992 that she was considerably more than that, saying, ‘Every woman flute player in every major American orchestra, every little girl who pays the flute in a school band, has Frances Blaisdell to thank. She was first.’ Ms. Blaisdell had to overcome the mixed feelings of her father to become a professional; proud of her talent, he feared that as a woman, she would not survive as a player. He was in the lumber business, but his own love was the flute, and he started teaching her to play when she was 5. He wished she were a boy and called her Jim, she said in The Flutist Quarterly interview, which first appeared in the New York Flute Club newsletter. Ms. Blaisdell wrote to Ernest Wagner, a flutist with the New York Philharmonic, to ask if he would teach ‘Jim.’ When she appeared for her lesson, she said, Mr. Wagner refused to teach her, saying there was no future for a woman trying to play the flute in orchestras. But he finally agreed to six lessons, and then more. Ms. Blaisdell’s father wanted her to pursue a career, but saw no future for her in music. He gave her the choice of being a teacher, nurse or secretary. She persuaded him that since she was graduating at 16, two years early, she should spend the two years pursuing her dream. ‘Two years, but not another day,’ he said. So in 1928 she wrote Georges Barrère, the great French flutist, who taught at what is now Juilliard. She was given an appointment, perhaps because her name had been taken down as ‘Francis.’ She was admitted with a scholarship. Ms. Blaisdell later studied with two other giants of the flute, Marcel Moyse and William Kincaid. In 1941, after Barrère had a stroke, she took his place in the Barrère Trio. In 1930, she became first flute of the National Orchestral Association and soon joined Barrère to play Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 under the baton of Walter Damrosch at Madison Square Garden. She was first flute in the New Opera Company and in the New Friends of Music. On Nov. 26, 1932, she was the soloist with the Philharmonic at a children’s concert, playing Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2 in D major. Josh Marcum, a spokesman for the Philharmonic, confirmed the appearance. But in 1937, she was refused an audition for an opening as assistant first flute of the Philharmonic because she was a woman. In 1962, she said, she became one of the first women to play a woodwind with the Philharmonic, when a piece demanded extra flutes. Mr. Marcum said this was possible, but not provable. In 1937, Ms. Blaisdell married Alexander Williams, first clarinetist for the Philharmonic. They and three other Philharmonic players formed the Blaisdell Woodwind Quintet, which had a radio series. Mr. Williams died in 2003. In addition to her son, Frances Louise Blaisdell is survived by her daughter, Alexandra Hawley; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Ms. Blaisdell played several concerts with the soprano Lily Pons, providing the requisite flute trills that accompany many showpieces for a coloratura soprano, and taught at the Manhattan School of Music, among other places. In 1973, she moved to California, where she taught at Stanford for 35 years. Ms. Blaisdell adapted to the show business side of classical music. She said she wore a beautiful gold lamé dress at Radio City Music Hall for five shows a day in 1934 or 1935. She had two Rockettes on each side of her. Still, she was deathly frightened the first time she gazed into the immense black space, which looked, she said, like the ‘caverns of hell.’ A Rockette nudged her and said, ‘Get going, kid, and smile.’ Ms. Blaisdell did. After a couple of shows, it was easy.”

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Carlos Correa (MM ’90) passed away on September 9, 2009, after a long illness. “Carlos has been very sick for many months, and was in need of a liver transplant,” fellow alumnus and long-time friend Daniel Stroup informs us. “The transplant was not possible because of his weakening condition. He just could not make it.” Carlos Correa began his piano studies at the age of twelve at the Music Conservatory in his native Peru. At the age of eighteen he made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru. He quickly garnered several awards in national and international competitions. Having emigrated to the United States, Mr. Correa received a full scholarship to attend Brigham Young University and later to The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a Master of Music degree in 1990. At MSM he studied with Solomon Mikowsky and Donn-Alexandre Feder and was a winner of the MSM Concerto Competition. He has appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestras of Argentina, Ecuador and Peru, as well as the Utah Symphony, Philippine Philharmonic, Manhattan Philharmonic, New Britain Symphony, and the SAR Ensemble of Hong Kong. He formed a piano duo with fellow alumnus Daniel Stroup, touring Asia, Europe, and the U.S., and making their New York debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 1997. For the past 10 years, Carlos has been Music Minister at St. Cecilia’s Church in Manhattan and working at the United Nations International School as a private piano teacher. In addition, he has been performing solo piano fund raising concerts in his native Peru, helping the Peruvian Government to buy a 9-foot concert grand for their concert hall in Trujillo – which now, thanks to Correa’s efforts, has a Steinway D. As the family, most of whom live in Peru, have incurred large costs in traveling back and forth to New York, condolences and any gifts can be sent to Carlos’ sister: Blanca Correa, 145 Attorney Street, #5-A, New York, New York 10002.

Gayle Dixon (undergrad studies, 1964–68) died on November 23, 2008. She was 61 and lived in New York City. She had studied violin with Stanley Bednar and was a frequent member of the Manhattan School of Music orchestras. A violinist, composer, arranger and educator, Ms. Dixon joined the Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians in 1968. From the Local 802 online obituary: “She served on the Trial Board from 1985 to 1986 and on the Executive Board from 1987 to 1993. Several of her articles in Allegro, most notably one on black violinists, won first place journalism awards. Ms. Dixon was a busy freelancer who played with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra and Brooklyn Philharmonic among others. She also performed on Broadway. One of her formative experiences was playing in the Symphony of the New World, which was formed by activist musicians in the 1960’s to give opportunities to black musicians. Later, she was among a group of 30 African-American string players who founded the String Reunion, which developed a repertoire of music by black composers. In jazz, Ms. Dixon was the founding first violinist of Quartette Indigo and was an original member and first violinist of the Uptown String Quartet. Ms. Dixon accomplished so much in her life that it’s impossible to sum it up in this short space. She was an educator who was highly in demand. She founded Jazzbows Music, which published and recorded string music by African-American composers. She even chaired a financial investment club called Sokoma, which taught financial literacy to women and young people. Ms. Dixon is survived by her sisters Akua, Stephanie and Cleo, brother Joseph, sister-in-law Linda, brothers-in-law Steve Turre and Roy Coles, eight nieces and nephews and many cousins. To learn more about Ms. Dixon, see www.JazzBows.com. On that site you can read an interview that Ms. Dixon gave with Allegro in March 2000, which contains many more details about her life.” Ms. Dixon had been a donor to Manhattan School of Music.

Ellen Faull (member of the voice faculty from 1970 – 1986, Chair of the Voice Department from 1983) passed away on December 2, 2008 in Vancouver, Washington, where she had been living since 1990. Faull was 90 years old and still teaching; she continued to teach until just a few days before she died. Ellen Faull was a major force in the opera world for many years and taught more than a generation of professional singers including Dawn Upshaw, Ashley Putnam, and Patricia McCaffrey. In addition to MSM, Ms. Faull taught at the Juilliard School for a number of years as well as at Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Michigan. Born Ellen Hartla Faull in Pittsburgh PA on October 14, 1918, attended the Curtis Institute. Faull married Dr. Maurice Gordon, a well-known New York psychiatrist who died in 1987. She is survived by her daughter, Judith S. Gordon, PhD, her son-in-law, Paul Schwyhart and her grand daughters, Sarah and Rachel Schwyhart, all of Eugene, Oregon. A soprano, Faull, sang leading roles for many years with New York City Opera. She became one of the premier American opera singers, performing in opera houses all over the country, and was a frequent performer on nationwide Mutual Network Radio Broadcasts. She sang for many of the most prominent conductors then working in opera: Eugene Ormandy, Laszlo Halasz, Julius Rudel, Tullio Serafin, Fritz Busch, Serge Koussevitsky, Leopold Stokowski, Victor De Sabata, Josef Krips and Georg Solti. At the urging of Julius Rudel, she expanded her repertoire from Mozart to Cio-Cio San in Butterfly, Birdie in Regina (Blitzstein), Abigail Borden in Lizzie Borden (Jack Beeson premiere), Leonora in Il Trovatore, Mimi in La Boheme, Eva in Die Meistersinger, and Aida. She was Lady Billows in the first American performance of Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Faul established the Ellen Faull Gordon Vocal Competition (in the Pacific Northwest) and the Bel Canto Northwest Vocal Institute (Portland, OR). Ellen Faull was a mentor to the current generation of voice teachers including Edith Bers, Chair of the Juilliard Voice Department and a member of the MSM College Faculty, and Jane Olian, New York City voice teacher and MSM Precollege Faculty member. The following is a link to the appreciation published in the Portland Oregonian: http://blog.oregonlive.com/classicalmusic/2008/12/ellen_faul_obituary.html#more

Ellen (Svendsen) Fezer (piano/theory studies, 1939) passed away on March 18, 2008 at the Westerly Nursing Home in Rhode Island. She was 100. Mrs. Fezer was born in New York on Dec. 4, 1907, the daughter of Svend and Margrethe Jensen Svendsen. Prior to her retirement in 1967, she was employed as a controller at the Ethyl Corporation. She was married to Harold E. Fezer in New York City on June 8, 1968. Mr. Fezer died June 10, 1995. Mrs. Fezer is survived by nieces and nephews, Emilie Commander, Ellen Cromwell, Camilla Hanson, Andrew Svendsen Jr. and William Nussbickel. She was predeceased by her siblings, Michael, Ejnar, Andrew Svendsen, Stella Robinson and Camilla Nussbickel.

Ezio Flagello (Diploma 1952 / BM 1953) passed away on March 19, 2009 in Florida. Ezio Flagello, born January 28, 1931, was an Italian-American bass, who sang at the Metropolitan Opera from 1957 to 1984. Flagello was born in New York City, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a pupil of Friedrich Schorr and John Brownlee. He also studied at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, in Rome, Italy, with Luigi Ricci with a Fulbright Scholarship. Flagello made his professional debut at the Empire State Festival, in Ellenville, New York in 1955, as Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut on November 9, 1957, as the Jailer in Tosca. Four days later, as a last minute replacement, he sang Leporello in Don Giovanni. He was First Place Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air in 1957. He quickly became a favorite with the audience in comic roles, such as Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Dulcamara in Elisir d'amore, though he also excelled in more lyrical and dramatic repertory. In his twenty-seven seasons with the company, he sang, notably, Rodolfo in La Sonnambula, Giorgio in I Puritani, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Silva in Ernani, Wurm in Luisa Miller, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Fra Melitone in La forza del destino, Philippe II in Don Carlos, Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Timur in Turandot, etc. He created the role of Enobarbus in Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra for the opening of the new Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Centre on September 16, 1966. Flagello also enjoyed a successful international career, appearing frequently in Vienna, Milan, Berlin, London, etc. Flagello possessed a dark and very rich voice with a remarkable upper register extending to high A. He left an impressive discography which includes: Così fan tutte, opposite Leontyne Price, Tatiana Troyanos, George Shirley, Sherrill Milnes, under Erich Leinsdorf; Lucrezia Borgia, opposite Montserrat Caballé, Alfredo Kraus, Shirley Verrett; Lucia di Lammermoor and Luisa Miller, both opposite Anna Moffo and Carlo Bergonzi; Rigoletto, opposite Robert Merrill and under Georg Solti; and Ernani, Ballo in maschera, Forza del destino, all opposite Leontyne Price. He also recorded Handel's Alcina and Bellini's I Puritani, both opposite Joan Sutherland. He interpreted the role of Harapha in the famous Archiv recording of Handel's oratorio Samson (1968). He appeared in Leornard Bernstein's 1973 Unanswered Question series at Harvard (available on DVD) as Teresias in a performance of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. In addition to his operatic career, he had a small role in the flashback sequences in The Godfather Part II (1974) as an impressario threatened by Don Fanucci. Ezio Flagello retired from the stage in 1987. He is the brother of composer Nicolas Flagello. He was married to Italian-American writer Anna Mione (BM 1951 / MM 1952), with whom he had four children.

Nicholas Granitto (member of the Academic faculty from 1949 – 1989) passed away on August 22, 2008. Born October 1, 1921, in NYC of Neapolitan parentage, Granitto was raised in Brooklyn. After serving in the American armed forces in Italy during WW II, he attended Columbia University, where he majored in Italian Studies. He was awarded the University’s Oldrini Traveling Fellowship to study in Florence, Italy, where he prepared his doctoral thesis on the renowned Italian poet, Aldo Palazzeschi. Upon his return to the U.S., he continued teaching at the Casa Italiana at Columbia until 1968. His publications include translations of song anthologies and opera libretti, and reviews of poetry recordings for Language Laboratory Journal. During his tenure at Manhattan School of Music, he taught Italian and French; he was Academic Department Coordinator (1964 – 71); and he contributed to the development of the Unified Academics Program (UAP) during the 1970s. His daughter, Linda, writes: “[My father] was passionate about teaching and instilled in his students a deep appreciation for expression of text in poetry and song. Countless unpublished translations of poetry, songs, and operatic roles were provided and distributed to MSM students over a period of 40 years. He opened his home, sharing his vast collection of recordings, books, photos, letters, and anecdotes to generations of eager students and young professional singers. As diction studies became more developed and integral to the curriculum, he was able to combine a lifelong love of music with his expertise and passion for language and poetry. Among the hundreds of students he taught and remembered were Catherine Malfitano, Harris Goldsmith, Yusef Lateef, Dolora Zajick, Dianne Danese Flagello, and the late Walter Turnbull.” Please send notes of remembrance to John Blanchard at jblanchard@msmnyc.edu

Helen Grace Hodam (graduate voice studies, 1950 – 51) passed away at the age of 93 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 21, 2008. Her 50-year teaching career, predominately at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, produced students who performed with all of the major American opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and the San Francisco Opera, and with European opera companies in Cologne, Munich, Bremen, Vienna, Paris, Zurich, Madrid, and Amsterdam. Born June 23, 1914, in Ludlow, Illinois, Miss Hodam (as she was universally addressed) graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University, pursued graduate work at Juilliard and Manhattan School, and, in 1952, received a Master of Music degree from Hartt College of Music. After graduation, she began her teaching career with one year at Hardin-Baylor College followed by nine years at Muskingum College. From 1963 to 1984 at Oberlin Conservatory, Miss Hodam taught 20 students a year in a voice performance studio that was always highly sought, and a celebrated class on French art song. She was also on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Her constant study of repertoire included time at the Aspen Music School, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Goethe Institute in Munich. After retiring from Oberlin in 1984, she taught full-time at New England Conservatory until 2003, when her health made it no longer possible to come to her studio. Writes Brad Swing: “Miss Hodam was truly a legend: throughout the music world, people who never met her attempt the impersonation lovingly repeated by colleagues and students of her matchless style—the nod of her head, the soft ‘coo’ of her voice.” In recognition of her achievements, Hodam was elected to the American Academy of Teachers of Singing in 1988. She was appointed adjudicator in 1998 for the Washington International Competition for Singers. Her students included mezzo soprano Denyce Graves. Miss Hodam was a soprano soloist for many years, singing at Christ Church in New York, with various opera and summer theater groups, including the Paper Mill Playhouse and the Berkshire Opera Players, and on live radio programs. In 1936, she sang the national anthem at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. A memorial concert will take place at New England Conservatory in the fall. (Information provided by Brad Swing.) [posted 5/22/08]

Grace “Goldie” Hoffman (undergraduate studies, 1944–1947) passed away in 2008. She was 83 and living in Neckartailfengen, Germany. A mezzo-soprano, she was a former student of Friedrich Schorr. Born in Cleveland, Goldie Hoffman [Hoffmann] was educated at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, at Manhattan School of Music, and in Milan (where she studied with Mario Basiola). After appearances in the USA, Grace Hoffman sang in Florence and Zürich. In 1955 she became a member of the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart. In March 1958 she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde. She made many appearances at La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London, Bayreuth, and the Vienna State Opera. In 1978 Grace Hoffman became professor of voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart. She was noted for her performances of the music of Wagner and Verdi, particularly for her roles of Brangäne, Kundry, and Eboli. She also sang widely in concerts. Mrs. Hoffman was a long-time, generous supporter of Manhattan School of Music.

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Yevgeniy Karafin (BM ’99 / MM ’01 / DMA ’06) passed away on November 4, 2009, following a long battle with colon cancer. Yevgeniy had performed as a recitalist and as a chamber musician in Ukraine, Russia, Austria, and the United States. He began his musical studies at the age of seven, and left home at fourteen for professional music college. In 1991 he continued his studies at Donetsk State Conservatory, Ukraine. After his family moved to New York, he completed his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees under the guidance of Ms. Nina Svetlanova. Yevgeniy participated in national and international competitions, winning the Prokofiev Festival Competition in 1993 and the “Best Collaborative Pianist” prize at the second International Competition of Folk Instruments in Tcherepovets, Russia. In 2005 he won the Artists International Auditions and debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He performed at the prestigious Mirabel Schloss concert series and his appearances include chamber music recitals at Weill Recital, Alice Tully, and Steinway Halls. He performed with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and at Instituto Cervantes in New York City, which was broadcast live on WQXR 96.3 FM. He has also starred in an independent film about music’s ability to transcend cultural and religious boundaries: “Yevgeniy and the Choir.” Yevgeniy enjoyed teaching as well, and taught and accompanied at Harlem Boys and Girls Choir, and was on the staff of Brooklyn College’s Preperatory Division. He was in the process of publishing his annotated translation of Soviet teacher/artist Grigory Kogan’s book on piano pedagogy.

Coleman Mellett (MM 1998, jazz guitar) was killed on February 12, 2009, when Continental Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo. He was 34. Born in South Natick, Mass., Mellett graduated from elementary and high school in Maryland and attended William Paterson University in Wayne, N. J., and Manhattan School of Music. A member of the Chuck Mangione band since 1999, he was hired after the trumpeter spotted him on a Manhattan cable television show. He also performed frequently with his wife, jazz singer Jeanie Bryson, the daughter of Dizzy Gillespie.

Max Neuhaus (BM 1961 / MM 1962, percussion) died on February 2, 2009. The New York Times wrote: “Max Neuhaus, a percussionist known for creating site-specific works of ‘sound sculpture,’ allowing unsuspecting passers-by to come upon musical sounds in unlikely places, died Tuesday in Maratea, a coastal town in southern Italy, where he lived. He was 69. The cause was cancer, said his sister, Laura Hansen. As a young man, Mr. Neuhaus was celebrated in classical music circles as one of the foremost interpreters of the experimental percussion music of composers like John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez. As a soloist, Mr. Neuhaus performed concerts in prominent halls… And his recordings were testaments to a virtuosity that was matched by few other percussionists… Mr. Neuhaus himself preferred the term ‘sound installations’ for the nonvisual artworks he created from electronically generated sounds emanating from an invisible source at a particular location. He worked, he said, from the premise that a person’s sense of place is determined by what he hears as well as by what he sees, and his art argued that a place can be denoted and described as definitively by the sound that fills it up as by a set of walls… His most famous piece, or at least the one that has been heard by the most people, is ‘Times Square.’ It was installed in 1977 beneath a traffic island in Manhattan where Broadway and Seventh Avenue converge, just south of 46th Street. Thousands of pedestrians a day traipse over a wide grate that appears to be nothing more than a steam escape hatch for the subway system below, but as they cross it, they are enveloped by a deeply resonant and mildly undulating drone, its tone suggestive of low-pitched chimes or church bells. (The piece was discontinued in 1992 but reinstated in 2002.)... Mr. Neuhaus did not record his site-specific compositions, believing that the sounds were meaningless without their surroundings. ‘Traditionally, composers have located the elements of a composition in time,’ he once wrote. ‘One idea which I am interested in is locating them, instead, in space and letting the listener place them in his own time.’ “

Jeffrey Schlegel (undergraduate studies, 1970–1975, horn) passed away in Sanfa Fe, Argentina, on October 8, 2007. The obituary placed in the New York Times by family and friends, read: “Born in New York, Jeff was a beloved friend and colleague, an exceptionally gifted musician, and teacher. Principal Horn: Orquesta Sinfonica Provincial de Santa Fe; Orquesta Sinfonica de Entre Rios; Banda Sinfonica de la Policia de Santa Fe; Banda Municipal de la Ciudad de Santa Fe. Jeffrey is survived by his children Gabriel, Jonatan, Jennifer and step-son Diego of Santa Fe; sisters Stephanie Manning of Davis, CA, and Sully Bonn of Newton, MA; and many loving friends and colleagues on both continents. He will be remembered for his love of music, his wit, generosity and free spirit. Jeffrey will be grievously missed by all who knew him and we will celebrate his memory as he will continue to live on in our hearts.” A Times Guest Book will remain online for a full year (click here for access). Friend and colleague Howard Heller (Class of 1973) tell us: “Although Jeff had been gone for so long, he remained in touch with a few of us here in New York and he left a lasting impression on all who knew during his time at MSM and while living in his apartment on Claremont Ave.”

Ralph A. Schwartz (MM 1975, trumpet) of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, died August 13, 2007, after a sudden illness. He was 56. Born in Havre, Montana, Mr. Schwartz grew up in nearby Big Sandy. His extraordinary musical talent was evident early and he received many music awards while in high school. He graduated with music degrees from St. Olaf College, 1973 and Manhattan School of Music, 1975. He remained in New York City working as a professional musician until 1982 when he moved to the Twin Cities continuing as a respected freelance trumpeter. Ralph was preceded in death by father, Robert and brother, Richard. He is survived by children, Melani and Kyle; former wife, Patti Arntz; mother, Evelyn; brothers, Robert Jr. and Bruce and sister, Sondra. Please visit and sign a tribute page set up by family and friends. (Information courtesy of Steven Sako ’78)

Dorothy Stone (BM ’80, flute) died on Morch 7, 2008. Chris Pasles of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “Dorothy Stone, an award-winning composer and virtuoso flutist who in 1981 co-founded the new-music ensemble the California EAR Unit, has died. She was 49. Stone was found dead March 7 by police at her home in Green Valley, Calif. No foul play is suspected, said her father, Jerome J. Stone of Kingston, Pa. Results of an autopsy are pending, he said. Dorothy Ann Stone was born June 7, 1958, in Kingston. She earned a bachelor's degree in music at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where she studied with Harvey Sollberger, and a master of fine arts degree at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. While at CalArts, she also studied composition with Stephen "Lucky" Mosko, Mel Powell, Leonard Stein and Morton Subotnick. She and Mosko were married in 1989. During her performing career, Stone premiered solo works throughout the U.S. and Europe, and was showcased on National Public Radio and WGBH's "Art of the States" program. She also built a special electronic system for her solo flute composition, "Wizard Ball," which received a Freeman Composition Award as well as prizes from the International League of Women Composers and the ARS Electronica festival in Brussels. She recorded for Cambria, Crystal, New Albion and other labels and played on Subotnick's Voyager CD-ROM, "All My Hummingbirds Have Alibis," which was written for her and members of the EAR Unit. Her New World Records solo album, "None but the Lonely Flute," includes works composed for her by Milton Babbitt and Mosko, who wrote all of his flute music for her. Other composers who wrote for her include Rand Steiger, William Roper, Ann Millikan and Louis Andriessen. She and Mosko directed the U.S. premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Sternklang" for the Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival in 1984. Mosko died at their Green Valley home in 2005 at age 58. The couple had no children. In addition to her father, Stone is survived by her mother, Dorothy B. Stone of Kingston; and two brothers, Jerome E. Stone of Kingston and Donald G. Stone of Mountain Top, Penn.”

Leopold Teraspulsky (DP ’41 / BM ’47) passed away on February 14, 2008. A tribute written by Kristina Tedeschi of the Amherst Bulletin read: “The co-founder of the well-known Musicorda Chamber Music Festival in South Hadley, Leopold ‘Terry’ Teraspulsky, is being remembered by family members as a man who loved life, following his death Feb. 14. ‘Everybody talks about his life-loving smile,’ which was there the day before he died, his son, Peter Teraspulsky of Pelham, said, talking recently about his father. His enthusiasm, joie de vivre and dedication to classical music were some of his defining characteristics, said Peter Teraspulsky. Even in the days leading up to his father's death, he seemed happy and at peace, he said. Teraspulsky, who was a professor emeritus of music at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, died of complications of heart disease. He was 86. The elder Teraspulsky and his wife, Jacqueline Melnick, founded the Musicorda Chamber Music Institute and Festival, based at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, in 1987. They were both known in the Pioneer Valley music scene for their Musicorda program, which provided rigorous performance opportunities for promising young classical musicians and concerts for the community. A hallmark of the program was the Musicorda Summer String Program and Performance Festival at the college, which featured free performances by internationally known classical musicians, as well as by promising young players, from all over the world. The program also offered the Children's String Workshop, in which a dozen children from inner city Holyoke were given a start in their musical training each year. Teraspulsky and Melnick stepped down from their posts with Musicorda in 2004. Melnick died a year later, and Musicorda closed in 2005. An accomplished cellist and classical arranger, Teraspulsky studied with ground-breaking cellists Diran Alexanian and Pablo Casals early in his career before joining the Pittsburgh Symphony as a young musician. Over the course of his solo and chamber music career, he became a member of the music faculty at Indiana University, the University of Massachusetts, and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, according to his obituary.”

Elias Tanenbaum (faculty member from 1971–2001) died on Thursday, January 10, 2008, in New Rochelle, New York, after a long illness. Mr. Tanenbaum was the founder of the Electronic Computer Music Studio at Manhattan School of Music. He composed over 140 works in all idioms, including music for concert, jazz, theater, television, ballet and electronic and computer music. His music has been performed extensively throughout this country, Europe and Japan and recordings of his music can be found on Albany, New World, MMC and other labels.Born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York, Elias Tanenbaum studied trumpet at an early age and played with many jazz bands. He volunteered for the U.S. Army in World War II, and lost his right leg above the knee in Southern France in 1944. After being awarded a Purple Heart, he received a Bachelor’s from the Juilliard School of Music in 1949, and an M.A. from Columbia University, all on the G.I. bill. Besides music, he loved art, movies, reading, cooking, politics and comedy. He lived in New Rochelle, New York from 1959. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, pianist Mary Tanenbaum, his brother Ray, two children, David and Jacob, and three grandchildren, Zachary, Simon and Nicky.

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Ludmila Ulehla, alumna and former member of the faculty for 60 years, passed away on Saturday, December 5, 2009. She was 86 years old and living in Miller Place on Long Island. She passed peacefully in her sleep after a long illness due to cancer, said her daughter Christina (Tina) Barkan. Miss Ulehla was a member of the faculty from 1947–2007, teaching composition and theory. She was composition department chair from 1972 to 1989. She earned her Bachelor of Music (1947) and Master of Music (1948) degrees from Manhattan School of Music as a student of Vittorio Giannini, making her the first woman composer to graduate from MSM. She was honored for her valuable half-century devotion and contribution to Manhattan School of Music through the awarding of the School’s first Presidential Award for Distinguished Service in 1998. Memorial donations should be sent to: Manhattan School of Music, External Affairs, 120 Claremont Avenue, New York, NY 10027 (please indicate: in honor of Ludmila Ulehla).
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Lynn Vardaman (BM ’70 / MM ’85) died unexpectedly on November 12, 2008. She was 51. Lynn was a former member of the Precollege faculty and lived next door to the School. She had studied voice at MSM with Sten-Taubman and Judith Raskin. While a student at MSM, Vardaman appeared as soloist with the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonia (April 19, 1985) in Deolus Husband’s Tainted Trees with Patrick Flynn conducting, as well as appearing as a member of the Contemporary Music Ensemble on various concerts. She sang Nicolas Flagello’s Dante's Farewell with pianist Marc Peloquin in Hubbard Recital Hall on a 1998 concert to celebrate Flagello's music. A respected performer of contemporary music, Vardaman premiered more than fifty new works. She performed with a number of contemporary music ensembles and for many years was a regular member of North/South Consonance. With them she received particular critical acclaim for her performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and for Max Lifchitz’s Of Bondage and Freedom, a piece written for her and recorded on the North/South label. Concerts at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the Chicago Cultural Center and in the Festival Camarissima at the Auditorio Blas Galindo in Mexico City were highlights of her association with this ensemble. Other especially interesting works include Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot by Peter Maxwell Davies, an hour long monodrama for soprano, and the soprano lead in Jack Beeson’s opera Dr. Heidegger’s Fountain of Youth, both performed with the American Chamber Opera. Ms. Vardaman and pianist/fellow alumnus, Marc Peloquin, began a recital partnership in 1997. Their strong commitment to the development of American art song brought about the premieres of works by Nils Vigeland, Christopher Vassiliades, Nathaniel Drake, Eric Samuelson and Jack Beeson. During the 1998–99 season in New York City, they performed three new programs ending the season with a gala event at Merkin Concert Hall where they premiered Jack Beeson’s "operina" Practice in the Art of Elocution. Highlights of Ms. Vardaman’s 1999–2000 recital season included a return to the Chicago Cultural Center and in May a trip to the island of Guam where she sang a concert and taught master classes. From 1992–1995 Ms. Vardaman performed with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players. At home and on tour she sang eight of the G&S heroines to considerable audience and critical acclaim. In January 2000 she returned to the company to again play the title role in Princess Ida. Other favorite roles include Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore, especially a production in New York City with guest star John Astin and that of Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard. Since 1996 she was a member of Serenata, a trio with flute and harp. In July 2000, they gave a concert as part of the prestigious Sunken Garden Poetry Festival in Farmington, Connecticut. Ms. Vardaman has performed with the American Chamber Opera, the Augusta Opera, and at Wolf Trap and has recordings on the Opus One, North/South and Newport Classics labels. She taught voice at the Kingsborough campus of the City University of New York from 1989–1995 and chaired the Voice Department of the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division.

* NOTE: for obituaries 2007 and before, please visit our Archives page.
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Research, editing, and/or proofing assistance:

John Blanchard
Susan Meigs
Gina Taglieri