Four Yale Opera singers join Waterbury Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Four singers from Yale Opera will be the featured soloists in the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony this Sunday, November 22 at 3:00 pm. The Waterbury Symphony will present an all-Beethoven program in the Fine Arts Center at Naugatuck Valley Community College (NVCC). Maestro Leif Bjaland, WSO Music Director and Conductor who was previously the director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, will lead the orchestra in the composer’s first and last symphonies.
The Waterbury Symphony Orchestra will be joined by the NVCC College Choir, under the direction of Dr. Richard Gard, with guest soloists Amanda Hall, soprano; Gala El Hadidi, mezzo-soprano; Michael Paul Krubitzer, tenor; and Tyler Simpson, baritone. The program opens with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and is followed by the Symphony No. 9, op. 21 in C major.
A free pre-concert lecture will be held at 2:10 in the Mainstage Theater at NVCC. The Waterbury Symphony Orchestra invites attendees to a post-concert reception (tickets $20) where they can meet Maestro Bjaland, NVCC College Choir conductor, Richard Gard, and the guest soloists. For more information, please contact the WSO office at 203 574-4283 or visit www.waterburysymphony.org.
Obituary: Isabelle DeWitt, first editor of Music at Yale Magazine
Isabelle Hollister Tuttle DeWitt, the first editor of Music at Yale Magazine, died Saturday, September 26th at her home in New Haven, Conn. She was 82 years old.
Mrs. DeWitt was born November 14th, 1926, in Boston, MA, to Isabelle Hollister Tuttle and H. Emerson Tuttle. She spent much of her childhood in New Haven, where her father was the first Master of Yale’s Davenport College. Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle were artists whose etchings and paintings have been shown and collected worldwide.
Mrs. DeWitt was educated at the Foote School in New Haven, St. Timothy’s School (Catonsville, MD), and the Yale School of Music. She married H. Daniel DeWitt, MD, in 1960. They settled in New York City, where their three children were born, and spent summers on Nantucket, where the couple first met. After Dr. DeWitt died in 1969, Mrs. DeWitt returned with her children to New Haven. There she became the founding editor of both Music at Yale and Foote Prints, alumnae periodicals for her alma maters.
She was the senior accompanist for New Haven’s Classical Ballet Academy during the 1970s and taught piano at various times in her life. Mrs. DeWitt also flourished as a New Haven real estate agent, working with the late Barbara B. Tower and H. Pearce Company. She retired from real estate in 2007 after more than 25 years in the business. (more…)
Yo-Yo Ma premieres cello concerto by Angel Lam ’10AD
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of music director Robert Spano, will present the New York premiere of Angel Lam’s Awakening from a Disappearing Garden on Saturday, November 7, at Carnegie Hall. The piece, a concerto for cello and orchestra, was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and was first performed in Atlanta Symphony Hall on October 15 and 16, 2009. This is Lam’s third commission from Carnegie Hall, which describes her as “a young composer whose work sounds both Chinese and Western, contemporary but also timeless.” (more…)
Imani Winds performs with Jasper String Quartet
The Grammy-nominated Imani Winds will join guest ensemble the Jasper String Quartet for a concert on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 8 pm in Sprague Hall (470 College Street, New Haven). The renowned wind quintet will perform a colorful variety of music – Bozza’s Scherzo for Wind Quintet, Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet, and Villa-Lobos’s Woodwind Quintet. The Jasper Quartet, the graduate quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music, will play Haydn’s String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 76 No. 1. The concert will culminate in a piece featuring all the performers: Sierra’s Concierto de Camara, a nonet for winds and strings. Along with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Imani Winds commissioned the Concierto de Camara from the Puerto Rican-born composer Roberto Sierra in 2008. At the work’s premiere, critic David Stabler of The Oregonian wrote: “Sierra’s exuberant nonet fairly danced off the stage… preserving the integrity of each ensemble while demanding intricate interplay among individual players. The cross-court volleys amid the rushing scales were exhilarating to behold.”
The name Imani, which means “faith” in Swahili, reflects the African-American and Latin American ancestry of the ensemble’s five members: Valerie Coleman, flute; Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe; Mariam Adam, clarinet; Jeff Scott, horn; and Monica Ellis, bassoon. The members of the Jasper Quartet, named for Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, are J Freivogel and Sae Niwa, violin; Sam Quintal, viola; and Rachel Henderson, cello. (more…)
Alumni success in San Antonio International Piano Competition
Ryo Yanagitani ‘04MM, ‘05AD, ‘08MMA and Andrea Lam ‘04AD won major prizes in the Tenth San Antonio International Piano Competition. Yanagitani won the Gold Medal – the competition’s top prize – and Lam won the Silver Medal. In addition, Yanagitani was awarded prizes for the best performance of a Romantic work and of a work by a Latin American composer, as well as the prize of the junior jury. Lam was awarded prizes for the best performance of a Classical composition and best performance of a Russian work.
As the gold medal winner, Yanagitani will appear in performances with the San Antonio Symphony, St. Mark’s Music Series, and Symphony of the Hills (Kerrville).
The San Antonio International Piano Competition is a non-profit organization formed in 1983. Once every three years, it presents a unique series of events, held over a one-week period, featuring some of the finest young rising pianists to be found in the world of music. (more…)
YSM launches new Community Engagement Think Tanks
The Yale School of Music is pleased to launch its new Community Engagement Think Tanks, in which visiting lecturers will bring their expertise to small-group conversations with graduate students in music.
The Community Engagement Think Tanks are designed to focus on broad topics led by recognized leaders in the field of classical music. Each Think Tank will pose a series of questions intended to spark discussion among participating students and visiting lecturers.
Topics covered will include vital issues such as audience development, marketing, education programs, technology, and new ways to present concerts. This is an important opportunity for Yale School of Music students to engage with experts in the field and help create solutions to issues relevant to classical music in the twenty-first century. Getting the broader community engaged in this work is part of the School’s goal of shaping the field of classical music and ensuring its success in the coming years. (more…)
Jasper Quartet performs Haydn, Auerbach, and Smetana
The up-and-coming Jasper String Quartet, rapidly becoming a favorite with audiences and critics alike, will offer a free recital on Monday, October 19 at 8 pm. The performance will feature the music of Haydn, Auerbach, and Smetana and will take place in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Hall. The evening will open with Haydn’s Quartet in G major, Op. 76, No. 1 and will continue with Lera Auerbach’s third quartet, the Cetera desunt – Sonnet for String Quartet, in which the structure of a sonnet influences the internal rhymes of the music. Concluding the program is Smetana’s introspective, deeply personal String Quartet No. 1, “From My Life.” The Jasper Quartet is the Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music, where they study with the Tokyo String Quartet. The members are J Freivogel and Sae Niwa, violin; Sam Quintal, viola; and Rachel Henderson, cello. (more…)
Yale Percussion Group wins PAS Competition
The Percussive Arts Society (PAS) has announced the winning ensembles from the PAS International Percussion Ensemble Competition and the inaugural World Music Percussion Ensemble Competition. The Yale Percussion Group, which is directed by faculty member Robert van Sice, is among the select group of winners. As a result of their success, the YPG is scheduled to perform a Showcase Concert at the PASIC 2009 conference in Indianapolis, IN.
In addition to the Yale Percussion Group, the college/university winners were from the University of North Texas (Mark Ford, Director), and Northern Illinois University (Dr. Gregory Beyer and Robert Chappell, Directors).
Igor Pikayzen wins first prize in Wronski Competition
Igor Pikayzen captured first prize in the Tadeusz Wronski International Competition for solo violin, held this week in Warsaw, Poland. “I am ecstatic that my first trip as a Yale student has been such a successful one,” Pikayzen said. Pikayzen is a first-year student at the Yale School of Music, where he studies with Syoko Aki. (more…)
Ed Parks ’08MM to debut at the Met
Edward Parks ’08MM will make his Metropolitan Opera House debut this season. Parks, a graduate of the Yale Opera program, was a winner of the Met’s 2008 National Council Auditions at the Grand Finals Concert on February 24, 2008. He is a native of Indiana, Pennsylvania.
He will sing the role of Fiorello in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville beginning October 3.
Ted Hearne ’09MMA wins Gaudeamus Prize
Gaudeamus Prize winner Ted Hearne, left, and runner-up Toru Nakatani
At the final concert of the International Gaudeamus Music Week 2009, which took place in Amsterdam September 7-12, the Gaudeamus Prize was awarded to the American composer Ted Hearne (b. 1982). The award of 4,550 Euros is intended as a commission for a new work which will be performed at the 2010 International Gaudeamus Music Week.
Hearne received the prize for selected movements from Katrina Ballads, a composition performed on September 10 at the Conservatory of Amsterdam by the ensemble ‘de ereprijs’ conducted by Wim Boerman. Hearne himself was the soloist as singer. There was also an honorable mention for Toru Nakatani of Japan, whose 16_1/64_1 was performed on September 9 by Ensemble of the Conservatory of Amsterdam conducted by Jos Zwaanenburg. (more…)
Block Party for new Yale students Sunday, Sep. 13
This event welcomes new Yale students and is free and open to the community.
The festival brings the community together to share food, music, and fun activities for all ages. Try the New Haven Parks and Recreation’s climbing wall, meet local safety officials, tour a New Haven fire engine, groove to music by Ultra Radio, get a balloon, have your face painted, and enjoy free BBQ food. For the climbing wall, the minimum height is 48 inches (122cm) and participants should wear shoes (not flip-flops or sandals) and pants (not skirts). Event will take place rain or shine.
This free event is hosted by the Office of New Haven and State Affairs, Graduate Housing Office at Yale, Graduate Student Life at the McDougal Center, and the Office of International Students and Scholars.
Details:
Block Party | 421 Temple Street
Sunday, September 13th | 11:30 am – 2:30 pm
More info at 203-432-2305
Jeremy Grall ’99MM appointed to faculty at University of Alabama
Guitarist Jeremy Grall ’99MM was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he will teach courses in guitar and music history.
This spring, Grall graduated with the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Memphis. Dr. Grall’s dissertation, titled An Analytical Edition of Giovanni Kapsberger’s Partite sulla Folia: Ornamentation, Performances Practices, and Compositional Structures in Kapsberger’s Folia Variations, combines his interests in musicology, music theory, and performance. He recently presented his research on Kapsberger at the Cardiff University Music Analysis Conference in Cardiff, Wales and the Society for Music Theory South-Central Chapter. (more…)
2009 Commencement photos now online
Congratulations to the Yale School of Music Class of 2009! Check out our gallery of the big day.
Student prizes awarded at YSM Annual Dinner
The School of Music held its annual dinner on May 3, paying tribute to distinguished alumni and honoring outstanding students.
2009 Student Prizes
Awarded at the Yale School of Music Honors Dinner
May 3, 2009
The Woods Chandler Memorial Prize, for the best compositions in a larger form written during the year.
» Bryan Benjamin Senti & Andrew Jeffrey Norman
The Phyllis Curtin Career Entry Prize, to assist in launching the career for a graduating student who demonstrates exceptional promise and talent as an artist.
» Adelaide Beth Muir & Emily Grace Righter
From L to R, Deputy Dean Thomas Masse; John Mangan '94MM; Dean Robert Blocker
The Eliot Fisk Prize, to an outstanding guitarist whose artistic achievement and dedication have contributed greatly to the department.
» Christopher Boyd Mallett
The Michael Friedmann Prize, to the student deemed to have the thesis in the Master of Musical Arts program that is most distinguished by originality, substance, and craft.
» Fernando Buide Del Real
The Rena Greenwald Memorial Prize, for the best piano composition written during the year.
» Naftali Yitzhak Schindler
Georgina Lucy Grosvenor Memorial Prize, to the violist in the graduating class whose performances while at Yale have exhibited the highest potential for success as a soloist or chamber musician.
» Bo Li
The Charles Ives Prize, to an outstanding organ major.
» Adam Peithmann
The John Day Jackson Prize, for an outstanding chamber music composition written for strings, with or without other instruments.
» Timothy Hall Andres
The Benjamin Jepson Memorial Prize, to a student who attended high school in Connecticut.
» Jennifer J. Hsiao
The David L. Kasdon Memorial Prize, to outstanding singers in the School of Music.
» David Wesley Pershall
The Frances E. Osborne Kellogg Memorial Prize, for the best composition written in a contrapuntal style.
» Edward Hearne
The Ezra Laderman Prize, for the best composition written for musical theater or voice.
» Christopher Todd Cerrone
The Charles S. Miller Prize, to a gifted pianist who has done outstanding work during the first year of study.
» Robert James Thompson
The Philip F. Nelson Prize, for a student whose musicianship is outstanding and who demonstrates curiosity, talent, and entrepreneurial spirit in the many dimensions of the music profession.
» Edward Hearne
The Thomas Daniel Nyfenger Prize, to a student who has demonstrated the highest standard of excellence in woodwind playing.
» Paul Won Jin Cho
The Aldo Parisot Prize, to gifted cellists who show promise for concert careers.
» Yoon Hee Ko & Mo Mo
The Elizabeth Parisot Prize, to outstanding pianists in the School of Music.
» Reinis Zarinš & Amy Jiaqi Yang
The Presser Foundation Music Award, for an outstanding student, to advance his or her music education.
» Lindsay Jane Garritson
The Julia R. Sherman Prize, for excellence in organ playing
» Adam Mark Pajan
The John Swallow Prize, to a graduating student for outstanding brass performance.
» Thomas Alfred Bergeron
Winners of the Alumni Association Prize with Dean Robert Blocker and Deputy Dean Thomas Masse
The Yale School of Music Alumni Association Prize, for students who have not only excelled in their respective fields, but have also made an important contribution to the general life of the School.
» Samuel Austin Blair, Michael Patrick Compitello, Patrick O’connell, Nicholas William Dieugenio, Jiyun Han, & Wei-Jen Yuan
Sō Percussion receives grant from Chamber Music America
Faculty composer Aaron Jay Kernis among those commissioned by CMA grant recipients
Chamber Music America (CMA) announced today that it will award $181,500 in grants for ten commissioning projects in six states. The commissions, made through CMA’s Classical Commissioning Program, are funded by a generous multi-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Since its creation in 1982, the CMA Commissioning Program has made more than 100 grants. Works that have been funded include Yale faculty member Aaron Jay Kernis’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Quartet No. 2 (“Musica Instrumentalis”); George Tsontakis’s String Quartet No. 4 (“Beneath Thy Tenderness of Heart”), recipient of the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award; Joan Tower’s Night Fields; Richard Danielpour’s Urban Dances; and Steve Mackey’s Indigenous Instruments.
Among the grant recipients is the ensemble Sō Percussion, whose membes – Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting – are all graduates of the Yale School of Music. The quartet has commissioned Steve Mackey to composer an extensive work for percussion quartet. (more…)
William Westney ’76DMA named Hans Christian Andersen Guest Professor at the University of Southern Denmark (Odense) for 2009-10
William Westney (DMA ’76, Piano Performance) has been named the Hans Christian Andersen Guest Professor at the University of Southern Denmark (Odense) for the 2009-10 academic year. This six-month university-wide interdisciplinary residency is granted annually to one scholar in any field. During his time in Scandinavia he will also perform as guest artist at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
In June 2009 he was the principal guest artist/presenter at the Singapore Piano Teachers’ Association “Pedagogy Symposium,” playing a solo recital and giving five days of workshops and lectures. While in Asia he also returned to Tonghai University in Taiwan as guest clinician. Earlier in the year, Dr. Westney, who holds two endowed positions at Texas Tech University, was given the university’s highest teaching honor, the Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award (only one award is given out of a faculty of over 1200). An in-depth interview with William Westney entitled “Breakthroughs – the Sweetest Moments in Teaching” comprised the cover article of the May/June 2009 magazine Clavier Companion – a new publication resulting from the merger of two well-established pedagogy magazines, Clavier and Keyboard Companion. His book The Perfect Wrong Note (Amadeus Press), now in its second printing, has sold over 10,000 copies worldwide.
Dan Trahey heads to Venezuela to study El Sistema
Dan Trahey ‘03MM returned to the School of Music this week to present at the Symposium on Music in Schools. Currently the program manager for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s ORCHKids education initiative, as well as a music teacher mentor for the Peabody Conservatory of Music, he joined with Larry Friend and Bob Capanna to talk about El Sistema, Venezuela’s uniquely comprehensive music education system. Capanna, executive director of the Settlement Music School, is a 2008 recipient of a National Medal of Arts and the National Service Award of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. Friend, the coordinator of visual and performing arts for Baltimore City Public Schools, is currently crafting the district’s Blueprint for Arts Education.
Check back for video reports from the Symposium’s discussion groups, in which music educators from around the country gathered in small groups to examine the topics at hand.
Trahey is on his way to Venezuela to study El Sistema in greater depth. Follow his experiences on his blog.
Andrea Lam ’04AD reaches Van Cliburn semifinals
Pianist Andrea Lam ’04AD has been selected as one of the twelve semi-finalists in the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition. On the Van Cliburn Blog, Mike Winter has written: “With breath-taking pianissimos and phrasing, she found colors and depths in the music I never knew existed.” In the semi-final round, pianists perform a one-hour recital as well as a chamber music program with the Takács Quartet. The competition can be viewed live at www.cliburn.tv; Lam will perform with the Takács Quartet on the evening of Saturday, May 30.
Read a Q&A with Lam here, and read some reviews of her performances here, here, and here. (more…)
YSM students perform at Summer Music Sundays
Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens will feature students from the Yale School of Music in their Sunday morning classical music series. Held every Sunday from June 28 through September 6, the summer series takes place on the grounds of the gardens, which are located in Stamford, Conn. In case of rain, the performances will take place in the Visitor Center’s intimate living room. Concerts are free to members or with garden admission.
Sunday Morning Classical Music 10-11am
June 28
July 5, 12, 19, 26
August 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
September 6
Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens
YSM students perform at the Kennedy Center
Fourteen students from the Yale School of Music will perform at the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on Monday, May 25 at 6:00 pm. The concert is part of the the Conservatory Project, a series of events presenting the finest young artists from the country’s foremost conservatories.
The varied program includes solo and ensemble performances of music by Haydn, Verdi, Bizet, and Prokofiev, as well as less well-known composers such as Keiko Abe, Jorge Morel, and Robert Beaser. Solo piano, guitar, and marimba are featured, as well as vocal works, a string quartet, and a brass quintet. (more…)
David Kurtz ’MM80 garners three Emmy nominations
David Kurtz, right, receiving the School of Music Alumni Certificate of Merit in 2004, with Dean Robert Blocker
David Kurtz ’MM80, a composer and lyricist, has been nominated for three Emmy Awards.
One nomination is for Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction And Composition For A Drama Series; Kurtz, along with fellow composer Jack Allocco and music supervisors Mike Dobson and Bryan Harrison, was nominated for his work on The Young and the Restless. Kurtz also received two nominations in the category of Outstanding Original Song for a Drama Series: one for “All My Days Filled with You” and the other for “For All Time,” both co-written with Jack Allocco.
In addition to his work on The Young and the Restless, Kurtz has contributed to the music for The Bold and the Beautiful, By the Sea, Alien Nation, Charles in Charge, and many other television productions, as well as movies including The Big Chill, Instant Justice, and Hunk. Kurtz is also a member of the Yale School of Music Board of Visitors.
School of Music welcomes 100 new students for next year
The Yale School of Music is pleased to welcome next year’s incoming class to New Haven.
Every February, the most talented young musicians from around the world audition for an opportunity to continue their musical training with Yale’s distinguished faculty. The new incoming class is a diverse group of 100 exceptional musicians coming from 58 undergraduate institutions. International students, representing 21 countries from across the globe, make up half the incoming class.
This year’s admissions showed an unusually high yield of 78%, with ten studios – cello, clarinet, composition, conducting, flute, guitar, harp, oboe, trombone, and opera – enrolling 100% of admitted students. Admissions were extremely competitive, with 1270 applications (5% higher than the previous year) and an admission rate of 8.4%.
John Sipher ’08MM appointed principal trombone of Syracuse Symphony
John Sipher ’08MM has been appointed principal trombone of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He will begin performing with the orchestra of its summer season and will begin full time in September. (more…)
