Alumni News | November 2022

Please join us in applauding the successes that our distinguished alumni are enjoying.

In August 2023, soprano and educator Sheila Barnes ’74MM ’75MMA will teach “Lingua e Lirica” at Casa Monteripido in Perugia, Italy. Barnes’ courses bring together award-winning coaches and singers to promote authentic interpretations of Italian opera and chamber music through a focus on the intersection of language and music.

Violin Fingering, Basic to Developed, a book by John (Jack) Bauer ’54BM ’55MM, will be published in December by Mel Bay Publications, which has published five other books by Bauer.

Peter Derheimer ’88MM will retire after a 31-year career as Solo Timpanist/Jazz Drummer for the Real Orquesta Sínfonica de Sevilla, the house orchestra for the opera and ballet of the Teatro Maestranza in Sevilla, Spain

In October, Kevin R. Dombrowski ’14MM was appointed Principal Trombonist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

Christina Hughes ’15MM joined “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band in Washington, D.C., as a staff sergeant in the ensemble’s flute section.

Clarinetist Graeme Steele Johnson ’17MM ’18MMA joined the award-winning wind quintet WindSync in September. One of only two American woodwind quintets with full-time, international touring schedules, WindSync has won the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and is represented by MKI Artists. The group’s upcoming projects include a recording at Abbey Road Studios.

Josip Kvetek ’18MM was appointed Assistant Principal Violist of the Sinfonieorchester Basel.

November 16-19, City Lyric Opera is presenting the New York premiere of Uncovered, a chamber opera in one act by Lori Laitman ’75BA ’76MM with a libretto by Leah Lax.

Charissa Leung ’21MM joined the second violin section of the Nashville Symphony at the start of the 2022-2023 season.

Internationally acclaimed guitarist Yuri Liberzon ’07MM released a recording of music for the instrument by Konstantin Vassiliev on the Naxos Records label. Vassiliev’s music synthesizes including jazz, Russian folk music, and contemporary Western traditions. The album features music written over a 22-year period, with three pieces composed specifically for Liberzon.

Joshua Newburger ’17MM was appointed Principal Violist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

In November, pianist Michael Noble ’12MM ’14MMA ’20DMA released his debut album, American Dissident, which features music by Frederic Rzewski and Margaret Bonds.

In July, the celebrated choir The Crossing premiered Beloved of the Sky by Tawnie Olson ’99MM ’00AD. Themultimovement work explores and celebrates the creative process through texts by Canadian artist Emily Carr. Beloved of the Sky was commissioned by the Barlow Foundation for The Crossing, Seraphic Fire, and the BYU Singers.

Stephen Perkyns ’22MM joined the New York City Ballet Orchestra as Principal Cellist in September.

Christopher Rogers-Beadle ’21MM ’23MMA was appointed Solo Violist of the Deutsch Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

In September, the Attacca Quartet, of which violinist Domenic Salerni ’11MM is a member, released Evergreen. A follow-up to the group’s Grammy Award-winning album Orange, which features music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw ’07MM, Evergreen was released by Nonesuch Records and has been reviewed in Pitchfork and Slant magazines. An album-release show took place at Public Records in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In December, tenor Stephen Soph ’13MM will make his Seattle Symphony and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra debuts in performances of Handel’s Messiah.

Pianist Althea Waites ’65MM is preparing music by Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) for a recording project that’s scheduled for release at the end of this year. The album will include three pieces by Bonds that have never been recorded along with a major work by Curt Cacioppo, former professor of music at Haverford College, titled Fantasy-Choruses on This Little Light Of Mine, which was written for and dedicated to Waites.

Composer Ben Wallace ’22DMA was hired to arrange ZEDD’s album Clarity for piano and orchestra. ZEDD celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the release of Clarity in October at a concert at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. The program featured a performance of Wallace’s new arrangement.

This year, violinist James Wallenberg ’76MM is celebrating his 44th season as a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

The Magic Hummingbird, an opera by composer Joseph Waters ’82MM, received its world premiere performance in June at The Cutting Room, in New York City. Excerpts from the opera were performed in July at Opera en la Calle in Tijuana, Mexico. The Magic Hummingbird tells the story of three San Diego rockers who join refugees in Tijuana and cross into the United States through a magic tunnel.

Sharon Wei ’04MM, Associate Professor of Viola at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, was recently named a 2022 Faculty Scholar. The award recognizes significant recent scholarly achievements among faculty at Western University who have an international presence in their discipline and are considered all-around scholars. Wei is the new violist of the New Orford String Quartet and toured with Musicians from Marlboro in October.

Bass-baritone Douglas Williams ’06MM and composer Matthew Barnson ’12DMA premiered a new work with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France at the Maison de la Radio in Paris, in October.

Submit your news by Jan. 1 to be included in our next update.