YSM Alumni and Student News Round-Up | December 2024 

Daniel Asia ’77MM, Professor Emeritus of Composition at the University of Arizona, was recently inducted into the American Academy of Sciences and Letters. In addition, a world premiere of his opera, The Tin Angel, about the real-life New York City’s jazz mecca of the 70s, founded by Paul Pines in 1973, will also be performed by Teatro Grattacielo in New York City in June 2025.

Asia also recently released a new album from Summit Records, A Mask That Changes.  

Cellist Dmitri Atapine ’05MMA ’06AD ’10DMA, clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois ’06MM ’07AD, and pianist Hyeyeon Park ’05MM ’06AD released an album entitled Wavelength with MSR Classics. This recording includes six works written after the year 2000 by living American composers Libby Larsen, Pierre Jalbert, Lowell Lieberman, Kinan Azmeh, David Ludwig and Todd Cochran.

Wayman Chin ’83MM marked his thirtieth year on the faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College this November with a piano recital that included works by current and former YSM faculty Aaron Jay Kernis and Joan Panetti. Following the recital, Longy president Karen Zorn presented Chin with the school's Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society to acknowledge his contributions to the school and profession.

Guitarist Joseph Ehrenpreis ’24MM ’25MMA released an album of self-authored arrangements of Ólafur Arnalds’s solo piano music for the 8-string Brahms guitar on Etymology Classics.

Composer Chia-Yu Hsu ’02MM ’03AD won the PatsyLu Prize for her work “Dance Rhapsody” in the 2024 Search for New Music Competition hosted by the International Alliance for Women in Music.

Guitarist Nathan Huvard ’19MM ’20MMA performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for its production of Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar.

Violist Brian Isaacs ’22BA ’23MM was awarded second prize in the International Max Rostal Competition. He also received a prize for the best interpretation of the competition’s commissioned work and a special prize for the Freunde Junger Musiker Berlin e.V. category.

Clarinetist Graeme Johnson ’17MM ’18MMA garnered widespread attention for his rediscovery and reconstruction of a forgotten 127-year-old Octet by Charles Martin Loeffler, profiled by The Washington Post. Alongside YSM faculty clarinetist David Shifrin, Johnson gave the first performances of the work since 1897 at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library, Phoenix Chamber Music Festival and The Stissing Center. In June, Johnson released the world-premiere recording of Loeffler's Octet on his album Forgotten Sounds, named BBC Music Magazine's Chamber Choice, Editor's Choice by Gramophone and Limelight, and one of The Times' best classical albums of 2024.

Composer Molly Joyce ’17MM composed the soundtrack for the ABC News Studios documentary Patrice: The Movie, which its creators describe as "a documentary rom-com about the next phase of marriage equality: disability."

Violinist Jimin Kim ’25MMA won the Grand Prize at the Busan Maru International Music Festival. She performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Maestro Charles Olivieri-Munroe and the KNN Philharmonic Orchestra in the Festival’s main concert.

Double-bassist Michael Klinghoffer ’86MM began his second term as president of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where he has been double-bass faculty. Klinghoffer is the author of “Mr. Karr, Would You Teach Me How to Drive a Double Bass?”

YSM composition faculty David Lang ’83MM ’89DMA and composer Missy Mazzoli ‘06MM were the two recipients of the 2024 Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music at the New York Philharmonic, one of the world’s most significant new-music prizes. In addition to a monetary award, the Kravis Prize includes a commission for a new work that the NY Philharmonic will premiere in the 2025–26 season.

Jonathan Mak ’21MM ’22MMA is the Grand Prize winner of the inaugural Sorel-Tracy International Piano Competition, which took place in Sorel-Tracy, QC, in October 2024. He also received a $20,000 Grant from Madeleine & Alain Goulet and the ‘Best Performance of Ana Sokolovic's Imposed Work’ Prize.

Mak also performed the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B♭ major, Op, this December with the Kingston Symphony, conducted by Rosemary Thomson, and with Rice University's Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William Eddins.

Cellist Emily Mantone ’25 MMA and YSM Collaborative Piano Fellow Umi Garrett released their debut album with Navona Records, a recording of the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas.

Pianist Michael Noble ’12MM ’14MMA ’20DMA released his third solo album, Silver Screen, in September 2024. It features music for film by composers including Philip Glass, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and Max Richter, along with five études by Philip Glass.

César Palacio ’21MM was appointed third and bass clarinet with the Louisville Orchestra. He currently holds the position of 3rd and bass clarinet with the Phoenix Symphony and is a proud Sphinx Organization NAAS artist and grant recipient.

Conductor Julian Pellicano ’07MM ’09MM was appointed Staff Conductor with the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto beginning with the 2024-2025 season. In addition to conducting throughout the National Ballet season in Toronto and on tour, he is also the Music Director of Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Composer Peter Shin ’20MMA has been selected as one of five Mary Mackall Gwinn Hodder Fellows by Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the 2025-26 academic year. Hodder Fellows may be writers, composers, choreographers, visual artists, performance artists, or other kinds of artists or humanists who demonstrate, as the program outlines, “much more than ordinary intellectual and literary gifts.”

Bassoonist Cornelia Sommer ’16MM released her debut album, New Enchantments: Fairy Tale Music for Bassoon with PARMA Recordings. The album features three of Sommer's music arrangements and three commissions by Iván Enrique Rodríguez, Max Grafe, and Sato Matsui. Jonathan Salamon ’17MM ’23DMA plays harpsichord on the album.

Collin Stavinoha ’24MM earned a position as second flute in the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He is currently the second flute at the Evansville Philharmonic.

Harriet Steinke ’22MM ’23MMA was selected as a finalist for BMP: NEXTGEN 3, a prestigious composer competition for contemporary vocal works hosted by the Beth Morrison Projects.

Percussionist Jeff Stern ’16AD performed YSM faculty composer Chris Theofanidis' ‘94MMA ‘97DMA “Drum Circles” concerto with The Percussion Collective and the Phoenix Symphony. The group’s artistic director is former Yale percussion faculty member Robert van Sice, and featured soloists Svet Stoyanov ’07MM, Michael Compitello ’09MM ’12MMA ’16DMA, and Ji Su Jung ’19MM ’20AD.

The Icarus Quartet, comprised of percussionist Jeff Stern ’16AD, percussionist Matthew Keown ’16MM ’22DMA, pianist Larry Weng ’12AD ’14MMA ’19DMA, and pianist Max Hammond ’24BA, performed on the Secret Artist Series at Wake Forest University in a program titled, “Bartók Rebórn,” which included the world premiere of a composition by YSM faculty Martin Bresnick.

Percussionist Jeff Stern ’16AD released a video recording of “Unity Synonym” for marimba and saxophone, composed by Michael Laurello ’15AD.

Morgan Sullivan ’18MM was appointed to the voice faculty of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.

Elisabeth Tsai ’23MM ’24MMA won 1st prize ex aequo at Detmold's 4th International Brahms Piano Competition.

Composer Liliya Ugay ’16MM ’22DMA won the Choral/Vocal Ensemble Prize for her work “Point of Entry” in the International Alliance for Women in Music's 2024 Search for New Music Competition.

Jazz musician Antonio Underwood ’87MM was selected as Mid-Atlantic Vice President and Executive Board member of the Yale Science and Engineering Association.

French horn player Kate Warren ’23MMA was appointed as a full-time college lecturer in music at Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey, where she now teaches applied brass lessons and courses in music theory, history, and world music. She previously toured with Blast! on their 2024 Japan tour.

Zihan Wu ’25MM won the Piccinni Conservatorio’s composition competition for her work “Three Songs Based on Japanese Haiku.” It will be performed by the Conservatorio Orchestra in 2025.

Choral conductor Yiran Zhao ’23MM is the national winner of The American Prize in Composition for choral music (college/university division - shorter works) for her composition "This is not a story. This is how I lived." The award-winning recording of the piece is from her MM degree recital at Yale, and the piece recently received its West Coast premiere by award-winning ensemble Choral Arts Initiative.

These news updates feature current students and alums. Submit your news by Feb. 1 to be included in the next YSM Alumni and Student News roundup.