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Vivace (It.: 'flourishing', 'thriving', 'full of life')
Quarterly Alumni News from the
Boston University Tanglewood Institute 
Winter 2010
BUTI is a program of the School of Music in the College of Fine Arts at Boston University.
Class Year Quicklinks
Featured Alumni Announcement
BUTI Composers in the New York Times
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1990
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1992
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1997
1998-1999
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2009
Alumni Collaborations
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Dear BUTI Alumni,
Welcome to the second edition of Vivace, a quarterly newsletter designed just for the BUTI Alumni Community.  Here, you can read updates from your fellow alumni as well as share your own news.  Have a special performance coming up?  Just won a competition?  Started a new job?  Got married?  We want to hear about it!  Please e-mail your submissions to us for the next edition of Vivace (Spring 2010), or visit the Alumni Information Update page on our website to give us your news and update your contact information.
 
We look forward to hearing from you!
 
With best wishes,
 
Emily E-sig
Emily Culler
Outreach, Alumni Relations & Development Officer

Alumni Updates by Class Year

 Alumni who attended for multiple seasons are listed under their final year of enrollment.  Enjoy!

 
**Featured Alumni Announcement**
Kirill Gerstein Gilmore Award
Pianist (YAPP '95-'96) Kirill Gerstein is the winner of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, an honor bestowed every four years to an unsuspecting pianist.  Gerstein is the sixth pianist to receive the award, which carries with it a $300,000  prize.  He will perform a recital at the Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo, Michigan in May.  Click here to read the New York Times article about Gerstein's award, and listen to clips of him performing at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
 
BUTI Composers in the New York Times
Missy MazolliIn December, the New York Times published an article entitled "The New Faces Among the Older Guard" featuring three BUTI Young Artist Composition Program alumni: Missy Mazolli ('98), Mason Bates ('94), and Nico Muhly ('96-'97). 
 
 
Mason BatesThe article highlights Mazolli's MATA Festival, and collaborations with the Kronos Quartet and Eighth Blackbird, among others, Bates' recent appointment as composer in residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Muhly's collaborations with Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera. 
 
Nico Muhly at the Miller Theater, Photo New York TimesIn an article published on February 13th, "Opera Based on an Internet Plot is First Joint Met-Lincoln Center Program", Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, announced that Muhly and playwright Craig Lucas' opera will be the first to be staged under a joint commissioning program by the Met and Lincoln Center Theater.  The piece is inspired by a the story of a 14 year old boy in Brittain in the late 1990's who assumed the identities of several women online in the hopes of luring someone into killing him.  The opera will debut in England in 2011. 
1977
Jonathan CohlerClarinetist Jonathan Cohler (YAO '76, '77) conducted the Simon Bolivar Orchestra last fall in concert featuring Beethoven's 6th Symphony, Ravel's La Valse, and Corigliano's Clarinet Concerto. He also recently performed Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time and the Beethoven Trio Op. 11 with the Claremont Trio. In 2009, he released two new solo albums with pianist Rasa Vitkauskaite and the Claremont Trio, and another album with Ms. Vitkauskaite entitled Romanza featuring works by Schumann, Prokofiev, and Guastavino.
1978
YAPP '78 alumna Alexandra Bacon has been appointed Vice President of the Vocal Division at Barrett Vantage Artists in New York City. 
1981
Young Artists Instrumental Program (clarinet, '81) alumna Julia Innes is a recording enginineer, boom operator, and editor of film sound in Quebec City, Canada.  She attended the University of Toronto where she studied Clarinet Performance and Music History, and later obtained a masters degree in Library Science.
1982
Jeffrey HodesJeffrey Hodes (Young Artists Instrumental Program, percussion, '81, '82) and his wife are veteran television writers living in Los Angeles with their daughter and beagle. 
1984
Ann Marie Pocklembo (YAO '84, violin) is currently in her 17th year as a high school orchestra director in Hamilton, New Jersey where she directs the string program in three high schools as well as the district orchestra.  She is also an active freelance violinist, and has performed as a back-up musician with Aretha Franklin, Mannheim Steamroller, Il Divo, The Irish Tenors, and Kansas.
1985
Jim Stephenson (Young Artists Instrumental Program, trumpet, '85) is a composer and arranger in the Chicago area.  His violin concerto, "Tributes", will be premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Music Director Osmo Vanska.  (Please visit his website for further details.) 
 
Jim StephensonHe is also the founder of the Stephenson Music Scholarship Fund, an initiative intended to award young trumpeters the chance to further their trumpet studies at the music festival/camp of their own choosing. 
1986
Sara JobinSara Jobin (YAPP '86) made history in 2004 when she became the first woman to conduct a San Francisco Opera main stage production.  Since that first production (Tosca), she has conducted the company's performances of The Flying Dutchman, Norma, and Appomattox, as well as the San Francisco Opera-Cal Performances co-production of Rachel Portman's The Little Prince.  You can read an interview with Jobin from the San Francisco Classical Voice by clicking here.
1989
Beth Morrison ProjectsFormer BUTI Administrative Director and BUTI alumna Beth Morrison (YAVP '89) is currently on the voice faculty at Pace University in New York City.  In 2005, she founded Beth Morrison Projects which commissions, develops, and produces contemporary opera and music-theatre projects.  Her works have been seen in such venues as the Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Walker Art Center, The Kitchen, PS122, and The Estates National Theatre.  She is also the producer of New York City Opera's VOX Festival of New Works and the Yale Institute for Music Theatre. 
1990
J. Keith Lemmon, M.D. (Young Artists Instrumental Program, percussion, '90), is an adult and pediatric allergy, asthma, and immunology specialist practicing in Glenville, Illinois.  He attended Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine.
1991
Matthew DiBattistaTenor Matthew DiBattista (YAVP '90, '91) recently signed with Herbert Vantage Management in New York City.  This season, he will perform in a number of reengagements including the roles of Spoletta in Tosca and the Valet Tenors in Les Contes D'Hoffman with Opera Colorado, Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the cover role of Xu Xian in a return to Opera Boston for its world premiere production of Zhou Long's Madame White Snake. He also performs the title role in The Good Soldier Schweik with Long Beach Opera and recently gave critically-acclaimed performances of Bégearss in The Ghosts of Versailles at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.  Matthew resides in Medford, Massachusetts with his wife, Megan.
1992
YAVP alumna and former BUTI Administrative Director Chung-Un Seo (YAVP '92) was recently appointed Director of the Graduate School Fund at Harvard University.  She is also a member of the BUTI Advisory Board.
 
DJ SparrGuitarist and composer D.J. Sparr (YACP '92) has been appointed Composer in Residence for the Richmond Symphony in Richmond, Virginia. 
1996
Guy JohnstonBrittish cellist Guy Johnston (String Quartet Workshop and YAO '96) was the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2000 and graduated from the Eastman School of Music in 2003.  He has performed and toured with major orchestras in the UK, Europe, and the Far East, most notably performing Elgar's Cello Concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Opening Night of the BBC Proms' 2001 season. 
1997
Bass trombonist Demosthenes (Demo) Dimitrakoulakos (Atlantic Brass Quintet Seminar '97) is conductor of the Luxembourg Wind Orchestra and High School Band Director/Music Teacher at the International School of Luxembourg.  On March 10th, Demo will conduct the Ni Ensemble and the Luxembourg Wind Orchestra and Symphonic Band in a performance of Victor Ewald's Concerto No. 1 for Brass Quintet and Band at the Luxembourg Conservatoire. 
 
As a performer, Mr. Dimitrakoulakos presently plays with the Luxembourg Philharmonia, and was a member of the United States 1st Armored Division Band in Wiesbaden, Germany from 2003-2006.
 
 
Sam, Kristi, and Nicolas SolomonPercussionist, BUTI alumnus (Percussion Workshop and YAO '95-'97), and BUTI faculty member Sam Solomon and his wife, Kristy, welcomed a son, Nicolas, this winter. 
1998 - 1999
Kendall Lima as MariaYAVP alumae Ali Ewoldt ('98) and Kendall Lima ('99) are playing the role of "Maria" in the world tour of the original Broadway production of West Side Story which began its run at La Scala in 2002.  Kendall was a Resident Assistant at BUTI in 2002, a voice faculty member for YAVP in 2004, and is a BU College of Fine Arts graduate.  Learn more about the West Side Story tour by clicking here
 
 
Ali Ewoldt as MariaVideos of the cast:
 
Kendall Lima performing "Tonight" with Scott Sussman at the 2009 Musical Awards.
2000
YACP alumnus Ted Gellar ('00) married Jake, his partner of six years, in Boston last March.  They are living happily with two cats in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as Ted completes a Ph.D. in Classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Jake completes a master's degree of Public Administration from North Carolina State University. 
2003
Baritone Joshua Fein (YAVP '03) is currently pursuing a Master's degree in vocal performance at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in Germany.
2007 
Stephen Feigenbaum
In the last issue of Vivace!, we reported that composer Stephen Feigenbaum (YACP '05, '06, '07) was recently comissioned by Boston Symphony Orchestra violist and Terezin Chamber Music Foundation (TCMF) founder Mark Ludwig to compose a choral work.  The piece, entitled "Songs of Sorrow and Hope", was performed by the New England Conservatory Youth Chorale at the TCMF Gala at at the Higginson Ballroom, Symphony Hall, Boston on November 1st.  Click here to read a review of the performance by Boston Globe music critic Jeremy Eichler.
 
Drew PetersenYAPP alumnus Drew Petersen ('07) was one of seven recipients of the 2009-2010 Chopin Foundation of the United States Scholarship.
2008
Oboist Lauren Williams (Oboe Workshop, YAWE '08) was recently nominated to be a United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts. She was the only nominee from the state of Illinois (in the arts) and the only oboist of all the nominees.
2009
BUTI alumni and Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra (ASYO) members Angelica Hairston, harp (YAHS '08, '09), and Xavier Foley, double bass (YAO '09), were both winners in the ASYO Concerto Competition in January, and Sodie Finebone, tuba (YAO '09), received an honorable mention.
 
YAVP alumni Elizabeth Falstreau, soprano ('09), Stephanie Lamprea, soprano ('08-'09), Mark Nimar, baritone ('07-'09), and 2009 BUTI Kenneth L. Broad Memorial scholarship recipient Sean Plumb ('09) were all winners of the 2010 YoungArts program. 
 
Alison MiserendinoTuba/Euphonium Workshop ('07) and YAWE alumna ('08-'09) Alison Miserendino was recently announced as the winner of the United States Air Force Band's 2010 Colonel George S. Howard Young Artist Competition.  She will perform with the USAF Concert Band on March 7th as part of the Band's Guest Artist Series at the D.A.R. Consititution Hall in Washington, D.C.  The Canadian Brass will also be featured on the program. 
Alumni Collaborations
YAO '04 alumnus Colin O'Bryan conducted the Howard County Reservoir High School Symphony in YACP '08 alumnus Scott AuCoin's first commission entitled "Light the Path" in December.  YAO '09 violinist William Nham performed as concertmaster. 
 
 
Boston Brass
Jeff Conner (Empire Brass Symposium '81) and Andrew Hitz (Empire Brass Symposium and YAO '90-'93) are co-members of Boston Brass.  Jeff Conner founded the group which will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2011.  To commemorate the occasion, Boston Brass is launching an ambitious project entitled "Fanfares!".  The goal of "Fanfares!" is "to have 25 new fanfares written for Boston Brass, and thus the brass-world at large, by composers from across the globe, each of which will be premiered by Boston Brass at the performance venue most associated with the composer." 
Be sure to visit the BUTI Alumni pages
 to submit your news for the next issue of Vivace!
 

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