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Alumni News
Mezzo-soprano Kate Allen (Artist Certificate, voice, '12) will sing the title role in The Rape of Lucretia as a member of the 2013 Merola Opera Program. Allen was a finalist in auditions for the Paris Opera Young Artist Program this January, and recently covered the role of Amneris in Aida as a Studio Artist with Opera Santa Barbara. She continues to study with César Ulloa.
Philadelphia's Center City Opera Theater (CCOT) recently presented excerpts from Aguas Ancestrales, an opera trilogy written by Hector Armienta (M.M., composition, '97) and inspired by the life of his grandmother. CCOT will workshop the third part of the trilogy, La Muerte, later this year as part of its Hispanic Opera Initiative. Armienta is artistic director of Opera Cultura, a San Jose-based music theater training and performance program.
Sophia Chew (M.M., voice, '11) recently joined the debut U.S. concert tour of I Sing Beijing, an program that mixes classic opera with contemporary Chinese works. The mezzo-soprano sang at Lincoln Center, in Atlanta, Seattle and Lexington, Kentucky. Chew has also has been engaged by Opera San Jose to sing the role of The Abbess in Suor Angelica this month. She continues in her studies with César Ulloa.
Contralto Sara Couden (M.M., voice, '11) returns to the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara this summer for a second season. She will sing the Third Lady in the festival's production of The Magic Flute. Couden studies with César Ulloa.
An ambitious concert series devoted to new and rarely-heard works debuts this month. "Curious Flights," founded by Brenden Guy (M.M., clarinet, '10), takes wing April 26 with a concert at San Francisco's Community Music Center featuring a world premiere by Joseph Stillwell (M.M., composition, '10) performed by Valinor Winds, an ensemble including Guy and other Conservatory alums. The alumni ensemble Aleron Trio will also perform. Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to a Conservatory fund benefiting international students. Guy studied with Luis Baez.
After a strong showing at spring training capped by an appearance at the prestigious Artists Series Concerts of Sarasota, The Delphi Trio is back home for their first-ever orchestral collaboration, a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra under George Cleve. Delphi is pianist Jeffrey LaDeur (M.M., chamber music, '11), former student of Yoshi Nagai, violinist Liana Berube (M.M., chamber music, '10), former student of Axel Strauss, and Michelle Kwon (M.M., cello, '09), former student of Jennifer Culp.
World premieres are sprouting like spring daffodils for Giacomo Fiore (M.M., guitar, '09). In March, he debuted two works by Larry Polansky at Old First Concerts in San Francisco. This month he plays the U.S. premiere of Fabrizio Carlone's Bonjour Mr. Gauguin with West Edge Opera and premieres two just-intonation works by Ron Nagorcka and Garry Eister at Microfest in Los Angeles. On top of this, Fiore successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Fiore studied with David Tanenbaum.
Friction Quartet presents works by Haydn, Radiohead and Mario Godoy, current student of David Garner, at Berkeley's Zughaus Art Gallery on April 13. The quartet includes Doug Machiz (Professional Studies Diploma, cello, '12), former student of Jennifer Culp, Kevin Rogers (M.M., violin, '11), former student of Bettina Mussumeli, violinist Otis Harriel, current student of Wei He, and violist Pei-Ling Lin (Artist Certificate, chamber music, '12), former student of Jodi Levitz.
Diane Grubbe (M.M., flute, '89) and her Bay Area wind ensemble Quinteto Latino recently performed "Voces del Desierto/Voices of the Desert" at the Pregones Theater in the Bronx. The quintet, which specializes in the classical and contemporary music of Latin America, commissioned the piece from Mexican-American composer Guillermo Galindo for a San Jose premiere in 2012.
Soprano Elizabeth Harmetz (M.M., voice, '02) appears this month as Desiree in Sondheim's A Little Night Music with the Los Angeles Independent Opera Company. She recently performed Queen Caesonia in the world premiere of I, Caligula: An Insanity Musical at North Hollywood's Secret Rose Theater.
Trumpeter Erik Jekabson (M.M., composition, '06) and his quintet debuted at San Francisco's new SF Jazz Center last month, paying tribute to legendary composer, arranger and producer Quincy Jones. The set was part of the SF Jazz Hotplate series, a monthly event that features Bay Area musicians interpreting the work of jazz luminaries.
Lise Lindstrom (M.M., voice, '96) opens the 2013-14 season at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden this fall, making her house debut in the title role of Puccini's Turandot. The soprano received critical acclaim for recent performances of the same role at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Deutsche Opera Berlin, Arena di Verona and other world-class houses. Lindstrom debuts this season as Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung with Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy, and also appears as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at the Polish National Opera.
The Living Earth Show is making the rounds of contemporary music festivals. The duo of Travis Andrews (M.M., guitar, '09) and Andrew Meyerson (M.M., percussion, '10) plays at Fast Forward Austin on April 6 followed by Microfest in Los Angeles on April 13. They'll be wielding "quartertone instruments" acquired thanks to their successful Kickstarter campaign. In addition, Andrews performs a Living Earth Show commission, Tension Studies by Samuel Carl Adam, with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall on April 16th.
Temple Sinai in Oakland recently presented Hiroshima and Symphony on the Holocaust, two pieces by Toby Lurie (composition, '48). Lurie's group The Lost Coast Word-Music Ensemble performed the works in a program called "Elegies of Remembrance."
When Australian alt rockers Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds take the stage at Bill Graham auditorium on April 9, they'll be joined by a string quintet courtesy of The Magik*Magik Orchestra, the ensemble comprised largely of Conservatory musicians and run by Minna Choi (M.M., composition, '09) and Annie Phillips (M.M., clarinet, '10).
Rebecca Metheny Mason (M.M., flute, '03) presents a benefit recital on April 14 at St. George's Episcopal Church in New York. Titled "Love is Brewing," the program includes Debussy, Geminiani, Telemann and Villa-Lobos, along with bassoon and piano--and afternoon tea. All proceeds go to Love146, an organization that fights the sex trafficking of children.
Those who didn't catch the compelling performance Pierrot lunaire at October's Alumni Recital Series concert have no excuse to miss it this month. Nonsemble 6 reprises its centennial production of Schoenberg's landmark work at Salle Pianos in San Francisco on April 12, at the University of California, Santa Cruz on April 19, and at Stanford University on April 20. Nonsemble 6 includes soprano Amy Foote (M.M., voice, '10), piccolo/flutist Justin Lee (M.M., flute, '10), clarinet/bass clarinetist Anna-Christina Phillips (M.M., clarinet, '10), violin/violist Kevin Rogers (M.M., violin, '11), pianist Ian Scarfe (Artistic Certificate, chamber music, '10), and cellist Anne Suda (M.M., cello, '11).
In addition to maintaining a busy career singing major roles at Germany's Karlsruhe State Theater and other European venues (including a recent Händel Festival under the baton of Michael Form), tenor Eleazar Rodriguez (B.M., voice, '10) is launching an educational project to reduce violence in his hometown of Piedras Negras, Mexico. "Piedras Negras por la Paz" will bring musicians, dancers, artists and speakers together to promote messages of anti-violence among children. Rodriguez is producing the first "Festival de la Paz" this May. He continues in his studies with César Ulloa.
Soprano Julienne Walker (M.M., voice, '12) will squeeze in several performances with Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center this spring before moving to Germany to sing the role of Micaela in Carmen at Dresden Opera. Walker continues to study with César Ulloa.
HAFU, a documentary about the experiences of mixed-race people in Japan with a soundtrack composed by Winton Yuichiro White (M.M., composition, '08), was well received at its first screening in Tokyo last month. Upcoming screenings at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, are already sold out.
As a visiting scholar at National Taiwan Normal University this month, Carolyn Yarnell (B.M., composition, '86) will hear performances of several of her works, including Yosemite and the Range of Light..., a 23-movement orchestral work-in-progress. Two other pieces, Wawona and Grizzly, will receive world premieres.
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