Conservatory eNews September 2013

Conservatory eNews September 2013

Many students will meet him for the first time this week, but David H. Stull has been at work as president of the Conservatory since July 1. Stull has been speaking with faculty and staff and planning for the school's future in meetings on campus, throughout the city and as far abroad as Beijing. Stull formerly served as Dean of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he developed new academic programs, built new facilities and helped the school win the National Medal of Arts in 2010. Stull moved to San Francisco this summer with his wife, Jessica Downs, and their two daughters Madeline and Emily.

Faculty News

MaryClare Brzytwa joins the Conservatory this semester as assistant dean for professional development and academic technology. She will stoke students' entrepreneurial spirits and equip them with training in technology, media and career-launching strategies. Brzytwa returns to the Bay Area after serving as director of conservatory professional development at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She graduated from Mills College with a B.A. in music and obtained an M.F.A. as a performer and composer from the California Institute of the Arts.

New Music Ensemble director Nicole Paiement has been elected to the board of OPERA America, a national organization that supports the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera. Paiement is also artistic director of Opera Parallèle, an award-winning professional company in residence at the Conservatory that develops and performs contemporary chamber opera.

Faculty member Indre Viskontas '08 is recording a series of lectures titled "Twelve Essential Scientific Concepts" for The Great Courses, a company that produces DVDs of lectures by university professors. She also launches a new podcast this month with Mother Jones magazine called Inquiring Minds. Meanwhile, Opera on Tap: San Francisco,

a company founded by Viskontas and fellow alumna Katherine Gerber-Biswas '09, celebrated its second anniversary in August, drawing a packed house to its monthly show at San Francisco's Cafe Royale. The company frequently features Conservatory alumni in its productions at the California Conservatory Theater in San Leandro.

Read more faculty news.

Staff News

Counselor Rita Chang comes to the Conservatory this semester, having served previously as a psychologist at the Langley-Porter Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. She also maintains a private practice in Oakland. Chang received a B.A. in psychology and creative writing from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan.

Manager of Alumni Relations Makela Clay was recently appointed Board President of Artists' Vocal Ensemble (AVE), a professional chamber choir based in San Francisco that specializes in performing lost masterworks from the Renaissance and Tudor periods.

Director of Communications Sam Smith has been appointed an advisory member of the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy, the organization that produces the Grammy Awards. His one-year tenure began on June 1.

Student News

Second-year graduate student Tian Yang Liu won a bassist's top laurels by clinching the 2013 International Society of Bassists' Double Bass Competition in June. In addition to claiming first prize and $2,500, Liu also won an award for best performance of the required piece. He is invited to perform an opening recital at the next ISB convention in 2015. Liu's victory produced more than one cause for celebration. According to Strings magazine, he had promised to marry his girlfriend if he won. Let us know the wedding date, Tian Yang! Liu is a student of Scott Pingel.

Alicia Choi is taking a leave of absence from the Conservatory to join the Larchmere String Quartet, the quartet in residence with the Evansville Philharmonic. She will play second violin and also serve as associate concertmaster of the orchestra as well as adjunct faculty at Evansville University. Larchmere embarks on a tour of the southern U.S. this month. In June, Choi won second place in the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Auditions. She was pursuing her Artist Certificate in chamber music in the studio of former faculty member Axel Strauss.

Read more student news.

Preparatory Student News

Preparatory piano students swept all categories of the 18th Annual San Francisco Chopin Competition for Young Pianists held at the Conservatory in June. Among students younger than 10, Dominic Pang, student of William Wellborn, won first prize and Chikako Shimada, student of Machiko Kobialka, won second prize. For students ages 10-12, first prize went to Khoi Le, student of Arkadi Serper, while third prize went to April Chen, student of Machiko Kobialka. Hana Mizuta, student of Heidi Hau, won first prize among students ages 13-15 and Heather Chang, student of Mack McCray, won second prize.

Read more prep student news.

Alumni News

The Merola Opera Program has named mezzo-soprano Kate Allen (Artist Certificate, voice, '12) as its 2013 Zheng Cao Scholar. The award supports one artist each year, either a mezzo-soprano or an individual from the Asia/Pacific region, attending the prestigious training program. Allen performed in a memorial concert for Zheng held at the War Memorial Opera House in June following the singer's death from cancer. Allen also sang the title role in Merola's summer production of The Rape of Lucretia. She continues to study with César Ulloa.

Photo: The St. Petersburg Times

In a single compositional coup, Ilya Demutsky (M.M., composition, '09) won a top European competition, received a medal from the president of Italy and made a bold political statement. He was awarded first prize at the International Composing Competition 2 Agosto for his piece The Closing Statement of the Accused. The work for mezzo-soprano and orchestra is based on remarks made by a member of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot at a controversial trial which ended in the imprisonment of three band members. Demutsky, a resident of St. Petersburg, called the piece a "requiem for the Russian judicial system" according to a recent profile in The St. Petersburg Times. He studied with David Conte.

The International Film Music Festival in Cordoba, Spain, recently featured a score by Scott Glasgow (M.M., composition, '99). His music for the film Riddle, starring Val Kilmer, was performed live at a showcase of the best movie music of 2012 and 2013. Glasgow's scores have also been included in recent releases including Robotech: Love Live Alive and The Shadow Chronicles, Hollywood and Wine and Hatchet 3. The Wedding Pact, another film scored by Glasgow, is to be released late this year.

Read more alumni news.

From the Archives

Lillian Hodghead

In anticipation of the Conservatory's centennial in 2017, eNews will print tidbits from the archives with rich descriptions of individuals, events and ephemera that are part of the school's history. The 1931 back-to-school issue of the news bulletin The Lyre includes this wry account of a summer expedition to the Sierras by Conservatory co-founders Lillian Hodghead and Ada Clement, as written by Miss Hodghead, who complains about having to condense her account into a mere 300 words. (It is doubtless Miss H would have been sympathetic to the editor of this publication. Ed.)

". . . We were in the hills forty-five days. It makes one imagine how Beethoven might have felt if he had been asked to use the themes of his Fifth Symphony in a one-page A B A."

Conservatory eNews is an electronic newsletter published by the communications department of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in consultation with the Faculty Executive Committee. Conservatory eNews aims to keep students, faculty and staff aware of exciting news and events related to the Conservatory. We rely on your submissions! Please send current news by the 20th of each month to jbischoff@sfcm.edu for consideration for the following month's newsletter. Students may submit news with approval from their teacher. Submissions are subject to editing.

Faculty News continued...

The Conservatory welcomes a host of new and returning faculty this semester. They include: Erick Arenas and Giacomo Fiore (M.M., guitar, '09), music history and literature; Steven Braunstein of the San Francisco Symphony, contrabassoon; Ryan Brown (M.M., composition, '05), composition seminar and workshop; Minna Choi (M.M., composition, '09) and Anna-Christina Phillips (M.M., clarinet, '10), Musical Startups; Nicholas Gabriel, beginning acting; returning faculty member Bonnie Hampton, string and piano chamber music; Carmen Lemoine (M.M., flute, '05), woodwind chamber music; Li Lin, violin; Nicholas Pavkovic (M.M., composition, '11), musicianship and theory; and San Francisco Symphony members Jerome Simas, bass clarinet, and Trey Wyatt, timpani and percussion.

Keyboard literature faculty Sarah Cahill performed a solo recital of contemporary works including the world premiere of Delta 88 by preparatory faculty Shinji Eshima at Old First Concerts in San Francisco in August.

Voice department chair Catherine Cook will sing the lead role in San Francisco Opera's world premiere production of Dolores Claiborne in the final two performances of the run on October 1 and 4.

Cello and chamber music faculty Jennifer Culp recently recorded the premiere of a cello concerto by Thomas Sleeper with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra during sessions held in Miami.

Cello faculty Jean-Michel Fonteneau appears on the Context ensemble's concert series on September 29 at Rice University, performing two Brahms sonatas with pianist Brian Connelly. He also announces the launch of a new website: www.jmfonteneau.com.

In July, the Olympic Music Festival in Washington State featured faculty members Bonnie Hampton on cello and Paul Hersh on piano performing an all-Beethoven program including the "Spring" violin sonata, the "Ghost" piano trio and a "Rasumovsky" string quartet.

Flutist, alumna and new faculty member Carmen Lemoine (M.M., flute, '05) competes this month at the Budapest International Flute Competition in Hungary. She performed a preview recital last week at the Conservatory and another earlier in August, in her hometown of Norman, Oklahoma.

Last month, Bryan Nies programmed and performed as piano soloist in a concert of musical theater works with the Bear Valley Music Festival Orchestra. He also made a recording of City of St. Francis, a new opera scheduled to premiere in 2014. Nies is music director of the Conservatory's Musical Theatre Workshop.

The Music Teachers' Association of California featured piano pedagogy faculty William Wellborn at its annual convention this summer in Santa Clara. Wellborn gave a recital, taught a master class and hosted a pedagogy coaching session for teachers. He also performed at the Dieppe Conservatory in France and taught at the Austrian International Piano Seminar and Festival.

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Student News continued...

Composition student Lucas Floyd lectured on composition, performed on oboe and English horn, mentored students as a residential counselor and generally kept things running during the first season of the Stanford Youth Orchestra summer camp. He is a second-year master's degree candidate and student of Conrad Susa and Elinor Armer.

Tenor Sergio Gonzalez debuts at Kentucky Opera this fall as Vaslav Nijinsky in Paul Moravec's one-act opera Danse Russe. He returns to sing Benvolio in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette in 2014. Gonzales studies with César Ulloa.

Preparatory Student News continued...

Piano student Robert James Pierce performed the Beethoven Concerto No. 3 in C Minor with the Wiener Neustädter Instrumentalisten in Austria this summer. Pianist Kyle Fang was one of the winners of the Austrian International Seminar concerto competition and will have his turn to perform with the orchestra next summer. Both are students of William Wellborn.

Incoming preparatory piano student Elliot Wuu won First Prize at the Kaufman Music Center International Youth Piano Competition. He also received the Klavierhaus Award for Best Performance of a Romantic Piece in his age division. Elliot performed in a winner's recital in June at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. He is a student of Yoshikazu Nagai.

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Alumni News continued...

Mark Ackerley (M.M., composition, '10) is establishing a new concert series exploring the potential therapeutic power of music. Transcendent Pathways presents its inaugural concert at the Conservatory on October 7 with Nonsemble 6 and the Magik*Magik Orchestra, two ensembles brimming with alumni talent. The concert will focus on music's capacity to ease symptoms associated with mental illness. Ackerley has won a matching grant from the Brin/Wojcicki Foundation in support of the series. He studied with Conrad Susa and David Garner.

San Jose's Mexican Heritage Theater is featuring a new work by Hector Armienta (M.M., composition, '97) in the concert "Zarzuela and Beyond" on September 28. La Mujer Tormentada will be choreographed and performed by internationally recognized flamenco dancer La Tania.

Paul Bergel (M.M., composition, '09) and his terrifying troupe Phantom Creep Theatre recently performed at a convention devoted to the American horror and sci-fi writer H.P. Lovecraft in Providence, Rhode Island. At the event's costume ball, Bergel improvised music on theremin, pipe organ and what he calls "my new creation, a horrorpsichord!"

Katie Carlson (M.M., voice, '08) opens the 2013-2014 season at San Francisco Opera as a chorus member in Boito's Mephistopheles. She will also perform in Verdi's Requiem in October. This summer, Carlson sang the roles of Gretel in Hansel and Gretel in Portland, Oregon, and Despina in Così fan tutte in Vancouver, B.C.

The poetry of Tom Goff (M.M., trumpet, '79) has been published in Sacramento-area anthologies, in several chapbooks and elsewhere in print and online. Goff works in the Reading and Writing Center at Folsom Lake College and continues to play trumpet with groups including Golden State Brass, the Auburn Symphony and the Camellia Symphony.

Joseph Gregorio (M.M., composition, '04) is the new director of choirs at Swarthmore College. His recent commissions have included vocal works for The Esoterics, the Penn State Glee Club, the Bucknell University Rooke Chapel Choir and others. Gregorio is beginning his second year of doctoral studies as a Presidential Fellow at Temple University. As if he weren't busy enough, he and his wife are expecting their second child in October.

Soprano Sara Hagenbuch (M.M., voice, '11) performs a concert with mezzo-soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah (M.M., voice, '11) and other alums at St. Dominic's Catholic Church in San Francisco on September 14. The program features Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and sacred duets by Monteverdi. Sharing the stage (or altar) will be: Susie Fong (M.M., harpsichord, '11), continuo; Adam Cockerham (M.M, guitar, '13), theorbo; and the Arden Quartet, including Tess Varley (M.M., violin, '12), Emily Botel (M.M., violin, '12) and Erin Kelly (M.M., cello, '13). Hagenbuch and Reutter-Harrah both studied with Ruby Pleasure and Hagenbuch continues to study with Catherine Cook.

Jeffrey Holmes (B.M., guitar, '97) recently received tenure and a promotion to Associate Professor of Composition at Chapman University in Los Angeles. His work Nastrond (IV) received its world premiere this summer in a performance by the Ensemble Sound Initiative at the Etchings Festival in Moulin à Nef, Auvillar, France, where Holmes also worked with the noted Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas.

Fueled by a recently-launched Kickstarter campaign, Jarring Sounds, the duo of Danielle Reutter-Harrah (M.M., voice, '11) and Adam Cockerham (M.M, guitar, '13), sets out this month to record a debut album featuring works by Britten, Goss, Purcell, Monteverdi and others. The production team includes Zach Miley (M.M., violin, '13), sound engineer, and faculty member Corey Jamason, producer. Cockerham studied with Sérgio Assad and Richard Savino. Reutter-Harrah studied with Ruby Pleasure.

Nathaniel Kondrat (M.M., voice, 2011) will attend a two-week master class this month with bass-baritone Tom Krause at the Academie de Villecroze. He and ten other singers are being flown to France and housed in a small chateau, all expenses paid. But now for the romantic part: Kondrat recently was engaged to soprano Anne-Kathryn Olsen (M.M., voice,'09) and the couple is moving to Leipzig, Germany, in early September. Félicitations and herzlichen Glückwunsch!

Fred Morgan (Professional Studies Diploma, percussion, '08) is a finalist for principal timpani with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He currently performs with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra as second percussionist, a position he has held since last fall.

Soprano Ann Moss (Postgraduate Diploma, voice, '05) releases her debut CD Currents on September 30. The album, recorded at Skywalker Sound by Grammy Award-winning producer Leslie Ann Jones, features contemporary American works and performances by Conservatory pianist Steven Bailey and violinist Eric Chin. Later this month, Moss sings the west coast premiere of Henri Dutilleux's Le temps l'horloge and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G Major with the University of California, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra.

Soprano Lang Michelle Nixon (M.M., voice, '08) sings the role of Musetta in La bohème this month in a co-production with Italy's Teatro Comunale di Piacenza and Associazione Amici della Lirica di Piacenza.

Soprano Anne-Kathryn Olsen (M.M., voice, '09) appears as soloist in the opening concert of the Utrecht Early Music Festival this season, performing with the early renaissance/late medieval group Mala Punica. Olsen also has been hired as a core member of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Chorus, with whom she will tour Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Ben Opie (M.M., oboe, '09) recently released a CD of French sonatas with pianist Peter de Jager on the Master Performers label. The pair made the recording in January after performing a recital of the works in Victoria, Australia.

Impetus, a new album by Sebastian Plano (M.M., chamber music, '11), comes out this month on the German record label Denovali Records. Denovali recently signed Plano and is re-releasing his debut album Arrhythmical Part of Hearts. Plano embarks on his first European tour in November. He studied with Jean-Michel Fonteneau and Jennifer Culp.

Mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz (B.M., voice, '13) performs a double-header of sorts this month, singing the role of Erika in Samuel Barber's Vanessa with West Edge Opera on September 21 and 22 before heading over to Livermore Valley Opera to sing Mercedes in a run of Carmen that begins September 28. Printz studied with Patricia Craig.

Jason Pyszkowski (M.M., viola, '10) became president of the Northern California Viola Society on August 1. The organization promotes viola study and performance by sponsoring youth competitions and commissioning new works. Pyszkowski performs as a freelancer as is also manager of the San Francisco Symphony's Youth Orchestra. He studied with Jodi Levitz.

The Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival founded by Ian Scarfe (Artist Certificate, chamber music, '10), concluded a highly successful third season, presenting fourteen summer concerts throughout Trinity County, California. The festival featured two dozen performers, many of them Conservatory students and recent alumni. In addition to enjoying rafting and backpacking excursions, the musicians performed chamber music repertoire by Mozart, Barber, Granados, Shostakovich, Brahms and others.

David Southorn (B.M., violin, '07) and his Amphion String Quartet take up residency this fall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two program. One of only two ensembles on the program's international roster of young musicians, Amphion will perform at Lincoln Center, on tour and on recordings, and participate in educational activities during the next three years. Southorn remains concertmaster of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, and will perform as soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in October.

The Vivace Youth Chorus, led by artistic director and founder Peggy Spool (M.M., voice, '89), performed this summer in London's Canterbury Cathedral while attending the International Children's Choir Festival. Now in its eleventh year, the chorus draws students ages 4 to 18 from throughout Silicon Valley.

A chamber ensemble including Jakub Tchorzewski (Professional Studies Diploma, piano, '08), Morgan O'Shaughnessey (B.M., viola, '11) and current violin student Kumiko Sakamoto appeared at the Festival Lo Spirito di Musica di Venezia in July. In four concerts at Venice's Teatro La Fenice, they performed works by Brahms, Casella, Rota, Lutoslawski, Shostakovich and others. They also made the first recordings of pieces by Gino Gorini for the Tactus label. Tchorzewski was a student of Mack McCray, O'Shaughnessey studied with Jodi Levitz, and Sakamoto is pursuing her studies with Ian Swensen.

Andrew Whitfield (M.M., conducting, '11) opens Opera San Jose's 30th anniversary season this weekend, conducting performances of Verdi's Falstaff. He'll serve as assistant conductor for Hansel and Gretel later in the season. Whitfield was a student of Michael Morgan. The cast of Falstaff includes soprano Sara Duchovnay (M.M., voice, '12) as Nannetta; tenors Jonathan Smucker (Postgraduate Diploma, voice, '04) and current student Chris Coyne as Bardolfo; and tenor Michael Desnoyers (M.M., voice, '10) as Dr. Caius.

Michael Williams (B.M., flute, '09) begins pursuing an M.M. in flute performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music this fall under the tutelage of Thomas Robertello. Williams received an associate instructorship, a position normally given to doctoral students, and will also teach private lessons and classes for undergraduate flute majors.

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From the Archives continued...

The Lyre

Volume 5, Number 14, October 5, 1931

Our Summer Trip by Lillian Hodghead

I have been asked to write a humorous account of our vacation in three hundred words. It is a difficult subject to approach humorously, as the trip was not really a funny one and, besides, belonging to the last generation, I doubt whether I could ever be amusing when given only three hundred words. The very tempo of our summer vacation was so different from the feeling I receive each time I think of three hundred!

We moved slowly and in telling about it I feel like "Pat with his paint" - if he didn't hurry up, he'd run out before he finished! You see, we were in the hills forty-five days. It makes one imagine how Beethoven might have felt if he had been asked to use the themes of his Fifth Symphony in a one-page A B A.

Well, let's try:

Miss Clement and I jogged along never faster than two miles an hour if going up, no matter whether afoot or horseback. There were hills and mountains, trails far from any roads, warm sunshine, hot rocks, rugged canyons, cool forests, meadows with colorful flowers, and lakes and streams. There was Benson Lake, where we camped five weeks, eight thousand feet up, wild and lonely; there were swimming, fishing, walking, being lazy, reading, sleeping, and much cooking and eating; there was "the bear, bacon bag episode," lasting nearly a week. To do it justice would take all the three hundred words. Other things of interest were the sea gull, the chipmunks, birding, treeing, and botanizing, and of course the pack trip in and out, three days horseback each way, with the famous packer, "Skeeter," and the three mules loaded with "grub" (lighter coming home, naturally). There were the last few hours down the canyon wall of Yosemite, by dry Yosemite falls and into the "civilized," dancing, jazzy, speeding valley. We, still dressed in mountain clothes and still pulsing to the mountain tempo, felt all too queer by contrast; felt sad, leaving this beautiful, natural and healthy life, but there was the Conservatory waiting.

If you should be interested, however, in really reading about the trip, you may borrow the diary from Ada Clement. This will take you several hours, but is worth it.