The Aleron Trio commissioned and premiered the first piano trio written by Shahab Paranj (composition, '10) last month at Old First Concerts. Subtitled A Bitter Letter, the piece is inspired by a form of classical Persian music used in religious mourning. Aleron trio includes violinist Solenn Séguillon (M.M., violin, '12), cellist Anne Suda (M.M., cello, '12) and pianist Sophie Xuefei Zhang, an Artist Certificate candidate studying with Mack McCray.

Santiago Gutiérrez Bolio (M.M., guitar, '06) performs this month at Denmark's Aarhus International Guitar Festival. His debut album Water Cycles, recently released on the Danish label Gateway Music, includes self-composed works for guitar and percussion.

One Found Sound, a new chamber orchestra founded by alumni, presented its inaugural concert on October 3 at Salle Pianos with a program of Stravinsky, Britten and Beethoven. The group is commissioning Mark Ackerley (M.M., composition, '10) to write a piece in coming months. The orchestra performs without a conductor, but the heavy organizational lifting is done by Sarah Bonomo (M.M., clarinet, '12), Georgeanne Banker (M.M., bassoon, '12), Emily Botel-Barnard (M.M., violin, '12) and Scott Padden (P.S.D., bass, '12).

Pianist Patricia Cheng (M.M., piano, '05) performs Schubert's Drei Klavierstucke (D. 946) as featured soloist in "A Silicon Valley Schubertiade" at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts on October 13.

Robbie Cowan (M.M.. voice, '09) spent his summer directing and conducting Shrek, The Musical at Midtown Arts Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. Cowan is particularly close to the superstar ogre, having served as assistant music director on the show's national tour. Cowan makes a new friend this winter when he joins the national tour of the musical Elf.

Cypress String Quartet is re-issuing its 2011 recording The American Album this month on a new label, with an added track thrown in to boot. Lento Assai by Kevin Puts, a Cypress commission, will join works by Barber, Dvoȓák and Charles Tomlinson Griffes. Cypress includes violinists and Conservatory grads Cecily Ward and Tom Stone (both Artist Certificate, chamber music, '96).

Silence, a work for violin and piano by Miguel del Aguila (B.M., piano, '82) premiered in July at Music in the Mountains Festival in Colorado and received a second performance by the Olmos Ensemble in Austin, Texas. The work was inspired by the passing of Aguila's younger brother Nelson.

Vania Dobreva (M.M., piano, '08) joins the Conservatory's Pre-College piano faculty this semester.  Dobreva is founder and president of Vania Dobreva Music Schools and serves on faculty at San Francisco's Convent & Stuart Hall Music Conservatory and Ecole Notre Dame des Victoires. She recently was elected as a member of the Board of Trustees of Idyllwild Arts Academy in Southern California.

Duo Symphonious, the guitar team of Michael Roberts (M.M., composition, '08) and Zac Selissen (M.M., guitar, '08), performs original arrangements of Vivaldi and Mozart along with their own compositions at Berkeley's Trinity Chamber Concert series on October 12.

Afternoon on a Hill by Joshua Fishbein (M.M., composition, '09) was recently added to PROJECT : ENCORE, a database of new choral works endorsed by prominent conductors.

Quinteto Latino (QL), an ensemble that includes flutist Diane Grubbe (M.M., flute, '89), hosts its first festival this month at venues in San Francisco and San Jose. The QL Latin American Chamber Music Festival will feature music from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil and other countries, and the premiere of a work by Venezuelan composer Paul Desenne, winner of QL's composition contest.

The inaugural season of Curious Flights, the concert series founded by Brenden Guy (M.M., clarinet '10), concludes on October 18 at the Conservatory. "Transatlantic Crossings" is a program of contemporary works by American and British composers including Edwin Roxburgh who will be on hand to conduct his orchestral work How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear. The concert also features violinist Tess Varley (M.M., violin '12).

Elizabeth Harmetz (M.M., voice, '02) recently presented a Vocal Awareness Workshop at the annual conference of the Churchill Club, a Silicon Valley business and technology forum.

An innovative venture founded by Joan Harrison (B.M., cello, '85) at the University of Ottawa promotes music education, psychological research and good citizenship. Under the Capital Strings Collective, a youth orchestra will take up residency at a rehabilitation and long-term care facility. While supporting the students' interactions with residents, university mentors will research topics including motivation, empathy and music education.

Katherine Howell (M.M., voice, '04) recently joined The Juilliard School's Office of Career Services where she will counsel students and book them at events around New York City. Howell has been working at Juilliard in finance and administration while performing with groups including the National Chorale and Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble. A summer appearance in a Monteverdi opera earned her kudos in The New York Times.

The new music collective Wild Rumpus kicked off their season last month at Old First Concerts in San Francisco with the premiere of Incompatible(s) VI, a piece by Nicolas Tzortzis for violin, cello, bass clarinet and harp. Alumni performers included Amy Sedan (M.M., flute,'09), Sophie Huet (M.M., clarinet, '09), Otis Harriel (B.M., violin, '13), Joanna De Mars (M.M., cello, '12) and Carla Fabris (M.M., harp, '13).

Opera San Jose has named Jacob Lake (M.M., voice, '08) as its new artistic administrator and education director.

Cornelia Leuthold (M.M., cello,'11) and David Talamante (M.M., guitar, '11) release a new CD this month as the duo En Cuerdas. It features original arrangements of Spanish and Latin American works by artists including Ramírez, Ponce, Gismonti, De Falla and Piazzolla. Leuthold studied with Jennifer Culp and Talamante with Sérgio Assad.

Christopher Lewis (M.M., harpsichord, '12) was recently chosen as Artist of the Week by the classical label Naxos. Harpsichord Concertos, his debut CD on Naxos, is a collection of contemporary works written for the venerable instrument by Françaix, Glass and Rutter. Lewis studied with Corey Jamason.

San Francisco's Society Cabaret presents Molly Mahoney (M.M., voice, '10) and Shannon Wolfe (M.M., voice, '09) singing ballads, boogies and heart-melting harmonies straight out of the Great American Songbook. They perform their program "Sophisticated Ladies: Take the J Train" at the Hotel Rex on October 5.

A pair of alumni recently premiered the first-ever Concerto for iPad and Orchestra. Last month, Howard Hsu (M.M., conducting, '94) led Georgia's Valdosta Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the work composed by Ned McGowan (M.M., flute, '94). The piece uses an iPad to create sounds through visible gestures and apps while a live video feed is projected for the audience.

Philip Munds (B.M., horn, '86) and his ensemble Turbine have released a CD of trios for horn, oboe and piano by Herzogenberg, Robert Kahn, Adolphe Blanc and Schumann. Munds is principal horn with the Baltimore Symphony.

The Santa Fe Opera recently named mezzo-soprano Jennifer Panara (M.M., voice,'09) recipient of the Donald & Luke Graham Memorial Award, an annual honor given to outstanding apprentice singers at the summer festival. Panara's performance as Flora Bervoix in Verdi's La traviata received a positive review by James R. Oestreich in The New York Times.

An arrangement of Bruckner's Ave Maria for horns, trombones and tuba by Aaron Pino (M.M., horn, '93) was recently published by BrownWood Publishing some two decades after it premiered at the Conservatory under former brass department chair David Krehbiel. Pino plays fourth horn in the Fort Worth Symphony.

The American Prize in Conducting Competition gave Qinqing Qian (M.M., conducting, '13) an honorable mention for her recent work conducting Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Conservatory. The American Prize recognizes and rewards U.S. performing artists based on submitted recordings. Qian studied with Michael Morgan.

Violinist Yinbin Qian (M.M., violin, '11) has won an appointment to the Albany Symphony Orchestra. She studied with Wei He.

Esther Rogers (M.M., chamber music, '10) spent September composing in the Colorado wilderness as a participant in Aldo & Leonardo, a partnership between the Colorado Art Ranch and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute. The project allows artists to work alongside research scientists and charges them with creating works that convey the value of wilderness and the importance of preservation. Rogers blogs about her experience on the project's website.

Tenor Gary Ruschman (M.M., voice, '99) and the choral ensemble Cantus recently celebrated Benjamin Britten's centennial with a performance in Minneapolis. Cantus appears later this season at the Kennedy Center and on public radio's A Prairie Home Companion. Ruschman recently won second prize in a Minnesota State Arts Board competition for his setting of Percy Shelley poems for mezzo-soprano and guitar titled From Dreams of Thee.

Kelsey Walsh (B.M., piano, '11) performs a concert incorporating music made with found objects and field recordings at Sabako Music & Cafe in Tokyo's Shinjuku district on October 17. She studied with Sharon Mann.

I-Wen Wang (M.M., piano, '10) attended the Round Top Festival Institute in Texas this summer, where her chamber music group won the "Best of 2013 Chamber Music Program" award for their performance of the Shostakovich piano quintet. Wang also attended the prestigious Tel Hai International Piano Master Class in Israel this summer as a recipient of a Yefim Bronfman Piano Scholarship.

The Youth Orchestra of the Americas has chosen Monika Warchol (M.M., horn, '09) to be a member of its Global Leaders Program. The year-long fellowship helps train the orchestra's most exceptional alumni to lead internationally-based projects that aim to transform communities through music education.

This month soprano Paula Wilder-Gaubert (voice, '90) performs a program of Verdi in Vivonne, France. The gala concert is part of the 14th Festival International d'Art Lyrique de Vivonne.

Ray Zhou (B.M., guitar, '11) conducted guitar clinics this summer for both D'addario Strings and Kremona Guitars. Equally adept on both classical and electric guitar, Zhou is in his second year of graduate studies at Yale School of Music. He is also recording a debut solo album. Zhou studied with Sérgio Assad.