Conservatory eNews October 2013 top
Faculty News


Dances From The New World,
a new album by guitar faculty Sérgio Assad, his brother Odair and clarinest/saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Album. The Los Angeles Times called the album "a stunning display of the music of the western hemisphere." The Latin Grammy Awards ceremony takes place November 21.


Mezzo-soprano and voice faculty Chair Catherine Cook took on the formidable title role in San Francisco Opera's world-premiere production of Dolores Claiborne this month. San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Joshua Kosman noted that Cook's interpretation of the role "crystallized much of the drama" in the story of a working class woman who takes extreme steps to protect her daughter from an abusive husband. Kosman added, "Cook let the audience experience her plight in singing of vibrant color and communicative power. [Her] performance rose to wonderfully expressive heights."

Read more faculty news.
Student News

Noble Trumpets, a group of ten spirited trumpet studio students, performed the National Anthem at the Giants-Dodgers game at AT&T Park on September 24. Their specially-tailored arrangement was written by faculty member and Noble Trumpets ringleader Mark Inouye. The high note the group set for the evening wasn't sustained, however. The Giants lost 2-1.


A block of electric guitarists with battery powered amps and members of the New Music Ensemble will storm Chrissy Field on October 26 and 27 -- along with some 800 other musicians -- for Chrissy Broadcast, a "massive, spatialized symphony" conceived by composer Lisa Bielawa. The Conservatory's delegation of musicians will be led by faculty members David Tanenbaum and Nicole Paiement. The event is part of Airfield Broadcasts, a project that debuted in Berlin in May.


Second-year graduate student Stepan Rudenko has decided to take a part-time job as music director at the First Presbyterian Church... of Miami. The pianist and organist plans to show up for class on Mondays, return to Miami mid-week and complete much of his coursework (and perhaps a bit of pedalboard practice) in mid-air. Rudenko studies with Paul Hersh. 


Read more student news.



Pre-College Student News

Courtney Gao
helped the choral group Ensemble soar to victory this summer at the International Youth Music Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia. Ensemble, the advanced contingent of the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir, won gold medals in four categories and claimed the choir competition's grand prize. Courtney is a piano student of Kathy Buss.

Guitarist Alexander Stroud has been invited to open for French-Tunisian classical guitar master Roland Dyens in a concert for the South Bay Guitar Society on October 11. The concert takes place at Le Petit Trianon in San Jose. Alexander is a student of Scott Cmiel.
Alumni News

A project conceived in part by soprano Lisa Delan (B.M., voice, '89) brings a children's tale to life with the help of a star-studded cast, multi-media technology and live concerts this month at Cal Performances and Carnegie Hall. Angel Heart is the story of Luna, a broken-hearted girl rescued by a guardian angel. Written by author Cornelia Funke, the story incorporates famous melodies by Irving Berlin and the Beatles, among others, and new music by composer Luna Pearl Woolf. Performers include narrator Jeremy Irons, Conservatory Trustee Advisor and renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, Pre-College alumnus and cellist Matt Haimovitz, and the Children's Choir of St. Martin De Porres School in Oakland, conducted by Conservatory faculty member Michael Morgan, as well as Delan herself. Following this month's concerts, the story of Angel Heart continues with the release of an iPad app.



In addition to performing as a 25-year veteran with the San Diego Symphony, Doug Hall (M.M., horn, '85) has designed and is building a new horn with instrument maker George McCraken. Hall explains that his design called "Doug's Dbl" locates the piston "underneath the valve section, thus eliminating the uncomfortable thumb position of the Schmidt piston." Horn players will, no doubt, rejoice. Hall performs with the Symphony later this month at Carnegie Hall and then on a two-week tour of China.



The works that Kronos Quartet has commissioned from Aleksandra Vrebalov (M.M., composition, '96) continue to receive critical acclaim. Following a Carnegie Hall performance of Babylon, Our Own by Kronos and klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer in May, The New York Times called the piece "a unified and purposeful work, combining depth and a great deal of surface polish, beauty and even fun." Vrebalov is working on string quartet and film project for Kronos titled A Meditation on the Great War to premiere in April at Cal Performances.

Read more alumni news. 
From the Archives

Leading up to 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. These morsels of musical humor come from a 1926 issue of The Lyre:

 

 

 

Staccato Notes

from The Lyre Volume 1, Number 7, May 1926 

 


Miss Cook: "What are the two families of intervals?"
Small Pupil: "The odd and the evil families."


"When I practice, I always need Beethoven's Sonatas and the complete works of Chopin!"
"Goodness! How clever you must be to play all that!"
"Oh, I don't play them; I put them on the piano stool because it isn't high enough!"

 

Read more.
Faculty News continued... faculty
 
String Quartet 2011 by composition faculty Elinor Armer received its New York premiere in July in a performance by The New Juilliard Ensemble. Armer assumed the mantle of the Conservatory's grande dame last month when president David H. Stull presented her with an award for 45 years of service at an annual meeting of faculty and staff.

Composition Department Chair Dan Becker has written the score for a new production by the San Francisco dance and theater troupe Garrett + Moulton Productions. Music for
A Show of Hands will be performed by the alumni ensemble Friction Quartet. The piece uses dance and drawings to explore the expressiveness of the human hand.

Robert Britton, Chair of the Conservatory's Complete Musician Department, presents workshops for European teachers of Alexander Technique this month in Paris and next January in Freiburg, Berlin and Hamburg.

Composition faculty David Conte travels widely this month to attend performances and premieres of his works. The vocal ensemble Choral Chameleon, conducted by Vincent Peterson (B.M., composition, '03), performs Elegy for Matthew and Invocation and Dance at four concerts in New York City. Requiem Songs premieres at L'Eglise de la Trinité in Paris, and Stonewall, an opera commissioned by the University of Northern Colorado, receives its premiere at UNC Opera Theatre.

In addition to joining the Conservatory faculty this semester to teach contemporary music, Giacomo Fiore (M.M., guitar, '09) has been appointed lecturer/adjunct faculty at California State University, Monterey Bay. Fiore's research on tunings used by composer Larry Polansky are the subject of an upcoming article in the premier contemporary music journal TEMPO and the topic of a paper he presents this month for the Society for Music and Minimalism.

The California Symphony has appointed Scott Foglesong as its new program annotator. The San Francisco Symphony and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra already regularly feature his writings. Foglesong chairs the Conservatory's Music Theory and Musicianship Department.

A work by Conservatory electronic music faculty Alden Jenks serves as a case study in resonance at a current exhibition on physics and music at the University of Vienna. Drip Bop Drop Dribble employs acoustic processing to make sounds derived from fire and water ring at particular pitches. The piece is competing for best work at the exhibition.

San Francisco-based trio MusicAEterna featuring Pre-College faculty members pianist Miles Graber and violinist Aenea M. Keyes inaugurates the new Contemplative Concert Series at San Rafael's Santa Sabin Center on October 13. The performance includes the premiere of a piece by Keyes inspired by the art of Goya, Dalí and Gaudí. MusicAEterna's new CD Seasons, A Musical Dialogue will be released this fall.

Dean Mary Ellen Poole has been named to the Presser Foundation Scholar Award Committee. She will meet with this group for the first time on October 17 in Philadelphia.

Guitar faculty Richard Savino appears this month in a concert dedicated to the historical legacy of Andrés Segovia at the 92nd Street Y in New York. This summer, Savino was a featured artist at Boston GuitarFest and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. A multi-media chamber music program based on the life of the painter Francisco Goya and created by Savino for the festival was featured in BBC Music Magazine as one of the top concerts to attend in North America this summer.

Poems penned by literature and creative writing faculty Matthew Siegel will appear in upcoming issues of Southern Indiana Review and Spinning Jenny.

Piano pedagogy faculty William Wellborn performs a special concert at Old First Concerts on October 27 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his debut with the series. In a gesture to his loyal audience, Wellborn will let listeners choose the encores.


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Student News continued...student2

The International Low Brass Trio (ILBT) will deliver the final blow in this year's OcTUBAfest with a recital at the Conservatory on October 15. The trio is also collaborating with the Guerrilla Composers Guild to produce a concert of new works by Bay Area composers scheduled for November 15 at Zion Lutheran Church. ILBT is Jeff Dittmer, horn (student of Robert Ward), Gabe Cruz, trombone (student of Paul Welcomer), and Jess Rodda, tuba (student of Peter Wahrhaftig).

Alexandra Iranfar and Timothy Sherren perform as the duo One Great City at Old First Concerts in San Francisco on October 25. Iranfar will premiere Águas da Montanha (Passou o Verão), a work for solo guitar and soprano by Grammy Award-winning composer Christopher Tin. The pair will also play original arrangements and songs by Frederico Moreno Tórroba, Ned Rorem and Cole Porter. Iranfar and Sherren are Professional Studies Diploma candidates in the studio of Sérgio Assad.

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Alumni News continued...alumni

Several alumni recently performed under the baton of San Francisco Symphony resident conductor Donato Cabrera in Sing With Haiti, a concert benefiting a Haitian music school destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. Cynthia Burton (M.M., violin, '13), Tess Varley, Emily Botel-Barnard, Natalie Carducci, Solenn Séguillon (all M.M., violin, '12), Otis Harriel (B.M., violin, '13), Addi Liu (M.M., viola, '12), and Matthew Linaman (B.M., cello, '13) shared the stage at Grace Cathedral with opera divas Deborah Voigt and Susan Graham, the choir of the Holy Trinity Music School in Port-au-Prince, and others.

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.


From the Archives continued...archives  

 

Staccato Notes

from The Lyre Volume 1, Number 7, May 1926 


Mary Louise Clement (4 years), talking over phone with hiccoughs: "Excuse me, Barbara; my voice tripped."

***

Noble Ledson (after piano lesson): "My mother said I could have two Eskimo Lullabies."
Perplexed Storekeeper: "Two Eskimo Lullabies!"
N.L.: "Oh, what do you call them? Pies? Oh, yes, Eskimo Pies!"

***

Lillian H. to Mrs. Hodghead: "Shall I call Grace to the 'Charleston' for you?"
Mrs. H.: "Oh, no. Grace has gone to the cemetery to do Solfege."

***

"Whatcha got your head bandaged for?"
"Didn't you hear about it? I tried to play the piano by ear."

***

The following appeared on a professional card presented to B.B. by one of the local teachers: "Teacher of all instruments. Stringed instruments a specialty." 

 

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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.

 

 

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