Conservatory eNews November 2013 top
Faculty News

San Francisco Chronicle dance critic Allan Ulrich called attention to the "eloquent string quartet score" for A Show of Hands, a piece recently performed by San Francisco's Garrett+Moulton productions. The music, written by Composition Department Chair Dan Becker, was performed by the alumni ensemble Friction Quartet. Ulrich warmly praised the choreography (which, in a variation on "musical chairs," had the dancers elevate quartet members above their heads.) But in a remarkable tribute, he added, "This music deserves a second life away from the dance."


A review in Gramophone magazine earlier this year singled out trumpet faculty Mark Inouye for providing one of the high points on the San Francisco Symphony's American Mavericks CD.  Rhapsodizing over the three-minute long trumpet solo that begins Henry Cowell's Synchrony, critic Phillip Clark wrote that Inouye "plays with such unity of tone that you begin to suspect he ... has had a sustain pedal hooked into the bell of the instrument."



Works in Wood
is the fitting title of a new CD of solo marimba music by percussion faculty (and expert craftsman) Jack Van Geem. Van Geem performs his own transcriptions of guitar pieces by Ginastera, Piazzolla, T�rrega and others. It's entirely possible he also built the marimba.




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Student News

Performers typically practice in solitude or share works-in-progress with a few trusted advisors. But pianist Paul Dab is abandoning the practice room for a museum gallery and inviting the public to hear him wrestle with Chopin's Nocturne in F Minor. Dab's "performance" is part of an exhibit at San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum by Chicago-based artist Jason Lazarus. The museum describes Untitled (2013) as a "parable of learning" that will provoke observers to consider and even engage in the creative learning process. Dab performs several days a week between November 21 and March 23. He studies with Sharon Mann.


Hollow and Khalikulov Credit: Waffle Opera
Waffle Opera launched its third season last month with performances of Bach's Coffee Cantata and Pergolesi's La serva padrona. The cast, packed with Conservatory talent, included soprano Chelsea Hollow, student of Pamela Fry, and tenor Alan Briones and bass-baritone Sergey Khalikulov, both students of C�sar Ulloa. The company was founded by enterprising Conservatory vocalists including Hollow, Ted Zoldan (B.M., voice, '11) and Angela Jarosz (M.M., voice, '10). Sarah Young (M.M., voice,'13) serves as board member and managing director. Even at its tender age, Waffle is succeeding admirably in its twin missions: to create performance opportunities for young Bay Area artists and to serve up its "world famous waffles" at each show. Spring performances will include Die Zauberfl�te and The Threepenny Opera.



Pre-College Student News

Cellist Ila Shon appears as featured soloist with the California Youth Symphony in performances of Dvoř�k's Cello Concerto on November 10 at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center and November 17 at Flint Center. Ila is a student of Sieun Lin.

Pre-College violinist Kevin Zhu performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with Symphony Parnassus on November 3 at the Nourse Theatre in San Francisco. Bassoon faculty member and Symphony Parnassus music director Stephen Paulson conducted. Kevin is a student of Li Lin.

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Alumni News

Conductor Teddy Abrams (B.M., piano, '05) will take the helm of the Louisville Orchestra in September as the youngest music director in the ensemble's 76-year history. As newly-appointed "music director designate" he begins work immediately on programming, auditions and strategic planning, and is scheduled to conduct orchestra performances of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons in February and March. Abrams is currently music director and conductor of the Britt Classical Festival, assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony and resident conductor of the MAV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest.

Adams and Ulloa at work


Soprano Julie Adams (M.M., voice, '13) won the Western Regional Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions,  held in Los Angeles on October 26. She advances to the National Semi-Finals, to take place in New York next March on stage at the Met. She studies with C�sar Ulloa.





Pre-college alumnus and violinist Alexi Kenny won the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, an honor that comes with significant career support. The annual multi-round contest is open to young artists and ensembles who have finished school but not yet established a career. As one of four winners this year, Kenny is signed to CAG's roster of managed artists and will receive performance opportunities including a recital in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. He studied with Wei He.



Baritone Efra�n Sol�s (M.M., voice, '13) is among ten singers chosen to joing the San Francisco Opera Center's prestigious Adler Fellow program next season. Tenor A.J. Glueckert (M.M., voice, '10) will return for his second year. Adler Fellows receive intensive training from opera staff and top artists and frequently perform side-by-side with their opera idols. This year alone, Glueckert created and sang roles at San Francisco Opera in the world premieres of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and Dolores Claiborne. He's currently appearing as the Steersman in The Flying Dutchman. Sol�s appeared as Junius in The Rape of Lucretia with the Opera Center's Merola Opera Program last summer. Both singers studied with C�sar Ulloa.


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Faculty News continued... faculty

Voice Department Chair Catherine Cook returns to the San Francisco Opera stage for the second time this fall to sing the role of Berta in Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Performances begin November 13. Cook, the Conservatory's Frederica von Stade Distinguished Chair in Voice, received glowing reviews for her recent appearance in the title role of the company's world-premiere production of Dolores Claiborne.

Ghost Songs,
a set of three pieces by electronic music faculty Alden Jenks, will be heard this month at the Bentley Music Academy in Malaysia. Jenks composed the songs to texts by his favorite muse, the surrealistic poet Charles Simic. Jenks says, "Fortunately, with over sixty books published, I won't run out of Simic poems to set any time soon."
   
Baritone and voice faculty Daniel Mobbs is off to Boston Lyric Opera to play the ill-fated father in a new chamber version of the 1965 opera Lizzie Borden. The story of a girl, her family and an ax is pared down to seven scenes. Mobbs describes the overall effect as 'grisly.'

The Ives Quartet, featuring faculty members Bettina Mussumeli on violin and Jodi Levitz on viola, recently performed a concert of string quartets penned by operatic heavy hitters. Part of the Old First Concerts series, the program included pieces by Puccini, Britten and Verdi, whose string quartet was his only purely instrumental work.

Piano pedagogy faculty William Wellborn recently performed a recital and presented a master class as part of the Guest Artists Series at Florida International University in Miami.


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Student News continued... student

Master's degree candidate, tubist and social media maven Jess Rodda is creating a buzz with Life After SFCM, a new blog of musings by recent alumni. In addition to discussing career twists and turns, posts offer unvarnished accounts of time spent at the Conservatory and photos from around San Francisco and the rest of the world. Rodda studies with Peter Wahrhaftig.

Emily Tuan took on two new positions this fall. She is the new manager of operations and community engagement for the Buddha's Light Youth Symphony Orchestra in Hacienda Heights, California, and personnel manager for the Colburn Conservatory Conducting Orchestra, a new ensemble performing in collaboration with the Los Angeles Opera Young Artists Program and the University of Southern California. Tuan is a graduate student in the studio of Timothy Day.

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Alumni News continued...alumni

Kate Allen (Artist Certificate, voice, '12) is the mezzo-soprano soloist at a concert next month marking the tenth anniversary of the reconstruction of
Venice's venerable opera house Teatro La Fenice. The landmark was destroyed by fire (for the second time) in 1996. Lorin Maazel will conduct a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Allen studied with C�sar Ulloa.

Wind Quintet No. 2 (Far Away) by Miguel del Aguila (B.M., piano, '82) has been receiving play around the world. The New York-based quintet Imani Winds is performing the piece on tour in Scandinavia and Mexico's Ensamble Zephyrus presented it recently at the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato.

The film Born in the USSR: 28 Up, featuring music by composer Ilya Demutsky (M.M., composition, '09), won the Grand Prix at the Russian Documentary Film Festival last month in New York.

The Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco this month presents Harvey Milk: A Cantata by Jack Curtis Dubowsky (M.M., composition, '01) in an expanded version for
piano and woodwind quartet. The University of San Francisco Chamber Singers and the Lick Wilmerding High School choruses will join in the performance of the work.

Joshua Fishbein (M.M., composition, '09) recently won the Cantate Chamber Singers' (CCS) Ninth Biennial Young Composers' Contest. His winning work A Prep-School Boy sets text from the introductory notes to Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony. CCS premieres the work next May in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Works by alumni composers Noah Luna (M.M., composition, '10) and Mark Ackerley (M.M., composition, '10) were among five premieres unveiled by Friction Quartet at a recent concert in San Francisco. The quartet's series Transmediation aims to break down the walls of the performance hall by also transmitting music via webcasts, social media and recordings. Friction Quartet is Doug Machiz (Professional Studies Diploma, cello, '12), Kevin Rogers (M.M., violin, '11), violinist Otis Harriel (B.M., violin, '13) and violist Pei-Ling Lin (Artist Certificate, chamber music, '12). Tenor Brian Thorsett (Postgraduate Diploma, voice, '04) joined the group for Luna's piece "The Highwayman."

Joseph Gregorio (M.M., composition,'04) recently conducted his chamber choir Ensemble Companio at the fall conference of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. Two commissioned works by Gregorio receive November premieres: the Gettysburg Children's Choir performs An Exhortation and the Penn State Glee Club sings When Music Sounds. Gregorio and his wife recently celebrated a premiere of a different kind: the arrival of their second child, Gabriel.

Composer Aaron Jay Kernis (composition, '78) resigned last month as director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, an organization he co-founded and led for 15 years. In a strongly-worded letter submitted to the orchestra's president, board of directors and musicians, he held both administration and musicians responsible for a 13-month labor dispute and lockout that has allowed "the dismemberment of this superb orchestra at the height of its powers."

Myung-Ji Lee (B.M., piano, '08) was named Second Runner-up Phenom Laureate among graduate contestants at the World Pianist Invitational International Piano Competition held at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last June.

Soprano Lise Lindstrom (M.M., voice, '96) delivered her debut performance at San Francisco Opera in October as Senta in The Flying Dutchman. Lindstrom was called on to sing the opera's leading female role two weeks before opening when the previously cast singer had to withdraw for health reasons.  

Soprano Ann Moss (Postgraduate Diploma, voice, '05) sings a recital celebrating the release of her debut album Currents at Old First Concerts on November 15. The program includes Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2, works for string quartet and soprano composed for Moss, and arrangements of songs by Joni Mitchell. Other performers include Eric Chin (Artist Certificate, violin, '11) appearing with the Hausmann Quartet, and Conservatory staff pianist Steven Bailey.

The piano collective New Keys opens their tenth anniversary season on November 22 with a concert of five personalized premieres, each one intended to reflect the musical style of a member of the group. New Keys includes Anthony Porter (M.M., composition, '11) and Regina Schaffer (B.M., piano, '05). Featured composers include Danny Clay (M.M., composition, '13). Keyboard literature faculty Sarah Cahill (piano, '78) and Andrew Meyerson (M.M., percussion, '10) are among the guest performers.

Lang Michelle Nixon (M.M., voice, '08) is currently making her concert debut at three Italian theaters as soprano soloist in the program "Ricordi: Something to Remember." She recently performed at Teatro della Celebrazioni in Bologna and appears this month at Teatro Pavarotti (Comunale) di Modena and Teatro Manzoni in Milan.

Forging Utopia by John Oliver (guitar, 1981) won Classical Composition of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards. The piece is the title work of a 2012 CD collection of orchestral music Oliver composed over the course of eleven years. Oliver is known for writing everything from operas to electronica and creating and performing chamber music for electroacoustic guitar.  

Jeffrey Parola (M.M., composition, '05) has received a major commission from the Florida-based Atlantic Classical Orchestra (ACO) to write a piece for solo clarinet and chamber orchestra. Clarinetist Paul Green premieres the work in March under the baton of Artistic Director Stewart Robertson. Parola is currently a DMA student at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.

Theodora Primes (piano, '62) performed Saint-Sa�ns's Cello Sonata No. 1 with cellist Jerome Kessler, conductor of the Topanga Symphony, last month in Santa Monica. Primes directs the chamber music program at Glendale Community College and is organist at United Armenian Congregational Church.

The globetrotting Real Vocal String Quartet featuring Jessica Ivry (M.M., cello, '97) and pre-college faculty violinist Alisa Rose (M.M., chamber music, '07) landed on the cover of Strings magazine in October. The issue describes the ensemble's success mixing "jazz improvisation, world music, original composition, and vocal harmonies," and recaps their experience touring Eastern Europe under the auspices of the U.S. State Department's American Music Abroad program.

Boston's Freisinger Chamber Orchestra recently performed the world premiere of To Finish the Moment by Aaron Rosenberg (M.M., composition, '03). Rosenberg plans to write a trio for piano, violin and cello while attending the Banff Musicians in Residence program this winter. He is an adjunct professor at University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Pianist Jakub Tchorzewski (PSD, piano, '08) recently performed a chamber music recital at the 57th International Festival of Contemporary Music, part of the Venice Bienalle and one of Europe's most prestigious contemporary music festivals. In a trio with cello and flute, Tchorzewski performed works by Lutoslawski, Gorecki, Meyer and Mykietyn and premiered a piece by Marcin Stanczyk called "Attorno".

Travelers passing through Orange County's John Wayne International Airport are being treated to a display of fantasy and surrealistic photography by alumna Carolyn Yarnell (B.M., composition, '86). Her solo exhibition runs through December 5.


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 [email protected] 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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