Alumni Notes

'00s

Please note: Jeffrey A. Hollander, DMA '68, piano performance, is alive and well. He was incorrectly listed in the last section of the printed fall 2010 Muse. News about him can be found at his Web site www.jeff-hollander.com. With apologies to all.

Daniel Albert, MM ‘05 (music education), recently completed his term as president of the Western District of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA). In that capacity, Daniel collaborated with western Massachusetts music educators to produce regional district festivals, create and execute policies, maintain music education advocacy vehicles, execute new initiatives, and represent the Western District on the state MMEA board of directors. He is now serving on the Western District executive board as immediate past chairperson.

Armando Bayolo, DMA 2001 (composition), was among the featured composers in the 2010 Ibero-American Festival for the Arts in San Juan, Puerto Rico, presenting his orchestral work Colorfields and a lecture at the University of Puerto Rico. His works will receive performances by the Ensemble Lontano in London, Hexnut in Neijmegen, Arnhem and Amsterdam, and the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra, premiering his trombone concerto, Absolute Music, in Soderborg. Bayolo will lead the first performance by a professional American ensemble of Louis Andriessen’s De Materie in October, with Andriessen present, at the National Gallery of Art with his Great Noise Ensemble.

Garrett Field, BFA ‘03 (jazz and contemplative studies), a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University was awarded a DDRA Fulbright-Hays scholarship to study the history of the poetry and music of the Sinhala Renaissance. Field's paper "From Threatened by Modernity to Reinvented by Modernity: The History of the History of Indian Classical Music (1980 - 2006)" was awarded the James T. Koetting Prize, for outstanding graduate student paper presented at the annual meeting of the Northeast Chapter for the Society of Ethnomusicology. It will be published in the 2010 Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology.

John Hartman, BM ’06 (trumpet), BA ’06 (film and video studies), is currently performing with The Second City, a Chicago comedy theatre, on the cruise ship NCL Pride of America in Hawaii. In Chicago, he performs with the musical improvisation group Baby Wants Candy, which The Huffington Post calls “pretty damn brilliant.” He also mounted his solo comedy show, Your Friends and Enemies, at Chicago’s The Annoyance Theatre. Time Out Chicago named it a Critic’s Pick, “60 minutes of guilt-free comic perversions … finely edited … solid pacing … highly entertaining to watch,” adding, “I thoroughly loved Hartman’s fringe characters coupled with the show’s whizbang timing.”

Amanda Kaipio, BM ’08 (voice performance), earned her master’s in vocal performance from Boston University in 2010. She was one of seven American students chosen from all disciplines for a Fulbright Scholarship to study Finnish vocal music, opera, and language at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Kenneth Kellogg, MM ’06, specialist degree (voice performance), recently finished a two-year residency as an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera. A young artist on the rise, he is making debuts with Atlanta Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Wolftrap Opera, and Washington National Opera, just this year. He is also debuting in Osaka and Tokyo and working on a new “fire opera” called Machine, being written for him and set to premiere at the Crucible Theater in California next year.

Stephen Lancaster, DMA ‘08 (voice), has been promoted to assistant teaching professor of music at the University of Notre Dame, after serving as visiting lecturer since 2007. Last season, he appeared as Falke in Die Fledermaus with Arbor Opera Theater and taught at the Franco-American Vocal Academy in Périgord, France. Earlier this year, he performed in recital with SMTD collaborative pianist Martin Katz and made his Carnegie Hall debut as guest artist with the Notre Dame Concert Band. He recently completed a recital tour of Taiwan, with Wanyi-Lo (BM ‘08) and Lorraine Sullivan (BM ‘07), and performed as an artist fellow at the Atlantic Music Festival.

Bryan Langlitz, BFA ’09 (musical theatre), has been cast as the swing in Memphis, a current smash hit on Broadway, going into rehearsals a mere 36 hours after being hired. Bryan is covering a number of different roles within the large ensemble and will share the stage with fellow MT alums Sydney Morton and Cary Tedder, before Cary leaves to tour with West Side Story.

Alexander Lapins, MM ‘02 (tuba), joined the faculty of the Northern Arizona University (NAU) School of Music and was awarded his doctorate in music performance from Indiana University. This past spring, Alex performed throughout eastern China with the Elden Brass Quintet, the faculty quintet of NAU, which presented a program that included two new works for brass quintet and tuba quintet at the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference in Tucson. One of the new works was by John Berners (MM ’98, Ph.D. ’05, composition). Alex then returned to the faculty of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan.

Diana Lawrence, BM ’05 (voice), was invited to participate in the fifth annual Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, held at Northwestern University. Her band, Diana & the Dishes, released its debut album, Take A Picture, in August. As a member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Diana will perform Janácek’s Glagolitic Mass this fall with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Boulez. In December, she will be in Washington D.C. as music director for The Second City’s production of “A Girl’s Guide to Washington Politics” at Woolly Mammoth Theatre.

Ann-Marie MacFarlane, MM ’07 (vocal performance), former student of George Shirley, was selected to participate in the international Aurora Chamber Music Festival in Sweden, where she received individual training and career advice from legendary American opera singer Barbara Hendricks. She was the only American, joining seven other singers from countries that included France, Germany, and Turkey; all were granted full scholarships to participate. MacFarlane is an active recitalist and concert singer in Denmark, recently performing as soloist with the Danish National Opera in a workshop for an upcoming production.

Wes Mason, BM ’09 (voice), co-starred in Jorge Martin’s Before Night Falls, with Seth Carico (MM ’07), with the Fort Worth Opera.

MaryAnn Ramos, DMA ’09 (cello), was selected to perform for the President of Mexico, Phillipe Calderon, at a Department of State luncheon in his honor in May, performing with actress Selma Hayek, who recited a poem in Spanish in the guest’s honor. The luncheon was hosted by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who introduced her. MaryAnn has just been named to the cello faculty of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Corbin Reid, BFA ’09 (musical theatre), joined the cast of Green Day’s American Idiot on Broadway in July.

Kristen Sague, BFA ’06 (dance), is part of the ethnic dance community of San Francisco and the East Bay area. This past June, she was one of a group of dancers, musicians, vocalists, and songwriters in Miriam’s Well, an interfaith performance of sacred music, dance, and poetry. The culminating performance was at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. She was also featured with two companies in the 32nd Annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. She is a principal dancer with Ballet Afsaneh and Wan-Chao Dance that presented a world premiere of its Follow the Footprints, an ethno-contemporary dance mourning the decline of nomadic cultures.

Carolyn Senger, BMA ‘06 (vocal performance), recently graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) and matched at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, for residency training in anesthesiology. During her medical training, she continued singing in events such as the Homicide Victims of Baltimore Candlelight Vigil and the JHUSOM Human Anatomy Memorial Service and White Coat Ceremony.

Clinton Smith, MM ’06 (orchestral conducting and piano), DMA ’09 (conducting), returns to the Minnesota Opera for a third season as assistant/cover conductor and chorusmaster, making his debut conducting La traviata. He has been cover conductor and chorusmaster for productions with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Opera Orchestra. Recently he conducted Madama Butterfly for Hamline University and a workshop of Kevin Puts’s opera Silent Night for the Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative. Clinton spent Summer 2010 working as an assistant conductor and coach for Glimmerglass Opera on productions of The Tender Land and Tolomeo.

Alex Springer, BFA ’07 (dance), together with Xan Burley, just completed their first fully produced season at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn, NY, presenting themselves as alexanDance Performance. Their work was praised as “funny and fierce” (iDanz.net) and full of “humor, absurdity, [and] quirky choreography” (Dance Enthusiast). The show, A Veritable Smorgasbord, incorporated old and new pieces, dance films, live musicians, an art exhibit, live painting, and sixteen dancers, among them Leah Ives (‘07), Sheila Klein (‘09), Jordan Risdon (‘08), Tomoko Takedani (MFA ‘08), and Jenny Thomas (‘08). Alex continues to enjoy dancing with Doug Varone and Dancers.

Anthony Suter, MM ’04 (composition), is currently assistant professor of music composition at the University of Redlands in Southern California, where he was this year’s recipient of the university-wide Outstanding Faculty Award for Innovative Teaching. In March of 2010, Centaur Records released Hymns to Forgotten Moon: the Music of Arnold Schoenberg and Anthony Suter. A new work for concert band, Sparking Angels, has been published by Daehn Publications. He recently completed a brass quartet, premiered by Chicago Symphony principals Michael Mulchahy and Gene Pokorny, Detroit Symphony principal bass trombonist Randall Hawes, and Redlands Dean Andrew Glendening.

Fernando Tarango, BM ’05 (voice), has independently released his third solo album, titled, October 31, 2009. Since graduating, he has sung professionally for the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the Grammy Award-Winning Pacific Boychoir Academy, and for Clerestory, the alumni group of the San Francisco-based men’s chorus Chanticleer. Fernando premiered the role of Mr. Bingley in Kirk Mechem’s opera Pride and Prejudice for the San Francisco Choral Society and is the vocalist for an upcoming Bolero-influenced jazz album recorded in La Paz, Bolivia.

Gregory X. Whitmore, BM ’01 (music education), now in his tenth year as director of bands at Cathedral City (CA) High School, spent the summer on a teacher study abroad program at Cambridge University, studying architecture and art. His CCHS Symphonic Band was selected for a 2009 Mark of Excellence National Wind Band Award, at the state level. That band will tour France and Germany in March. It was also one of only 10 high school marching bands nationwide selected to take part in the 2010 Hollywood Santa Parade.

Ali Woerner, MFA ‘07 (dance), is visiting professor of dance at Oakland (MI) University. Her company, Shifting Sol, made its New York City premiere this past June at the Ailey Citigroup Theatre. Ali was recently awarded Michigan Dance Council’s Maggie Allesee New Choreography Award. She created a collaborative event for Detroit Happenings, a showcase for dance, music, painting, and poetry, this year on the roof of Detroit’s Music Hall for the Performing Arts. She is also the new private sector editor for the Journal of Dance Education.

James Wolk, BFA ’07 (theatre & drama), is featured in Lonestar, Fox network’s new one-hour drama that launched in September. Set in Texas, the show is about “a good-looking, charming, charismatic con artist who also happens to be a bigamist.” Yes, that’s Wolk, in the lead role of Robert Allen. He was most recently seen in Hallmark Hall of Fame’s Front of the Class, about a young man with Tourette’s syndrome. Lonestar will also star Adrianne Palicki of Friday Night Lights, Jon Voight, and David Keith.

 

'90s

Nicholas D Abruzzo, BFA ’95 (theatre & drama), had his short paper “Toward a Tesseract Theater” published in the Bridges Pécs Conference Proceedings (2010) as part of their annual international conference on mathematical connections in art, music, and science. The paper contextualizes Euripides’ theatrical device deus ex machina and two landmark examples of its modern legacy, in spatial 4D. It considers stacked space (topology), tesseract geometry, and graph-theoretical trees in the proposed design and use of a theater situated in the surface-volume of a tesseract. The paper was presented again in September at the Los Angeles Theater Center.

Carrie Barnhardt, BFA ’94 (musical theatre and voice), received the 2008 Colorado High School Theatre Educator of the Year award, presented by the Alliance for Colorado Theatre. Her program at Pine Creek High School in Colorado Springs was named best high school drama program in “Best of the Springs 2010” and was nominated to participate in the American High School Theatre Festival at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland next year.

Gordon Beeferman, BM ’98 (composition), received a number of performances of his works, in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including String Quartet, performed by the Momenta Quartet, Passages for recorder quartet, Brass Quintet, commissioned by the American Brass Quintet, and Scene Two from his chamber opera The Rat Land, presented by New York City Opera. His hybrid, avant-jazz, new music septet, the Imaginary Band, made its New York City debut and released its first recording, Music for an Imaginary Band. A new score for Anita Cheng Dance will premiere this spring. In 2010, Beeferman was in residence at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony.

Laura Carmichael, BM ’91 (clarinet), performed in the Berlin Philharmonie with MusikFabrik in September, performing Berio’s Kol Od with Peter Eötvös conducting. She is based in Amsterdam, where she performs with contemporary music ensembles, including her own Duo X with saxophonist and sho player Naomi Sato. Their staged-concert Urban Doldrums, with electronics and video, won a prize at the 2010 Experimental Sound, Art and Performance Festival at Tokyo Wonder Site in Japan.

Jason Dilly, BFA ’93 (musical theatre), was inducted into the American College of Surgeons in October 2009, one of the highest honors attainable in the field of surgical medicine. Now Jason Dilly, MD, FACS (Fellow of the American College of Surgeons), he continues in clinical ophthalmology and surgical eye care as senior staff member at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He is on the faculty at Wayne State.

Aaron Dworkin, BM ’97, MM ’98 (violin), was named one of the fifteen most inspiring people in classical music in Listen Magazine’s summer issue, joining such other honorees as Yo-Yo Ma, Martha Agerich, Gustavo Dudamel, Marilyn Horne, Michael Tilson Thomas, William Christie, among others.

John “Nipper” Knapp, BFA ’92, Matthew Letscher (BA ’92) and Andrew Newberg (BFA ’93) (theatre & drama all), won Best Writing Award in the recent New York Television Festival for their original TV pilot Gentrification. Pilots were presented for industry executives at a showcase at Tribeca Cinemas in September.

James Lee III, BM ’99 (piano), MM ’01 and DMA ’05 (composition), won the Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award from American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Natalie Mannix, BMA ’95 (trombone performance), is assistant professor of trombone at Towson University and principal trombone of the Delaware Symphony, a position she has held since 2004. Recently, she was a guest artist at the International Women’s Brass Conference in Toronto, where she presented a master class and performed both a solo and with the Monarch Brass Ensemble. This past year, she was featured in solo performances at the Eastern Trombone Workshop, the Western PASSHE Low Brass Consortium, and Towson University with the Towson Symphonic Band.

Brian J. Nelson, BM ‘90 (composition), has released two CDs of his music in the past twelve months. Responsorial Psalms for Advent and Christmas (Nelson Music 2009) is a collection of his sacred music. Vocalise (2010) is a full-scale collection of his instrumental and choral works. Among its eleven tracks, Vocalise features the premiere recording of Ballade for violin and piano, with U-M alumna Tami C. Lee Hughes (MM ’00, DMA ’03, violin).

Jamie L. Nix, MM ’99 (trombone performance), MM ’99 (wind conducting), was recently appointed director of wind ensemble activities and associate professor of music at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Georgia. He conducts both the wind ensemble and wind orchestra and heads the graduate conducting program. Prior to this appointment, Nix completed his DMA in wind conducting at the University of Miami in Coral Gables.

Benedette Palazzola, MFA ’91 (dance), is now a quilt artist. Her work is represented in the collection of the Great Lakes Quilt Center at the Michigan State University Museum, and will appear this year at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor.

Samantha Shelton, MFA ’94 (dance), will teach full time in the Dance Department at Alma (MI) College, beginning in the fall, co-directing the Alma College Dance Company. She will choreograph two works to music by Vivaldi and Mendelssohn for Alma’s fall concert, and, for the spring concert, will stage the ballet Paquita. Last spring, she was invited by Angela Kane, U-M dance chair, to teach a ballet master class for dance majors. She was in New York in August to attend American Ballet Theatre curriculum training and continues to teach and choreograph for the ABT summer intensives.

Matthew Shippee, MA ‘98 (musicology), has been awarded tenure and advancement to professor at Greenfield (MA) Community College, where the music department he created in 2003 has grown to over forty majors. His chapter, “The Sound of Starting Where You Are: Contemplative Practice and Music Pedagogy,” will appear in New Directions in Community Colleges in the fall. Matthew’s Gypsy jazz band, Swing Caravan, performed over 100 concerts this year, including at the New York City Djangology Festival, Club Passim in Cambridge, and Falcon Ridge (NY) Folk Festival. Matthew plays lead guitar and oud and sings and composes for the band, currently recording a collection of American WWII-era music.

John W. Vandertuin, DMA ’94 (organ performance), who composes as well as performs, had three recent commissioned works published by the Organ Historical Society of Richmond, VA. Blind since birth, Dr. Vandertuin continues as church organist in Scotland, Ontario, in Canada, performing throughout the country. He has also produced two CDs, his latest John W. Vandertuin, Live in Concert, which was recognized by Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican. He was also recently honored by Paul Martin, former prime minister of Canada, and Stephen Harper, current PM.

David Vayo, DMA ’90 (composition), was in residence last spring at I-Park, an artists’ colony in East Haddam, CT. Later in the spring, he was in Mexico City to attend the ONIX Ensemble’s performance of his Enlightenment, written for the group as part of the International Forum of New Music “Manuel Enríquez.” His opera Fertile Ground had its premiere run of performances in a co-production of Illinois Wesleyan University Opera Theatre and Prairie Fire Theatre of Bloomington, IL. The Paris-based duo Thierry Miroglio, percussion, and Ancuza Aprodu, piano, performed Vayo’s Orion at Illinois Wesleyan in March.

Christopher Zimmerman, MM ’91 (orchestral conducting), was appointed music director of the Fairfax (VA) Symphony Orchestra, following a two-year search. Zimmerman’s inaugural season featured the first of a three-year focus on the works of Jean Sibelius, including the rarely performed Lemminkainen Legends, as well as the east coast premiere of Avner Dorman’s Piano Concerto, performed by Alon Goldstein. Zimmerman, currently music director of the Hartt Symphony Orchestra and professor of orchestral conducting at the Hartt School, moved with his wife and two teenagers to Virginia this summer to focus his energies on the new position with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra.

 

'80s

Peter DuBois, MM ’82 (organ), on the faculty at Eastman School of Music and director of music and organist at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY, has been named host of With Heart and Voice, a national sacred choral and organ radio program that started in 1975. He signed on as the national host this fall. The program, broadcast from WXXI-FM radio in Rochester, is picked up by more than 100 public radio stations nationwide and spans a full range of western religious music, from the Gothic period to the 21st century.

Pamela Lydon Heard, MFA ’83 (dance), artistic director of Pamela Lydon and Dancers, recently awarded the first Pamela Lydon Scholarship for further studies in dance to Brittany Barnett, a graduating senior at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX. Brittany attended the Kista Tucker Dance Summer Intensive at SUNY Brockport in July.

Jere Humphreys, Ph.D. ’84 (music education), a professor of music education in the Arizona State University School of Music, traveled twice to the Balkans to present lectures in Greece, Turkey, Serbia, Kosovo, and Macedonia, and a keynote speech in Bulgaria. He also presented scholarly papers at research symposia in Gothenburg, Sweden and Arlington, VA and published a co-authored curriculum study on multicultural and popular music in a music teacher education program in the International Journal of Music Education: Research. In spring 2010 he taught a quantitative research methods course in an Ed.D. program for Native Americans in the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock, AZ.

Kirk Moss, BM ’87 (music education), joined the faculty of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music as an associate professor of music and chair of the Music Education Department. He also serves as the elected national president of the 10,000-member American String Teachers Association. Last summer, his conducting engagements included the Lamar Stringfield (NC) Music Camp and Interlochen Music Camp.

Barbara Neri, MFA ’80 (dance), is associate editor of The Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the historic five-volume edition of Browning’s complete works, published by Pickering and Chatto in March. In other work, Neri contributed groundbreaking research on the poet’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. Her visual art was published as artist pages in the March 2008 Performance Research issue “On Choreography” and exhibited as a multi-media installation in the Ann Arbor Work Gallery (re)Mapping exhibit in fall of 2009. Her script, Unlocking Desire, was read at the August 2010 Renegade Theater Festival in Lansing, MI.

 

'70s

F. Gerard Errante, DMA ’70 (clarinet), has recently relocated to Las Vegas, after retiring as professor of music from Norfolk State (VA) University. He has been an active performer and lecturer in countries throughout the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe. A former president of the International Clarinet Association, Errante has received that organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award. His fourth solo CD, Delicate Balance, containing works for clarinet and electronics composed for him, was recently released.

Stephen Michael Gryc, BM ’71 (music education), MM ’78 (theory & composition), DMA ’83 (composition), was composer-in-residence at the Three Bridges International Chamber Music Festival in Duluth this past June, where he lectured and attended the performance of three of his works. In January, the Cornell University Wind Ensemble performed his Las Campanas during a concert tour of Costa Rica. Las Campanas was recently published by Subito Music and recorded by the University of New Mexico Wind Symphony on the Summit label. A recording of Gryc’s String Quartet by the Avalon String Quartet was recently released on the Albany label.

Ray Henry, BM ’76 (organ), was elected to the board of directors for the Oakland County (MI) Pioneer and Historical Society. Founded in 1874, its mission is to identify, record, collect, preserve, and make available objects and materials reflecting the history of the people, places, and events of the county and to restore and maintain the Governor Moses Wisner estate, known as Pine Grove, as a recognized national and state historic site. Henry now serves as senior technical writer/editor for Snap-on, Inc. in Rochester Hills, MI.

Catherine Hilbish McNeela, MM ’76 (voice), professor of performing arts and head of Elon University’s music theatre program, is now the William S. Long Professor, named after the institution’s first president. McNeela’s appointment to the professorship was made in recognition of her twenty years of outstanding teaching, scholarship, and leadership in developing their nationally recognized music theatre program. She joined the Elon faculty in 1990, after teaching voice and music theatre at the University of Arkansas, Illinois Wesleyan, and Allegheny College. She has performed as a professional actor and singer in more than 100 plays and musicals.

Martin Pakledinaz, MA ’75 (theatre & drama costume design), was nominated for a 2010 Tony Award for costume design for Lend Me a Tenor and awarded the 2010 Henry Hews Design Award for that work.

Bob Phillips, BM ’76, MM ’79 (music education and clarinet), has been promoted to director of String Publications for Alfred Music Publishing. In May, he began his term as president-elect of the American String Teachers Association. In addition to his many compositions for school orchestra, he has also recently co-authored Sound Innovations, the groundbreaking, customizable method for strings and band. He continues to present clinics at most state and national music education conferences and in the fall will be in residence at the University of Alabama through its endowed chair in music. Next summer, he will guest conduct and present music education clinics throughout Australia.

Jeffrey Quick, BM ’78 (music history and musicology), won first prize for his Mass in Honor of St. Maximilian Kolbe in the 2010 International Sacred Music Competition, held by the Foundation for the Sacred Arts of Washington D.C. The award for a setting of the newly revised English translation of the Mass included a cash prize and a premiere by the choir of Washington D.C.’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, under Dr. Peter Latona, on August 14, coincidentally Kolbe’s feast day.

 

'60s

Joanne (Williamson) Dorenfeld, MM ’68 (voice), gave concerts in Holland and Belgium and appeared as soloist with the London and Edmonton Symphonies and the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, among others. She has premiered many works written for her voice and taught at several universities and Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, with which she has had a long affiliation. She now coaches oratorio soloists and travels with her husband.

Henry Fuchs, MM ’60 (piano), appeared as guest artist with the Foothills Chamber Ensemble, Tucson, AZ in May, performing Mozart’s Piano Quintet in E-flat, K. 452 and Poulenc’s Sextet for Piano and Woodwind Quintet. He was named professor emeritus in June 2000 after 32 years of service at the University of Rhode Island.

Robert Pattengale, MM ’65 (music literature), Ph.D. ’73 (musicology), and professor emeritus, Minnesota State University, Moorhead, co-founded the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra (GLCO) in 2001 in order to bring live orchestral music to northern Michigan. Pattengale, who was recently elected president of GLCO’s board of trustees, has been active as harpsichordist and program annotator. The orchestra, celebrating its 10th season with Maestro Matthew Hazelwood, has presented over 80 concerts and numerous chamber music recitals with soloists, including SMTD faculty member and harpist Joan Holland and SMTD undergrads Hannah Robbins, cello, and Andy Tuck, viola

Earl Sherburn, BM ’65, MM ’70 (music education), is retired but still substitutes in the Clark County School District and travels the world. He and his lifetime partner of 21 years have traveled to over 70 countries and operate a Web site as travel consultants. Dr. Sherburn enjoys an annual visit to his alma mater each fall for a football game.

Anna Epley Speck, BM ’65 (music education), retired in June after ten years as choral director at Cranbrook Upper and Middle Schools, preceded by 15 years as a member of the voice faculty at Wayne State University and director of the Grosse Pointe Community Chorus.

 

'50s

Libby Appel, BA ’59 (theatre & drama), artistic director emerita of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, received the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater as part of the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival. Artistic director of the OSF from 1995 through 2007, Ms. Appel chose to direct the award’s $10,000 scholarship to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s FAIR Experience, a program that incorporates fellowships, assistantships, internships, and residencies.

Bob McGrath, BM ’54 (voice), enjoyed the 150th reunion of the Men’s Glee Club in Ann Arbor this past summer. McGrath, a member of Sesame Street cast since its premiere, joined in the celebration of its 40th anniversary last November. Taping for the 41st season, he writes, began in January. The cast performed at the Hollywood Bowl with the popular mini orchestra Pink Martini and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in September.

'30s

Rubi Peinert Wentzel, BM ’35 (cello), Stanley Medal winner her senior year and student of Swiss cellist Hans Pick, is working on a book of studies for the beginning cellist—at the age of 97 and despite being wheelchair bound—called It’s Fun to Play the Cello. Brava, Rubi!

What’s New with You?

Please send us your latest news, keeping submissions to 100 words (longer entries will be edited for length) and submitting them in paragraph form—please, no CV’s, resumes, lists, or press releases. Deadline for the Spring 2011 Muse is February 15, 2011.

Email to bgoolian@umich.edu or type on separate sheet and mail to Betsy Goolian, Editor, Michigan Muse, School of Music, Theatre & Dance, 2005 Baits Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2075. Photos welcomed either as jpeg attachments to emails (must be high resolution, at least 300 dpi) or sent as prints to be scanned and returned. Let us know if photo credits are required.

The vehicle for address updates may be found at music.umich.edu. Click on “alumni/donors,” then, at the top of the new screen, select “alumni record update.”

Any questions, call Betsy Goolian at 734-763-1478