Faculty

In January, Lori Schiff presented Alexander Technique master classes and private lessons for the U.S. Army Field Band and its Soldiers’ Chorus at Fort George G. Meade in Maryland. Also in January, Schiff presented a master class for the Cadet Glee Club at West Point.

Kent Tritle (BM ’85, MM ’88, organ; MM ’88, choral conducting) has been appointed chair of the organ department at the Manhattan School of Music.

♦ John Rojak’s (BM ’80, bass trombone) album Rojak Rocks was released by Navona in January.

♦ On March 22, the Israel Chamber Project, of which Assaff Weisman (BM ’99, MM ’01, piano) is the executive director, will perform works by Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg at the Morgan Library. Ensemble members include Tibi Cziger (Graduate Diploma ’06, Artist Diploma ’08, clarinet), Michal Korman (MM ’07, Artist Diploma ’09, cello), Sivan Magen (BM ’07, MM ’08, harp), and Dov Scheindlin (BM '92, MM '94, viola). 

Staff

Cynthia Baker, coordinating producer of recital hall events (and longtime Denver Broncos fan), worked with Gustavo Dudamel and others during the pregame and halftime shows at the 50th Super Bowl.

Students

Third-year dancer Angela Falk was in Dance magazine’s article about the daily life of three college dancers.

Master’s pianist Tomer Gewirtzman was one of six first-prize winners at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which were held in New York in November. The jury included Koichiro Harada (’71, violin) and faculty members Elaine Douvas and Fred Sherry (Pre-College ’65; Diploma ’69, cello).

♦ On April 21, doctoral candidate Christopher Dylan Herbert will sing the baritone solos in Fauré’s Requiem and Alberto Ginastera’s Cantata Bomarzo at Trinity Wall Street in New York. In July, he will serve on faculty at the Madison (Wis.) Early Music Festival. This spring and summer, his group New York Polyphony will perform in Williamstown, Mass.; Wexford, Ireland; Neruppin and Bonn, Germany; Vara, Sweden; New York City; Kiawah Island, S.C.; San Francisco; Portsmouth, Va., and Madison, Wis.

Horizons by first-year composer Cheng Jin Koh had its premiere by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, which commissioned the work, as part of its 37th-anniversary concert in January.

♦ Wondrous Strange—by playwriting student Martyna Majok as well as Jen Silverman (Playwrights ’15), Meg Miroshnik, and Jiehae Park—will be part of the 40th Humana Festival of New American Plays held in Louisville, Ky. The show, directed by Marti Lyons, runs from March 25 to April 10.

Pre-College students Alec Manasse (clarinet), Benjamin Wenzelberg (composition), and Esther Yu (cello) were featured on the NPR show From the Top, which was broadcast in February and is also available as a podcast and on From the Top’s website. The show includes Wenzelberg’s Maelström for full orchestra, performed in its world premiere by the Rochester (N.Y.) Philharmonic, conducted by Ward Stare (BM ’01, trombone).

In January, countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, a Graduate Diploma candidate, was among five prizewinners chosen at the New England Regional Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.