On March 24 at the Church of St. Joseph in New York City, trombone faculty member Per Brevig (Diploma ’67, Postgraduate Diploma ’67, BM ’68, DMA ’71, trombone) will conduct pianists Stephanie Matera (BM ’84, MM ’87, piano), John Pennacchi, Scott Baker, and Victor Kam with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta in a program of works by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Brahms, and Shostakovich. The concert is one of an ongoing series presented by Evening Division faculty member Julie Jordan (MM ’83, piano). 

L. Michael Griffel (MS ’66, piano), chair of Juilliard’s music history department, was recently named to the advisory board of the new online Journal of Music History Pedagogy. Griffel wrote the foreword to Vitalizing Music History Teaching, edited by James R. Briscoe and published by the Pendragon Press in September. In December, he moderated a panel of music historians and the three playwright-actors of The Three Pianos, a play that makes Schubert’s Winterreise its theme, at the New York Theater Workshop. Griffel also gave the inaugural lecture, “There’s Something About Maria: Music of Supplication and Hope,” for the Thomas Hunter Honors Program chapter of the Hunter College Alumni Association.

Dance Division faculty member Fabrice Herrault’s film Claude Bessy: Lignes d’une vie (Traces of a Life) was screened in January as part of the Dance on Camera Festival, which was presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center at the Walter Reade Theater in New York City. 

Historical Performance faculty members Monica Huggett (violin), Cynthia Roberts (violin), Robert Mealy (violin and viola), Phoebe Carrai (cello), Robert Nairn (double bass), Sandra Miller (flute), Gonzalo Ruiz (oboe), Dominic Teresi (bassoon), and Kenneth Weiss (harpsichord) performed in the Music Before 1800 series at Corpus Christi Church in New York City in January. They were joined by members of the student period-instrument ensemble Juilliard415 for the concert, which was titled The French Connection: Paris and the Symphonies Concertantes and featured music by Mozart, Haydn, and Chevalier Saint-George.

Guitar faculty member Sharon Isbin performed works by Albéniz and Brouwer at the 92nd Street Y’s Kaufman Concert Hall on New Year’s Eve. She also played two duets with violinist Mark O’Connor—his Strings and Threads Suite, written for Isbin, and Appalachia Waltz for violin and guitar. 

Organ department chair Paul Jacobs won a Grammy Award last month for best instrumental soloist performance (without orchestra) for his Naxos-released recording of Messiaen’s Livre du Saint-Sacrement. 

Khullip Jeung (BM ’02, MM ’04, violin) became a Pre-College assistant faculty member in January.

In January, the Juilliard String Quartet, comprising violinists Joseph Lin (Pre-College ’96) and Ronald Copes, cellist Joel Krosnick, and violist Samuel Rhodes, performed at the Dutch Chamber Music Society in Amsterdam. That month, the ensemble also performed in Germany, at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, Südwestdeutsche Konzertdirektion Erwin Russ in Stuttgart, Gemeinnütziger Theater und Konzertverein in Erlangen, and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen. The quartet received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award last month.

Dance Division faculty member David Parker, co-founder of the Bang Group, was featured in “From the Heart—Why I Choreograph” in the January 2011 issue of Dance Magazine. 

Literature and Materials of Music faculty member Behzad Ranjbaran’s (MM ’88, DMA ’92, composition) Piano Concerto was performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet with the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Robert Spano, at Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall in December. The concert was broadcast by SpectiCast television network. In November, Ranjbaran’s Violin Concerto was performed by the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, conducted by Ronald Zollman, at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh. The soloist was Sandro Leal-Santiesteban, a Carnegie Mellon School of Music competition winner. Ranjbaran’s Shiraz was performed by the Manhattan Piano Trio, comprising Wayne Lee (BM ’05, MM ’07, violin), Dmitry Kouzouv (Artist Diploma ’05, cello), and Milana Bahl (BM ’00, MM ’02, piano), at the Associazione Filarmonica di Rovereto in Italy in November, and by the Gagliano Trio at the Rüttihubeliade Festival in Switzerland in December. 

Evening Division faculty member Henning Rübsam (BFA ‘91, dance), the artistic director of Sensedance, has joined the faculty of the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY-Purchase College. 

In January, as part of the Mander Organ Series at New York City’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, graduate studies faculty member Kent Tritle (BM ’85, MM ’88, organ; MM ’88, choral conducting; see Juilliard Portrait, Page 15) and Renée Anne Louprette gave a  recital commemorating what would have been the 100th birthday of composer Jehan Alain. In November, Tritle led the choir and orchestra of New York City’s St. Ignatius Loyola in a performance of Czech and Hungarian music featuring Salamandra-Immortale for violin and cello by Juraj Filas and Canticum Canticorum by Viktor Kalabis. Liszt’s Missa Choralis was also performed. Soloists included Matthew Garrett (MM ’03, voice; Artist Diploma ’05, opera studies). 

STUDENT NEWS

In February, master’s flute student Fiona Kelly won second prize in the 13th Gheorghe Dima International Music Competition. Her award included a Trevor James flute, a Sankyo headjoint, and a concert next season with the Filarmonica Dinu Lipatti in Satu Mare, Romania.

Master’s composition student Jared Miller won a first prize in the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition in February. As an award recipient, he will perform his own music in the competition’s winners recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on March 6.