Jazz drummer and faculty member Carl Allen and bassist Rodney Whitaker celebrated the release of their Mack Avenue Records debut, Get Ready, with a performance at Sweet Rhythm in June in New York. They were joined by pianist George Colligan, guitarist Rodney Jones, and saxophonist Steve Wilson.

Piano faculty member Emanuel Ax and Yoko Nozaki Ax (BS ’70, MS ’72, piano) were the soloists with the Mostly Mozart Orchestra, conducted by Louis Langrée, for the encore presentation of the Mark Morris Dance Group in Morris’s Mozart Dances in August as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival. The first of the four performances at the New York State Theater was broadcast on Live From Lincoln Center. Mozart Dances was commissioned last year for the Mostly Mozart Festival’s 40th anniversary.

In July, drama faculty member Frank Deal appeared opposite drama alumni Mark Vietor (Group 16), Michael Stuhlbarg (Group 21), Opal Alladin (Group 25) and Quentin Mare (Group 28) in a reading of Edward Marlowe’s Edward II for the Red Bull Theater in New York City.

Graduate studies faculty member David Dubal hosted a program of rising young stars at Arium in New York in April. Among the featured performers were alumni Kimball Gallagher (MM ’04, piano) and Vassily Primakov (BM ’03, piano).

Vocal Arts department faculty member Mary Lou Falcone received the Curtis Institute of Music Alumni Award from her alma mater at the institute’s commencement in May.

Pre-College violin faculty member Shirley Givens (Diploma ’53, violin) appeared in March as guest artist in a concert at Symphony Space in New York, performing Beethoven’s “Spring” Sonata with pianist Eduard Laurel, as well as music composed by Charlie Chaplin for his films and arranged by Givens’ husband, Harry Wimmer (Diploma ’50, cello). She also played a duet with Cajun fiddler Kevin Wimmer. The event was a benefit for the National Foundation for Facial Reconstruction.

Organ department chair Paul Jacobs was a member of the jury for the 24th International Organ Competition in St. Albans, England, in July.

Music technology faculty member Mari Kimura (DMA ’93, violin) was featured on the cable TV channel New York 1 in June. The segment, in which she performed and discussed working with technology, was taped at an event in June at the Japan Society titled “Tech Epoch,” which showcased industry designers from the U.S. and Japan.

Jazz faculty member Wynton Marsalis (’81, trumpet) was presented with the 2007 Montblanc de la Culture Award, which supports the arts in 10 countries, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in May.

President Joseph W. Polisi was among the panelists for the first International Symposium on Music Education at the Yale School of Music in New Haven in May.

Pre-College piano faculty member Adelaide Roberts gave a concert in May at the Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Kingston, N.Y. In June, she performed at the Fountains at Millbrook, N.Y., and was a guest soloist at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, N.J. In July she gave a solo recital in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Evening Division faculty member Henning Rübsam presented “Finding Your Aesthetic,” a weeklong workshop of dance technique, composition, and aesthetics, in August at Bearnstow on Parker Pond in Mount Vernon, Me.

Drama faculty memberRalph Zito (Group 14) appeared over the summer at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, N.Y., in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Vivienne Benesch.

STUDENT NEWS

Organ student Keenan Boswell won first place in the American Guild of Organists’ Regional Competition for Young Organists in June.

Edward Klorman (BM ’04, viola) presented two lectures about musical analysis and historical performance at the Universitat Mozarteum in Salzburg in April. The lectures were titled “Understanding Bach’s Cello Suites: The Imaginary Basso Continuo” and “Music Making in fin-de-siècle Vienna: Brahms and His Circle.”

Piano student Rachel Kudo was selected in August as a Gilmore Young Artist for 2008.

Piano student Zhenni Li shared second prize (with Lin Lo-An) in the Kosciuszko Foundation’s 58th Chopin National Piano Competition in New York in April. The jury was chaired by graduate studies faculty member David Dubal (Diploma ’61, piano) and also included alumna Mirian Conti (BM ’84, MM’85, piano).

Master’s student in composition Nathan Shields received a BMI Student Composer Award in May, for his Music for Piano, Winds, and Percussion.

Playwright-in-residence Beau Willimon’s play Lower Ninth, written at Juilliard last fall, premiered at the New York SPF Festival in June. The production was directed by Daniel Goldstein and featured Amari Cheatom (Group 37).

Organ student Noah Wynne-Morton received first prize in the American Guild of Organists Region III Competition for Young Organists in July. First-place winners will be invited to perform for the guild’s national convention next summer in Minneapolis.