Dance faculty member Janis Brenner was part of the U.S. delegation to the annual American Dance Abroad conference in Dusseldorf, Germany, in late August and early September. In September, Brenner performed a new solo work at the Dancenow Joe’s Pub Festival assisted by Sumaya Jackson (BFA ’08) and Esme Boyce (BFA ’09).  

In July, Per Brevig (Diploma, Postgraduate Diploma ’67; BM ’68; DMA ’71; trombone) was a judge at the International Trombone Association competition in Paris. He is also the recipient of this year’s I.T.A. award, the association’s most prestigious honor.

Photo-Op, an opera by Evening Division faculty member Conrad Cummings, was performed in September on the UrbanArias series in Arlington, Va. The opera is a political satire about the absurdity of modern presidential politics. In November, Cummings’s opera Golden Gate will be presented at Opera America’s New Works Forum at the National Opera Center in New York.

The New York Concerti Sinfonietta, of which Evening Division faculty member Julie Jordan (MM ’83, piano) is artistic director, performed at the Steinway & Sons Rotunda in September. Fourth-year oboist Julia DeRosa was a featured soloist and Paul Hostetter (MM ’89, percussion) conducted. In June, first-year collaborative pianist Raymond Wong performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major with the ensemble at the Church of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village.

STAFF

In August, Bärli Nugent (BM ’76, MM ’77, flute), the assistant dean and director of chamber music, joined oboe DMA candidate Merideth Hite and Moran Katz (BM ’06, MM ’08, Artist Diploma ’10, clarinet) to give a series of workshops in Tohoku, Japan, and a concert at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall for middle- and high-school wind musicians who were affected by last year’s tsunami in Sendai. The program was organized by the Tokyo Foundation and also included musicians from Paris Conservatoire and University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. 

In September, Brent Radeke, development associate, danced with the Limón Dance Company in Missa Brevis along with several alumni including Logan Kurger (BFA ’07, dance), Belinda McGuire (BFA ’06, dance), and Francisco Ruvalcaba (BFA ’96, dance).

STUDENTS

Artist Diploma tenor saxophone candidate Rob Haight performed with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in December in January; Marvin Hamlisch (Pre-College ’63; faculty) conducted. Haight plays on Bright Minor, a new CD by Spare Parts, and he also joined Spare Parts to open for Victor Wooten at Viper Alley in Lincolnshire, Ill., in July. 

In August, first-year Historical Performance student Ignacio Prego took first prize in the Westfield International Harpsichord Competition at the University of Maryland in College Park. Prego recently released an all-Bach CD, titled Chromatic Fantasy, on the Verso label.

At the triannual Leeds (England) International Piano Competition, held in September, Artist Diploma candidate Louis Schwizgebel, who played Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4, took second place. Jiayun Sun (BM ’12) received third prize and Artist Diploma candidate Andrew Tyson came in fifth.

Third-year drama student Ryan Spahn spent the summer in Atlanta producing a film he wrote and appeared in called Grantham & Rose, which was directed by Kristin Hanggi. It follows the complicated friendship of an 82-year old African-American woman and a 17-year old Caucasian kid as they take a road trip to the South.