Class Notes

Eastman School of Music

1947
Charles Strouse’s original musical, Rags, a collaboration with lyricist Stephen Schwartz and author Joseph Stein, was produced at Blackfriars Theatre in Rochester in May. Rags is about Russian Jewish immigrants in Manhattan.

1948
Mary Jeanne van Appledorn ’50 (MM), ’66 (PhD), the Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Music at Texas Tech University, received the 2003 YWCA Women of Excellence Award in Music. She was commissioned by the Lubbock Youth Symphony Orchestra to compose a work for its 15th anniversary: Her A Symphony of Celebration premiered last March. In addition, her Galilean Galaxies for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano was performed at the Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Fla., and at the University of Nebraska in Kearney last spring. Her Passages III for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano was premiered by the Trio Montecino at the University of Illinois last spring. A compilation CD of CRS artists’ works included several of her compositions: Parquet Musique for Piano (1990), Miniatures for Trombone Quartet (1999), and Symphony for Percussion Orchestra (2000).

1956
Ron Bishop led a tuba master class on the art of orchestral performance at the Manhattan School of Music in 2002, where he performed Aboriginal Voices and Incon-Sequenza. He is principal tuba for the Cleveland Orchestra.

1960
John White (PhD) has been appointed Fulbright University of Vienna Distinguished Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Vienna’s Institute for Scandinavian Studies in Austria. He also received top honors in the “Waging Peace through Singing” program at the University of Oregon in 2002, for his chorus and orchestral work Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight. John’s latest book is New Music of the Nordic Countries, and his newest work for chorus and orchestra, Pindar Hymns, has been selected to be performed at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

1962
Piano instructor and Pacific Northwest Ballet company pianist and piano soloist Dianne Chilgren was profiled by the Seattle Times in August. She reflected on her many years as ballet accompanist, including her seven years with George Balanchine and the New York City Ballet.

1965
Drew Frech (see ’66).

1966
John Russo writes, “Good news! My quintet, the East Hill Classic Jazz Group, played two half-hour performances at Carnegie Hall last April 21. We were invited by music impresario/conductor Peter Tiboris. Banjo virtuoso Drew Frech ’65 is also in the band. In June, we completed a series of performances for Cornell University’s reunion and capped that off with a concert at Ithaca’s historic State Theatre. Trombonist Dave Remington ’81 (MM) also performed. Our Web site is www.watershed-arts.com/russo.html.” . . . Mary Jeanne van Appledorn (PhD) (see ’48).

1968
Irv Wagner (DMA), who teaches trombone at the University of Oklahoma, was a featured guest during a discussion of the history of trombone choirs and brass bands on NPR’s Weekend Edition. The story noted the contributions of Eastman School trombone pioneer Emory Remington.

1969
The University of Dayton String Quartet and Steven Wasson ’71 (MM) gave the world premiere of his Commemorative Dedications for Piano Quintet last May for the final concert of the Dayton (Ohio) Chamber Music Society’s 2002–03 season. The work was commissioned by and dedicated to the organization for its 50th anniversary as well as to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the State of Ohio and the 100th anniversary of the first manned flight. It is also the first of four memorial tributes to Steven’s father, Audley Jackson Wasson. Steven has also been selected to be profiled in the 2004 edition of Who’s Who in America.

1970
Geary Larrick (MM) has composed Sonata for Oboe and Poem II for Drum. He lives in Stevens Point, Wis. . . . Mary Henderson Stucky ’72 (MM) (see ’93).

1971
Steven Wasson (MM) (see ’69).

1972
Organist Jo Deen Blaine Davis ’75 (MM) spent three and a half months touring Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy. She performed at various churches and cathedrals, including St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Jo Deen is assistant choir director and organist at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston; previously, she was professor of music at San Jacinto College South, also in Houston. . . . Harold McAulliffe (MM) was one of three Rochester-area educators to receive a 2003 Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Music Educators Award. Harold has worked with student choral groups in the Pittsford School District for 35 years. . . . Mary Henderson Stucky (MM) (see ’93).

1975
Jo Deen Blaine Davis (MM) (see ’72). . . . John Serry ’90 (MM), ’91 (MM) composed the jazz score for the Oxygen Network documentary Sex: Female, which aired in June. John spent three months on the road with the touring company of Saturday Night Fever, then lived in Barcelona for the summer, performing throughout Europe, including Prague, Amsterdam, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy.

1981
Dave Remington (MM) (see ’66).

1984
Peter Margulies (see ’95).

1985
Big-band arranger and composer Maria Schneider (MM) performed at the Rochester International Jazz Festival last June.

1989
David Belcher (DMA) has been named provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He previously was dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Southwest Missouri State in Springfield. . . . David Demsey (DMA) appeared with the Kirov Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Russia, conducted by Valery Gergiev, as part of the orchestra’s North American tour. He was featured in Mussorgsky/Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition in several cities on the tour, which included stops in Toronto, New York, Long Island, Philadelphia, and State College, Pa. . . . Cellist David Eby and flutist Sharon Brooks have released the CD Relax: Meditations for Flute and Cello, featuring music by Donald Walters.

1990
John Serry (MM) (see ’75). . . . Peter Sulski writes, “After years abroad serving as violist in the London Symphony Orchestra, principal violist in the Cyprus Chamber Orchestra, and as a bicommunal chamber music coordinator for the Fulbright Commission in Cyprus, I am now back in my hometown of Worcester, Mass., as an adjunct faculty member at the College of the Holy Cross and Clark University.”

1992
Steve Laitz (PhD), associate professor and chair of music theory and affiliate faculty member of chamber music at the Eastman School, is author of The Complete Musician: An Integrated Approach to Tonal Theory, Analysis, and Listening.

1993
Soprano Adrienne Danrich performed at Christ Church Cathedral in her hometown of St. Louis last May. She has been a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, and San Francisco Opera, among others. She studied voice at Washington University under Mary Henderson Stucky ’70, ’72 (MM), before attending Eastman.

1995
Valerie Haskins Errante (DMA) and Eastman music theory professor Robert Wason gave a recital, Songs of the Munich School, featuring late 19th- and early 20th-century Romantic music, at the Eastman School’s Kilbourn Hall last July. . . . Louise Vickerman (MM) and Peter Margulies ’84 were married June 21 in Glasgow, Scotland. They are both members of the Utah Symphony Orchestra; Louise is principal harp and Peter is a member of the trumpet section. Louise also is adjunct professor of harp at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. In the fall of 2002, Peter performed as soloist with the Utah Symphony in the world premiere of Concerto for Two Trumpets by Anthony Plog.

1998
Kathleen Missall van Bergen is the director of artistic administration for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Previously she was a violinist in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

2001
Zarina Melik-Stepanova (MM) won the 2003 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artists Piano Competition. She performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major (“Emperor”). Zarina, a doctoral student at the Eastman School, received the school’s Performer’s Certificate in 2001.