Class Notes

Eastman School of Music

1939
H. Owen Reed (PhD) has been selected for inclusion in Who’s Who in America, 2007. He lives in Green Valley, Ariz. . . . Robert Ward writes, “Reports from 1939 alumni are rather rare in your reports on our activities for the obvious reason that the grim reaper is as busy as ever, I suspect. As a survivor, however, I decided to uphold the glory of our class.” He notes several 2005-06 performances of his operas The Crucible (Opera Boston, University of Alabama, Utah Festival Opera, Mobile Opera, Opera San Jose, East Carolina University, the University of Iowa, and others), Claudia Legare (New York’s DiCapo Opera Theatre and Eastman Opera Theatre), Roman Fever (Knoxville Opera and the Rossini Festival,) and the world premiere of A Friend of Napoleon by the Ohio Light Opera. His Seventh Symphony was performed by the Enid, Okla., Symphony, and his Dialogues, A Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra was performed by the Western Piedmont Symphony with the Arman Trio and by the Triangle Chamber Orchestra. His Raleigh Divertimento for Nonet was featured by the Czech Nonet on its U.S. tour. He was commissioned to write Quintet for Oboe and String Quartet for Duke University’s Ciompi Quartet and The Beginnings for the North Carolina Symphony. And Albany Records released recordings of Dialogues, A Western Set (from Lady Kate), and Symphonies No. 3 and 6.

1958
Margaret Shelton Meier sends an update: The Ars Brunensis Chorus and the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra presented the premiere of her cantata, A Socsa Quilt, last June in the Czech Republic. The 40-minute work for chorus and orchestra explores the topic of childhood sexual abuse and recovery. Her God With Us: 2000 Years, a shorter cantata that was first performed as a millennial celebration by the ecumenical choirs of La Verne, Calif., was performed last December by combined multicultural choirs in Rowland Heights, Calif., under the direction of Sunny Lee. Mary Magdalene, Woman of Devotion from Margaret’s song cycle Three Marys in Four Songs was performed by Kimball Wheeler in October as part of a group of songs about Magdalene, and her Mary, Mother of Jesus, a magnificat, was performed by Eileen Squillo in a recital in December.

1962
Trombonist Gordon (Early) Anderson helped kick off the 2006-07 Lamarissimo! concert series in southeast Texas. . . . Robert Stern (PhD) (see ’55 RC undergraduate).

1970
Mezzo-soprano Mary Henderson-Stucky ’72 (MM), a professor of voice at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, was a featured performer in the college’s faculty artist series. . . . Geary Larrick (MM) writes that he has been recognized for his publication citations in The Music Index. He has had 51 items listed in 25 volumes from 1968 to 2005. Geary also has six titles listed in the subject guide of Books in Print 2006-2007.

1973
John Beall (PhD) (see ’78).

1975
Clarinetist Gary Dranch released his first solo CD, The 20th-Century Clarinet Concerto featuring works by Bavicchi, Hindemith, and Wolff. A frequent recitalist, he performs with the Greenwich Village Orchestra and the American Chamber Opera Orchestra.

1978
Steven Herbert Smith (DMA), a professor of piano at Penn State, sends an update: In March, he performed Grieg’s Concerto in A Minor with the Penn State Philharmonic (under the direction of its conductor Gerardo Edelstein) in four cities in Spain as part of the “Sixth Cycle of University Orchestras,” hosted by the University of Zaragoza. In September, he performed a solo recital at Penn State, then repeated the program at West Virginia University and the University of Richmond. The program included Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata, Opus 106, and Vandalia Suite, a new work by John Beall ’73 (PhD), a professor and composer-in-residence at West Virginia. He also played a recital of 22 songs with tenor Richard Kennedy.

1980
Walter Weiskopf was a featured performer last fall at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where he and his band played his 10-part jazz suite that includes movements named for Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Salvador Dali, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent Van Gogh.

1981
Randall Fusco (see ’82). . . . Isabelle Ganz (DMA) is a soloist on the four-CD release The Complete Sequenzas by Luciano Berio (Mode Records). Isabelle performs Sequenza III for solo voice. Other performers include Paula Robison, Susan Jolles, Aki Takahashi, and Irvine Arditti. . . . John Gilbert, a professor of violin at Texas Tech University, was a guest artist last fall with the Midland-Odessa Symphony in Texas. . . . Diana Haskell, assistant principal clarinetist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, released her first CD, Clarinet Enchantments, which includes works for clarinet, clarinet and piano, clarinet and harp, and two clarinets and piano. . . . The Bel Canto Company of Greensboro, N.C., featured Break Away, a work for chorus and piano by Dan Locklair (DMA), composer-in-residence at Wake Forest University, last fall as part of its “Innovation and Convention” series. Dan’s choral compositions also were featured in Christmas concerts by the Piedmont Chamber Singers in Winston-Salem, N.C., and by the Choral Arts Society in Portland, Maine. . . . Barrick Stees (see ’82).

1982
Oboist Margaret Griebling-Haigh sends an update: Her woodwind quintet, Casse-tete, commissioned by the University of Akron’s Solaris Quintet, had its premiere last November. Also last November, her Sinfonia for Choirs of Oboes and English Horns, In Memoriam John Mack was given its premiere at a memorial concert in the noted oboist’s honor at Severance Hall in Cleveland. She also sends a photo from the July International Double Reed Society conference, where her oboe and piano suite, Bocadillos Floridianos, and her trio for oboe, bassoon, and piano, Trocadillos, were featured in a concert. Margaret (second from right) joined performers (left to right) Randall Fusco ’81 (piano), Barrick Stees ’81 (bassoon), and Cynthia Watson ’86 (oboe) onstage. Margaret and her husband, Scott, also note that their then 13-year-old daughter, Gabrielle, was a featured soprano soloist for Marvin Hamlisch’s Anatomy of Peace, performed last April by the Canton Symphony.

1984
Saxophonist David Glasser ’86 (MM) released his fourth CD, Above the Clouds.

1985
John Fedchock (MM), a trombonist and composer, was a guest artist at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., where he had a three-day residency at the Dave Brubeck Institute. In addition to playing with a quintet made up of elite musicians awarded Brubeck fellowships, he worked with the Open World Jazz Septet. He sends a photo of him with that group of handpicked Russian jazz musicians who were selected for a special two-week collaboration at the institute. The final concert in September featured John with each group and culminated in a finale with a combined U.S.-Russian ensemble.

1986
Cynthia Watson (see ’82).

1987
Satanand Sharma has been named head of the Centre for Creative and Festival Arts at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago.

1990
The Claudia Quintet, an ensemble led by John Hollenbeck ’91 (MM) was a featured group at the 10th annual Edgefest in Ann Arbor, Mich.

1993
Margaret Lynn McMurtry (MM) had the role of Lady Jane in the Toronto Operetta Theatre’s fall production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience.

1995
Pianist Angela Jia Kim was a guest artist in a Belle Fourche, S.D., concert series.

1997
Pianist Eric Fung ’99 (Mas), an assistant professor at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, and his wife, cellist Ai-Lin Hsieh ’00 (MM), an adjunct assistant professor at Lebanon Valley, performed a concert featuring the works of Ernest Bloch, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Johannes Brahms at Lebanon Valley last fall. . . . Saxophonist Damon Zick writes that he has released a new jazz CD, We Are Large, on the Evander Music Label. The recording features 11 original compositions by Damon for jazz quintet. The band is based in Los Angeles. The CD features trombonist Tim Albright ’98 and pianist Adam Benjamin ’99.

1999
Mario Martinez (MM) is director of vocal studies at Nazareth College in Pittsford, N.Y., where he also serves as cochair of the Dominican Cultural Society.

2000
Nathaniel Bartlett notes that his debut solo marimba album, Precipice (Albany Records), was released last August. He writes, “The disc, a hybrid multichannel SACD, includes music by Eastman alumnus Greg Wilder ’02 (DMA), Allan Schindler, a professor of composition at Eastman, and former Eastman professor Augusta Read Thomas.”

2004
Elizabeth Glennon (MM) married Hana Byun on November 25, 2006, in New York. Elizabeth is a graduate student cello instructor and a fellow at the University of Michigan.

2005
Pianist Pornphan Banternghansa (MM) was a featured soloist for the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra’s November concert to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the king of Thailand’s accession to the throne and to commemorate the king’s birthday.