Class Notes
The Eastman School of Music
1956
James Cripps will be performing in “The Best of Jacksonville’s Organists” at Jacoby Symphony Hall in Jacksonville, Fla., on Feb. 20. . . . Paul Freeman ’63 (PhD) is in his final season as music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta. Beginning in the 2011–12 season, he will become music director emeritus. Paul founded the orchestra in 1987 to consist of musicians performing at the highest artistic level who were also representative of the diversity of Chicago. The orchestra performs neglected works by composers of color as well as a variety of other works in classical, jazz, world, and other musical genres.
1963
Paul Freeman (PhD) (see ’56).
1966
Joyce Malicky Castle (MM) writes that in 2010–11, she is celebrating her 40th anniversary season in opera. She was featured in the June 2010 issue of Opera News, and composer William Bolcom has written a chamber piece, The Hawthorn Tree, in her honor. She’ll sing the world premiere with St. Luke’s Chamber Players in New York City in October and will follow with performances at the Kennedy Center, the University of Kansas, where she is a professor of voice, and in the Cliburn Series in Fort Worth, Texas.
1970
Geary Larrick (MM) has published an article, “Supplemental Marimba Literature,” in the fall 2010 issue of the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors Journal.
1972
Fenwick Smith writes that he has released a recording, Martinu: Chamber Music With Flute (ArkivMusic). He performs with several of his colleagues from the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
1973
Kenneth Megan, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Band, has embarked on a full season of concerts at Garde Arts Center in New London, Conn. The concert series pays homage to maritime military service and to the nautical heritage of New London as well as the Coast Guard. Among the selections the band will perform are the John Philip Sousa marches Glory of the Yankee Navy and Manhattan Beach, as well as classical favorites such as Handel’s Water Music, Smetana’s Die Moldau, and Debussy’s La Mer.
1984
Susan Gall Sims sends an update. She writes: “I am currently an orthopedic surgery resident at the University’s Strong Memorial Hospital (seriously—I am not making this up!). I went back to school in 2004 to gather medical school prerequisites and graduated from medical school at Northwestern in 2010. I was very fortunate to match in orthopedic surgery at Strong and now live in Irondequoit with my husband, Christopher, two dogs, and a cat. After graduating from Eastman, I spent time as an electrical engineer, graduating from California State University in 1987. Working for Hughes Aircraft as a radar software engineer for the F-15 proved to be less fulfilling than I thought it would be, seeing as my job was primarily to design radar software that would guide missiles to more efficiently destroy things. In 1990, being definitely older and presumably wiser, I thought maybe giving music another shot would be a good idea. So I pulled up stakes in California to move to Boston for a master’s degree in flute performance at the New England Conservatory. I graduated in 1992 and immediately started teaching, freelancing, and formed a contemporary chamber music ensemble called Auros. I had 15 great years as a professional flutist but eventually started to feel I had done what I came to do in music and had one more career left in me. This has been an extremely interesting and challenging road and I am very happy to be on it. Now that I’m back in Rochester, I am re-experiencing the joys of Eastman concerts, this time from a much more relaxed seat in the concert hall.”
1987
Donna Coleman (DMA), a pianist at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne, Australia, writes that she has released a CD, Don’t Touch Me (OutBach). The CD consists of selections by the 19th-century Cuban composer Ignacio Cervantes, whose work she describes as “steeped in Afro-Cuban rhythmic verve and Chopinian pathos.”
1988
Jennifer Elowitch Chene (see ’92).
1992
Robert Lehmann (MM) writes: “I’m proud to announce the result of my sabbatical project: Manuel Ponce: Chamber Music for Strings (Centaur Records). Together with Jennifer Elowitch Chene ’88, Kimberly Mitchell Lehmann ’93 (MM), and William Rounds, the CD includes Ponce’s Duo for violin and viola, string trio, and string quartet.” Robert is an associate professor of music and director of string studies and orchestral activities at the University of Southern Maine’s school of music.
1993
Kimberly Mitchell Lehmann (MM) (see ’92).
1996
Naomi Shapiro Levecchia has been named director of development at the American Repertory Ballet.
1999
Holly Keinath Eckert (DMA) writes that she has published her first book, Graduating from Guilt (PuddleDancer Press). Holly is a faculty member at Antioch University in Seattle and is a trainer in the nonviolent communication method founded by clinical psychologist and confliction resolution expert Marshall Rosenberg. . . . John Orfe, a pianist and member of the ensemble Alarm Will Sound, is the Peoria Symphony Orchestra’s composer-in-residence.
2008
Shauli Einav (MM) releases a CD in January, Opus One, his first on the French jazz label Plus Loin Music.
