Class Notes

Eastman School of Music

1956

Gordon Peters ’62 (MM), former principal percussionist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was presented with the Note of Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement by a CYSO Alumnus by the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Gordon played in the CYSO from 1947 to 1949 while in high school in Cicero, Illinois.

1961

Paul Droste (MM) received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Tuba-Euphonium Association. Paul is retired from Ohio State University, where he was professor of euphonium and director of the university’s marching band.

1962

Gordon Peters (MM) (see ’56).

1971

Bill Quick was inducted into the Liverpool (New York) Central School District’s Fine Arts Hall of Fame in May. Bill teaches percussion.

1975

Stan Kingsley Day (MA) writes that he composed a score for a production of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest that played last winter at Chicago’s City Lit Theater.

1979

Diane Abrahamian ’86 (MM) is a vocal music teacher at Penfield (New York) High School, where she directs several groups including the Penfield High School Chorale, the Concert Choir, Jazz Choir, Jazz Factory, and Uptown Express men’s choir. She writes that she’s been named a quarterfinalist for the Grammy Foundation’s 2015 Music Educator Award. She’s one of 222 quarterfinalists selected from more than 7,000 nominees from around the country. Diane reached the level of quarterfinalist in 2014, the first year during which the Grammy Foundation offered an award for music educators.

1981

Reuel Ash, a partner at the Cincinnati law firm Ulmer & Berne, has been appointed to serve a three-year term on the executive council of the bankruptcy section of the Commercial Law League. Reuel remains involved with music, serving on the board of directors of Chamber Music Cincinnati, where he also served several terms as program chair.

1984

Janet Bruner Faggart (MA) writes that Jonathan Faggart (MM), to whom she was married for 31 years, died in March at their home in Texas. Jonathan was an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God and served most recently as senior pastor of Harvest Time Assembly of God in Sherman, Texas. He led choirs on many missions around the world and mentored music ministers. Jonathan and Janet had two grown children, and one grandchild, together. . . . Maria Newman was featured in the July-August 2014 issue of Fanfare Magazine in the article “Like Father, Like Daughter: The Music of Maria Newman.” A composer and violinist and violist, Maria is the youngest daughter of the Academy Award– winning composer and conductor Alfred Newman. In 2009, she released Art of the Chamber Orchestra, Book I (Montgomery Arts House Modern Masterworks). The recording features the performance of four of her compositions by the Malibu Coast Chamber Orchestra. Maria also appears as a viola soloist.

1985

Donald Boomgaarden (PhD) has been named provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Scranton. Previously, he was dean of the College of Music and Fine Arts at Loyola University New Orleans.

1986

Diane Abrahamian (MM) (see ’79).

1990

Mark Steinbach (DMA), organist, curator of instruments, and lecturer in music at Brown University, has released Organ Works of Anton Heiller (Loft). He performs Heiller’s recently discovered 1940 work, Passacaglia, among other compositions on what he calls “the ideal period instrument for this program, the 1962 von Beckerath 4-manual/66-stop mechanical-action organ, in the reverberant acoustics of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Pittsburgh.” He notes his is the first recording on the instrument since it was restored in 2009 by Taylor and Boody.

1992

Elizabeth Sayrs (MA) has been named dean of University College and vice provost for undergraduate education at Ohio University. She’s an associate professor of music theory who was noted for spearheading undergraduate curricular reform and whose research focuses on access to music education for low-income students in school districts with minimal financial support for arts education.

1996

Michael Pisani (PhD) has written a book, Music for the Melodramatic Theatre in Nineteenth-Century London and New York (University of Iowa Press). Michael is a professor of music at Vassar College.

1998

Joel Schoenhals (DMA) has released a CD, Chinese Piano Music (Fleur de Son Classics). Joel is a professor of piano at Eastern Michigan University. He’s been a guest professor of piano at China’s Nanchang University since 2012.

2001

Penny Johnson ’03 (MM) writes: “I’ve accepted the position of Steinway piano consultant at the Steinway Piano Gallery in Toronto. I’m very excited about returning to my home province of Ontario, following two years in Saskatchewan, where I served on the piano faculty of the Regina Conservatory of Performing Arts. I continue to serve as an examiner for the Royal Conservatory, in addition to remaining active as a performer.”

2004

Julie Fagan Thayer has been named a hornist with the St. Louis Symphony. Most recently she was acting fourth horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. . . . Cynthia Johnston Turner (DMA) has been named director of bands at the University of Georgia. Previously she was director of wind ensembles at Cornell University.

2005

Sarah Chan (DMA) writes that she’s moved from Northwestern Oklahoma State University to California State University, Stanislaus, where she’ll be an assistant professor of music starting in the fall semester. She adds: “I was a winner of the 2014 PianoTexas Concerto Competition (Teachers Division) held in June; I performed with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.”

2006

Tami Petty (DMA) writes that she won the Joy in Singing Competition and will perform a debut recital in Merkin Hall in New York City on October 29. In addition, in July she married Sarah Griffiths at Chapel Island on Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains.

2010

Trumpeter Ryan Vanaman graduated from United States Marine Corps boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, South Carolina, in April. He then completed a month of combat training at Camp Lejeune, and is now serving for six months at the Naval School of Music in Virginia Beach. At the end of that tour, he’ll be stationed with the Marine Corps Band in New Orleans.

2011

Aaron Sperber (see ’11 College).

2012 Trombonist

Kevin Dombrowski was one of four American musicians to be selected to go to Bosnia-Herzegovina for 10 months and perform with the Sarajevo Philharmonic. Kevin and the other musicians will perform in opera, ballet, and symphonic concerts from September 2014 through July 2015. The cultural exchange program is sponsored by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian American Academy of Arts and Sciences. . . . Jamal Moore (see ’11 College).