Class Notes

1955 Nan Parker Williams was awarded a 2015 National Emeritus Art Educator award from the National Art Education Association as well as a Lifetime Achievement award from the Florida chapter of the association. As noted in the Florida chapter award citation: “After 40 years of teaching that includes public schools K-12, service as longtime adjunct faculty in art education, and intern coordinator at the University of Central Florida, Nan Williams continues to promote arts education. Graduate work at the Eastman School of Music, many years as a university scenic designer, the teaching of music, theatre, art and humanities, and service in arts organizations, all represent lifelong arts advocacy. She is a former president of the Florida Art Education Association and member of the National Art Education Association Board of Directors, and is a frequent conference presenter and writer for curriculum and advocacy publications.”

1962 Diane Wehner Gold Toulson writes: “I’m enjoying a new group called Camerata Amistad, a trio of two flutes and a guitar, that performs Hispanic music. We have traveled to perform in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, and California as well as our home state of Pennsylvania. We’ve just released Touring the Hispanic World, published by Alry Publications, a member of United Music and Media Publishers. I have been in renewed contact with Harry Max ’64, enjoying memories of Eastman years. I’m retired from Bucknell University and Juniata College, but still teaching at the Music Academy in State College and am principal flute of the York, Altoona, and Nittany Valley Symphonies.”

1964 Harry Max (see ’62).

1980 Ruth Morrow ’84 (MM) (see ’81).

1981 Violinist Madeleine Mitchell (MM), a professor at London’s Royal College of Music, completed a solo tour of the United States last fall that included recitals of British music, master classes, and talks at colleges and conservatories in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, and California. Her visit to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, included a concert with pianist Ruth Morrow ’80, ’84 (MM). Earlier in 2015, Madeleine performed as a soloist in Moscow, Singapore, Vienna, and London’s Wigmore Hall, and judged the Western International Strings Competition in China.

1984 Darrell Grant has published a limited edition CD, The Territory (PJCE Records), a recording of his nine-movement composition reflecting on the natural and human history of the Portland, Oregon, region. Darrell is a professor of music at Portland State University. . . . Ruth Morrow (MM) (see ’81).

1986 Pianist Donna Coleman (DMA) has released a CD, The Lost Lady (CD Baby), which explores the roots of ragtime. The recording includes works from composers around the world, especially those associated with the revival of ragtime in the 1960s.

1988 Catherine Jane Arlidge (MM) has been appointed a Member of the British Empire for her work connecting young people in Britain to classical music. A violinist in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Catherine has created multiple programs in schools and community organizations, often in collaboration with teachers, composers, visual artists, dancers, authors, and others. . . . Baritone Steven Scheschareg ’90 (MM) performed in David Pountney’s production of Berg’s Lulu at Teatro Comunale in Bolzano, Italy, with the Welsh National Opera in January. He writes he has “plenty to do” in 2016, with a performance calendar, information on two forthcoming recordings, as well as video and audio recordings on a new website, Scheschareg.com.

1990 Steven Scheschareg (MM) (see ’88).

1995 Katie Bufithis Oberlander writes: “I’ve recently published my second play, Kitchen Catastrophes, with Eldridge Publishing. I’m director of performing arts at Harborlight-Stoneridge Montessori School. My husband, Eric, and I live in Beverly, Massachusetts, and have two boys, Thomas and James.”

1998 Heather de Savage writes: “I recently completed a PhD in music history and theory at the University of Connecticut. My dissertation examines Gabriel Fauré’s American reception, with a concentration on performance and critical activities in Boston from 1892 to 1945, as well as select topics in the postwar mainstream.”

1999 Junghwa Lee (DMA) writes that her first solo piano recording, Blue 13 (Albany Records), made the Global Music Awards list of Top Ten Albums for 2015. The CD, Junghwa’s performance of the complete piano works of composer Frank Stemper, won a Gold Medal from the Global Music Awards last fall.

2002 Micaela Gutierrez Schmitz (DMA) writes that her ensemble, the Birmingham Baroque Collective, has recorded two CDs of Regency-era English country dancing: Country Dances by Thomas Straight, 1779–1784 and Twelve Cotillions by James Longman, 1768. She adds that they were produced by Regency Dances and that she’s also editing music scores for the recordings. She updates her progress on her website, Earlymusica.org. Micaela is the director of Early Music in the Vale, in Worcester, England, and teaches and performs on the harpsichord, clavichord, and fortepiano.

2005 Sarah Chan (DMA), assistant professor of music at California State University, Stanislaus, writes that she performed a solo piano recital at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., last December, and at St. James’s Piccadilly in London in January. Feuilletonscout, a Berlin-based arts and culture organization, published an interview with Sarah last April, in English, available on their website, Feuilletonscout.com.

2008 Paris-based saxophonist, band leader, and composer Shauli Einav (MM) has released his fourth CD, Beam Me Up (Berthold Records).