Class Notes

1958 Helen Bovbjerg Niedung ’59 (MM) has retired as professor of voice at Florida Southwestern State College after 35 years. She’ll maintain her private Studio of Voice in Cape Coral, Florida. She writes that her career in opera and operetta includes “more than 460 performances of 35 roles, in addition to numerous concert appearances in both the United States and Europe.” In 2014, she was winner of the first Florida State Music Teachers Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award.

1970 Geary Larrick (MM) writes that he has several reviews of recent recordings, methods books, and a scholarly work on J. S. Bach published in the fall 2016 issues of Music Educators Journal and the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors Journal.

1983 David Evan Thomas (MM) received the 2016 An die Musik Award for “outstanding dedication and commitment to the work and mission of the Schubert Club” last June. The Schubert Club is a performing arts organization in the Twin Cities that organizes and sponsors performances as well as music-related education and museum programs. David has served as composer-in-residence and as program annotator for the club, which was founded in 1882.

1984 Pianist, composer, and Portland State University professor Darrell Grant published an article on art and social action in the fall 2016 special issue of Chamber Music magazine (see page 52).

1985 Trombonist John Fedchock (MM) is featured in the 2016–17 Jazz Education Guide, published by JazzTimes magazine. John speaks with magazine editor-in-chief Lee Mergner about his 35-year career, his years at Eastman studying with Rayburn Wright, his tenure with Woody Herman, and his two Grammy nominations for work with New York Big Band. . . . Stephen Rush (DMA) has published a book, Free Jazz, Harmolodics and Ornette Coleman (Routledge). Stephen is a professor of music at the University of Michigan.

1995 Composer Robert Paterson has released a CD, Spheres (American Modern Recordings). The recording consists of three trios on the theme of celestial bodies that Robert composed for the ensemble Claremont Trio.

2003 Kirk Dougherty (DMA) (see ’63 College).

2006 Bass Jared Schwartz (MM) has released a recording with pianist Mary Dibbern, Ange Flégier: Mélodies for Bass Voice and Piano (Toccata Classics).

2009 Martin Nedbal (PhD) has published a book, Morality and Viennese Opera in the Age of Mozart and Beethoven (Routledge). He’s an assistant professor of musicology at the University of Kansas.

2010 Conductor Reuben Blundell (DMA) has released a new CD with Gowanus Arts Ensemble, an all-volunteer string orchestra in New York City. American Romantics: Premiere Recordings of Turn-of-the-Century Works for String Orchestra (New Focus Recordings), consists of first-time recordings of scores that Reuben discovered in the Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music in the Free Library of Philadelphia. . . . Cellist Colin Stokes writes that he’s part of an ensemble, Symphoniacs, dedicated to electro-classical crossover music. Symphoniacs is an eight-musician band that includes two pianists, two cellists, and three violinists. Their self-titled debut CD was released in October by Polydor/Universal Music.