Class Notes

1968 Paul Burgett ’76 (PhD)—vice president, senior advisor to the president, and University dean at Rochester—writes that he and his wife, Kay Valentine, took “a lengthy sojourn in Chile and Argentina” in February. “In many such adventures over the years, I’ve accidentally encountered UR alums all over the world, which is always a special treat. In Santiago last month, while at the hotel pool seeking relief from the summer heat, I heard a voice say, ‘Is that Dean Burgett?’ which is familiar music to my ears. And there was Christina Bucci-Rechtweg ’93, ’97M (MD). We hadn’t seen each other since Christina graduated. I remembered her immediately. She was with her husband and two children on holiday in Chile and Argentina. It was a wonderful reunion and we took a photo as a memory of this happy coincidence.”

1970 Geary Larrick (MM) writes that he performed a Black History Month program on solo marimba last February in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He’s a retired music professor at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point.

1975 Waddy Thompson has published The Wise Guide to Winning Grants under his imprint, Stitch-in-Time Books. The book is based on Waddy’s 30-plus years of experience writing successful grants.

1976 Paul Burgett (PhD) (see ’68).

1980 Composer, arranger, and producer David Finck has released a new recording, Low Standards (Soundbrush Records). David performs on bass and vocals, and Gary Versace ’93 (MM) performs on piano in the mix of standards and original tracks. Gary has joined Eastman’s jazz and contemporary media department and will begin teaching in September.

1988 Russell Hirshfield has released a CD, Seeker: The Piano Music of Piet Swerts, on the Belgian label Phaedra.

1993 Soprano Linda Lister (MM) has released a new recording, Moments of Arrival (Centaur). Linda is accompanied by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and Coro di Praga in a program of works by contemporary American composers. . . . Gary Versace (MM) (see ’80).

1995 Composer Robert Paterson’s opera Three Way was premiered by the Nashville Opera last January. Featuring a libretto by Time Out New York theater critic David Cote, Three Way travels to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for four performances in June. Robert was also the first guest in the new podcast by composer Anthony Joseph Lanman, 1 Track. To Lanman’s question, “If someone wanted to know your music, and you only had one track to play for them, what track would that be?,” Robert selected the first movement of his Moon Trio on the CD Spheres (American Modern Recordings) by the Claremont Trio. Robert is composer-in-residence for the American Modern Ensemble, directed by his wife, violinist Victoria O’Brien Paterson ’93RC.

2007 Adrienne (Sydney) Horne Langdon (see ’58 College).

2008 Sun Min Kim ’14 (DMA) (see ’09).

2009 Cellist Meredith Blecha-Wells (DMA) performs her debut recording, Small Storms: A Collection of Short Pieces by Bohuslav Martinu˚ (Navona Records), with Sun Min Kim ’08, ’14 (DMA) accompanying on piano. Meredith is an associate professor of cello at Oklahoma State University, and Sun Min is an assistant professor of music at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

2014 Sun Min Kim (DMA) (see ’09).