Overtones: Spring 2017

Vol. XXXXI, No. 2
Spring 2017
Commitment to
Young Conductors
Yannick Nézet-Séguin Mentors
Conducting Fellows
PAGE 12
Inspiration, In Person
Composers in Residence at Curtis
PAGE 22
An Indispensable Addition
Lenfest Hall at Five Years
PAGE 26

Fall 2016 at Curtis
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra opened its season under the
baton of CORRADO ROVARIS (right), with the Curtis Opera Theatre
joining in a concert version of Ravel’s one-act opera L’Enfant
et les sortilèges. Mezzo-soprano
(above, center)
sang the role of a rebellious boy tormented by toys, furniture,
and animals he had mistreated. The program also included
Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
and Notations by Pierre Boulez. PHOTOS: DAVID DeBALKO, CORY WEAVER
The Curtis Opera Theatre’s next offering was The Rape of Lucretia
in November. In Britten’s haunting tragedy based on a tale from
ancient Rome, EVAN LeROY JOHNSON and TIFFANY TOWNSEND (below)
sang the parts of the enigmatic male chorus and female chorus,
who relate and react to the story as it unfolds. PHOTO: CORY WEAVER
November’s Family Concert was presented by seven students,
including violinist ANIA FILOCHOWSKA (right). The players offered
introductions to their instruments before performing The Story
of Babar by Francis Poulenc. PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA, DAVID DeBALKO
More Online
Watch and listen to musical highlights at www.curtis.edu/Multimedia

CONTENTS
FALL 2016 AT CURTIS
Opposite
Vol. XXXXI, No. 2
Spring 2017
9
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT 2
A bridge to professional life
NOTEWORTHY 3
An orchestral tour of Europe, awards to alumni and faculty,
and a “powerhouse” culture
OVERTONES
Overtones is the semiannual publication
of the Curtis Institute of Music.
1726 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Telephone: (215) 893-5252
www.curtis.edu
Roberto Díaz, president and CEO
Nina von Maltzahn President’s Chair
EDITOR
Melinda Whiting
EDITORIAL ADVISORY GROUP
Paul Bryan
Lourdes Demers
Roberto Díaz
Mikael Eliasen
Jennifer Kallend
Kristen Loden
David Ludwig
Jeanne McGinn
CONTRIBUTORS
Barbara Benedett
David Ludwig
James Moyer
Thomas Oltarzewski
Laura Sancken
Diana Wensley
Kristina Wilson
GRAPHIC DESIGN
art270, Inc.
ISSN: 0887-6800
Copyright © 2017
by Curtis Institute of Music
MEET THE FACULTY 6
Mary Javian’s diverse musical outlook sets the tone as Curtis
seeks to nurture social engagement in its young musicians.
Ian VanderMeulen reports.
MEET THE STUDENTS 9
Anastasiia Sidorova set her sights on the stage as a child in
Russia. As she tells Dave Allen, her debut came at Curtis.
A COMMITMENT TO YOUNG CONDUCTORS 12
Curtis conducting fellows are flourishing under the mentorship of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Yannick
Nézet-Séguin, writes Diana Burgwyn.
“IT’S ALL ABOUT LISTENING” 17
In November, performers and audience experience six Mozart quartets in two recitals on one memorable day.
Diana Wensley takes it all in.
6
17
12
22
THIS WINTER AND SPRING AT CURTIS 20
On stage and online
INSPIRATION, IN PERSON 22
Composers in residence motivate Curtis’s student
performers and creators in new and exciting directions,
writes David Ludwig.
FIRST PERSON 26
Writing from personal experience, Thomas Oltarzewski
reflects on Lenfest Hall’s first five years.
THE COMPLEAT MUSICIAN 29
Studying existentialism offers insights into the present era, writes James Moyer.
MEET THE ALUMNI 31
Alumni entrepreneurship grants from Curtis honor projects embodying innovation, community engagement,
and creative artistry. Laura Sancken talks with the grant recipients.
NOTATIONS
Alumni 34
Divergent Paths 35
Other Curtis Family News 38
Faculty 39
Students 39
Recordings and Publications 40
Alumni Office Notes 40
ON THE COVER: Mentor conductor Yannick
Nézet-Séguin coaches conducting fellow
Carlos Ágreda during a rehearsal of Schumann’s
Symphony No. 2. Read about the evolution of the
conducting fellows program, beginning on page 12.
COVER PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
26
THE COMPOSERS FROM CURTIS
CHAMBER ENSEMBLE, 1998
Back cover
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
1

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
A Bridge to Professional Life
Roberto Díaz PHOTO: LEE MOSKOW
More Inside and Online
Learn about the conducting fellows
program beginning on page 12 and
at www.curtis.edu/Conducting.
Details about the string quartet program
are at www.curtis.edu/Quartet, and
information about ArtistYear fellowships
is at www.curtis.edu/ArtistYear.
As each spring semester gathers steam
and accelerates toward the end of the
school year, I find myself musing on the
students who are near the end of their time
at Curtis. Their aspirations point them
in multiple directions. Some will take up
apprenticeships at opera companies or
positions in symphony orchestras. Others
will launch their solo, chamber music, or
composing careers right away, perhaps with
an important competition win as a boost.
Many will head to graduate school to
pursue advanced degrees. For nearly all
of them, life after Curtis involves a mix
of those activities and more: teaching,
community service, auditions. Soon our
2017 graduates will be inventing their
careers in a distinctly 21st-century way.
This transition from student to
professional interested us greatly as we
crafted Curtis’s strategic direction a few
years ago. One of the pillars of our
planning involved the full life cycle of
a Curtis musician. We aimed to create
value and opportunities for Curtis
musicians before their entry, during
their student years, and beyond. Among
other strategies, this led us to pilot several
graduate-level programs in targeted
disciplines. We designed fellowships to
develop sophisticated skills in a supportive
environment where fellows could take
risks and let their individual artistic voices
emerge. We were looking to create new
bridges to professional life in the modern
musical world.
These programs are now well
established. Our third class of ArtistYear
fellows is bringing music to city schools,
health care facilities, and other community
settings. Through the Nina von Maltzahn
String Quartet Program, our third resident
quartet, the Zorá Quartet, is immersing
itself in an infinitely rich repertoire whose
interpretation requires deep commitment
and considerable sacrifice. And the
conducting fellows program, now in its
fourth year, is offering something rare
and powerful to young conductors on the
threshold of their careers: a “curriculum”
that blends podium time, performance
opportunities, and mentoring from a worldrenowned
maestro, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
(the latest in a lineage of Philadelphia
Orchestra music directors who have
engaged substantively with Curtis musicians).
Curtis is uniquely suited to this
fellowship model. Its small size ensures
a personalized approach, so we can give
our fellows the tools they need to grow and
to position themselves for fruitful careers
in music. Curtis is supportive, but not
sheltering; the fellows perform and work
at a fully professional level, both inside
and outside our walls, and are exposed to
extraordinary opportunities in the process.
Curtis can offer its fellows the chance to
tour and to teach, so that these critical
real-life skills are not simply developed on
the fly, but are in firmly in place before they
embark on full-fledged careers. And Curtis’s
advantageous location in Philadelphia—
with its vibrant musical life and easy access
to other major musical centers—allows
fellows to spread their wings in the real
world, while enjoying the intimacy of
an artistic family.
As our fellows traverse the bridges
we have built, I watch their progress with
pride and pleasure, knowing they will move
confidently into 21st-century musical lives
of great promise.
Roberto Díaz
President
2 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

NOTEWORTHY
Images from the orchestra’s last European tour in 2012 PHOTO: OLIVER KILLIG
Curtis Symphony Orchestra
Plans European Tour
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra is preparing for a two-week tour to major European
venues, embracing nine cities in five countries. OSMO VÄNSKÄ, music director of the
Minnesota Orchestra, leads the tour, conducting works by Brahms, Penderecki, Ravel,
and Strauss. Soloists include BENJAMIN SCHMID (Violin ’91) and ROBERTO DÍAZ (Viola ’84)
in Penderecki’s Concerto doppio and PETER SERKIN (Piano ’64) in the Brahms Piano
Concerto No. 1 in D minor. The orchestra will also perform Strauss’s autobiographical
Ein Heldenleben and Ravel’s atmospheric Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloé.
After a send-off performance in Philadelphia at the Mann Center for the Performing
Arts on May 13, the orchestra will depart for Finland, where they’ll perform at the Helsinki
Music Centre (May 20). They’ll visit three venues in Germany: Die Glocke in Bremen
(May 22), Konzerthaus Berlin’s Grosser Saal (May 23), and—in a triumphant return
to the Dresden Music Festival, where the orchestra received rave reviews in 2012—
the Kulturpalast Dresden (May 24). The next stop is London’s Cadogan Hall (May 26),
followed by two concerts in Austria: at the Grosser Saal of the Mozarteum in Salzburg
(May 29) and the Grosser Saal of the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna (May 30). The final
concerts of the tour take place in Poland, at the Wrocław National Music Forum (May 31)
and the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice (June 2).
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra travels
More Online
as part of Curtis on Tour, the Nina von
For details on tour venues, tickets, or joining Maltzahn global touring initiative of the
a tour of Curtis patrons, visit
Curtis Institute of Music.
www.curtis.edu/CurtisOnTour,
and follow @Curtis Institute on social media.
Osmo Vänskä conducting the Curtis Symphony
Orchestra PHOTO: DAVID DeBALKO
SPRING GALA
HIGHLIGHTS
ROOTS AND REACH
Curtis’s annual gala takes place on
May 7 at the Kimmel Center for the
Performing Arts, before the Curtis
Symphony Orchestra’s concert in
Verizon Hall. The festive event
celebrates the school’s Philadelphia
roots and global reach, with students
shaped in Philadelphia and heard
around the world. Just a week
before the orchestra’s momentous
European tour, the gala honors the
rising global presence of Curtis with
a concert featuring tour repertoire
and an elegant dinner.
More Online
Information about the Roots + Reach gala
evening is at
www.curtis.edu/Gala
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
3

NOTEWORTHY
FACULTY
ANNIVERSARIES
Curtis thanks the entire faculty,
with a nod to those celebrating landmark
anniversaries in 2017.
45 years
PAUL KRZYWICKI
35 years
MEI-MEI MENG
30 years
SUSAN NOWICKI
KEIKO SATO (Piano ’83)
20 years
DAVID BILGER
BLAIR BOLLINGER (Trombone ’86)
CHARLES CONWELL
RICHARD DANIELPOUR
15 years
DAVID LUDWIG (Composition ’01)
DANIEL MATSUKAWA (Bassoon ’92)
ALAN MORRISON (Organ ’91, Accompanying ’93)
10 years
SHMUEL ASHKENASI (Violin ’63)
ROBERT MCDONALD (Piano ’76)
JENNIFER MONTONE
BARBARA SMITH
5 years
MIA CHUNG
MICHAEL DJUPSTROM (Composition ’11)
MARY WHEELOCK JAVIAN (Double Bass ’99)
JEFFREY LANG
REESE REVAK
MICHAEL RUSINEK (Clarinet ’92)
LEON SCHELHASE
MATTHEW VAUGHN
Donald Montanaro teaching a lesson in the Tabuteau Room in 2005 PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
In Memoriam
Curtis mourns the loss of longtime faculty member DONALD MONTANARO (Clarinet ’54),
who passed away on November 30 at the age of 82. A member of the Curtis faculty
from 1980 to 2014, Mr. Montanaro embodied the great Philadelphia tradition of wind
playing. As a clarinet student, he inherited a musical legacy from DANIEL BONADE
and MARCEL TABUTEAU; as a teacher, he drew upon them to create a unique emphasis
on sound quality and singing style. Today his former students occupy important
orchestra positions from New York to Beijing and from Mexico City to Seoul. Upon
his retirement from Curtis, he was awarded an honorary doctorate.
Mr. Montanaro was a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1957 to 2005,
playing alongside his wife and fellow Curtis graduate, harpist MARGARITA CSONKA
MONTANARO (Harp ’63). A passionate collaborative musician, he also founded the
Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble in 1977, performed at the Marlboro and Casals
festivals, and toured Europe and the Far East as a soloist and in chamber music
ensembles.
Mr. Montanaro’s influence is best summed up in the words of his own students.
In the Spring 2014 issue of Overtones, SAM CAVIEZEL (’96), associate principal clarinet
of the Philadelphia Orchestra, was quoted: “His exquisite ear for tone and mastery
of phrasing, combined with a keen understanding of how to transmit this knowledge
to his students, made for a learning experience that has been second to none in
my life.
“Whenever I play something really beautifully in the orchestra, I feel like I am
standing on Don’s shoulders.”
New Beethoven Courses Online
Curtis faculty member JONATHAN BISS (Piano ’01) has created new lectures in his Coursera
series, Exploring Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas. Part 2 includes four sonatas; these join
the thirteen lectures of Part 1, posted beginning in 2013, which remain available through
Coursera. The free lectures have already attracted more than 150,000 online learners from
85 countries. Mr. Biss holds the Neubauer Family Chair in Piano Studies at Curtis. Another
free Curtis-based Coursera class, The World
of the String Quartet, taught by faculty
More Online
members ARNOLD STEINHARDT (Violin ’59)
Access Jonathan Biss’s new Coursera lectures at
and MIA CHUNG, remains available.
www.curtis.edu/Coursera
PHOTO: DAVID SWANSON
4 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

NOTEWORTHY
Curtis Sweeps Musical America Awards
The 2017 Musical America Awards
honored a number of Curtis alumni,
and the Curtis community turned out
to celebrate. YUJA WANG (Piano ’08)
was selected as Artist of the Year and
ERIC OWENS (Opera ’95) was named
Vocalist of the Year. The contemporary
chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird,
which includes YVONNE LAM (Violin ’05)
and was ensemble in residence at Curtis
from 2012 to 2015, was named Ensemble
of the Year. The awards ceremony took
Curtis alumni and faculty attending the awards place at Carnegie Hall in December,
ceremony included (l. to r.) Jennifer Koh, Eric Owens, where a contingent from Curtis,
Yuja Wang, Gary Graffman, and Roberto Díaz.
including President ROBERTO DÍAZ, joined
the honorees. Other members of the Curtis family in attendance included 2016 Musical
America Instrumentalist of the Year JENNIFER KOH (Violin ’02), GARY GRAFFMAN (Piano ’46),
and MARY LOU FALCONE (Voice ’66).
Violin student Kevin Lin (top) and
flute student Emma Resmini organize
and shelve books at William Cramp
Elementary School. PHOTOS: THOM CARROLL/
PHILLYVOICE.COM
STUDENTS IN
DAY OF SERVICE
Curtis students and staff marked Martin Luther
King Day on January 16 with a day of service
at William Cramp Elementary School. The
partnership aimed to reopen the school’s library,
which has been closed for the past five years.
Curtis volunteers painted, organized, cleaned,
and decorated the library space. They capped
the day with a casual concert featuring performances
by Curtis students and Cramp Elementary
pre-school students who are learning violin
through a Suzuki program established by Curtis
ArtistYear Fellow SHANNON LEE (Violin ’16).
A POWERHOUSE
PERFORMER
The Curtis Institute
of Music is featured
alongside the world’s
top performing
organizations,
including the Mayo
Clinic, Doctors
Without Borders,
the U.S. Marine Corps, and the St. Louis
Cardinals, in the recently published
Powerhouse: Insider Accounts Into
The World’s Top High-Performance
Organizations.
The book, by strategy and
high-performance consultants Brian
MacNeice and James Bowen, details
the authors’ immersive and personal
research at twelve organizations—
investigating culture, interviewing
leaders, and observing everyday
practice. Despite the diverse range
of industries, each of these successful
institutions shared a common bond:
“At the heart of every institution
whose advantage has endured lies
an organizational model that works
more effectively than its competitors,”
according to Mr. MacNeice and
Mr. Bowen.
The authors recognized Curtis’s
rigorous selection policy, ambitious
mission, feedback-rich culture with
one-on-one attention from faculty,
commitment to a tuition-free policy,
and dedication to continual improvement
as key elements in the school’s
success. Powerhouse is published
by KoganPage.
Contributors to Noteworthy include Jennifer Kallend,
Daniel McDougall, and Melinda Whiting.
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
5

MEET THE FACULTY
The Engaged Artist
MARY JAVIAN’S DIVERSE MUSICAL OUTLOOK SETS THE TONE AS CURTIS
SEEKS TO NURTURE SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT IN ITS YOUNG MUSICIANS.
BY IAN VANDERMEULEN
Mary Javian is chair of career studies and the
director of community engagement and professional
development at Curtis. PHOTO: CAROLYN BALLEN STANISH
6 OVERTONES SPRING 2017
Roughly an hour into an evening video recording session involving Curtis string players and
students and teachers from Philadelphia’s Village for the Arts and Humanities after-school
program, Mary Javian turns to me. “Have you figured out what my job is yet?” she asks,
laughing. “Sometimes I’m not even sure.”
It’s a fair question. During one packed afternoon that Ms. Javian would later call “fairly
normal,” I watched her pick up fliers for one of her curated shows at World Cafe Live, take
two phone calls on her lunch break, lead a seminar session with fellows in Curtis’s ArtistYear
program, distribute fliers, help set up and run a recording session, and squeeze in a quick
on-camera interview for a promotional video. Add to that a vibrant career as a double
bassist who performs and maintains a private teaching studio, and her official titles—director
of professional development and community engagement, and chair of career studies—
hardly encompass what she “does.”
Ms. Javian’s work at Curtis is, in fact, rooted in the school’s new mandate for socially
engaged artistry. Brought on in 2011 to mentor students in Curtis’s Community Artist
Program (CAP), she has since built it into a full-blown, three-part sequential curriculum.
In Social Entrepreneur, a required course for all Curtis undergraduates, students learn the
basics of community engagement and spend time in schools, hospitals, and other social-service
organizations partnered with Curtis. Those inspired by that course can apply for CAP,
which gives students resources and mentorship support to develop their own community
engagement projects. The even more selective ArtistYear program gives recent Curtis
graduates a one-year fellowship and additional funding to bring arts access and education
to underserved communities.
Much of Ms. Javian’s motivation for social impact through music seems driven by
the opportunities she herself enjoyed. After starting to play the bass at age 10, she won
a spot in the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship Program, and at 15, she
began studies with Harold Hall Robinson, then principal bass of the National Symphony.
By the time she arrived at Curtis to continue her studies with Mr. Robinson (who had
moved on to lead the bass section of the Philadelphia Orchestra), her desire to engage
with the community was already strong. This led her to develop a private teaching studio
and to found Curtis’s outreach program while still a student.
“It became increasingly important to me, not just that I was being creative, but that the
people I was interacting with were having a chance to be creative as well,” she recalls. Her

MEET THE FACULTY
diverse musical tastes and broad knowledge of the Philadelphia scene led to her curatorial
role with LiveConnections, which runs a genre-bending concert series at World Cafe Live,
as well as the integrated Bridge Sessions, a series of interactive educational performances
that reach some 5,000 underserved youth per year.
Since her 1999 graduation, Ms. Javian has kept performance central to her routine.
Today she performs regularly with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the IRIS Orchestra,
Network for New Music, Dolce Suono Ensemble, and the Verbier Festival. But as a new
graduate, she recalls, her community engagement work was viewed somewhat askance by
her performer colleagues. It’s a common myth in the musical world—that the true artists
are those focused exclusively on their performance craft—and one that Curtis’s community
engagement curriculum seeks to debunk.
At first she compartmentalized. “I would only talk to performers about my performance
life and only talk to administrators about the things I was running,” she recalls, but as
attitudes began to change, “over time I stopped hiding these parts of myself.” Today
she’s equally frank about the centrality of parenthood in her life—she is mother to a
nine-year-old and a six-year-old—and the challenge of balancing multiple professional
duties with raising a family.
IN THE MOMENT
Watching Ms. Javian navigate her packed day, it’s striking how little time is wasted, yet
how rarely she or her collaborators seem rushed. She keeps everyone focused with minimal
hands-on direction. In her ArtistYear seminar, the fellows take the lead, reflecting their
mentor’s can-do attitude. They brainstorm connections for their projects and specific solutions
to problems. Alize Rozsnyai, who is reviving the choral program at South Philadelphia
High School, worries aloud about one of her students, a talented but time-challenged
teenager making a crucial audition. “Do I have to physically go get her?” Alize wonders.
“You have to keep a fluidity about you,” Ms. Javian explains, and be “a good listener.
If you are too present with your agenda, you’re likely to miss what could happen in that
moment.” She credits Mr. Robinson with helping her to develop that openness when she
was a student. “He was so good at helping us be problem solvers and be our own teachers.”
“My philosophy is that people come to what they want to learn when they’re ready,”
Ms. Javian continues. “Giving unsolicited advice never works.” Instead, she develops
relationships with students based on their interests, and helps each discover his or her
own path.
Her passion and easy-going focus provide a model for her students. ArtistYear Fellow
Shannon Lee, who first encountered her through the Community Artist Program, notes
that Ms. Javian’s work with LiveConnections and knowledge of the general scene “opened
up the city in new ways.” Shannon has now taken on two projects as part of her ArtistYear
fellowship: one with the All-City Orchestra and one at the William Cramp Elementary
Above: ArtistYear Fellow Stanislav Chernyshev
with an ensemble of Social Entrepreneur students
at Nebinger Elementary School in Philadelphia. Ms.
Javian observed as the group introduced youngsters
to basic musical concepts. PHOTOS: PETE CHECCHIA
Ms. Javian’s work at Curtis
is rooted in the school’s new
mandate for socially engaged
artistry. Brought on in 2011
to mentor students in Curtis’s
Community Artist Program,
she has since built it into
a full-blown, three-part
sequential curriculum.
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
7

MEET THE FACULTY
Top left: Ms. Javian with ArtistYear Fellow Alize
Rozsnyai (third from right) and her students in the
choral program at South Philadelphia High School
Top right: The student presenters of Curtis family
concerts are coached by Ms. Javian, who makes
a point of attending with her own children.
PHOTO: DAVID SWANSON
Watching Ms. Javian navigate
her packed day, it’s striking
how little time is wasted,
yet how rarely she or her
collaborators seem rushed.
She keeps everyone
focused with minimal
hands-on direction.
School, where she is teaching Suzuki violin. When Shannon recently sent out a text that
the school had received an anonymous donation of violins, Ms. Javian responded that
the news had “made her day.” “She just really cares about every project she’s doing,”
Shannon says.
This natural rapport with students extends, not surprisingly, to the heart of the matter:
music. During breaks in the recording session she chats with violist Michael Casimir about
orchestral excerpts. As she hears bassist Braizahn Jones improvising on a Stevie Wonder
riff, she beams: “You keep playing all my favorite songs!” After the session has wrapped,
she enlists Michael and a few other students to put the room back together. Everyone gets
one last laugh, however, when Ms. Javian can’t quite follow the recording engineer’s mystical
cable-coiling technique. “You’ll get it one day,” Michael teases her.
CODA
After the recording session wraps, Ms. Javian offers to take me, a first-time visitor, on a
quick tour of Curtis’s main building, where all her lessons and rehearsals took place when
she was a student. It’s like watching someone give a tour of their childhood home. We visit
Field Concert Hall, onetime home to orchestra rehearsals, where the bass section would
perch on one balcony, percussion on the other. We head upstairs to the practice rooms,
where she shows me her class photo and the former bass studio just down the hall. She
recalls the drudgery of hauling the basses off the rehearsal room platform, down the hall,
and up the winding 19th-century staircase to that room, day after day.
As we head out I suggest that maybe this is why she’s so quick to pitch in when it comes
to the nitty-gritty—“lugging stuff,” as Ms. Javian puts it. She raises her eyebrows as if to
agree but opts for disarming self-deprecation instead. “But I can’t even coil up a stupid
cable!” she laughs.
It seems that even the most accomplished arts leaders can still learn a thing or two.
Perhaps this is Mary Javian’s greatest lesson of all.
Ian VanderMeulen is a freelance writer and musician whose work has appeared in Symphony and
Musical America. He lives in New York, where he is pursuing his doctorate at New York University.
PHOTO: DAVID SWANSON
WHY CHOOSE CURTIS?
—Mary Javian
More Reasons at
www.curtis.edu/WhyChooseCurtis
“For so long, I felt like the answer to that question was simply: ‘Because it’s the best.’ And
now I actually think it’s: ‘Because it’s the most nurturing environment in which an artist can
grow, and explore what works for them.’ Because of the size, because of the student-teacher
ratio, and because of the huge range of performance opportunities and projects that
students can pursue, [including] community engagement, support for entrepreneurial ideas.
And the faculty … I think they’re amazing. The culture here is extremely nurturing in a way
that’s really unique.”
8 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

MEET THE STUDENTS
Anastasiia Sidorova as Cherubino in
Le nozze di Figaro PHOTO: KARLI CADEL
The Right Moment
ANASTASIIA SIDOROVA SET HER SIGHTS ON THE STAGE AS A CHILD IN RUSSIA. HER DEBUT CAME AT CURTIS.
BY DAVE ALLEN
“Everything in my life seems to happen at the right time.”
It wasn’t mere serendipity that brought Anastasiia Sidorova to Curtis, much less to the
United States. She has applied such determination and unwavering commitment to the
greatest challenges in her life and career—choosing to study music in a conservatory setting,
and moving from her native Russia to pursue it—that each step, and each success, has had
the feeling of inevitability.
Then, when you consider that in her first-ever opera—a small role in Tchaikovsky’s
Iolanta, with the Curtis Opera Theatre in 2014—she ended up singing in her native language,
Anastasiia’s life, and her nascent career, begin to seem charmed indeed.
That initial stage appearance, years in the making, has given way to a pursuit of opera on
all fronts, many of which have come as a surprise to this young mezzo-soprano. A native of
Saint Petersburg, Anastasiia first came to Curtis for Summerfest during the summer of 2013,
and then entered Curtis in 2014 at age 19 as a student in the undergraduate voice program.
Among the surprises: She’s been prompted to re-examine her vocal range. “I thought I was
this dark alto-mezzo,” she says, and that sound captivated Mikael Eliasen, artistic director
of the Curtis Opera Theatre and Hirsig Family Dean of Vocal Studies, during her audition.
He heard potential for a different, higher fach in it as well. “For my role in La scala di seta,
I said to him, ‘it’s too high! I can’t do it!’” she recalls. He was adamant, though, and
Anastasiia persevered in her second role at Curtis. “He loves to stretch your possibilities,”
she says of Mr. Eliasen, and thanks to his continued encouragement and guidance by her
private teacher, adjunct voice faculty Julia Faulkner, she’s now regularly performing music
in the high-mezzo range.
Her emergence has come about gradually, with smaller roles at Curtis paving the way
for a breakthrough as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro last spring. “At first, it was just a simple
character to me—just young and cute,” she says. She dug deeper into Cherubino to
find strong emotions, playing this headstrong teenage boy with ardent, big-hearted threedimensionality,
and she now sees much of her operatic future coming in other “trouser roles.”
Anastasiia Sidorova holds
the Casiana Hilton Annual Fellowship.
FORTHRIGHT APPROACH
Music has always stirred strong feelings in Anastasiia, and while she admits her indifference
to all non-musical subjects during her youth, early experiences of attending performances
at the famed Mariinsky Theatre and of singing patriotic songs for national celebrations
made indelible impressions on her. Before starting high school, she decided to enter
Rimsky-Korsakov Musical College—she says she didn’t ask her parents for permission,
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
9

“I don’t just want to study acting out of
a book in a classroom—I’d rather just do it!”
Anastasiia says. “It’s so much more useful
to do it in the context of real opera directing.”
10 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

MEET THE STUDENTS
instead simply declaring that this was her plan—and she has taken a similarly forthright
approach to her progress at Curtis. “I don’t just want to study acting out of a book in a
classroom—I’d rather just do it!” she says. “It’s so much more useful to do it in the context
of real opera directing.”
“She’s already such a responsible professional and an unbelievably hard worker,” says
soprano Kirsten MacKinnon, a recent Curtis graduate with a blossoming career of her
own who has been a mentor to Anastasiia. “We’ve had so many conversations about acting
and preparation, and that’s really exciting to hear, especially in younger singers.”
Much of Anastasiia’s stage experience has come under Jordan Fein, who has directed
numerous Curtis Opera Theatre productions over the past three years, including Britten’s
The Rape of Lucretia last fall. Fein noted that she made remarkable progress as an artist in
the year between The Rake’s Progress in 2015, when she portrayed Mother Goose, and Figaro
in 2016, when her Cherubino made a strong impression on cast, audience, and director alike.
“She’s so clear about what she can bring to a role,” Mr. Fein says. “I can give her a note,
and she’ll do something that’s exactly the thing I said, but on her own terms.”
During her third year at Curtis, Anastasiia’s musical and professional growth has been
spurred further through participating in Opera Philadelphia’s Emerging Artists Program.
As she has covered roles and taken part in rehearsals, she is looking ahead to the world
of professional opera that awaits her. “Anastasiia has taken full advantage of everything
that’s available to her,” says Mr. Eliasen, who recommended her for the program. Since
coming to Curtis, he adds, “she has continued on her path in a wonderful way.”
That path has continued to hold surprises, like last year’s collaboration between Curtis
Opera Theatre and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra for Berio’s Sinfonia. In its boundarypushing
strangeness and complexity, that experience was something she says she never
could have imagined doing before coming to Curtis: “After the performance, I had this
combination of relief and excitement—like, ‘I did this!’”
This unexpected affinity for contemporary music has extended into her work with Opera
Philadelphia. During a coaching session last fall, her reading of a song by Missy Mazzoli
revealed increasingly profound levels of expression; later, she touched on previously-unheard
places in her range—up to a high B-flat—in a duet from an opera by Lembit Beecher.
Near the end of the Beecher scene, performed with baritone Johnathan McCullough,
she repeatedly tackled thorny melismas that wind through an unusual series of chords.
After the session, she said she had spent time practicing it over Thanksgiving break, playing
through the chords and figuring out how her melodies line up with them. “The journey
is very complicated, but very interesting,” she says of that climactic section of music.
The same could be said of her path in music thus far. Whatever opportunities come
her way, at Curtis and afterward, they’ll find her prepared and, as usual, at just the
right moment.
Opposite, clockwise from top left:
Anasatasiia as Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress,
with Roy Hage PHOTO: KARLI CADEL
As the White Cat in a concert performance of
L’Enfant et les sortilèges, with Kendra Broom and
Patrick Wilhelm PHOTO: DAVID DeBALKO
As Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia PHOTO: CORY WEAVER
In a concert performance of Iolanta PHOTO: KARLI CADEL
As Lucilla in La scala di seta, with Johnathan
McCullough PHOTO: CORY WEAVER
Her smaller roles at
Curtis paved the way
for a breakthrough as
Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro
last spring, when she played
this headstrong teenage boy
with ardent, big-hearted
three-dimensionality.
Dave Allen is publications and social media manager at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. His
writings on music have appeared in Chamber Music, Overtones, Symphony, and the Courier-Post.
WHY CHOOSE CURTIS?
—Anastasiia Sidorova
More Reasons at
www.curtis.edu/WhyChooseCurtis
“During high school, I was always at my teacher’s side, asking ‘What do I do next?’ All of a
sudden, after entering Curtis, I was left alone, in a way, to figure out how to make music on
my own. In between my lessons, there’s no one to say ‘this is right, this is wrong.’ Ultimately,
here you learn how to figure things out for yourself. At the same time, everyone at Curtis
wants you to improve, and you end up feeding off of each other.”
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
11

ACommitment
to Young
Conductors
BY DIANA BURGWYN
Curtis conducting fellows flourish under the mentorship
of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
12 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

It’s not exactly common to see three conductors take
turns on the podium in a single symphony. But for the students
in the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, it’s a monthly occurrence. In these highly anticipated
reading sessions Yannick Nézet-Séguin—music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra,
music director designate of the Metropolitan Opera, and mentor conductor on the
Curtis faculty—coaches conducting fellows and the orchestra through standards of
the symphonic repertoire.
On a Saturday morning in December, Carlos Ágreda, one of Curtis’s two conducting
fellows, launched into the opening movement of Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, with
Mr. Nézet-Séguin eyeing his technique from a seat behind the violas. Next to him, also
observing closely, was conducting fellow Conner Gray Covington, who would soon pick
up the baton for the slow movement.
After coaching each of the conducting fellows in detail—with kernels of advice for the
orchestra sprinkled throughout—Mr. Nézet-Séguin took the podium himself, rehearsing
the students with verve and commitment through the second and fourth movements.
Similar sessions in September and November had traversed Beethoven’s “Eroica” and
Rachmaninoff ’s Symphony No. 2, while January and February brought whirlwind tours
through Strauss’s Don Quixote, Mozart’s “Linz” Symphony, and the Mahler Fourth.
Carlos and Conner are the current fellows in a unique and highly selective two-year
Curtis program initiated in the 2013–14 academic year after the retirement of the
distinguished pedagogue Otto-Werner Mueller, who had taught at Curtis for a quarter
of a century. Developed by Curtis President Roberto Díaz and senior staff, and launched
with generous funding from Rita and Gus Hauser, the new conducting fellows program
was designed specifically for conductors at the post-graduate level who were already starting
their careers. It was intended to fill a lack commonly felt by these young artists: insufficient
time on the podium, both in rehearsal and performance.
Above: Mentor conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin
confers with Carlos Ágreda and Conner Gray
Covington, Curtis’s Rita E. Hauser Conducting
Fellows, before an orchestra reading of Schumann’s
Symphony No. 2. PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
Left: The conducting program offers many
performing opportunities for the fellows.
In February 2016 Conner led the Curtis Symphony
Orchestra in Busoni’s Berceuse élégiaque at
Carnegie Hall. He also prepared the orchestra
before the arrival of guest conductor
Ludovic Morlot. PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
13

The new program was
intended to fill a lack
commonly felt by young
post-graduate conductors
at the beginning of their
careers: insufficient time
on the podium, both in
rehearsal and performance.
Those admitted to the conducting fellows program rehearse and perform regularly
not only with the symphony orchestra but the Curtis Opera Theatre, the Curtis Chamber
Orchestra, and the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble. “In a sense,” says Paul Bryan, dean of faculty
and students, “they serve the purpose for us that staff conductors serve at a professional
orchestra.” And they are free to take on outside engagements.
ENERGY AND ENTHUSIASM
For the conducting fellows, the opportunity to work with Mr. Nézet-Séguin in the monthly
orchestra readings is invaluable. He is a man of boundless energy, his genuine enthusiasm
pervading the room. “Olé!” he might say as one of the young conductors concludes his
run-through of a movement, or “I love it!” or “Isn’t that the most gorgeous thing you
ever heard?” Then he offers a careful critique of what could be improved: a crescendo,
an attack, the size of a beat, the phrasing within the strokes, the articulation, tempo.
Most salient, are the conductor and orchestra being true to the spirit of the work?
Schumann’s state of mind when composing the Second Symphony, he reminds the
fellows and the orchestra, was “unstable,” “obsessive,” even “manic,” and this is reflected
in the music. He then asks for a repeat of the movement, and this time he interrupts
frequently to dissect key moments more thoroughly. Rarely is he still. He paces the room,
sometimes almost running; he backs up to a wall, even hops on the podium with the
conducting fellow and gestures alongside him. Sometimes he seems to disappear entirely,
only to pop up somewhere in the middle of the orchestra: Having encouraged Carlos
to give a specific signal to the woodwinds to evoke a softer sound quality, he subtly
settles himself cross-legged on the floor in front of the flutes, so as to evaluate the young
conductor’s cues.
Often Mr. Nézet-Séguin quizzes the fellows to find out what they are seeking in a
particular phrase or note. “These are already experienced, advanced, mature musicians,”
he explains. “So they have a certain authority. I am guiding them but also letting them
be on their own, which is important for every musician but particularly conductors, who
have to be clear in both intentions and gestures. My goal is to make sure that every fellow
here leaves the program with more trust in his or her own capabilities, free to be a more
expressive musician. That is what makes a more compelling conductor.”
The two-year program admits one fellow a year, so that there is one experienced and
one new fellow in each academic year. Because they have already reached a high level
of development, Mr. Nézet-Séguin pays careful attention to what each most needs in order
to achieve the stature of a mature conductor. Conner, for instance, who formerly had been
assistant conductor of the Memphis Symphony, “came to Curtis fully developed technically,
with clarity, consonance and energy,” his mentor noted after the Schumann coaching.
“But his heart and soul were somehow relegated to a background role. That often happens
in assistant conductor positions, where all they have to do is be clear in their directions.
So we worked on that.
“Today I was looking at Conner while he conducted and thinking ‘Here is a musician
who lives the music.’” As Conner led the poignant Adagio of the Schumann symphony, says
Mr. Nézet-Séguin, “the whole room became very different. It was very moving.”
PODIUM TIME
Life at Curtis is busy for the conducting fellows. They spend a week before each Curtis
Symphony Orchestra concert preparing the orchestra for a guest conductor, a responsibility
that involves creating flexibility in the ensemble. They take private lessons in important
areas that need strengthening, such as piano or counterpoint, and also have the opportunity
to work independently with faculty on topics in which they have a particular interest. They
consult with musical studies chair and conductor Jonathan Coopersmith. And they perform,
taking charge of individual works on Curtis Symphony Orchestra programs. Conner has
also led fully staged Curtis Opera Theatre productions of Benjamin’s Britten’s Rape of
Lucretia and Rene Orth’s Empty the House, and when the renowned Finnish composer Kaija
Saariaho did a residency at Curtis last fall, he conducted her violin concerto. Carlos, in his
14 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

first few months as a fellow, conducted at Curtis recitals and at a family concert where
he charmed the young attendees, leading Poulenc’s Babar the Elephant.
How does the orchestra view the conducting fellows program? “It’s really special.
It’s a mutual evolution that makes the program so valuable,” says concertmaster Maria
Ioudenitch. The fellows, she notes, “get this valuable time and a chance to explore their
own craft with an orchestra that’s willing to learn alongside them.” From the fellows’ point
of view, the excellence of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra provides a special opportunity.
“It’s difficult to find an orchestra that gives everything they have, every second, like the
Curtis ensemble does,” says Carlos. Adds Conner, “Their ability to do immediately what
you ask them is pretty astounding.”
In the reading sessions with Mr. Nézet-Séguin, orchestra members are learning and
growing every moment. Oboist Cassie Pilgrim, commenting after a session in the principal
chair, notes that “when you’re playing an emotional solo, a very personal side of you is
exposed. But Yannick and the conducting fellows are so encouraging and inviting that
I’m able to be vulnerable and open up.”
That, says Mr. Nézet-Séguin, is exactly what he’s after. “There are many facets to being
in an orchestra. You need to listen to the others, to blend, to be note-perfect, to quickly
master things. But at the end of the day what makes the difference between this musician
and that one, between this orchestra and the other, is the ability to communicate something
vital. That’s why we still play music. We want people to feel it, cry with it, laugh with it,
reflect, mourn, hope, dream, and all this comes from the human heart.” Maria marvels
at what the young musicians can do under Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s leadership. “Just when you
think that this particular spot can’t get any more exciting, he gets onto the podium for
two seconds and he makes it happen,” she says.
His role in developing Curtis’s orchestra is not limited to his time on the podium,
however. Behind the scenes, Mr. Nézet-Séguin communicates directly with the students’
teachers—many of whom are members of his own Philadelphia Orchestra—and with
Mr. Bryan about what he hears in the various sections. “He’s actively seeking ways to grow
his involvement in training the orchestra as a whole,” says Mr. Bryan.
Top left: Mr. Nézet-Séguin coaches Conner in the
third movement of Schumann’s Symphony No. 2.
Top right: Mr. Nézet-Séguin coaches Carlos
in the symphony’s first movement.
Bottom left: After working through two movements
with the fellows, Mr. Nézet-Séguin spends dedicated
time rehearsing the orchestra in each session.
Bottom right: A lighter moment at the break
in the December reading session
PHOTOS: PETE CHECCHIA
Opposite: Carlos made his Curtis conducting debut
last fall in a family concert, leading a chamber
version of Poulenc’s Story of Babar the Elephant.
PHOTO: DAVID SWANSON
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
15

“These are already
experienced, advanced,
mature musicians,”
Mr. Nézet-Séguin explains.
“I am guiding them but also
letting them be on their
own, which is important
for every musician but
particularly conductors.”
READING THE ROOM
One great benefit the conducting fellows enjoy is Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s availability, not only
at the monthly Curtis rehearsals but throughout the academic year. This is very important
to him. “When I was young,” he says, “I wanted to attend the Montreal Symphony rehearsals.
I tried three times, but each time was told ‘no.’ This is not unusual among professional
orchestras. But as a result, I decided that wherever I would conduct in the future, rehearsals
would be open to any young conductor who wanted to be there.”
Conner and Carlos not only attend Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s rehearsals at the Philadelphia
Orchestra, but are encouraged to consult with him at breaks and afterward. What they
see on these occasions is not only his approach to the orchestra but the orchestra’s reactions
to his leadership. “Yannick,” says Conner, “has an incredible ability to read a room and
read an orchestra, and know exactly what to say and when to say it and how.” This is a
key lesson for young conductors beginning their careers, who risk not being taken seriously
by players of an older generation; they have to project a certain authority while respecting
the players.
Conner will put his skills to work after becoming the program's third graduate in May;
he’s already been appointed the new assistant conductor of the Utah Symphony. Edward
Poll, the 2016 graduate, has achieved distinction as assistant conductor of the Glimmerglass
Festival, where, among other responsibilities, he rehearsed and conducted Bernstein’s opera
Trouble in Tahiti.
Kensho Watanabe, who in 2015 was the first fellow to graduate from the Curtis program,
attended the December coaching session. He’s pleased at how well the program has become
established, with an increasing number of young conductors interested in participating. Before
benefiting from Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s mentoring at Curtis, he was Mr. Mueller’s last student.
“I was very invested in seeing his work continue, and I’m happy that many of his values are
still being taught,” says Kensho, who is now assistant conductor at the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Mr. Bryan remarks that the conducting fellows program is still a work in progress.
“We need to determine the right amount of conducting that should be allotted to the
fellows. We also have to make sure that the needs of the orchestra members are being fully
met. And we want to maintain a very high level of guest conductors.”
Asked how he feels about the conducting fellows program after mentoring Curtis students
for four years, Mr. Nézet-Séguin responds, “I didn’t know quite what to expect because this
is such a novel approach. But I’ve seen so much progress,” both in the conducting fellows
and in the orchestra.
“What really exceeded my expectations was what it did for me,” he adds. “As a conductor
you have to conceptualize your ideas. Of course it’s also instinct, but if you can’t explain
what you want, how can you get a hundred musicians to do it?
“Now, after interacting with such talented young people, I couldn’t live without it.”
Diana Burgwyn is a Philadelphia-based writer whose articles have appeared in Overtones, the Philadelphia
Inquirer, and Symphony, among other publications.
PHOTO: DAVID SWANSON
WHY CHOOSE CURTIS?
—Carlos Ágreda
“Conducting is a very difficult art to teach, because it requires high level of musicianship
and knowledge. A conductor needs sophisticated technical and musical tools. Besides that,
a conductor needs experience, years of study, and social and artistic wisdom that are only
developed with ‘flight hours.’
“This is what makes the conducting fellows program at Curtis special. This program is
designed for young conductors who are already experienced, with tools that can be developed
at a further level. Curtis gives us real-life opportunities to let us develop our conducting under
the guidance of the best possible mentors.”
16 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

Performers and audience share
six Mozart quartets in two
recitals on one memorable day.
“It’s All About
As part of the Mozart Project,
violinists Alice Byol Kim and
Emily Shehi, violist Keigo Suzuki,
and cellist Chase Park played
Mozart’s Quartet in C major, K.
465 (“Dissonance”).
Listening ”
Imagine it’s the year 1785. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has just completed
his “Dissonance” quartet, K. 465, and you find yourself a guest at a prominent
home in Vienna for an evening of chamber music. Your fellow partygoers, themselves
amateur musicians and connoisseurs, mill about the living room, chatting and noshing
as their attention shifts to four string players clustered in the center of the space.
The music begins.
BY DIANA WENSLEY
PHOTOS: PETE CHECCHIA
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
17

This scene may describe the most authentic chamber music
experience, long since supplanted by modern concert staging
conventions. However, in two back-to-back recitals on a single
Saturday last fall, Curtis students and alumni brought to life the
atmosphere of an 18th-century living room for a dedicated group
of listeners.
In an effort known casually as the “Mozart Project,” six string
groups tackled Mozart’s beloved set of quartets dedicated to his
longtime friend and mentor, Franz Joseph Haydn, also presenting
historical anecdotes and context for the audience. The two recitals
were divided by a casual buffet lunch, where performers mingled
with listeners. Steven Tenenbom, chamber music coordinator at
Curtis, previously managed two similar projects, focusing on the
six quartets of Haydn’s Op. 50 in the fall of 2015 and Beethoven’s
Op. 18 last spring. Driven by Curtis’s “learn by doing” philosophy,
Mr. Tenenbom believes the research-based projects offer new
insights to the performers. “More knowledge helps [the students]
to understand the music they’re playing. And more ability to
communicate with audiences really helps everybody.” Audiences,
meanwhile, gain a new appreciation for “why [the music] is there
other than entertainment,” he continues.
In an innovation for the fall project, the quartets were presented
in the round. The six ensembles—five student groups in addition
to this year’s quartet in residence, the Zorá Quartet—made a joint
decision to sit facing inward, looking at each other while surrounded
by the audience. Listeners in Gould Rehearsal Hall were encouraged
to change seats during the performance, stretch their legs, or grab
an extra cup of coffee in the Bonovitz Concourse.
The performers felt a different energy with the unconventional
set-up—“a little disconcerting in some ways,” admits violist Julian
Tello, but prevailingly intimate. Julian notes that he normally has
to concentrate to project his sound, “making sure that I’m playing
to the audience and not for myself.” But in this configuration, he
says, “we played quieter than we normally play [and] the audience
was close enough that they could hear it.” As the sound came
from all directions, “we could affect a larger number of people,
using less of what we have to give. You could kind of whisper
to the audience—I think you could kind of hear them lean in.”
More Online
Hear and see last season’s Beethoven Op. 18 Project in
HD video. Click on the Chamber and Solo tab at
www.curtis.edu/CurtisPerforms and scroll right.
RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
In preparation for the November performance, the students honed
their audience engagement and musical skills in Sunday-night
chamber music classes and with the guidance of several faculty
members. For example, as they prepared K. 387, the Zorá Quartet
were coached by Mr. Tenenbom as well as cello faculty Peter Wiley
and violin faculty Pamela Frank. Mia Chung of the musical studies
faculty helped the ensemble to analyze the work’s counterpoint,
especially its fugal material, and made their ideas “more vibrant,”
according to second violinist Seula Lee.
Jonathan Coopersmith, chair of musical studies, helped the
students to understand the historical context surrounding each
work and to coordinate their research. “Knowing even one little
fact about the piece can change the whole experience,” says
Mr. Coopersmith. This knowledge often shaped the performances
in interesting ways. Julian Tello cites the colorful history of the
Quartet in D minor, K. 421, written while Mozart’s wife Constanze
gave birth in the next room: “In one of her letters [she] says the
rising string figures in the second movement are supposed to be …
the pains and the screams of childbirth,” he says. “We actually got
to take that bit and rehearse it a bunch of different ways to try and
get it to … sound a little more like that, even though it’s not exactly
programmatic.”
While honing their commentaries, each quartet kept in mind
that any audience includes listeners with varying levels of musical
knowledge. The members of the Zorá Quartet pointed out broadly
relatable moments that they found interesting. Cellist Zizai Ning
and violinist Seula Lee detailed the intimacy between Mozart and
Haydn, and violist Pablo Muñoz Salido explained the parallels
in their respective compositions. “We found that Mozart actually
uses a lot of Haydn’s style in writing. For example, sudden changes
in dynamics … the use of chromatic scales … a sense of humor,”
18 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

The six ensembles made a joint decision
to sit facing inward, looking at each other
while surrounded by the audience. Listeners
in Gould Rehearsal Hall were encouraged
to change seats during the performance.
Pablo told the audience. “There’s a really awesome joke that he
writes at the end of the piece,” he continued, referring to a boisterous
false ending just seconds before the real, much gentler finish—a trick
that elicited early applause and chuckles from the listeners.
A recital should be an “experience for all people,” Mr. Tenenbom
believes. Communication between the performers and the audience
can open unexpected avenues of education and enjoyment, much
like a docent tour at an art museum. “[People] walk out of the
performance feeling that there’s something different about themselves—something’s
changed.” The student performers, too, gained
a new perspective. “I think the twenty-four young people really feel
like they’ve accomplished something and will look back on this time
as one of their more important experiences,” he says. “It’s all about
collaboration and really—bottom line—it’s all about listening.”
Diana Wensley, a 2014 trumpet graduate of Curtis, is interim patron services
manager at Curtis and works as a freelance musician in the Philadelphia area.
Opposite top left: Pablo Muñoz Salido, violist of the Zorá Quartet, spoke before
Curtis’s quartet in residence played Mozart’s Quartet in G major, K. 387.
Opposite bottom left: The musicians mingled with the audience during a break
for lunch between the two recitals.
Center: The audience surrounded the performers in Gould Rehearsal Hall.
Above: Cellist Zachary Mowitz, violinist Angela Sin Ying Chan, and violist
Michael Casimir
BARTÓK'S SIX QUARTETS
On April 29 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., student ensembles will perform the
complete Bartók quartets—a pinnacle of the 20th-century quartet repertoire—
in an intimate, free event at Gould Rehearsal Hall. Details at
www.curtis.edu/Calendar
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
19

This
Spring
atCurtis
On Stage
M A R C H
2, 4 CURTIS OPERA THEATRE
Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center
Timothy Myers, conductor
R. B. Schlather, director
ADAMS Doctor Atomic
This production is sponsored in part by Allen R. and Judy Brick
Freedman. The Curtis Opera Theatre season is sponsored by the
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation.
1 9 – A P R I L 17 CURTIS ON TOUR in New England: Fiddlefest
Abigail Fayette, violin Brandon Garbot, violin
Jenny Yeyeong Jin, violin Ida Kavafian, violin
Haram Kim, violin
Shannon Lee, violin
Christine Lim, violin
Adé Williams, violin
Venues:
Field Concert Hall, Philadelphia (March 19)
Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, N.Y. (March 24)
Saint James Place, Great Barrington, Mass. (April 14)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (April 16)
Highfield Hall, Falmouth, Mass. (April 17)
The Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative
2 5 CURTIS 20/21 ENSEMBLE: Beyond Darmstadt
Gould Rehearsal Hall
A P R I L
9 CURTIS PRESENTS Elliot Madore
Field Concert Hall
2 3 CURTIS PRESENTS Robert van Sice and
the Curtis Percussion Ensemble
Gould Rehearsal Hall
The Curtis Presents season is sponsored by Blank Rome LLP.
27, 2 9 CURTIS OPERA THEATRE
Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center
Kensho Watanabe, conductor (’13, ’15)
Stephanie Havey, stage director
PUCCINI La rondine
This production is sponsored in part by Allen R. and Judy Brick
Freedman. The Curtis Opera Theatre season is sponsored by the
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation.
M AY
6, 7 CURTIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Miller Symphony Hall, Allentown
Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Peter Serkin, piano (’64)
Conner Gray Covington, conducting fellow
BARBER Adagio for Strings
BRAHMS Concerto No. 1 in D Minor for Piano, Op. 15
STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 (A Hero’s Life)
The Jack Wolgin Orchestral Concerts
More Online at www.curtis.edu/Performances
PHOTOS: PETE CHECCHIA; ALI DOUCETTE, KARMA AGENCY; DAVID DeBALKO
20 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

1 3 CURTIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Mann Center
Conner Gray Covington and Carlos Ágreda, conductors
with Play On, Philly! and the Rock School for Dance Education
Works by BARBER, BEETHOVEN, BERNSTEIN, T. J. COLE,
and RAVEL
The Jack Wolgin Orchestral Concerts
This performance is sponsored in part by PECO.
2 0 – J U N E 2 CURTIS ON TOUR in Europe
Osmo Vänskä, conductor Benjamin Schmid, violin (’91)
Roberto Díaz, viola (’84) Peter Serkin, piano (’64)
Curtis Symphony Orchestra
Venues:
Helsinki Music Centre (May 20)
Die Glocke, Bremen (May 22)
Konzerthaus Berlin (May 23)
Kulturpalast, Dresden (May 24)
Cadogan Hall, London (May 26)
Mozarteum, Salzburg (May 29)
Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna (May 30)
National Music Forum, Wrocław (May 31)
Penderecki European Centre for Music, Lusławice (June 2)
The Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative
Online
C U R T I S P E R F O R M S
Watch Curtis performances anytime, anywhere at
www.curtis.edu/CurtisPerforms. Curtis Performs features
performance videos in broadcast-quality HD, viewable on
your mobile device, tablet, laptop, or PC. New content is
added continually and no registration is required. To be notified
when new videos are added, use the simple sign-in option.
Live-streamed recitals are featured every Friday night during
the school year. Live streaming of select Curtis recitals is made
possible by BNP Paribas.
O N S TA G E AT C U R T I S
Philadelphia PBS station WHYY-TV (Channel 12) airs this weekly
series year-round, Saturday and Sunday at 6 p.m., and posts
every program online. To view the current season of programs,
visit www.whyy.org/Curtis.
C U R T I S C A L L S
WWFM broadcasts Curtis performances each Wednesday
at noon and Monday at 10 p.m. Listen to past programs at
www.wwfm.org/CurtisCalls.
The Curtis Institute of Music receives state arts
funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania
Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the National
Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Follow us @CurtisInstitute
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
21

Inspiration,
BY DAVID LUDWIG
In Person
Composers in residence motivate Curtis’s student performers
and creators in new and exciting directions.
22 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

Every now and then in a rehearsal for one of my pieces, a performer or
conductor will remark to me how nice it is to have the composer present—
something along the lines of, “if only we could ask Beethoven these same questions, too!”
For many musicians, the opportunity to tap directly into the creative source of a work
they are playing is an unusual and special experience. This was less true for performers
in Beethoven’s time, when musicians played music by living composers as a matter of
course to a much larger extent than their counterparts today.
Granted, centuries ago there was far less repertoire by composers of the past to begin
with (much less even a concept of a “canon”). Regardless of the reason, it is hard to argue
that there hasn’t been a major shift over time in our larger performance culture in terms
of playing contemporary music. But it is also hard to argue against the tremendous value
of working with a living composer, a process that allows the performer to play a unique
and active role in a piece’s evolution.
Whether it’s historical fact or simply widespread anecdote, I’ve heard from many
composers of prior generations—and many have written about this—that when they were
students, they felt constrained in their work by Modernist orthodoxy. The long reach of
the Darmstadt school pervaded conservatory education in the middle decades of the last
century. By the account of one of my teachers, every concert of student works he attended
in those years featured pieces that, with few exceptions, all sounded like Webern. That time
was perhaps as close as we’ve come to a “common practice”—a stylistic contraction following
the great explosion of new schools and techniques of the earlier part of the 20th century.
Today, by contrast, the diversity of voices in the world of composition is great and only
growing. The notion of “genre” is a near-anachronism at this point (and has been for years).
Composers of our time—certainly including our composition students at Curtis—draw
from the broadest range of styles and techniques to establish their own unique and personal
voices. That a composer today would or wouldn’t write so-called “tonal” or “atonal” music
seems of little concern or relevance when the overall message of the work is what matters
most. Throw electronics, alternative venues, and digital media into the mix, and we have
as fertile a variety of sounds and artistic possibilities as at any time in the history of music.
COMMISSIONS AND COLLABORATIONS
At Curtis, performers work with their student composer colleagues on a frequent basis,
playing their music on the Student Recital Series and in an annual orchestra concert
of student works. And that’s just to start. I don’t know of a school more supportive of its
own creative life than this one. Few schools regularly commission their students and alumni;
It is hard to
argue against the
tremendous value
of working with a
living composer,
a process that allows
the performer to
play a unique and
active role in a
piece’s evolution.
Opposite: Krzysztof Penderecki conducted a
concert of his works at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall
as the culmination of his residency in 2014.
PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
Top left: Curtis’s first composer in residence was
John Corigliano, whose residency recital in 2009
included a solo violin work played by Elizabeth
Fayette. PHOTO: L. C. KELLEY
Top right: Kaija Saariaho speaks to the audience at
her residency recital in October. PHOTO: MICKEY WELDE
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
23

Today the diversity of
voices in the world of
composition is great
and only growing.
fewer still create so many opportunities for their composers to hear new work. And for
most of the last decade we have deepened and enriched these collaborative experiences
even further with a composer-in-residence program, developing personal connections
between students and some of the leading artists of our time.
With Kaija Saariaho’s visit last October, the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble featured the
school’s eighth composer in residence in a concert dedicated to her extraordinary music.
Her longtime collaborator, violinist and Curtis alumna Jennifer Koh, joined the ensemble
to present a program of chamber music that concluded with the chamber orchestra version
of her violin concerto, Graal théâtre. Ms. Saariaho also gave a master class for student
composers and presented her vocal music to voice and opera students. (As of this writing
she has two operas in production in New York and is the first female composer in over
a century to have a work running at the Metropolitan Opera.) She and I shared a
pre-concert conversation that was streamed live, and she met with composition student
Emily Cooley and me to record an installment our vodcast series “Revolution: Modernism.”
24 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

Ms. Saariaho’s residency in October built on a program that has featured some of the
most influential, august voices in the field of composing today. Nine years ago, I asked John
Corigliano to be the first composer in residence at Curtis. John had been my teacher when
I attended a New York conservatory (whose name begins with J), and I knew him to be
a committed educator in addition to being one of the world’s most recognized composers.
At that point he had very little contact with Curtis, which I felt was a bonus: Our students
got to know the work of a living master, and John got to know the artistic excellence
of the school firsthand.
Our second composer in residence was the inimitable Joan Tower, and with her residency
began the practice of seeking repeat performances in New York and elsewhere. The Curtis
20/21 Ensemble took her portrait concert to Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, a
destination venue for new music where we have since developed an ongoing relationship.
Joan was thrilled with our students’ embrace of her music—indeed, the New York Times
commented that “Ms. Tower could hardly have hoped for more passionate performances.”
LEGENDS AND ROLE MODELS
Following Joan in 2011–12 was George Crumb (to whom Curtis gave an honorary doctorate
in 2016). Dr. Crumb performed his Mundus Canis onstage at Field Concert Hall with his
friend and frequent collaborator, Curtis guitar instructor David Starobin. Curtis 20/21 then
took his music to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. for the annual Conservatory
Project there. I remember one student, after coaching with the iconic composer, emerging
from the practice room to say, in a daze, “I just spent an hour with George Crumb!”
The next year we invited Steven Stucky, one of the greatest composers—and people—
I’ve had the pleasure to meet in my life. That Steve passed away at a relatively young
age a year ago only highlights how lucky we were to be able to work with him. Steve was
the most tireless advocate for new music and composers, and he was the best role model
we could ask for to work with our students. We commissioned and performed a chamber
version of Steve’s song cycle The Stars and the Roses.
We celebrated Krzysztof Penderecki’s 80th birthday in 2013–14 with a concert at
Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, where he conducted Curtis 20/21 in two of his pieces for
string orchestra. The next year brought us Steve Mackey, who did triple duty: hosting
a concert, conducting his Indigenous Instruments, and shredding on his Physical Property for
electric guitar and string quartet. For that program we had the help of Eighth Blackbird,
the supreme American new music group whose three years as ensemble in residence at
Curtis made a huge impact on our students.
In 2015–16 the superb Korean composer Unsuk Chin joined us for a residency, and
she was so taken by our students’ artistry that, following rehearsals of her music, she asked
them to play other repertoire—whatever they were working on—just so she could sit and
enjoy hearing these extraordinary young musicians play. They have been performing her
phenomenal Piano Etudes at the school ever since.
The ability to bring in composers of this caliber from all over the world has been
a game changer for the performance culture of the school. There is an ever-growing
appreciation for new music among Curtis students, and performing contemporary works,
whether by world-renowned resident composers or fellow students, will have lasting effects
on the breadth of their careers and scope of their artistry. Our students will become the
next generation of leading musicians who play contemporary music as an essential part
of their careers. Their students, in turn, will observe and inherit this practice, completing
a virtuous circle of commitment to the continuation of the art form we care so deeply about.
These young musicians—and all of us who are composers, performers, or simply
passionate listeners—can take heart in the vitality of our music of our time, and the
powerful voices of living artists who speak directly to us through their work.
David Ludwig is the Gie and Lisa Liem Dean of Artistic Programs and Performance, a member of the
composition faculty, and artistic director of the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble.
Our students will
become the next
generation of leading
musicians who play
contemporary music
as an essential part
of their careers.
Opposite:
Top left: George Crumb coached pianist Andrew Hsu
during his residency in 2012. PHOTO: DAVID LUDWIG
Top right: Unsuk Chin in conversation with
David Ludwig before her residency recital in 2015.
PHOTO: MICKEY WELDE
Bottom: Steve Mackey conducted and played
electric guitar in a performance with students
and members of eighth blackbird in 2015.
PHOTO: MICKEY WELDE
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
25

FIRST PERSON
An Indispensable Addition
LENFEST HALL’S FIRST FIVE YEARS, FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
BY THOMAS OLTARZEWSKI
Above and opposite top left: On opening day in 2011
President Roberto Díaz, with benefactors Marguerite
and H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest, led a jovial procession from
the main building to Lenfest Hall; later, the Curtis
community enjoyed a reception in the expansive
Gould Rehearsal Hall. PHOTOS: DAVID SWANSON
Opposite: Life around Lenfest Hall in the dining
area, the computer lab, gathering spaces, and
practice rooms PHOTOS: PETE CHECCHIA
On a rainy day in September 2011, I arrived on Locust Street for my first official event as
a Curtis student. The convocation ceremony in Field Concert Hall welcomed those of us
who were new students, and then it was time to celebrate another new addition to Curtis.
Students, staff, and distinguished guests filed out into a downpour—popping colorful Curtis
umbrellas ordered for the occasion—and reconvened a block away. Despite Mother Nature’s
attempt to literally rain on the parade down Locust Street, the feeling of excitement was
palpable as President Roberto Díaz made the day’s big announcement: After years of
planning, fundraising, and construction, Lenfest Hall was open for business.
Since that day just over five years ago I have watched, from multiple angles, as Lenfest
Hall became integral to the Curtis campus. I was an off-campus student as the building
opened, visiting mostly for classes and meals. Then I became a resident, enjoying views of
the city from my ninth-floor suite. As a student worker, I spent time looking after the young
residents of Curtis Summerfest. Now, as a member of the Curtis staff, I have a front-row
seat to observe today’s students moving in, moving out, and taking advantage of everything
the building has to offer.
Curtis has long been known for its vibrant, tightly-knit community of students living
and performing in close proximity to one another. Lenfest Hall added a new dimension to
the Curtis experience for all students, not just those who live in its eighteen residential suites.
The state-of-the-art rehearsal and practice spaces have been a huge resource, effectively
26 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

Students are not shy about
taking advantage of the freedom
to practice at any hour of the day
or night; when a resident, I took
part in more than a few rehearsals
that stretched into the wee hours.
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
27

FIRST PERSON
The dining hall is an
important social hub.
Because practically every
student spends time in the
dining hall, meals offer an
opportunity for students to
interact regardless of their
ages, nationalities, or majors.
Above: Lunchtime in Gould Dining Hall
PHOTOS: PETE CHECCHIA
doubling the amount of space available to students. Students are not shy about taking
advantage of the freedom to practice at any hour of the day or night; when a resident,
I took part in more than a few rehearsals that stretched into the wee hours. The largest
space in the building, Gould Rehearsal Hall has had an appropriately oversized influence
on musical life here, with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra enjoying a spacious home in
which to rehearse ambitious, large-scale programs like last year’s memorable rendition
of Berio’s Sinfonia. Gould has also served as a flexible performance space, hosting recitals
requiring unconventional set-ups and Curtis’s acclaimed Family Concerts (not to mention
at least one illicit, late-night soccer game!). As a student composer, I was particularly
excited to discover the cutting-edge audio-visual studio overlooking the hall. Over time,
more and more students have made use of these technological resources, learning to
operate state-of-the-art equipment and incorporating technology in their performances
and compositions.
DINING IN
For both residents and off-campus students, the new dining hall has been one of the
most appreciated additions at Curtis. Just having an accessible source of healthful meals
represents a huge improvement for students who once had to grab meals on the go from
local luncheonettes, street vendors, and the cheese and crackers at Wednesday afternoon
tea. The hall’s food-service providers, Parkhurst Dining Services, go above and beyond to
meet the unique challenges posed by feeding a diverse, international, health-focused student
population who eat more like athletes than artists. (More than once, food-service staff have
described their awe at the incredible rate at which Curtis students consume salad!)
Beyond the food itself, the dining hall is an important social hub. Because practically
every student spends time in the dining hall, meals offer an opportunity for students to
interact regardless of their ages, nationalities, and instruments or majors. This has resulted
in some unlikely cross-departmental friendships, and quite a few musical collaborations
have gotten their start during a lunchtime chat—an especially welcome opportunity for
composers, who are always on the hunt for friends to play our work!
Perhaps the most meaningful expansion has been to the Curtis residential experience.
For the first time in Curtis’s history, undergraduate students follow a traditional college
route, moving into on-campus housing for their first two years. Initial worries that this might
dampen the famously independent spirit of Curtis’s off-campus community faded quickly,
as incoming residents formed fast friendships and benefited from a safe setting for their first
extended experience away from home or living in a new country. Younger residents focus
on their studies and practice while also learning valuable life skills, such as navigating
roommate relationships, in a manageable environment. In a few short years, I’ve seen
many students who were paired as roommates by mere chance grow into inseparable
friends, often choosing to live together even after they’ve graduated from Curtis. While it’s
not required, some older students, including myself, have also chosen to live in Lenfest Hall,
taking advantage of the in-house amenities and serving as valuable mentors to their young
colleagues, both musically and socially.
On that rainy day five years ago, as we entered a shiny new building, we hoped—but
couldn’t be sure—that Lenfest Hall would quickly become indispensable to life at Curtis.
Now, no longer an addition, it feels like it has always been a part of Curtis. It’s a home.
It has been a joy to experience the myriad relationships fostered here: Friendships have
formed, shy students have found their voice, young students have grown into leaders
and mentors.
And one composer had such a great experience living at Curtis that he figured out
a way to stick around.
Thomas Oltarzewski, a 2013 composition graduate, is digital content producer at Curtis. He has also
worked in the department of artistic programs and performance.
28 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

THE COMPLEAT MUSICIAN
These days, in many places,
anxiety fits the mood.
It is credited or blamed
for disturbing, even surreal,
turns of events. All over
the world, people are voting,
literally or figuratively,
to reject something and
risk something else.
Age of Anxiety
STUDYING EXISTENTIALISM OFFERS INSIGHTS INTO THE MODERN ERA.
BY JAMES MOYER
The Concept of Anxiety was the strikingly modern title that the 19th-century Danish philosopher
Søren Kierkegaard gave to one of his books. Kierkegaard faces this unpleasant emotion
and makes it central to his view of human freedom. Anxiety is as old as humanity, but the
book seems also to imply that anxiety is modern, and that more and more people will feel
it, if not face it. These days, in many places, anxiety fits the mood. It is credited or blamed
for disturbing, even surreal, turns of events. All over the world, people are voting, literally
or figuratively, to reject something and risk something else.
Curtis students may be rather insulated from such events, and are aware of their
insulation—which makes them not so insulated, after all. “My being is highly conflicted,”
writes one of my students. “At Curtis, we are extremely shielded in comfort, and what is
happening in the ‘real world’ seems not to happen to us.” Kierkegaard’s analysis of anxiety
is so trenchant and enduring because of the use he says we should make of it. Anxiety,
Above: James Moyer PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
Top left: Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger,
and Jean-Paul Sartre are among the authors of
existentialism covered in a course offered last fall.
PHOTO OF HEIDEGGER: LANDESARCHIV BADEN-WÜRTTENBERG
ARCHIVES
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
29

THE COMPLEAT MUSICIAN
he says, just is the emotional sign or symptom of my freedom. I am anxious because
I can choose among possibilities and the outcome is unknown to me. If I were not uniquely
a choosing being—“if a human being were a beast or an angel,” as he puts it—then I
wouldn’t be anxious. I should pay attention to my anxiety, rather than try, as I too often
do, to alleviate it by letting others choose for me or evading my choice. “The deeper
the anxiety, the greater the man,” Kierkegaard provocatively says—“greater” meaning
something like “more dignified, because the author of his or her life.”
Kierkegaard is retrospectively a founder of existentialism, which restores the
emotions—especially the “yucky” ones, as my students and I call them—to the center
of philosophical inquiry dominated by rationalism. Martin Heidegger, writing roughly
a century later, builds on Kierkegaard by saying that angst is about my being. I am anxious
about being in the world as such—and about, one day, my no longer being. What makes
angst uniquely “yucky” is that I can’t locate its source—unlike fear, which clearly threatens
me from without. Angst is close, so close I can avoid it only by avoiding myself, by avoiding
or denying my time-bound freedom to choose among possibilities. Who do I want to be?
Will I be up to the challenge? Am I wasting my time? Angst is that restless, wordless
feeling that murmurs such questions, if I take time to listen—if I am “attuned” to it,
in Heidegger’s aural metaphor.
“The deeper the anxiety,
the greater the man,”
Kierkegaard provocatively
says—“greater” meaning
something like “more
dignified, because the
author of his or her life.”
WHAT TO DO?
Another student, after worrying that people in power are normalizing “sexism, racism,
bullying, xenophobia, and the non-existence of climate change,” says simply, and not
so simply: “What am I doing?” Note that any of those things may frighten me or
people I care about, but what gives me angst is me: what I am to do, whether I can,
whether I should.
The existentialist, whether godly like Kierkegaard or an atheist like Jean-Paul Sartre,
thinks that no one can answer these questions but me. And once I’ve answered them,
anxieties about new possibilities follow, which I evade or face. By their analysis of anxiety,
boredom, ressentiment (resentment)—another feeling much in the news of the world—and
other disagreeable emotions, the existentialists individuate what often seems attributable
to the public, crowd, or group. If I’m told, or tell myself, that “the group is anxious and
resentful,” this becomes one more way I evade or justify my own anxiety or resentment,
rather than face its meaning for me, what it says about my life, and how my choice
affects others.
Today’s world is uncertain and disturbing in ways that give the lie to “the end of
history” and other nostrums that comforted after the Cold War, as global capitalism
reached far and wide with the upbeat pretext of consumerism. Rarely has philosophy,
not least existentialism, been so readily invoked in journalism as in recent months, for
the effort—the need—to make sense of who we are in confusing times is one description
of philosophy. “Man is in anguish,” says Sartre, bringing another, maybe the least pleasant,
emotion to bear—anguish adding to angst the pain of responsibility I cannot escape and
that I convey to others through my example, be it courageous or cowardly.
Another student, paradoxically, finds this terrible uncertainty “optimistic” even while
a “burden”: “Nothing is ready-made, there is no prototype. We must make something
out of ourselves and we have no choice but to accept that responsibility and embrace it,
no matter how difficult that might be. There is undoubtedly a pressure one feels when one
thinks for all mankind, but there certainly is a beauty—that we are free, ‘we are freedom,’
as Sartre says, we are ‘condemned to be free.’”
James Moyer, Ph.D., a member of the liberal arts faculty, teaches philosophy and literature. His course
on existentialism was offered last fall.
30 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

MEET THE ALUMNI
Enterprising Ideas
CURTIS ALUMNI WIN GRANTS RECOGNIZING ENTREPRENEURSHIP.
BY LAURA SANCKEN
In 2016 Curtis announced its first alumni entrepreneur grants for projects highlighting
innovation, sustainable community impact, and creative employment of musicianship and
skill. After receiving an overwhelming response to the call for applications, Curtis awarded
three grants of $2,200 each in the categories of Community, Performance, and Innovation.
Here, the alumni recipients discuss their projects.
“I want an everyday person to hear
what I’m doing, no matter what it
sounds like, and relate.”
—Gabriel Globus-Hoenich
COMMUNITY
BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS
“Playing doesn’t have to mean playing at Carnegie Hall, and teaching doesn’t mean being
in a static classroom environment.”
So says percussionist and 2008 Curtis graduate Gabriel Globus-Hoenich. In 2015
he joined forces with Brazilian percussionist Rogerio Boccato to create PlasticBand,
a drumming project that partners with the New York City Department of Probation to
build community. A NeON Arts Grant from the Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute helped
them to create an initial ten-week program of free drumming classes for probation clients
and community members in Harlem. Using found objects as instruments, they encouraged
everybody to participate in the creation of music.
“Every day at 5 p.m., we were here to make music. We had a chant: ‘We are a Plastic
Band,’” Gabriel recalls. Both probation officers and clients would join in this weekly chant
together, often ad-libbing off each other and breaking down barriers to make music. In its
final event, PlasticBand gave a performance for the community with guitarist Lionel Loueke
and community partners from the New York Mission Society and Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance.
Through PlasticBand, Gabriel realized how blending performance and teaching could
build community and appreciative audiences at the same time. “I want an everyday person
to hear what I’m doing, no matter what it sounds like, and relate. If the music is complex,
like a foreign language, you need to pull them in to understand it. I feel like the audiences,
who are typically families of my students, appreciate this.”
With the grant from Curtis, Gabriel hopes to expand PlasticBand as both an educational
and artistic organization, and commission teaching artists to create, perform, and record
original compositions.
Gabriel Globus-Hoenich (Timpani and Percussion ’08)
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
31

MEET THE ALUMNI
The Clarion Quartet (clockwise from left):
Bronwyn Banerdt (Cello ’08), Jennifer
Orchard (Violin ’91), Tatjana Mead Chamis
(Viola ’94), Marta Krechkovsky
PHOTO: JEFF SWENSON
PERFORMANCE
“This is our call for the music of these suppressed
composers to break free of the silence imposed on them.”
—Tatjana Mead Chamis
IN A NEW LIGHT
What, exactly, is “degenerate” music?
Under the Nazi regime, the term (“entartete” in German) meant music of modernist
tendencies rather than Romantic ones, and especially the work of Jewish composers.
In 2016 four string players from the Pittsburgh Symphony—three of them Curtis alumni—
joined together to perform “entartete” music alongside a speaker who provided historical
context, noting how composers labeled “degenerate” were silenced through persecution
or imprisonment. The musicians quickly realized how important and powerful it was to
give these composers a voice again, and the Clarion Quartet was born.
“The word ‘clarion’ means a trumpet call, a clear signal,” says violist Tatjana Mead
Chamis. “This is our call for the music of these suppressed composers to break free of the
silence imposed on them.” Tatjana and her colleagues—violinists Jennifer Orchard and
Marta Krechovsky and cellist Bronwyn Banerdt—decided to make the quartet a permanent
ensemble, dedicated to educating audiences and musicians about the artistry of these
oppressed composers.
Shortly after that first performance, the four musicians found themselves in Europe
on a Pittsburgh Symphony tour. During a day off, they arranged a performance at Terezin,
the former Nazi concentration camp near Prague known for promoting cultural activity as
a smokescreen for its actual purpose. “The Attic,” a cramped space where cultural events
took place when the camp was active, became the Clarion Quartet’s concert venue to give
voice to works by two composers who perished in concentration camps, Viktor Ullmann
and Erwin Schulhoff, as well as a new work by Boris Pigovat. The orchestra bused in several
dozen musicians and music director Manfred Honeck to witness this powerful performance.
The quartet has since performed in Pittsburgh on the November anniversary of Kristallnacht
and has booked performances through Jewish communities across the country.
The Clarion Quartet’s goal is to bring this music to young people who wouldn’t have
heard it otherwise. “We want this [music] to be a celebration,” says Jennifer. “This music needs
to be heard. It’s emotional, but it’s very happy, too.” Tatjana adds, “It is some of the best
music written of that time, it’s just that most people haven’t had the pleasure to know it.”
28 32 OVERTONES SPRING FALL 2015 2017

MEET THE ALUMNI
“It is very rare to find solo vocals
in interactive music. It is even
more rare to find interactive
melodies based on evolving
harmonic structures.”
—Elizabeth Zharoff
INNOVATION
A VOICE FOR VIDEO GAMES
In 2012 the music for the video game Journey made a kind of music history. Austin
Wintory, who wrote the music for the game, was nominated for a Grammy Award alongside
legendary movie music composers, bringing unprecedented attention to the field of videogame
music and setting the stage for the innovations of opera alumna Elizabeth Zharoff.
A lifelong gaming fan as well as a soprano who is currently a young artist with LA Opera,
Elizabeth became interested in developing music for video games to fill a void in the field.
“Video-game composers have primarily been creating interactive music which relies on
changes in orchestration. It is very rare to find solo vocals in interactive music,” she says.
“It is even more rare to find interactive melodies based on evolving harmonic structures.”
Enter Elizabeth’s company, Vocal Video Games, which focuses on incorporating vocal
music into video games, using voice to heighten emotion within the game. Vocal Video
Games creates opportunities for video-game composers to write for voice using middleware,
a software that allows music to develop and react as the player makes choices moving
throughout a game. Interactive music has existed as long as video games have been in
production, but middleware allows for quicker reaction and, as a result, much more
complex music.
Among Elizabeth’s successes in adding classical voice to the video-game repertoire is
a new album, Song Cycle: The History of Video Games, which she directed and produced with
the Materia Collective. A compilation of video-game music written for voice, the recording
adds a new facet to the repertoire for classical singers. With her grant from Curtis, Elizabeth
says, she hopes she’ll “be able to point current students towards a musical frontier that is
flourishing with possibility.”
Elizabeth Zharoff (Opera ’12)
Laura Sancken is director of alumni and parent relations at Curtis.
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
33

NOTATIONS
NOTATIONS
ALUMNI
1950s
RONALD LEONARD (Cello ’55)
performed Beethoven’s complete
Cello Sonatas and Variations with
pianist Fabio Bidini, his colleague
at the Colburn School, in two
sold-out concerts in December.
JOSÉ SEREBRIER (Composition ’58)
has been co-commissioned by the
American Composers Orchestra
and the BIS record label to compose
a piano concerto, Symphonic BACH
Variations, to be recorded by
pianist Yevgeny Sudbin.
1960s
DAVID BROWN (Piano ’67, Composition
’73) received a 2016 Steinway
and Sons Top Teacher Award
from Jacobs Music for outstanding
instruction and leadership in
piano education.
1970s
NANCY BEAN (Viola ’71), DAVID
CRAMER (Flute ’75), LLOYD SMITH
(Cello ’65), and ANNE SULLIVAN
(Harp ’81) performed a recital in
March as part of the 1807 & Friends
series in Philadelphia. Lloyd and
Nancy are members of the Wister
Quartet, which celebrates its 30th
anniversary this season. The quartet
will present a recital in April with
guest artist KERRI RYAN (Violin ’98),
Alumni may share news
of recent professional
activities and personal
milestones by e-mail to
alumnirelations@curtis.edu
or by post to Laura
Sancken, Curtis Institute
of Music, 1726 Locust St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19103.
Notes are edited for length
and frequency.
and in May with guest artist
CYNTHIA RAIM (Piano ’74).
JAMES ADLER
(Piano ’73,
Composition ’76)
performed his
piano concerto,
A Walk Through
an English
Garden, with
James Adler
Queer Urban
Orchestra (QUO)
under Julie Desbordes last April at
Church of the Holy Apostles, New
York City. The work was recently
published by Alfred Music.
As a member of the Amerigo
Trio, KAREN DREYFUS (Viola ’79)
performed at the Westchester
Chamber Music Society in Rye, N.Y.
in November and at Music on the
Mountain in Ojai, Calif. in December.
She joined Glenn Dicterow, Wendy
Putnam, and MICHAEL REYNOLDS
(Cello ’77) in a Concord Chamber
Music Society performance in March.
This April, she will participate
in a collaborative concert at the
Manhattan School of Music with
faculty and students in the orchestra
performance program. She will
teach at the Music Academy
of the West this summer.
DAVID FISHER (Cello ’79) is
the chairman of dermatology at
Massachusetts General Hospital
at Harvard Medical School. David
continues to perform, and recently
participated in a performance of
Schubert’s String Quartet in C major
in Boston. He and his wife Claire
and family of four sons suffered
a tragedy last June when their
second-oldest son, Samuel, died
suddenly at age 24 after completing
a charity triathlon. Their oldest son,
Jonathan, married in December.
Chin Kim
CHIN KIM
(Violin ’79)
gave a recital
at the Mannes
School of Music
in November.
Over the
summer, he
performed and
taught at the Summit Music
Festival in New York and at the
Green Mountain Chamber Music
Festival in North Carolina.
1980s
MICHAEL LUDWIG (Violin ’82) has
been appointed artist in residence
and professor of violin at Montclair
State University. He began teaching
in September.
In August, DAVID BERNARD
(Clarinet ’84) was appointed
music director of the Massapequa
Philharmonic in New York. In
November, he led the Park Avenue
Chamber Symphony and a chorus
of 200 voices in a performance
at Carnegie Hall that included
the New York premiere of Jake
Runestad’s Dreams of the Fallen
and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9
with BRIAN KONTES (Opera ’00)
as the bass soloist.
DARON HAGEN’s (Composition ’84)
Cantabile for koto and cello was
premiered by Duo Yumeno in May
at the George Nakashima House
in New Hope, Pa. The piece was
then performed on tour in Japan
and the United States, culminating
in a September performance at
Bargemusic in New York.
In August and September PAUL
BRANTLEY (Composition ’85)
held a fellowship at the MacDowell
Colony, where he completed his
concertino The Royal Revolver,
for cellist Eric Jacobsen and the
University of Michigan Symphony.
His work for cello and piano,
My Dream of the Lost Schumann
Romances (which Clara burned),
was performed on a winter tour
by cellist Peter Seidenberg and
pianist Hui-Mei Lin. Paul premiered
and performed new solo cello
pieces on his Bach Legacy Recital
for the Washington Heights Musical
Society in October.
DAVID DePETERS (Timpani and
Percussion ’85) was named CEO of
the National Repertory Orchestra in
Breckenridge, Colo. beginning in April.
In June DAVID McGILL (Bassoon ’85)
was a guest artist and clinician at
the Glickman Popkin Bassoon Camp
in Little Switzerland, N.C. In July,
he travelled to the Ravenna Festival
of Music in Italy to teach and to
perform Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto
and a newly-discovered 1853 work
by Francesco Cappa, premiered
under the direction of Riccardo Muti.
Upon returning home to Evanston,
Ill., he received a last-minute request
from Daniel Barenboim to substitute
as principal bassoon on a 30-day
tour of Argentina, England, Austria,
Switzerland, and Spain with the
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and
pianist Martha Argerich. He says,
“it was the greatest summer of my
life! Being asked to perform with
two of my former music directors
was a thrill and an honor, especially
since I retired from orchestral
playing in 2014.”
AUDREY AXINN (Accompanying
’88) taught a master class in
collaborative piano at Oberlin
Conservatory in October. Audrey
teaches collaborative piano and
performance practice at Mannes
School of Music. She is also a
member of the chamber music
faculty at the Juilliard School.
1990s
ZVI CARMELI (Viola ’90) was
appointed senior lecturer for
viola and chamber music at the
Jerusalem Academy of Music and
Dance in Israel.
MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA
(Conducting ’91), chief conductor
of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra
and music director of the Fort
Worth Symphony Orchestra, made
guest appearances with the Curtis
Symphony Orchestra in February
and the Bremen Philharmonic in
March. He will conduct the Orquesta
National de España in April and the
Montreal Symphony in May.
MICHELE HEMMINGS (Voice ’91),
J’NAI BRIDGES (Opera ’12), and
ELIZABETH ZHAROFF (Opera ’12)
performed together in Phillip
34 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

NOTATIONS
Glass’s Akhnaten with the LA
Opera in November. J’nai sang
the role of Nefertiti, and Michele
and Elizabeth were Daughters of
Akhnaten.
Michele
Hemmings,
J’nai
Bridges, and
Elizabeth
Zharoff
PAOLO BORDIGNON (Organ ’96,
Harpsichord ’96) directed the
choir of St. Paul’s Methodist Church
in music of Stanford and Walton, with
orchestra, last June at the national
convention of the American Guild
of Organists in Houston. Also in
June, they performed the Duruflé
Requiem with chamber orchestra
and BRYAN ANDERSON (Organ ’15).
For a week in July, the choir was
in residence at St. Mary’s Episcopal
Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland.
ALISON BUCHANAN (Opera '96)
performed with the Philadelphia
Orchestra in December on its
“Glorious Sound of Christmas”
program at the Kimmel Center’s
Verizon Hall.
Boston Opera Collaborative
premiered Always by JONATHAN
BAILEY HOLLAND (Composition ’96)
during its Opera Bites festival of
ten-minute operas in November
in Cambridge, Mass.
Nikola Mijailovic
NIKOLA
MIJAILOVIC
(Opera ’96)
performed the
role of Zurga
in Bizet’s Pearl
Fishers at Israeli
Opera in Tel
Aviv last June.
TIMOTHY FAIN (Violin ’98)
appeared as soloist with the
Pittsburgh Symphony in January
2016 and with the National
Orchestra of Spain last April.
He performed at Forbes’s Under
30 Music Festival at the Tower
of David in Jerusalem in April and
joined pianist Simone Dinnerstein
in recital at Bitterroot PAC in
Missoula, Montana in November.
SARAH IOANNIDES (Conducting
’98), music director of Symphony
Tacoma, is finishing her twelfth and
Divergent Paths
Curtis is renowned worldwide for the musical education it provides its students. But how exactly does that
training inform those students’ later careers—including those careers that take an unusual turn? This is the
first in a series that seeks to answer this question and, in doing so, to show the diversity and richness of the
Curtis alumni experience.
Always More to Learn
BY WILLIAM SHORT (BASSOON ’10)
NATHAN VEDAL (’10) and DEREK ZADINSKY (’11) have a lot in common. Both are from Seattle, and both
entered Curtis in 2006 to study double bass. Their subsequent paths have diverged, but provide a perfect
example of how universally applicable the Curtis experience is.
After graduating, Derek won a section bass position with the Cleveland Orchestra and now teaches at the
Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and Cleveland State University. Nathan, having studied
Chinese in high school and through Curtis’s reciprocal agreement with the University of Pennsylvania, is now
in his final year of study toward a Ph.D. in Chinese history at Harvard University while working as a freelance
bassist in Boston.
Nathan and Derek share remarkably similar sentiments about what made their Curtis experience significant.
“I had never been in an environment before where everybody was at the same or higher level of playing than
I was,” says Derek. The “constant influence” of peers “was crucial to how much I was able to improve at Curtis.”
That could have been intimidating, Nathan
and Derek agree, if it weren’t for the collegial
The devotion Nathan felt from his culture of the bass studio. Nathan recalls
that ALEXANDER HANNA (’07)—now principal
teachers at Curtis is “something that bass of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—
“wrote us e-mails before we even got to
I hope I can replicate for my own Curtis, just asking, ‘Hey, do you have any
questions? I’m happy to help however I can.’”
students in a very different arena.” This down-to-earth quality was modeled
by Curtis’s bass faculty, HAROLD HALL
(“HAL”) ROBINSON and EDGAR MEYER.
“Whatever Hal did as a bass player or as a
person, we wanted to emulate,” recalls Derek.
“When you were face-to-face with him, it was
as if you were the only thing that mattered
to him. Now that I’m a teacher myself, I try
to recreate that environment as much as
I can.” This sentiment is echoed by Nathan.
In teaching Chinese history to undergraduates
at Harvard, he says, the devotion he felt
from his teachers at Curtis is “something that
I hope I can replicate for my own students in
Nathan Vedal
Derek Zadinsky
a very different arena.”
In fact, Derek notes, his time at Curtis
provided a starting point for virtually every aspect of his teaching. When invited to join the faculties of the
schools where he now teaches, he faced a conundrum: “I never read a book or took a class on how to become
a good teacher. But I couldn’t turn down the opportunities just because I was inexperienced as an educator.”
He soon realized he could start by recalling his work with his Curtis teachers, “stealing some things from both
of them and fusing them together into something new.”
Lessons Nathan learned from the compassion and demands of the Curtis bass studio (and also, he
emphasizes, from conductor OTTO-WERNER MUELLER) still directly influence his work as a freelance bassist.
But his academic pursuits, too, bear the stamp of his time at Curtis. As with playing music, research in
15th-century Chinese history is “not something that I will ever complete. There’s always going to be more to
learn,” he says, adding that the intensely discerning self-criticism Hal Robinson worked to instill in him remains
central to his work today. “When I write something, I have to apply standards of logic. I might think that I’m
making a really compelling argument, but realize that there’s some flaw in the logic, like a flaw in intonation.
In order to make it a really outstanding product, you need to address that.”
When learning an instrument, he continues, “on a bad day, you feel like you can’t play, and it’s very frustrating.
But on a good day, it’s exciting to know that there’s new repertoire, new styles to explore.” The same applies
to his studies in Chinese history: “It’s nice to know that I’m never going to get bored, that there’s always
something new to learn.”
William Short is principal bassoon with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
35

NOTATIONS
final season as music director
of the Spartanburg Philharmonic.
In August, Sarah led the Cincinnati
Chamber Orchestra in the world
premiere of Roberto Sierra’s
Carribean Rhapsody and created
a film of Milhaud’s La Création
du monde. She conducted the
Hawaii Symphony Orchestra with
RAY CHEN (Violin ’10) in October,
led Tan Dun’s Water Passion at
the Stavros Niarchos Festival in
Greece last June, and premiered
Marie Samuelsson’s Eroseffekt och
Solidaritet with the Nordic Chamber
Orchestra in Sweden in November.
DANIEL
KELLOGG’s
(Composition
’99) violin
concerto Rising
Phoenix was
performed by
YUMI HWANG-
Daniel Kellogg
WILLIAMS
(Violin ’91)
in October with the Colorado
Symphony Orchestra.
2000s
In November PAUL JACOBS
(Organ ’00) joined the Philadelphia
Orchestra and YANNICK NÉZET-
SÉGUIN to celebrate the tenth
anniversary of Verizon Hall’s
Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ.
The program, which consisted
entirely of works featuring the
organ, included the world premiere
of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer
Christopher Rouse’s Organ
Concerto, dedicated to Paul.
He also performed Barber’s
Toccata Festiva and Saint-Saëns’
Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”).
After 13 seasons with the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra, CHARLES
SETTLE (Timpani and Percussion ’00)
will join the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra as principal percussionist
in Fall 2017. He will also join the
faculty of the Glenn Gould School
of the Royal Conservatory this fall.
Last fall TIME FOR THREE, including
NICK KENDALL (Violin ’01), RANAAN
MEYER (Double Bass ’03), and
Charles Yang, performed on the
Night of the Proms Tour in Europe,
including stops in Belgium, the
Netherlands, Luxembourg, England,
and Germany. In January and
February, they performed for
Milestones
Births
EVAN M. BOYER (Opera ’10) and
his wife, Alejandra, gave birth
to their daughter, Sofía Elisa,
on May 24.
MARGO T. DRAKOS (Cello ’99)
and husband Nick are honored
to announce the birth of their
daughter, Arete Magdalena
Drakos, on June 18.
LILY FRANCIS (Violin ’06) and
JOHANNES DICKBAUER (Violin ’07)
announce the birth of their son,
Oliver Francis, on October 2.
His sister Ella Francis, age 2,
is very proud.
On June 5 VICTORIA KRUKOWSKI
(Clarinet ’93) and husband Dennis
welcomed a baby boy, named
Dennis Edward Krukowski, Jr. He
joins siblings Nick, 16; Aidan, 13;
Luke, 11; Lucas, 10; Catherine, 7;
and Andrew, 6.
MARVIN MOON (Viola ’03) and
Jiyeon Kim welcomed their
daughter Chloe to the world
on August 23.
MICHAEL LUDWIG (Violin ’82)
and his wife, Rachael, welcomed
their son, Jacob Irving Ludwig,
on January 24.
MARY YONG (Viola ’10) and
her husband welcomed a son,
Jason Jaeon Han, to the world
on December 4.
Deaths
We mourn the loss of these
members of the Curtis community
and send our condolences to their
families and friends.
A. KENDALL BETTS (Horn ’69)
passed away on August 16 in
Sugar Hill, N.H. A graduate of
Interlochen Arts Academy, Kendall
earned degrees from both Curtis
and the University of Pennsylvania.
After graduation, Kendall began
his career as associate principal
horn with the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Just a year later, he joined the
Philadelphia Orchestra under
Eugene Ormandy, where he played
until 1975. As a freelance musician,
he performed with many orchestras
across the country before joining
the Minnesota Orchestra in 1979 as
principal horn, a position he held
until 2004. Kendall is also the
founder of the Kendall Betts Horn
Camp in Lisbon, N.H., as well
as Cormont Music, a nonprofit
dedicated to promoting the
French horn through education,
performance, and publishing.
ANN NISBET COBB (Harp ’41,
Voice ’41) passed away in Natick,
Mass. on August 1. In addition to
graduating from Curtis, Ann also
held degrees from Salem College
and the Eastman School of Music.
In the 1940s, she was a member of
the General Electric Hour of Charm
Orchestra in New York City and
was a member of the Minnesota
Orchestra during the 1949–50
season. A gifted singer, she sang
with Chorus Pro Musica in Boston,
in addition to the countless harp
performances she gave in the
Boston area.
ROBERT COLE (Flute ’51) passed
away on December 23. Following
three years of service in the U.S.
Coast Guard during World War II,
Robert came to study at Curtis. He
joined the Philadelphia Orchestra’s
flute section in 1949 under the
leadership of Eugene Ormandy.
In 1962 he moved his family to
Madison, Wisconsin, where he
joined the music faculty of the
University of Wisconsin, a position
he held until retirement in 1988.
Robert was a founding member
of the National Flute Association
and also served a term as president.
He is the grandfather of Curtis
alumnus NATHAN COLE (Violin ’00).
MARY “BONNIE” LUEDERS CORSARO
(Voice ’64) died on October 2 at
the age of 74. A graduate of Curtis
and the Academy of Vocal Arts,
she joined the New York City Opera
where she performed regularly
during the 1960s and 1970s. In
addition to her extensive opera
career, Bonnie played Paul
Newman’s mistress in the 1976
movie Buffalo Bill and the Indians.
In 1971 Bonnie married Frank
Corsaro, a theatre and opera
director. In the late 1970s, she
became a master flower arranger
in New York City, arranging for
the famed River Café restaurant,
among other clients. Bonnie and
Frank moved from Fisher’s Island,
N.Y., to Pennsylvania in 2000. She
created a new successful business,
Bonnie’s Best Cookies, supplying
cookies to local businesses and
across the country through a
mail-order website.
JAMES “JAMIE” DEITZ (Timpani
and Percussion ’04) passed away
on October 1. Born in New Jersey,
Jamie was a talented percussionist
from an early age. While at Curtis,
Jamie won the Albert Greenfield
Concerto competition and
performed as a soloist with the
Philadelphia Orchestra. Following
Curtis, he attended the Yale School
of Music for a master’s degree.
Jamie was a fellow of Ensemble
Connect, formerly Ensemble ACJW.
His career was wide-ranging,
including solo, orchestra, and
chamber ensemble performances
across the United States, Europe,
and Japan. In addition to music,
Jamie was a poet and loved
to write.
DORIS H. EICHER (Organ ’57)
passed away on August 6 in
Glen Arm, Md. Doris was born
and raised in Philadelphia, learning
to play piano at age 5. At age 18,
she placed second in the national
competition of the American
Guild of Organists. At Curtis she
studied with Alexander McCurdy,
which led her to organ positions
throughout Philadelphia. In 1958,
she moved to Baltimore, and
in 1963, she joined the Towson
Presbyterian Church, where she
began her 40-year tenure as
organist and director of music.
She also served 22 years as the
36 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

NOTATIONS
the Indianapolis Symphony’s Happy
Hour series. In March they appeared
with the Denver Symphony and the
Louisville Orchestra.
Last fall JESSICA LEE (Violin ’01)
was named assistant concertmaster
of the Cleveland Orchestra.
In January EFE BALTACIGIL
(Cello ’02) performed the Brahms
“Double” Concerto with DAVID
COUCHERON (Violin ’05) and the
Norwegian Radio Orchestra in
Oslo, conducted by MIGUEL
HARTH-BEDOYA (Conducting ’91).
In December CHARLES KIM
(Opera ’02) was the tenor soloist
in in Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 9 with the Seoul Philharmonic
Orchestra under the baton of
Christoph Eschenbach.
SOLOMIYA IVAKHIV (Violin ’03)
performed music from her album
Ukraine—Journey to Freedom
on recitals at Penn State’s
Esber Recital Hall and the Curtis
Institute’s Field Concert Hall in
September; and at the Embassy
of Ukraine on the Embassy Series
in Washington, D.C. in October.
In November she gave master
classes at the University of
Maryland and the University
of Hartford and in October she
performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin
Concerto with the University of
Connecticut Symphony Orchestra
at the Palace Theatre in Stamford.
DAVID COOPER (Horn ’04) has
joined the Berlin Philharmonic
as principal horn.
MENG WANG (Viola ’04) joined
the Philadelphia Orchestra viola
section in January.
WILLIAM FARRINGTON (Double
Bass ’06) was named principal
bass of the LA Opera last fall.
In January JONATHAN BEYER
(Opera ’07) performed Guglielmo
in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with
the Pasadena Opera. In March
he performed Haydn’s Missa in
Angustiis in Sault Saint Marie,
Ontario. In April he will be a soloist
in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with
the Southwest Michigan Symphony
and in Brahms’s Neue Liebeslieder
Waltzes with IlluminArts in Miami.
In October NATHAN LAUBE (Organ
’09) gave the inaugural recital on
the restored Harrison and Harrison
organ at King’s College Chapel,
Cambridge (U.K.). Other recent
performances have included
organist and choir director at
Temple Oheb Shalom in Pikesville,
Md. and as an organist at the
Chautauqua Institution for a decade.
PATRICIA “PADDY” EIFERT
(Clarinet ’52) passed away on
April 29 in Sequim, Wash. Born
in Victoria, British Columbia,
she spent her childhood dancing
ballet and learning the clarinet.
Following studies at the University
of Washington, she came to
Curtis. Here, she met her future
husband, bassoonist Otto Eifert.
They married in 1952 and bought
a piece of land in Maine, returning
there each summer. In 1961, they
settled in Cincinnati where Paddy
raised three children. After retirement,
they moved to Washington
to be near the Olympic Mountains
and Paddy’s childhood home.
She wrote a book, Nobody’s Patsy,
a memoir about growing up in
the Depression from a child’s
point of view.
LESLIE M. EITZEN (Voice ’45)
passed away in Dubois, Wyo.
on October 13. The daughter of
a Nebraska farm couple, Leslie’s
acceptance at Curtis unlocked
an opportunity and dream. She
taught voice throughout her life,
including Grand Valley State
University in Grand Rapids, Mich.,
where she established a voice
scholarship upon her retirement.
She lived at the Foulkeways retirement
community in Gwynedd, Pa.,
where she often performed with
the chorus and was well-known
for her mezzo-soprano voice.
JULES ESKIN (Cello ’52) passed
away in Brookline, Mass. on
November 15. Jules was born and
raised in Philadelphia, and began
to play cello at age 7. At age 16,
he was offered a contract with the
Dallas Symphony Orchestra. During
the Korean War, he enlisted in
an army band. During that time,
he won the Walter W. Naumburg
Foundation Award in 1954.
Following three years as principal
cello of the Cleveland Orchestra,
Jules joined the Boston Symphony
Orchestra as principal cello in
1964, a position he held until the
end of his life. That same year, he
became a founding member of the
Boston Symphony Chamber Players.
Throughout his career, he was well
known as a solo artist, chamber
musician, and BSO member.
HANNI FORESTER (Harp ’39)
died on July 30 in California. Born
in Vienna, she emigrated to the
United States in 1938. She married
Dr. Charles Forester in 1941, following
her time at Curtis. Hanni worked
as a retail executive at Macy’s from
1962 to 1989. Throughout her life,
she loved art and music, volunteering
at the Asian Art Museum in San
Francisco and enjoying countless
classical music concerts.
EMILIO GRAVAGNO (Double Bass
’58) passed away on September 24
in Philadelphia. Born in Chicago,
Emilio began playing the double
bass in high school. Following
his Curtis years, he joined the
New Orleans Symphony and the
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Emilio joined the Philadelphia
Orchestra in 1967, where he was
a member for four decades until
his retirement in 2009. He and his
wife, Carole, named the Carole H.
and Emilio A. Gravagno Double
Bass Studio in Curtis’s Lenfest
Hall. He donated his double bass,
a 19th-century Italian instrument,
to Curtis for student use.
Emilio Gravagno
JOAN MAINZER KISHKIS (Harp ’53)
passed away on December 15.
Growing up in a musical family,
Joan began playing the harp at
age 9. In 1948, she came to Curtis
to study with Carlos Salzedo. Joan
was a member of the Angelaires,
a harp quartet that performed
regularly around New York City,
including on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Following her time at Curtis, she
joined the Houston Symphony as
principal harp. Just two years later
she became principal harp of the
Minnesota Orchestra, a position
she held for 40 years.
TEMPLE C. PAINTER (Organ ’56)
passed away on August 6 in
Philadelphia. Born in Virginia, he
came to Philadelphia as a Curtis
student and remained in the city
as an active performer his entire
life. Temple worked for 45 years
as organist at Congregation Adath
Jeshurun in Elkins Park, until his
retirement in 2002. He performed
regularly with the Philadelphia
Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra
of Philadelphia, with whom he
had a 40-year relationship. He regularly
recorded harpsichord music,
in particular the music of Harold
Boatrite. He served as associate
professor of music at Haverford
College from 1969 to 1982 and was
a lecturer in music at Immaculata
University and Temple University.
Temple C. Painter
RODNEY J. Van SICKLE (Double
Bass ’57) died on October 12 in
Tucson. Born in Galt, Ontario,
Rodney played in dance and jazz
bands in Canada, studied bass at
the Toronto Conservatory of Music,
and performed with the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra before
coming to Curtis in 1953 to study
with Roger Scott. After graduating
from Curtis, he joined the Cleveland
Orchestra for two years before
joining the Pittsburgh Symphony
Orchestra in 1959, where he was a
member until his retirement in 1996.
He enjoyed retirement, traveling
the world with his wife, Mary Ann,
before moving to Tucson.
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
37

NOTATIONS
international organ festivals in Berlin,
Bordeaux, Bourges, Copenhagen,
Dresden, Freiburg, Göteborg,
Munich, and Smarano; the national
convention of the Organ Historical
Society in Philadelphia; and a
tour with the choral ensemble
Seraphic Fire.
STANFORD THOMPSON (Trumpet
’09) has been named a TED Fellow.
He will give a Ted Talk in April
in Vancouver, B.C.
2010s
EVAN BOYER
(Opera ’10)
made his
Kennedy Center
debut in March
with the Atlanta
Symphony
Orchestra in
Evan Boyer
Creation/Creator
by Christopher
Theofanidis, after first performing
the piece in Atlanta at the Woodruff
Center. He will perform Commendatore
and Masetto in Mozart’s
Don Giovanni with the Kalamazoo
Symphony Orchestra in May.
Amalia Hall
AMALIA HALL
(Violin ’12) has
been appointed
concertmaster
of the Orchestra
of Wellington in
New Zealand.
ALEXANDRA VON DER EMBSE
(Oboe ’12, ArtistYear ’16) joined the
Richmond Symphony as assistant
principal oboe and principal English
horn in the fall.
Last fall JULIAN ARSENAULT (Opera
’13) debuted at Staatsoper Hamburg
with Massimiliano Matesic’s Die
Katze Ivanka (Falana). His appearances
in Hamburg also included
Strauss’s Daphne (Dritte Schäfer)
in March and Strauss’s Die Frau ohne
Schatten (Wachter der Stadt) under
the baton of Kent Nagano in April.
He debuts with the National Opera
de Paris this fall as Pritschitisch in
Franz Lehár’s Die Lustige Witwe.
Julia Harguindey
JULIA
HARGUINDEY
(Bassoon ’13)
won the
principal
bassoon position
in the Santa Fe
Opera in August.
RICHARD LIN (Violin ’13) placed
fifth at the 15th International Henryk
Wieniawski Violin Competition in
October.
Timothy
Dilenschneider
TIMOTHY
DILENSCHNEIDER
(Double Bass
’14) joined
the Baltimore
Symphony
Orchestra in
February.
EUNICE KIM (Violin ’14) joined the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as
a permanent member in October.
DANA E. CULLEN (Horn ’15)
joined the San Antonio Symphony
in September.
ARLEN HLUSKO (Cello ’15,
ArtistYear ’16) won a Tarisio Trust
grant last May, enabling her to
found a new chamber music series,
Philadelphia Performances for
Autism, that provides free, monthly
interactive performances for
children with autism and their
families. Arlen is also currently
completing a teaching artist
apprenticeship with the New
York Philharmonic.
JIYEON KIM (Guitar ’15) won first
prize at the 2016 Concert Artists
Guild International Competition
in October. She has changed her
name and is now known as Jiji.
ROBIN
KESSELMAN
(Double Bass
’15) performed
Koussevitzky’s
Double Bass
Concerto with
the Houston
Symphony in
Robin Kesselman
February under
the baton of music director Andres
Orozco-Estrada. Robin joined the
Houston Symphony as principal
bass in April 2015.
In February, RAY CHEN (Violin ’10)
toured with the Bamberg Symphony
Orchestra and conductor Christoph
Eschenbach, including a performance
at Carnegie Hall. Other tour
stops included New Brunswick
(N.J.); Daytona, Miami, West Palm
Beach, and Vero Beach (Fla.); and
Los Angeles, San Diego, and Palm
Springs (Calif.).
NATALIE HELM (Cello ’11) is the
new principal cello of the Sarasota
Orchestra.
NIKKI CHOOI (Violin ’12) gave a
recital tour of Australia as part
of Selby and Friends in June 2016,
with stops in Sydney, Melbourne,
and Adelaide. He gave his final
performances as a member of
TIME FOR THREE with the Hong
Kong Philharmonic and at the
Grand Teton Festival, Music from
Angelfire, and La Jolla Festival
before stepping down in September
to assume his new position as
concertmaster of the Metropolitan
Opera Orchestra.
Jenny Chen
JENNY CHEN (Piano ’13) gave her
D.M.A. recital at the Eastman School
of Music in November. This recital
also served as a preview for her
recital at the Morgan Library and
Museum in December, where she
performed works from the Robert
Owen Lehman Collection of music
manuscripts. Jenny was a Young
Artist in Residence for public radio’s
Performance Today in March 2016.
Last fall ADAM
FRANDSEN
(Opera ’13)
performed the
Architect, the
lead role in Alan
John’s opera
Eighth Wonder,
Adam Frandsen with Opera
Australia. He
will sing Tamino in Mozart’s Die
Zauberflöte with Göteborg Opera
in Sweden this spring. In August,
Adam will perform Rodolfo in
Puccini’s La bohème with Opera
Hedeland in Denmark.
OTHER CURTIS FAMILY NEWS
In October 2016 the board of trustees of the Curtis Institute of Music
officially disbanded the school’s board of overseers. The move followed
an ad hoc committee’s in-depth examination of the role of the overseers
and their relationship to Curtis. The committee—led by MARK RUBENSTEIN,
chair of the Curtis board of trustees—included overseers, trustees, and
staff, and conducted numerous interviews with current and past overseers
and trustees.
Over its 20-year history, the board of overseers brought valuable
outside perspectives to Curtis and opened doors to new supporters both
nationally and internationally. The overseers also played an important role
in the development of the school’s current strategic direction. In recent
years the overseers met twice annually.
After careful consideration of the ad hoc committee’s report, the board
of trustees decided to rethink how the school should engage with
respected industry leaders. As an initial step, new bylaws approved by
the board of trustees encourage greater participation on board committees
by non-trustees. At its fall meeting the board of trustees also approved
a resolution expressing the school’s deep gratitude for the time and
energy the overseers have invested in Curtis over two decades.
38 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

NOTATIONS
STUDENTS
In November, HÉLOÏSE CARLEAN-
JONES (Harp) performed in Ravel’s
Daphnis et Chloé with the Philadelphia
Orchestra under the direction
of YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN.
Angela Chan
ANGELA CHAN (Violin) was
awarded first prize in the senior
division of the International Louis
Spohr Competition for Young
Violinists in Weimar, Germany.
She also won the prize for best
interpretation of a concerto.
In November, T.J. COLE’s (ArtistYear)
Double Play, a commission for the
centennial season of the Baltimore
Symphony, was premiered by the
orchestra under Marin Alsop in
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
The Nebula Ensemble commissioned
a chamber work that was premiered
in January in Denver.
EMILY COOLEY (Composition)
has been commissioned by the
Cincinnati Symphony to write a new
work to be performed next season.
Conner Gray
Covington
CONNER GRAY
COVINGTON
(Conducting)
has been
appointed
assistant
conductor of the
Utah Symphony,
beginning in
September.
This fall BRYAN
DUNNEWALD
(Organ) had solo
performances
at Heinz Chapel
in Pittsburgh;
St. Patrick’s
Cathedral,
St. Malachy’s
Church, and
the Central
Synagogue in
New York City;
Bryan Dunnewald the Church of
Saint Louis, King of France in
St. Paul (Minn.); Trinity Church
in Moorestown (N.J.); and for the
Little Rock (Ark.) Chapter of the
American Guild of Organists. He
also performed with the Philadelphia
Orchestra in October. In May, Bryan
will conduct the premiere of a
piece he wrote for the choirs of
Trinity Methodist Church in Denver.
Abigail Kent
ABIGAIL KENT
(Harp) will
be a featured
performer at
the 2017 World
Harp Congress
in Hong Kong
in July.
In November WEI LUO (Piano)
received the Salon de Virtuosi
Career Grant Gala Award and
performed at the Kosciuszko
Institute in New York City and
her performance was broadcast
on WQXR in early January. Also
in November, Wei was asked to
perform a recital in Wilton, Conn.
when Andre Watts was unable to
perform. In February, she performed
Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3
with the Kansas City Symphony
under the baton of MICHAEL STERN
(Conducting ’86).
STEPHEN TAVANI (Violin) was
appointed concertmaster of the
Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia
in October.
Dai Wei
Kip Zimmerman
In May, a new
work by DAI WEI
(Composition)
will be premiered
by the Chamber
Orchestra of
Philadelphia and
its music director,
Dirk Brossé,
at the Kimmel
Center’s Perelman
Theater.
In July, KIP
ZIMMERMAN
(Oboe) won
first place in
the International
Double Reed
Society
Young Artist
Competition for
Oboe in Columbus,
Ga.
FACULTY
The second edition of
AL BLATTER’s theory text,
Revisiting Music Theory: The
Basics (Routledge) was published
in January. In November he
chaired a visiting committee
for the Wheaton College Music
Department in Newton, Mass.
MICHAEL DJUPSTROM
(Composition ’11) was commissioned
by Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest to
compose a song cycle based on
poems by JEANNE McGINN, to be
performed in March and April. In
February, Michael participated in
McGill University’s George Enescu
Conference, where he performed
his Walimai, a duo for viola and
piano, with Victor Fournelle-Blain.
He also played duo recitals of
French repertoire with Carol
Jantsch, tuba, at Yale University
and Ithaca College in September.
In April 2017
TIM FITTS will
publish his
debut collection
of short stories,
Hypothermia
(MadHat Press).
In November
Tim Fitts
his novel The
Soju Club was
published in Korean translation
(Munhakdongne Press).
The commercial recording of
JENNIFER HIGDON’s (Composition
’88) Cold Mountain, conducted by
MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA (Conducting
’91) with the Santa Fe Opera,
received a Grammy nomination
for Best Opera Recording.
DAVID LUDWIG (Composition ’01)
is writing a new piano concerto
for pianist Anne-Marie McDermott,
artistic director of the Bravo! Vail
Valley Music Festival in Colorado,
in commemoration of the festival’s
30th anniversary. The piece will
be premiered this summer.
Alan Morrison
ALAN MORRISON
(Organ ’91,
Accompanying
’93) played
anniversary
concerts on
several notable
instruments in
the fall, including
two centenary events: Trinity
Presbyterian in Berwyn, Pa. and
Church of the Resurrection in
New York City. He also performed
at Ursinus College in Collegeville,
Pa. and Spivey Hall in Morrow, Ga.
He was featured on the organ series
in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center
playing solo works by English
composers, along with major choral
works with the Mendelssohn Club
of Philadelphia. He also performed
on the historic E.M. Skinner organ
at Stambaugh Auditorium in
Youngstown, Ohio.
DANIELLE ORLANDO gave a
recital in February with bass Andre
Courville for the FPC Concert series
in Myrtle Beach, S.C. In March she
did a week-long residency with the
opera department of the University
of Tennessee in Knoxville. In May,
Danielle will give master classes
in Beijing. She will return to Curtis
Summerfest in June and Oberlin
in Italy in July.
JEANNE
McGINN and
CARLA PUPPIN
co-presented
a paper at
the biennial
conference
of the Middle
Jeanne McGinn Atlantic and
New England
Council for Canadian Studies in
Portland, Maine, this fall. Their essay,
“Ekphrastic Art: Re-visions of the
Indelible in Brueghel, Goodwin,
and Simpson,” focused on visual
art and poetry.
ERIC SESSLER’s (Composition ’93)
premiere of Shift and Riff took
place in March at Curtis. This
guitar quartet was commissioned
by Curtis and performed by
the Curtis guitar studio.
This season
JASON VIEAUX
joined Curtis on
Tour for chamber
concerts around
the world, made
his Concertgebouw
debut, and
performed four
Jason Vieaux
guitar concertos
with the Edmonton Symphony.
This spring, Jason performs with
symphonies of El Paso, Richmond,
Niagara, Santa Fe, West Virginia,
and Illinois.
OVERTONES SPRING 2017
39

NOTATIONS
RECORDINGS AND PUBLICATIONS
ROBERT CERULLI (Double Bass ’61)
has had several arrangements
published in Familiar Classics
for Three’s flute and clarinet
collections. Bob currently teaches
music theory at Rowan College in
Glassboro, N.J.
DARON HAGEN’s (Composition ’84)
Valse Blanche, recorded by violinist
Livia Sohn and pianist Ben Loeb
on the album Opera Fantasies for
Violin 2 (Naxos) in January 2016,
was nominated for a GRAMMY
Award. An album of Daron’s art
songs, performed by Philadelphia’s
LyricFest, was released by Naxos
in January.
In November Harmonia Mundi
released New South American
Discoveries, with MIGUEL
HARTH-BEDOYA (Conducting ’91)
leading the Norwegian Radio
Orchestra. Naxos released Celso
Garrido Lecca: Peruvian Suite
in December, featuring Miguel
conducting the Fort Worth
Symphony Orchestra and the
Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
Last April the Prism Quartet
released The Curtis Project on
XAS Records. The album consists
of works for saxophones by
JENNIFER HIGDON (’88), DAVID
LUDWIG (’01), KAT SOUPONETSKY
(’12), DANIEL TEMKIN (’13),
GABRIELLA SMITH (Composition
’14, ArtistYear ’16), THOMAS
OLTARZEWSKI (’13), and TIM WOOS
(’13). The recording originated in
Prism's 2012 residency at Curtis.
Jennifer's Flute Poetic was also
included on the album American
FluteScape by Jan Vinci, released
in November on Albany Records.
JONATHAN HOLLAND’s
(Composition ’96) piece Synchrony,
commissioned by the Radius
Ensemble, was included on their
album Fresh Paint, self-released
in August. Synchrony incorporates
audio clips from President Obama
and Sandra Bland.
JUDITH INGOLFSSON (Violin ’92)
and pianist Vladimir Stoupel
recorded three CDs, released in
2016 by Accentus Music. Titled
Concert-Centenaire, this recording
project explored music of composers
whose lives were influenced by
World War II.
DANIEL KELLOGG’s (Composition
’99) horn trio, A Glorious Morning,
was featured on the album Inspired
by Brahms, performed by YUMI
HWANG-WILLIAMS (Violin ’91),
Michael Thornton, and Andrew
Litton. The CD was released in
February 2016 by Albany Records.
LEON McCAWLEY (Piano ’95) is
featured on Haydn: Sonatas and
Variations (SOMM Recordings),
released in January.
In October Azica released Infusion,
guitar faculty Jason Vieaux’s album
with bandoneonist Julien Labro.
JASON VIEAUX is also featured
on Ginastera: One Hundred, a
centennial tribute album from
Oberlin Music produced by
harpist Yolanda Kondonassis.
ALUMNI OFFICE NOTES
In its pilot year, the Alumni Network has been steadily adding resources,
thanks to great work from many of your fellow alumni and the leadership
of Alumni Network Chair STANFORD THOMPSON (Trumpet ’09). Here’s
an update.
Mentorship Project
Are you interested in meeting alumni in your region? Moving to a new area?
Interested in learning a new skill? Sign up for a “Curtis Coffee Break,”
an opportunity to connect with an alumnus in your area for an hour to
talk about Curtis, ask career-related questions, or discuss whatever you
would like! Mentorship project leader MIMI STILLMAN (Flute ’99) directs
this initiative.
Professional Development
This April is Curtis’s first Alumni Professional Development Month!
Follow Curtis’s Alumni Facebook page in April to learn about workshops
and other opportunities designed to benefit your professional career.
Storytelling Committee
Project leader WILLIAM SHORT (Bassoon ’10) penned the committee’s
first Overtones story on page 35 of this issue. This spring a Curtis Tumblr
page will begin to showcase stories of alumni and the diverse paths and
opportunities our alumni discover. Be sure to follow the Curtis Institute
of Music Alumni Facebook page for updates.
Regional Events
Curtis hosted a successful event in Seattle this February, following a
Seattle Symphony Orchestra performance with HILARY HAHN (Violin ’99)
as soloist with a post-concert reception. Project leaders MARSHA HUNTER
(Opera ’77) and CATALINA VICENS (Harpsichord ’06) are planning a series
of alumni events in conjunction with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s
European tour.
Opera and Vocal Task Force
Task Force leaders KAREN SLACK (Opera ’02) and JANELLEN FARMER
(Opera ’84) have been busy interviewing opera and vocal alumni about
their experiences transitioning out of Curtis and into the challenging
world of opera performance.
Fundraising
Alumni came together last fall to give back to Curtis. We far surpassed
our goal of 200 alumni donors by December 31, 2016. This campaign
ended at 133 percent participation, with 265 donors contributing over
$155,000. Thank you!
To find out more about these initiatives or to volunteer, please contact
Laura Sancken, director of alumni and parent relations, at
laura.sancken@curtis.edu or (215) 717-3128.
40 OVERTONES SPRING 2017

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THE COMPOSERS FROM CURTIS CHAMBER ENSEMBLE, 1998
In 1998 Curtis students Daniel Kellogg (Composition ’99), David Ludwig (Composition ’01), and Mimi Stillman (Flute ’99) founded
the Composers from Curtis Chamber Ensemble to present a concert of works by Curtis-connected composers. The student-run
group, advised by faculty member Jennifer Higdon (Composition ’88), allowed participants—also including Jeremy Kurtz (Double
Bass ’99), Margo Tatgenhorst Drakos (Cello ’99), Nathan Cole (Violin ’00), and Anthony McGill (Clarinet ’00)—to experience the
complete life cycle of musical creation, from writing original music to assembling and managing an ensemble to final performance.
Recalls David Ludwig, who now directs the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble, “These projects we start as students can end up informing the
rest of our lives.” Learn about the composers-in-residence program at Curtis beginning on page 22. PHOTO: CURTIS ARCHIVES/RONNI L. GORDON