Overtones: Spring 2018

OVERTONES
VOL. XXXXII, NO. 2
SPRING 2018
Outside the Box
Carter Brey’s Enlightened Approach
P A G E 6
A Moving Experience
Leonard Bernstein’s Years at Curtis
P A G E 2 0
The Edge Effect, Examined
The Biodiversity of the Curtis Classroom
P A G E 1 2

Fall 2017 at Curtis
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s season-opening concert featured
guest conductor JUANJO MENA and two student soloists—OLIVER HERBERT
(Cello) and HAE SUE LEE (Viola) in Strauss’s Don Quixote (above).
Mr. Mena also conducted the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, and
conducting fellow Carlos Ágreda launched the program with John
Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine. PHOTOS: DAVID DeBALKO
The Curtis Opera Theatre presented two productions last fall.
R.B. SCHLATHER’s intimate conception of Impressions of Pelléas,
Marius Constant’s adaptation of Debussy’s only opera, placed the
cast among the audience and a piano on wheels in the midst of the
action in the Curtis Opera Studio (below). Featured were musical
director LISA KELLER at the piano, PATRICK WILHELM (left) in the title
role, and KENDRA BROOM (center) as Mélisande, with EMILY POGORELC,
SOPHIA FIUZA HUNT, DENNIS CHMELENSKY, and KODI MEYER. November
brought Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in a wintry production by
CHAS RADER-SHIEBER (right), with TIFFANY TOWNSEND as Tatyana,
the idealistic ingénue who
MORE ONLINE
falls in love with the opera’s
Watch and listen to Curtis performances.
aloof title character.
www.curtis.edu/YouTube
PHOTOS: CORY WEAVER

CONTENTS
FALL 201 7 AT CURTIS
Opposite
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT 2
Creative connections
VOL. XXXXII, NO. 2
SPRING 2018
20
NOTEWORTHY 3
Sphinx joins forces with Curtis Summerfest,
Opera Philadelphia spotlights Curtis singers, and
a visiting faculty member emphasizes electronics.
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
Larry Bomback
Paul Bryan
Lourdes Demers
Roberto Díaz
Mikael Eliasen
Jennifer Kallend
Kristen Loden
David Ludwig
Jeanne McGinn
CONTRIBUTORS
Matthew Barker
Barbara Benedett
Clara Gerdes
Jennifer Kallend
Jeanne McGinn
Annie Sarachan
Jason Ward
Diana Wensley
Kristina Wilson
GRAPHIC DESIGN
art270, Inc.
ISSN: 0887-6800
Copyright © 2018
by Curtis Institute of Music
MEET THE FACULTY 6
Cellist Carter Brey follows his curiosity outside
the box—and brings students with him, writes
Matthew Barker.
MEET THE STUDENTS 9
French-born harpist Héloïse Carlean-Jones digs deep
into the score, and then lets go. Dave Allen reports.
THE COMPLEAT MUSICIAN 12
The Curtis classroom is home to a stimulating
biodiversity of ideas, writes Jeanne M. McGinn.
6
14
9
25
12
A REUNION AND A HOMECOMING 14
Curtis alumni return to campus to teach and
reconnect during Summerfest. Annie Sarachan
reflects on their experience.
THIS SPRING AT CURTIS 18
On stage and online
“A DEEPLY MOVING EXPERIENCE” 20
Leonard Bernstein’s two years attending Curtis
left a lasting mark—on the student and the school,
as Kristina Wilson writes.
FIRST PERSON 25
Clara Gerdes shares an organ scholar’s experience
on the other side of Locust Street.
MEET THE ALUMNI 28
Fully prepared for her moment, Amanda Majeski
makes every experience count. Heidi Waleson speaks
with the fast-rising young soprano.
NOTATIONS
Alumni 31
Alumni Office Notes 34
Faculty 35
Students 35
Recordings and Publications 36
THREE CURTIS CONDUCTORS
AT THE ACROPOLIS, 1959 Back cover
ON THE COVER: Cello faculty Carter Brey teaches
student Joshua Halpern. Mr. Brey, who holds the
Nina and Billy Albert Chair in Cello Studies, is profiled
on page 6. PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
28
32
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
1

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Creative Connections
Roberto Díaz PHOTO: LEE MOSKOW
In the cycle of the Curtis year, late winter
is the audition season. It’s an exciting time,
as hundreds of aspiring musicians arrive with
anticipation and enthusiasm and (inevitably)
nervousness visible on their faces. On a day
when auditions are scheduled, the atmosphere
is unmistakably charged with their eager energy.
Each has a turn before the faculty, and
at the auditions I attend, I am impressed
every year with the sheer quality I hear in
our applicants. They can play—really play—
and every year, it seems, their level rises.
What can Curtis teach young players who
have already come so far?
The answer, of course, is usually: a great
deal. Not so much the scales and exercises
and drills, or technical mastery. What inspires
our faculty as they listen to auditions is the
opportunity to help students discover the
music between the notes, and discern how
to connect the dots. We want to help them
tie together all that they have learned and
are learning, to allow their experiences to
feed and form their art.
In this issue you’ll read about a lesson
with Carter Brey, one of our two wonderful
cello teachers (page 6). In his passions for
marathon running, sailing, and literature,
he finds metaphors that help him meet
musical challenges. In discussing these
with his students, he models for them
the attitude of a true artist. He is endlessly
curious, always asking questions of himself
and the world.
This curiosity is the key. When we
stimulate inquiry in our students—when
we teach them to ask questions, to explore,
to investigate the world around them—we
give them a great gift that will sustain their
artistry for a lifetime. We seek opportunities
to stretch them. We encourage them to
look beyond the boundaries of their own
disciplines, and of music itself—whether
in a liberal arts classroom, in community
service, or in other art forms like theatre,
painting, literature, or film.
Our chair of liberal arts, Jeanne McGinn,
writes of a voice student who, on examining
alternative versions of poems by Emily
Dickinson in a literature course, applied
her learning to the interpretive decisions
she made when performing Aaron Copland’s
well-known settings of those verses (page 12).
Several times a year we send students to
the Philadelphia Museum of Art to perform
in galleries whose art speaks meaningfully
to the music they are performing—works
influenced by traditional Chinese music
against the backdrop of a 17th-century
Chinese architectural installation, or
magnetic modernist pieces for flute adjacent
to the revolutionary art of Marcel Duchamp.
Our current all-school project, titled
The Edge Effect, has prompted all kinds of
cross-disciplinary inquiry and performance
ideas, not least the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble’s
exploration of theatrical elements in their
performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire
and Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs for a
Mad King.
Further examples are legion. They
speak to our mission to educate and train
exceptionally gifted young musicians to
engage a local and global community through
the highest level of artistry. As we guide our
students, our role is to spark their curiosity,
introduce them to inspiring ideas, and urge
them to look outside our walls with open
eyes and ears. This is what Curtis can offer
the musicians who come to us with their skill,
their enthusiasm, and their youth.
This is how they will find an artistry that
is uniquely their own.
Roberto Díaz
President
2 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

NOTEWORTHY
A VISIT FROM THE
SPHINX VIRTUOSI
Violinist Jessie Montgomery (right), a member of the Catalyst Quartet, is on the faculty of the Sphinx Performance
Academy at Curtis Summerfest. PHOTO: COURTESY SPHINX ORGANIZATION
Sphinx Summer Academy
at Summerfest 2018
The Curtis Institute of Music and the Sphinx Organization will partner in 2018 to bring the
Sphinx Performance Academy (SPA), a full-scholarship summer program designed for young
Black and Latino string players, to Curtis Summerfest. This new collaborative model includes
Curtis alumni as faculty and reflects a special commitment to developing musical talent in
the Philadelphia area.
The Sphinx Performance Academy at Curtis Summerfest will take place June 10–24 and
is designed for string players ages 11 through 17. “This partnership allows us to support the
critically important work Sphinx is doing nationally to increase diversity in the arts, work
which aligns with Curtis’s mission to engage a local and global community,” said Curtis President
ROBERTO DÍAZ (Viola ’84) in announcing the collaboration. “Many of our students and alumni
have participated in various programs of the Sphinx Organization throughout the years, and
this program gives them the opportunity to mentor the next generation of talented young
Black and Latino musicians in Philadelphia and nationwide.” The SPA faculty will include
past Sphinx Competition laureates ELENA URIOSTE (Violin ’08) and MELISSA WHITE (Violin ’07),
Astrid Schween of the Juilliard String Quartet, and members of the Catalyst Quartet.
The Sphinx Performance Academy curriculum includes an intensive schedule of private
lessons and chamber music in addition to master classes, recitals, career enrichment sessions,
and mentorship specific to navigating the classical music world as a person of color. Full
scholarships for all students include tuition as well as housing
MORE ONLINE
and dining in Curtis’s Lenfest Hall. Sphinx Performance
Apply online for the Sphinx Academy faculty and staff will also stay in Lenfest Hall,
Performance Academy at Curtis
allowing for additional mentorship time alongside students.
Summerfest at
Applications are available online at www.curtis.edu/Sphinx,
www.curtis.edu/Sphinx
and are due April 11.
In October the Sphinx Virtuosi visited
Curtis to work with more than 180
middle school and high school students
from Play On, Philly!, the School
District of Philadelphia, and Project
440 in a day of concerts, discussions,
and sectionals. The Sphinx Virtuosi
are some of the nation’s top Black and
Latino classical soloists, and winners
of the internationally renowned Sphinx
Competition. Three who are Curtis
students or alumni—including ADÉ
WILLIAMS (Violin) and GABRIEL CABEZAS
(Cello ’13), pictured below, as well as
ALEXANDRA SWITALA (Violin ’16)—
participated in a panel discussion
moderated by JOSEPH CONYERS (’04),
assistant principal double bass of the
Philadelphia Orchestra. Their 2017 visit
to Curtis was part of a nationwide tour,
including performances in New York;
Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and Detroit.
PHOTO: COURTESY SPHINX ORGANIZATION
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
3

NOTEWORTHY
FACULTY
ANNIVERSARIES
Curtis thanks the entire faculty,
with a nod to those celebrating
landmark anniversaries in 2018.
45 years
FORD LALLERSTEDT
25 years
MENG-CHIEH LIU
20 years
IDA KAVAFIAN
15 years
JEFFREY CURNOW
EDGAR MEYER
10 years
CARTER BREY
ROBERT van SICE
5 years
EVA SWIDLER
THOMAS PATTESON
YU XI WANG
Contributors to Noteworthy include Jennifer
Kallend, Diana Wensley, and Melinda Whiting.
Milton Rock and his wife, Connie Benoliel Rock, at the Curtis gala in 2016. PHOTOS: KARLI CADEL
In Memoriam
Curtis mourns the loss of MILTON L. ROCK, a longtime supporter of the school who chaired the
board of trustees from 1989 to 2002. Dr. Rock, who passed away on January 27 at age 96,
remained an honorary trustee and also served on the board of the Mary Louise Curtis Bok
Foundation from 2007 until his death.
During his chairmanship Dr. Rock played a pivotal role in Curtis’s development, working
closely with his dear friend GARY GRAFFMAN (Piano ’46), who was the school’s president and
director at the time. This period saw Curtis’s accreditation by the Middle States Commission
on Higher Education and the establishment of a reciprocal relationship with the University
of Pennsylvania, as well as a concerted effort to grow the Curtis endowment.
Curtis students benefit from Dr. Rock’s support every time they enter the Rock Resource
Center or use the ROC (Rock Online Catalog) to search for recordings, sheet music, or books.
His generosity has made possible the Rock Chair in Composition Studies, held by JENNIFER HIGDON
(’88), and a student composition fellowship, which includes an annual commissioning opportunity
to write a dance work to be performed by students of the Rock School for Dance Education.
An emeritus member of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s board of trustees and former
chairman of the Pennsylvania Ballet, Dr. Rock also served many years as a director of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art and a trustee of Temple University, which dedicated Rock Hall
in recognition of his support. He will be deeply missed for his generosity and decades-long
commitment to Curtis.
TOD MACHOVER WORKS WITH CURTIS COMPOSERS
Tod Machover
Starting in Fall 2017, innovative composer TOD MACHOVER joined Curtis as a visiting member
of the composition faculty. Mr. Machover (who is also working closely with the Philadelphia
Orchestra on a community-based “crowdsourced symphony,” Philadelphia Voices, premiering
in April) brings his unique expertise as an award-winning composer, inventor, and professor
within the MIT Media Lab to Curtis composition students through one-on-one lessons,
group discussions, and mentorship. Mr. Machover has been encouraging students to think
more broadly about the music they know and write, while incorporating his pioneering work
with electronics and new technologies. The Curtis 20/21 Ensemble’s May 4 concert, titled
Succession, will demonstrate Mr. Machover’s influence through new works by Curtis’s six
student composers as performed by the Zorá String Quartet.
4 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

NOTEWORTHY
SPRING GALA
HONORS JOSEPH
AND MARIE FIELD
Among the Curtis singers in Opera Philadelphia’s Magic Flute were Ashley Milanese, Siena Licht Miller,
and Anastasiia Sidorova as the Three Ladies (above left); and Ashley Robillard as Papagena (above right),
seen here with Curtis alumnus Jarrett Ott in the role of Papageno. PHOTOS: KELLY AND MASSA PHOTOGRAPHY/COURTESY
OPERA PHILADELPHIA
Curtis Students
Cast by Opera Philadelphia
Curtis opera and voice students have been a frequent presence on stage with Opera
Philadelphia over the years. In the 2017–18 season it was announced that the company’s
Emerging Artists will now be chosen exclusively from the Curtis Opera Theatre. This
year they include five students and one alumnus: sopranos ASHLEY MILANESE (Opera) and
ASHLEY ROBILLARD (Voice), mezzo-sopranos SIENA LICHT MILLER (Opera) and Anastasiia
Sidorova (Voice), baritone DOĞUKAN KURAN (Opera), and bass-baritone JONATHAN McCULLOUGH
(Opera ’17). All have been cast this season in staged productions—including Carmen in
May and The Magic Flute last fall—while also singing in community recitals and special
events all year. The Carmen cast also includes tenor EVAN LeROY JOHNSON (Opera) and
EMILY POGORELC (Voice).
Also this season, Curtis is partnering with Opera Philadelphia and the Kimmel Center
for the Performing Arts to present Curtis Opera Theatre at the Perelman, a spring series
of two operas: A Quiet Place and a double bill of Mahagonny: Ein Songspiel and The
Medium. “The combination of young talent and adventurous artistic vision represented
by the Curtis Opera Theatre is a perfect fit for Opera Philadelphia audiences,” says Curtis
President ROBERTO DÍAZ (Viola ’84). “It also gives our singers the benefit of a wonderful
venue for opera: the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater.”
The three organizations previously teamed up for nine seasons of annual
co-presentations, hailed as “must-see events for serious operagoers” by Opera News.
Curtis’s annual gala is scheduled for April 29
at the Bellevue Hotel, in connection with
the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s concert at
the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
The elegant event will honor JOSEPH AND
MARIE FIELD, generous supporters of Curtis
for several decades who have dedicated
countless volunteer hours on Curtis boards
and in support of Curtis events. The Fields’
major gift in 2000 to support the restoration
of Field Concert Hall has had a lasting
influence on several generations of Curtis
students, as has their support through the
Joseph and Marie Field Annual Student
Fellowship, the endowed Field-McFadden
Chair in Audio-Visual Arts, and the annual
fund. For details, visit www.curtis.edu/Gala.
Joseph and Marie Field at the opening of the
restored Field Concert Hall in 2001. PHOTO: COURTESY
MARIE FIELD
MUSICAL DAY OF SERVICE IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA
PHOTOS: MARY JAVIAN, JEANNE McGINN
In January, Curtis students, faculty, and staff continued their tradition of a day of service on Martin
Luther King Jr. Day with a visit to South Philadelphia High School. Members of the Curtis community
spent the morning painting, cleaning, and decorating. Their activities included a facelift of the
music room where Community Artist Fellow NOZOMI IMAMURA (Trumpet ’15) teaches beginning
instrumentalists. In the afternoon students in the recently launched band and strings program
performed in a concert with Curtis musicians. Pictured here, Curtis student AMIT MELZER (Horn)
finishes a painting job (left) and Community Artist Fellow EMILY COOLEY (Composition ’17) displays
her handiwork. Today South Philadelphia High School has a band, a strings program, and an annual
musical, with Curtis students and alumni teaching regularly in addition to the school’s instrumental
teacher and full-time music teacher. To learn more about Curtis’s work in the community, visit
www.curtis.edu/Community.
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
5

MEET THE FACULTY
Mr. Brey has been principal cello of the New York
Philharmonic for two decades. At Curtis he holds
the Nina and Billy Albert Chair in Cello Studies.
PHOTO: STEPHANIE BERGER
Enlightened Approach
Cellist Carter Brey follows his curiosity outside the box—and brings students with him.
BY MATTHEW BARKER
Opposite: Mr. Brey in a lesson with cello student
Joshua Halpern PHOTOS: PETE CHECCHIA
Not many musicians could perform the significant cello solo role in Richard Strauss’s
Don Quixote, give a string quartet concert at New York’s 92nd Street Y, run the New York
Marathon, and teach a day of lessons all in the same week. Then again, not many musicians
are like cellist Carter Brey, who has taught at Curtis since 2008.
Musically speaking, Mr. Brey thrives in just about any wheelhouse. Whether it’s his
historically informed approach to J. S. Bach’s cello suites, his championing of contemporary
composers, his insatiable appetite for all ranges of music (from Beethoven to Judy Garland to
Leon Kirchner to the Beatles), his 21 years as principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic,
or his nearly 40-year career as a soloist and chamber musician on the world’s pre-eminent stages
(with a resumé that includes concerto appearances with virtually all the major U.S. orchestras),
there are few stones unturned in his prolific career.
While Mr. Brey’s professional experience is an undeniable asset to Curtis students, it’s only
part of his impact. He finds a cross-section of art and science everywhere in life, and it deeply
informs his musicianship. This became evident over the course of a lesson with cello student
Joshua Halpern on Robert Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro, as the two seamlessly discussed
musical theory, history, bowing suggestions, and shifting techniques alongside psychology,
mindfulness, physics, and quotes from Joseph Conrad.
“They all sort of seem to feed each other,” says a modest Mr. Brey, drawing connections
between his artistic, academic, leisure, and even athletic experiences. “The discipline in preparing
for [a marathon] and convincing yourself that you can see that through to the finish is very
analogous, I think, to a demanding musical project. Sometimes the two things coincide exactly.
Around Mile 18, running up First Avenue, I was trying to practice Don Quixote in my head
6 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

In a lesson, Mr. Brey seamlessly
discusses musical theory, history,
bowing suggestions, and shifting
techniques alongside psychology,
mindfulness, physics, and
quotes from Joseph Conrad.
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
7

MEET THE FACULTY
Mr. Brey strives to help his
students be the best versions
of themselves as they seek to
understand not only the music
they perform but the world
around them. It’s a blueprint
he understands well because
he’s following it himself.
to keep my mind off the pain in my legs!” Even his experiences as a lifelong sailor find their
way into his musical methods. In sailing, “you study how a manmade object is designed to
behave in a natural world,” he says. “A lot of our discussions of cello technique are the same.”
One would be forgiven for wondering how Mr. Brey thrives in circumstances that would
completely overwhelm most musicians. “The guy’s nuts,” jokes Joshua, before acknowledging
that his teacher is not just another busy musician. “There’s a lot of stress associated with
making music, and I don’t see that stress in him.”
Longtime friend Peter Wiley (’74), Mr. Brey’s colleague on the Curtis cello faculty, agrees.
“He’s so wonderful, fundamentally, in that his concept is very, very relaxed and efficient.”
He sees Mr. Brey as a great role model for students who lose sight of the bigger picture when
bogged down in their musical endeavors. “We need to love and respect music, yet we have
to keep a perspective about our happiness, our health, our overall well-being, and where music
fits into our life,” says Mr. Wiley, adding, “ultimately we can be even freer, more confident,
more relaxed, because although we have to treat [music] with great respect, it’s not the only
thing in life.” According to Mr. Brey, it’s important to see life’s experiences as opportunities
rather than obstacles, and to respect his own boundaries.
MUSICAL CHOICES
The two teachers share twelve of Curtis’s thirteen cello students, yet they both acknowledge
that they communicate very little about their approach to lessons. “Carter and I have always
been comfortable with each other, and we recognize there are going to be differences,” notes
Mr. Wiley. “One of us might say faster, one of us might say slower, but we recognize that
it’s important for the students to realize that that’s what we do as musicians. We have different
opinions; we have to make choices.”
For Mr. Brey, those opinions and choices are what he hopes the students walk away with
when they leave Curtis: “an ability to self-analyze, to engage in musical and technical analysis
on their own as fully formed musicians.” His goal in lessons is “to get the students to look
at things freshly, right at the composer’s thoughts”—getting to the heart of the composer’s
message. “How do you get as close as possible to that?” he asks. “It’s a chimera. It’s an infinitely
receding horizon, but it’s good to at least try to start with that goal. And then you figure out
how to achieve that on your instrument, on this box with strings on it.”
Mr. Brey strives to help his students be the best versions of themselves as they seek to
understand not only the music they perform but the world around them. It’s a blueprint he
understands well because he’s following it himself, and it’s clearly working. As he approaches
his ten-year anniversary at Curtis, he continues to bring his wide range of experience, insight,
talent, wisdom, and support to the school’s young musicians—all at a level that removes any
question of his sincerity or greatness. “What a fantastic thing it is for our cello studio to have
someone like Carter,” says Mr. Wiley.
“And if you’re training for a marathon, or if you’re reading Henry James, he can offer his
perspective on that too,” jokes Joshua.
Matthew Barker is the director of recitals and master classes at Curtis.
PHOTO: CHRISTIAN STEINER
W H Y C H O O S E C U R T I S ?
More Reasons at
—CARTER BREY
www.curtis.edu/WhyChooseCurtis
“What continuously impresses me is how supportive these young students are of each other.
There’s a real esprit de corps. Peter (Wiley) and I do our best to maintain that, but I have to say it
doesn’t take much effort on our part because the students do that. … They maintain their incredible
self-motivation and striving for excellence while helping each other. They always show up to each
other’s concerts. I have to think that’s very rare.”
8 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

MEET THE STUDENTS
“My goal is always to
understand the music
intellectually first, and from
there, I can make it my own,”
says Héloïse. By contrast,
in performance she aims
to “give up everything”
and to hold nothing back.
Exploration and Expression
French-born harpist Héloïse Carlean-Jones digs deep into the score, and then lets go.
BY DAVE ALLEN
Héloïse Carlean-Jones holds the
L. Daniel Dannenbaum Fellowship
at Curtis. PHOTO: JANICE CARISSA
Landing a spot on the Philadelphia Orchestra’s substitute list is not uncommon for Curtis
students. Still, it’s a major leap—one that confers valuable experience and considerable prestige.
Héloïse Carlean-Jones took a somewhat risky path to this achievement in 2016, during her
third year at Curtis. She had prepared a concerto by Handel for her audition, though she and her
teacher, Philadelphia Orchestra principal harp Elizabeth Hainen, differed in their interpretations.
“I don’t have to prove anything,” Héloïse recalls thinking as the audition approached. “I’m just
going to be me”—even if that meant taking a tempo faster than her teacher had advised.
During the audition—played from behind a screen, as with all major symphony orchestra
auditions—Ms. Hainen recalls, “I wasn’t sure it was her after all. There were differences in
interpretation that I definitely respected.”
This experience hints at a bold, almost impulsive streak in the fourth-year harp student,
one informed by a deep musicality that is fed, in turn, by a desire to get to the bottom of every
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
9

MEET THE STUDENTS
Héloïse in a lesson with her teacher,
Philadelphia Orchestra principal
harp Elizabeth Hainen PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
Ms. Hainen sees what
she calls an “exploratory,
almost precocious attitude”
as fundamental to the
expressivity in Héloïse’s
playing. “She has this drive to
explore the score at all costs.”
score she plays. Raised in Paris by émigrés from South Africa, Héloïse was introduced to the
harp through music classes in elementary schools after playing the piano from an early age.
“That was when I realized the harp was something real, something you could actually play,”
she says. “It wasn’t just something you’d see in The Aristocats.”
This reference to an American cartoon set in France seemed oddly humorous amid a young
French woman’s impressions of the United States. Interestingly, Héloïse says the French view
of Curtis is that it has “a European philosophy,” though she notes a marked contrast between
the French conservatoires where she previously studied and her years at Curtis. “There’s a lot
more energy and positivity here, balanced with healthy criticism,” she says. Despite her success
in harp competitions—she played her first at age 13, after traveling alone to Russia—she recalls
lacking confidence; her acceptance at Curtis in 2014 seemed, at the time, a stunning validation.
“I feel being at Curtis has opened me up,” she says. “Before coming here, everything was
clearly laid out: do your homework, practice, go to school, eat lunch. Now I think more about,
‘What am I doing? What is life?’”
SINCERITY AND SELF-SCRUTINY
If young adulthood is typically a time to wonder what it all means, then Héloïse regularly
applies those big questions to her musical self as well. Last year, following a master class with
noted harpist Isabelle Moretti in Washington, D.C., Moretti called Héloïse’s playing “sincere
and emotionally pure.” Rather than basking in praise, Héloïse was motivated to scrutinize
her playing even more closely. “No one can teach you how to be sincere in your playing,”
she says. “My goal is always to understand the music intellectually first, and from there, I can
make it my own.” By contrast, in performance she aims to “give up everything” and to hold
nothing back.
Ms. Hainen sees what she calls an “exploratory, almost precocious attitude” as fundamental to
the expressivity in Héloïse’s playing. “She has this drive to explore the score at all costs,” she says.
Since Héloïse entered Curtis, she notes, “I’ve seen tremendous growth in her ensemble skills,
especially in the way she listens and makes adjustments.”
That adaptability was evident during a lesson last fall, as Héloïse contended with a transcription
of Bach’s famed violin sonata, BWV 1001. Over the course of several run-throughs, she shaped up
some slightly ragged phrases and incorporated her teacher’s advice to play longer, more violin-like
lines. A performance later in the semester was even more burnished: organic, free-flowing, and
all of one piece.
Héloïse has approached new repertoire with similar rigor through 20/21, Curtis’ contemporary
music ensemble, performing works by Kaija Saariaho, Unsuk Chin, and others. She has also
premiered pieces by student composers while advising them on how to write capably and
10 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

MEET THE STUDENTS
Héloïse warms up before a Curtis
Symphony Orchestra performance
in Verizon Hall. PHOTO: DAVID DeBALKO
idiomatically for harp. “A lot of composers forget the physical component” of the instrument,
she observes. “They come to the harp room and then see what my hands can do and what
my feet can do.”
Emma Resmini, a fourth-year flutist also drawn to contemporary repertoire, has performed
with Héloïse on numerous occasions. Together with soprano Alize Rozsnyai, a 2015 opera
graduate, they took on a work for flute, harp and voice, Joseph Schwantner’s Wild Angels of the
Open Hills. “There was no recording online, and when we first looked at the score, I think we
were all extremely intimidated,” Emma says. All three musicians had to double on percussion
instruments such as tuned water glasses and crotales, with spoken and sung elements written
into the flute and harp parts.
Héloïse encountered further technical challenges as well. “I was constantly moving pedals
and changing positions on the strings,” she recalls. “It kind of drove me crazy!” The final
performance, with strange timbres and spellbinding extended techniques in place, rewarded
the challenge: “It was so satisfying ... the effect and character that emerged from each movement
was immediately clear.”
Even when providing accompaniment in classical works—like the Saint-Saëns and Massenet
pieces she has performed with fourth-year violinist Maria Ioudenitch over their years at Curtis—
her commitment shines through. “It was quite magical to play traditional violin staples with
the harp,” Maria says. “Héloïse is always on top of things, never neglecting rehearsal time and
organization, all in favor of making the music the best it can be.”
Ultimately, for her, every performance—whether in a starring role or a supporting one—
is a chance to get closer to the absolute expression of musical integrity, as well as a chance for
the audience to “discover who you are beyond the music. Just thinking about that opens a
lot of doors.”
Dave Allen is communications manager at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, and has written
frequently for Overtones, Symphony, and other musical publications.
W H Y C H O O S E C U R T I S ?
More Reasons at
—HÉLOÏSE CARLEAN-JONES
www.curtis.edu/WhyChooseCurtis
“It’s the people that you meet, especially the students. You don’t meet musicians of this caliber
anywhere else. I’ve learned so much from playing with them and even from just watching them
practice. I had almost no chamber music experience before coming to Curtis, and in my first
rehearsal, I could tell that the other students were thinking way beyond the notes on the page:
about colors, about energy, and about how to transfer it from one player to the next. I thought,
‘I should be doing this, too!’ At Curtis, you find this common ground in order to play together,
and you have tons of opportunities to perform and to learn.”
PHOTO: JANICE CARISSA
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
11

The Edge Effect, Examined
For performers, the classroom provides a stimulating biodiversity of ideas.
BY JEANNE M. McGINN, PH.D.
Scholarly endeavors may
operate, for artists, as an
ecological forest to the savannah
of the stage. The classroom is
the meeting place between
these two ecosystems, and the
biodiversity found there may
prove to be a stimulus for
unforgettable performances.
Serendipity? Or astute, purposeful planning?
The presence of palpable, joy-in-making energy that electrifies the air is unmistakable
in musical performance. And the conundrum about its origin continues to enthrall.
That question—how does the musical sublime happen?—crossed my mind when I listened
to Yo-Yo Ma speak about the “edge effect,” a principle his son’s eighth-grade science teacher
described to the cellist decades ago: “When two ecosystems meet, at the edge where they meet,
you have the most diversity and new life forms.” (Ma outlined the idea in a speech at the Aspen
Institute in 2013.)
When Curtis decided to devote its next all-school project to this “edge effect,” instructors
began to discuss how scholarly endeavors may operate, for some artists, as an ecological forest
to the savannah of the stage. The classroom is the meeting place between these two ecosystems,
and the biodiversity found there may prove to be a stimulus for unforgettable performances.
Overlapping historical and cultural realities form the center of a new course, team-taught
across the liberal arts and musical studies departments, titled The Most German of All Arts:
Music in German Culture, 1918 to 1945. Liberal arts instructor Gordana-Dana Grozdanić
explains, “This is a hybrid seminar, a teaching and learning experiment for both students and
us professors—as it combines music, literature and language.” Dr. Grozdanić and musical
studies instructor Thomas Patteson joined students in an exploration of primary sources
(essays, letters, poems, newspaper articles, diary entries) to examine the relationship between
music and other aspects of culture—in particular, technology, politics, and the “new” art form
of cinema. In one class, students and professors pondered the lines between documentary and
propaganda as they viewed excerpts from famed filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia.
The course was “a great, unique experience” for Dr. Grozdanić. “For one, as I teach,
I always learn new things myself ... Secondly, this time I learned even more, having had the
opportunity to listen to and (occasionally) engage in Thomas’s expert discussions about music
in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.”
Noting wryly that “co-teaching does not mean half the work of a solo-taught class,”
Dr. Patteson concurred. “Teaching together allows professors to learn from each other, which
is crucial for creating a genuine intellectual community among the faculty. But the students
benefit as well: being exposed to multiple viewpoints—sometimes even hearing their professors
strenuously disagree with each other—helps students see that learning is an open-ended,
collaborative process and encourages them to be active participants in their own education.”
12 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

THE COMPLEAT MUSICIAN
Above from left:
INSPIRING CURIOSITY
The overlap of disciplines in the Curtis classroom mimics the lived experience of artists.
“Liberal arts classes have been a place to broaden my understanding of what surrounds
the music I play,” notes organ student Bryan Dunnewald. “Reading the same poetry the
composer would, seeing the art of the time, discovering the literature from the era, and making
connections to our lives and what we do builds my relationship with the music and broadens
my artistry.
“What takes this a step further is writing; being able to synthesize my ideas and experience
in a compelling paper, in addition to the countless practical benefits, brings the aforementioned
holistic knowledge into focus so I can go deeper into learning what is important to me and to
my craft.”
The ways that deep learning translates into artistic performance took on new significance
for voice student Sophia Hunt in the fall semester, when she performed Aaron Copland’s Twelve
Poems of Emily Dickinson with vocal studies coach Grant Loehnig. “In research and in our class,
Dickinson and the Transcendentalists, I discovered multiple editions of Dickinson’s poetry,
which ended up inspiring a new version of the songs.”
As avid readers may know, the first scholarly edition of Dickinson’s poems, based on her
handwritten manuscripts, was published in 1955, six years after Copland’s setting. Earlier
editions were “corrected” by editors who believed that 19th-century readers were unprepared for
Dickinson’s mischievous and exultant punctuation, syntax, and poetic thought. As singers prepare
to perform the Copland settings, they must weigh Copland’s textual choices (including some
word substitutions of his own) with the existence of more accurate texts that became available
a few years later. Sophia chose to perform some of the songs with words adapted from R. W.
Franklin’s 1998 critical edition. She notes that “approaching this music in a classroom before
a practice room made performing it infinitely more fulfilling and meaningful.”
Indeed, for performing artists, coursework can be an example of the edge effect in action.
Liberal arts instructor James Moyer explains, “Literary study is relentlessly interpretive, so it
sharpens our students’ interpretive curiosity and skill, generally.” In his course Literature and
War, students choose musical or visual works to analyze in front of the class, drawing on course
discussions. “The specific modes (say, irony) and ideas (perceptions of war) of our readings
open up even familiar music in ways they hadn’t noticed.” Students were particularly moved
by the work of British poet Wilfred Owen, Dr. Moyer observes. “Perhaps the deepest edge effect,
though, is latent and cumulative, as critical engagement with different ideas and works becomes
itself a way of living, looking, and listening afresh, and before you know it, you’re not quite
the person you were.”
Curiosity. Study. Inspiration. Change. The possibilities, generated by deep engagement at
the edge of concentric circles, transform us as thinkers and as artists. The purposeful pursuit
of understanding may create the conditions for what may seem, well, serendipitous: Music
that transports.
Where two ecosystems meet, the “edge effect” manifests
in a rich variety of new life forms. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
In the team-taught course The Most German
of All Arts, students viewed diving footage from
Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia in the context of music
in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.
PHOTO: ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES
Daguerreotype of the poet Emily Dickinson, taken
circa 1848. PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN/WIKICOMMONS
In the course Literature and War, students were
especially moved by the poems of Wilfred Owen,
who perished fighting in the First World War.
PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN/WIKICOMMONS
As singers prepare to perform
Copland’s Dickinson Songs,
they must weigh the composer’s
textual choices with more
accurate texts that became
available a few years later.
Jeanne M. McGinn, Ph.D., is the Ruth W and A. Morris Williams Chair of Liberal Arts at Curtis.
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
13

BY ANNIE SARACHAN
A
REUNION
ANDA
HOMECOMING
Curtis alumni return to campus to teach and reconnect during Summerfest.
S U M M E R F E S T R E C I T A L S
“ R O U N D LY K I L L E D T H E
M Y T H T H A T T H E R E W A S
N O S U M M E R A U D I E N C E
F O R C L A S S I C A L I N T H E
C I T Y, ” A C C O R D I N G T O A
G L O W I N G R E V I E W I N T H E
P H I L A D E L P H I A I N Q U I R E R .
Opposite, clockwise from top left:
Summerfest faculty, all Curtis alumni, perform
in recital: Soo Bae; Katherine Needleman;
Amy Yang and Sharon Wei; and Anthea Kreston.
PHOTOS: ANNIE SARACHAN
Faculty recitals at Curtis Summerfest, now public hallmarks of the summer season,
started in 2012 as intimate affairs, with only a few dozen program participants in the audience.
By 2015 Summerfest programming had quadrupled in scope, leading staff to take a gamble
and offer faculty recital tickets to Philadelphia concertgoers.
There was no way to know for sure if there would be much of an audience, apart from
Summerfest participants and Curtis staff wanting to reconnect with the Curtis alumni who
made up much of the Summerfest faculty. No one could have anticipated the magic that first
recital in 2015 would hold.
It could have been the capacity audience: 90 exuberant participants in the Young Artist
Summer Program (YASP) witnessing up close the artistry to which they aspired, plus some
150 additional ticket buyers thirsting for music in Philadelphia’s parched summer months.
Maybe it was the programming freedom granted to the players, or the chance to collaborate
with new chamber music partners, guided by the vision of YASP artistic director David Ludwig
(Composition ’01) and program director Amy Yang (Piano ’06).
Or perhaps it was the performers’ keen awareness of the audience’s excitement. How often
does the first piece on a chamber program receive a standing ovation lasting several minutes,
with actual exhilarated whoops of appreciation? Such was the sincere reaction to Patrick
Kreeger (Organ ’13), YASP choral director, following his 2016 performance of Bach’s Toccata
in F major, BWV 540. That summer the same audience would be holding their breath,
captivated when Ms. Yang and YASP oboe faculty Katherine Needleman (’99) offered
Poulenc’s poignant, lyrical Sonata for Oboe and Piano in an exquisite performance.
These moments have become typical of the sold-out Summerfest recitals, which have
“roundly killed the myth that there was no summer audience for classical in the city,” according
to a glowing review in the Philadelphia Inquirer. They also made clear to the public what
Summerfest participants had known all along: Curtis alumni on its faculty are the key. “The
14 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

OVERTONES SPRING 2018 15

YASP program director Amy Yang in a chamber music coaching PHOTOS: DAVID SWANSON
Summerfest faculty has been a beautiful synthesis of the finest and most generous pedagogues
and performers across the alumni body,” says Ms. Yang. Whether they met while students or
are connecting for the first time at Summerfest, these alumni have a deep connection to Curtis
that enriches the learning experience for every program participant.
“ T H E S U M M E R F E S T
F A C U LT Y H A S B E E N A
B E A U T I F U L S Y N T H E S I S
O F T H E F I N E S T A N D
M O S T G E N E R O U S
P E D A G O G U E S A N D
P E R F O R M E R S A C R O S S
T H E A L U M N I B O D Y. ”
— Amy Yang,
YASP program director
DEMAND MEETS DEMAND
Curtis Summerfest hosts a variety of programs for all ages and levels, providing broad access
to a world-renowned conservatory experience. It has fulfilled an urgent demand from music
enthusiasts of various kinds: teenagers grappling with their artistic futures; highly successful
doctors and engineers with a long-curbed passion for music; and very young musicians
with talent beyond their years. Who better to meet these diverse needs than artists schooled
at Curtis?
The demand among applicants has integrated seamlessly with an internal Curtis goal to
help the school’s alumni connect with one another. Of 70-plus musicians on the Summerfest
faculty, more than three-quarters are alumni. Particularly for YASP, the largest Summerfest
program, Dr. Ludwig intentionally rotates faculty positions among alumni when possible.
“Part of what makes YASP really exciting for young musicians is that they get to dive into
a conservatory experience while hearing a wide variety of musical perspectives from Curtis
alumni,” he says, adding that what they share is “an unwavering commitment to artistry
and the music itself.”
Violin faculty Anthea Kreston (’93), writing in a 2017 blog, summed up the Curtis ethos
she transmits to summer program participants as “the germ of individuality, the determination,
the ability to think for yourself.” Curtis alumni who teach at Summerfest often challenge
the artistry of young participants in ways they haven’t previously experienced. They seek to
pull out a student’s personal artistic voice, asking even the youngest to access an emotional
core. Viola faculty Toby Appel (’66) enjoys observing epiphanies among participants, with
“students from literally all over the world getting a real feel of what full immersion in
high-level music making can mean.” In just a few weeks at YASP, he says, “I see some truly
amazing progress.” Like Curtis’s main curriculum, Summerfest “extends the role of the
musician from just a performer to an empowered citizen servicing humanity through the
gift of music,” says Ms. Yang. “We aim to share this Curtis ideology and musical knowledge
with our Summerfest students.”
In addition to motivating participants and becoming closer to colleagues in the
summertime, alumni also look forward to performing in those eagerly awaited faculty recitals.
“I was able to perform and reconnect with wonderful musicians and friends whom I went
to school with,” says YASP cello teacher Soo Bae (’01). As YASP program director, Ms. Yang
attends every faculty recital and plays in many of them. She especially enjoys “cheering on
the stellar performances” by colleagues that she knew as a student at Curtis.
16 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

A viola sectional (left) and a private lesson with Toby Appel PHOTOS: DAVID SWANSON AND ANNIE SARACHAN
CONNECT AND RECONNECT
For the alumni on its faculty, Summerfest is both a reunion and a homecoming. “Each year
I’m very happy to connect with old friends,” says Ms. Bae, one of many faculty members
who have returned over the past several seasons, offering consistency to the program and
reinforcing its supportive atmosphere. Most have been working at summer festivals in other
locations for years, so returning to Curtis to do similar work has become a natural evolution
in their careers.
Japanese-born Mari Yoshinaga (Timpani and Percussion ’12), who serves on YASP’s faculty
with her performing partner in the Arx Duo, Garrett Arney, offers a unique perspective on
reconnecting with classmates. She’s now a fluent English speaker, but when she first arrived at
Curtis as a student, her English was limited. She enthuses about fully getting to know Joshua
“J.D.” Gersen (Conducting ’10), Natalie Helm (Cello ’11), and other former classmates in
a new way now that they are teaching at Summerfest. Occasionally the percussion faculty
will step into the YASP orchestra when their repertoire requires additional percussionists, and
so Ms. Yoshinaga has come back under the baton of Mr. Gersen—now assistant conductor
of the New York Philharmonic—when he conducts the the YASP orchestra. “It’s been great
reconnecting with [J.D.] because I can see he grew up a lot as a conductor, but still he is casual
and a really good friend.”
Once alumni faculty have taught and performed together, they often forge new artistic
relationships. Ms. Yang has collaborated with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, where YASP
violin faculty Steven Copes (’94), is concertmaster. Besides teaching percussion students,
Ms. Yoshinaga and Mr. Arney work with the composition department. As a result the musical
studies coordinator and composition coordinator—Nick DiBerardino, a Curtis composition
student, and recent alumna Alyssa Weinberg (Composition ’16)—have written pieces for the
Arx Duo.
In addition to YASP, Summerfest continues to bring students and alumni to Curtis for
workshops in flute, harp, and voice, all working directly with current heads of departments,
Jeffrey Khaner, Elizabeth Hainen, and Mikael Eliasen, as well as other current faculty, alumni,
and guest artists. In a long weekend of chamber music, adults of all levels (amateur to
semi-professional) will also play side-by-side with Curtis students and be coached by alumni.
The connection that many of the faculty already have to Curtis energizes the summer community
and makes the space feel more like a family home—with welcoming smiles, friends and neighbors
near at hand, and chatter in the entrances—even as it provides the younger students a vision
of their potential future trajectory.
C U R T I S A L U M N I W H O
T E A C H A T S U M M E R F E S T
S E E K T O P U L L O U T A
S T U D E N T ’ S P E R S O N A L
A R T I S T I C V O I C E ,
A S K I N G E V E N T H E
Y O U N G E S T T O A C C E S S
A N E M O T I O N A L C O R E .
Annie Sarachan is the manager of Curtis Summerfest.
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
17

—— 2017–18 SEASON ——
This Spring
at Curtis
On Stage
M A R C H
4 CURTIS PRESENTS
Field Concert Hall
Sarah Shafer, soprano (Opera ’14)
Mikael Eliasen, piano
7 , 9 , 1 1 , 1 3 CURTIS OPERA THEATRE
Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center (March 7, 9, 11), presented
in partnership with Opera Philadelphia and the Kimmel Center
Kaye Playhouse, New York City (March 13)
Corrado Rovaris, conductor
Daniel Fish, director
BERNSTEIN
A Quiet Place
2 1 , 2 4 CURTIS ON TOUR In Asia
Stephen Kim, violin
Roberto Díaz, viola (’84)
Sydney Lee, cello
Jie Chen, piano (’06)
Venues:
Shanghai Concert Hall, Shanghai (March 21)
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong (March 24)
A P R I L
1 5 CURTIS PRESENTS
Field Concert Hall
Marinus Ensemble
Michael Rusinek, clarinet (’92)
2 9 CURTIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center
Karina Canellakis, conductor (Violin ’04)
Amanda Majeski, soprano (Opera ’09)
Carlos Ágreda, conducting fellow
WALKER
Lyric for Strings
STRAUSS
Four Last Songs
WEBERN
Six Pieces for Orchestra
SCRIABIN
The Poem of Ecstasy
M A Y
3 , 5 , 6 CURTIS OPERA THEATRE
Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, presented
in partnership with Opera Philadelphia and the Kimmel Center
Carlos Ágreda, conductor
Emma Griffin, stage director
WEILL
Mahagonny: Ein Songspiel
MENOTTI
The Medium
4 CURTIS 20/21 ENSEMBLE: Succession
Gould Rehearsal Hall
1 6 – 2 5 CURTIS ON TOUR In Europe
Zorá String Quartet
Venues:
Galerie Dorée, Banque de France, Paris (May 16)
Universität Mozarteum Salzburg (May 18)
Die Glocke, Bremen, Germany (May 22)
Konzerthaus Berlin (May 23)
Allerheiligen-Hofkirche, Munich (May 25)
18 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

Online
J U L Y
2 2 – 2 5 CURTIS ON TOUR In New England
Bella Hristova, violin (’08)
Roberto Díaz, viola (’84)
Additional performers TBA
Venues:
Nantucket Atheneum, Nantucket, Mass. (July 22)
Highfield Hall, Falmouth, Mass. (July 23)
Saint James Place, Great Barrington, Mass. (July 25)
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.
General operating support for Curtis is provided in part by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.
The Curtis Presents season is sponsored by Blank Rome LLP.
Curtis on Tour is the Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute
of Music.
C U R T I S O N Y O U T U B E
Watch Curtis performances anytime, anywhere at
www.curtis.edu/YouTube. Subscribe for weekly videos
featuring memorable performances from the current and
previous seasons, plus bonus content including interviews
and behind-the-scenes footage.
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 Wednesdays at noon and
Mondays at 10 p.m. (ET), with live streaming at www.wwfm.org.
F O L L O W U S @ C U R T I S I N S T I T U T E
Orchestral concerts are supported by the Jack Wolgin Curtis Orchestral Concerts Endowment
Fund. The Community Partner Ticketing Program is generously sponsored by PECO.
The Curtis Opera Theatre season is sponsored by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and
the Wyncote Foundation. A Quiet Place is sponsored in part by David and Sandy Marshall,
BNP Paribas, and the Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman Venture Fund for Opera. Mahagonny:
Ein Songspiel is funded in part by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., New York, N.Y.
Generous support for the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble is provided by the Daniel W. Dietrich II
Foundation.
PHOTOS: DARIO ACOSTA, DAVID DeBALKO, TODD ROSENBERG, CORY WEAVER
MORE ONLINE
www.curtis.edu/Performances
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
19

Randall Thompson (at keyboard), director of
Curtis in 1941, with his orchestration students;
Bernstein is standing directly behind Thompson
PHOTO: CURTIS ARCHIVES
Leonard Bernstein’s two years attending Curtis left a lasting mark—on the student and the school.
“A Deeply Moving
EDITOR’S NOTE Leonard Bernstein
(Conducting ’41) was born on August 25,
1918. Throughout 2018, musicians and
audiences worldwide are celebrating the
centenary of this iconic conductor, composer,
and pianist—who was shaped in part by the
two years he spent studying conducting at
Curtis. Materials in the school’s archives,
including a speech in 1975 marking Curtis’s
50th anniversary, offer unique insights
on his student experience, and how Curtis
influenced his musicianship.
Leonard Bernstein in his college years
PHOTO: CURTIS ARCHIVES
Leonard Bernstein’s relationship
with Curtis began in the fall of 1939,
when he was accepted as a conducting
student under Fritz Reiner. A Harvard
graduate, he had also attracted
considerable notice in classical
circles, studying with Aaron Copland
and gaining the friendship of the
Minneapolis Symphony’s music director,
Dmitri Mitropoulos. His burgeoning
acquaintance with Mitropoulos had put him on the path both
to conducting and to Reiner, who was then a teacher at Curtis.
20 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

At first fortune seemed to be smiling on Bernstein. Though his application came late
in the year, Reiner had not yet chosen his class due to delays resulting from his European
engagements. Bernstein’s entrance examination and acceptance took place on October 5,
three days after the start of the school term.
Unfortunately, this providential start soon soured in the face of targeted, negative
preconceptions about Bernstein that ran rampant throughout the school. “I was not a
smash hit with the student body,” he recalled in a speech given in 1975 to mark Curtis’s
50th anniversary year. “As you can imagine, they regarded me as a Harvard smart-aleck,
an intellectual big shot, a snob, and a show-off. I know this to be true because they later told
me so.” This undisguised resentment, combined with Bernstein’s difficulty in adjusting to
what he saw as Curtis’s insular attitude, served to make his first year a veritable social minefield.
For Bernstein brought to Curtis more than just his Harvard education. He also brought
his Harvard experience. That experience had promoted involvement in world affairs (which,
in 1939, were rife with uncertainty and fear) and included protests, charged political and
philosophical discussions, and musical performances in support of campus activist groups.
Bernstein conducting a few years after
his Curtis graduation PHOTO: BETTMANN
Experience”
BY KRISTINA WILSON
For Bernstein, Harvard had fostered an environment that seamlessly blended together philosophy,
literature, and music, allowing him to flourish not only as a student, but as a citizen.
Whether Bernstein presumed that a similar atmosphere would exist at Curtis is not
known. What is known is his dismayed reaction to his new environment. He likened walking
through Curtis, whose campus was housed in three repurposed mansions of the Philadelphia
elite, to walking through an alien land. “The school at the time was a fairly accurate reflection
of the isolationist attitude that gripped a large part of our country. The motto was: Avoid
entanglements. Curtis was an island of musical enterprise. There seemed no one with whom
I could share my feelings, at least not among the students. Those first few months were lonely
and agonizing.”
MORE ONLINE
Read blog entries and view artifacts of Bernstein’s
Curtis connection at
www.curtis.edu/Bernstein
SOLACE IN STUDY
Driven by a need to alleviate his despondency, Bernstein plunged himself into his studies—an
act which, though unintentional, fostered friendships with his instructors that in some cases
lasted well beyond his Curtis years.
There was the new Curtis director and orchestration instructor, Randall Thompson—
himself a product of Harvard—who favored a broader, more inclusive Curtis curriculum that
deemphasized virtuosity rather than venerated it. His thoughts about Curtis’s then deeply
ingrained insularity echoed (and expanded on) Bernstein’s own. Musically, too, the two men
proved to be in sync; in the summer of 1940, Bernstein conducted Thompson’s Second Symphony
at Tanglewood, earning his teacher’s praise for his sympathetic and skillful conducting.
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
21

Richard Stöhr’s Counterpoint and Harmony class,
with Bernstein in the back row (second from left)
PHOTO: CURTIS ARCHIVES
Then there was the Austrian refugee Richard Stöhr (Counterpoint and Harmony),
whom Bernstein later called “remarkable and gentle,” teaching species counterpoint—a
subject that at Harvard had been considered, in Bernstein’s words, too “old hat,” but that
the young conductor would find vital to his success. In fact, so enduring was Stöhr’s influence
that Bernstein showed his continued gratitude many years later by funding his teacher’s
hospice care.
Bernstein’s solfège and score-reading teacher, the “lovable and gifted” Renée Longy-Miquelle,
not only taught him invaluable lessons in the classroom, but opened her apartment to him
for companionship and French home cooking, usually consisting of a single menu item she
called “Fried Soup,” a concoction of her own devising.
Even the two Curtis teachers who struck abject terror into most students’ hearts, Isabelle
Vengerova (Piano) and Fritz Reiner (Conducting), garnered—and reciprocated—Bernstein’s
respect and admiration.
BERNSTEIN’S
CURTIS ORBIT
As soon as he entered Curtis,
Bernstein quickly formed lasting
attachments to his teachers.*
RANDALL THOMPSON | ORCHESTRATION
“A composer, an intellectual, and—good Lord!—a
Harvard man. I studied orchestration with him,
and we became instant and fast friends.”
CURTIS CELEBRATES THE CENTENARY
This spring Curtis pays tribute to the musical legacy of Leonard Bernstein (1918–90)
with performances in Philadelphia and on tour.
CURTIS ON TOUR: LEONARD BERNSTEIN CENTENARY CELEBRATION
Works by Bernstein, Copland, and Gershwin are performed by two alumni, tenor Dominic
Armstrong and clarinetist David Shifrin, as well as student pianist Jiacheng Xiong and the
Zorá String Quartet, currently in residence at Curtis, in February and March. The nationwide
tour kicks off in Philadelphia, with stops in Arizona, California, Florida, Oregon, and
Washington, D.C. www.curtis.edu/BernsteinTour.
PHOTO: PAUL de HEUCK/COURTESY OF
THE LEONARD BERNSTEIN OFFICE, INC.
* Quotes on Reiner, Vengerova, Thompson, and
Longy-Miquelle from Leonard Bernstein, February 1975,
Philadelphia; Stöhr from Leonard Bernstein letter to
Hans Sittner, St. Michael’s College Archives
PHOTOS: CURTIS ARCHIVES, ST. MICHAEL’S COLLEGE ARCHIVES
CURTIS OPERA THEATRE: A QUIET PLACE
In partnership with Opera Philadelphia and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the
Curtis Opera Theatre presents the American premiere of Garth Edwin Sunderland’s chamber
version of Bernstein’s opera on March 7, 9, and 11 at the Perelman Theater in Philadelphia.
A concert version of the production will be presented in New York City on March 13 at the
Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. www.curtis.edu/Opera
BERNSTEIN, IDENTITY, AND A QUIET PLACE
The Curtis Institute of Music, Opera Philadelphia, and the National Museum of American
Jewish History join together March 1 for a panel discussion featuring museum curator
Ivy Weingram; Mikael Eliasen, artistic director of the Curtis Opera Theatre; and Pulitzer
Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon.
22 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

Bernstein in an early-career publicity photo
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE LEONARD BERNSTEIN OFFICE, INC.
NEW FRONTIERS
In Bernstein’s second year, everything changed. Although he enjoyed the friendships
forged with his instructors, he was thrilled when the iciness of his Curtis peers suddenly
began to thaw. A dramatic event—the jealousy of another student culminating in a thwarted
physical threat against Bernstein, Reiner, and Thompson—was the catalyst that led to
this cessation of hostility, and “foes became friends, overwhelmed with sympathy …
what bliss.”
Bernstein’s joy at this favorable shift only increased when he came to the realization
that “as I got to know my newfound friends, I found to my surprise that they were indeed
very much interested in the world at large, in philosophical and political concepts. And
musically, many of them did care about more than virtuosity. They cared about style and
period, about scholarship, about the composer in society, about interdisciplinary thought.”
Bernstein had come to an astonishing realization: that he, like his fellow students, had been
ISABELLE VENGEROVA | PIANO
“Never had I had a piano teacher so demanding and
tyrannical as my dear Isabella Afanasiovna Vengerova."
FRITZ REINER | CONDUCTING
“Suddenly I was studying with the great
and fanatically severe Fritz Reiner.”
A TRIUMPHANT RETURN
Leonard Bernstein returned to the Curtis Institute of Music in
1984 to conduct the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in his Symphony
No. 2 (“The Age of Anxiety”) and Chichester Psalms. The gala
concert at the Academy of Music also featured Curtis faculty
member William Smith conducting works by Berlioz and Saint-
Saëns, with violin faculty member Aaron Rosand (also a Curtis
alumnus and still teaching today) as soloist. Their performance
capped a weeklong celebration of the school’s 60th anniversary.
The 60th-anniversary concert, and the rehearsals that
preceded it, were a memorable experience for Curtis students.
“Their reaction to your conducting was one of unbounded
joy,” wrote Curtis director John de Lancie to Bernstein soon
afterwards, “and I am bombarded with the question, ‘Is he
coming back?’ ”
Bernstein was then at the height of his fame, and worldwide
demand for his presence made scheduling difficult. But a date
was eventually found in February 1990. Students and faculty
alike looked forward to the date with eager anticipation. But it
was not to be. Bernstein was forced to cancel due to ill health,
and nine months later, he passed away at the age of 72.
“THEIR REACTION TO YOUR CONDUCTING WAS
ONE OF UNBOUNDED JOY, AND I AM BOMBARDED
WITH THE QUESTION, ‘IS HE COMING BACK?’”
Leonard Bernstein conducting the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in 1984
PHOTO: CURTIS ARCHIVES
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
23

equally guilty of harboring preconceived ideas—about Curtis, about his peers, and about
his place among them.
This epiphany, along with the marked contrast between his first and second years at Curtis,
left Bernstein with a complicated set of memories when he graduated in May 1941. However,
33 years later, during his speech for Curtis’s 50th anniversary, Bernstein made it clear that
time and age had finally reconciled what the young Bernstein could not.
“When I think back on my two years in Philadelphia, my immediate memory is of
a deeply moving experience, full of hard work, intense relationships, and fascinating new
frontiers to cross. … [But] the more I dig into my memory of those two Curtis years, the
more of a mixed bag I find it to be.” Still, it was from this very mixed bag that Bernstein
drew a most fitting conclusion, simultaneously defining both the perplexed Curtis student
and the consummate maestro he ultimately became.
“It all works out in the end. … Beauty is truth, and truth, beauty.”
Kristina Wilson is the archivist at the Curtis Institute of Music.
RICHARD STÖHR | COUNTERPOINT
“A remarkable teacher, a patient, gentle and
deeply learned man, he taught me a great deal.”
RENÉE LONGY-MIQUELLE | SOLFÈGE
“Nor had I ever studied good, old-fashioned solfège, and now
here was the lovable and gifted Renée Longy to teach it to me.”
THE ONLY CLEAR BEACON
“OUR TRUTH, IF IT IS HEARTFELT, AND THE
BEAUTY WE PRODUCE OUT OF IT, MAY PERHAPS
BE THE ONLY REAL GUIDELINES LEFT.”
Bernstein rehearses the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in 1984.
PHOTO: NEIL BENSON/CURTIS ARCHIVES
When Leonard Bernstein returned to Curtis in 1975 to speak at
an event marking the school’s 50th anniversary, he concluded
his remarks with an eloquent argument for the power of art.
“I still hear people asking: What have we artists to do with
oil and economy, survival and honor? The answer is Everything.
Our truth, if it is heartfelt, and the beauty we produce out of it,
may perhaps be the only real guidelines left, the only clear
beacons, the only source for renewal of vitality in the various
cultures of our world. Where economists squabble, we can be
clear. Where politicians play diplomatic games, we can move
hearts and minds. Where the greedy grab, we can give. Our
pens, voices, paintbrushes, pas de deux; our words; our C-sharps
and B-flats can shoot up higher than any oil well, can break
down self-interest, can reinforce us against moral deterioration.
Perhaps, after all, it is only the artist who can reconcile the
mystic with the rational, and who can continue to reveal the
presence of God in the minds of men.”
—Leonard Bernstein
February 27, 1975
Philadelphia
24 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

FIRST PERSON
Clara Gerdes PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
On the Other Side of Locust Street
An organ scholar’s experience at Saint Mark’s Church
BY CLARA GERDES
I motioned the twenty singers in front of me to rise, breathed in the tempo, and cued the first
notes of William Lloyd Webber’s Missa Maria Magdalena. The keen focus of the choir, and
the attention of the people in the pews behind me, made me feel responsibility like I’d never
felt before. Later, recalling that moment made me reflect on my experiences playing the organ
at Saint Mark’s Church, Locust Street, and how they have shaped my abilities and aspirations
as a musician.
“The church across the street from Curtis” is a local landmark with its bell tower, soup
kitchen, and lush garden (which also makes it a popular spot for neighborhood dog walkers!).
It’s also a frequent venue for concerts and architecture tours. For Bryan Dunnewald and me,
it’s been even more: a generous community and a strong music program in the Episcopal
tradition that has welcomed us as organ scholars since 2015, in a unique extension of our
Curtis-based training.
Being an organ scholar is like being an apprentice; you work for an expert who provides
guidance and feedback on the skills you are learning. For most organists, and certainly for
me and Bryan, the skills of our trade will involve church playing and choir training.
Preparing, rehearsing, and performing music in a service is similar to working with any
musical ensemble, but it also comes with a totally different pace and rhythm. Since the liturgy
has many non-musical parts, for example, you often have to play before you feel quite ready,
and deal with sudden logistical decisions (for example, is the five seconds between hymns
Being an organ scholar is like
being an apprentice; you work
for an expert who provides
guidance and feedback on
the skills you are learning.
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
25

26 OVERTONES SPRING 2018
Each week we prepare and
play different types of pieces:
hymns sung by the congregation,
the accompaniments for choral
music, and organ solos.

FIRST PERSON
too short to slide the organ bench into a more comfortable position?) On the other hand,
it’s wonderful to work with the same colleagues week after week and to experience the power
the organ can unleash to lead a roomful of singers.
A WIDE PALETTE
Every week, working under the direction of the church’s organist and choirmaster, Robert
McCormick, Bryan and I prepare and play different types of pieces: hymns sung by the
congregation, the accompaniments for choral music, and organ solos. The choir sings a setting
of the mass with its five movements (Kyrie, Gloria in Excelsis, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei)
or the evensong canticles (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis), in addition to one or two anthems
(longer free pieces) for each service. Sometimes the music is taken from a larger work, such
as Elgar’s oratorio The Apostles; sometimes it’s a Renaissance motet or mass setting; sometimes
a work by a contemporary classical composer such as Nico Muhly, or even a Curtis graduate.
Overall our church repertoire draws from a wide palette, ranging from the 15th century to
the present.
A typical choral service at Saint Mark’s is a feast for the eyes as well as the ears, with an
intricate choreography of robed clergy and acolytes chanting, reading, kneeling, and processing
around the church amid candles, bells, and incense. The liturgy, as all this symbolic drama is
called, varies in mood and style throughout the year, from quiet and inward-looking in Advent
(the four weeks before Christmas) to joyful and even boisterous at Easter. This affects the
music that is programmed. All Souls’ Day (November 2) calls for a full-scale Requiem mass,
for which we have used the well-known settings by Mozart and Duruflé; at Easter we hire
brass players; and Christmas has all the usual carols. But even a normal Sunday has its own
sense of occasion.
WEEKLY ROUTINE
Bryan and I are busiest on Sundays at 11 a.m. at the high mass, which features our
twenty-voice parish choir of professionals and gifted amateurs singing complex music.
But we also have to save some energy for the other services: a “family mass” each Sunday
at 9 a.m. and choral evensong, held monthly on Sundays at 4 p.m.
At the family mass, the choir of boys and girls sings a different anthem nearly every week.
These children and teenagers, ranging in age from seven to fifteen, learn quickly given the
energy and focus of Robert’s leadership, and sometimes Bryan and I rehearse them as well.
The monthly evensong brings both choirs together in a restorative service filled with
references to rest, physical and mental, which brings the weekend to a calm close (although
as the third service of the day, it can feel like the end of a marathon for the musicians!).
Rehearsals are short, making it especially crucial for choir, choirmaster, and organists
to work efficiently with one another in putting the music together.
From time to time Bryan and I are given the chance to take the lead—one of us may
conduct a piece at mass or evensong, for example. One Sunday last fall, we even played
and conducted a high mass in Robert’s absence. Although being in the director’s position,
responsible for the whole ensemble, gave me some serious nerves at first, I was surprised
how in control of things I felt. It made me realize how, in learning how to be good assistants,
Bryan and I have started to gain many of the skills we need to be good leaders in our profession.
I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that our experience at Saint Mark’s has been an
ideal opportunity to “learn by doing” in the Curtis way!
A choral procession PHOTO: CHARLES GROVE
In learning how to be good
assistants, Bryan and I have
started to gain many of
the skills we need to be good
leaders in our profession.
Organ student Clara Gerdes, who holds the Tureck Bach Research Institute Fellowship, entered Curtis
in 2014 and studies with Alan Morrison.
Opposite: Curtis organ students Clara Gerdes and
Bryan Dunnewald in rehearsal and in a service at
Saint Mark’s Church, where they serve as organ
scholars under organist and choirmaster Robert
McCormick (upper right). PHOTOS: CHARLES GROVE
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
27

MEET THE ALUMNI
Amanda Majeski
PHOTO: FAY FOX
Prepared for Her Moment
Soprano Amanda Majeski (Opera ’09) makes every experience count.
BY HEIDI WALESON
In March 2010, Amanda Majeski got the call every understudy awaits: The soprano singing the
Countess in Le nozze di Figaro at Lyric Opera of Chicago was ill, and she would be going on.
Ms. Majeski, then in her first year as a member of Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center, had sung the
role once, during the covers’ run-through in the rehearsal room, but never onstage. She barely
remembers this trial-by-fire debut. “‘Fight or flight’ kind of kicks in, and you’re not even thinking
about it,” she says. “It’s almost an out-of-body experience. You don’t know what happened other
than, ‘gosh, I think that went well.’” It did—critics praised her voice, technical control, and
complete sangfroid.
Ms. Majeski was thoroughly prepared for her moment, having spent the previous three
years in the real-life training crucible of the Curtis opera program, under the direction of
Mikael Eliasen. She had performed at least a dozen roles onstage, and was ready for anything
the professional world could throw at her. “It was very scary to go on as the Countess, but it
was it was not scarier than other things I had done before,” she says. “Mikael has this thing
called studio class, where you have to get up and sing in front of your colleagues. Sometimes
28 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

MEET THE ALUMNI
When her moment arrived,
she had performed at least
a dozen roles onstage in the
real-life training crucible of the
Curtis opera program, where
“you’re trained to get over the
‘scary’ and get the job done.”
that’s scarier than singing for an audience of people you don’t know—to try something out
in front of colleagues and have it not work. I had that experience every week. You’re trained
to get over the ‘scary’ and get the job done.”
Today, Ms. Majeski’s busy schedule takes her to the Metropolitan Opera (where her 2014
debut was another high-profile Figaro Countess replacement, this time in a new production
on the season’s opening night), as well as Paris, Zurich, Frankfurt, Madrid, Buenos Aires,
Hong Kong, Beijing, and the Glyndebourne Festival. Her principal repertoire focus is Mozart
and Strauss, and her current season reflects that, with Vitellia in Paris, Fiordiligi at the Met
(a new Phelim McDermott production set in 1950s Coney Island), and Strauss’s Four Last Songs
on April 29 with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in Verizon Hall. The Composer in Ariadne
auf Naxos, which she will essay in Santa Fe this summer, is slightly off the beaten path since
it is usually sung by mezzos, but as she points out, the part was premiered by a soprano, and
at 5’ 10” she’s a natural for pants roles.
HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE
Ms. Majeski grew up in a suburb of Chicago, where her mother encouraged her to try every
extracurricular activity that interested her—sports, dance, figure skating, piano, cello. When
she auditioned for the high school musical and didn’t get a part, she asked for voice lessons.
“We happened to find a teacher who taught classically. She brought out the 24 Italian art songs,
and I said, ‘What is this? I want to sing Rent and Les Miz. But the more I studied it, the more
Top left: Amanda Majeski as Donna Elvira and Ildar
Abdrazakov as Don Giovanni in the Metropolitan
Opera’s Don Giovanni PHOTO: MARTY SOHL/METROPOLITAN OPERA
Above left: Ms. Majeski and Matthew Rose in
Der Rosenkavalier at Lyric Opera of Chicago
PHOTO: CORY WEAVER/LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO
Above: Ms. Majeski as the Countess in Le nozze di
Figaro at Lyric Opera of Chicago PHOTO: TODD ROSENBERG/
LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO
A M A N D A M A J E S K I W I T H
T H E C U R T I S S Y M P H O N Y
O R C H E S T R A
The orchestra’s April 29 concert in
Verizon Hall features Amanda Majeski
in Strauss’s Four Last Songs, with
Karina Canellakis (Violin ’04) on the
podium. www.curtis.edu/Orchestra
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
29

MEET THE ALUMNI
“I was so impressed by
her preparation, her complete
confidence,” says bass Matthew
Rose, Baron Ochs in the
Lyric’s Der Rosenkavalier.
“She was a brilliant colleague,
with no fuss, always in the
right place, never diva-ish.”
I fell in love with it.” She went on to Northwestern University, to Marlena Malas’s summer
workshop at the Chautauqua Institution, and then on to Curtis, where Ms. Malas is on the
faculty. Initially she planned to spend two years, but stayed for a third.
The value of the intensive, hands-on Curtis experience was clear to Ms. Majeski from her
first year, when she took on Magda in La rondine. “Mikael put Danielle Orlando basically at
my disposal to coach it, and to work on the Italian and the style. I had Marlena sometimes three
times a week, to make sure that it was never too much for me—never pushed beyond my limits,
but learning how to sing that role in a safe, helpful way for my voice. Consequently it was one
of my favorite stage experiences ever.”
Another formative experience was performing Poulenc’s solo opera La voix humaine, with
Mr. Eliasen playing the piano. During that project, he got to know Ms. Majeski well. “She had
a mysterious, enigmatic quality about her, which I always thought was intriguing,” he says.
“Some people thought of her as very unassuming—not a typical soprano personality. Then
she would get onstage, and change to be not so unassuming, which I think is a wonderful gift.”
ALWAYS IN THE RIGHT PLACE
Graduating from Curtis in 2009, Ms. Majeski continued to the Ryan Center, and then spent
a year as a contract artist at the Semperoper Dresden, which, she says, was rather like Curtis:
“You’re in one place, and you have assignments; it’s just in German.” Offers started to come
in from opera houses around the world, and the soprano embarked on the freelance life from
a home base in the Chicago area, where she lives with her husband, bass-baritone Sam Handley,
and her stepdaughter.
She has been back to Lyric Opera of Chicago several times, including her second outing
as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in 2016. Bass Matthew Rose, also a Curtis alumnus,
was singing his first-ever Baron Ochs, and was challenged by the role’s acres of text and Austrian
dialect. For him, Ms. Majeski was a rock. “I was so impressed by her preparation, her complete
confidence,” he says. “She had such a grasp of the character, the role, and the music, and she
nailed it from Day 1. Doing a piece like that, you have enough to worry about, and she was
a brilliant colleague, with no fuss, always in the right place, never diva-ish.” When the two were
together again several months later, as Leporello and Donna Elvira in the Met’s Don Giovanni,
Mr. Rose says, “I trusted her every second we were onstage.”
Looking into the future, Ms. Majeski would love to do more Marschallins. “I’m pretty sure
I’ll never get sick of it. It’s one of those roles that grows with you the older you get, the more
life you live.” She has her eye on Britten operas like Peter Grimes and Turn of the Screw, and
she’d love to do more contemporary pieces.
Her overall goal? “Continue making good music with good people and hoping that I make
people who come to hear me happy along the way.”
Heidi Waleson is the opera critic for the Wall Street Journal and a regular contributor to Overtones,
Symphony, Opera News, and other national publications. Her book Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death
of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America will be published by Metropolitan Books
in Fall 2018.
PHOTO: FAY FOX
W H Y C H O O S E C U R T I S ?
More Reasons at
—AMANDA MAJESKI
www.curtis.edu/WhyChooseCurtis
“Curtis is the best place for real-life vocal training. It’s hands-on learning by doing—weekly lessons,
and working with brilliant pianists and diction coaches two, three times a day. The program is so
small that Mikael Eliasen can tailor the opera season to the students he has, as opposed to the other
way around. Curtis taught me everything about how to pace myself vocally, about stamina, how to
work with directors and how to be a good colleague. When I left Curtis, I felt like I knew what I was
doing, that I was absolutely prepared for everything vocally that lies ahead.”
30 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

NOTATIONS
NOTATIONS
ALUMNI
JACQUELINE EPINOFF BASSIS
(Cello ’51) and DIANA STEINER
(Violin ’57) had a reunion after 50
years at Diana’s house in Los Angeles
in October, and shared memories of
past Curtis days with joy. Diana and
Jackie played in an “all-girl” string
quartet at Curtis in the late 1940s.
Last fall FRANCES STEINER (Cello ’56)
led the Chamber Orchestra of the
South Bay in its season-opening
concert, featuring DMITRI LEVKOVICH
(Composition ’99) as soloist in the
Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2.
The all-French program also included
works by Delibes, Fauré, and Ravel.
CHERRY RHODES (Organ ’64) was
a master class clinician and one of
eight adjudicators during the first
Shanghai Conservatory of Music
International Organ Festival and
Competition in September. Pipe organs
are rare in China, and the festival was
intended to stimulate interest in the
instrument. Twenty-four organists
from nine countries competed,
playing the five-manual Rieger pipe
organ in Shanghai Oriental Art Center.
In 2017 LAMBERT ORKIS (Piano ’65)
participated in the Musica Viva
Festival in Sydney, Australia in
April and coached students in the
Australian Youth Orchestra Chamber
Alumni may share news of
recent professional activities and
personal milestones by e-mail
to alumnirelations@curtis.edu
or by post to the Office of
Alumni and Parent Relations,
Curtis Institute of Music, 1726
Locust St., Philadelphia, PA 19103.
Notes are edited for length,
clarity, and frequency.
Players Program; presented
collaborative piano master classes
at the Juilliard School, Florida State
University, and Levine Music in
Washington; performed with violinist
Anne-Sophie Mutter throughout the
year in Europe and the United States;
and participated alongside Ms. Mutter
in a symposium examining Beethoven’s
approach to tempo, held at Leipzig’s
Internationales Kurt Masur Institut.
Russell
Hartenberger
RUSSELL
HARTENBERGER
(Percussion ’66)
was the recipient
of the 2017
Leonardo da
Vinci World
Award of Arts,
granted by the
World Cultural
Council at
the University of Leiden in the
Netherlands. The award acknowledges
individuals “who lift our existence
to a higher level by the beauty or
inspiration of their creative talent,”
and is conferred in alternate years
on an artist whose work constitutes
a significant contribution to the
world’s artistic legacy.
JOHN RUSSO (Clarinet ’67) performed
the Weber Clarinet Concerto No. 2
with the Philadelphia Sinfonia on
January 22 at Temple Performing
Arts Center. A recording is scheduled
for release in 2018.
ZINA SCHIFF
(Violin ’69)
premiered David
Hush’s Dream
in Jerusalem
in October.
At the Mu Phi
Epsilon national
convention in
Denver last July,
she became an
Zina Schiff
ACME (artists,
composers, musicologists, and
educators) honoree.
Last August and September
MICHAEL HOUSTOUN (Piano ’75)
and BELLA HRISTOVA (Violin ’08)
performed the complete cycle of
Beethoven’s ten Sonatas for Piano
and Violin in a sixteen-city tour
presented by Chamber Music
New Zealand. Their recording
of the sonatas will be released
on the Rattle label in 2018.
In October CHIN KIM (Violin ’79)
performed at the International
Violin Competition of Indianapolis
Laureate concerts, held at the Indiana
History Center’s Glick Concert Hall.
In December, he performed in a
faculty recital at the Mannes College
of Music with pianist Simon Jung.
Dave Williamson
DAVE
WILLIAMSON
(Double Bass ’81),
a member of
the Minnesota
Orchestra, has
joined the bass
faculty at the
University of
Minnesota.
Last February
KETTY NEZ
(Piano ’83),
composition
faculty at Boston
University,
performed her
work in transit
with violinist
Klaudia Szlachta
for the Florida
State University
Ketty Nez
New Music
Festival, and gave concerts with
violist Katrin Meidell. She also
performed and recorded the moon
returns with flutist Gergely Ittzes.
Her wind ensemble piece four
scenes for Juliet was premiered
and professionally recorded by the
Boston University Wind Ensemble
for release this year.
DARON HAGEN (Composition ’84)
has joined the Chicago College of
Performing Arts as an artist faculty
member, in a multi-disciplinary
position that allows him to share his
skills with students, provide mentoring,
and collaborate in the development
of a new opera each year.
CHRISTINE RUTLEDGE (Viola ’84)
traveled to Wellington, New Zealand,
to present a lecture-recital on
baroque performance on modern
instruments and a master class
on Bach at the 44th International
Viola Congress in September. She
performed Bach’s six solo suites
(originally for cello) at the University
of Iowa as the capstone of her new
critical edition of these suites for
viola. Christine will perform music
for viola and piano by Hans Gál at
the 2018 Primrose International Viola
Competition Festival in Los Angeles,
and will perform chamber works by
Gál at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival
Fringe. She has been staying active
while caring for her son, Jake,
who continues to make very good
progress after his severe traumatic
brain injury in January 2016.
In December PAUL BRANTLEY’s
(Composition ’85) cello concertino,
The Royal Revolver, was premiered
by cellist Eric Jacobsen and members
of the University of Michigan
Symphony, conducted by Kenneth
Kiesler. CATHERINE SCHNEIDER
(Accompanying ’85) also commissioned
Paul to compose a work for guitar
and cello, Filles de l'Élysée, to help
celebrate her sister’s significant
birthday anniversary.
PAUL ANTHONY ROMERO’s
(Accompanying ’86) orchestral
soundtrack scores for Ubisoft’s hit
computer game series, Heroes of
Might and Magic, were celebrated
in a sold-out concert on October 27
at the Forum of Music concert hall
in Wrocław with the Polish National
Orchestra. Paul performed an
all-Chopin concert on December 3
in Versailles, France.
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
31

NOTATIONS
In September AVNER ARAD (Piano ’89)
served on the jury of the 2017 Janáček
International Piano Competition in
the Czech Republic. While in Prague
he also gave master classes at the
Janáček Academy and the Prague
Conservatory.
ZVI CARMELI (Viola ’90) has
been appointed senior lecturer
in viola at the Jerusalem
Academy of Music and Dance.
YUMI HWANG-WILLIAMS (Violin ’90),
concertmaster of the Colorado
Symphony, was the soloist in three
performances of the Sibelius Violin
Concerto in November, appearing with
four days’ notice when the scheduled
soloist cancelled due to illness.
Yumi is scheduled to solo again
with the Colorado Symphony in May,
performing the Serenade by LEONARD
BERNSTEIN (Conducting ’41).
In August CHRISTI MUSE ZUNIGA
(Chamber Music and Accompanying
To Be Heard
George Walker’s Lyric for Strings will be performed by
the Curtis Symphony Orchestra on April 29.
BY WILLIAM SHORT (BASSOON ’10)
George Walker
Evening lessons with Rudolf Serkin in a room “so dark you could hardly see
the keys.” The Common Room, “so elegant, and so removed from all the things
that one knew existed—bigotry even in churches, and in the restaurants—but
when you walked in there, it was so peaceful and so elegant.”
Into this evocative environment entered the young GEORGE WALKER
(Piano and Composition ’45), who after graduating from the Curtis Institute
of Music would become a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, pianist, and
advocate for social justice. His latest work, Sinfonia No. 5, deals with the
2015 Charleston church massacre; the National Symphony will premiere
it next season.
Initially admitted alongside longtime friend SEYMOUR LIPKIN (Piano ’47)
as a piano student of RUDOLF SERKIN, George soon found himself unable
to expend his seemingly boundless energy solely through piano-related
pursuits: “I needed to do more than practice five hours a day.” He began
to study composition with the legendary ROSARIO SCALERO, whose
insistence on starting every one of his students with the fundamentals
of counterpoint fascinated George. “The more linear aspects of writing,”
while not necessarily of interest to every composer of his generation,
were definitely of interest to him. He made it his goal “to infuse what
I do with some of these elements which are considered archaic,” but
to use them “so that they don’t seem academic.”
Impressively for a man who, in addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize, has
been awarded seven honorary doctorates (including one from Curtis, in 1997)
and two Guggenheim Fellowships and has been inducted into the America
Classical Music Hall of Fame, among numerous other accolades, George’s
most earnest desire is “just to have people hear my music. That’s all I want.”
William Short is principal bassoon of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Christi Muse
Zuniga
’91) performed
the Beethoven
Triple Concerto
with Amy Sims,
Paul Ledwon,
and the Peninsula
Music Festival
Orchestra under
the baton of
Victor Yampolsky.
She served as
principal keyboard for the festival,
held in Fish Creek, Wis., and continues
as principal keyboard with the Omaha
Symphony.
VICTOR YERRID (Percussion ’92)
debuted his second orchestral puppet
show, Race for the Reef, with the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in
October. In November he took his
puppets to Singapore and Malaysia
to reprise his first production,
The Great Chipmunk Picnic!
ELIZABETH OSTLING (Flute ’94)
has been named fine arts research
consultant at Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary. She recently
joined the advisory board of Duke
Initiatives in Theology and the Arts.
LIZA KEROB
(Violin ’96)
returned last fall
from a chamber
music tour in
South Korea, and
recently played in
La Baule, London,
Nantes, and Tours
Liza Kerob
with her Goldberg
Trio. Liza will perform the Stravinsky
concerto in April with the Monte-Carlo
Philarmonic and Maestro Pascal Rophé.
HEATHER CONNER (Piano ’97)
has been named to an endowed
professorship, the Chancellor’s Chair
of Pre-College Piano, at Vanderbilt
University’s Blair School of Music.
In December TIM
FAIN (Violin ’98)
appeared with
the American
Composers
Orchestra at
Carnegie Hall, at
a global initiative
Tim Fain
at the Vatican,
and at Ravinia
in a multi-media duo recital with
Nicholas Britell. This summer he
will attend Australia’s Canberra
Festival and Canada’s Scotia Festival.
Tim’s newly formed trio with cellist
Matt Haimovitz and pianist
Christopher O’Riley focuses on
classical traditions, new works,
and cutting-edge technologies.
In September PAUL JACOBS
(Organ ’00) served as president of
the jury for the Shanghai Conservatory
of Music International Organ
Competition. In October he performed
Wayne Oquin’s Resilience with the
Philadelphia Orchestra; and in
November he appeared as soloist with
the Cleveland Orchestra, performing
Stephen Paulus’s Grand Organ Concerto.
In January Paul performed again
with the Philadelphia Orchestra in
James MacMillan’s Scotch Bestiary
In June NICK KENDALL (Violin ’01)
and EFE BALTACIGIL (Cello ’02) will
premiere a duo by CHRIS ROGERSON
(Composition ’10) on the Seattle
Symphony’s {untitled} series.
YEVGENIY SHARLAT (Composition
’01) was among the composers
commissioned by the Kronos
Quartet for a project entitled
“Fifty for the Future.” His Pencil
Sketch was premiered by the quartet
in November.
MARY ELIZABETH BOWDEN (Trumpet
’04), currently a resident artist at the
University of North Carolina School
of the Arts, performed as a soloist
with the Evansville Philharmonic in
February, and at the Big Sky Music
Festival and the Lieksa Brass Week
in Finland last summer. She was
also soloist with the Peninsula
Symphony in March 2017. Her brass
quintet, Seraph Brass, was a featured
ensemble at the 2017 International
Women’s Brass Conference and the
Forum Cultural Guanajuato in Mexico,
and will release its first studio
album on Summit Records in 2018,
featuring a work by RENE ORTH
(Composition ’16).
ZHOU TIAN’s (Composition ’05)
Grand Canal, a large-scale suite for
two Chinese traditional soloists,
Chinese opera singer, and orchestra,
received its European premiere in
February 2017. Jiamin Song led the
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra’s
performance at the National Concert
Hall in Dublin.
DENIS PETRUNIN (Timpani and
Percussion ’06) was appointed principal
timpanist of Symphony Orchestra
32 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

NOTATIONS
Milestones
Births
On June 10 HEATHER CONNER
(Piano ’97) and her husband,
Caleb Harris, had a baby girl, Emery
Makayla Harris. She joins brother
Logan, age 3.
Heather Conner and family
LAURA BLOCK FULLER (Viola ’07)
and her husband, Andrew Fuller,
gave birth to Natalie Maria Fuller
on September 4. Samuel Elias Fuller,
2 years old, welcomes his new sister.
ALLEN BOXER (Opera ’11) and Sophie
Lagane-Boxer announce the birth
of their second son, Arthur, on
November 27 in Berlin, Germany. His
big brother, Robin, is five years old.
Marriage
Mara Gearman
and Jeffrey Fair
MARA GEARMAN
(Viola ’02) and
Jeffrey Fair,
a horn player,
were married
on September 10
at the Olympic
Sculpture Garden
in Seattle. Both
are members
of the Seattle
Symphony.
(Appropriately,
a movement
of Mozart’s Horn
Quintet was
performed at
the ceremony.)
TIEN-HSIN CINDY WU (Violin ’08)
was married on October 1 to Ryan
Goodfellow, a computer scientist
in Los Angeles. Her teachers IDA
KAVAFIAN and STEVEN TENENBOM
(Viola ’79) participated in the
wedding: Ida walked their ”dog of
honor” down the aisle, and Steve
made a speech representing Cindy’s
American family and mentors at the
reception. ANGELA PARK (Cello ’07)
was the maid of honor, and ROB
PATTERSON (Clarinet ’07) played
the second movement of Mozart’s
Clarinet Concerto. The guests
included ARNOLD STEINHARDT
(Violin ’59), PETER LLOYD (Double
Bass ’78), CHE-YEN CHEN (Viola ’98),
and MIDORI.
Deaths
SYLVIA LEVIN (Piano ’34) passed
away on July 25 in Creal Springs, Ill.
Born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, she
raised her family in the New York
area, where she worked as financial
comptroller for a consulting
engineering firm in the steel industry.
A gifted pianist, Sylvia entered Curtis
at age 12 as a student of Isabelle
Vengerova. She delayed college until
her 40s, attending in the evenings
after work and graduating with her
bachelor of arts in psychology from
Brooklyn College when she was
50 years old. She then attended
graduate school at the New School
for Social Research in Manhattan.
In 1976 she and her husband, Hy,
moved to Pittsburgh. Following
her husband's death, Sylvia moved
to Illinois at age 81. She continued
to play the piano well into her 90s.
JANE PHELAN VOGEL (Voice ’47)
died in July in Utica, N.Y. A soprano,
she was active in musical circles all
of her life. Beginning in 1947, Jane
performed every Friday evening on
a local radio show. She was a soloist
with the Utica Symphony, with the
Paris Chamber Orchestra at Hamilton
College, and in many oratorios in
Cooperstown, as well as at St. Peter’s
Basilica in Rome. Jane married
George A. Vogel in 1947, and they
enjoyed a blessed marriage for over
48 years before his passing in 1996.
ELAINE HOFFMAN WATTS (Timpani
and Percussion ’54) died on September
25 at her home in Ardmore, Pa.
Born in 1932, Elaine grew up in West
Philadelphia, and became Curtis’s
first female graduate in timpani
and percussion. She joined the New
Orleans Symphony for a year, then
returned to Philadelphia to freelance.
She married Ernest Watts in 1955.
For more than six decades, Elaine
taught klezmer drumming and
traditional drumming in her home.
She performed often with the band
Fabulous Shpielkes. Her awards
included a Pew Fellowship in the Arts
(2000), a National Heritage Fellowship
from the National Endowment for
the Arts (2007), and a Leeway
Foundation Transformation Award
(2007). In 2009 a documentary film,
Eatala: A Life in Klezmer, was made
about her life.
Elaine Hoffman Watts
WALTER J. FREIMANIS (Double Bass
’60) passed away on June 11 at age 80.
Walter was born in Latvia to a German
family that relocated to Germany and
then to the United States, settling in
Vineland, N.J. After studying double
bass at Curtis, Walter switched to
the cello, which he played for the rest
of his life. In the 1960s, he joined the
music faculty of the State University
of New York at Oswego, retiring as
a full professor in the early 2000s.
During that time, he performed
extensively in the United States
and Canada as a soloist and chamber
musician. He wrote numerous
chamber works and pieces for solo
cello, and conducted the Oswego
College-Community Orchestra for
a number of years.
WILBER “CORKEY” CHRISTMAN
(Harp ’62) passed away in October
in Schenectady, N.Y. Corkey was born
into a family with a strong literary
heritage, and was an art student in
South Carolina before focusing on
the harp and transferring to Curtis.
After graduation Corkey developed
and presented programs that blended
music, poetry, and dance. In 1967
he married pianist Patricia Stanley
Harris. In his later years as a
performer, Corkey concentrated
on dinner music, and his innovative
arrangements of classical, folk,
and pop tunes made him a favorite
with Tanglewood celebrities like
violinist Itzhak Perlman, who
sometimes joined Corkey for kazoo
and harp duets. In 2009, Corkey
began taking classes in drawing
and painting, reviving his early
interest in the visual arts.
LOREN KITT
(Clarinet ’63)
died on
September 4
at age 76 in
Glens Falls, N.Y.
He served for
more than
40 years as
principal clarinet
of the National
Symphony
Orchestra,
Loren Kitt
and taught
at the Peabody Conservatory and
the University of Maryland. Born
in Bremerton, Wash., in 1941, Loren
started playing clarinet in the fifth
grade. As a teenager, he heard the
Philadelphia Orchestra on tour,
a turning point in his life. Soon he
was playing well enough to perform
regularly with the Seattle Symphony.
After graduating from Curtis, he
was principal clarinetist with the
Milwaukee Symphony before joining
the NSO in 1970. He played his final
official concerts with the NSO in
February 2017, but came out of
retirement to play in Mahler’s
Second Symphony in June.
GENE E. STANDLEY (Horn ’74) died
on August 31 in Alexandria, Ohio.
He was born in Pittsburgh in 1952
and played the horn professionally
from age 17. After graduating from
Curtis, he freelanced for several
years and played for ten years with
the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1990,
Gene moved to Ohio and joined the
Columbus Symphony Orchestra,
where he served as principal horn
from 1991 until his death. When
not performing, Gene spent time
on the family farm with his wife
and children, and enjoyed collecting
and selling vinyl records through
his eBay business.
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
33

NOTATIONS
Augusta (Ga.) in October. His wife,
violinist Anastasia Petrunina, won
the position of concertmaster in the
same orchestra.
Anastasia and Denis Petrunina
HAN YO SON (Clarinet ’06) has been
appointed associate principal clarinet
and solo E-flat clarinet of the KBS
Symphony Orchestra in Seoul.
SHERIDAN SEYFRIED’s (Composition
’07) double concerto for violins was
premiered by NIKKI CHOOI (Violin ’12)
and TIMMY CHOOI (Violin ’17) at the
2017 Lake George Music Festival,
of which BARBORA KOLÁROVÁ
(Violin ’12) is co-founder and artistic
director. The work explores the sibling
relationship of the brothers in musical
terms. Another of Sheridan’s compositions
was premiered last summer by
an ensemble including YVONNE LAM
(Violin ’05) and MATTHEW McDONALD
(Bassoon ’09) at Twickenham Fest
in Huntsville (Ala.).
MELISSA WHITE (Violin ’07) and
ELENA URIOSTE (Violin ’08) launched
Intermission Sessions and Retreat,
a program that combines music and
yoga and encourages injury prevention,
mindfulness, and optimal health within
music-making. Participants in the first
Retreat, held last August in Manchester,
Vt., included DANIEL MATSUKAWA
(Bassoon ’92), JOSEPH CONYERS
(Double Bass ’04), YUMI KENDALL
(Cello ’04), and GABRIEL CABEZAS
ALUMNI AND
PARENT OFFICE NOTES
Welcome Jason Ward
Curtis is pleased to announce that JASON WARD has joined
the advancement staff as director of alumni and parent
relations. A native of South Carolina, Jason holds bachelor’s
and master’s degrees in horn performance from the
University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He comes
to Curtis from the Philly POPS, where he was director of
external affairs, overseeing fundraising, education, and
community engagement. He has also worked at the League
Jason Ward
of American Orchestras, Lincoln Center Education, and
Interlochen Center for the Arts. Jason can be reached
at jason.ward@curtis.edu or (215) 717-3128.
A New Alumni Network Chair
Beginning with the 2017–18 season, JANELLEN FARMER
(Opera ’84) is the new chair of the alumni network
executive committee. Janellen previously served as chair
of the Opera Task Force, and was recently elected alumni
representative to the Curtis board of trustees. In addition
to her studies at Curtis, she holds a degree in English and
Irish studies from Villanova University and is pursuing
postgraduate work at Westminster Choir College. She is
Janellen Farmer
a member of the voice faculty at DeSales University, and
music director at St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church
of Valley Forge.
OTHER CURTIS FAMILY NEWS
NINA ALBERT, a trustee emerita of the Curtis Institute of Music, passed away
in December. Ms. Albert served as a Curtis trustee from 2005 to 2017, and as
chair of the board of the Friends of Curtis in 2006–07. A generous supporter
of the school, she and her husband, Billy, endowed the faculty chair held by
cello faculty Carter Brey. The Curtis Institute of Music expresses its deep
sorrow to Ms. Albert’s family and friends.
(Cello ’13). Melissa and Elena have also
offered capsule sessions to institutions
such as the Heifetz International Music
Institute, Royal Northern College of
Music, Mannes School of Music, and
Project 440, guiding students through
yoga workshops, discussions, and
instrumental master classes with an
emphasis on alignment and breathing.
Last fall
RINNAT MORIAH
(Voice ’08) sang
with the Berlin
Philharmonic’s
Karajan Academy
at the Philharmonie
in Berlin
Rinnat Moriah
and in Paris; and
toured Korea
singing in J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus
with the Moerbisch Festival. In June
she made her Israel Philharmonic
debut singing the role of Susanna in
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. Last April
she debuted with the Rheingau Music
Festival and the Baden-Baden Festival.
In 2017 she also performed with the
Ensemble Modern at the newly
opened Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
NATHAN J. LAUBE (Organ ’09)
has been appointed international
consultant in organ studies at the
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
(U.K.), starting this spring. He will
visit the Conservatoire several times
a year to perform, teach master classes,
lecture, and coach students. Nathan
continues as assistant professor of
organ at the Eastman School of Music,
and recently completed his tenure
as the first artist in residence at the
1738 Müller organ of St. Bavo-Kerk
in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
CHRIS ROGERSON (Composition ’10)
has been commissioned by the
Kansas City Symphony to write
two new works, including one for
Yo-Yo Ma. The orchestra premieres
his Virunga in March.
In August RACHEL KUIPERS YONAN
(Viola ’11) began teaching viola at
Duke University in Durham, N.C. Since
then she has performed at Duke as a
guest artist with the Ciompi Quartet
and in the premiere of Steve Jaffe’s
Migrations. As the artistic director
of the Marinus Ensemble, Rachel
performed in September with the
Rochester Chamber Music Society
and opened the season of the Smede’s
Parlor Series in Raleigh (N.C.) along
with Hannah Kuipers and MARON
KHOURY (Flute ’09). In April Marinus
appears at Field Concert Hall with
MICHAEL RUSINEK (Clarinet ’92)
as part of the Curtis Presents series.
BARBORA KOLÁROVÁ (Violin ’12)
joined the roster of Price Rubin
and Partners Artist Management
in August.
JUNPING QIAN (Viola ’13) won
the first prize at the International
Conducting Competition Jeunesses
Musicales Bucharest in September.
In October
DANIEL TEMKIN’s
(Composition ’13)
Time Capsule
was premiered
by NIKKI CHOOI
(Violin ’12) and
TIMOTHY CHOOI
Daniel Temkin
(Violin ’17) at
the American
Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
Daniel has also been commissioned
by the Weis Center for the Arts to
compose a new work for XAVIER
FOLEY (Double Bass ’16) and by
the Pennsylvania Music Teachers
Association to compose a new solo
piano work. In March Daniel will be
in residence at the Willapa Bay artist
colony in Washington.
AUSTIN LARSON (Horn ’14) joined
the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
in September.
Aizuri Quartet
After winning first prize in the string
quartet division at the Osaka International
Chamber Music Competition
last May, the AIZURI QUARTET
(Quartet ’16) returned to Japan in
November for a nine-concert Grand
Prix Tour. The quartet is also the
2017–18 quartet in residence at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York City, giving five performances
over the course of the season. In
December the quartet performed
on the Curtis Presents series, joined
by JONATHAN BISS (Piano ’01).
34 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

NOTATIONS
FACULTY
In June The Silent Flame, an
award-winning piece for horn and
piano by KE-CHIA CHEN (Composition
’09), was performed at the 49th
International Horn Symposium
in Brazil.
MICHAEL DJUPSTROM’s (Composition
’11) string quartet was premiered by
the DOVER QUARTET (Quartet ’13)
at the 25th Tucson Winter Chamber
Music Festival in March. He wrote
the work while in residence at
the MacDowell Colony. A piano trio
by DAVID LUDWIG (Composition ’01)
was premiered at the same festival
by the Morgenstern Trio.
JENNIFER HIGDON’s (Composition ’88)
Viola Concerto, performed by Curtis
President ROBERTO DÍAZ (Viola ’84)
with the Nashville Symphony, won the
2018 Grammy for Best Contemporary
Classical Composition in January.
The Viola Concerto was also featured
on the album that won the Grammy
for Best Classical Compendium. Also
in January, Dr. Higdon received the
2018–19 Eddie Medora King Award
from the University of Texas at Austin.
DAVID LUDWIG (Composition ‘01) was
presented with the A.I. Dupont Award
by the Delaware Symphony Orchestra,
given annually to “recognize a
distinguished living American
composer or conductor who has
made a significant contribution
to contemporary classical music.”
The presentation took place at
a performance of his bassoon
concerto, Pictures from the Floating
World, written in 2013 for DANIEL
MATSUKAWA (Bassoon ’92) and
performed by the DSO with soloist
WILLIAM SHORT (Bassoon ’10).
ALAN MORRISON (Organ ’91,
Accompanying ’93) performed
at the Chamber Music Festival of the
Black Hills (S.D.) last July, alongside
CHARLES WETHERBEE (Violin ’88),
ROBERT KOENIG (Accompanying ’91),
EUNICE KIM (Violin ’14), WILLIAM
GOODWIN (Viola ’90), and MICHAEL
HILL (Double Bass ’92). In November
Mr. Morrison appeared with
CHRISTINA SMITH (Flute ’91) at
Spivey Hall (Morrow, Ga.), gave a
master class at Baylor University,
and performed the closing recital for
the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival.
In October DANIELLE ORLANDO
participated in residencies for the
Oberlin Conservatory of Music and
Baldwin Wallace University’s opera
department. She appeared in a recital
for the Philadelphia Chamber Music
Society with soprano Angela Meade
in January. Ms. Orlando also served
as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions in October
(Cincinnati) and January (Memphis).
THOMAS
PATTESON
received the 2017
Lewis Lockwood
Award from
the American
Musicological
Society for his
Thomas Patteson
book Instruments
for New Music
(University of California Press, 2016).
HARVEY SACHS has been invited to
speak at Harvard University, NYU,
UCLA, and the University of Southern
California about the material in his
biography Toscanini: Musician of
Conscience. The book has been
reviewed in the New York Times,
the New Yorker, the Wall Street
Journal, and the Economist.
Shift and Riff by ERIC SESSLER
(Composition ’93), as performed
by Curtis guitar students, was
featured in online video posts for
Classical Guitar magazine and on
the website This Is Classical Guitar
in Summer 2017.
MANUEL SOSA’s music was featured
in multimedia art exhibitions by Laura
Karetzky at the Lora Schlesinger
Gallery (Santa Monica, Calif.) in
Summer 2017
and the Amelie
A. Wallace
Gallery (SUNY—
Old Westbury)
in Fall 2017. His
Geometria I was
performed by
Manuel Sosa
pianist Matthew
Harikian at the
first Rayuela Festival at Augsburg
College in Minneapolis.
THOMAS WEAVER was commissioned
by violinist Elmira Darvarova and the
New York Chamber Music Festival to
compose two new works premiered
in January at the American Irish
Historical Society in New York.
In December ERIC WEN taught a
three-day workshop on analysis at
the Jerusalem Music Centre in Israel.
AMY YANG (Piano ’06) appeared in
recitals with the DOVER QUARTET
(Quartet ’13) in September, the Jasper
String Quartet in December, and
ROBERTO DÍAZ (Viola ’84) and the
Amelia Piano Trio in March. She
performed Beethoven’s “Emperor”
Piano Concerto with Orquesta Juvenil
Universitaria Eduardo Mata under
the baton of GUSTAVO RIVERO WEBER
(Piano ’84) in November and will
appear alongside violinist Patricia
Kopatchinskaja in June.
STUDENTS
Omri Barak
Amanda Lynn
Bottoms
OMRI BARAK
(Trumpet) has
been appointed
principal
trumpet of
the Allentown
Symphony
Orchestra.
AMANDA LYNN
BOTTOMS (Opera)
performed
El amor brujo
with the Lansing
Symphony
Orchestra (Mich.)
in October.
EMILY COOLEY (Community Artist
Fellow) was one of four composers
chosen to participate in the
Nashville Symphony’s Lab and
Workshop in November.
DAI WEI (Composition) received
commissions from the Rock School
for Dance Education for their annual
gala and the Chamber Orchestra
of Philadelphia for LEONARD
BERNSTEIN’s (Conducting ’41)
centenary year. Both performances
take place in May.
Last fall BRYAN DUNNEWALD (Organ)
performed solo recitals at St. Paul’s
Church (Greenville, N.C.), Princeton
University Chapel, and the First
Congregational Church of Boulder.
This spring he plays recitals at
Marble Collegiate Church and Central
Synagogue (New York City); Church
of St. Louis, King of France (St. Paul,
Minn.); the Cathedral of St. Philip
(Atlanta); Trinity Church (Boston),
and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
(Portland, Ore.).
JORGE ESPINO (Opera) performed
operatic selections in a Winter 2017
tour with the Santa Fe Opera.
STEPHEN FRANKLIN (Trumpet) won
first prize at the Roger Voisin Memorial
Trumpet Competition in January.
EVAN LeROY JOHNSON (Opera)
performed Die schöne Müllerin with
Julius Drake at the Source Song
Festival in Minneapolis in August
and debuted at Opernhaus Zürich
as Narraboth in Salome in Fall 2017.
In May he will perform the role of
Don José in Carmen with Opera
Philadelphia.
In November, HYUN JAE LIM (Violin)
performed the Korngold Violin
Concerto with the Philadelphia
Orchestra under the baton of
KENSHO WATANABE (Conducting ’15).
In September WEI LUO (Piano) received
the 2018 Gilmore Young Artist Award.
ANDREA OBISO
(Violin) shared
the top prize at
the 2017 ARD
International
Violin Competition
in Munich.
He also received
Andrea Obiso the prize for the
best performance
of a new work by Avner Dorman.
ELENA PERRONI (Opera) appeared
with the Quad City Symphony
Orchestra in October, singing
excerpts from La bohème.
EMILY POGORELC (Voice) performed
with the Milwaukee Symphony
Orchestra in December.
In November EMMA RESMINI (Flute)
performed a solo recital, presented
by Bowerbird, at the Rotunda
in Philadelphia.
OVERTONES SPRING 2018
35

NOTATIONS
RECORDINGS
AND PUBLICATIONS
Pianist KATELYN BOUSKA, a member
of the musical studies faculty, has
recorded a CD with cellist Štepán
Filípek, released in February by the
Czech Radio record label. The duo
also embarked upon a six-week
international tour celebrating the
centennial of the Czech Republic.
Dr. Bouska has also recorded a piano
sonata by DAVID CARPENTER, a member
of the Curtis advancement staff.
JASMINE CHOI’s (Flute ’04) new CD,
Love in Paris, was recorded live in
recital with a pianist Samuel Park and
released on the Credia Starship label.
In September Xavier Review Press
published liberal arts faculty member
TIM FITTS’s second collection of
short stories, Go Home and Cry
for Yourselves.
In November Naxos released Lyric
Fest’s recording of song cycles by
DARON HAGEN (Composition ’84).
ANTON KUERTI (Piano ’58) released
a new Beethoven CD and DVD in
August on the Concertmasters label.
The CD features the “Waldstein,”
“Appassionata,” and “Les Adieux”
sonatas, recorded in 2011; and a
1975 recording of the Diabelli
Variations. The DVD, Profound
Passion, includes Anton’s lecture
on the Diabelli Variations, followed
by a complete performance.
KYUNGHEE KIM-SUTRE’s (Harp ’89)
new CD, Parfums d’Amour (Sonarti),
celebrates the 25th anniversary of
her duo with violinist Guillaume Sutre.
YVONNE LAM (Violin ’05), co-artistic
director of Eighth Blackbird, is heard
on the group’s new album Olagón:
A Cantata in Doublespeak, released
in November by Cedille Records.
It features the music and fiddling
of Dan Trueman and vocalist
Iarla Ó Lionáird and the poetry
of Paul Muldoon.
CAROL LEONE’s (Piano ’81) solo CD,
Change of Keys: One Piano, Three
Keyboards, has been released by MSR
Classics. It includes music of Haydn,
Beethoven, Chopin, and Bartók,
performed on one piano using three
different keyboards.
In April ACHILLES LIARMAKOPOULOS,
(Trombone ’08) released his fourth
solo album, Ethereal. The album
features international collaborators,
including COLINE-MARIE ORLIAC
(Harp ’10).
DEMARRE McGILL (Flute ’96),
ANTHONY McGILL (Clarinet ’00),
and pianist Michael McHale recorded
a trio by CHRIS ROGERSON
(Composition ’10) on their debut
album, Portraits, released by Cedille
Records in August.
Liberal arts faculty member
JAMES F. MOYER's essay “What Can
Philosophy Do for Critique?” was
published in November by Ragged
Sky Press in Art School Critique 2.0.
PATRICIA “PATSY” PARR’s (Piano ’56)
Above Parr: Memoir of a Child Prodigy
was published in 2016 by Prism
Publishers. The book includes
a CD and a foreword by ARNOLD
STEINHARDT (Violin ’57).
PAUL ANTHONY ROMERO’s
(Accompanying ’86) new recording,
Paul Anthony Romero: The Heroes
Sonatas, was released last fall.
ZINA SCHIFF’s (Violin ’69) essay,
“With Four Strings and a Bow: The
Role of Music in Religious Expression,”
appeared in the Spring issue of
Conversations, a journal published
by the Institute for Jewish Ideas
and Ideals.
In December NOAM SIVAN of the
musical studies faculty released
Ambiro’s Journey, a new album
containing over 70 minutes of
improvised solo piano music which
was performed and recorded at
Curtis in a single unedited take.
MAKOTO UENO (Piano ’87) is featured
on two recent recordings released on
the Wakabayashi Koubou label: works
by Wagner, Liszt, Debussy, Scriabin,
Ravel, and Schoenberg, played on
a 1906 Bechstein piano; and works
by Debussy and Ravel, played on
1927 Erard piano.
Musical studies faculty member
ERIC WEN’s book Structurally Sound
was released last May by Dover
Publications.
36 OVERTONES SPRING 2018

NOTATIONS
LEGACY CREATORS
HARRIS AND LOUISE CLEARFIELD
Harris, a physician, plays the clarinet; Louise is a gifted painter;
and their loyal financial support of Curtis spans decades.
Together they have made a bequest that honors Harris’s cherished
memory of attending to the medical needs of our students while
on tour with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in Europe.
YOUR LEGACY.
THE WORLD WILL LISTEN.
Curtis is a unique global resource for musical talent, sustained by the foresight and generosity
of supporters like Harris and Louise Clearfield. For more information about including Curtis
in your estate plan, call Charles Sterne, director of planned giving, (215) 717-3126.

1726 Locust Street
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Three Curtis
Conductors at the
Acropolis, 1959
A year after becoming music director
of the New York Philharmonic,
LEONARD BERNSTEIN (Conducting ’41)
led the orchestra on a tour through
Europe and Western Asia. Joining him
were his two assistant conductors,
who were also Curtis alumni: THOMAS
SCHIPPERS (Organ ’47), at left, and
SEYMOUR LIPKIN (Piano ’47). The
program for their stop in Greece
contained a mix of old and new:
Beethoven, SAMUEL BARBER
(Composition ’34), Shostakovich,
and Bernstein’s own Symphony No. 2
(“The Age of Anxiety”), in which Mr.
Lipkin was the piano soloist. Here,
the three stand at the foot of the
Acropolis in Athens, taking a moment
to appreciate ancient Greek culture.
This year marks the Leonard Bernstein
centenary. Read about his Curtis
experience on page 20. PHOTO: CURTIS
ARCHIVES/SEYMOUR LIPKIN COLLECTION