Curtis Overtones Fall 2017_BluelineChanges_2

OVERTONES
VOL. XXXXII, NO. 1
FALL 2017
Musical Gold
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra Tours Europe
P A G E 1 3
Chief Commissioner
Curtis Generates New Music
P A G E 2 2
Voices Heard
Making Music in Prison
P A G E 2 4
Inside:
2016-17 Annual Report

Spring 2017 at Curtis
In February MIGUEL HARTH-BEDOYA (’91), music director of the Fort
Worth Symphony, led the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, with RICHARD
WOODHAMS (Oboe ’68) as soloist in works by SAMUEL BARBER (’34)
and Jean Françaix in Verizon Hall (at left). The concert also included
music by LEONARD BERNSTEIN (Conducting ’41), Ravel, and Strauss.
The orchestra returned to Verizon Hall in May under OSMO VÄNSKÄ,
joined by PETER SERKIN (Piano ’64) in the Brahms Piano Concerto
No. 1 (above). The May program also featured Barber’s Adagio for
Strings and Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. The orchestra performed these
works with Mr. Vänskä throughout Europe during its summer tour.
PHOTOS: DAVID DeBALKO
The Curtis Opera Theatre offered two productions at the Perelman
Theater last spring. In John Adams’s Doctor Atomic, JOHNATHAN
McCULLOUGH portrayed nuclear scientist Robert Oppenheimer in
a highly choreographed conception by stage director R.B. Schlather
(below left). April brought Puccini’s romantic quasi-operetta
La rondine, in a production set on the French Riviera by stage director
Stephanie Havey. ELENA PERRONI (Opera) and JAMEZ McCORKLE
(Voice) starred as the ill-fated lovers Magda and Ruggero (below right).
PHOTOS: KARLI CADEL, ANDREW BOGARD
MORE ONLINE
Watch and listen to musical highlights.
www.curtis.edu/YouTube

CONTENTS
SPRING 201 7 AT CURTIS
Opposite
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT: 2
Continuous improvement
VOL. XXXXII, NO. 1
FALL 2017
3
NOTEWORTHY 3
A touring triumph, a centenary celebration,
and an exciting addition to the Curtis violin faculty
OVERTONES
Overtones is the semiannual publication
of the Curtis Institute of Music.
1726 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Telephone: (215) 893-5252
www.curtis.edu
Roberto Díaz, president and CEO
Nina von Maltzahn President’s Chair
EDITOR
Melinda Whiting
EDITORIAL ADVISORY GROUP
Paul Bryan
Lourdes Demers
Roberto Díaz
Mikael Eliasen
Jennifer Kallend
Kristen Loden
David Ludwig
Jeanne McGinn
CONTRIBUTORS
Carlos Ágreda
Barbara Benedett
Emily Cooley
Tim Fitts
Maria Ioudenitch
David Ludwig
Lyman McBride
Jeanne McGinn
Thomas Oltarzewski
Laura Sancken
GRAPHIC DESIGN
art270, Inc.
ISSN: 0887-6800
Copyright © 2017
by Curtis Institute of Music
FPO to be placed
by printer
MEET THE FACULTY 7
With infectious enthusiasm, Danielle Orlando
motivates young singers to be their best on the stage.
Dave Allen reports.
MEET THE STUDENTS 10
Braizahn Jones’s rapid rise has been fueled by intense
commitment and a holistic approach to everything, writes omas Oltarzewski.
“MUSICAL GOLD” 13
Students reflect on the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s ambitious summer sojourn to Europe.
THIS FALL AND WINTER AT CURTIS 20
On stage and online
CHIEF COMMISSIONER 22
Curtis generates a substantial body of new work from alumni, faculty, and student composers.
David Ludwig counts the ways.
24
10
29
13
FIRST PERSON 24
A composition student’s Community Artist Program
project sets the stage for musical collaboration and
celebration at a Pennsylvania prison. Emily Cooley
shares her experience.
THE COMPLEAT MUSICIAN 27
Teaching musicians to tell stories is worthy work,
writes Tim Fitts, who leads classes in fiction writing
and literature.
MEET THE ALUMNI 29
Lambert Orkis strives to transport listeners each time he plays. Jamie McCrary speaks with
the celebrated pianist about his passion for musical connection.
NOTATIONS
Alumni 32
Divergent Paths 33
Recordings and Publications 36
Faculty 36
Other Curtis Family News 36
Students 37
Alumni Office Notes 37
Class of 2017 38
ON THE COVER: Osmo Vänskä conducts the Curtis
Symphony Orchestra in concert at the Konzerthaus
in Vienna during their European tour last May.
PHOTO: IGOR RIPAK
38
CURTIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
REHEARSING IN VIENNA’S
MUSIKVEREIN, 1999 Back cover
OVERTONES FALL 2017
1

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Continuous Improvement
For a school, especially one focused on musical
performance, autumn is the traditional time
of beginnings. A new school year, a new
incoming class of students, new courses,
a new season, and myriad smaller novelties
to discover.
Behind the scenes at Curtis, though,
this moment finds us in the midst of some
multiyear endeavors, namely three broad,
intertwined processes of self-assessment as
an organization. All began in the wake of
the ten-year strategic direction we embarked
on in 2014, but each was initiated for
different reasons. From various angles,
these assessments were designed to answer
a key question for any institution: How are
we doing?
Roberto Díaz PHOTO: LEE MOSKOW
The first fulfills an important requirement.
Every few years, all schools that grant degrees
go through a self-study, in preparation for
reaccreditation. Our accrediting agency,
the Middle States Commission on Higher
Education, asks us to spend three years
carefully evaluating ourselves against specific
standards. This periodic process, while
difficult, is always enlightening. We are two
years into the current reaccreditation cycle,
and seven working groups of Curtis faculty,
students, alumni, staff, friends, and trustees
have completed their draft reports, bringing
forth penetrating insights about how
we function and how we might improve.
Over the same period, a Task Force on
21st-Century Education at Curtis has been
hard at work. Formed early in 2016 as we
began to implement our ten-year strategic
direction, this task force has been ably led
by Mia Chung of our musical studies faculty,
who is also a gifted pianist and a member
of our board of trustees. Its charge was
to help us better understand and manage
the overall education of Curtis students.
This group has generated thoughtful ideas
for our deans and faculty.
On a similar time frame, Curtis was
awarded a prestigious “advancement grant”
from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
to develop our artist-citizen curriculum,
which dovetails with career studies and
other programs that prepare Curtis students
to thrive—and to lead—in a rapidly evolving
musical landscape. A key component of the
project is a much-needed longitudinal study
of the impact this curriculum is having on
the students, the school, and the field as a
whole. The study involves intensive, iterative
data collection from students, alumni, and
audiences. Even as the grant term ends, the
study does not; we will emerge with tools to
integrate this data collection and evaluation
in our everyday operations indefinitely.
Through all this study, we are learning.
And as we learn, we improve. It’s not unlike
the cycle of practicing that governs the life
of a musician. We practice, not mindlessly,
but with purpose and intention. Over time,
we get better: better at playing, and more
important, better at learning. We solicit input
and let this, too, inform our practice. In a
continuous cycle of intentional improvement
against goals, we lay the foundation for
performance at the highest level.
It’s the same with any organization.
To be effective, we need to engage in active
and continuous learning. (This feedback-rich
culture is one of the common principles
recognized across many top high-performance
organizations—including the Mayo Clinic,
the U.S. Marines, Doctors Without Borders,
and, notably, Curtis—by the authors of the
2016 business book Powerhouse.) And so
we are defining baselines, setting benchmarks
and goals, and measuring ourselves against
them. We are laying the groundwork for
constant collection of feedback and data,
and for constant evaluation.
Our discoveries are informing the annual
strategic priorities we set for ourselves within
the framework of our ten-year plan. Bound
into this issue of Overtones is our Annual
Report for 2016–17, where you’ll find a
brief progress report highlighting results
against our strategic priorities for the year
just passed. For 2017–18 we have developed
a fresh set of priorities, based on our learning,
that are already governing our work and
further progress.
As a member of the Curtis family,
you play a part in this important work;
we have learned from your experiences
and insights. As we absorb and act on the
lessons of continuous self-assessment, we
are determined to live up to our deep and
abiding responsibility as a leader in the
musical field, and we’re grateful to all who
support us in this endeavor. The future of
the art form that unites us relies upon Curtis
musicians—and they rely upon us to be
our very best.
Roberto Díaz
President
2 OVERTONES FALL 2017

NOTEWORTHY
ALL-SCHOOL
PROJECT 2017–18:
“THE EDGE EFFECT”
European
Tour Triumph
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra
concluded its tour of Europe on
June 3, flying home to Philadelphia
after a 19-day excursion packed
with performances, rehearsals, and
once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences.
Reviews were positive throughout
the tour: “an electrifying night
Top: The orchestra accepts the applause of an enthusiastic of music” (Bremer Nachrichten);
audience in Berlin. PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
“fragrant atmosphere, dazzling
Above: Osmo Vänskä thanks members of the orchestra at colors, impressive portrayal”
the close of the London performance. PHOTO: CHRIS CHRISTODOULU
(Kulturradio Berlin); “the exuberance
of the opening registered well, and certainly the work was a good showcase for an orchestra
of young virtuosi” (London Daily Telegraph). An embedded reporter from the Philadelphia
Inquirer followed the orchestra to several stops.
MORE ONLINE
But the best reporters may have been the students
See tour photos on Instagram:
themselves, who took to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,
@CurtisInstitute
and Tumblr with real-time posts of photos from the
Read tour press coverage at
streets and concert halls of the Old World. Read some
www.curtis.edu/TourPress
of their reflections beginning on page 13.
Musicians have always responded to the
world around them. From the dialogue
between external influences and their
own creative vision, they make new
work that is entirely original. New
environments, cultures, technologies,
and other art forms have stimulated
composers for centuries. Examples
abound: Turkish Janissary bands
impressed Mozart, the indigenous song
of the Americas moved Dvořák, and
recording technology influenced Steve
Reich. Today, in a hyper-connected
global community, cultures and traditions
continually collide to provoke new
forms of constructive expression.
The celebrated cellist YO-YO MA drew
a metaphor from ecology to illustrate
this concept in a 2013 speech: “Where
two ecosystems meet, such as the
forest and the savannah, the point of
intersection is the site of ‘edge effect.’
In that transition zone, because of the
influence the two ecological communities
have on each other, you find the greatest
diversity of life, as well as the greatest
number of new life forms. … The ‘edge
effect’ is where those of varied backgrounds
come together in a zone of
transition; a region of less structure,
more diversity, and more possibility.”
Throughout the 2017–18 school year,
Curtis explores the “edge effect” in
music. On stage and in the classroom,
students will focus on the results of
external influences on musicians as
they have manifested over centuries
in the creation and performance of
concert music.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
3

NOTEWORTHY
Daniel Hsu’s performance of the Rachmaninoff
Piano Sonata No. 2 is among hundreds of
recital selections now viewable on YouTube.
PHOTO: MICKEY WELDE
CURTIS ON YOUTUBE
… AND MORE
Curtis has a new home for video content
on YouTube. Each week, the channel
features new video recordings of memorable
performances from the current
year and recent seasons. During the
performance season, live-streamed
Friday recitals will also be available
on YouTube. Bonus content includes
interviews with students and faculty,
behind-the-scenes footage from
rehearsals and performances, educational
vodcasts, and more. To subscribe,
visit www.Curtis.edu/YouTube.
Leonard Bernstein during a visit to Curtis in 1984. PHOTO: CURTIS ARCHIVES/NEIL BENSON
Celebrating the Bernstein Centenary
In 2018 the music world marks the centenary of LEONARD
BERNSTEIN (Conducting ’41), one of Curtis’s most illustrious
graduates. The young Bernstein, who studied with FRITZ
REINER while at Curtis, would become an instant celebrity
only two years after his graduation, stepping in at a moment’s
notice to conduct the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie
Hall when the scheduled conductor fell ill. Over the next
decade he would swiftly rise to become one of the world’s
most renowned cultural figures—a successful composer
across genres, a popular music educator and television
personality, a member of the top tier of international conductors,
and a public celebrity. He maintained that exalted
stature for the rest of his life, until his passing in 1986.
Curtis will celebrate the Bernstein centenary throughout
2018. Initial events include a February 10 recital in tribute
Leonard Bernstein in his student
years PHOTO: CURTIS ARCHIVES
to Bernstein on the Curtis Presents series, which will
then travel around the U.S. as part of Curtis on Tour. Performers include tenor DOMINIC
ARMSTRONG (Opera ’09), clarinetist DAVID SHIFRIN (’71), the ZORÁ STRING QUARTET,
and piano student JIACHENG XIONG. In March the Curtis Opera Theatre will offer the
American premiere of the new chamber version of A Quiet Place, recently adapted by
Garth Edwin Sunderland. Performances take place March 7, 9, and 11 at the Perelman
Theater of the Kimmel Center and March 13 at New York’s Kaye Playhouse at Hunter
College. Further Bernstein centenary events will be announced at www.curtis.edu.
A New Online School Store
Curtis has launched a new school store online, offering logo-bedecked
hats, hoodies, household accessories, workout gear, and even baby apparel.
Visit www.curtis.edu/Store to start shopping.
Emeline Chong, Jahleel Smith, and Maggie O’Leary model the merchandise.
4 OVERTONES FALL 2017

NOTEWORTHY
Midori Joins Curtis Violin Faculty
Curtis has appointed celebrated violinist
MIDORI to the faculty, beginning with
the 2018–19 school year. Curtis President
ROBERTO DÍAZ (Viola ’84) announced the
appointment, calling her “a soloist renowned
worldwide who pairs her international
performing schedule with a commitment
to community collaboration and outreach.
She embodies the artist-citizen ideal that
we want to instill in our students.”
The emphasis on community engagement
at Curtis was a key element in Midori’s
decision to relocate to Philadelphia.
“Community-building through music and
connecting with young musicians are an
important part of my career, and I look
forward to exploring with them how we,
as artists, can all become more a part of
the culture of our community,” she noted.
During the 2017–18 academic year, Midori
will visit Curtis several times to give master
classes, attend student-centered activities, and work with students participating in the
school’s community engagement programs and courses. In 2018 she joins the school’s
distinguished violin faculty, which includes SHMUEL ASHKENASI (’63), PAMELA FRANK (’89),
IDA KAVAFIAN, AARON ROSAND (’48), and ARNOLD STEINHARDT (’59).
Since her illustrious debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11, Midori has forged
a distinguished career, recording 19 albums and performing worldwide. She was named
a Messenger of Peace by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and in 1992 founded Midori
and Friends, a nonprofit organization that brings music education programs to underserved
schoolchildren.
Midori PHOTO: TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS
Nine Decades of Music to Be Digitized
Curtis has begun to digitize 93 years’
worth of recorded performances, aiming
to create an on-demand, cloud-based
digital library of recitals and concerts
for password-protected reference by
students, faculty, and staff. The source
material includes thousands of analog
recordings, including recitals dating
back to 1924 and original radio broadcasts
from the 1930s. The plan also
Student recital recordings are now more easily available
to Curtis students and faculty. PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
calls for the digital preservation of
films and videotape from the library's special collections, focusing on materials in danger
of decay; and irreplaceable items of historical importance from the Curtis archives.
Curtis’s collection of audio and visual files is rapidly expanding, with well over 100 new
performance recordings each year. Until now, making recordings available for reference
has been a laborious, multi-step process. With the new cloud-based digital repository,
“we’ll be able to offer students, faculty, and staff a much more efficient system where
they can access files quickly, easily, and securely,” says BARBARA BENEDETT, digital
archivist in the Rock Resource Center.
Beginning this fall, all performances will be directly uploaded to the cloud. Meanwhile,
library and audio department staff are gradually uploading older performances, a process
estimated to take several years.
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY
OFFICER JOINS CURTIS
The Curtis Institute of Music has named
MATT MORGAN to the newly created position
of chief technology officer. Mr. Morgan
is responsible for developing a renewed
technology infrastructure that will allow
Curtis to continue to attract gifted
students and support worldwide, while
serving the needs of current students,
faculty, staff, alumni, and patrons.
Mr. Morgan joins Curtis at a pivotal
moment, as the school strives to make
its world-class performances and rich
educational content available at any
time of day, anywhere in the world,
and on any type of device. Optimizing
current and emergent digital trends is
emphasized in Curtis’s ten-year strategic
direction, notes LARRY BOMBACK,
senior vice president of administration:
“Matt’s expertise is leveraging the power
of data and technology. This will help
us to raise Curtis’s profile locally and
globally, customizing a ‘virtual Curtis’
experience designed to meet every
user’s unique preferences and needs
on demand.”
A seasoned consultant to nonprofit,
public-service, academic, and cultural
organizations, Mr. Morgan has also
worked at the New York Public Library,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and
the Brooklyn Museum. During the
2015–16 school year, he worked with
Curtis to revamp its technology strategy
and business systems. Based on his
recommendations, work began last
year to consolidate multiple websites
into a more complete, user-friendly
Curtis.edu; prototype a single calendar
and scheduling solution; and create a
cross-departmental task force to streamline
the internal digital systems used
daily by students, faculty, and staff.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
5

NOTEWORTHY
STAFF
ANNIVERSARIES
Curtis thanks the entire staff,
with a nod to those celebrating
landmark anniversaries in 2017.
15 years
DARRYL HARTSHORNE
10 years
NAN ALDERSON
LAUREL GRADY
5 years
BARBARA BENEDETT
DAVID CARPENTER
VICTORIA KOURSAROS
KELLY McFARLAND
MICHELLE OSWELL
Joan Hutton Landis in her classroom in 1995
In Memoriam
Dr. Landis and tuba graduate Seth Horner, recipient
of the inaugural Joan Hutton Landis Award for
Excellence in Academics, in 2007 PHOTO: DAVID SWANSON
Curtis mourns the loss of faculty member emerita JOAN HUTTON LANDIS, who passed
away in May at 87. A gifted poet whose works were published in the Transatlantic Review
and the New York Times, as well as many literary journals, Dr. Landis began teaching at
Curtis in 1977. Beloved by the many students (now alumni) whom she befriended during
her 24 years at Curtis, she invited them to perform at her home, and worked with student
and alumni composers, several of whom set her poetry to music.
In her role as the first chair of the school’s liberal arts department, Dr. Landis had
a profound effect on its development. Besides overseeing the liberal arts faculty, she
taught courses in writing and literature, and advocated that musicians read widely.
“Literature,” she noted in an Overtones interview in 2010, “helps you live your life more
intensely, richly. It sparks your imagination.” As a poet, she saw the analogies between
poetry and music: “the rhythm, the stresses, the concentration of language. It’s really
a kind of template for composition itself. And so I think that musicians are especially
open to the poem and the poet.”
Retiring in 2001, she was named emerita faculty, and in 2007 the Joan Hutton Landis
Award for Excellence in Academics was established to honor one graduating student
each year. Dr. Landis was the author of two collections of poetry: That Blue Repair and
the recently published A Little Glide (Penstroke Press).
Curtis extends deepest sympathies to the family, friends, colleagues of Dr. Landis,
and all the alumni and colleagues she taught and influenced during her long career
at the school.
SCHOLARSHIPS EXPAND ACCESS TO SUMMERFEST
Contributors to Noteworthy include Barbara
Benedett, Jennifer Kallend, David Ludwig,
Jeanne McGinn, and Melinda Whiting.
Over the summer Curtis awarded eleven scholarships for the 2017 Young Artist Summer
Program to young musicians from underrepresented communities. The three-week Young
Artist Summer Program offers high school and college-age students the opportunity to
study with top musicians from around the world, including Curtis faculty and alumni.
With the goal of increasing socioeconomic, intercultural, and gender diversity across
the Summerfest student body, the scholarships were offered to students who surpassed
the program’s audition and application requirements. The scholarships helped offset tuition
costs and, in some cases, application fees, chamber music purchases, and housing and dining
costs. Generous funding was provided in part by John McFadden and Lisa D. Kabnick, the
Primavera Fund, and the Philadelphia Music Alliance for Youth (PMAY) Artists’ Initiative.
6 OVERTONES FALL 2017

MEET THE FACULTY
Danielle Orlando
Infectious Enthusiasm
Danielle Orlando motivates young singers to be their best on the stage.
BY DAVE ALLEN
Having spent much of her career in some of the world’s grandest opera houses, Danielle
Orlando now prefers homier environments. At Curtis, where she has taught since 1986,
the Salzedo Room is her favored space.
The third-floor room overlooking Rittenhouse Square is not especially large, and with as
few as three people—two singers and Ms. Orlando herself at the piano—the sound borders
on overwhelming. To imagine it filled with every singer in the vocal studies department, as
it is when she convenes the entire cast at the start of a Curtis Opera Theatre production, is
an exercise in excess. “It’s a big group and we’re always on top of each other,” Ms. Orlando says.
For the student singers, “it really teaches you to be sensitive to the person next to you and not
distract them, and to really know your part and not slow down rehearsal.”
As the principal opera coach at Curtis, Ms. Orlando combines the technical skills of an ace
accompanist with repertoire knowledge that’s both deep and broad. One of seven vocal coaches
in Curtis’s vocal studies department, she steps in where the technique taught by individual
voice teachers meets the realities of the stage.
Though Ms. Orlando has prepared operas written in every commonly sung language,
Italian opera is her chief domain, owing in part to her prior role as accompanist, judge, and
artistic coordinator for the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition. She worked very
closely with the legendary Italian tenor, and with countless other notable singers, conductors
and directors. Her approach to interpretation and characterization also draws on what she
calls “live experience” from several decades spent in opera houses—notably with the Opera
Company of Philadelphia, now known as Opera Philadelphia, from 1979 to 1993. This fount
of knowledge informs her teaching, whether directed to a large group of singers or during
a one-on-one coaching.
Baritone Dennis Chmelensky treasures the moments when Ms. Orlando gets everyone
together before the intensive coachings begin. “She works at such a high level, and she’s always
very present,” he says. “She’ll push you to the max of what you can do, but she also has the
ability to get people excited. It makes you want to push yourself.” Often, amid queries about
As the principal opera coach
at Curtis, Ms. Orlando
combines the technical skills
of an ace accompanist with
repertoire knowledge that’s
both deep and broad.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
7

MEET THE FACULTY
Ms. Orlando in a coaching with soprano Elena Perroni.
PHOTOS: PETE CHECCHIA
character, text, or pronunciation, personal questions crop up: “How are you feeling? How’s
your stamina? Are you getting enough rest?” Amid the mid-semester busyness, her students take
comfort in this insistent but caring approach. “She always expects the most from us because
she truly believes in each one of us,” Dennis explains.
For soprano Elena Perroni, Ms. Orlando has provided a unique balance of motivation
and inspiration. “I think she has this incredible gift of mentorship, which is a talent in itself
and not easy to come by,” Elena says. “She gives you the sense that there’s a lot of work to
be done—but that you’re capable of doing it.”
Ms. Orlando served as principal coach for the two productions that, to date, have bookended
Elena’s time at Curtis: Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and Puccini’s La rondine. “I grew so much
as a musician in that time,” Elena recalls. As they worked together on the leading role of
Magda in La rondine last April, she adds,“Danielle gave me the freedom and the confidence to
reflect on all the hard work that we’ve done.”
Close friends as well as colleagues: Mikael Eliasen
with Ms. Orlando PHOTO: KARLI CADEL
PROVOKE AND CONVINCE
Tasked with shaping performances and bringing details from the score to singers’ attention,
Ms. Orlando describes the essence of her job as “to provoke and convince.” For her, provocation
comes in the form of tossing out questions about their role: what the character thinks and
feels, or how the character fits in with others and with the opera’s plot. Convincing, on the
other hand, might take the form of narrowing down the options for a particular scene or
aria or, occasionally, reining singers in if they stray too far. With this two-pronged approach,
Ms. Orlando says, “I feel I’m helping them get ready to go out into an opera house and sing
a role with their own convictions.”
Mikael Eliasen, Hirsig Family Dean of Vocal Studies, says he relies a great deal on Ms.
Orlando’s well-informed opinions about repertoire and interpretation. “She’s so important
within the vocal department because she’s so strong in her beliefs,” he says. He and Ms.
Orlando arrived at Curtis around the same time, with Mr. Eliasen becoming department
chair shortly thereafter. Though they’ve traveled different paths—Ms. Orlando’s length of
service in opera houses and at festivals contrasts with Mr. Eliasen’s focus on lieder, art song,
8 OVERTONES FALL 2017

MEET THE FACULTY
and contemporary music—they share a fierce dedication to sparking creativity and fresh
perspectives from young singers. “I consider her one of my closest friends, and to have such
a close friendship with someone you work with is very rare,” Mr. Eliasen says.
With the vocal studies department’s rise in stature throughout Mr. Eliasen and Ms.
Orlando’s tenure at Curtis—due in no small part to their collective efforts—voice and opera
graduates are making international careers and finding their way to the venues where Ms.
Orlando amassed the skills that have driven her career. Soprano Amanda Majeski has made
numerous appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, among other major stages, since graduating
from Curtis in 2009. She calls Ms. Orlando “the most detailed coach I have ever worked with.”
“Her love of the music shines through her exquisite playing, and that excitement and
eagerness to get it right is infectious when you're working with her,” Ms. Majeski says. That
approach matches up nicely with Ms. Orlando’s words of encouragement at the start of an opera
production. “I tell them, make this as important as it can be so that we’re all engaged,” she says,
“and keep the energy level high so that it’s contagious. We don’t want to lose that.”
“She has this incredible gift
of mentorship,” says Elena
Perroni. “She gives you the
sense that there’s a lot of
work to be done—but that
you’re capable of doing it.”
Dave Allen is publications and social media manager at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.
His writings on music have appeared in Chamber Music, Overtones, Symphony, and the Courier-Post.
W H Y C H O O S E C U R T I S ?
More Reasons at
—DANIELLE ORLANDO
www.curtis.edu/WhyChooseCurtis
“There are so many reasons, starting with Mikael [Eliasen]: He’s always foraging for opportunities
for singers, and he gets a lot of people from the opera world to come here and hear them, which can
really help you make connections in your career. Apart from that, there’s the plethora of outstanding
coaches, the high level of the Curtis Opera Theatre’s productions, and the chance to work closely
and interact frequently with instrumentalists—they’re the musicians that will be accompanying you
in the pit one day! In an atmosphere like this, there are so many different ways to learn.”
PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
OVERTONES FALL 2017
9

MEET THE STUDENTS
Braizahn Jones holds the
Albert M. Greenfield Fellowship.
PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
The Holistic Experience
Braizahn Jones’s rapid rise has been fueled by intense commitment and a thoughtful approach.
BY THOMAS OLTARZEWSKI
Opposite:
Top left: Braizahn playing with the Curtis Symphony
Orchestra PHOTO: DAVID DeBALKO
Top right: With a young fan after a Family Concert
PHOTO: DAVID SWANSON
Middle: In transit during the orchestra’s recent
European tour PHOTO: TIMOTHY CHOOI
Bottom left: In rehearsal at the Kulturpalast in Dresden
PHOTO: OLIVER KILLIG
Bottom right: Warming up backstage at Verizon Hall
PHOTO: DAVID DeBALKO
It doesn’t take a long time talking to Braizahn Jones to realize that he is a young man with a
singular outlook on life. What Braizahn terms the “holistic experience” informs everything he
does, from performing to teaching to everyday life—and judging by his rapid development
since entering Curtis in 2014, that mindset is working for him.
“He’s just the complete package, full of love and idealism and talent,” according to double
bass faculty Harold Robinson, who describes lessons with Braizahn as an opportunity to discuss
philosophy and big artistic ideas in addition to the traditional areas of mastering technique
and repertoire. “We enjoy each other’s company so much that sometimes we just have to zip
it, and buckle down and work on the music, or else we would sit and talk, and talk, and talk.”
Curtis students are often called “musical athletes,” and Braizahn fits this description more
than most. Early in life, he was an accomplished athlete, excelling at football, basketball, and
other sports. With his large frame and natural physical ability, a career as an athlete was a serious
option. “It became a real question, because obviously I was really into sports—but a lot of
people are really into sports,” he says.
Braizahn wasn’t just “into sports.” Growing up in Las Vegas, he pursued them in the same
tenacious way that gifted young musicians pursue their art. “I was going to camps, and doing
all sorts of leagues, the same way that musicians are trying to get anything to give them that
experience—go to all the right summer festivals, and get lessons with the right teachers.”
Then a friend convinced him to join his high school’s orchestra. Braizahn chose the double
bass as his instrument, and something clicked. He found himself committing to a new endeavor
with the same drive that made him a star on the field. Why the sudden dive into music, with
such energy? “It’s always worth it, if I’m at all interested in something, to do it the right way,”
he says.
In addition to spending time in the practice room, he sought out recordings and videos
by top bass players, including Curtis alumni Joseph Conyers—whose orchestra career was
thriving—and Nathaniel West, then still a student. (Today both are members of the Philadelphia
Orchestra bass section headed by Harold Robinson.) Ever thoughtful about his methods,
Braizahn focused on what made them not just great musicians, but great bassists. “If I’m
interested in making pizza, I’m not going to look for just any culinary book, I’m going
to look for a book about making pizza,” he explains.
10 OVERTONES FALL 2017

Curtis students are often called
“musical athletes,” and Braizahn
fits this description more than
most. Early in life, he excelled
at football, basketball, and
other sports, and a career as
an athlete was a serious option.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
11

MEET THE STUDENTS
This knack for cutting through the noise to seek out key concepts of bass playing served
Braizahn well, as he quickly grew into one of the most accomplished musicians in his high
school and began to see a future for himself in music. Despite his late start, he won a place
at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and then set his sights on Curtis.
Braizahn strives to think
critically about his choices,
question them, and act
deliberately. “It’s all about
breaking off those habits and
tearing them away,” he says.
OPEN AND FOCUSED
To Braizahn, these developments are all part of the “holistic experience,” a lens through which
he sees connections among all areas of life. It prompts him, he explains, to learn and grow
from his everyday experiences as much as he does during a lesson or practice session. “Every
single day, no matter what it is, what you’re thinking about, what you’re looking at,” he says,
“[you] put yourself in an environment where you allow yourself to develop.” When preparing
for an audition, he focuses on his goal while opening himself to anything that can help him
prepare, musically or mentally.
Habits bother him, in practice or performance. Rather than fall into “autopilot,” Braizahn
strives to think critically about his choices, question them, and act deliberately, rather than
allowing a habit to steer the ship. “It’s all about breaking off those habits and tearing them
away,” he says. Becoming entrenched in a habit—even a “good” one—can prevent a musician
from being fully present in the performing process, he adds.
This level of thoughtfulness has also served him well as he has begun teaching private students,
whom he guides by example through his own playing and thinking. Recently, several of Braizahn’s
students have seen the benefits of his holistic approach first-hand, gaining acceptance to the
New England Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, and top string seminars.
He has also applied holistic thinking to his work as a resident assistant at Lenfest Hall over the
past two years. Maggie Holroyd, director of residence life, describes one of Braizahn’s Sunday night
“listening parties” that typifies his approach as a mentor to his fellow students: “On the surface
this listening party was a place where students could bring their favorite music of any genre and
discuss the elements of these pieces.” More broadly, she notes, “Braizahn was hoping that he could
create a ‘safe space’ for residents to voice their opinions about anything happening in their lives.”
Braizahn’s students and peers aren’t the only ones seeing the results of his holistic mindset.
In addition to serving as co-principal bass for the Curtis Symphony Orchestra during the
2016–17 season and the European tour that followed, he has found success in auditions,
recently reaching the final round for a position with a major orchestra. Recently he has been
substituting with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony.
Both of his teachers, Mr. Robinson and Edgar Meyer, are vocal in encouraging each member
of the Curtis bass studio to find his or her unique voice and career. So it’s hardly surprising
that Braizahn, calmly driven but introspective, has found fertile ground to grow under their
guidance. Mr. Robinson says it won’t be long before Braizahn joins the ranks of Curtis bassists
with flourishing careers.
“He’s so close; he’s just knocking on the door now.”
Thomas Oltarzewski, a 2013 composition graduate, is digital content producer at Curtis. He has also
worked in the department of artistic programs and performance.
PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
W H Y C H O O S E C U R T I S ?
More Reasons at
—BRAIZAHN JONES
www.curtis.edu/WhyChooseCurtis
“I chose to go to Curtis because of the unique opportunities it offers: the opportunity I have to play
an instrument of the highest quality for teachers of the highest quality, with the goal of making the
highest quality music in mind. … As far as I’ve seen, it’s the only college that would allow a music
major to even potentially achieve this. Curtis has resources that are made available so that any
problem can be solvable.”
12 OVERTONES FALL 2017

“MUSICAL
GOLD”
Young musicians from the Curtis Symphony
Orchestra reflect on their epic 2017 European tour.
BY CARLOS ÁGREDA, MARIA IOUDENITCH, AND LYMAN MCBRIDE
It was the most ambitious sojourn for the Curtis Symphony Orchestra
in nearly two decades. Covering nine cities in eighteen days, the orchestra’s
2017 summer tour of Europe was a whirlwind of music-making, rehearsals,
last-minute adjustments, and—just occasionally—a smidgen of free time for
100-plus students and recent alumni. Along the way they marveled at the
acoustics and décor of classic old-world concert palaces and ultra-modern
symphony halls. They reveled in their collaboration with renowned guest
artists. And they gained grounding in the sometimes grueling pace that
professional musicians maintain on tour.
It started a couple of days before the buses pulled away from Lenfest
Hall, when the orchestra’s percussion battery, harps, cellos, and double basses
were packed onto their own plane bound for Helsinki, the tour’s first stop.
After a two-day residency, the orchestra was off to Germany, with concerts
in Bremen, Berlin, and Dresden. A quick flyover to London was unexpectedly
extended when all flights from Heathrow Airport were cancelled, giving the
musicians a free day to roam the British capital before boarding a hastily
chartered plane to Salzburg, with a “run-out” to Vienna. The tour concluded
in Poland, with performances in Wrocław and Lusławice.
In these pages, three young musicians share their reflections.
Top: The Grosser Saal of the Wiener Konzerthaus
PHOTO: IGOR RIPAK
Above: The orchestra performs in Berlin.
PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
MORE ONLINE
Look for added tour observations and photos at
www.curtis.edu/Blog
OVERTONES FALL 2017
13

Opposite:
Top: Musicians make their way to the Konzerthaus
in Berlin. PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
Middle left: President Roberto Díaz spoke to the
orchestra, Curtis alumni, and an international group
of friends and supporters at a reception following
the concert in Berlin. PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
Middle right: The imposing façade of Berlin’s
Konzerthaus PHOTO: LYMAN McBRIDE
Below (left to right):
Large instruments made the transatlantic crossing
on a chartered plane. PHOTO: JONATHAN HUMMEL
The orchestra in transit PHOTO: DREW SCHLEGEL
Chamber ensembles from the orchestra performed
during a two-day residency at the Sibelius Academy.
PHOTO: DREW SCHLEGEL
Mark Rubenstein, Curtis’s board chair, with his
predecessor, Nina von Maltzahn, at the post-concert
reception in Berlin PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
The historic streets of Bremen beckoned musicians
on a free afternoon. PHOTO: DREW SCHLEGEL
Piano soloist Peter Serkin confers with oboists
Virginia McDowell and Cassie Pilgrim at the Berlin
rehearsal. PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
F E E L I N G S L I K E T H I S
C A N ’ T B E T A U G H T.
T H E Y A R E S H O W N .
BEING THERE
BY LYMAN McBRIDE
It’s Tuesday night, May 23, and I’m about to leave the Konzerthaus Berlin. I’ve finished my part
in the concert and I want to go back to the hotel and rest, when I meet a friend who is surprised
to find that I am not attending the post-concert reception. After some light convincing, I find
myself again in my tuxedo, heading for the Beethoven-Saal, where the reception is being held.
I enjoy some easy conversation with some friends when I make eye contact with a couple
to my left. They approach and ask how I’m doing. They are from Berlin, and often attend
concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic. “Our favorite piece was the Penderecki! We think that
it suits this orchestra well.” I gladly thank them, though in my mind I think back on the
experience playing it just two hours before. It didn’t feel comfortable or easy. Regardless,
I’m glad it came off that way!
I listen to Mr. Díaz, our school’s president and one of the soloists on the tour, give a round
of thanks to important members of the tour. “And I thank, with much gratitude, Osmo Vänskä.”
Joining in applause along with a few hundred other people standing around me, I peer over
my right shoulder and see our revered conductor less than ten feet from where I stand. A few
days ago we saw his baton immortalized in a glass case just inside the Helsinki Music Centre.
Just to my left I notice Benjamin Schmid, a world-famous violinist touring with us. Just a
little further away, Peter Serkin. It is with these musicians that I rub shoulders on a daily basis.
Just a year ago, I couldn’t have imagined such a sight. Today I am one of them.
I leave the reception quite glad to have attended. I go to the hotel, I sleep, and in the
morning, I strap on my running shoes. Berlin is more than one of the greatest musical centers
in the world. It was here that the most recent marathon world record was set. For me, this
ground is holy.
I run the streets where the marathon took place and think, Here a man ran a 4:40 mile
pace for over 26 miles. I cross the Brandenburg Gate and John F. Kennedy flashes in my mind,
speaking the famous phrase: “Ich bin ein Berliner!”—and Ronald Reagan, 25 years later:
“Tear down this wall!” I find my way to Checkpoint Charlie and gaze upon the old station
where so many were killed attempting to escape communist East Germany.
Feelings like this can’t be taught. They are shown. You may study about this in school,
but until you come, you cannot truly say, “I understand.”
Trombonist Lyman McBride entered Curtis in 2016 and holds the Susan and Frank Mechura
Annual Fellowship.
14 OVERTONES FALL 2017

OVERTONES FALL 2017 15

Opposite top, clockwise:
Conducting fellows Carlos Ágreda and Conner Gray
Covington helped Osmo Vänskä adjust balances
in widely varying acoustical spaces. In London’s
Cadogan Hall, a converted 18th-century church,
the small platform was built out to accommodate
a 110-piece orchestra. Berlin’s Konzerthaus offered
the orchestra a classic 19th-century “shoebox”
concert room with resonant acoustics and clear
sightlines for the capacity audience. At the Dresden
Festival, the orchestra rehearsed and performed
in the brand-new, state-of-the-art Kulturpalast.
PHOTOS: CHRIS CHRISTODOULU, OLIVER KILLIG, KAI BIENERT
Below (left to right):
In the moments before rehearsal
PHOTO: CHRIS CHRISTODOULU
Rehearsing in Berlin PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
Principal cello Joshua Halpern at rehearsal
in London’s Cadogan Hall
A capacity audience in Vienna PHOTO: IGOR RIPAK
B E F O R E E V E R Y S O U N D -
C H E C K M R . V Ä N S K Ä
W O U L D A S K U S T O
P AY A T T E N T I O N T O
P A R T I C U L A R A C O U S T I C
I S S U E S T H A T E A C H
H A L L C O U L D P R E S E N T.
CONDUCTING UNDERCOVER
BY CARLOS ÁGREDA
On this tour I never appeared on stage in a performance, and never played a note. But I was busy
all the time.
As assistant conductors, Conner Covington and I had plenty to do, before and during
the tour. In general the duties of an assistant conductor range from leading sectional rehearsals
and preparing the orchestra before the principal conductor arrives, to covering rehearsals or
concerts when the principal conductor is not able to attend, conducting offstage ensembles,
working with the soloists around the rehearsals, assisting the principal conductor with their
relationship with the orchestra library and production staff, and serving as a second pair
of ears during sound checks at the concert hall.
This last duty is especially important since the acoustics of concert halls are not absolute,
and in most cases, the physical position of the podium in the hall does not allow the conductor
to have an objective idea of the sound of the orchestra. At this moment, the assistant conductor
plays an especially valuable role. Some conductors give the baton to the assistant during
the rehearsal so they can walk around the hall to check the balance themselves from outside
the podium.
This is why the preparation of the assistant conductor has to be at the same level as the
principal conductor. Our job during sound checks is to use our knowledge of the piece in
order to open our ears and then give valuable feedback to the principal conductor. Sometimes,
the acoustics of a particular hall create specific effects that can influence the perception of
the symphonic piece, and in some cases this situation can compromise the musical quality
of the performance.
When an orchestra is touring, performing in different halls every day, this role is crucial.
During our European tour, we visited nine different concert halls, each one completely
different from the others.
Osmo Vänskä prefers to conduct all the time and let the assistant conductor observe
the balance and sound from the auditorium. Before every sound check he would ask Conner
and me to pay attention to particular acoustic issues that each hall could present, especially
on the pieces with soloists, so he could make quick decisions and changes from the podium
and help the musicians adjust to the acoustics and circumstances of each new hall. For instance,
in Cadogan Hall in London and the Mozarteum Grosser Saal in Salzburg, the stages were
particularly small for the size of our orchestra. At Die Glocke in Bremen, the quirky acoustics
caused Mr. Vänskä to ask our percussion players to make drastic changes. Our piano soloist,
Peter Serkin, was also very aware of our role as assistant conductors and would always ask for
feedback during the sound checks.
Mr. Vänskä worked closely with the two of us before and during the tour, sharing his
rehearsal plans and asking for our opinion around his rehearsals. He treated us as conductor
colleagues with different concepts and opinions about the music and the rehearsal process.
We had the sense that he valued a variety of perspectives and could make better decisions
with additional input.
For me, to work directly with Mr. Vänskä and watch his process so closely was a wonderful
learning opportunity that will fuel everything I do in my next year as a conducting fellow
at Curtis.
Carlos Ágreda, who entered Curtis in 2016, holds a Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellowship and served
as one of two assistant conductors on the tour.
16 OVERTONES FALL 2017

OVERTONES FALL 2017 17

Opposite:
Top: Osmo Vänskä, Peter Serkin, and Maria Ioudenitch
PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
Middle: Maria Ioudenitch receives the London
audience’s applause for her extended solos in
Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. PHOTO: CHRIS CHRISTODOULU
Below (left to right):
Trombonist János Sutyák and bassoonist Sarah Tako
at a rehearsal break in Berlin PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
At the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre
for Music in Lusławice, Poland, Roberto Díaz
and Benjamin Schmid posed next to a bust of the
center’s namesake. The two performed Penderecki’s
Concerto doppio for violin and viola in Lusławice
and throughout the tour. PHOTO: MICHAL CYGAN
Backstage warmups PHOTO: KAI BIENERT
T H E S I L E N C E W A S
S O L O U D , I T W A S
A L M O S T U N B E A R A B L E :
HOW PETER SERKIN SAVED A FLY
BY MARIA IOUDENITCH
Ask a handful of participants, “What was one of your favorite parts about this tour?” and many
of their answers will be along the lines of, “Being in such incredible cities and the greatest halls
of the world.” And who can argue with that? From the vast yet charming paths of Helsinki to the
jaw-dropping beauty of the Konzerthaus in Berlin, we were always left wondering, “Is there really
something more beautiful?” I have come to learn that indeed, there always is.
But ask me what one of my favorite parts was, and I’d say it was when Mr. Serkin saved a
fly during his magical, otherworldly interpretation of the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations,
performed as an encore.
Before I get to that, a word about silence. Have you ever heard a silence that made your
ears ring? That is what Mr. Serkin and Maestro Osmo Vänskä achieved in the second movement
of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 during our performance in Wrocław, Poland.
It first started with Mr. Vänskä and our pianissimo. No one else can get a sound like that
out of our orchestra. We move through our phrase, guided by his presence on the podium,
winding our dynamic down to a stunning nothing. And then comes in Mr. Serkin with the
purest tone, one note dissipating brilliantly through the air. It was a drop of musical gold.
We live through the second movement together, and the last note is played. Then silence.
No one dares breathe.
The music filled each soul on stage and in the audience. The silence was so loud, it was
almost unbearable: 1,200 people sitting, each with their own stories, their own problems,
their own happiness and pain—and right there and then, we were all One. Listen to true
music-making, and you can know peace.
Fast-forward a bit, and the audience is on its feet—clapping wildly. Mr. Serkin comes
on stage once, twice, and at the third bow turns to me. “It sounds like they’re booing. Should
I play something?”
I laugh. “What?! Of course, please play, please play!”
And then, the Aria.
I won’t say a word about it, because there is no point. The magic was there, and it will always
be just there, frozen in that moment.
What I will recall, however, is the fat fly who decided to interrupt the magic. After a few
manic seconds buzzing around, it landed on Mr. Serkin’s left-hand pinky. I could see his eyes
peering curiously at the fly. The fly got the memo and buzzed off of the finger and onto the
key, dangerously close to the fingertip. The next note he was to play, was with that pinky,
on that key.
He hesitates, stretching time more than usual, looking intently at the stubborn fly, until
the fly kindly buzzes away, after which Mr. Serkin’s pinky finally comes down on the key,
continuing the phrase, which was caught in a gorgeous standstill. If his finger had gone down
earlier, the fly would have probably been caught in between the keys.
Now, whether or not Mr. Serkin really wanted to save that fly is another story. But there’s
something about the gentleness and generosity with which he approached all of this that is
absolutely encompassing of the entire experience that we have had with him on tour. Someone
else in this situation might have forcefully put down the finger, or moved quickly to get the
fly to fly away faster, but Mr. Serkin used time and patience. The music wasn’t going anywhere.
The music didn’t stop on account of the fly—it kept flowing through him and through us.
Time, patience, peace.
We are all caught up in our own worlds, our own desires and complaints. This tour was a
great test for all of that. How lucky we are, to have been to all of these places, to have worked
with such artists, such soldiers of music! There was no doubt that from the beginning, I would
learn so much from Mr. Vänskä. We have all loved him ever since he worked with us two years
ago. Without him...well...I’d like to not think what this tour would be without him.
But who knew how grateful I would be for this little golden moment in time with Mr. Serkin
and the fly?
Violinist Maria Ioudenitch was concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra for the 2016-17 season
and the European tour. She holds the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Annual Fellowship.
18 OVERTONES FALL 2017

1 2 0 0 P E O P L E S I T T I N G ,
E A C H W I T H T H E I R
O W N S T O R I E S , T H E I R
O W N H A P P I N E S S
A N D P A I N—A N D R I G H T
T H E R E A N D T H E N ,
W E W E R E A L L O N E .
OVERTONES FALL 2017
19

—— 2017–18 SEASON ——
This Fall
and Winter
at Curtis
On Stage
O C T O B E R
1 FAMILY CONCERT: Meet the Zorá String Quartet!
Gould Rehearsal Hall
1 – 2 1 CURTIS ON TOUR
Maria Ioudenitch, violin
Andrea Obiso, violin
Michael Casimir, viola
Roberto Díaz, viola (’84)
Joshua Halpern, cello
Young In Na, cello
PUTS
Arcana
MOZART Grande Sestetto Concertante (after K. 364)
BRAHMS Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18
Venues:
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (October 1)
Sala Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico City (October 6)
Teatro Gran Rex, Buenos Aires (October 10)
Teatro Solís, Montevideo (October 12)
Teatro Municipal de Las Condes, Santiago (October 16)
Teatro Regional del Maule, Talca, Chile (October 20)
Teatro Municipal, Chillán, Chile (October 21)
5 – 7 CURTIS OPERA THEATRE
Curtis Opera Studio
Lisa Keller, music director and piano
Miloš Repický, piano
R. B. Schlather, director
DEBUSSY
Impressions of Pelléas
1 7 CURTIS PRESENTS
Field Concert Hall
Noah Bendix-Balgley, violin
Peter Wiley, cello (’74)
Robert Levin, piano
SCHUBERT Piano Trios Nos. 1 and 2
2 0 STUDENT RECITAL SERIES BEGINS
Field Concert Hall
Program information at www.curtis.edu/Calendar
2 9 CURTIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center
Juanjo Mena, conductor
Carlos Ágreda, conducting fellow
ADAMS
Short Ride in a Fast Machine
STRAUSS
Don Quixote
BERLIOZ
Symphonie fantastique
3 1 CURTIS 20/21 ENSEMBLE: Selected Works for Solo Instruments
Gould Rehearsal Hall
N O V E M B E R
1 6 – 1 9 CURTIS OPERA THEATRE
Prince Theater
Joseph Machevich, conductor
Chas Rader-Shieber, director
TCHAIKOVSKY Eugene Onegin
D E C E M B E R
1 , 2 CURTIS 20/21 ENSEMBLE: Chen Yi, composer in residence
Gould Rehearsal Hall (December 1)
Miller Theatre, New York City (December 2)
9 CURTIS PRESENTS
Field Concert Hall
Aizuri Quartet
Jonathan Biss, piano (’01)
J A N U A R Y
2 8 CURTIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Centerr
Gilbert Varga, conductor
Yue Bao, conducting fellow
CORIGLIANO
The Mannheim Rocket
MORE ONLINE
www.curtis.edu/Performances
PHOTOS: CHRIS CHRISTODOULU,
MICHAL NOVACK/CAMI, ERICA LYN,
CORY WEAVER
BARTÓK
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin
Scheherazade
20 OVERTONES FALL 2017

F E B R U A R Y
1 0 CURTIS PRESENTS: A Leonard Bernstein Centenary Celebration
Field Concert Hall
David Shifrin, clarinet (’71)
Dominic Armstrong, tenor (’09)
Jiacheng Xiong, piano
Zorá String Quartet
1 1 – M a r c h 1 8
CURTIS ON TOUR: A Leonard Bernstein Centenary Celebration
Venues:
National Gallery of Art, Washington , D.C. (February 11)
Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Davis, Calif. (February 25)
Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, Ariz. (February 26)
Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. (March 4)
Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland, Ore. (March 9)
Athenaeum Music and Arts Library, La Jolla, Calif. (March 11)
Rose Lehrman Arts Center, HACC, Harrisburg, Pa. (March 15)
Davis Art Center, Fort Myers, Fla. (March 17)
The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Fla. (March 18)
1 8 FAMILY CONCERT: Carnival of the Animals
Gould Rehearsal Hall
2 4 CURTIS 20/21 ENSEMBLE: The Edge Effect
Gould Rehearsal Hall
M A R C H
4 CURTIS PRESENTS
Field Concert Hall
Sarah Shafer, soprano (’14)
Mikael Eliasen, piano
7 , 9 , 1 1 , 1 3 CURTIS OPERA THEATRE
Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center (March 7,9,11)
Kaye Playhouse, New York City (March 13)
Corrado Rovaris, conductor
Daniel Fish, director
BERNSTEIN
A Quiet Place
Online
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.
L I V E - S T R E A M E D R E C I TA L S F R O M C U R T I S
Live-streamed recitals are featured every Friday night during the
recital performance season. To watch, go to www.curtis.edu/YouTube
on Fridays at 8 p.m. E.T., beginning October 20.
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. A new broadcast season of programs
recorded in 2016-17 begins in October.
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
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.
Curtis on Tour is the Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute
of Music.
Orchestral concerts are supported by the Jack Wolgin Curtis Orchestral Concerts
Endowment Fund.
The Curtis Opera Theatre season is sponsored by the Wyncote Foundation. A Quiet
Place is supported in part by BNP Paribas and the Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman
Venture Fund for Opera.
Generous support for the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble is provided by the Daniel W.
Dietrich II Foundation.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
21

BY DAVID LUDWIG
CHIEF
COMMISSIONER
Curtis generates a substantial body of new music. Let us count the ways.
O U R S C H O O L I S A M O R E
A C T I V E S U P P O R T E R O F
I T S O W N C R E A T I V E
W O R K T H A N A N Y
O T H E R . H E R E T H E
W O R K S O F S T U D E N T
C O M P O S E R S A R E
P E R F O R M E D O F T E N ,
A N D W I T H E N T H U S I A S M
A N D E N G A G E M E N T.
The job of “composer” is a strange and mysterious thing for people to wrap
their heads around. Even instrumentalists who have spent their lives in music wonder what
exactly we composers do and how we do it. While I won’t pretend that I can explain how composers
write music in an 800-word (or 800-page) article, I can at least address one aspect of what
we do and share some of my own experiences that involve how we are hired: the commission.
I remember a composition seminar during my student years when an august representative
from one of the performance rights organizations came to speak to us. She said we must only
write on commission after we graduated. One student challenged her, saying, “But what if
I just want to write a piece for a friend for free?” She bellowed back at him, “You, young man,
are a part of the problem!” Her point was made.
Throughout history composers have relied on the patronage of others, whether religious
institutions, wealthy aristocrats, or impresarios. Today composers living in the U.S. usually get
our commissions from individual donors, foundations in the form of grants and awards, and
musical institutions like orchestras and schools. Curtis is an institution that commissions its
composers in multiple ways, and I would submit that the sum of these commissioning programs
makes our school a more active supporter of its own creative work than any other. Here the
works of student composers are performed often, and with enthusiasm and engagement.
One very “learn by doing” way of commissioning happens when a student giving a graduation
recital requests that the school sponsor a new work by one of their peers. This practice has been
going on for decades and is a wonderful way to introduce instrumentalists to the practicalities
of commissioning a composer. Every year several new pieces appear on graduation programs
in this way, and student composers and performers gain valuable experience in the collaborative
process of preparing a new work and presenting it to the public.
UNIQUE SATISFACTION
A few years ago, the advancement department at Curtis started a program to commission
students and alumni to write new pieces dedicated to individual donors. These works are
often written for a student whose fellowship is supported by the donor. In this arrangement,
everyone wins. The composer receives a commission for a new chamber piece which is both
performed and recorded. The performers acquire the experience of preparing and playing new
music. Donors, meanwhile, have the unique satisfaction of knowing a new work was written
in their name, and the unique and thrilling experience of hearing a piece that would not have
existed without their support.
Two ongoing commissions have grown out of this donor program. One, funded by former
Curtis board chair Dr. Milton Rock and his wife, Connie, is a commission for the annual
gala of the Rock School for Dance Education. One of our students writes a short ballet in
collaboration with choreographers and dancers from the Rock School. The other is a new
22 OVERTONES FALL 2017

work for the annual, citywide “One Book, One Philadelphia” program of the Free Library
of Philadelphia, in which a Curtis student composer responds to the chosen book of the year.
This work, commissioned with support from Joseph and Marie Field, is performed at a public
event associated with the selected book, reaching an audience far beyond Curtis.
Both these opportunities allow our students to be broadly inspired in considering the
interaction of other art forms with their music. Last year my student Nick DiBerardino wrote
a wonderful work for percussionist Neil Rao, Homunculus, which was featured on a One
Book, One Philadelphia program and again on Neil’s graduation recital. Chelsea Komschlies
wrote a wind quintet for the Rock School Ballet and had the chance to collaborate directly
with a professional choreographer as she composed her first dance work.
TOURING NEW WORKS
Curtis On Tour features a new work by a Curtis composer on nearly every tour—and often
it’s a piece commissioned expressly for the tour ensemble. The first of these pieces was by yours
truly: From the Rubaiyaat of Omar Khayyam was written as a companion piece to Stravinsky’s
L’histoire du soldat, which we toured in 2009.
Since then, Curtis has commissioned many new works for its tours, including Book of Days,
Daron Hagen’s trio for clarinet, viola, and piano; Zhou Tian’s guitar quartet Red Trees, Wrinkled
Cliffs, Kat Kramarchuk Souponetsky’s Summer Shimmers for wind quintet; and Yevgeniy
Sharlat’s RIPEFG for string quartet, just to name a few.
By commissioning its composers, Curtis is investing in the future of music. It is also serving
as a role model for its students and graduates. It’s not just about the responsibility of musicians
to grow the repertoire, but the incredibly rewarding experience for everyone who takes part
in the process of creating and performing new works.
David Ludwig is the Gie and Lisa Liem Dean of Artistic Programs and Performance, a member of the
composition faculty, and artistic director of the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble.
Opposite (left to right): Commissioned for Curtis on
Tour: Yevgeniy Sharlat, Daron Hagen, Kat Kramarchuk
Souponetsky, Zhou Tian
Above: Student composers commissioned in 2017–18:
Nick DiBerardino, Chelsea Komschlies
C O M M I S S I O N I N G 1 0 1
In which we answer some questions about commissioning that you might
have been afraid to ask…
How do I find the funds to commission a composer? Once you’ve
identified a composer you want to commission, there are several ways
David Ludwig
to go about finding support. A wide range of grant-awarding organizations
may help with a commissioning fee, including New Music USA, the American
Composers Forum, and Chamber Music America. Some institutions will ask individual donors
to sponsor a piece. Consortiums and crowdfunding are also good avenues to generating support.
How do consortiums work? Consortiums spread the cost of a commission among several organizations.
The violin concerto I wrote for my wife, Bella Hristova, was commissioned by a consortium of eight
different orchestras, with additional funding from New Music USA. In a consortium each participating
ensemble gets a regional premiere, the composer receives many performances of the work, and the
performer gets multiple engagements. It’s another instance of “everyone wins.”
What is a crowdfunded commission? Artists and organizations are increasingly turning to
crowdsourced funding sites like Indiegogo or Kickstarter. Each contributing individual chooses
an amount to direct toward a commissioning fee (and sometimes artist fees, recording costs, and
other project elements). When I wrote a piece for ECCO to perform at the Lake Champlain Festival,
eighty-nine supporters from the festival community pitched in. Every one of them had their name
printed inside the score.
E V E R Y O N E W I N S . T H E
C O M P O S E R R E C E I V E S
A C O M M I S S I O N . T H E
P E R F O R M E R S A C Q U I R E
T H E E X P E R I E N C E
O F P L A Y I N G N E W
M U S I C . A N D D O N O R S
E N J O Y T H E T H R I L L I N G
E X P E R I E N C E O F
H E A R I N G A P I E C E
T H AT W O U L D N O T H AV E
E X I S T E D W I T H O U T
T H E I R S U P P O R T.
How much do commissions cost? The cost of a commission depends on the length and size of the
piece, the stature of the composer, and many other factors. Sometimes people are surprised by the
cost of a commission; but remember that a composer can spend months (if not years in some cases)
creating a single work.
How can I get the process started? One of the best online resources I’ve seen is Commissioning Music:
A Basic Guide, available at the New Music USA website (www.newmusicusa.org). The American
Composers Forum (https://composersforum.org/) is also a great place to learn more about
commissioning a new work.
The best resource of all? Ask your friendly neighborhood composer!
—D. L.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
23

FIRST PERSON
Above and opposite:
Emily Cooley visited Graterford Prison weekly
throughout the school year to work with residents
on their compositions. PHOTOS: HOLLI STEPHENS
Voices Heard
Musical Collaboration and Celebration at Graterford Prison
BY EMILY COOLEY
1 American Civil Liberties Union
2 Prison Policy Initiative
Having my music heard is something I take for granted. Throughout my life, there has always
been someone to listen, whether it was my family, an encouraging teacher, or—as I’ve gotten
older—whole audiences hearing my compositions in concert halls.
Not everyone is in a position to have their music and their voices heard—certainly not by
large audiences, and maybe not by anyone. And yet they still make music. There is something
about music, especially original song, that carries an inextinguishable power and light.
During my final year as a composition student at Curtis, I participated in the Community
Artist Program (CAP), through which I partnered with the organization Songs in the Key
of Free. I spent the year making music with 25 incarcerated men at the State Correctional
Institution at Graterford, a maximum-security prison in Montgomery County outside
Philadelphia. Although Songs in the Key of Free offered the first music program at Graterford
in more than ten years, we didn’t introduce creativity, musical talent, and humanity to
the prison. All of these were already present, provided in abundance by the men in our
songwriting workshop.
Songs in the Key of Free, founded by Philadelphia community activists Miles Butler
and August Tarrier, is a social-justice organization that challenges mass incarceration through
collaborative arts practice, creating partnerships with inside artists through music. “Mass
incarceration” is shorthand for two disturbing facts: Though the United States represents only
five percent of the world’s population, it is home to 25% of the world’s prisoners 1 ; and the
prison population has increased disproportionately over the past several decades, reaching
some 2.3 million by early 2017. 2
24 OVERTONES FALL 2017

FIRST PERSON
Racism, poverty, “tough on crime” politics, and numerous other forces have converged
to fuel these numbers. I believe that all too often, being in prison is the result of much more
than simply individual wrongdoing. Through my CAP project, I wanted to help develop and
celebrate the musicianship—and the humanity—of a group of talented, incarcerated artists.
PROCESS AND PERFORMANCE
Starting in October 2016, a group of us from Songs in the Key of Free visited Graterford
every Monday to lead a workshop in collaborative songwriting and musicianship. Nine
months later, the men performed their own music for visiting family members and friends
at a special concert in the prison. Finally, as the culmination of my involvement through CAP,
we held a public concert on June 16 at Philadelphia’s Painted Bride Art Center. A band of
Philadelphia musicians performed the songs written by the men of Graterford, and we showed
documentary footage of our workshops taken by filmmakers Gabriela Bulisova and Mark Isaac.
Throughout this process, I’ve gotten to know 25 unique, imaginative, and gifted individuals
who compose and play music inside a vast prison complex enclosed by a 30-foot wall.
One thing that surprised me on my first visit was that most of the men who signed up
for our workshop were lifelong musicians already. They keep their instruments in their cells,
and practice and write songs on their own. Realizing that we weren’t working with beginners,
we quickly adapted the structure of our workshop. Instead of teaching basic songwriting and
composition, we grouped the men into several bands of five or six members each, pairing the
most experienced musicians with those who needed more practice. The key element of this
workshop model is collaboration; the bands write songs together and perform them in groups.
Many genres are represented: rock, R&B, country, rap, and jazz, among others. Many of the
men already have experience with music theory and reading notated music. For those who
don’t, I teach an introductory-level music theory course every other week.
Curtis is a familiar name to the men in our workshop. Many have watched the broadcasts
of student recitals on WHYY’s On Stage at Curtis for years. It was a big thrill for many
participants to meet Curtis students they had previously seen on TV. Over the course of
the school year, I brought organist Clara Gerdes, harpist Héloïse Carlean-Jones, and bassist
Will Langlie-Miletich to Graterford to demonstrate their instruments and play alongside
the men. I’ll never forget the day we brought Héloïse, because the sight of a full concert
harp being wheeled down the main hallway of the prison attracted so much attention from
inmates and correctional officers alike. Everyone was fascinated to see a harp up close.
I’ve gotten to know twenty-five
unique, imaginative, and
gifted individuals who
compose and play music
inside a vast prison complex
enclosed by a 30-foot wall.
FINDING FREEDOM
Bernard is one of the workshop participants I’ve gotten to know the best. He is 65, instantly
recognizable by his sunny smile and neatly ironed prison uniform, and he is always one of
the first guys to approach me at the beginning of each workshop to shake hands and catch
up on the week we’ve spent apart. A bass player and a singer, he had only sung cover songs
OVERTONES FALL 2017
25

FIRST PERSON
Emily performed with Graterford
residents in a performance for their
families in June. PHOTO: HOLLI STEPHENS
and was shy about his voice when we met. After seven months in our workshop, Bernard wrote
his first original song.
At the end of each workshop we have “SongShare,” an opportunity for individuals or
bands to perform the music they’ve been working on that week. That day in April, Bernard
stepped up to the microphone to sing his new song, accompanied by an instrumental track
that a fellow musician, Darrell, had programmed into a Yamaha keyboard. In his soulful tenor
voice, Bernard sang.
Trying to find my way to freedom—I’m running from the Devil, hey!
Trying to be a better man—forgetting all my troubles, hey hey!
Now I’ve done my time within—I’m looking for my freedom, I’m a better man
And when the weight of the world is coming down on me,
No longer sinking, I’m rising, to do what’s best for me,
It’s like I hear your voice, and now I really see—I’ve got to find my way to freedom.
Most of the men who signed
up for our workshop were
lifelong musicians already.
They keep their instruments
in their cells, and practice
and write songs on their own.
As he became more confident, he started stomping his foot to accentuate each “Hey!”
When he finished performing, the other workshop participants cheered him with a standing
ovation. Everyone united in celebrating Bernard’s accomplishment of writing a truly
beautiful song.
FULL LIVES
Many of the men I work with are serving life sentences, and many have already been in prison
for decades, having passed their entire adult lives behind bars. Music is not their only skill, of
course. Our workshop participants include a published author, several visual artists, an expert
plumber, a chef, and a playwright. They are full people: The fact that they are incarcerated
does not limit the richness of their talents, abilities, and humanity.
It does limit their ability to be heard. Through my work with CAP, and now going forward
as a Community Artist Fellow in the 2017–18 school year, I’ve committed to making music
with the incarcerated people at Graterford. They continue to write new songs, and we will
record an album this year. I plan to do similar work at other facilities in the Philadelphia area.
My goal is to help bring these voices back into the broader community, both through
concerts and recordings and by connecting members of the Curtis community to inside artists
like the men I’ve collaborated with over the past year. It’s been a privilege, and I know that
the coming year holds even more possibility.
Emily Cooley, a 2017 composition graduate, is a community artist fellow at Curtis.
26 OVERTONES FALL 2017

THE COMPLEAT MUSICIAN
Tim Fitts PHOTO: KEN YANOVIAK
Hybrid Vigor
Teaching Musicians to Tell Stories
BY TIM FITTS
There is a common misunderstanding with fiction, an assumption that when a story is told well,
the story must have been easy to write. Readers are often shocked to learn of the meticulous
undertakings of minimalist writers such as Amy Hempel or the rewriting of John Fante;
or that J.D. Salinger spent a decade writing The Catcher in the Rye, which reads as if it was
written in a sitting, its tone perfect from the first line to the last. One of the initial shocks
for students in a creative writing workshop at Curtis is the realization that language does not
immediately flow from one’s fingertips. Students attempting to write are immediately faced
with the immense challenge of creating a narrative through language rather than music.
Any study of creative acts, no matter what the form, is only half-hearted at best if not
studied alongside the pursuit of the source of ideas. This pursuit is tricky, mostly because the
knowledge of how to tap the source of creative ideas is largely non-transmissible. The quest
for ideas is often a lonely pursuit, as the artist explores the harmony between his or her internal
and external lives. To study fiction alone is to study the stories themselves while leaving the
process up to guesswork. By contrast, the study of writing fiction is the study of writing habits,
of clues, and of identifying patterns among one’s own bursts of inspiration.
In class, we begin by embracing the fact that fiction writing is anti-academic in nature.
We meet over coffee in the cafeteria rather than in the classroom, in a naturally disarming
environment conducive to open discussion. Everybody at the table understands that the idea
of the morning will lead the discussion. The idea includes any experience that has the potential
to resonate with a literary readership, and we discover the idea by scouring our backgrounds
and reading contemporary short stories looking for patterns and implications. What we discover
is that most of the stories we make up are not made up at all, but variations of seemingly
The study of writing fiction
is the study of writing habits,
of clues, and of identifying
patterns among one’s
own bursts of inspiration.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
27

THE COMPLEAT MUSICIAN
What does the reading
and writing of literature
have to do with musical
excellence? One only has
to look as far as Morton
Feldman’s interpretations
of Rothko’s paintings.
Cross-fertilizations (above): Arnold Schoenberg
and Wassily Kandinsky inspired one another in
painting and music; Miles Davis, fired by the sounds
of the basketball court; Alexander the Great
motivated the founder of a television network;
Morton Feldman interpreted Mark Rothko’s paintings;
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, inspired by literature
IMAGE CREDITS
SCHOENBERG SELF-PORTRAIT, KANDINSKY “PAINTING WITH THREE-SPOT,”
AND ABDUL JABBAR: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
DAVIS: RVB/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
ALEXANDER THE GREAT: LVOVA ANASTASIYA/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
FELDMAN: ROB BOGAERTS/ANEFO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
ROTHKO “MALIBOU”: OWNED BY JASON BURNS/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
unrelated elements of our lives, tweaked and peppered with invention in order to heighten
intended meanings.
The luxury of teaching at Curtis is that all students come to the table with “prepared
minds,” as James Austin would say: with personal narratives involving music. However, I’ve
also discovered that most of my fiction students have experienced fascinating lives totally
independent from music. For instance, one student, who grew up on a Texas goat farm,
delivered an impromptu lecture on the variety of ways that coyotes prey on their livestock,
and the improbable function of donkeys as a strategic defense against coyotes. Two recent
students spent their high school years on the football field, while another told the class tales
from his days in the Israeli army.
What we learn in these moments is that most of us carry around with us ready-made stories.
We also learn the importance of developing experiences and areas of expertise outside of our
recognized fields, creating a hybridization of stimuli—the richness of details that make fiction
interesting. By nature, all writers engage in this process, since the only way to find new images
is to seek outward and blend.
THE PURSUIT OF MASTERY
The big question here is, what does the reading and writing of literature have to do with
musical excellence? One only has to look as far as Morton Feldman’s interpretations of Rothko’s
paintings. Miles Davis was inspired by attending Los Angeles Lakers games at the Forum,
sitting in the front row with his eyes closed listening to the musicality of rubber shoe soles
beating out a rhythm and the chirping friction of rubber on hardwood as the players changed
directions. It can work in reverse: Schoenberg’s string quartets prompted Kandinsky to express
sound through color with a transforming vision.
In fact, this cross-fertilization occurs in nearly every field. CNN founder Ted Turner attributed
his rise in the 1970s to a personal fascination with Alexander the Great. Famed basketball star
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar bonded with his college coach, John Wooden, over literature, not sports.
And the list goes on. Scientists have long referred to this as hybrid vigor: the mixing of breeds
in order to create stronger offspring with greater resistance to disease. Clearly hybrid vigor
functions as a key element in the pursuit of mastery.
Here’s the beauty of hybrid vigor. Once aware of its impact on the creative process,
artists can actively amplify their creative output. All they need do is intentionally engage
in the blending of alternate worlds by following their own fascinations without prejudice.
Those alternate worlds may involve the high culture of classical music, jazz, theatre, science,
or math—or the study of sports, beekeeping, home-brewing, or long-distance running.
The effect is the same; the only necessary ingredient is fascination.
Fascination is where the images radiate, and this radiation occurs in the space where
the two worlds overlap. After that it is all dexterity and determination, fear and desire,
with the subconscious mind doing the heavy lifting.
Tim Fitts teaches Introduction to Literature, Fiction Workshop, and Creative Non-Fiction Workshop
at Curtis. His latest collection of short stories, Hypothermia, was published this year.
28 OVERTONES FALL 2017

MEET THE ALUMNI
A Purpose and a Passion
Lambert Orkis (Piano ’65) strives to transport listeners each time he plays.
BY JAMIE McCRARY
Lambert Orkis
Lambert Orkis is a paradox. He’s a world-renowned pianist who didn’t come from a musical
family. He’s a soloist and a sought-after collaborator. He’s a contemporary music aficionado
who’s also known for his performances on period instruments.
The thing that’s always consistent? His passion for, and dedication to, music. “I love sharing
my excitement for whatever music I play,” he says. “My job is to affect audiences—to move
them.” He defines himself not by the notes he plays, but by the message he transmits. “Classical
music is a whole kaleidoscope of feelings,” he says. “It’s up to us as performers to discover
them, reveal them, and play in a way that the audience feels connected.”
Mr. Orkis, who started at Curtis when he was just 14, has always been a purpose-driven
player. Performing, he says, is a responsibility—a “sacred duty.”
Eleanor Sokoloff, his teacher at Curtis, was a key motivator, demanding the utmost
perfection. “I would leave my lessons soaked in sweat,” he says. “They were a mental, physical
and spiritual workout.” The grueling sessions instilled a work ethic that sets him apart to this
day. “Lambert was one of the hardest workers I’ve ever had,” says Mrs. Sokoloff. She recalls
receiving a call from the director of Curtis one day, complaining that young Lambert had
damaged school property. He’d practiced so long on one of the Curtis pianos that he forced
the hammers up through its strings. “It was unbelievable,” Sokoloff says. “Nobody has done
that before or since.”
She never let him lose his love for music, though. Mrs. Sokoloff nurtured a hunger for
artistry in her young pupil. “Passion for our work was always the most important thing,”
he says. And today, his teacher still sees him as “among my most outstanding students.”
“Classical music is a whole
kaleidoscope of feelings,”
Mr. Orkis says. “It’s up to
us as performers to discover
them, reveal them, and
play in a way that the
audience feels connected.”
A MUSICAL EVOLUTION
After graduating from Curtis at age 19, Mr. Orkis hit the ground running. In the years since,
he has forged a world-class reputation as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and
professor. Though best known for his collaborations with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and
cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, he also holds a professorship at Temple University and has been
the keyboard player for the National Symphony Orchestra for 38 years. “I always just wanted
to play,” he says simply. “I took advantage of any opportunity I could.”
His hard work has paid off. “The exceptional beauty and artistry of his playing is inspiring,”
says Mr. Orkis’s National Symphony colleague Lisa-Beth Lambert (Violin ’93), who has frequently
OVERTONES FALL 2017
29

30 OVERTONES FALL 2017
“There is no better musical
companion possible than
Lambert Orkis,” says
Anne-Sophie Mutter
of their 29-year musical
partnership. “After all
these years, he is still
a treasure to me.”

MEET THE ALUMNI
performed with him in the Smithsonian Chamber Players and other chamber groups. She especially
appreciates his “exquisite timing and shaping of phrases.”
“When collaborating, he picks up every nuance, and delights in exploring together the depths
of each piece,” she says.
Mr. Orkis has built his career through such meticulously-prepared playing. “Every time you
perform, you make an impression. You never know who is going to be listening and what that
could lead to,” he says. For him, the key is careful, deep, and intentional analysis of the music.
Thoroughly understanding a piece’s mechanics creates a reliable foundation on which to perform.
It’s one of the many musical tools he learned from Mr. Rostropovich, whom he played with for
more than eleven years.
Their first performance together was a pivotal experience—but not in the way one might think.
Walking on stage, Mr. Orkis’s performance anxiety hit a peak. His hands were ice-cold, his
mind unsteady, his heart racing. The recital went well, but he knew that if he wanted to be a
successful pianist, he desperately needed to ease his stage fright.
Afterwards Mr. Rostropovich told him something he’d never forget: Think the right thoughts.
Integrate positive, passage-specific thoughts into the music when practicing to ensure a steady
mindset when performing. It’s impossible to accomplish this without knowing a piece’s structure,
through and through.
It was a revelation. “My scores started to look very much like Rostropovich’s—very marked
up,” he laughs.
COMMUNICATION AND CONNECTION
This new perspective put Mr. Orkis one step closer to mastery—a lifelong goal he knows he’ll
never fully meet, but will always strive for. He wants to play his best not for himself, or even
for the music, but for the audience. He’s committed to transporting his listeners, connecting
them to a force outside of themselves that’s real and profound. “It’s a responsibility I take
very seriously,” he says.
His 29-year musical partnership with Anne-Sophie Mutter is rooted in this shared objective.
The duo has toured the world together, from New York City’s Carnegie Hall to Vienna’s
Musikverein, always aiming to move their listeners in a profound way. In this regard, “Anne-Sophie
and I are the same,” Mr. Orkis says.
They’re also deeply bonded through their mutual love of playing with one another. “There
is no better musical companion possible than Lambert Orkis,” Ms. Mutter says. “After all these
years, he is still a treasure to me.”
A musician’s life isn’t easy, but for Mr. Orkis, it’s worth every moment. He’s a pianist of heart
and soul, with curiosity and a lot of tenacity mixed in. “It’s a demanding life, but I never take it
for granted,” he says. “The music—that’s what makes it all worth it.”
Opposite:
Top left: Mr. Orkis with his longtime recital partner,
Mstislav Rostropovich
Top right: Lambert Orkis
Middle left: Mr. Orkis has performed and recorded
with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter for 29 years.
PHOTO: HARALD HOFFMANN/COURTESY DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
Bottom left: With Ms. Mutter at Carnegie Hall
PHOTO: DARIO ACOSTA/COURTESY DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON
“Lambert was one of the
hardest workers I’ve ever had,”
says Eleanor Sokoloff. Today,
she still sees him as “among
my most outstanding students.”
Jamie McCrary, based in Washington, D.C., is a writer for American University’s Kogod School of Business.
Her work has appeared in On Tap Magazine, Connections Magazine, and NEA Arts.
W H Y C H O O S E C U R T I S ?
More Reasons at
—LAMBERT ORKIS
www.curtis.edu/WhyChooseCurtis
“Curtis is unique. All of the students—at least every one I’ve heard—are phenomenal. For someone
studying music, being surrounded by such a high level of playing is incredibly motivating. It creates
an environment where you’re constantly challenged. You go to a student recital, or a school orchestra
concert, and think, “Wow, if they’re playing this well, I’d better start practicing harder!
“The school’s location in Philadelphia is an added bonus. It’s a vibrant cultural city with a
world-class resident orchestra. Having access to such wonderful music, both in school and in your
city, is such a gift. You really learn what it means to be a musician that way.”
OVERTONES FALL 2017
31

NOTATIONS
NOTATIONS
ALUMNI
1950s
Last November JAMES VAIL
(Organ ’51) conducted his new choral
group, the Laudamus Te Singers,
in Fauré’s Requiem at St. Bede’s
Church in Mar Vista, Calif. In June
at Pacific Palisades Presbyterian
Church, he led the same group in
Mendelssohn’s Elijah from the
organ console—something he first
did in 1949 as assistant to his Curtis
teacher, Alexander McCurdy, at First
Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia.
FRANCES STEINER (Cello ’56) will
lead the Chamber Orchestra of the
South Bay in Palos Verdes, Calif.
in an October concert featuring
DMITRI LEVKOVICH (Composition ’99)
performing the Saint-Säens Piano
Concerto No. 2 and in a November
performance featuring STEPHEN
WAARTS (Violin ’16) in Prokofiev’s
Violin Concerto No. 2.
JOSÉ SEREBRIER
(Composition
’58) conducted
the RTE National
Orchestra of
Ireland on a tour
of China in July.
In October, he
José Serebrier tours with the
English Chamber
Orchestra in Mexico. Also this fall,
he will conduct the Russian National
Orchestra before leading the National
Symphony of Costa Rica on tour to
China in December and January.
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.
1960s
In April the American Guild of
Organists held their fourteenth
annual Endowment Fund Distinguished
Artist Award Recital and Gala Benefit
in honor of JOAN LIPPINCOTT (Organ
’60) at the Princeton University
Chapel, where she served as
organist for seven years following
her 37-year tenure on the faculty
of Westminster Choir College.
Ken Cowan, Cherry Rhodes, and
Alan Morrison
CHERRY RHODES (Organ ’64) recently
performed with ALAN MORRISON
(Organ ’91, Accompanying ’93)
and KEN COWAN (Organ ’97) for
the 25th anniversary of the organ
in Spivey Hall at Clayton State
University (Ga.), where Alan is
currently organist in residence.
In August
LAURIE
SOKOLOFF
(Flute ’66)
received the
National Flute
Laurie Sokoloff Association’s
Lifetime Achievement
Award at the National Flute
Association Convention in Minneapolis.
A. DOUGLAS WAUCHOPE’s (Trombone
’66) Quintet for Piano and Brass was
premiered on May 16 at Old South
Union Church in Weymouth, Mass., by
its dedicatee, Louis Stewart, and four
members of the Atlantic Symphony.
1970s
In June Curtis alumni OSCEOLA DAVIS
(Opera ’72), SHEILA HARRIS JACKSON
(Voice ’83), GREGORY HOPKINS (Voice
’84), DAVID LOFTON (Accompanying
’84), and KEVIN SHORT (Opera ’86)
were among the performers at a
centenary tribute to SYLVIA OLDEN
LEE, who served on Curtis’s Vocal
Studies faculty from 1970 to 1990.
Ms. Lee, who died in 2004, would
have been 100 years old on June 29,
the date of the performance at
Carnegie Hall.
THOMAS McANINCH (Horn ’78)
was diagnosed with ALS last spring.
In February CHIN KIM (Violin ’79) was
a substitute soloist in Tchaikovsky’s
Violin Concerto with the Ureuk Symphony
Orchestra in Merkin Concert
Hall, appearing on one day’s notice.
Chin spent the summer at the Green
Mountain Chamber Music Festival
and the Summit Music Festival.
MARK LUDWIG (Viola ’79, Viola ’80),
director of the Terezin Music
Foundation and a Fulbright scholar
in the Czech Republic, led a tour
group in Prague in May as part
of a collaborative relationship
with the Prague Spring Festival.
1980s
IRA LEVIN (Piano ’82, Conducting ’85)
made his New York City Opera debut
in March, conducting Respighi’s
La campana sommersa. He conducted
Wagner’s complete Ring in Sofia and
Moscow over the summer. Ira has
been named principal conductor
of the Sofia Opera in Bulgaria.
Paavo Järvi
PAAVO JÄRVI
(Conducting ’88)
was appointed
chief conductor
and music
director of the
Tonhalle-Orchester
Zürich for
a five-year term
beginning in the
2019–20 season. He made his debut
at Teatro alla Scala in May, conducting
Don Giovanni.
MIERA KIM (Violin ’89) and her
husband, cellist Carey Bostian, are
in their second season as directors
of Red Cedar Chamber Music, based
in Iowa. Red Cedar’s rural outreach
concerts have been funded by the
NEA for 13 consecutive seasons.
1990s
After concluding
his tenure as
music director
of the New York
Philharmonic
in June,
ALAN GILBERT
(Conducting ’92)
was announced
Alan Gilbert
as chief conductor
of Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie
Orchestra, beginning in Summer 2019.
He previously served as the ensemble’s
principal guest conductor from 2004
to 2015.
In June DANIEL McDOUGALL
(Double Bass ’93) was appointed
interim associate dean of student
and academic affairs at Curtis.
In May ELIZABETH OSTLING (Flute
’94) graduated summa cum laude
from Gordon-Conwell Theological
Seminary with a master’s degree
in spiritual formation. Her studies
centered on Christian piety in various
eras of church history, lived out by
individuals such as the Puritan
missionary Jonathan Edwards and
the composers Hildegard of Bingen
and Olivier Messiaen.
HILARY HAHN (Violin ’99) will
perform the Serenade for Violin,
Strings, and Harp by LEONARD
BERNSTEIN (Conducting ’41) with
the Philadelphia Orchestra under
YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN in December,
as part of the orchestra’s celebration
of the Bernstein centenary.
32 OVERTONES FALL 2017

NOTATIONS
2000s
Tina Chang Qu
TINA CHANG QU
(Violin ’00)
performed
Bruch’s Scottish
Fantasy with
the Claremont
Symphony in
June at Bridges
Hall in Pomona
College, Calif.
BENJAMIN BOWMAN (Violin ’02)
was appointed concertmaster of
the Metropolitan Opera for the
2017–18 season. He has been American
Ballet Theatre's concertmaster for
the past three seasons.
In June SUK CHUL KIM (Opera ’02)
performed the title role in Wagner’s
Lohengrin in Prague.
Laura Fuller
In February
LAURA FULLER
(Viola ’07) joined
the viola section
of the Pittsburgh
Symphony
Orchestra.
DAVID MURRAY (Trombone ’07) was
appointed to the trombone faculty
of the Peabody Conservatory in June.
He continues as second trombone
of the Baltimore Symphony.
Melissa White and Elena Urioste
Over the summer, MELISSA WHITE
(Violin ’07) and ELENA URIOSTE (Violin
’08) launched Intermission Sessions
and Retreat, a groundbreaking program
that encourages mindfulness and
injury prevention within music-making.
Intermission officially kicked off in
August as a week-long artist colony and
yoga retreat for professional musicians.
Sessions, an annual two-week festival
for talented young students, will
launch in Summer 2018. Both Sessions
and the Retreat will integrate daily
yoga classes and private sessions into
the everyday practice and performing
routines of classical musicians, increasing
body awareness and self-care
within the process of music-making.
Divergent Paths
Curtis is renowned worldwide for the musical education it provides its students. But how exactly does that
training inform those students’ later careers—including those careers that take an unusual turn? This series
seeks to answer this question, showing the diversity and richness of the Curtis alumni experience.
Theory and Performance: “Beautifully Combined”
BY WILLIAM SHORT (BASSOON ’10)
DAVID HORNE (’93) and ANDREW JACOBS (’93), both composition graduates, have not only gone on to vastly different
careers since Curtis—they began their journeys in opposite corners of the globe. David, hailing from Tillicoultry,
Scotland, describes his dealings with Philadelphia phone companies, for whom his broad Scottish accent was difficult
to understand, as his most challenging transition to life at Curtis. Andrew is originally from Wilmington, Delaware,
and began his time at Curtis before graduating high school. Initially he spent only a few days per week at Curtis,
suffering significantly less culture shock in the process.
Both share a similar takeaway from their Curtis experiences: the preponderance of opportunities to have their
works performed. “You always felt that you were writing for people at the absolute top of their game, technically
and musically,” says David. This has significantly influenced his current work at the Royal Northern College of Music
in Manchester, England, where he teaches,
performs, composes, lectures, and more,
Andrew and David share a similar
takeaway from their Curtis experiences:
the preponderance of opportunities
to have their works performed.
David Horne PHOTO: P. STIRNWEISS
2010s
In February VICKI
POWELL (Viola
’10) joined the
Berlin-based
Boccherini Trio
alongside founding
members Suyeon
Kang (violin) and
Paolo Bonomini
Andrew Jacobs
(cello). Recent highlights with the
Boccherini Trio include performances
at Konzerthaus Berlin and the Mantova
Music Festival in Italy. In the 2016-17
season Vicki performed as guest
principal viola of the Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra, the Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra,
the Australian Chamber Orchestra,
and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.
serving as something of a “jack of all trades.”
“I ensure that always, for composers,
performance is at the heart of everything,”
says David. Recalling a Curtis theory course
in which the late EDWARD ALDWELL began
one class by performing a Bach fugue, he
notes that theory and performance “are
beautifully combined.”
Andrew, who is now managing partner of
the commodities fund Jamison Capital Partners,
reflects that “to be around such talented
performers, to have them there to potentially
play your work, to have access to these
musical resources was something truly, truly
amazing.” He draws connections between
these opportunities and the skills necessary
in his current career: “Standing up in front
of an orchestra and telling them what you
intended is something that is applicable”
to his everyday work. “I lead a team and have
to do similar things, knowing how to motivate
people, how to get things done.”
Of his studies with NED ROREM (’44), David recalls always having “to justify what I was doing. You, as the
student, never did anything unconsciously. [He] would get you to think very carefully about, if it was a song with
piano, ‘Why does the piano have a big introduction?’ or ‘Why does it have a big conclusion?’ None of this was to say
that you couldn’t do it, but he made you really think about it.” David also recalls Mr. Rorem’s defined stylistic point
of view as distinctly American. Andrew studied primarily with DAVID LOEB, whom he describes as “more sparing
with his feedback”—and a great mentor.
Following their time at Curtis, David and Andrew continued on similar paths, studying at Harvard before going
their separate ways. Both carry with them the lasting influence of intertwined disciplines and the lessons that go
along with music-making at the highest level.
William Short is principal bassoon of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Vicki Powell
YEKWON
SUNWOO
(Piano ’11) won
the Gold Medal
at the Fifteenth
Van Cliburn
International
Piano Competition
in June.
Yekwon Sunwoo
While performing
in the semifinal round, he dedicated
OVERTONES FALL 2017
33

NOTATIONS
his performance of Mozart’s Piano
Concerto in C Major, K. 467, to the
memory of his Curtis teacher,
SEYMOUR LIPKIN (Piano ’47).
Last September BARBORA
KOLÁROVÁ (Violin ’12) joined the
Manhattan Concert Artists agency
in New York and Lincoln Center Stage,
performing chamber music and solo
concerts all over the world aboard
Holland America Line. In April 2017,
Barbora became a visiting concertmaster
of the Orquestra Filarmonica
de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte,
Brazil. She continues her visiting
performing artist position as the
co-principal second violin of the
Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
and her artistic director/general
manager position with the Lake
George Music Festival.
Francesco
Lecce-Chong
FRANCESCO
LECCE-CHONG
(Conducting ’12)
was named music
director and
conductor of the
Eugene Symphony
Orchestra,
beginning in the
2017–18 season.
He continues as
assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra and music director
of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony
Orchestra. In October he will conduct
the Santa Rosa Symphony.
SARAH ROMMEL (Cello ’12) performed
over the summer at Caramoor and
the Marlboro Festival.
ALEXANDRA von der EMBSE (Oboe
’12, ArtistYear ’16) begins her second
one-year contract as principal English
horn and associate principal oboe of
the Richmond Symphony Orchestra
this fall. Over the summer she played
principal oboe with the Breckenridge
Music Festival.
Stephen Waarts
In March
HAOCHEN ZHANG
(Piano ’12), the
DOVER QUARTET
(Quartet ’16),
and STEPHEN
WAARTS (Violin
’16) were named
receipients of
the Avery Fisher
Career Grants.
ADAM FRANDSEN (Opera ’13)
performed Alfredo in La traviata
with the Kristiansand Opera (Norway)
last September, and repeated the
role with the Danish National Opera
in February and March. He has an
ensemble contract to perform with
the Royal Danish Opera through 2019.
In May, ANDREW HSU (Piano ’13,
Composition ’15) was named a recipient
of a Charles Ives Scholarship by the
American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In November he will participate in the
Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.
In August RICHARD LIN (Violin ’13)
was featured as a VC Young Artist in
August on the Violin Channel website
(theviolinchannel.com). The site has
posted videos of several of Richard’s
recent solo performances.
Vinay
Parameswaran
VINAY
PARAMESWARAN
(Conducting ’13)
was appointed
assistant
conductor of
the Cleveland
Orchestra, and
music director
of the Cleveland
Orchestra Youth
Orchestra, beginning in the 2017–18
season. Over the summer he was a
conducting fellow at the Tanglewood
Music Center.
AUSTIN LARSON (Horn ’14) won
second prize in the Eighth International
Brass Instruments Competition, held
in May at the Stanislaw Moniuszko
Academy of Music in Gdansk, Poland
and was a featured artist at the
2017 Mid-South Horn Workshop at
Southeast Missouri State University.
Over the summer
JARRETT OTT
(Opera ’14) sang
the role of Curly
in Oklahoma! at
the Glimmerglass
Festival. Jarrett
and RACHEL
Jarrett Ott STERRENBERG
(Opera ’15) are
among many Curtis voices in Opera
Philadelphia’s production of The Magic
Flute this fall. Jarrett sings the role
of Papageno, Rachel appears as
Pamina, and Curtis students ASHLEY
MILANESE (Opera), SIENA MILLER
(Opera), ASHLEY MARIE ROBILLARD
(Voice), and ANASTASIIA SIDOROVA
(Voice) are also in the cast.
Milestones
Births
BENJAMIN SHWARTZ (Flute ’01,
Conducting ’04) and his wife
welcomed a son, Shalev Sivan
Shwartz, on April 21.
ZHOU TIAN (Composition ’05) and
Mingzhao Zhou welcomed their
first child, Sophie Muyan Zhou,
on March 19.
SHERIDAN SEYFRIED (Composition
’07) and YA-JHU YANG (Composition
’11) welcomed their second child,
Peter Britten Seyfried, on September
23, 2016. He joined a big brother,
Aiden Jacob, who is now 3 years old.
MARINA THIBEAULT (Viola ’11)
welcomed a son, Lucien, born
in Montreal on May 21.
Marriage
PALLAVI MAHIDHARA (Piano ’10)
and Italian violist Leonardo Papa
were married on March 4 in
Udaipur, India.
Deaths
DAVID ARBEN
(Violin ’54) was
born in Warsaw,
Poland, where
he began
studying violin
at age 7. As
a child, his
parents took
David Arben
him to a concert
by the Warsaw Philharmonic featuring
Efrem Zimbalist, after which David
declared he wanted to study with
him. The only member of his family
to survive the Holocaust, David
came to Philadelphia to audition
at Curtis and was accepted to study
with Mr. Zimbalist. He was a member
of both the Detroit Symphony and
Cleveland Orchestra before joining
the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1959.
He became its associate concertmaster
in 1979 and retired in 1993.
DAVID HERTZBERG’s (Composition
’15) new one-act opera The Wake
World receives its world premiere
in September at the Barnes
Foundation in a production by
Opera Philadelphia, where David
is composer in residence.
LOIS DASHER CHISM (Voice ’47)
passed away on March 21 in Marietta,
Ohio. Born in Chicago, she began
singing in her Lutheran church choir.
In 1943, at age 18, she participated
in the annual Chicagoland Music
Festival at Soldier Field Stadium,
which drew a crowd of 100,000.
Lois attended the Eastman School
of Music before entering Curtis in
1946. After graduating, she worked
as a program director for the Military
Special Services office in Vienna and
persued her opera career, singing
over 70 roles in Europe. She retired
from professional singing in the
1970s, but continued to act in
German TV dramas and soap operas.
For twelve years, she directed Meals
on Wheels in Munich. She retired and
moved to the United States in 1992.
JEAN DEIS (Voice ’55) passed away
on December 28. He studied with
Richard Bonelli at Curtis between
1951 and 1955, before beginning
his career as a tenor soloist in opera
houses across the United States.
Jean was a winner of the Marian
Anderson Scholarship Fund Award
and the American Opera Auditions,
which allowed him to make his
operatic debut in Milan. Jean
continued to perform as he began
his teaching career at Bowling
Green State University, before
moving to the Jacobs School of
Music at Indiana University. He
retired from the Jacobs School in
1990, becoming professor emeritus.
GEORGE FREIBURGHAUS (Double
Bass ’42) died on May 29. Born in
Michigan, George spent his childhood
earning the rank of Eagle Scout
and attending Interlochen Music
Camp. He entered Curtis in 1940
and was invited to join the Kansas
City Symphony, but World War II
intervened and he joined the U.S.
Navy. Following the war, he married
Elsie, his wife of 65 years. George
was the founding conductor of
the Helena Symphonette. In 1953,
he joined the Phoenix Symphony
XAVIER FOLEY (Double Bass ’16)
received the 2017 Career Advancement
Award from Philadelphia’s Musical
Fund Society in May. In February he
will make his New York recital debut
on the Young Concert Artists series
at Merkin Concert Hall. Xavier joins
34 OVERTONES FALL 2017

NOTATIONS
as principal bass. He also worked for
New York Life Insurance Company.
WALTER
HAUTZIG
(Piano ’43) died
on January 30.
Born in Vienna,
Walter studied
at the Vienna
Academy of
Music until he
Walter Hautzig
escaped the
Nazi occupation thanks to a fellowship
at the Jerusalem Conservatory.
After 18 months, he came to the
United States and was accepted at
Curtis to study with Artur Schnabel.
He met his wife, Esther, en route
from Siberia to New York; they
married in 1950. Walter toured the
world as a soloist for three decades.
The U.S. State Department sponsored
his performances in Japan in the
1950s, and in 1979 he was the first
American artist officially delegated
to perform in mainland China. He was
a professor of piano at the Peabody
Conservatory from 1960 to 1988.
HELEN KWALWASSER (Violin ’40)
passed away on May 22 in
Philadelphia. Daughter of a musical
psychologist, Helen began to play
violin at age four. She enrolled at
Curtis at age 11 to study with Efrem
Zimbalist and later attended the
Juilliard School, studying with Ivan
Galamian. Helen joined the faculty
at Temple University, where she
was a professor for nearly 50 years.
She also performed regularly in
Philadelphia and New York with the
New York Chamber Soloists, Temple
Trio, Pennsylvania Ballet, Bethlehem
Bach Festival, and the Casals
Festival Orchestra in Puerto Rico.
AMNON LEVY (Violin ’55) passed
away on April 17. A student at both
Curtis and the Juilliard School, he
performed with Rudolf Serkin at
the Marlboro Music Festival and was
a first violinist with the Minnesota
Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic
before spending 45 years
as a member of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra. During his time in Boston,
he was a soloist with the Boston Pops
and the Boston Lawyers’ Orchestra.
Amnon taught at the Tanglewood
Music Center and the Boston
University Tanglewood Institute.
He was married to his wife, Brenda
“Bonnie” Levy, for 50 years.
JOYCE LEVY (Voice ’50) died on
February 20 in Voorhees, New Jersey.
Following her studies at Curtis, she
attended the Juilliard School before
leaving to get married to her husband,
Sidney. In the 1970s she returned
to college, completing a degree in
music and drama at Glassboro State
College (now Rowan University),
while also caring for her family.
After graduating, she performed
in musical comedies and created a
music education program to support
musical shows at local elementary
schools. Joyce performed throughout
her life.
EDMUND MOORE (Tuba ’60) died
on May 4. After studying at Curtis,
received a master’s degree in music
from Temple University. He was also
a U.S. Army veteran and member
of the Army Band. During his career,
he performed with the American
Symphony Orchestra, Royal Ballet
Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, and
Pennsylvania Ballet. He was also a
teacher for the University of Georgia,
Temple University, and the Camden
City School System. Edmund served
on the Curtis Alumni Council from
2011 to 2015.
RICHARD MUEHLMANN (Double
Bass ’64) died on February 2. Born
in Philadelphia, he graduated from
Simon Gratz High School before
attending Curtis. He became a
member of the Saint Louis Symphony,
remaining for 40 years until his
retirement in 2005. Richard also
pursued his passions for antique
car restoration and gardening, and
served as the assistant director
of the Mississippi Valley Packard Car
Club. He was a member of the Classic
Car Club of America and the Cadillac
LaSalle Club.
KAREN RANUNG
(Voice ’46) died
on February 11.
She began to
sing publicly
at age three,
as her mother
drove around
Karen Ranung
the mid-Hudson
Valley giving
piano lessons during the Depression.
Karen performed for Eleanor Roosevelt
in 1946 at the first-anniversary
memorial of President Roosevelt’s
death. Following her graduation from
Curtis, she performed as a recitalist at
New York City’s Town Hall, Rockefeller
Center, and Carnegie Hall. In 1959 she
founded the Hudson Valley Philharmonic
Society, in partnership with her
husband Peter. Karen joined the voice
faculty at Vassar College in the 1960s
and maintained a private voice studio
until she moved to Florida in 2011.
GEORGE SILFIES (Clarinet ’48)
passed away on January 9. Beginning
in 1970, he served as principal
clarinet of the Saint Louis Symphony.
Prior to his tenure in Saint Louis, he
held principal positions with the U.S.
Navy Band, the Baltimore Symphony,
the Mostly Mozart Orchestra, the
New York City Opera, and the Santa
Fe Opera, in addition to serving as
assistant principal clarinet of the
Cleveland Orchestra. George was
also an accomplished pianist and
collaborated with Pablo Casals and
Robert Shaw, among other artists.
In addition to his performing career,
he served on the faculty of the
Peabody Conservatory, Michigan
State University, Queens College,
and the Music Academy of the West.
George was the artistic director
of the Artist Diploma Program
at the St. Louis Conservatory
and School for the Arts.
DAVID SPICER
(Organ ’68) died
on January 18.
A student of
Alexander
McCurdy at
Curtis, he
completed
David Spicer graduate studies
at Eastern
Baptist Theological Seminary before
dedicating his life to church music,
performance, and teaching. Until the
time of his death, he was minister
of music and the arts at First Church
of Christ in Wethersfield, Conn.; an
adjunct professor of music at Tunxis
Community College; and host of
“Glory, Praise, and Song” on radio
station WIHS. Earlier he was the
director of music at First Presbyterian
Church in Lincoln, Neb., and taught
at Nebraska Wesleyan University.
In 1997 David co-founded the Albert
Schweitzer Organ Festival/USA,
a national competition for young
organists.
LEE TROBAUGH STEELMAN (Flute
’49) passed away on June 10. From
1945 to 1949 she attended Curtis,
where she met her husband Ron,
a double bass student. She received
her M.A. in musicology from the
University of Pennsylvania and later
moved to Cambridge, Mass., where
Ron attended law school while Lee
performed and taught. In 1963 they
moved to California and founded
the Orange County Friends Meeting.
Lee became an activist and dedicated
her life to service as the founder of
the South Orange County Services
Council, a nonprofit agency where
she helped launch a battered
women’s shelter and programs
dedicated to low-income housing
and affordable medical services.
She served on the boards of the
League of Women Voters, the
American Friends Service Committee,
and the United Nations Association
Coastline Division.
Lincoln Center Chamber Music
Society II in 2018.
KIRSTEN MacKINNON (Voice ’16)
won the Metropolitan Opera Council
auditions in March. She will appear
Kirsten MacKinnon
as Micaëla
in Opera
Philadelphia’s
production
of Carmen
next spring.
Chang-Yong Shin
CHANG-YONG SHIN
(Piano ’16)
won first prize
at the Seoul
International
Music Competition
in March.
ALYSSA WEINBERG (Composition ’16)
participated in the Edward T. Cone
Composition Institute of the New
Jersey Symphony Orchestra, held
in July at Princeton University.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
35

NOTATIONS
RECORDINGS
AND PUBLICATIONS
Early in 2017 Sony released PAAVO
JÄRVI’s (Conducting ’88) first album
with the NHK Symphony Orchestra,
a live concert recording of Strauss’s
Ein Heldenleben and Don Juan from
Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
MICHELE HEMMINGS (Voice ’91) sings
on the recording of John Corigliano’s
The Ghosts of Versailles, which won
a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Opera
Recording. She also can be heard
on the Los Angeles Philharmonic
recording of Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels:
The Suites, which was nominated in the
Best Classical Compendium category.
Desiree Ruhstrat
and Jennifer
Higdon at the
Grammys
DESIREE
RUHSTRAT
(Violin ’91) and
her ensemble,
Lincoln Trio, were
nominated for
a 2017 Grammy
for Best
Chamber Music
Performance for
their recording
From Our
Homelands.
This spring LIZA KEROB (Violin ’96)
recorded the Berlioz Rêverie et Caprice
with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic
under the direction of Kazuki Yamada.
The CD, also featuring Berlioz’s
Symphonie fantastique, will be
released this fall by EMI Warner.
Sean Kennard
SEAN KENNARD’s
(Piano ’04)
recording of
sonatas by
Domenico
Scarlatti
was released
by Naxos in
February.
YEKWON SUNWOO’s (Piano ’11) gold
medal-winning performances of
Ravel’s La valse and Rachmaninoff’s
Second Piano Sonata from the Van
Cliburn Competition are featured
on Decca Gold’s Cliburn Gold 2017,
released online two weeks after
the competition last spring and
as a CD in August.
ZHOU TIAN’s (Composition ’05)
Concerto for Orchestra was included
on the Cincinnati Symphony’s
latest recording conducted by music
director Louis Langrée, Concertos
for Orchestra (Naxos).
OTHER CURTIS FAMILY NEWS
In Memoriam: Elaine Katz
Longtime Curtis registrar ELAINE KATZ died on February
26. A member of the Curtis staff for nearly 30 years, she
served as registrar from 1987 until 2001 before transitioning
to an off-campus, project-based role as a liaison to
performance faculty, many of whom had become her
close friends by that time.
The registrar position at Curtis has always carried
unique responsibilities; each student and faculty member
has unique scheduling issues to accommodate, and schedules
Elaine Katz
can change repeatedly throughout the week. For much of
Elaine’s time as registrar, scheduling was done face-to-face and on the phone.
“Elaine made every detail involved in her job a priority,” recalls PAUL BRYAN
(Trombone ’93), dean of faculty and students, who succeeded her as registrar
in 2001. “The most important job was to make sure that Curtis was giving every
student in the school the best chance to succeed—in school and after graduation.”
New Trustees
The board of trustees welcomed new members during the 2016–17 school year,
including WILLIAM BRODY, organ faculty ALAN MORRISON, C. RICHARD NEU,
Crescendo Club representative C. J. WALSH III, and BETTY WHELCHEL.
NINA ALBERT and ALAN HIRSIG became emeritus trustees.
FACULTY
In February
AMY YANG
(Piano ’06)
appeared as
soloist with
the Tuscaloosa
Symphony in
Schumann’s
Amy J. Yang
Piano Concerto
in A Minor.
In March she performed works
by Anders Hillborg with clarinetist
Moran Katz in recitals, including at
the Phillips Collection in Washington,
D.C. In May she collaborated with
AYANE KOZASA (Viola ’12) in a
recital for the Philadelphia Chamber
Music Society.
Michael Krausz
MICHAEL
KRAUSZ has
been appointed
adjunct fellow at
Linacre College,
Oxford University.
He plans to be
at Oxford periodically
over the
next three years.
Last spring Philadelphia’s LyricFest
premiered a musical work by
MICHAEL DJUPSTROM (Composition
’11), Oars in Water, on poems by
JEANNE MINAHAN McGINN, Ruth W.
and A. Morris Williams Jr. Chair of
Liberal Arts. The Singing Rooms by
JENNIFER HIGDON (Composition ’88),
Milton L. Rock Chair in Composition
Studies, a work that sets six of Dr.
McGinn’s poems, was performed in
February at University of Tennessee—
Knoxville, and in April at Rhodes
College in Memphis.
In May, ALAN MORRISON (Organ ’91,
Accompanying ’93) performed for the
25th anniversary of the Spivey Hall
organ at Clayton State University
(Ga.), where Mr. Morrison is currently
organist in residence. He was joined
by CHERRY RHODES (Organ ’64)
and KEN COWAN (Organ ’97); each
performed solo works and then joined
forces in a suite from Prokofiev’s The
Love for Three Oranges, transcribed
for three organs by Weicheng Zhao.
In November, Mr. Morrison was featured
as soloist and accompanist with the
Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia
in a program called British Organ
Invasion, presented in Verizon Hall
at the Kimmel Center. His other
solo recitals this year have included
performances on the Fritts organ
at Arizona State University and the
Lively-Fulcher organ at the University
of Utah—Salt Lake City, where he also
led a master class for the Eccles
Organ Festival.
In June
JAMES MOYER
presented a
paper, “Gesture
and Anti-gesture
in Ozu’s Cinema,”
during a themed
session at
James Moyer the Twelfth
International
Conference on the Arts in Society
at the American University of Paris.
HARVEY SACHS
co-curated
a Toscanini
exhibition at
La Scala in Milan
in honor of the
150th anniversary
of the conductor’s
Harvey Sachs birth, and
participated in
a public conversation with Riccardo
Muti at the Teatro Regio in Parma
(Toscanini’s hometown). He took
part in related events in Tel Aviv
and Washington (Library of Congress),
and gave a lecture for the New York
Philharmonic’s Insights series. His
tenth book, Toscanini: Musician of
Conscience—a new biography that
replaces his 1978 biography of
the famed Italian conductor—was
published by Liveright in June.
PETER SCHOENBACH performed
at the centennial celebration of
Settlement Music School’s Mary
Louise Curtis branch with LEAH
MELLMAN BOWES (Piano ’62).
Their performance included the
Romeo Cascarino Bassoon Sonata
by SOL SCHOENBACH, Peter’s father
and a former Curtis faculty member.
In December, JASON VIEAUX was
featured on Articulate with Jim
Cotter, aired on Philadelphia PBS
station WHYY-TV. This summer, he
participated in the Caramoor, Crown
Guitar, and Eastern music festivals.
In September THOMAS WEAVER
performs with the Amram Ensemble
at Jordan Hall, Boston. The ensemble
will record their first CD at the
same time.
36 OVERTONES FALL 2017

NOTATIONS
STUDENTS
Over the summer OMRI BARAK
(Trumpet) and ZUBIN HATHI
(Percussion) attended the National
Repertory Orchestra festival in
Breckenridge, Colorado.
In May AIYANA TEDI BRAUN
(Composition) won a BMI Student
Composer award for her chamber
work Uncommon Threads, scored
for clarinet, cello, and piano.
Last spring AARON CROUCH (Voice)
was a gold medalist at the YoungArts
Foundation Awards. He also won first
place in the 2017 Sue Goetz Ross
Competition and at the 2017 Classical
Singer Vocal Competition (University
Intermediate Division).
In June NICK DeBERARDINO
(Composition) participated in the
American Composers Orchestra
Underwood New Music Readings in
New York City. The orchestra read
his Mercury-Redstone 3, inspired
by the NASA mission that first sent
an American astronaut into space.
BRYAN DUNNEWALD (Organ)
performed a solo recital at Marble
Collegiate Church in New York City
in March and the dedication recital
at Mountain View Methodist Church
in Boulder in April. Over the summer
his recitals included the Cathedral
of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles
in June, and the Shrine of Our Lady
of Guadalupe in LaCrosse (Wisc.) in
July. In March Brian conducted the
premiere of WILL LANGLIE-MILETICH’s
(Double Bass) Suite from Mother
Courage and Her Children in Field
Concert Hall. In July, he returned
to Interlochen to teach a master
class and give a recital. In August,
he attended the International
Conducting Workshop and Festival
in Sofia, Bulgaria.
STEVEN FRANKLIN (Trumpet)
was commissioned by the American
Brass Quintet to compose a piece
for their residency recital at the
Aspen Festival and School.
AVERY GAGLIANO (Piano)
attended the Aspen Music Festival
and School over the summer
and won the school’s annual
concerto competition.
Last spring CLARA GERDES (Organ)
received first place in the 2017
AGO-Quimby Mid-Atlantic Regional
Competition for Young Organists.
In May and June HELEN GERHOLD
(Harp) toured Asia with the Philadelphia
Orchestra as substitute second
harp, then attended the Boston
University Tanglewood Institute.
DANIEL HSU
(Piano) made
his Carnegie Hall
recital debut in
Weill Recital Hall
in April on the
Concert Artist
Guild series. In
May he won the
Daniel Hsu
bronze medal, as
well as the prizes for chamber music
and best performance of a new work,
at the Van Cliburn Competition. In
March Apple Computers acquired
Daniel’s productivity app, Workflow,
which he programmed to allow users
to automate tasks on Apple devices.
SIJIA HUANG (Timpani and Percussion)
attended the Aspen Music Festival
over summer and received the Avedis
Zildjian Company Honorary Award
in April.
In December ABIGAIL KENT (Harp)
was a finalist at the International
Harp Competition in Szeged, Hungary.
In April YING LI (Piano) won first
prize in the Artist Series Concerts
of Sarasota 2017 National Piano
Competition in Sarasota, Florida.
Also in April, Ying and ZITONG WANG
(Piano) appeared with the New Jersey
Symphony Orchestra as soloists in
Saint-Saens’s Carnival of the Animals.
Hyun Jae Lim
Zachary Mowitz
HYUN JAE LIM (Violin) and ZACHARY
MOWITZ (Cello) won the 2017 Albert
M. Greenfield Philadelphia Orchestra
competition and will perform with
the orchestra in the 2017–18 season.
ALEJANDRO LOMBO (Flute) attended
the Aspen Music Festival and School
over the summer.
In April ERIC LU (Piano) received
the 2017 International German
Piano Award and the audience prize
from the International Piano Forum.
In April SIENA
LICHT MILLER
(Opera) won
first prize in
the Partners for
the Arts Vocal
Competition
in Alexandria,
Siena Licht Miller
Virginia. Over
the summer
she performed the role of the Child
in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges at
the Aspen Music Festival, with ROBERT
SPANO (Conducting ’85) on the podium.
Siena becomes an emerging artist with
Opera Philadelphia this season, along
with DOĞUKAN KURAN (Opera) and
ASHLEY MARIE ROBILLARD (Voice).
They join ASHLEY MILANESE (Opera)
and ANASTASIIA SIDOROVA (Voice),
who are in their second year with
the Emerging Artists Program.
Over the summer ANDREW MOSES
(Composition) attended the Lake
Champlain Chamber Music Festival.
ELENA PERRONI (Opera) made
her English National Opera debut
as Doris Parker in Charlie Parker’s
YARDBIRD in June and debuted
with Philadelphia Orchestra in July,
singing excerpts from Rusalka and
West Side Story.
EMILY POGORELC (Voice) returned
to the Glimmerglass Festival over
the summer to sing Romilda in
Handel’s Xerxes.
PATRICK WILHELM (Voice) attended
the Salzburg Mozarteum over
the summer, working with Dalton
Baldwin.
HAO YANG (Guitar) is the recipient
of the 2017 Catherine R. and
Anthony A. Clifton Foundation
Emerging Artists Award.
ALUMNI AND
PARENT OFFICE NOTES
Emily Cooley
PHOTO: ALI DOUCETTE
Nozomi Imamura
PHOTO: PETE CHECCHIA
Tessa Ellis
Three Recent Alumni are
Community Artist Fellows in 2017–18
This year three Curtis alumni are bringing their artistry to underserved
communities in Philadelphia through the Community Artist Fellowship,
a program that retains and builds upon the commitment to service established
in Curtis’s partnership with ArtistYear.
The 2017–18 Community Artist Fellows are EMILY COOLEY (Composition ’17),
TESSA ELLIS (Trumpet ’17), and NOZOMI IMAMURA (Trumpet ’15). Emily continues
her work at Graterford Prison, begun as a CAP project (see p. 24). Tessa’s
fellowship also builds on a recent CAP project, in which she taught early
childhood music classes at a church in North Philadelphia. Next year she
will continue these classes at William Cramp Elementary School and will
also teach music classes for adult residents of Philadelphia’s Project HOME.
Nozomi will work at South Philadelphia High School, sustaining the instrumental
program revived in the last three years through the high school’s partnership
with Curtis.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
37

NOTATIONS
COMMENCEMENT
MAY 13, 2017
42 GRADUATES
3 | DIPLOMA
22 | BACHELOR OF MUSIC
14 | POST-BACCALAUREATE DIPLOMA
2 | MASTER OF MUSIC IN OPERA
1 | CERTIFICATE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
38 OVERTONES FALL 2017

NOTATIONS
“We, sitting here today, are Curtis’s greatest resource. …
We are collectively both the living history of this school
and the movement forward into the future of our art form.
We are, as the sum of our lessons and experiences,
our own best inspiration and motivation,
inside and outside of this building.”
—Abigail Fayette (Violin)
CLASS OF 2017 NOTATIONS
Upper left: Abigail Fayette speaks to her fellow graduates.
Lower left: Processing into Field Concert Hall for the ceremony
Lower right: Abigail Kent receives her hood
SAMUEL CASSEDAY (Double Bass)
is freelancing around the country.
EN-CHI CHENG (Viola) is pursuing
a master’s degree at the Juilliard
School.
STAS CHERNYSHEV (Clarinet ’14,
ArtistYear) is serving as co-principal
clarinet of the Fort Worth Symphony
Orchestra this season.
TIMOTHY CHOOI (Violin) performed as
a soloist with the Toronto and Victoria
(B.C.) symphonies in May. Over the
summer, he also attended the Verbier
Festival in Switzerland and recorded
his debut album in Montreal.
EMELINE CHONG (Bassoon) attended
the Pacific Music Festival over the
summer. This fall she begins work
as a clinical research assistant at
the University of Pennsylvania.
T.J. COLE (Composition ’16, ArtistYear)
is pursuing a master’s degree at
McGill University in Montreal.
EMILY COOLEY (Composition) returns
to Curtis this year as a Community
Artist Fellow, continuing her work
at Graterford Prison.
BRYN COVENEY (Horn) is freelancing
in the Philadelphia area.
CONNER GRAY COVINGTON
(Conducting) began his tenure as
the assistant conductor of the Utah
Symphony in September. In June
he received a 2017 Solti Foundation
Career Assistance Award.
NOAH DUGAN (Trumpet) is pursuing
a master’s degree at the Colburn
School.
TESSA ELLIS (Trumpet) has returned
to Curtis as a Community Artist
Fellow, focusing on early childhood
music education and work inspired by
Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project. She
continues to perform with the Arcana
New Music Ensemble and freelances
in the greater Philadelphia area.
ABIGAIL FAYETTE (Violin) is pursuing
a master’s degree at New England
Conservatory, studying with Soovin
Kim. Over the summer she attended
the Marlboro Music Festival and School.
VARTAN GABRIELIAN (Voice) returns
to Curtis this year to pursue his
master’s degree in opera.
ALEC HOLCOMB (Guitar) is pursuing a
master’s degree at the San Francisco
Conservatory.
HSUAN-HAO HSU (Violin) is freelancing
in the Philadelphia area.
In June ABIGAIL KENT (Harp) received
first prize at the American Harp Society
Competition for Young Professionals.
She attended the Aspen Music
Festival during the summer and was
a featured performer at the World
Harp Congress in Hong Kong. This
fall she is pursuing a master’s degree
at the Mannes School of Music,
studying with Emmanuel Ceysson,
principal harp of the Metropolitan
Opera Orchestra.
Over the summer, SHANNON LEE
(Violin ’16, ArtistYear) participated in
the Norfolk Festival and in Poland’s
Krzyzowa Festival.
ZEYU VICTOR LI (Violin) is playing
in the violin section of the New York
Philharmonic this fall.
ZHENWEI LI (Clarinet) is attending
Temple University to pursue a
master’s degree.
KEVIN LIN (Violin) has been appointed
co-leader of the London Philharmonic.
KATE LIU (Piano) is pursuing a master’s
degree at the Juilliard School,
studying with Robert McDonald and
Yoheved Kaplinsky. In May, she was
the featured soloist with the Yomiuri
Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.
Over the summer JAMEZ McCORKLE
(Voice) appeared as Lensky in Eugene
Onegin at the Spoleto Festival (S.C.)
and participated in the Young Singers
Project at the Salzburg Festival.
In June JOHNATHAN McCULLOUGH
(Opera) made his European debut
at the Komische Oper Berlin in
a new production of Rameau’s
Zoroastre as Oromasès and Ariman.
In September he performed in the
world premiere of Kevin Puts’s
opera Elizabeth Cree with Opera
Philadelphia, singing the roles
of Mr. Greatorex, George Gissing,
and Etcher. He’ll return to Opera
Philadelphia next spring to sing the
role of Moralès in Bizet’s Carmen.
VIRGINIA McDOWELL (Oboe) is
pursuing a master’s degree at Rice
University.
ASHLEY MILANESE (Opera) spent
the summer as a Wolf Trap Opera
Studio Artist and performed the role
of Baby Birds in The Juniper Tree
by Philip Glass and Robert Moran.
She returns to Curtis this fall to
pursue a Certificate of Professional
Studies in Opera, and performs in
Opera Philadelphia’s production
of The Magic Flute in September.
KYUNG JI MIN (Violin) is studying
toward a master’s degree at the
Juilliard School.
OVERTONES FALL 2017
39

NOTATIONS
“Now is your time to claim and shape the world you want
to live in. And I know you will, because you are musicians,
and musicians are courageous. Every musician is.
You do something few people in the world can do—you stand
on stage, and you deliver. And you are fearless in your music.
Now is your time to be fearless in the world.”
—Deborah Borda, president and CEO, Los Angeles Philharmonic
TIMOTHEOS PETRIN (Cello) spent
the summer at the Ravinia Festival’s
Steans Institute. He is pursuing a
master’s degree at the New England
Conservatory of Music.
SLAVKO POPOVIC (Clarinet) participated
in the Manchester Music Festival
in Vermont over the summer.
NEIL RAO (Timpani and Percussion) is
attending the University of Louisville
to study toward a master’s degree
in composition.
ALIZE ROZSNYAI (Opera ’15, ArtistYear)
is a member of the Arcana New Music
Ensemble. Over the summer, she
made her debut at the Trentino Music
Festival as La Fée in Massenet’s
Cendrillon, and participated in the
professional recording of Jane Eyre
by Louis Karchin.
JOSEPH RUSSELL (Organ) is pursuing
a master’s degree at Rice University,
studying with Ken Cowan.
Over the summer HEATHER STEBBINS
(Opera) attended the Glyndebourne
Festival, where she covered the
role of Ariadne in Strauss’s Ariadne
auf Naxos.
JÁNOS SUTYÁK (Trombone) has
joined the orchestra of the Hungarian
State Opera.
STEPHEN TAVANI (Violin) returned
to the Marlboro Music Festival for
the summer. He is studying toward a
master’s degree in the Concertmaster
Academy of the Cleveland Institute
of Music.
CHELSEA WANG (Piano) was a piano
fellow at Bravo! Vail Music Festival
during the summer. She is pursuing
a master’s degree at the Peabody
Conservatory, studying with
Leon Fleisher.
YIJIA WANG (Piano) performed with
the Philadelphia Orchestra in July at
the Mann Center as the 2016 Alfred
M. Greenfield Student Competition
winner. She is attending the Juilliard
School, studying toward a master’s
degree.
NILES WATSON (Flute) played in the
Philadelphia Orchestra during its
summer season.
CALEB WIEBE (Trumpet ’16, ArtistYear)
returned to AngelFire this summer
with The Brass Project.
ZSCHE CHUANG RIMBO WONG (Viola
’16, ArtistYear) attended the Norfolk
Festival over the summer and toured
with Curtis on Tour in July. She is
attending the Yale School of Music.
SHIQI ZHONG (Timpani and Percussion)
is pursuing graduate studies at the
Yale School of Music.
Upper right: Deborah Borda receives an honorary doctorate.
Above (left to right): Chelsea Wang and Joseph Russell; Shiqi Zhong with his
parents; Mikael Eliasen presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to voice
teacher Marlena Kleinman Malas
HONORARY DEGREES
AND AWARDS
DOCTOR OF MUSIC (HONORIS CAUSA)
Deborah Borda, president and CEO, Los Angeles Philharmonic
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Marlena Kleinman Malas (Voice ’60), in recognition of her extraordinary
influence on young singers as a dedicated and inspiring member of the
Curtis faculty for more than three decades
JOAN HUTTON LANDIS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN ACADEMICS
Abigail Montara Kent (Harp)
EDWARD ALDWELL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN MUSICAL STUDIES
Kate Liu (Piano)
CHARLES MILLER PRIZE: THE SERGEI RACHMANINOFF AWARD
Chelsea Wang (Piano)
MILKA VIOLIN ARTIST PRIZE
Timothy Chooi (Violin)
ANGELO SYLVESTRO FESTORAZZI SCHOLARSHIP
Heather Stebbins (Opera)
PAUL G. MEHLIN SCHOLARSHIP
Kate Liu (Piano)
RICHARD F. GOLD CAREER GRANT
Johnathan McCullough (Opera)
THE PRESSER FOUNDATION UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLAR AWARD
Ashley Marie Robillard (Voice)
40 OVERTONES FALL 2017

Blair Bollinger, left, with bass
trombone student Jahleel Smith.
LEGACY CREATOR
BLAIR BOLLINGER
Philadelphia Orchestra bass trombonist,
Curtis alumnus, and faculty member since
1997, Blair is passing on his musical legacy
to the next generation of young musicians
not only through his teaching but also by
utilizing his exceptional talent in coordinating
our brass ensembles. With Blair’s planned gift
to Curtis to include his extensive trombone
and sheet music collection, future students
will have the opportunity to learn on some
of the finest instruments in the world.
YOUR LEGACY.
THE WORLD WILL LISTEN.
Curtis is a unique global resource for musical talent, sustained by the foresight and
generosity of supporters like Blair Bollinger. For more information about including
Curtis in your estate plan, call Charles Sterne, director of planned giving, (215) 717-3126.

1726 Locust Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103
NONPROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
CURTIS INSTITUTE
OF MUSIC
address service requested
Curtis Symphony Orchestra Rehearsing in Vienna’s Musikverein, 1999
The Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s first European tour took place over 25 days in the fall of 1999, with performances in Germany, Austria,
Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. Joining the orchestra were conductor André Previn and violin soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter. The tour would
teach many an unexpected lesson: Mixing extended travel and quality musical performance was not as easy as professional orchestras
made it look. But the enthusiasm of audiences renewed and energized the orchestra members. NATHAN COLE (Violin ’00), who snapped
this photo of JOSEPH McETTRICK (Trombone ’00) warming up before a concert in Vienna’s storied Musikverein, wrote of the tour, “After
traveling and playing under so many different sets of circumstances, I’ve realized that almost anything is bearable with the right people,
while almost nothing is without.” A look back at the 2017 summer tour of Europe begins on page 13. PHOTO: CURTIS ARCHIVES/NATHAN COLE