News From the Hartt Dean's Office
February 21, 2007

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Feb. 22-25

The Hartt School Theatre Division will present one of America's favorite scandalous musicals when The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas two-steps its way into Lincoln Theater. The local sheriff and Chicken Ranch customers fight to save the historic brothel from a crusading TV evangelist and his conservative audience in this rip-roaring musical, featuring students from Hartt's Music Theatre program. Performances are Thursday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20, with discounts for senior citizens, students and groups.

Texas has a whorehouse in it - Lord have mercy on our souls! Based on the book by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson, with music and lyrics by Carol Hall, this good-times musical is a satire of small town vice and statewide political side stepping that recounts the good times and the demise of the true-life Chicken Ranch Brothel, known since the 1850s as one of the better pleasure palaces in Texas. Governors, senators, mayors and victorious college football teams frequent "Miss Mona's" cozy bordello until a puritanical nemesis watchdog focuses his television cameras and his righteous indignation on the institution.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is directed by Hartt Theatre Division Director Alan Rust. Rust received his graduate degree from Ohio University in 1973. He has since continued a professional acting career in theatres throughout the country including The Hartford Stage Company, The Cleveland Playhouse, The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Stage West, The Northern Stage Company, The North Carolina Shakespeare Festival and the Monomoy Theatre. He has directed over one hundred productions in university and professional theatres in the United States as well as Sydney, Australia; Goteborg, Sweden; Birmingham, England and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has held positions at the University of Washington, the State University of New York at Purchase, and the University of Detroit. He served as Dean of the North Carolina School of the Arts, and was head of the Acting Program at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Joining Rust on the Whorehouse artistic team are Michael Morris as Musical Director and Ralph Perkins as Choreographer.

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Hartt Symphony Orchestra, March 2

The Hartt Symphony Orchestra will present the first concert of the Spring season under the baton of Maestro Christopher Zimmerman on Friday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Millard Auditorium. Hartt Professor Humbert Lucarelli joins the Symphony as guest oboist for Moravec's Oboe Concerto and Barber's Canzonetta for Oboe and Strings. The evening also includes the premiere of Hartt faculty member David Macbride's new composition Lullaby for Chessa. Other works on the program are Debussy's The Afternoon of a Faun and Schubert's Symphony in b minor, No. 8 "Unfinished". Admission is free for University students, faculty and staff, and $20 for the general public. Discounts are available for seniors, students and groups.

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Miami String Quartet, March 8

The Miami String Quartet will present their first Hartt concert of 2007 on Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Lincoln Theater. The concert also marks the first appearance by the Quartet's new violist, Yu Jin. Ms. Jin brings her elegant artistry along with an impeccable resume with her to the group. She replaces longtime violist Chauncey Patterson who has retired from the quartet due to medical reasons. Hartt's quartet-in-residence will be joined by guest oboist Humbert Lucarelli for Mozart's Quartet for Oboe and Strings in F Major. The evening's program also includes Godfrey's String Quartet No. 3 and Shubert's Quartet for Strings in d minor, No. 14, D810 Death and the Maiden.

University of Hartford students, faculty and staff receive a free ticket to this event, and a $3 discount on additional tickets. Admission is $20 for the general public with discounts for University of Hartford alumni, senior citizens, educators, students and groups.

Prior to the concert, there will be a dinner and interview with a member of the Miami String Quartet and a performance by a student ensemble. The dinner will be held at 6 p.m. in the 1877 Club in the University of Hartford's Harry Jack Grey Center. Dinner tickets are $39.

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FOR YOUR INFORMATION

University President Walter Harrison had an opinion article about the founding of the University and its growth published in the "Commentary" section of The Hartford Courant. The article coincides with the kickoff of the University's 50th anniversary celebration, which begins on Wednesday, Feb. 21 with Founders Day.
The Hartford Courant, Feb. 11

Masters student Scott Bean was announced as one of two winners of Mercer University and the Macon Symphony Orchestra's (GA) fourth annual International Conductors Workshop. Bean will guest conduct the Macon Symphony Orchestra during the 2007-08 season.
Mercer University

Guitarist Bobby Broom, a former instructor at The Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz in The Hartt School, has a new CD, Song and Dance, that will be released on March 20 by Origin Records. The Broom Trio features a mix of soul, groove, and urban improvisation that's unique in the jazz world today. Broom points out that part of the role of jazz musicians is "taking popular music and interpreting it. Each generation claims its own standards."

Pianist Peter Pertis, former artist-in-residence at The Hartt School, presented a concert on Feb. 18 at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Florida.
Palm Beach Post, Feb. 13

ACADEMIC ACCOLADES

John Wion Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

The National Flute Association (USA) is awarding a Lifetime Achievement Award to Australian/American flutist John Wion, Hartt Professor of Flute and Chamber Music. This award is bestowed on the inspiring individuals who have been the most honored performers, teachers and instrument makers, and have led flute players to greater creativity and musicality. Winners have also raised the level of understanding the acoustical properties, expressive abilities of the instrument, as well as stylistic performance practice.

Wion was Principal Flutist of the New York City Opera for 37 years. Born in 1937 and raised in Melbourne Australia, where he was a student of Leslie Barklamb, Mr. Wion came to the United States in 1958 and subsequently studied with the Who's Who of flutists: Julius Baker, Claude Monteux, William Kincaid, and Marcel Moyse. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Metropolitan Opera, and was a founding member of Leopold Stokowski's American Symphony Orchestra. He has served on the faculties of Kean, Mannes, Queens, and Brooklyn Colleges.

His publications include a nine volume series of opera excerpt books, and Sing!, opera arias arranged for flute and piano. His memoirs Wood Silver and Gold - A Flutist's Life will be published the summer of 2007. He has recorded a variety of solo and chamber music works and has been an artist in residence and performer throughout Australia, as well as in Europe, North and South Americas. Mr. Wion will be performing in Australian in May 2007. He is married to Victoria Simon, former soloist with the New York City Ballet, and currently Ballet Mistress to the George Balanchine Trust, staging the choreographer's works around the world

Hartt Choreographers Receive CT Artist Fellowships

The Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism awarded fellowships to 34 artists across the state to support their artistic development and enable them to devote substantial time to the creation of new work. Grants in the amounts of $5,000 and $2,500 were awarded in the categories of choreography, fiction, film/video, music composition, playwriting and poetry.

"The Commission on Culture & Tourism is firmly committed to furthering the professional development of individual artists," said An-Ming Truxes, director of CCT's Arts Division. "Artists are at the core of the rich cultural heritage of Connecticut and make notable contributions to their communities. Supporting artists in the creation of exciting new work ultimately benefits everyone.

Adam Miller and Katie Stevinson-Nollet, both faculty members in Hartt's Dance Division, are among the three choreographers selected by the Commission.

Miller is the Director and Choreographer for the Adam Miller Dance Project, a Hartford-based professional ballet company now in its fifth year of revitalizing the local dance performance scene, presenting contemporary, sophisticated ballet with a modern edge. A long-time Hartford resident and former dancer with the Hartford Ballet, Miller works with local dancers as well as a core group of professionals based in the New York City area. More information is available at the company's web site.

Stevinson-Nollet is the Artistic Director of Full Force Dance Theatre, the resident Dance Company at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. As a choreographer Ms. Stevinson-Nollet focuses her interests in collaboration and the exploration of the human condition. For more information on Full Force Dance Theatre, visit their web site.

Other Academic Accolades

John Feierabend, Director of Hartt's Music Education Division, has been selected to receive the 2007 OAKE Outstanding Educator Award this March in Chicago during OAKE's National Conference. The award is being presented in recognition of his many contributions to OAKE, Kodály pedagogy and his students.

Christopher Zimmerman, The Primrose Fuller Visiting Professor of Orchestral Studies at Hartt, was the guest conductor at the Feb. 17 concert by Michigan's Marquette Symphony Orchestra, which featured "The Glory and the Grandeur Concerto for Percussion Trio" by Russell Peck.
The Mining Journal, Feb. 8

The Lions Gate Trio returns to Hartt in April, inviting student cellists to join them in performance Monday, April 9, at 8 p.m. in Bliss Auditorium. Admission is free. The ensemble will perform trios by Mozart, Takemitsu and Chausson, and the cellists will join Trio cellist Scott Kluksdahl in Messagesquisses by Boulez. This spring the Trio will record new works by Richard Brodhead, Hartt faculty member Robert Carl, and John Halle, at Temple University, Bard College, and Yale University.

An article by Linda Solow Blotner, head of the Allen Memorial Library, was published in Music, Libraries, and the Academy: Essays in Honor of Lenore Coral. Ed. by James P. Cassaro (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2007). The volume is a memorial to Lenore Coral, music librarian at Cornell University. Cassaro writes that "Lenore Coral (1939-2005) was considered a titan in the fields of both scholarship and librarianship. . . . Even though she is now gone, Lenore's force will be felt for generations to come in the many arenas in which she participated. Her tenacity, vision, passion, and wit inspired many in both the fields of musicology and music librarianship." Blotner's article is titled "Music Libraries of Tomorrow: Virtual or Concrete, Harmony or Discord?"

ALUMNI NEWS

Matthew Hoch Receives Music Fellowship

Dr. Matthew Hoch (MMUS Voice '03), assistant professor of music at Shorter College, has been named one of seven national recipients of the Melodious Accord Fellowship to study with Dr. Alice Parker. The fellowship allows Dr. Hoch to spend four days of intense private study with Dr. Parker at her home in Hawley, Mass., in June. Dr. Parker has the reputation of being one of the greatest living individuals in American choral music. In addition to her achievements as a composer and arranger, Dr. Parker has written many books and articles and maintains a packed schedule as a conductor and clinician. .

Dr. Hoch received a Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from Ithaca College with a triple major in vocal performance, music education, and music theory. He also holds a Master of Music degree from The Hartt School with a double major in vocal performance and music history; and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory in vocal performance and literature. At Shorter College, he teaches private voice, conducts the Shorter Chorus, and assists with Shorter Opera and the Shorter Chorale. He lives in Rome with his wife, Theresa, and infant daughter, Hannah.

Hartt Alumnus Mounts Tour of India

Electronic cellist Jeffrey Krieger (BMus '85) is leaving for a solo recital tour of India beginning February 15. The U.S. Embassy in India is sponsoring the fifteen day tour. At the Embassy's request, several of the concert programs are being built around a work entitled Shadows and Light by composer Ken Steen, Associate Professor of Composition and Music Theory at The Hartt School. This concert tour will help support the current emphasis of programming by the Embassy. HIV/AIDS prevention education and raising public awareness of the threat of the disease throughout India is of special importance at this time because it is currently spreading at crisis level.

Shadows and Light, a work for solo electronic cello composed in 1989, originated as part of a larger collaborative work commissioned by the AIDS Ministries Program of Connecticut for Works Contemporary Dance that included 2 other composers, 2 choreographers, dancers, a storyteller and a number of lighting and costume designers in the Hartford area. The entire work was conceived as an artistic response to the AIDS epidemic and emphasized the need to care for people living with HIV/AIDS in Connecticut.

Shadows and Light was to have been danced as a solo by Rob Kowalski, artistic director of Works. It was in fact, choreographed by him for the premier. Unfortunately, just prior to the premier Rob became too ill to dance, so it was performed as a musical interlude. Not long after the premier performance Rob died from AIDS. His passing was a great loss to the Hartford dance community. Like the quintessential riderless horse honoring military heroes, the electronic cello solo remains as music for a dancerless dance and is dedicated in memory of Rob Kowalski.

Shadows and Light was recorded by Jeffrey Krieger and is available on his Night Chains CD, part of CRI's Emergency Music series currently available through New World Records - http://www.newworldrecords.org/cri-nwr-2004-03.shtml.

Mr. Krieger's concert tour of India, which will also feature works by Donald Erb, Michael Gatonska and Anna Rubin, will take him to New Delhi, Goa, Mumbai, Jaipur and other cities.

Other Alumni News

Janelle A. Robinson (BMus Opera '90) is presently starring in Disney's Broadway production of Mary Poppins. She plays the role of "Mrs. Corry".

Shana Buxton (BA Interdisciplinary Studies of Music Theatre and Education 2006), Katie Frazee (BFA Music Theatre 2006), and Ashley Speigel (BFA Music Theatre 2006) are performing in their own cabaret act at the Duplex Theatre in Manhattan. Single in the City is billed as "a hilarious show that takes you on the journey of 3 single women living in the city, trying to find real love - or something like it". Performances are currently scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 9:30 pm and Friday, March 9 at 7 p.m. Visit The Duplex's web site for reservations..

The West End String Quartet presented a concert on Feb. 18 at Nordica Auditorium at the University of Maine at Farmington. All four quartet members are Hartt alumni: violinists Sarah Washburn (MM Violin '05), Jessica Meyer (MM Violin '05), violist Russell Wilson (MM Viola '05), and cellist Carlynn Savot (MM Cello '05).
Sun Journal, Feb. 7

Richard Williams (BMus '84), Principal Trombonist of the Westchester Symphonic Winds, will be featured at the ensemble's March 18 concert at Tarrytown Music Hall in New York. Williams is the soloist for Concertino No. 7 for Trombone and Wind Band, Op. 45. For further information on the program, visit their web site.

Jocelyn O'Toole (BMus Voice '03, GPD Voice '06) was the opening act for a cabaret performance at the Fairfield Theatre Company. O'Toole, who now resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., is pursuing her master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music
Fairfield Citizen-News, Feb. 8

The debut album by The Landau Orchestra, Janus Plays Telephone, will be released by Milan Records in April 2007. The band was formed by Grant Wheeler (BMus Music Production and Technology '05) and Matt Young (BMus Music Production and Technology '06). The project began as a concept to seamlessly fuse electronic sound design and sequencing with jazz and classical compositions. Wheeler and Young both collaborated on the piano parts and electronic elements as the centerpiece of the compositions. They orchestrated parts for acoustic instruments and worked with a variety of other musicians in and out of The Hartt School to record additional parts. Many exciting new projects are in the works, including a remix to the musical theme of Pan's Labyrinth, an Academy Award nominated film score by Javier Navarette.

Read the Community Division's Newsletter

Broadway Dance Masterclasses, Feb. 24

Master "Fosse" teacher and professional choreographer Douglas Graham will present several Broadway jazz and lyrical masterclasses on Saturday, Feb. 24. These session will have a special focus on the style and choreography of Bob Fosse. Classes will be held at the Hartt Dance & Opera Center on Farmington Ave.

Douglas Graham has appeared on Broadway and in national tours of Cats, Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, Bob Fosse's Dancin', and A Chorus Line. He has also choreographed for Disney and theatres worldwide.

The day will include the following sessions:
9 - 10:30 a.m.: Broadway Jazz for dancers ages 12 to 15
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.: Broadway Lyrical for dancers ages 12 to Adult
1:30 - 3 p.m.: Broadway Jazz for dancers ages 15 to Adult
3:30 - 5 p.m.: Broadway Jazz for dancers ages 15 to Adult

Tuition is $20 per class. Class sizes are limited. For more information call: 860.525.9396, ext. 10, or email the dance department.

Free First Steps in Music Preview Classes

The Hartt School Community Division invites children ages birth through five and a parent or caregiver to try a free First Steps in Music Class! Come share the joy of music and movement with your child. Class schedule is listed below. Class sizes are limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information on the First Steps program, visit our web site.

University of Hartford Campus, West Hartford
9 to 9:45 a.m.: Nursery (30 to 42 months)
10:30 to11 a.m.: Infant/Toddler (birth through 29 months)
11:15 a.m. to12:15 p.m. Preschool (3 ½ to 5 years)
Reservations: (860) 768-4451 or e-mail harttcomm@hartford.edu

Simsmore Square (lower level), 540 Hopmeadow St., Simsbury
11:30 a.m. to12 p.m.: Infant/Toddler (birth through 29 months)
12:15 to 1p.m.:Nursery/Preschool (30 months through 5 years)
Reservations: (860) 651-3570 or e-mail simsmore@hartford.edu

The Hartt School Community Division Dance and Opera Center, 224 Farmington Ave, Hartford
9:40 to 10:10 a.m.: - Infant/Toddler (birth through 29 months)
10:20 to 11:05 a.m.: Nursery (30 - 42 months)
11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Preschool (3 ½ to 5 years)
Reservations: (860) 651-3570 or e-mail dancedesk@hartford.edu