News From the Hartt Dean's Office
March 26, 2008

Miami String Quartet Student Competition Concert, March 27

On Thursday, March 27, The Hartt School will present the annual Miami String Quartet Student Competition Concert, featuring five extremely talented Hartt students performing with Hartt’s resident quartet. The exceptional students who won the competition are flutist Noriyo Fukui, oboist Charles Huang, pianist Soyeon Kim, violinist Samuel Martin and cellist Esther Rogers. The program includes works by Mozart, Beethoven and Arensky.  The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be held in Millard Auditorium on the University of Hartford campus at 200 Bloomfield Avenue in West Hartford, CT. Tickets for the concert are $30-36, with discounts available for seniors, students and groups.  Contact the University of Hartford Box Office at (860) 768-4228 or purchase tickets online at www.hartford.edu/hartt.

These five Hartt students will have the incomparable experience of performing for an audience side-by-side with a professional quartet.  The Student Competition Concert is a unique opportunity for Hartt’s student musicians – one that is unparalleled among similar music conservatory programs.  The winners were selected by the Miami String Quartet members from more than twenty applicants to the competition via two audition rounds.  At the preliminary audition, the student musicians performed a movement of a standard concerto or other substantial solo composition.  Ten students from this first round then moved on to a final audition, at which they performed a complete work with the members of the Quartet. 

The five exemplary students come from around the globe and across the U.S.  Noriyo Fukui is a second year master’s flute student from Japan, and studies with Janet Arms. Charles Huang, from Arlington Heights, Illinois, is a doctoral candidate and studies oboe with Humbert Lucarelli.  Soyeon Kim studies piano with David Westfall, and is a second year master’s student from South Korea.  Samuel Martin, from Duluth, Minnesota, is a first year student of the graduate professional diploma and studies with Anton Miller.  Cellist Esther Rogers, from Rochester, New York, is an undergraduate senior who studies with Terry King. 

Prior to the concert, there will be a dinner and an interview with a member of the Miami String Quartet. The dinner will be held at 6:00 p.m. in the 1877 Club in University of Hartford’s Harry Jack Grey Center. Dinner tickets are $39.  Following the concert, there will be a free reception in honor of the student performers.

The Miami String Quartet:  Praised by The New York Times as having “everything one wants in a quartet: a rich, precisely balanced sound, a broad coloristic palette, real unity of interpretive purpose and seemingly unflagging energy,” the Miami String Quartet is known throughout the nation for their diversity in programming and their poise in performance. The Miami String Quartet has appeared extensively throughout the United States and Europe, including performances in Boston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and San Francisco.   International highlights include appearances in Bern, Cologne, Istanbul, Montreal, Hong Kong, Taipei, Paris, and Amsterdam.  The Miami String Quartet is comprised of violinists Ivan Chan and Cathy Meng Robinson, violist Yu Jin, and cellist Keith Robinson. 

To learn more about the Miami String Quartet, visit www.miamistringquartet.com

Purchase tickets online

Hartt Symphony Orchestra, March 28

The Hartt School will present a concert by the Hartt Symphony Orchestra on Friday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m. in Lincoln Theater on the University of Hartford’s West Hartford campus.  Admission is $20 for the general public with discounts available for senior citizens, students and groups.  Contact the University of Hartford Box Office at (860) 768-4228 for tickets or purchase tickets online at www.hartford.edu/hartt.

The performance, under the baton of Orchestra director Christopher Zimmerman, includes Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”).  Guest violinist Katie Lansdale will join the Symphony for Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major.  The Hartt Symphony Orchestra is comprised of more than 80 student musicians from Hartt’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs, providing Hartt’s orchestral instrumentalists with exceptional performance experiences, including more than eight concerts a year and performances with the school’s dance, music theatre, and opera departments.

Katie Lansdale, Associate Professor of Violin at The Hartt School, has performed solo and chamber music from childhood appearances at the White House to her present international career as a member of the Lions Gate Trio, Hartt's trio-in-residence.  She has studied with Josef Gingold, Felix Galimir, Ronda Cole, Donald Weilerstein and Mitchell Stern, and has received degrees at Yale University, the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.  She has been coached intensively by members of the Juilliard, Tokyo and Guarneri Quartets, and has CD’s released on Centaur and Triton labels.

Lauded for her wide interests and repertoire, Lansdale has a particular passion for solo Bach, often performing the complete works in concert.  She won the Schlosspreis for her performance of solo Bach at Salzburg Mozarteum, was the grand prize winner at both the Yellow Springs and Fischoff National Chamber Music competitions, and won awards for both Outstanding Violinist and Outstanding Participant at Tanglewood’s Fellowship Program.  Since her debut with the Baltimore Symphony at age 14, her wide array of appearances has ranged from performances with Yo Yo Ma in Avery Fisher Hall to international festivals in Finland, Germany and France.  A founding member of the Locrian Ensemble, she regularly presented new solo and chamber works on the Locrian series in New York until 2004.  As a champion of new music, she has collaborated with a number of leading composers internationally, as a member of both the Lions Gate Trio and as a member of the Locrian Ensemble.

In 2001-2002, Lansdale initiated a school outreach program called “Music for 1,000 Children”.  She challenged her studio to play for 1,000 children, promising to play for another 1,000 herself.  Her studio then joined with the Hartt student chapter of ASTA (American String Teachers' Association) to challenge other groups in North America to play for 1,000 school children. Responses were highly enthusiastic, and in the end, musical performances were brought to 13,000 children from Quebec to Texas.

The Daily Telegraph of London wrote of Christopher Zimmerman’s professional debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, “Contact with the orchestra seemed immediate, the result a reading in which the playing responded keenly to gestures which themselves were expressive both of the symphony’s fiery vigor and of its finer nuances.  Christopher Zimmerman revealed a sharp interpretative profile and control of orchestral timbre…a most auspicious London debut.”  Critics have continued to sing Zimmerman’s praises in the U.S.; as Bangor Symphony Music Director, Robert Newall wrote of him: “a crisp baton technique, sure cues and strong body language - all mercifully without mannerisms or artifice -  he drew shimmering pianissimi or volcanic utterances from the orchestra in all the works”;  as a guest in Cleveland with the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Donald Rosenberg of the Cleveland Plain Dealer described his performance as “some of the finest conducting at Severance (Hall) in recent years.”
           
Zimmerman graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Music, and received his Master’s from the University of Michigan.  Zimmerman’s professional debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was followed by engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He has also conducted the Prague Symphony, the Slovak Philharmonic, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Edmonton Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra among many other orchestras.  In opera he has worked as the assistant conductor for Carmen at the Nimes Festival and as assistant conductor for Salome at the Mexico City Opera where he was immediately reinvited to conduct a production of Gianni Schicchi. In 1989 he co-founded and became Music Director of the City of London Chamber Orchestra.

In 1993 Zimmerman became Music Director of the Cincinnati Concert Orchestra, making his U.S. operatic debut conducting Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah.  Since then he has accumulated a broad operatic repertoire, from Handel’s Julius Caesar through Verdi, Puccini and Strauss to Bright Sheng’s Song of Majnun, the first and last winning the National Opera Association’s First Prize. In 1999 Zimmerman was a featured conductor in the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Conductors’ Preview with the Utah Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Zimmerman was appointed to succeed Werner Torkanowsky as Music Director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and in 1999 was appointed Music Director of the Hartt Symphony and Primrose Fuller Professor of Orchestral Studies at The Hartt School.  In 2001 Mr. Zimmerman left his position in Bangor to take up the Music Directorship of the Symphony of Southeast Texas.
 
Most recently, Maestro Zimmerman was invited to conduct in Brazil and with two orchestras in the People's Republic of China. This year he also led a series of concerts at the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival in Virginia as well as returning for the third year to lead the Rose City Conductors' Workshop in Oregon.  Maestro Zimmerman is much sought after as a clinician and director of competitive all-state orchestras in the US.

Purchase tickets online

Senior Dance Concert, April 4-5

The University of Hartford, in collaboration with Charter Oak CulturalCenter, presents “Human Conditions”, the Hartt School Dance Division’s Senior Dance Concert. The evening will premiere works by Senior Dance Composition students Justin Andrews, Catherine Borrone, Amanda Moone, Samantha Silvers and Reona Yonezawa, as well as solo works choreographed and set by Adam Miller, Ralph Perkins, James Robey, Amy Marshall, Denise Leech-Moore and Tetsuji Adachi.  The performance will be held at the Charter Oak CulturalCenter, 21 Charter Oak Avenue, Hartford, on April 4 and 5 at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are $20 general admission, $10 seniors, $5 U of H faculty, staff, and students.  Discounts for COCC members and Let’s Go!  For tickets and reservations call 860.249.1207.

Senior Works include Life of Mine, an innovative and powerful new work by Amanda Moone, inspired by the environment of an underground mining world that uses elements of light and darkness, as well as confinement; a contemporary ballet piece on four female dancers to a string quartet tribute to Tool’s “Sober,” by Catherine Borrone; an exotic tale full of intrigue and athleticism, choreographed by Sam Silvers, danced to the music of Niyaz, the Bombay Dub Orchestra, and Phillip Glass; Live and Love, an emotional work choreographed by Justin Andrews, which explores what it means to truly live and love, using spoken word, and music by My Chemical Romance and Muse; and a piece choreographed by Reona Yonezawa that observes human behavior, specifically how we learn through sight, sense of touch, and hearing the world around us.

Solo works featured are: A premiere work by Adam Miller, Artistic Director of the Adam Miller Dance Project, set to the music of Portishead incorporating a video component, and performed by Amanda Moone; the Kitri variation, performed by Catherine Borrone, from the grand pas coached by Denise Leech-Moore, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa, music composed by L. Minkus; a fast paced, high energy work choreographed by New York choreographer Amy Marshall and performed by Sam Silvers, exhibiting the theme of multi-tasking, set to music by Taraf de Haidouks; Pulse, a suspenseful new solo work choreographed by James Robey and performed by Jenna Dannenberger; a variation from the classic Esmeralda, set by Tetsuji Adachi and performed by Reona Yonezawa, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa; and a sultry modern, jazz fusion choreographed by Ralph Perkins and performed by Justin Andrews, set to music by Led Zepplin.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

ACADEMIC ACCOLADES

With the recent Grammy win by Herbie Hancock for his CD, “River: The Joni Letters,” Hartt School faculty members Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, and Rich Goldstein shared their perspectives on the future of jazz in a recent podcast by the Hartford Courant. Hancock’s win was the first jazz album to win the “Record of the Year” Grammy since Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto won for “Getz/Gilberto” in 1965. You can listen to the podcast of the discussion by this Hartt School trio here. 

The Alturas Duo performed David Macbride’s ¡No Más Muertes! (No More Deaths!), with narration by the composer, on WFCR 88.5 FM in March.  David Macbride is a Professor of Composition and Music Theory at The Hartt School.  The radio performance and interview precedes another performance of the work on Wednesday, March 26, at 12 noon at the Student Center of Keene State College in New Hampshire.  The Alturas Duo is comprised of charango/violist Carlos Boltes (GPD, 2004) and guitarist Scott Hill (MM, 2002; GPD, 2004).  Hill and Boltes are also faculty members in Hartt’s Community Division. 
(UNotes Daily, March 20)

Katie Lansdale, Associate Professor of Violin, will perform Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Hartt Symphony on Friday, March 28. Her upcoming recordings include chamber works by Athena Adamopolous. She will also perform in NYC's Merkin Hall in April and May with the Festival Chamber Society.

STUDENT & ALUMNI NEWS

Michael Chenkus (BA, 2002) was profiled by the Waterbury Republican-American. The article highlights that Chenkus does not only have the energy to act and sing as one of the leads in the upcoming Warner Theatre production of Miss Saigon, but he is also the lead singer in the band “On the One” and works a day job in a Greater Waterbury ReMax office.
(Waterbury Republican-American, March 6)

Christine Dwyer (BFA, 2007) was interviewed by the London Free Press (Ontario, Canada) about the upcoming performance of the touring show Rent, a Broadway in London production. Dwyer, who plays Maureen (a bisexual performance artist), says that the rock musical has created a kinder climate for homosexuals and transvestites in the more than 10 years that it has been around. She continued, “There’s a huge following. It’s an important show for young people to attach themselves to… and feel good about themselves.” 
(London Free Press, March 20)

Read the Community Division's Newsletter

Hartt Community Division faculty member Lillie Feierabend was named Connecticut Elementary Music Teacher of the Year by the Connecticut Music Educators Association.

Discussion: Equity of Access to Arts Education, April 16

The Hartt School Community Division at the University of Hartford will host a discussion on April 16 entitled “Equity of Access to Arts Education”.  Panelists include Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Steven J. Adamowski; University of Hartford President Walter Harrison; Haig Shahverdian, supervisor of Fine and Performing Arts, West Hartford Public Schools; Linda J. Kelly, president of The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; and Mark George, director of The Hartt School Community Division.

This colloquium, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Wednesday, April 16, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in Mali Lecture Hall, Charles A. Dana Hall, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford. Stephen Carver, publisher of The Hartford Courant, will moderate the panel.

Those interested in attending the colloquium, which is sponsored by The Hartford Courant and the University of Hartford, should RSVP to The Hartt School Community Division at 860.768.4451 or harttcomm@hartford.edu. For more information about the colloquium, contact Mark George, director of The Hartt School Community Division, at 860.768.4117 or george@hartford.edu.