News From the Hartt Dean's Office
May 9, 2007
This is the final issue of the newsletter until Fall 2007

Celtic Night, May 10

The Hartt School GigLine will present Celtic Night, an early Mother's Day celebration, on Thursday, May 10, in Lincoln Theater. Donegal fiddler P.V. O’Donnell and friends will perform traditional Irish music and dance.

Starting at 6:30 p.m., a flute quartet of Hartt graduate students will welcome concert-goers by performing A Gaelic Offering in the Lincoln Theater lobby. The quartet consists of Abigail Walsh, Josefina Mutascu, Sarah Holmes, and Jennifer Fisher-Decinque.

Celtic Knots will open the concert at 7 p.m. The group features Hartt School alumnae Casie Runkle, Sarah Washburn, and Cynthia Knotts (violinists and fiddle players), along with guitarist Jeffrey Freidman and whistle player Dana Placzek.

O’Donnell recently returned from his native village of Buncrana, Ireland, where he was a headliner for the second annual Buncrana Traditional Festival, a three-day festival of music and dance drawing thousands of people from throughout England, Scotland, France, and Ireland.

O’Donnell spent 10 years in Canada, where his musical career flourished, before settling in Manchester, Conn. He hosts traditional Irish pub sessions every Wednesday evening at City Steam in downtown Hartford.

When O’Donnell performs, he also explains the music’s history and talks about how it is passed down through the generations. He garnishes his performances with what he refers to as, “little yarns, telling those little stories that make us laugh.”

Tickets for Thursday’s concert are $20.

purchase tickets online...

Alumna of the Year Award, May 20

The Hartt School is pleased to announce that Carol A. Hess (BMus Piano Performance 1978) will receive the Alumna of the Year award at the Hartt Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 20, in Lincoln Theater.  Hess is a professor of musicology at Michigan State University College of Music, specializing in music of Spain and the Americas. She has received grants from the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Committee for Cultural Cooperation Between American Universities and Spain's Ministry Of Culture, and the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Barcelona). Her book, Manuel de Falla and Modernism in Spain, 1898-1936 (University of Chicago, 2001), received four prizes, including the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award and the Robert M. Stevenson prize for outstanding scholarship in Iberian music. Her most recent book, Sacred Passions: The Life and Music of Manuel de Falla (Oxford University Press, 2004) is a biography of Manuel de Falla.

In 1998, she received the Irving Lowens Article Award for her work on John Philip Sousa's operetta, El Capitan and the Spanish-American War. She has received two Fulbright grants, one for Spain (1998) and the other for Argentina (2005). She has also published two articles on Brahms. At present, she is working on a book about Latin American composers in the United States in the first half of the 20th century.

Hess received her Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California, Davis.

STUDENT NEWS

Jason Anick, a Hartt School student studying performance and acoustical engineering, won the senior-division Improvisation category at the 2007 Alternative Styles and National Solo competitions.
Strings, May 2007

Katherine Dunphy, senior, is co-winner of the Edward Diemente Composition Award, along with Philip Salathe, who is completing his AD degree this year.

Jessica Rudman, also completing her MMus, is winner of the Burton Award in Composition. She will be pursuing her AD degree at Hartt this coming year.

Ben Fraley, completing his BMus in performance and music management, has accepted a scholarship and assistantship to attend the University of Cincinnati's College/Conservatory of Music to pursue a Master's degree.

Phil Andrews, completing his BMus in performance, has accepted a scholarship to attend the University of Cincinnati's College/Conservatory of Music in order to pursue a Master's degree.

Thomas Schuttenhelm was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to the United Kingdom.  He will be in residence at Cardiff University in South Wales, where he will be lecturing on contemporary American music, giving recitals of his music, and spending time at the British Library (London) researching on the English composer, Michael Tippett.

Ned Smith completing his BMus in music education, is a finalist for a high school job in southern CT, and also is considering spending time in the Peace Corps.

Gene Koshinski (approaching completion of the DMA) will be joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, as Chair of the Percussion Department.

Returning graduate student Bill Solomon is the recipient of Hartt's "John Cage Award" for 2007.

Returning undergraduate student Shane Jones is the recipient of Hartt's "Al Lepak Scholarship" for 2007.

Hartt School student Shane Beatrice arranged a collection of John Philip Sousa marches that were performed by the Bristol Brass and Wind Ensemble. The ensemble is trying to promote the arts in Bristol. 

Anastasia Seifetdinova, a graduate student and pianist with Hartt’s Performance 20/20 ensemble, received the Outstanding Alumni-Winners Award by Artists International Presentations for her January 2006 Carnegie Hall recital.  She has been invited to return to Weill Hall on April 27, 2008, to perform for their 35th Anniversary season.  Anastasia studies at Hartt with Prof. Oxana Yablonskaya.

Matt Chasen, a sophomore at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at The Hartt School, was pictured in The Hartford Courant.  Chasen was photographed rehearsing his tenor saxophone before performing with the eight piece Esteban Arrufat Latin Jazz Band as part of Latinos First Friday, a professional and business networking event.

Artist Diploma student Sergey Antonov passed the first round of the XIII Tchaikowsky Competition in Moscow (Cello), one of only two cellists from the U.S. selected. The next rounds take place in June.

ACADEMIC ACCOLADES

Demaris Hansen receives Alumni Achievement Award

In recognition of her significant contributions in the field of music education, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music has named Hartt Professor Demaris Hansen to receive its 2006-07 Alumni Achievement Award, presented at the Alumni Association’s dinner and program on April 19.  Every year, one alumnus from each of the university’s 12 academic units is selected to receive the Alumni Achievement Award for his or her notable professional success and outstanding community service. Hansen earned a doctor of musical arts from UMKC in 1991 to launch a renowned career as a fine arts advocate.  She is currently the Chair of Graduate Studies in Music Education at Hartt.

 “Dee has served in leadership positions in every arts organization in Kansas and is looked to as the expert across the state,” said John Buehler, director of the division of fine and performing arts at Baker University, where Hansen taught from 2002 to 2006.  After earning her doctorate at UMKC, Hansen served as the director of education for the Kansas City Chapter of Young Audiences, a nonprofit organization that provide arts education to children.  Hansen’s advocacy was never more apparent than during her years of service as a fine arts specialist for the Kansas State Department of Education. She, and many other educators, feared the extinction of fine arts programs in the face of increased pressure to meet national standards in reading and math.

“Even science and social studies don’t really get the attention they used to, and the arts are way down on the list,” she said. “One of the things that I felt was very important at that point in time was to say, ‘We’re going to have to make sure that the arts are required.’”  Confident fine arts would retain their place in the classroom, Hansen has since returned to teaching, training the music educators of tomorrow.

Linda Solow Blotner Retires

This summer Linda Solow Blotner retires from the Allen Memorial Library, Hartt’s music library, after twenty years of service as Head Librarian.  Among her notable accomplishments were introducing the library’s first automated system and its numerous upgrades, and overseeing the library’s move from The Hartt School to its current home in the Gray Center.  Blotner’s career before Hartt included positions at the Library of Congress (as music cataloger) and MIT where she headed the Music Library.   While running the busy Allen Library she actively participated in numerous professional organizations.  She served on the Board of Directors of the Music Library Association, where she contributed to many committees, programs and panels,  and chaired the Association’s New England chapter.  She also has been active in the International Association of Music Libraries. Blotner holds an A.M.L.S. from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in Music History from Brooklyn College. 

Blotner’s scholarly contributions to the field of music librarianship include a four-year term as editor of  Notes, the prestigious quarterly journal of the Music Library Association. She has published articles in professional journals, festschrifts, and even an MLA Technical Report.  In 1980, she began compiling and editing the award-winning, NEH-funded The Boston Composers Project: A Bibliography of Contemporary Music, published in 1983 by the MIT Press. Her most recent publication is “Music Libraries of Tomorrow: Virtual or Concrete?” which appeared in Music, Libraries, and the Academy: Essays in Honor of Lenore Coral (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2007).

Blotner also excels at one of the unsung components of scholarly publication.  She has indexed music monographs and reference books for Scarecrow Press, University of North Carolina Press, Schirmer Books, Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, Libraries Unlimited, W.W. Norton, A-R Editions, UMI Press, and MIT Press. She compiled the 175-page index to the current edition of the classic Music Reference and Research Materials by Vincent H. Duckles and Ida Reed (Schirmer Books, 1995).  In 1979, she won the first H. W. Wilson Co. Indexing Award for Beyond Orpheus by David Epstein (Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press). 

Although she will miss her colleagues and students at Hartt, Blotner plans to remain active in her retirement.  She currently chairs both the national MLA and New England (MLA) Chapter Publications Committees and is a member of the Local Arrangements Committee for the 2008 MLA meeting in Newport, R.I.  She also plans to continue indexing and editing music publications.  As leisure time pursuits, she welcomes the opportunity to travel, and indulge in recreational reading.

John Wion Retires

This summer John Wion also retires as Hartt Professor of Flute and Chamber Music from the University of Hartford since beginning his position in 1977.

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, Prof. 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.

He was recently awarded by the The National Flute Association (USA) with a Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is bestowed on inspiring individuals who have been the most honored performers, teachers and instrument makers, and have led flute players to greater creativity and musicality.

Other Faculty News

An interview with the Lions Gate Trio, Hartt's trio in residence, was featured in the newsletter for the American Composers Forum, Sound Board. The newsletter also featured an interview with The West End String Quartet, a quartet of Hartt alumni, whose commitment to new music was inspired by their work at Hartt with the Lions Gate Trio.  Katie Lansdale, violin faculty at Hartt, will perform extensively this summer throughout the States, including at The Music from Salem, Garth Newel, Villanova, and Mount Gretna festivals, both as guest artists and as member of the Lions Gate Trio.

Bassist Nat Reeves, professor in the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz, will be on the road with the Pharoah Sanders Quartet this spring.  On April 28, the group will appear at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.  They’ll join with the Kenny Garrett Band for a gig at the Iridium Jazz Club in NYC from May 2 through 6.  The Quartet then heads “down under” to the Crown Melbourne Jazz Festival on May 12.

Tony Leone, an alumnus of The Hartt School and a faculty member in the school’s Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz, was highlighted in Modern Drummer for his work with the hot new musical group Ollabelle. Levon Helm, legendary drummer with The Band and father of Ollabelle’s lead singer, Amy Helm, said of Leone, “He always plays the perfect drum part, and he’s one of the strongest singers in the group."
Modern Drummer magazine, April 20

The Alturas Duo will join the Binelli-Ferman Duo performing on Tuesday May 29th, 7:30 p.m. at The Simsbury Chamber Music Festival.  The Alturas Duo is comprised of charango/violist Carlos Boltes (GPD viola performance 2004) and guitarist Scott Hill (MMus guitar performance 2002, GPD guitar performance 2004).  Hill and Boltes are also faculty members in Hartt’s Community Division.  For more information, visit the Festival's web site or the Duo's web site.

During the University’s Commencement, an honorary Doctor of Music will be awarded posthumously to the late Jackie McLean, world-renowned alto saxophone player and founder of the McLean Institute of Jazz at The Hartt School.  McLean, who died in April 2006 after a long illness, is the first person to ever receive a posthumous honorary degree from the University of Hartford.  Honorary degrees also will be presented to Dollie McLean, founding executive director of Hartford’s Artists Collective and wife of Jackie McLean and to Kent McCray ’51, a television industry pioneer who produced such shows as “Bonanza” and “Little House on the Prairie.”

Marla Perlstein, Hartt’s Costume Shop Manager and an adjunct faculty member in the Theatre Division, lent a hand to reporter Erika Tarantal for a story on NBC 30’s news story, “Is Connecticut Kind?”  Marla helped transfer the young reporter into an elderly woman.  Tarantal then visited downtown Hartford, Newington, Meriden and New Haven, struggling with grocery bags and dropping her purse, to see if the Nutmeg State residents would stop to offer assistance.   You can watch the story on their web site.

ALUMNI NEWS

Michael Pakaluk (BMus ’03) performed in a concert of Larry Delinger incidental music on May 29 at Valley of the Flowers United Church in Lompac, Calif.. 
The Lompoc Record, April 27

Saxophonist Sue Terry (BMus ’82) and her trio will be performing every Tuesday night this summer beginning May 1 at the Sunburnt Cow in the East Village of Manhattan.  Tickets are $30 which includes a three course dinner and a drink.  Call for reservations: 212-529-0005.  For photo gallery, streaming audio, blog, and more, go to her web site.

Ruth Heley (BMus ’92) presented a vocal recital entitled “Music from Mars and Venus” on May 3 at Dickinson State University.  The performance featured music of female composers from the romantic and contemporary periods contrasted with works by their male contemporaries.
Dickinson State Digest

Patrick Vaccariello (BMus ‘80) was the music director for Westport Country Playhouse production of All About Us, a musical version of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth.  The world premiere, which starred Eartha Kitt, ran during April 2007.  Vaccariello was music director for the current Broadway revival of A Chorus Line, and  also served as musical director for The Boy From Oz starring Hugh Jackman, as well as music supervisor/director for Gypsy with Bernadette Peters, Dance of the Vampires with Michael Crawford, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret with Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson, as well as productions word-wide of Victor/Victoria, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Cats.

Dee Etta Rowe (BMus Opera '75) will be returning to the Long Wharf Theatre for the 2nd summer appearing in Menopause the Musical in the role of the Earth Mother.  If you missed seeing it last summer please come and have a great time (men like it too!!). Dee Etta would love to see her fellow alumni and other Hartt students there. You can contact Dee Etta via e-mail.

Read the Community Division's Newsletter

Summer Programs for Educators, Musicians, Vocalists and Dancers
Are you looking for summer dance and music activities for yourself or your children? The Hartt School Community Division offers a wide array of summer programs for children and adults of all ages. For private music lessons, contact our office for placement with one of our expert teachers.  For other programs, consider one of the many institutes or workshops offered this summer.  Additional information available at our web site.

Instrumental Music Programs

• Middle School Band Institute, August 6 to 10, 2007
• Summer Horn Institute, High School: August 13 to 17, Middle School: August 20 to 24
• Summer Clarinet Institute, Middle School: July 16 to 20, High School: July 23 to 27
• Summer Trumpet Institute, High School: August 13 to 17, Middle School: August 20 to 24
• Suzuki Institute and Teacher Workshop, July 28 to August 4
• International Guitar Festival, June 25 to 29

Music Theatre and Voice Program

• Summer Vocal Institute, June 23 to July 1 

Dance Programs

• Full Force Dance Theatre Intensive Dance Summer Program, July 9 to 20
• Doug Graham Jazz Master Classes, August 2
• Jim Clark Theater Dance Master Classes, June 28 & August 15
• Summer Ballet Intensive for the Young Dancer, July 9 to August 3
• Expanded Movement Studies, July 9 to August 3
• Dancing on Broadway Workshop, Hartford Studios: June 25 to 29, Simsbury Studios: August 6 to 10
• Children's Ballet Workshops, Hartford Studios: July 23 to 27, Simsbury Studios: July 9 to 13, July 16 to 20 & July 30 to August 3
• Music and Movement for Ages 3-5, Hartford Studios: July 16 to 20, Simsbury Studios: July 23 to 27 & August 13 to 17
• Adult & Youth Dance and Fitness Classes, June 25 to August 22
• First Steps in Music 5-day Summer Introductory Series, Simsbury Studios: July 9 to 13, Hartford Studios: August 6 to 10
• Music and Movement for Ages 3-5, Hartford Studios: July 16 to 20, Simsbury Studios: July 23 to 27 & August 13 to 17
• Children's Ballet Workshop, Hartford Studios: July 23 to 27, Simsbury Studios: July 9 to 13, July 16 to 20 & July 30 to August 3