News From the Hartt Dean's Office
September 19, 2007

Lions Gate Trio, Sept. 30

The Hartt School will present a concert by the Lions Gate Trio, its trio-in-residence, with guest saxophonist Carrie Koffman on Sunday, September 30, at 7:00 p.m. in Berkman Auditorium.  Admission to the concert is free.

The evening’s program includes Haydn’s Trio in f minor, Higdon’s Lullaby and Brahms’s Trio No. 3 in c minor.  This concert inaugurates the Lions Gate Trio’s cycle presenting the complete chamber music of the great Viennese composer Franz Joseph Haydn.  A complimentary reception with Viennese desserts will follow the concert.

The Lions Gate Trio, now a highly successful international chamber ensemble, first collaborated thirteen years ago as Fellows at the Tanglewood Music Center, where they won the highest awards for their contributions. Trio members are pianist Florence Millet, violinist Katie Lansdale and cellist Scott Kluksdahl; Lansdale is an assistant professor of violin in Hartt’s string department.  The Trio tours Europe frequently, appearing in international festivals in France (La Pree) and Finland (Kuhmo) and in concert in Germany, Belgium, and France to critical acclaim.  The Berlin Morgenpost wrote, “These three stunning young musicians are wonderful soloists and as a trio, unbeatable.  Their joy of music-making is infectious and their technique brilliant.  They are a wonderful addition to the international community.”  The Erlangen Zeitung said of their recent Schumann tour:  “Sensitive and clear, delicate and pearly…This was Schumann so ethereal the ground beneath our feet seemed to disappear.”

Having won residencies at Yale, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of South Florida-Tampa, and Tanglewood, the Trio is currently in residence at The Hartt School.  In concert, they often combine duos, trios and collaborations with additional artists, performing in Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, the Phillips collection, the Palais de l’Europe, the Berlin Contemporary Music Festival, and the Costa Rica Festival Internacional de Musica.  Their performance at the Organization of American States was televised in nine states and sixteen Latin American countries.  The Lions are passionate advocates of new music, and have worked closely with a number of leading composers, among them Eliot Carter, Ralph Shapey, Andrew Imbrie, Alexander Goehr, Augusta Read Thomas, Robert Helps, Eric Moe, Tamar Diesendruck, and Nicolas Bacri.  In concert, they frequently feature duos and collaborations with guest artists in addition to trios. Duo concerti have included Lansdale and Kluksdahl in a premiere of the Lewis Doubles Singles Variables with the Cleveland Chamber symphony, and Millet and Kluksdahl in Shapey’s Double Concerto at the Kennedy Center’s Friedham Awards. 

After teaching at Penn State University, the University of New Mexico, and Boston University, Carrie Koffman joined the faculty of The Hartt School in the fall of 2003. Recent performances have included the Faenza International Saxophone Festival in Italy; a tour throughout New Zealand; the Xi'an International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in China; the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan; the Virginia Arts Festival; the International Viola Congress; the World Saxophone Congress; the North American Saxophone Alliance National Conventions; and the International Double Reed Convention in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Koffman has been a featured soloist with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Centre Chamber Orchestra, the Albuquerque Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hartt Wind Ensemble, the PSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and the UNM Wind Symphony. Among her ensemble performing credits are appearances with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut, Sequitur in New York City, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Symphony. She is a member of the contemporary chamber music duo The Irrelevants with violist Tim Deighton. Commissions and premieres include compositions by Lawrence Blind, Michael Colgrass, Stephen Michael Gryc, Michael Mauldin, Gunther Schuller, Christopher Schultis, James Sellars, and William Wood, in addition to several works commissioned by The Irrelevants.

Miami String Quartet, Oct. 4

The Hartt School presents a concert by quartet-in-residence Miami String Quartet on Thursday, October 4, at 7:30 p.m. in Millard Auditorium. Prior to the concert, there will be a dinner and interview with a member of the Miami String Quartet. The dinner will take place in the 1877 Club in the University of Hartford’s Harry Jack Grey Center at 6 p.m. 

The concert is the first in the five-concert series, to be held at the school’s Millard Auditorium.  Quartet members violinists Ivan Chan and Cathy Meng Robinson, violist Yu Jin, and cellist Keith Robinson will celebrate the opening of their fifth anniversary season as quartet-in-residence at The Hartt School with a concert featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet No. 15 in d minor, Alberto Ginastera’s String Quartet No. 1, Op. 20, and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in g minor, Op. 10. 

The quartet will be joined for this concert by violinist Erin Keefe, covering for quartet member Ivan Chan, who is sidelined for this concert by a hand injury.  This appearance is a homecoming for Keefe, who grew up in Northampton, Mass.  Prior to attending college, the young violinist studied privately with Teri Einfeldt and the Emerson String Quartet at Hartt’s Community Division, and performed in many of the division’s ensembles, including the Connecticut Youth Symphony, Suzuki Orchestras and Honors String Quartet.  Following high school she attended Curtis and Juilliard where she studied with Arnold Steinhardt, Ida Kavafian and Ron Copes.  Her previous teachers include Philip Setzer, Philipp Naegele, and Brian Lewis. 

Winner of the 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant, violinist Erin Keefe has won Grand Prizes in the Schadt and Corpus Christi Competitions and Silver Medals in the Nielsen, Sendai and Gyeongnam Competitions.  She has appeared at the Marlboro, OK Mozart, Music@Menlo, Seattle and Bridgehampton festivals and is a member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two program.  Ms. Keefe has collaborated with artists such as Leon Fleisher, The Emerson Quartet, Edgar Meyer, Richard Goode and David Soyer.

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Hartt Symphony Orchestra, Oct. 5

The Hartt School will present a concert by the Hartt Symphony Orchestra on Friday, October 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Millard Auditorium.  Admission is $20 for the general public with discounts available for senior citizens, students and groups. 

The opening concert of the 2007-2008 season, under the baton of Orchestra director Christopher Zimmerman, includes Haydn’sSymphony No. 83 (“The Hen”) and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 3.  Guest pianist Patricia Guadagnoli Domingos will join the Symphony for Chopin’s Piano Concerto in e minor .  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.

Brazilian pianist Patricia Guadagnoli Domingos began her music studies at the age of five, and received a full scholarship to the Souza Lima Conservatory when she was seven.  She won several piano competitions in Brazil, including First Prize in the Artlivre National Piano Competition (which she won 3 times), First Prize and Best Brazilian Music in the Honorina Barra Piano Competition, and Special Prize in the Magda Tagliaferro Piano Competition. Ms. Domingos performed with the Colegium Academicum Orquestra, the Young Symphonic Orchestra of Sao Paulo, and the Symphonic Orchestra of Porto Alegre.  She currently studies with Luiz de Moura Castro at The Hartt School. 

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, most recently for his performances as music director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony of Southeast Texas, and in guest engagements in Europe and the Americas, with recent appearances in Venezuela, Finland, Prague and Mexico, as well as closer to home in the United States. 

Zimmerman graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Music, and received his Masters from the University of Michigan. He also studied with Seiji Ozawa and Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood, and at the Pierre Monteux School in Maine. Zimmerman served as an apprentice to Andrew Davis and the Toronto Symphony and in Prague as assistant conductor to Vaclav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.  Zimmerman’s professional debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was followed by engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra.  He was appointed Music Director of the Hartt Symphony Orchestra in 1999, and holds the school’s Mary Primrose Fuller Chair of Orchestral Conducting.

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FOR YOUR INFORMATION

On Thursday, Sept. 20, WWUH 91.3 FM will air “It’s All Live“ from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., presenting 12 hours of live music.  Hartt students will be performing during the jazz and classical time slots.  WWUH can be heard online.

Community Division director Mark George penned “Schools Without Arts Not A Pretty Picture,” an op-ed article in a recent issue of The Hartford Courant.
The Hartford Courant, Sept. 17

Hartt faculty Bob Davis has stepped into the lead rol in Hartford Stage's production of Our Town, filling in for ailing star Hal Holbrook. Theatre Division students Jessi Ehrlich and Michael Angelo Morlani, and recent grad Justin Fuller (2007) also appear in the show.  Holbrook is expected to return to the role on Sept. 25.
The Hartford Courant, Sept. 18
Playbill, Sept. 18

Hartt Theater Division director Alan Rust will appear in the Goodspeed Musicals production of 1776. The musical, which is based upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence, runs Sept. 28 through Dec. 2.  The cast also includes Hartt alumnus Christopher Kauffman.  The production is directed by former theater faculty member Rob Ruggerio and choreographed by Ralph Perkins, Director of Dance for Hartt’s Music Theatre program.
Theater News, Aug.30
Playbill, Aug. 30

Dance teacher Lori Albert has been on the faculty of Hartt’s Community Division Dance department for one year and currently specializes in Children's Ballet. She will now be responsible for developing that program as well as directing the Junior Performance Ensemble.  Other new faculty members in the Dance department include Leslie Frye, who teaches Intensive and Adult Programs such as Modern, Jazz and Body Conditioning; Sarah Miller, who will instruct Adult Programs like the Alexander Technique; and Amy Nesbitt, who will lead Youth and Adult Hip Hop and Tap classes.

ACADEMIC ACCOLADES

Charles Turner’s latest article, “David Diamond in Perspective: A Growing Legacy of Recorded Masterworks” is forthcoming in the next issue of American Music, published by the University of Illinois Press. Diamond, who died in 2005 at the age of 90, was one of the last surviving American composers of the generation who began his career in Paris working with Nadia Boulanger in the 1920s and 1930s. He attained widespread recognition late in his career, receiving the National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton on national television in 1995. Turner, an associate professor of music history at Hartt, has long been an enthusiast of Diamond's music and has enjoyed a substantial correspondence with the composer.

Cellist Terry King, a faculty member in Hartt’s string program, was quoted in an article about the late cello great Mstislav Rostropovich in the August/September 2007 issue of Strings magazine.  “I never heard anyone with such mastery of the upper half of the bow,” said King, who was a self-described Rostropovich “groupie” as a teenager in California, following the master on his West Coast concert tours and visiting him backstage.

Assistant Professor of Music Education Nola Campbell was recently elected President of the Connecticut State Chapter of the American String Teacher's Association (ASTA).  She will take office as President in May of 2008 for a two-year term.  Additionally, Campbell will be given the honor of conducting the orchestra at the CMEA 2008 Eastern Region High School Festival on January 4 and 5, 2008 at the University of Connecticut, as well as Maestro of the Green Mountain Music District V String Orchestra Festival on February 1st and 2nd in Rutland, Vermont.

Associate Professor of Music History Ira Braus recently released a CD of Brahms’s complete late piano works through Centaur Records this past summer. Brahms: The Late Piano Music is the first recording of its kind; Braus performed the music on an instrument similar in make and model to the composer's own. He performed on a piano that was built in 1871 by Johann Baptist Streicher of Vienna which is, essentially, a super size version of the sort of piano that Mozart played.

As a tribute to Hispanic Heritage Month, the Jane Vorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey will present the Alturas Duo on Sunday, Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. The program is cosponsored by the Center for Latino Arts and Culture and is free and open to the public.  The duo will feature South American folk tunes and rhythms, and new music commissioned for the performance.  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 their web site.

STUDENT & ALUMNI NEWS

Ron Edwards, who lives in Orleans on Cape Cod and studies trombone performance at Hartt, was profiled in the Cape Cod Times for his work picking rose hips and turning them into jelly. He learned about rose hips and jelly at the Cape Cod home of his grandmother, where the roses’ seashore location made rose hip jelly a Cape tradition for tourists to buy at roadside stands.
Cape Cod Times, Aug. 20

Adam Riggs was recently awarded a $500 scholarship from the Edward Johnson Music Foundation of Canada.  He was one of four recipients of the prestigious award.  Riggs, who recently graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University, started his Masters of Music in cello performance at Hartt this fall. 
Guelph Tribune, August 31

Anne Halloran Tortora (MM Education ’06) participated in several conducting symposia this summer.  Tortora, a recipient of a Gender and Ethnic Equity Scholarship sponsored by the College Band Directors National Association, attended the Wind Conducting Symposium held at Florida International University in Miami, FL.  In addition, she was honored with her selection to attend the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles’ Wind Band Conductors Course.  This weeklong program was held as part of the Canford Summer School of Music on the campus of Sherborne School in Sherborne, England.  Tortora was one of a number of international students studying under the guidance of renowned conductor Timothy Reynish, and was selected to conduct in the final concert.  A student of Glen Adsit, Hartt’s Director of Bands, she is a second-year Doctoral student at Hartt. 

The Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City opened its 2007-08 season with the world premiere of The Everlasting Universe, a new work by John Mueter (BM ’68), who works as a coach, accompanist and instructor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. Mueter received a degree in composition from Washington State University.

Bill Fennelly (BMus ’95) directed his first Off-Broadway production, Frankenstein, this fall.  Fennelly’s production will open at 37 Arts Theater in New York City on October 10.  A national tour is expected to follow.  Fennelly taught acting, text analysis and staging at Hartt from 1995 to 1996.

Nathan Keagle (alumnus) was profiled in his local East Aurora, N.Y. newspaper. A regular cellist with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra and a substitute cellist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, he teaches at the Buffalo Suzuki Strings School in North Tonawanda and at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Penn.
East Aurora Advertiser, Sept. 5

Peter Conduct (alumnus ’91) conducted Puccini’s Il Tabarro aboard The Mary A. Whalen, a historic oil tanker currently placed at the Brooklyn Waterfront.  The site-specific performances were in collaboration with PortSide NewYork and American Stevedoring Inc.  The project was presented by the Vertical Player Repertory of New York City.
New York Times, September 1

On October 9 John Solomons (MM ’84, AD ’86) will perform with the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving as a featured soloist. He holds degrees from numerous schools of music including Hartt and the University of North Texas.  Solomons will perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue as part of the opening season concert with the orchestra of Irving, Tex.
Pegasus News, September 10

Read the Community Division's Newsletter

Join The Hartt School Community Division Advisory Board

The Advisory Board of The Hartt School Community Division is looking for new members for the upcoming year.   Please consider volunteering your time and talent by joining the Advisory Board - it's a great way to give back to our wonderful school!     
If you would like more information, or are interested in joining our Advisory Board, please contact Sarah Gedicks.

Tap – The Dance Form for All Ages!
The Dance Department is currently offering tap classes for anyone ages 3 through adult, beginner to advanced level, in both the Simsbury and Hartford locations.  Tap is a dance form for all ages with innumerous benefits.  It improves rhythm and timing, which is excellent for musicians.  Tap provides all of the benefits of a healthy workout: burning calories, building strong bones, and cardiovascular exercise. This lively dance form improves balance and memory, and is great fun!  Teachers include Darlene Zoller, Amy Nesbitt, and Ashley Fischera.   For more information on classes, contact Hartt Dance at 525-9396, ext. 10, or visit the school’s web site.  Your first class is free!