News From the Hartt Dean's Office
October 3 , 2007

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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The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Oct. 11-14
The Hartt School Theatre Division at the University of Hartford will present Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle from October 11 to 14 in Lincoln Theater on the University of Hartford’s West Hartford campus.  Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday. 

The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play-within-a-play that explores a dilemma worthy of Solomon.  A servant girl sacrifices her own safety to protect a child abandoned in the heat of civil war. Once order is restored, she must confront the boy's biological mother in a legal contest over who deserves to keep him. The judge calls on an ancient tradition - the chalk circle - to resolve the dispute.

The production, directed by faculty member David Watson, is the first mainstage collaboration between juniors and seniors from Hartt’s Actor Training degree program.  “It’s a great experience for the students from these two classes, who are assigned to different acting studios,” explains director Watson, “The third year students will learn from the seasoned fourth year actors, who in return will be revitalized by the addition of some fresh faces whom they have not performed with before.”  Indeed, the production is a truly collaborative effort, pulling talent from several of Hartt’s performance divisions.  The role of “The Singer”, who serves as a Greek-chorus style narrator for the play-within-a-play, is being performed by a fourth year student from Hartt’s Music Theatre degree program.  And the play is interspersed with original music, written by a Hartt composition major and performed by student musicians from the Instrumental Studies Division.

Playwright Bertolt Brecht was a legendary figure of twentieth-century theater, writing resonant plays that tackled the political issues of his day and challenging the audience to engage its intellect as much as its empathy. He did not want his audiences to "hang their brains up with their hats."  Rather, the audience is expected to consider the social or political consequences of the story, to even be moved to take political action or work for social change.  At the same time, Brecht understood the value of entertainment, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle contains humor, song, romance, spectacle and melodrama—all tools to make theatre engaging and exciting in order to teach a moral lesson.  Brecht wrote the play while in exile in America during the Second World War. Using an old Chinese folktale and the story of King Solomon as a starting point, Brecht created a new “universal theatre” which confronts world events through parable, song and dance, and direct audience engagement.

Director David Watson earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre from the University of Delaware. He continued his studies at Wesleyan University, then at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he earned a MFA in directing. He is an Assistant Professor of Acting, Mask, and Voice at The Hartt School Theatre Division. Actor, director, teacher, and mask maker; he has been active in the professional theatre for over twenty-five years. Watson’s most recent directing credits include The Spitfire Grill at the Majestic Theater in West Springfield, Romeo and Juliet for the Connecticut Shakespeare Festival, and The Tempest, The Crucible, A New Brain, and Suburbia at The Hartt School. His New York acting credits include A Night of Pity, Pvt. Wars, and The Doctors (NBC).  He has appeared at Hartford Stage in A Christmas Carol, Richard III, The Greeks, Kean, and Antony and Cleopatra. He has also designed and constructed masks for nine productions and for various acting training programs throughout the country. Last July he was invited to conduct a Commedia dell’ Arte mask acting workshop in Nocciano, Italy; he scheduled to conduct mask acting and mask making workshops in Sligo, Ireland later this year.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Rene McLean, son of Jackie and Dollie McLean, and members of J. Mac’s Dynasty performed this past September at Cecil’s, a jazz club in West Orange, N.J., to pay homage to the late Jackie McLean, a jazz legend and founder of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at The Hartt School. Members of J.Mac’s Dynasty include Hartt faculty trombonist Steve Davis and bassist Nat Reeves, and Hartt alumni drummer Eric McPherson (BM ’95).
Newark Star-Ledger, Sept. 21

Campus Massage Therapy will help students deal with stress by offering complimentary 10 minute chair massages!  Campus Massage Therapy will provide the free chair massages in the Sukman Foyer, located outside Millard Auditorium, every other Wednesday from 12 to 2 p.m.  This service is free for students ($5 for a reserved time), and $1 per minute for faculty and staff.  The massages will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Chair massage clients will receive a $10 coupon towards an hour long session in the CMT office.  If you would like to sign up for a specific 10-minute time, call Evan Williams, LMT, before 11:30 a.m. on those Wednesdays at 860.205.5012.

The Hartt School’s quartet-in-residence, the Miami String Quartet was pictured in the “Cal” section of the Hartford Courant, which focused on classical music in the latest installment of its Fall Arts Guide.  That article included a photograph of the Miami String Quartet and write-up on the quartet’s scheduled Oct. 4 performance. It also noted the schedule for the quartet’s other performances at the University in the 2007–20008 season.
Hartford Courant, Sept. 20

The President’s College is offering a course titled “Behind the Scenes: Secrets of the Performing Arts” in which local performing arts leaders will offer an insider’s perspective. Hartt Theatre Division director Alan Rust and Hartt Symphony Orchestra director Christopher Zimmerman are two of the scheduled speakers. The course will take place on five consecutive Thursdays, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., beginning Sept. 27.
UNotes Daily, Sept. 21

Quick Hartt Fact:  Our current student population includes 21 undergraduate and 32 graduate students from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.

ACADEMIC ACCOLADES

Robert Hannon Davis, Professor of Acting, Voice and Speech in The Hartt School’s Theatre Division, was called on to assume the role of Stage Manager for Hartford Stage’s production of Our Town as actor Hal Holbrook recovers from a virus. Davis has performed at Hartford Stage in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Christmas Carol, 365 Days 365 Plays and in a number of Brand:NEW readings. He had been part of the Our Town ensemble in the role of Constable Warren and was performing the Stage Manager role at student matinees.  The show runs until Oct. 7.
Hartford Courant, Sept. 25
Playbill, Sept. 18, Sept. 24

The Hartt School’s Adaskin String Trio will perform on October 28 at 3 p.m. at West Point United Methodist Church.  The trio is comprised of Hartt String Department faculty members Steve Larson and Emlyn Ngai and alumnus Mark Fraser (GPD 1998).  Considered to be the premiere ensemble of its kind in North America, the Adaskin String Trio brings focus and intensity to the heart of the music. The concert will also feature Sally Pinkas, who is a pianist-in-residence at Dartmouth College and has performed all over the world as a chamber musician and concert soloist. 
SouthCoastToday.com, Sept. 16

STUDENT & ALUMNI NEWS

Robert Hoyle (MM ’86) was scheduled to perform in the 2007 Music at the Russell House Series at Wesleyan University. Hoyle is principal horn with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.  He has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe and performed at the Festival Casals in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as appearing as a soloist with the Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet.
Waterbury Republican-American, Sept. 20

Victor Khodadad (GPD ‘05) is performing in a workshop production of Carla Lucero's new Spanish Opera Sor Juana in San Francisco, CA Oct. 12 and 13.  Following the workshop, Khodadad has an engagement to sing the role of the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto for Commonwealth Opera in Northampton, Mass., on Nov. 28, 30 and Dec. 2.
 
Meegan Samantha Coleman (BM '97) has had two additional choral arrangements selected to be published by Carl Fischer LLC. Eliyahu Hanavi and TAPS will be available through the JWPepper online catalog as well as the Carl Fischer catalog this spring.

Alumni Bob Stewart and Andre Gribou were featured as “Professors Who Rock” at Ohio University in an article in the school’s newspaper about professors who are also active musicians. Stewart, the associate director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, has been juggling his new responsibilities while still trying to focus on his band. Stewart began performing his original material at open mic nights and what started as a one-man band has grown since the addition of guitarist Elliot Abrams, an Ohio University anthropology professor.  Gribou has performed throughout the U.S. and Latin America, and he holds degrees from The Hartt School and The Juilliard School. He joined the OU School of Music faculty in the fall of 2004.
The Post, Sept. 28

Baritone Ryan Green, a senior in Hartt’s undergraduate Vocal Performance program, will be participating in the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” 5-mile walk in Bushnell Park on Oct. 14.  Green will be participating with members of his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, and the University’s Women’s Center.  Ryan appeared as Count Danilo in The Merry Widow last February.  If you’d like to sponsor Ryan on the walk, you can contact him at rgreen@hartford.edu.

Read the Community Division's Newsletter

Macy’s “Shop For A Cause” Supports Fund For Access

On Saturday, Oct. 13, Macy’s in Westfarms Mall will hold “Shop For A Cause”, a special fundraising event benefiting local non-profit organizations.  Purchase a $5 ticket at any of the Community Division reception desks, and then present the ticket when you make a purchase on Oct. 13 to receive a 10%-20% discount (some exclusions apply).  The ticket also gets you a $10 coupon towards future purchases when you spend $50.  You'll also enjoy spectacular events and entertainment, including performances by Hartt Community Division students, throughout the store and a chance to win a $500 Macy's Shopping Spree!

All proceeds from our sales of “Shop For A Cause” tickets will benefit the Fund For Access, the Hartt Community Division’s endowment fund which provides tuition assistance to students with demonstrated financial need.  For more information, contact the Community Division at 860.768.4451 or by email.

New Offerings For Home Schooled Children

The Hartt School Community Division will be offering daytime classical ballet classes for the home schooled in Simsbury on Mondays and Thursdays beginning Oct. 15.

Children’s Ballet I:  Kindergarten through 2nd grade
Mondays, 11:15-12:15 p.m.

Ballet I:  3rd through 8th grades
Thursdays, 1:15-2:15 p.m.

The classes will be taught by Maria DiConti. Tuition for the ten week courses is $135 plus a registration fee; advanced registration is required.  For more information, please contact The Hartt Community Division’s Simsbury location at 768.651.3570 or simsmore@hartford.edu. 

New Adult Course Offerings

The Community Division is offering three exciting new 8-week courses for adult musicians at Hartt’s West Hartford campus.  A registration form is available online.
Alexander Technique for Musicians, Tuesdays 7 to 8 p.m.
Do you experience pain or discomfort when you play or sing?  Are you perplexed by repeated injuries, and seek effective practicing techniques and methods for managing performance pressures? Taught at performing art schools world-wide, the Alexander Technique is an effective method for managing the many demands musicians face both on and off stage. In this experiential course you will begin to improve your body awareness and reduce the unnecessary muscle tension that effects how you play. Through group activity and one-on-one instruction you will gain insight into the pain and injuries you may be facing, learn healthy practicing techniques, and skills for improving your musicality and sound. This class is intended for all instruments and vocalists at all levels. Please bring your instrument if applicable.
Adult Voice Class, Saturdays 12:30-1:30 p.m.
If you are looking for voice lessons and have little or no formal experience singing, come try one of our group classes. This series offers adults the opportunity to learn basic singing and musicianship skills in a relaxed environment alongside other adults with similar interests.  Gain basic vocal skills and musical understanding and enjoy some social time with other adults!  All backgrounds and ages welcome.  Classes are taught by Nancy Andersen, an experienced voice instructor at The Hartt School and its Community Division. 
Adult Piano Class, Wednesdays 7 to 8 p.m.
If you are looking for piano lessons and have little or no experience playing the piano, come try one of our group classes designed specifically for adults.  This series offers adults, who are not looking for private piano lessons, the chance to learn basic piano skills in a relaxed environment alongside other adults with similar interests.  Gain basic piano skills and musical understanding and enjoy some social time with other adults!  All backgrounds and ages welcome.  Classes are taught by Greg Babal, an experienced piano instructor at The Hartt School and its Community Division.