Fanfare

Area Kids compose with Composition Students in the Jacobs School of Music
A novel way of engaging young talent in the Bloomington area will lead to a special set of performances for Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) children next month in the Musical Arts Center. Kids Compose 2006 is a project that invited local school children to compose melodies that were adjudicated by the Jacobs School composition department faculty. Eight melodies were selected and musically arranged by students in the composition department. The new compositions will be featured in the Musical Arts Center to a select group of MCCSC students on February 6 and 14. Our congratulations to the following young composers whose melodies were selected: Sarah Williams (grade 4), Agnes Zhu (grade 5), Julia Telthorst (grade 3), Andrew Nguyen (grade 4), Payton Werner (homeschool), Walter Friesel (Grade 3), Anna Raphael (grade 2), and John Weiss (grade 2). Guest conductor Steven Smith will lead two of the compositions in the orchestra concert on February 6, and faculty conductor Scott Weiss will conduct two of the compositions in the band concert on February 14. For more information, please contact Ruth Boshkoff at rbos2222@kiva.net or Debbi Ponella at dponella@insight.bb .

Campus Super Star, now in its third consecutive year, will be holding tryouts on February 11 in Indianapolisand on February 18 on the IUB campus. The vocal competition is open to any college student in the state of Indiana and includes a first-place awards package of $5,000 cash, recording time, and other great gifts. For more information, please visit www.indianacss.com.

The latest issue of Journal of Singing is a Festschrift honoring the distinguished teacher of singing Richard Miller. The lead feature article was written by Paul Kiesgen, professor of voice and vocal pedagogy at IU. Miller will visit Bloomington in June to serve as a guest master class teacher in IU's Vocal Performance and Teaching Workshop, which was organized by Kiesgen and is dedicated to Teaching Men to Sing. The workshop will take place June 11-16, 2007, on the IU campus.

Stanley Ritchie was recently named a Principal Fellow of the faculty of music at the University of Melbourne.

Carol Vaness will be performing the soprano part of Agnes in Tchaikovsky’s Maid of Orleans at Carnegie Hall the end of February, with Bob Bass and his famous Chorale. The cast is led by mezzo Delora Zajic in the title role.

David Baker’s composition "Dancing Shadows" was premiered by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on January 19. A preview and review of this important event was written by Indianapolis Star reporter Whitney Smith, see the Articles, Previews, and Reviews page.

Congratulations to mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, student of Mary Ann Hart, who won the Regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions in Indianapolis last weekend.

Nicole Birkland was invited to participate next summer with the Chautaqua Opera. Also, she won the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions in Iowa and, in April, will be the mezzo soloist for Beethoven's Ninth and Wagner's Wesendonk with the Columbus (IN) Symphony. Birkland is a student of Carlos Montane.

Karel Butz presented a clinic titled “Establishing Quality Sound in the Beginning Orchestra” at the Indiana Music Educators Association convention in January. He is a doctoral student in music education and studies violin with Mimi Zweig.

Carolina Castells, a student of Costanza Cuccaro, won the District Metropolitan Opera Auditions in Florida on January 20. She will go on to the Regional Auditions in Atlanta in February.

Lyric soprano Rebecca Fay, from Seattle, garnered her second Met Auditions award with an encouragement award last semester in Bloomington, adding to her district first-place finish in Seattle last year. She studies with Carol Vaness.

Jennifer Feinstein participated in the St. Louis Opera Outreach Program this past November, singing the role of Carmen in scenes from the opera. She is a student of Costanza Cuccaro.

High coloratura Elizabeth Koontz just won the District Metropolitan Opera Auditions in Southern Ohio and has been asked to join the Central City Opera summer festival, performing the role Esprit 1 in Cendrillon, as well as covering roles. She is a student of Carol Vaness.

Kevin Murphy will be singing with the Santa Fe Opera this summer as the Third Shepherd in Strauss' Daphne. He will also sing Colline in La Boheme and Citheron in Rameau's Platee. Murphy is a student of Costanza Cuccaro.

Brad Raymond, a student of Costanza Cuccaro, participated in the Virginia Opera Outreach Program this past November and December, singing the Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood.

Composition student Arri Simon's The American Dream will be performed by Sylvia McNair on February 20 as part of the Music at Peachtree Winter/Spring 2007 concert series in Atlanta, GA. The song, for voice and piano, is a setting of a section of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream” speech.

Soprano Valerie Vinzant, from Texas, won the District Metropolitan Opera Auditions in St. Louis with “V'adoro Pupille" and will go on to compete in the next level. She is a student of Carol Vaness.

Lawrence Brownlee, MM’01, is singing Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola with The Houston Grand Opera this January and February. He studies with Costanza Cuccaro.

Teresa Herold is in her second year with the Seattle Young Artist Program. She will be singing Dame Quickly in Falstaff and covering Isabella in Italian Girl in Algiers and Cornelia in Handel's Giulio Cesare. While at IU, Herold studied with Costanza Cuccaro.

Sheila Murphy, MM’02, DM’06, a student of Costanza Cuccaro, is a resident-artist with the Pensacola Opera. She will be singing Barbarina in Marriage of Figaro and covering the role of Susanna. Murphy will also sing Annina in La Traviata, while covering Violetta.

French pianist Julien Quentin, AD'02, recently premiered NY Tectonics: 4 City Bridges, a solo piece written by composer JustinMessina, BM’02, at a fundraising recital in New York for the Shandelee Festival. They also collaborate to pursue their interest in other genres of music through projects ranging from improvisation to producing electronic music, written and performed by their Royale Inc. collective. Upcoming performances include appearances at Bargemusic in Brooklyn, NY, in February, in various chamber music programs. In February, Quentin will be joined by two regular partners and fellow IU Alumni. First, a week-long residency and concerts with clarinettist Julian Bliss, AD’02, including a live radio broadcast and master classes in Louisville, KY, followed by a concert in Auer Hall on February 18, featuring violinist and recent Grammy Award-nominee Corey Cerovsek, and New-York based cellist Eric Jacobsen in a program of Strauss, Fauré and Tchaikovsky. Quentin also recently performed the Ravel G major Concerto in Poland with the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Tommaso Placidi. Next summer, he will be returning to the Verbier Festival in Switzerland after a successful debut last July with five different concert programs in less than two weeks and three special appearances with Royale Inc. for the Verbier Fest’off.

Jim Reifinger Jr. had his paper “Skill Development in Rhythm Perception and Performance: A Review of Literature” published in Update: Applications of Research in Music Education. The article is appearing in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue of Update.

Jonathan Stinson, MM’04, recently sang Gregorio in Romeo et Juliette for Cleveland Opera, and Marcello in La Boheme for the New York Opera Singers Association (NYOSA) in New York City. In March, he will debut with Opera Memphis as Morales in Carmen, and then sing Salvatore in The Saint of Bleeker Street with Central City Opera this summer. He has recently been commissioned by Opera Memphis to write a one-act children's opera, which will debut in April 2007. Stinson was a student of James McDonald.

Brian Stucki, MM’06, a student of Costanza Cuccaro, is singing the tenor lead in Tobias Picker's Therese Raquin this February with The Da Capo Opera in New York City.

Caroline Worra is singing Lisette in La Rondine with The Dallas Opera this January. Worra is a student of Costanza Cuccaro.

IU alumnus and Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Michael Brecker died January 12, 2007, in New York, at the age of 57. Brecker had battled myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood and bone-marrow disease formerly known as pre-leukemia. He was one of the most highly regarded jazz players of his time. In 1973, he formed the Brecker Brothers with his brother Randy, and released their trademark “Some Skunk Funk” in 1975. For more information, visit www.michaelbrecker.com.

Enrica Cavallo-Gulli died January 25, 2007, in Bloomington, IN. Gulli was born in 1921 in Milano, Italy. As a child prodigy, she gave recitals everywhere in the years preceding World War II. After the war, she met violinist Franco Gulli, whom she married in 1950. With Franco, she formed the world renowned Gulli-Cavallo Duo, which was active until Mr. Gulli’s passing in November 2001. She was Professor of Music at the Jacobs School from 1974 to 1991. A memorial mass for Enrica Cavallo-Gulli will be held on Tuesday, January 30 at 10:00 a.m., St. Charles Borromeo Church, 2222 East Third St., Bloomington.