Recent Orchestral, Academic, and Professional Appointments
James Blanchard (MM ’16) – Second Flute, Des Moines Symphony Orchestra
Kathryn Bradley (MM ’18) – Double Bass Fellowship, New World Symphony
Kayla Burggraf (BM ’14) – Flute Fellowship, New World Symphony
Corbin Castro (MM ’18) – Horn Fellowship, New World Symphony
Harry Chang (MM ’18) – Violin Fellowship, New World Symphony
James Cromer (current graduate student) – Percussion, U.S. Navy Band
Michael Fuller (MM ’15) – Double Bass Fellowship, Los Angeles Philharmonic Resident Fellows Program
Nicole Haywood (MM ’18) – Second Bassoon, Kansas City Symphony
Samuel Huss (MM ’18) – Principal Trumpet, Richmond Symphony Orchestra
Alex Kovling (MM ’15) – Third Horn, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra
Milan Milisavljević (DMA ’11) – Principal Viola, The Metropolitan Opera
Markus Osterlund (BA ’16) – Second Horn, National Symphony Orchestra
Jessica Anastasio Petrasek (MM ’13) – Acting Solo Piccolo, Kansas City Symphony
Matthew Ross (MM ’18) – Trumpet Teaching Artist, Sistema New Brunswick at the Saint John Centre
Rainer Saville (current graduate student) – Associate Principal Trumpet, Auckland Symphony Orchestra
Gabrielle Skinner (MM ’18) – Viola Fellowship, The New Haven Symphony Orchestra
Jake Thonis (MM ’18) – Bassoon, Civic Orchestra of Chicago
Chloe Tula (BM ’17) – Principal Harp Fellowship, New World Symphony
Viktor Valkov (DMA ’17) – Assistant Professor of Piano (tenure appointment), The University of Utah
Competitions, Awards, Performances and Premieres
Alumna Alison Adkins (MM ’10), won the Young Audiences of Northeast Texas’ Rising Star Award at the 2018 Arts in Education Awards Ceremony.
Tenor Frederick Ballentine (MM ’14), recently sang Cacambo in Candide with the Washington National Opera, will perform in Cincinnati Opera’s Der Fliegende Hollӓnder as the Steersman.
Current doctoral composition student Theophilus Chandler was among the eighteen winning composers in the 2018 American Academy of Arts and Letters awards in music. He received the Charles Ives Scholarship of $7,500.
Current composition students Theophilus Chandler and Patrick Lenz and incoming graduate student Max Vinetz are among the seventeen award winning composers of the 2018 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Competition.
Shepherd School students Yvonne Chen, piano; Susan Kang, flute; alumni Michael Marks (MM ’18), double bass; and Artem Kuznetsov (MM ’18), piano performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. as part of The Conservatory Project, a Kennedy Center program showcasing the best young musical talent from the nation’s leading conservatories, colleges and universities.
Mercury Houston performed Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion with Shepherd School alumni Mark Diamond (MM ’15) as Jesus, and Michael Sumuel (MM ’09) as the bass soloist.
Percussionist Justin Douté (MM ’18) was the 2018 Grand Prize winner and received the Gold Medal in the Winds, Brass, Percussion, Harp and Guitar division at the 34th Annual Young Texas Artists Music Competition. Current Shepherd School violinist Yena Lee took the Gold Medal and violinist Jacqueline Audas (BM ’18) took Silver Medal in the Strings Division.
Alumnus Ben Edquist (MM ’15) sang the role of Manfred in Jake Heggie’s Out of Darkness with the Atlanta Opera.
Alumni Dorothy Gal (MM ’18), Geoffrey Hahn (MM ’18), and Lindsay Kate Brown (AD ’18), will be joining Thomas Glass (MM ’16) on the 2018-19 Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist roster. Dorothy placed second and Lindsay placed third in Houston Grand Opera’s 30th Annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers which concluded with the Concert of Arias held in Stude Concert Hall.
Baritone Thomas Glass (MM ’16) and tenor Ian Koziara (MM ’16) are among the 2018 Summer Filene Artists with the Wolf Trap Opera. Tenors Duke Kim (MM ’18) and baritone Nicholas Newton (current graduate student) are 2018 Studio Artists with the Wolf Trap Opera this summer.
Alumni Michael Hawk (MM ’18) and Sarah Vautour (MM ’18) are among the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program Roster. This two-to-three year residency is designed to support and develop young talented singers who are currently in transition from academic training to a professional career in opera.
Soprano Megan Kasanders (MM ’16) will perform the role of Magda Sorel in The Consul during Opera Saratoga’s 2018 Summer Festival.
Current doctoral composition student Jihyun Kim received a 2018 EarShot New Music Reading presented by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.
Current graduate student Minha Kim won the 2018 Seattle Young Artist Competition in flute.
Pianist Artem Kuznetsov (MM ’18) recently won the Gold Medal at the Seattle International Piano Competition. He also received first prize at the Philadelphia Russian Musical Alliance International Competition.
Soprano Joanna Latini (MM ’17), tenor Joseph Leppek (MM ’17), tenor Dylan Morrongiello (MM ’18), tenor Christian Sanders (MM ’15), baritone Ben Schaefer (MM ’18), and baritone Michael Hewitt (MM ’17) will participate in The Glimmerglass Festival’s 2018 Young Artists Summer Program.
Joseph Leppek (MM ’17) won second place at the 47th annual William C. Byrd International Young Artist Competition for Voice.
Horn player Brian Mangrum (BM ’18) won first prize in the Brass division of the Montreal Symphony Manulife International Competition.
Dylan Morrongiello (MM ’18) will be joining the Virginia Opera as a Herndon Foundation Emerging Artist for their 2018-19 season. Dylan will be singing Danny Buchanan in Street Scene.
Pianist Tomasz Robak (BM ’13, BA ’13) received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Award from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to study at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland as part of his project to study the music of neglected 20th-century composers from the Polish region of Silesia.
Bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward (MM ’17) was named one of five 2018 Fellows in Classical Music by the Luminarts Cultural Foundation which is designed to support young Chicago artists in the development of their careers and to enrich the artistic community of the city.
Alumna Lauren Snouffer (BM ’09) performed Agnes in the American premiere of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin with Opera Philadelphia.
Tenor Jack Swanson (MM ’16) received a Richard Tucker Career Grant. This $10,000 grant is awarded to young singers who have already performed with professional companies. As the recipient of a 2017 Sara Tucker Study Grant, Jack is one of the few singers to receive the Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s Study and Career Grants in consecutive years. He also performed the lead role of Candide in L. A. Opera’s production of Candide.