Recent Orchestral, Academic, and Professional Appointments

Anthony Bellino (Master’s student) – Section Trumpet, ‘The President’s Own’ United States Marine Band in Washington, D.C.

Ian Hallas (BM ’13) – Section Double Bass, Lyric Opera of Chicago

Evan Halloin (MM ’09) – Associate Principal Double Bass, Kansas City Symphony

Caleb Quillen (Master’s student) – Section Double Bass, Kansas City Symphony

Will Samson (MM ’05) – Section Tuba, ‘The President’s Own’ United States Marine Band in Washington, D.C.

Daniel Wang (MM ‘14) – Section Viola, San Antonio Symphony

Competitions, Awards, Performances, and Premieres

The alt Default, a trio started by double bassist David Connor (MM ’13) won a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as part of its South Florida Knight Arts Challenge.  The grant will partially fund an after school song-writing residency at a Miami Beach Middle School.  Over the course of twelve workshops, The alt Default will work with school children to help them write, perform, and record their own songs.

The Dover Quartet ’13 makes two New York debuts in 2016: in the Lincoln Center Great Performers series in February and at Carnegie Hall in April.  They are the 2015 recipients of the Hunt Family Award, an Emerging Artist Award given by Lincoln Center.  Ensemble members are Joel Link, violin; Bryan Lee, violin; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; and Camden Shaw, cello.

Andy Einhorn ’04 will make his New York Philharmonic conducting debut in April 2016 with trumpet soloist Chris Botti.

Composer Gabriela Lena Frank (BM ’94, MM ’96) was the composer in residence at DePauw University’s Music of the 21st Century Festival in February 2016, which included coachings, performances, and a conversation with the composer.  Frank won a Latin Grammy Award for best Contemporary Classical Music Composition in 2009 and was a 2011 Grammy Award nominee for Best Classical Crossover Album.

Undergraduate musicology student Alexandra Krawetz’s paper “Performing Feminine Aging: The Marschallin’s Body in Der Rosenkavalier” has been accepted for publication in the May 2016 issue of Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology.

Undergraduate student Giancarlo Latta will perform the Texas premiere of composer Stephanie Ann Boyd’s new work for violin and piano in Spring 2016 as part of the 50 State Sonata Project, a co-commission involving one violinist in every state.

New and recent works by composer Robert McClure ’13 were featured in Performing Asia: Drift, a program presented by Asia Society Houston in January 2016.

Master’s student Clare Monfredo has been invited to attend the 2016 Piatigorsky International Cello Festival as a Fellow.  The Festival is presented by the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in partnership with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Angelique Poteat (BM ’08) has won the 2015 American Prize in Composition, orchestral division.  The piece for which she won the award received its world premiere by the Seattle Symphony in January 2016.

Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw (BM ’04) will perform the violin solo of her recently composed work Lo with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in March 2016.  The piece is a co-commission by the PSO, the North Carolina and Indianapolis symphony orchestras in support of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW Festival.  Also in March, Shaw will hold a residency at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Recent Orchestral, Academic, and Professional Appointments

Brittany Boulding Breeden (BM ’04) – Second violin section, Seattle Symphony Orchestra

Jesse Clevenger (Master’s student) – Contracted Substitute Assistant Principal/Utility Horn, Houston Symphony

Peter Garrett (Master’s student) – Section cello, Alabama Symphony Orchestra

Genevieve Micheletti (BM ’12) – Second violin section, Santa Rosa Symphony

Ernesto Tovar-Torres (Master’s student) – Second Horn, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The Chiara String Quartet – Rebecca Fischer, Hyeyung Julie Yoon, Jonah Sirota (BM ’98) and Gregory Beaver (BM ’98) – Quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015-2016

Competitions, Awards, Performances, and Premieres

The Dover Quartet ‘13 (Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violins; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; Camden Shaw, cello) received Chamber Music America’s 2016 Cleveland Quartet Award.  The award was presented to the quartet by James Dunham, Professor of Viola and former member of the Cleveland Quartet, at a Chamber Music Houston concert at the Shepherd School on November 10, 2015.

Composer, pianist, and Houston Symphony Composer-in-Residence Gabriela Lena Frank (BM ’94, MM ’96) performed the 2015 premiere of her new concerto, commissioned by the Sphinx Organization, with Sphinx Virtuosi in October 2015 on a program entitled Inspiring Women.

Conductor James Gaffigan (MM ’03) will lead the New York Philharmonic in December 2015 in a program that includes Beethoven, Strauss, and a world premiere by Andrew Norman.

Cellist Coleman Itzkoff (BM ’14) and violinist Philip Marten (BM ’15) are American Youth Symphony Fellows for the 2015-2016 season.  Both musicians are principal players in their respective sections.

Hilary Purrington (BM ’13) was awarded the 2015 Melodia Commission by the Women’s Choir of NYC.

Cristian Macelaru (MM ’06) will make his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic in November 2015 as part of Rachmaninoff: A Philharmonic Festival.

Doctoral violin students Boson Mo and Timothy Steeves have been awarded on loan prestigious instruments from the Canadian Council for the Arts.

In September 2015, Duo Baltinati – pianist Lura Johnson (BM ’96, MM ’00) and cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn – were awarded Second Prize in the Chamber Music Division of the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Pörtschach am Wörthersee, Austria.

Undergraduate double bass student August Ramos was a national winner of the 2015 National Federation of Music Club’s Student Collegiate Auditions.

Career Updates

Mezzo-soprano Aidan Soder (MM ’99, DMA ’06) received a Fulbright Scholar Award to travel to India to perform Western classical art songs featuring the poetry of Indian Nobel-Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.  She, with fellow alumni Paul Busselberg, baritone (DMA ’07) and Calogero di Liberto, piano (DMA ’06) released Tagoriana on Albany Records.  Soder is an Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance.

Recent Orchestral, Academic, and Professional Appointments

Efrain Amaya (MM ’88) – Minot State University, Minot Symphony Director

Josh Baker (current Master’s student) – Principal Bassoon, Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra

Aubrey Bergauer (BA/BM ’05) – Executive Director, California Symphony

Maura Corvington (MM ’13) – Second horn, Rochester Philharmonic

Ben Edquist (MM ’15) – Houston Grand Opera Studio Artist, 2015-16

Karl Fenner (MM ‘06) – Section double bass, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

Antoinette Gan (MM ’15) – Section cello, Oregon Symphony

Joseph Grimmer (MM ’13) – Principal Bassoon, Washington National Opera and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

Jonathan Gunn (BM ’94) – Principal Clarinet, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (from Acting Principal)

Greg Hammond (MM ’15) – Trombone, United States Army Band

Henrik Heide (MM ’09) – Associate Principal Flute, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Evan Hulbert (BM ’15) – Associate Principal Bass, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Andrea Jarrett (MM ’15) – Second violin section, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Pam Kiesling (MM ’08) and Alex Kovling (MM ’15) – Horn, U.S. Navy Band, Washington

Erin Lano (MM ’07) – Second/Third Horn, Richmond Symphony

Lin Ma (MM ’13) – Assistant Principal and E-flat Clarinet, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Jarita Ng (MM ’15) – Section Viola, Houston Symphony

Richard Rhoads (MM ’84) – Associate Director/Organist, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wilmington, NC and accompanist, Wilmington Boys’ Choir

Dorothy Ro (MM ’14) – Violinist in the Verona Quartet, appointed as the new graduate string quartet in residence at the Juilliard School

Amulet Strange (MM ’14) – Principal Flute, Mississippi Symphony Orchestra

John Turman (BM ’15) – Third horn, Seattle Symphony

Kelly Zimba (MM ’15) – Flute/piccolo, New World Symphony

Jennifer Zhou (MM ’16) – Flute, National Repertory Orchestra

David D. Connor, double bass (MM ’13); Anthony Parce, viola (BM ’09), and Hellen Weberpal, cello (MM ’12) are part of the first group of Houston Symphony Community-Embedded Musicians who will spend time in schools, neighborhoods and health care settings, as well as perform onstage with the orchestra, beginning in the fall of 2015.

Competitions, Awards, Performances, and Premieres

Monica Czausz (current undergraduate student)  won First Place in the Albert Schweitzer National Organ Competition in September 2015.

Maria Failla (BM ’11) performed the role of Antonia and understudied Aldonza in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s in-house production of Man of la Mancha.

Jessica Goldbaum (MM ’15) is one of five musicians selected from a national search to participate in the International Cultural Exchange for Classical Musicians for 2015-16.  The program places talented young musicians in a 10 month residency performance program with the Sarajevo Philharmonic, Bosnia.

Charles Halka (DMA ’13) is one of ten American composers chosen for the 2015 Copland House Residency Awards, all-expenses-paid stays at Aaron Copland’s National Historic Landmark home in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley.  The Residents will live and work, one at a time, for three to eight weeks in the house near New York City.  As Copland House Residents, they will also become eligible for post-residency awards, commissions, and performances that advance their work.

Career Updates

Junko Ueno Garrett (DMA ’98) is a Piano Instructor at Occidental College in Los Angeles.  In 2015-16 she will be making a South American solo concert tour, performing and conducting masterclasses in several cities in Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile as part of a cultural exchange organized by the Japanese government.

Orchestral and Academic Appointments

Tommy Carpenter (MM ’15) – Cello, New World Symphony

Nina DeCesare (MM ’15) – Double Bass section, Oregon Symphony

Tenor Zachary Devin (MM ’10) was the second place winner in the vocal division of the Southern Illinois Young Artists Competition.

The Dover Quartet (MM ’13) – Quartet-in-Residence, Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.  Group members are Joel Link, violin; Bryan Lee, violin; Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola; and Camden Shaw, cello.

George Goad (MM ’15) – Trumpet, New World Symphony

Philip Hembree (MM ’14) – Second Trumpet, Colorado Symphony

Emily Honeyman (MM ’11) – Double Bass section, Swedish National Opera Orchestra

Tom Hooten (MM ’01) – Faculty position with San Francisco Conservatory of Music (concurrent with position as Principal Trumpet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Andrea Jarrett (MM ’15) – Second Violin section, St. Louis Symphony

Erin Koertge Lano (MM ’07) – Second/Third Horn, Richmond Symphony

Brandon Mason (MM ’14) – Double Bass section, Kansas City Symphony

Rebecca Reale (BM ’15) – Violin, New World Symphony

Daryl Robinson (MM ’14) – Assistant Professor of Organ at Westminster Choir College of Rider University

Andrew Sandwick (Master’s student) – Second Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra

Chris Walczak (DMA ’13) – Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition, Southern Illinois University

Marty Burnett Wheeler (MM ’88) – Canon Precentor at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Omaha

Jing Zheng (MM ’15) – Section violin, Houston Symphony

Competitions, Awards, Performances, and Premieres

Four of the ten semifinalists in the Houston Symphony’s 2015 Ima Hogg Concerto Competition are from the Shepherd School: current students Hewen Ma (piano), Boson Mo (violin), and Erik Wheeler (cello), and incoming student Stephanie Ng (piano).

Four voice alumni were winners of the 2015 George London Foundation Competition for Singers:  bass Adam Lau (MM ’10), soprano Julia Dawson (MM ’13), and mezzo-soprano Sarah Mesko (MM ’10) each received a $10,000 prize, and soprano Amy Owens (MM ’12) received an Encouragement Award of $1,000.

Master’s trumpet student Anthony Bellino has received one of only sixteen Presser Foundation Graduate Student Awards, “designed to encourage and support the advanced education and career of truly exceptional graduate music students who have the potential to make a distinguished contribution to the field of music.”

Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (BM ’04) gave the premiere of faculty composer Pierre Jalbert’s From Dusk to Starry Night with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in April.

Pianist Kimball Gallagher (BM ’02) concluded an 88-concert world tour with a solo recital at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in April.

Composition alumnus Charles Halka (DMA ’13) will have a piece performed at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in August.  His piece Impact was chosen by Music Director Marin Alsop to receive its West Coast premiere on the Grand Finale concert.

William Johnston (MM ‘04) performed the West Coast premiere of Mark Gresham’s Three Essays for Viola and Double String Orchestra with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra in March.

Alumna Christle Collins Judd (MM ’83) has been named a Senior Program Officer at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Pianist Gloria Kim (MM ’13) will be featured in the 2015 Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music.

Mezzo-soprano Sarah Mesko (MM ’10) won Third Prize in the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition.

Student ensemble the Prismatic Wind Quintet won the Bronze Medal in the Senior Winds Division of the 2015 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.  The group members are James Blanchard (flute), Tamer Edlebi (oboe), Nicholas Davies (clarinet), Isaac Schultz (bassoon), and Markus Osterlund (horn).

Voice student Christian Sanders won First Prize in the Ruth Burr Competition sponsored by the Houston Tuesday Music Club.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation awarded bass-baritone Michael Sumuel (MM ’09) a $10,000 Career Grant.

Voice student Jack Swanson won First Place in the Florida Grand Opera National Voice Competition for Junior Young Artists (ages 20-25).  He also won First Place in the 2015 San Antonio Tuesday Music Club competition.

Career Updates

Violinist Emily Dahl (BM ’07) performs with the Emergence Quartet, a period instrument string quartet based in Boston.

Alumnus Caen Thomason-Redus (MM ’99) serves as the Community Catalyst at Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Tara Slough (BM ’12, BA ‘12) is a PhD candidate in political science at Columbia University.  She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship.

Jooyoung Ahn (MM ’85) is a candidate for music director and conductor of the Port Angeles Symphony.

Bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee was a Grand Prize winner in the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, receiving $15,000 for career advancement.  He was a Shepherd School Master’s student from 2012-14.   Mezzo-soprano Allegra De Vita ’14 was one of the competition’s semifinalists.  Both singers performed onstage with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as part of the Grand Finals Concert.

Trombonist Mike Clayville (MM ’06) is a member of the contemporary music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, which will be touring Korea in April 2015.  He is a founding member of NOVUS trombone quartet, which is currently raising funds for a new album.

Piano student Yurie Farnsworth won the Piano Division First Prize and the overall Grand Prize at the 2015 Young Texas Artists Music Competition.

Violin student Tianjie Lu and alumnus Luke Hsu (BM ’12) were selected to compete in the 54th International Violin Competition “Premio Paganini” in Genoa, Italy.

Artist Diploma student Lin Ma has won the position of Associate Principal/2nd Clarinet and E-flat Clarinet with the Kansas City Symphony.

Abigail McKee (MM ’05) has been named the first executive director of the Bach Collegium in San Diego.

The Prismatic Wind Quintet has been accepted to the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition.   The group includes James Blanchard (flute), Tamer Edlebi (oboe), Nicholas Davies (clarinet), Markus Osterlund (horn), and Issac Schultz (bassoon).

Four Shepherd School alumni will be traveling to Honduras this May as part of an annual outreach sponsored by the America Embassy in Honduras.  Hunter Capoccioni (BM ’01, MM ’03), Nathan Cook (MM ’00, DMA ’05), Daphne Gerling (DMA ’07), and Kirsten Yon (DMA ’08) will be teaching lessons to young people in Tegucigalpa.

The Verona String Quartet, which includes violinist alumna Dorothy Ro (MM ’14), won Second Prize in the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.

Voice student Jack Swanson, tenor, won First Place in the San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club Young Artists Competition.

Meta Weiss (BM ’09) performed in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan as part of an American Music Abroad tour with the ensemble Break of Reality.

Master’s student Sam Almaguer has accepted a two-year position as Principal Clarinet of the North Carolina Symphony.

Former student Nicholas Brownlee, tenor (graduate studies 2014), won first place in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Competition in December 2014.

Kristen Bruya (MM ’06) has been appointed Principal Double Bass of the Minnesota Orchestra.

Jennifer Johnson Cano (MM ’08) and Carolyn Sproule (MM ’12), mezzo-sopranos, appeared in the Metropolitan Opera’s recent production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Cano is also a finalist in the 2015 International Opera Awards in the Young Singer category.

Alumni Mike Clayville (MM ’06), Garrett Schumann (BM ’10), and Joelle Zigman (BM ’12) were presenters at the inaugural New Music Gathering in January 2015 held at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Nina DeCesare (BM ’14) has been appointed to the double bass section of the Oregon Symphony.

Master’s voice student Ben Edquist, baritone, is a finalist in the Houston Grand Opera’s 2015 Concert of Arias competition for young singers.

Flutist Hilary Abigana (MM ’08) performed at the Houston Fringe Festival in September as part of The Fourth Wall Ensemble, a trio that incorporates dancing and acting into its musical performances. (Photo at left by Elson Markwick.)

Stephen Bachicha (DMA ’13, pictured at right) won the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s 2014 Young Composers Competition. The orchestra will be performing his composition Allusions, Illusions, & Delusions on concerts next April.