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Spring 2015

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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.

Winter 2015

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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.

Gabriela Lena Frank, (BM ’94, MM ’96) is Composer-in-Residence with the Houston Symphony.

Former student Danielle Kuhlmann (graduate studies 2007) has joined the horn section of the San Diego Symphony.

Brady Lanier (BM ’92) is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Viola da Gamba Performance at Indiana University and is working as an arranger and composer.

Adam Lau, bass (MM ’10) and Amy Owens, soprano (MM ’12) have been cast in Opera Naples’ production of Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte in February 2015.

Master’s student Ian Mayton has been appointed as Fourth Horn of the Houston Symphony.

Kevin Pearl (MM ‘12) has won Assistant Principal/Second Oboe with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.  All members of the section are now Shepherd School alumni (Katherine Young Steele MM ’03 – Principal Oboe; Margaret Butler MM ’93 – English Horn).

Lauren Snouffer, soprano (MM ’09) and Rafael Moras, tenor (MM ’14) performed theroles of Konstanze and Pedrillo, respectively, in the Houston Symphony’s semi-staged performance of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio in January 2015.

Jonathan Swartz (BM ’95, DMA ’03) has been named Artistic Director of Madeline Island Music Camp in Minnesota.

Dawson White (MM ’12) is a violist with the Houston Ballet and serves as Adjunct Professor of Viola & Chamber Music at Sam Houston State University.

Carlos Vicente (MM ’05) is the Director of Marketing at Sarasota Opera.

Fall 2014

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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.

Aubrey Ferguson Bergauer (BM/BA ’05) is the new Executive Director of the California Symphony.

Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano (MM ’08) performed at the 2014 Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala on October 12.  The concert will be telecast by Live From Lincoln Center in January 2015. (Photo at left by Matthu Placek.)

 

Madeleine “Lynn” Kabat (BM ’08) has been appointed Principal Cello of the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra.

Shepherd School double bass student August Ramos won first place in the Senior Division of the Texas American String Teachers Association (TexASTA) Young Artist Solo Competition.

Thomas Siders (MM ’09), Assistant Principal Trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will join the teaching faculty of the Texas Music Festival.

WindSync woodwind quintet embarks on a Common Thread tour this fall, visiting 57 cities across North America, including a stop in Houston on December 16.  The group includes Shepherd alumni Garrett Hudson, flute (MM ’11), Tracy Jacobson, bassoon (BM ’10), and Erin Tsai (MM ’09).

Classnotes – Early Fall 2014

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RECENT APPOINTMENTS

Congratulations to the following students and alumni on their recent professional appointments!

Sam Almaguer (MM studies) – Second Clarinet, Detroit Symphony Orchestra (2014-15 season)

Four of our voice alumni join the Los Angeles Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program this fall: Nicholas Brownlee, Frederick Ballentine, Rafael Moras (all MM’14) and Brenton Ryan (MM’11).

Kayla Burggraf (BM ’14) – Principal Flute, Des Moines Symphony

Megan (Levin) Conley (BM ’05, MM ’09) – Principal Harp, Houston Symphony

Marcus DeLoach (DMA ’14) – Assistant Professor of Voice, Temple University

Eric Esparza (BM ’00, MM ’06) – Director of Choral Activities, DePaul University.

Carlton Ford (MM ‘12) – baritone, Ensemble singer, Deutsche Oper Berlin (2014-15 season).

Molly Gebrian (DMA ’13) – Assistant Professor of Viola, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

William Gerlach (MM studies) – Principal Trumpet, National Symphony Orchestra

Allyson Goodman (MM ‘13) – Principal Viola, Washington National Opera and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

Henrik Heide (BM ’10) – Associate Principal Flute, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Miran Kim (MM studies) – First violin section, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

Sean Krissman (current Master’s student) – Principal Clarinet, Houston Grand Opera Orchestra

Danielle Kuhlmann (MM studies) – Second Horn, San Diego Symphony

Lin Ma (AD studies) – Interim Second Clarinet, Houston Symphony (2014-15 season)

Ben Odhner (MM ’14) – Section violin, Colorado Symphony

Michael Severance (MM ’14) – Third Bassoon/Contrabassoon, San Francisco Opera

Rachel Shepard (MM ’12) – Assistant Concertmaster, Houston Ballet

Rachel Sigman (MM ’14) joins the Utah Opera Resident Artist Program this fall.

Keith Stonum (BM ’08) – Cologne Opera

Scott Strong (MM studies) – Third Horn, Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Anastasia Sukhopara (MM ’14) – Section violin, Houston Symphony (2014-15 season).

Julie Thayer (MM ’09) – Horn, St. Louis Symphony

Cassandra Kunkel Tilly, Esq. (BM ’89) – Executive Director, Opera Fairbanks

Dawson White (MM ’12) – Section viola, Houston Ballet Orchestra

Melissa Wilmot (MM ’14) – First violin section, Houston Grand Opera Orchestra

Yi Zhao (MM ’13 / AD studies) – Assistant Concertmaster, Colorado Symphony

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ALUMNI NEWS

 

Conrad Cornelison and Teresa Procter (both MM ’14) have been selected as Da Camera of Houston Young Artist Fellows for the 2014-15 season.

The Mexican National Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere of Charles Halka’s (DMA ’13) orchestral work, Impact.  The piece kicked off the opening concert of the 36th annual International New Music Forum in Mexico City in May.

Harpist Mason Morton (BM ’10) appeared on season nine of NBC’s America’s Got Talent as part of the foursome Sons of Serendip.  The group advanced to the competition finale and finished fourth out of some 100,000 acts that auditioned for a place on the show.

This summer’s PARMA Music Festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire included performances by pianist Kris Becker (MM ’07) and violinist Christine Kim (MM ’06, DMA ’10), and a performance of Mechanismus, an electronic composition by Garrett Schumann (BM ’10).

The Pegasus Trio (violinist Yi Zhao (MM ’14); cellist Coleman Itzkoff (BM ’14); and pianist Andrew Staupe (current DMA student) were an ensemble in residence at the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest 2014.

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STUDENT NEWS

 

Freshman violist David Berghoff was among the winners in the Junior Division of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition – his Quartet Fuoco took the First Place Medal and Scholarship.

The Maestro Foundation in California awarded Master’s student Anthony Bracewell a new violin by competitive audition.

Pianists Hui Shan Chin and Ryo Kaneko placed First and Second, respectively, in the PianoSummer at New Paltz’s Jacob Flier International Piano Competition.  As part of Chin’s first place win, she performed Mendelssohn’s Concerto No. 1 in G minor with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic.

Junior violinist Rhea Chung and sophomore cellist Daniel Tavani performed as soloists with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in June, an honor they received as past winners of the NSO’s Young Soloists’ Competition for D.C.-area high school students.

In May, Master’s trumpet student George Goad won First Place in the Orchestral Excerpt Competition at the International Trumpet Guild conference.

Artist Diploma student Lin Ma won the $25,000 First Prize in the Houston Symphony’s 2014 Ima Hogg Concerto Competition for young artists.

The New York Philharmonic and Music Academy of the West have selected Shepherd students Anthony Bellino (trumpet), Sean Krissman (clarinet), Jennifer Zhou (flute) and alumnus Michael Severance (MM ‘14), bassoon, to participate in their first-ever Global Academy Initiative partnership.  As part of the fellowship program, they will study and perform with the New York Philharmonic in January 2015.

Freshman violist Austin Simmons won Third Place in the Chamber Music International Young Artists’s Solo Music Competition in June.

In June, Master’s percussion student Michael Stubbart appeared as a soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra in Russel Peck’s Concerto for Percussion Trio, The Glory and the Grandeur.

Shepherd School doctoral student Zhu Zhu was a recipient of Rice University’s Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellowship in May. This prestigious award goes to graduate students whose record at Rice shows evidence of outstanding achievement and promise.