Michigan Muse Winter 2023 > Alumni Updates

Alumni Updates

2020s / 2010s / 2000s / 1990s / 1980s / 1970s / 1960s

2020s

The Ivalas Quartet, consisting of Tiani Butts, MM ’21 (violin, chamber music); Reuben Kebede, attended ’18–’19 (violin); Aimée McAnulty, BM ’19 (viola); and Pedro Sánchez, MM ’18 (cello), was recently named the graduate resident string quartet at Juilliard. The quartet was formed at MPulse Center Stage Strings in 2017.

Reed Puleo, MM ’22 (percussion, chamber music), was selected as one of 28 players worldwide to take part in the 2022 edition of the TROMP International Percussion Competition in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, in November. The jury consisted of acclaimed percussionists from all over Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Natalie Sherer, DMA ’22 (collaborative piano), accepted a tenure-track position at Florida State University’s College of Music, where she is now assistant professor of vocal coaching and collaborative artist. She is enjoying coaching and teaching students and performing with faculty and guest artists.

Mike Vecchio, MM ’13 (euphonium, music education), PhD ’22 (music education), is currently serving as lecturer of music education at the University of Illinois, teaching courses in instrumental music education.

2010s

Justin Benavidez, MM ’07, DMA ’10 (tuba), professor of tuba and euphonium at Florida State University, recently released Storyteller, his second solo album. The album features the premiere recordings of three new tuba concerti performed with the wind ensembles of the FSU College of Music, and it was awarded Silver Medals in the Classical Album and Solo Instrumentalist categories of the Global Music Awards.

Teagan Faran, BM ’18 (violin), has been named the new violin professor and co-director of the Electronic Experimentation Lab at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. In addition to leading the violin studio, Faran is also developing projects across the string department to facilitate collaborations with the film department and student dance groups. Through the university, Faran and the string department have commissioned Yaz Lancaster and will be producing a full music video of the work this spring.

Michael-Thomas Foumai, MM ’11, DMA ’14 (composition), was appointed director of artistic engagement and the first composer in residence for Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra. In November 2022, his arrangements (commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic) of music composed by Florence Price premiered at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, BM ’12, MM ’14 (saxophone), performed John Williams’s Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra with Maestro Peter Jaffe (father of James Jaffe, BM ’10 (cello)) and the Stockton Symphony in November. This was Hulting-Cohen’s sixth performance of Escapades, including two with Maestro Bruce Kiesling, BFA ’95 (musical theatre), MM ’98 (voice, choral conducting), of the Sequoia Symphony in California and Adrian Symphony in Michigan. Other fall highlights included guest recitals at the Boston Conservatory and Kent State University, leading a commissioning consortium for a new chamber work by Annika Socolofsky, MA ’14 (composition), five world premieres with the New Thread Quartet in New York, two solo world premieres, and a performance of Anton Webern’s Op. 22.

Christina Manceor, BM ’15 (percussion), is co-author of an open education resource released by the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, called The Path to Funding: The Artist’s Guide to Building Your Audience, Generating Income, and Realizing Career Sustainability. This free online book breaks down the process of building, articulating, and funding a creative project, from the inception of an idea to the moment you press submit for a grant proposal. Artists can use it to guide their own journeys, or it can be used as a resource for a course or workshop they are teaching.

Andrew Munn, BMA ’14 (voice), returned to the United States as a guest artist at the Pennsylvania State University School of Music, working with students and presenting a recital of Eisler, Schubert, and Shostakovich. While in the United States, he sang the bass solos in Mozart’s Requiem and presented his English adaptations of Bertolt Brecht’s poems set by Hanns Eisler in the Hollywood Liederbuch. In December 2022, he performed Schubert’s Winterreise with his duo partner, Rami Sarieddine, at the ARTE Center of Nicosia, Cyprus.

On October 7th, Ana Maria Otamendi, DMA ’11 (collaborative piano), and Jennifer Olson, MM ’10 (voice), released their album of South American art songs, Cantos y Cuentos (Songs and Tales), on Centaur Records. The recording includes songs by Jaime León (Colombia), Juan Bautista Plaza (Venezuela), Alberto Ginastera (Argentina), and Ernani Braga (Brazil). Cantos y Cuentos can be found on all streaming platforms.

Diego Piedra, MM ’05 (violin), MM ’08, DMA ’18 (orchestral conducting), has been awarded an honorable mention with the American Prize, Conductor Division, for the year 2022.

Jared Rawlings, PhD ’15 (music education), has been appointed to the advisory board of the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (CRME) for a term of six years (2022–28). The Bulletin provides a forum where contemporary research is made accessible to all with an interest in music education. Advisory board members represent researchers and scholars from numerous intellectual traditions across the field of music education.

In fall 2022, Roger Zare, DMA ’12 (composition), was appointed visiting assistant professor of music theory and composition at Appalachian State University. Zare was selected last fall from over 150 applicants to be the Fermilab composer in residence for 2023. Additionally, Zare collaborated with clarinetist Andy Hudson to compose a book of concert études for bass clarinet. Titled Space Bass, this collection of 13 wide-ranging new compositions and pedagogical write-ups by Hudson is published by Conway Publications in Ann Arbor.

2000s

Kent Eshelman, BM ’02 (tuba), BFA ’02 (jazz studies), appeared as the invited guest artist at the 37th annual Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival hosted at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. He performed a solo recital and a concerto with band, presented a master class, and served as one of the competition adjudicators. He is presently professor of euphonium and tuba at Baylor University.

Kevin Geraldi, MM ’98, DMA ’05 (conducting), was named director of bands at the University of Illinois and began his tenure in August 2022. His responsibilities include conducting the internationally renowned Illinois Wind Symphony, guiding the graduate program in wind conducting, and providing administrative leadership for the university’s comprehensive and historic band program. In May 2022 he presented a keynote lecture for a meeting of the Spanish Musicological Society, held in Vigo, Spain. Two other SMTD alums also joined the faculty of the University of Illinois School of Music in fall 2022: Kimberly Fleming, DMA ’22 (conducting), assistant director of bands; and Michael Vecchio, MM ’13 (music education, euphonium), PhD ’22 (music education), lecturer in music education.

Black Lodge, the most recent opera film by David T. Little, MM ’02 (composition), premiered to sold-out crowds at Opera Philadelphia’s O22 Festival last October. Produced by Beth Morrison Projects, featuring a libretto by poet Anne Waldman, and starring Kazakh American tenor Timur, Black Lodge explores the dark mythologies of artists William S. Burroughs, David Lynch, Antonin Artaud, and others. Little’s third opera to become a film, it follows Opera Philadelphia’s GRAMMY-nominated film of his first opera, Soldier Songs, and Houston Grand Opera’s film of his comedy Vinkensport. Black Lodge will stream for a year on the Opera Philadelphia Channel. The soundtrack will be released in March 2023 on Cantaloupe Music.

Sameer Patel, BM ’04 (music theory, piano), MM ’07 (orchestral conducting, piano), is the newly appointed artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony (SDYS), a transformational organization that reaches more than 3,000 students in its community through its 13 ensembles, El Sistema-inspired classroom programs, and early childhood music classes. In addition to conducting the two most advanced orchestras at SDYS, Patel also continues his guest conducting work with professional orchestras and this season will conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Orchestra, the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

Nicholas Phan, BM ’01 (voice), released his eighth album for Avie Records, Stranger: Works for Tenor by Nico Muhly, in July 2022. The album is composed of world premiere recordings of three of the composer’s major works: Impossible Things for tenor, solo violin, and orchestra; Lorne Ys My Likinge for countertenor, tenor, and piano; and Stranger for tenor and string quartet. A song cycle exploring the American immigrant experience, the album’s title work was expressly written for Phan. In the cycle, Muhly juxtaposes settings of accounts of immigration through Ellis Island with those of texts protesting the United States’ Chinese exclusion policies of the late 19th century.

Ann Marie Stanley, PhD ’09 (music education), Aloysia L. Barineau Professor of Music Education at Louisiana State University and past two-term chair of the Alumni Board of Governors of SMTD, has been appointed associate dean for graduate studies in LSU’s College of Music and Dramatic Arts. She is also the new chair-elect of the Society for Music Teacher Education, the nation’s largest organization of music education professionals serving in academia.

Dina Vovsi, BTA ’09, BA ’09 (English), is a member of the 2022–23 Roundabout Directors Group and the 2022–24 WP Theater Directors’ Lab. A New York-based director of primarily new plays, she is co-creating a play about the intersection of the Russian-speaking and Pakistani immigrant communities in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, with playwright Liba Vaynberg; it is a commission with Working Theater’s 5 Boroughs 1 City Initiative with public presentations in spring 2023. In July 2022, she directed readings of Brittany K. Allen’s Ball Change at the Cape Cod Theatre Project, starring Tony Award nominee Gabby Beans.

Alexandra Zacharella, MM ’01 (trombone), director of bands and associate professor of low brass at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, was recently awarded the school’s university-wide Excellence to the University, to the Profession, and Community Service Award. Zacharella currently serves as the president-elect of the South Central Chapter of the College Music Society, serves on the society’s International Initiatives Committee, is a newly elected board member of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and has served as last president of the Arkansas Chapter of College Band Directors National Association.

1990s

Paul Bhasin, BM ’99 (trumpet), was named the Donna & Marvin Schwartz Professor of Music at Emory University, where he continues as director of orchestral studies and director of undergraduate research in music. Bhasin was also named music director of the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra as well as music director of the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival.

Brenda (McEldowney) Foley, BFA ’97 (musical theatre), is executive producing/writing her first feature-length documentary film, featuring mentor and friend Dr. Jane Vogel Mantiri, founder of Advance Gender Equity in the Arts (AGE). See Jane Run: An American Story of Surviving and Thriving presents a child refugee from Indonesia who transforms her family’s trauma and sacrifice into a legacy of love and social justice through the arts.

This past August, Paul Mow, BMA ’99 (voice), directed and produced the musical Violet as part of the third season at the GhostLight Theatre in Benton Harbor, Michigan (where he also serves as founder and artistic director). He and GhostLight summer intern Cecilia Petrush, BFA ’23 (musical theatre), were able to provide a virtual master class for the entire cast and crew with Michael McElroy, chair of musical theatre and Arthur E. and Martha S. Hearron Endowed Professor of Music. McElroy originated the role of Flick in the first production of Violet off-Broadway and, in answering questions from the cast and crew, was able to share incredible insight into the show and his career.

Deborah Wong, PhD ’91 (ethnomusicology), recently joined the board of the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM), a nonprofit organization that offers digital collections and advanced tools for locating research on all topics related to music.

1980s

U-M Professor Emeritus Walter Everett, PhD ’88 (music theory), completed fall 2022 with the third Beatles analysis course he has taught online with Jack Petruzzelli and Cameron Greider through RPM School. He has completed a new book, Sex and Gender in Pop/Rock Music: The Blues through the Beatles to Beyoncé, which will be released by Bloomsbury Publishing in summer 2023.

James Johnston, BM ’81 (composition), has released an interesting collection of compositions inspired by Tibetan Buddhist Poems called Visions of Mystic Consciousness. Created entirely with advanced personal computer hardware and software, the work explores many genres from new age to world music, prog rock, and many others. The composition is composed of seven movements, each exploring a different facet of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Scott Messing, PhD ’86 (musicology), Charles A. Dana Professor of Music Emeritus at Alma College, read his conference paper “Schubert’s ‘Moor-like’ Face” at the Thirteenth Kent Invitational Conference on Historical Musicology, Kent State University, October 15, 2022.

Derek Parsons, MM ’85, DMA ’89 (piano), was awarded a sabbatical from teaching at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, where he is in his 35th year as professor of piano. He co-authored a piano reduction of the Healey Willan Piano Concerto in 2017 and received a grant to perform this underappreciated concerto at several colleges around the country, including SMTD in November 2022. Eventually he hopes to perform this work in its orchestral form, since a performance with orchestra has not yet been identified to date in the United States.

After two postponements due to COVID-19, vocalist Jenny Lynn Stewart, BM ’81 (voice), performed her newest show, The New York Spirit, at Lincoln Center’s New York Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium, on Saturday, October 15, 2022. The program consisted of uplifting and inspiring songs. Stewart continues to be employed by Third Church of Christ, Scientist, New York City, as their soloist. The church is located on Park Avenue at 63rd Street in Manhattan.

1970s

Since his retirement from Iowa State University in 2012, William David, BM ’69, MM ’70, DMA ’72 (piano), has continued performing in collaboration with musicians in the Denver area. In 2022, the second CD he has recorded with Basil Vendryes, principal violist in the Colorado Symphony, was released by Toccata Next. It features music by Swiss/Russian composer Paul Juon.

Bob Phillips, BM ’76, MM ’79 (music education), a 2013 SMTD Hall of Fame honoree, was awarded the Medal of Honor by the Midwest Clinic. It is awarded to “conductors, educators, composers, and others whose distinct services to instrumental music education and continuing influence on the development and improvement of bands and orchestras deserve the highest recognition.” Award winners are defined as “musicians and educators of extraordinary stature in America.” Other Michigan alumni and faculty to receive the award include William D. Revelli; Elizabeth A.H. Green; H. Robert Reynolds, BM ’56 (music education), MM ’58 (wind instruments); Joe Maddy, and Jerry Junkin. Also honored was Pam Phillips (LSA ’79).

Lynn Swanson, BFA ’76 (dance), uses her dance degree to teach movement to youngsters in West Virginia and is artist in residence at Pleasant View Elementary School in Berkeley Springs. She holds an MA in creative writing from Michigan State University and continues to tour schools with her fiction, Summer Dance (Silver Medal from Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards), Welcome Back to Lakewood, and Caraboose, the Tooth Fairy Moose (endorsed, purchased, and distributed by the Delta Dental Foundation). Her next book will be published next year.

1960s

Tommaso Traetta and the Fusion of Italian and French Opera in Parma by George Loomis, BM ’69 (theory), was published in October 2022 by Academica Press.