Class Notes
Funaro ’74
1960s
Jazz pianist, composer, and educator Stanley Cowell ’62 presented his suite Juneteenth with an ensemble of strings, voice, and percussion at a 2019 Juneteenth celebration at An Die Musik Live in Baltimore. He is emeritus professor of jazz piano at Rutgers-Mason Gross School of the Arts. Sharon Davis Gratto ’66,
professor of music and Graul Endowed Chair in Arts and Languages at the University of Dayton, received the university’s inaugural Award for Faculty Service in 2019. Conductor and Music Director Max Bragado Darman ’69
retired from the Monterey Symphony in California after 15 years with the ensemble. Prior to that post, he conducted the Spanish orchestra he founded—Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León—from 1991 to 2002.
1970s
52
accessible overview with step-by-step instructions, detailed photos of the process, and a companion website featuring the author’s own recordings. Arbiter served as the Houston Symphony’s associate principal bassoon and unofficial photographer from 1974 to 2019. Lora Ching Deahl ’72 retired after a 46-year career as professor of piano at Texas Tech University. Her groundbreaking study and book, Adaptive Strategies for Small-Handed Pianists, written in collaboration with Brenda Wristen, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. Deahl presented recitals, lectures, and master classes throughout the U.S., Asia, and Latin America. Her work was recognized with the Chancellor’s Council Teaching Award from Texas Tech University and the Outstanding Collegiate Teacher Award from the Texas Music Teachers Association. Elaine Funaro ’74, one of the leading performers of new music for harpsichord, has fostered a new repertoire for the instrument as artistic director of the Aliénor International Harpsichord
Composition Competition. She also recently collaborated with her adult twins, Eric and Andrea Love, on the children’s book The Harpsichord Diaries: A Musical Journey, about a girl who travels through time and meets eccentric, talking harpsichords that bring history and music to life. An accompanying soundtrack layered with music, narration, and sound effects guides readers through the book. Unveiled at the 2019 Boston Early Music Festival, The Harpsichord Diaries also is performed as an audio play. Learn more at harpsichorddiaries.com. Composer, percussionist, and bandleader Adam Rudolph ’76, hailed as “a pioneer in world music” by The New York Times and “a master percussionist” by DownBeat magazine, has released more than 30 recordings. His Go: Organic Orchestra, a 30-piece ensemble based in New York City, collaborated with Brooklyn Raga Massive last fall to record Ragmala: A Garland of Ragas, released in October 2019. Its fusion of Indian classical, jazz, and West African music earned high praise from DownBeat for its “gorgeously complex tapestry of sounds, hues and sensations.”
Thomas Rosenberg ’78 was
honored in January 2020 for 40 years as artistic director of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. “I have witnessed great success at the competition by Oberlin students, including such ensembles as the Jupiter String Quartet, the Jasper String Quartet, and Eighth Blackbird,” he says.
1980s
Composer Stephen Main ’86 wrote Columbus Triptych for flutist Katherine Borst Jones’ Cosmos Trio, which featured the work on its new recording, American Premieres (MSR Classics).
1990s
Washington, D.C.-based composer, producer, and music director Nolan Williams Jr. ’90 presented Ethereality: Celestial Dreams and the Great Beyond at the Great Hall of the Historic Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, a performance hosted by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves ’85 in October 2019. The orchestral and choral production, conceived by artistic director Williams and co-presented by the Smithsonian’s National
RUDOLPH: JACI DOWNS
Houston-based musician, writer, and photographer Eric Arbiter ’72 has published The Way of Cane: The Science, Craft, and Art of Bassoon ReedMaking, a comprehensive and
Rudolph ’76