2008–2009
alumni news the web (Amazon.com, etc.) or through the New World records website. An earlier solo CD “School of Velocity”, which originally came out on the CRI label, is also now available on New World. David Perry Ouzts ’87mm recently completed his Doctor of Sacred Music degree at the Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, Indiana, taking much of the coursework at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he was an organ and church music student of Marilyn Keiser and served as a graduate assistant to department chair Larry Smith. Through the Graduate Theological Foundation he has been invited as to be a research fellow in the School of Theology, University of Oxford, England, in June 2009. Ouzts is organist and director of music of Church of the Holy Communion (Episcopal), Memphis, Tennessee. Percussionist Peter Derheimer ’88mm writes, “It’s unfortunate in this world of instant communication that I was in Beijing with my orchestra, the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, at a welcoming banquet unaware that across town the Yale Philharmonia was playing Mahler 2 at the National Center for the Performing Arts. The Philharmonia played on the 24th July, we played in the same titanium Arts Center on the 26th. Your entourage then went on to Shanghai, as we did two days later.” Deep Sky by John Sichel ’90dma was performed by the New Philharmonic of New Jersey on Sunday November 23, 2008 in the new Dolan Perfomance Hall at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown, New Jersey. Deep Sky was originally commissioned by the New Jersey Youth Symphony and was premiered by the Youth Symphony’s OSTE and Junior Strings in April, 2008, conducted by Barbara Barstow. After the premiere, Sichel prepared a “professional version,” which was premiered by the New Philharmonic. Amy Lieberman ’95mm is entering her fifth year as Director of Choral Activities at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she conducts the choral ensembles and teaches choral conducting. She is also a doctoral candidate in Choral and Orchestral conducting at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. This fall, she will become a pre-concert lecturer for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared as guest conductor of the Lexington Symphony (Mass.), the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, and as assistant conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Lieberman (with Laura Goldberg, YSM Wardwell Fellow, ’90–’92) is also the artistic director of ArtsAhimsa, an international performance series that explores the connection between the power of the arts and non-violent causes. Her work with ArtsAhimsa has brought her to New Delhi and Calcutta, India to give concerts and masterclasses. Karen Elizabeth DiYanni ’96mm, ’97arta and Ned King Peterson ’99ba were married in June, 2007 in New York.
DiYanni is a violinist and member of the New York Pops, and performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Mostly Mozart festival Orchestra, and on Broadway in the orchestra for The Producers. Joseph Aaron Drew ’00musm married Regina Syquia in June in Annapolis, MD. Mr. Drew plays trumpet and piano with the Analog Arts Ensemble, of which he is a founding member. The ensemble runs a new-music festival, ARTSaha!, now in its fifth year, at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. Two School of Music alumni oversaw the installation of a new Schoenstein organ at Christ & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the City of New York during the winter of 2008. Church staff members Nigel Potts ’02mm (Organist & Choirmaster) and Paul Jacobs ’03ad (Artist in Residence) dedicated the new Schoenstein on Trinity Sunday, May 18th, 2008 with the Bishop of New York. That same weekend Paul Jacobs gave the opening dedicatory concert, and the series continued with concerts to be given by Nigel Potts on October 25th and Professor Thomas Murray on November 22nd. (Pictured are:
Jack M. Bethards, President and Tonal Director of Schoenstein & Co.; Paul Jacobs, Nigel Potts and Robert J. Russell, Organist & Choirmaster Emeritus).
Shizuo Kuwahara ’01mm won the Fourth International Sir Georg Solti Conductors’ Competition in Frankfurt, Germany in November. In 2006, he placed second in the competition. The first prize was €15,000 as well as an invitation to guest conduct the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra and the HR Symphony Orchestra, as well as other German and international orchestras. After two days of rehearsals and a public performance day, the jury members’ selection of Kuwahara was unanimous. Natalie Zhu ’01ad stepped in for Christoph Eschenbach, who had suffered a minor hand injury, in a chamber music performance presented by the Philadelphia Orchestra on January 18. She performed Schumann’s Andante and Variations, WoO 10, for two pianos, two cellos, and horn at the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater. Dr. Sue-Jean Park ’02mm, Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Murray State University, had the opportunity to appear as a concerto soloist with The Jackson, Tennessee, Symphony on Saturday, March 8, 2008. Professor Park performed He-Zang Hao and Chen Gang’s Butterfly Lovers Concerto for solo violin and orchestra as part of the Jackson Symphony’s Firebirds and Butterflies subscription concert under the baton of maestro Jordan Tang. This performance had particular significance in
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