School of MusicIthaca College3322 Whalen CenterIthaca, NY 14850-7240

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Guest Artists 2003–2004Be sure to check out the online concert calendar at

www.ithaca.edu/concerts for a listing of all School of Music performances.

Elmar Oliveira, violin, andRobert Koenig, piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Friday–Saturday, September 12–13

Barry Snyder, piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sunday–Monday, September 21–22

Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Friday, October 3

Rhythm and Brass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sunday, October 26

Fritz Gearhart, violin, and John Owings, piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tuesday–Wednesday, October 28–29

Thomas Duffy, conductor . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tuesday, November 11

Frank Battisti, conductor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Monday–Thursday, December 8–11

Sharon Isbin, guitar, and Gaudencio Thiago de Mello, percussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wednesday–Thursday, January 28–29

Stephen Hough, piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Saturday–Sunday, February 7–8

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet . . . . . . . . . . . Saturday–Sunday, February 14–15

Jiggs Wigham, trombone . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tuesday, February 24

Sylvia McNair, soprano, and Ted Taylor, piano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thursday–Friday, March 25–26

EDITOR: Erik Kibelsbeck

The graphic symbol on thecover of the newsletter is anearly design associated withthe Ithaca Conservatory ofMusic. The symbol has beenengraved on all of the roomsigns in the James J. WhalenCenter for Music.

Dear Friends:

During the current academic year, there have been an extraordinary number of recitals, concerts,competitions, and appearances by internationally renowned artists here at the School of Music. Yet the heart of our program remains the special bond that exists between our faculty and studentsas they attend private lessons, classes, and rehearsals. The School of Music is fortunate to have agifted faculty who are not only outstanding performers, researchers, and clinicians but also dedi-cated teachers. I invite you to learn about some of the latest accomplishments of our faculty later in this publication.

One of the joys of being dean of the School of Music is the chance to attend many concerts in both Ford Hall and the Hockett Family Recital Hall. In addition to the many students and facultyattending, I am always pleased to see so many members of the community at our concerts. Whenthe Whalen Center opened in 1999, the Baker Walkway connecting the upper parking lot to theMcHenry Lobby truly became our bridge to the community. Thanks to the convenient parking and easy access to our performance venues, record numbers of community members now attendconcerts. To help readers understand the extraordinary resource this provides for the community, I asked Henry Stark, a community member who moved to Ithaca just about the time the WhalenCenter was completed, for his perspective as an avid concertgoer. You will read his enthusiasticresponse to our concerts later in this newsletter. It is similar to that of many people in the commu-nity who now have become regular attendees.

The School of Music continues to be highly visible both nationally and internationally. As youwill read in this issue of Soundings, a student brass quintet performed in Germany last June, and the chamber orchestra performed in Ireland last March and presented a special concert in New York City on October 9. Our women’s chorale traveled to Boston for the Eastern DivisionAmerican Choral Directors Association conference, and the wind ensemble appeared inWilliamsburg, Virginia, at the American Bandmasters Association concert. Our school will receivefurther international recognition in June 2004, when the International Trombone Association holdsits annual conference here at the College, attracting upwards of a thousand trombone players tocampus for several days of activities. In addition, the School of Music is now the publisher of theJournal of Historical Research in Music Education, which is edited by Professor Mark Fonder.

Let me also express my sincere thanks to the record number of alumni who have responded to the new Ithaca Fund for Music. I was totally overwhelmed by the number of alumni whoexpressed their support for the School of Music in this way last year. These gifts make a huge difference in allowing me to respond quickly to student and faculty needs that are not coveredby the operating budget. If you have not had an opportunity to consider a gift to the Ithaca Fundfor Music, I encourage you to join others in support of our program by using the envelope enclosedfor your convenience.

I hope to see many of you throughout the year and invite you to visit the school whenever you might be in the area. In the meantime I welcome any e-mail comments to my attention at ostrande@ithaca.edu. On behalf of the School of Music faculty and staff, I offer best wishes for your musical endeavors.

Sincerely,

Arthur E. OstranderDean, School of Music

Letter from the Dean

Soundings is published for the alumni and friends of the Ithaca College School of Music.

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Known for bringing top-notch chambermusic performers such as the

Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, RichardStoltzman, and the American StringQuartet to campus, the Shirley and ChasHockett Chamber Music Concert Series thisyear occurred in conjunction with anotherannual event, the Winter Guitar Festival,when the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet pre-sented a Saturday concert in Ford Hall.

The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet is one ofthe most charismatic and versatile groupsperforming today. The four virtuosi of theLAGQ—John Dearman, William Kanengiser,Scott Tennant, and Andrew York—bring a new energy to the concert stage withtheir eclectic programs and dynamic musical interplay. Their inventive, criticallyacclaimed transcriptions of concert master-works provide a fresh look at the music

of the past, while their interpretations ofworks from the contemporary and world-music realms continually break new ground.Their Ithaca program included transcrip-tions of Igor Stravinksy’s Pulcinella andLiszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2, workswritten for guitar quartet, and the music of Joaquín Rodrigo and Chick Corea.

The LAGQ has appeared with toporchestras and in prestigious music seriesfrom New York to Paris to Tokyo. In recentseasons they have been heard coast tocoast on popular radio programs such asPerformance Today, St. Paul Sunday, andWorld Café. Their performance of de Falla’s“Fire Dance” was nationally broadcast onPBS’s Evening at Pops. The quartet has alsobeen featured on CNN’s Show Biz Today,CBS’s Saturday Morning, and A&E’sBreakfast with the Arts. n

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N e w F a c u l t y

Jeffrey Grogan,associate profes-sor, director oforchestras, comesto Ithaca fromBaylor University,where he servedas associate director of bands, conductor andmusic director of

the Waco Symphony Youth Orchestra,and assistant conductor of the WacoSymphony Orchestra. He recentlystudied conducting in Europe andconducted the Bohuslava MartinuPhilharmonic Orchestra of Zlín in theCzech Republic.

Jennifer Haywood’94, M.M. ’00, assistant professor,music education,previously servedas music teacherin the Ithaca CitySchool District andas director ofchoral activities atSt. Bonaventure

University. She continues to serve asconductor for the Ithaca Children’sChoir, where she conducts the seniorchoir and co-conducts the YoungMen’s Chorus of Ithaca. She recentlyconducted for both the New Mexicoand Maryland all-state choirs. Herarticle “Transformation throughMusic: Deborah’s Story,” which synthesized a phenomenologicalresearch project on the inclusion ofspecial needs individuals in choirs,was recently published in theCanadian Music Educator’s Journal.She has completed her doctoralcoursework at the University ofToronto, where she served as both a music education and conductinggraduate fellow.

Hockett Chamber Series BringsLos Angeles Guitar Quartet to FordHall

Pinnacle Brass, one of our chamberensembles, and trumpet professor

Kim Dunnick participated in a brass cham-ber music course in Lichtenberg, Germany,last summer. The one-week course was anintensive study in brass quintet literature,rehearsal skills, and performance. Otherchamber groups came from Germany and Hungary for the event. This course is presented annually, sponsored by theBezirk Oberfranken and Haus Marteau, the estate of the late Henri Marteau, a famous violinist of the late 19th century.

Members of Pinnacle Brass areCassandra Large ’05 and Jesse King ’05,trumpets; Tyler Ogilvie ’05, horn; Tim Smith’02, filling in for regular trombonist MattHaines ’05; and Christian Carichner ’05,tuba. They received scholarships to attendthe course from both the sponsoring insti-tution and Ithaca College. Kim Dunnick wasa faculty member for the course, joiningRoland Szentpali of Hungary and Bob Tucciof Germany. During the week, the quintet

also rehearsed with and was coached bymembers of the host Rekkenze Brass, oneof Europe’s best-known professional brassensembles. Pinnacle Brass performed a concert on Thursday and took part in theweek-ending concert on Saturday night inBad Steben, a resort town near Lichtenberg.

In addition to coaching chamber groupsand performing in the final concert,Dunnick presented two master classes during the week. n

Student Brass Quintet Studies and Performs in Germany

Pinnacle Brass rehearsing with artists at Haus Marteau: (l to r) Casey Large, trumpet; Christian Carichner, tuba;Jesse King, trumpet; Tim Smith, trombone; Tyler Ogilvie,horn; Peter Knudsvig, Rekkenze Brass; Roland Sventpali,Hungarian tuba artist

About the time you received your last issue of Soundings, the chamber orches-tra was traveling to Ireland to give concerts in Galway, Limerick, and Dublin.

The tour was one facet of the exchange program between Ithaca College and the Irish World Music Centre at the University of Limerick.

The chamber orchestra, conducted by Jeffrey Grogan, performed works of American composers for part of each performance and collaborated with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, director of the Irish World Music Centre, for the rest of the program. Ó Súilleabháin is a leading proponent of Irish music, and thechamber orchestra joined him for a set of his compositions, which draw inspira-tion from the rich heritage of traditional Irish music. His music features membersof the faculty of the Irish World Music Centre performing on traditional Irishinstruments.

Also traveling were the four members of the string faculty who make up the Ariadne String Quartet: Susan Waterbury, Rebecca Ansel, Debra Moree, and Elizabeth Simkin. They conducted master classes at the World Music Centreand performed as a quartet.

Funded by an anonymous gift, the exchange program, besides providing for the tour, allowed students from both IC and the Irish World Music Centre to study at the partner institution for various lengths of time.

The chamber orchestra also performed with Ó Súilleabháin this fall both inIthaca and at New York University. The New York gala concert was in NYU’s newlyopened Skirball Performing Arts Center. For that performance, the orchestra wasjoined by several outstanding traditional musicians and dancers, and accompa-nied part of the silent film Irish Destiny (1926) with a score by Ó Súilleabháin. A special treat was the premiere of new choreography by ex-Riverdance dancerColin Dunne. The concert was part of “West along the Road,” a weeklong festivalthat celebrated the 10th anniversary of NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House andshowcased New York as a cultural crossroads of Ireland and America. n

Chamber Orchestra ToursIreland and NYU Irish Festival

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DAVID PARKS (voice) performed the tenor solo role in Haydn’s Creation with the West Virginia Symphony.

STEPHEN PETERSON (wind ensemble) guest con-ducted in North Dakota, Connecticut, Pennsylvania,Tennessee, Illinois, and New York. He was the all-state guest conductor in New York, Washington, and Maine.

SANDY REUNING (Suzuki/strings) and five otherteachers from the Ithaca Talent Education School participated in the first Suzuki Festival in Guanajuato,Mexico. Three years ago Reuning took 20 violin and cello students on a concert tour of centralMexico with the purpose of introducing the Suzukimethod to that area of the country. Mexican teachers then came to the College’s summer SuzukiInstitute. Reuning also taught Suzuki workshops in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Bermuda. This summer’s Suzuki Institute celebrates 30 yearsunder his direction.

KELLY SAMARZEA (voice) performed in the solo quartet of the Bruckner Te Deum with the IthacaCommunity Chorus.

SUSAN WATERBURY (violin) taught on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory inSteamboat Springs, Colorado. She also spent six weeks in Europe: three weeks on the Spanish island of Majorca, performing with Camerata Deia, a groupof eight musicians playing chamber music concerts all over the island, and three weeks in Italy, on thefaculty of the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival.

BARUCH WHITEHEAD (music education) presented a research paper, “The Effect of Music-IntensiveIntervention on Mathematics Scores of Middle andHigh School Students,” at the International Arts and Humanities Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. He directed the Orff-Schulwerk certification programfor Boston University and Ithaca College. He guestconducted the Wayne County Elementary Band andserves as music director of Voices, an Ithaca-basedmulticultural community chorus.

DANA WILSON (composition) continues to have his music performed throughout the United States,Europe, and Asia. Hornist Gail Williams ’73 and pianistMary Ann Covert recently premiered his “Musings” in Evanston, Illinois. “Songs of Life Passing” receivedits premiere in March by tenor DAVID PARKS andpianist CHARIS DIMARAS as part of the SarajevoWinter Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina. LarryCombs, principal clarinetist with the ChicagoSymphony, and pianist Gail Niwa premiered “Liquid Ebony” at Clarinet Fest in Salt Lake City in July. The Harmo Saxophone Quartet of Tokyo,which commissioned “Howling at the Moon,” performed the work at the World SaxophoneCongress. Wilson has been guest composer at a number of universities throughout the country, and Boosey and Hawkes has released three of hisworks: “Vortex,” “Shortcut Home,” and “Masks.”

GREGORY WOODWARD (composition, chair of graduate studies) was appointed interim dean of the Division of Graduate Studies for the 2003–4school year while Garry Brodhead serves as interimdean of the Park School.

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Mark Fonder, professor of music education, is the new editor of

the Journal of Historical Research inMusic Education (JHRME). The Universityof Kansas hosted the journal from itsinception in 1978 until 1999, when itmoved to Arizona State University. The journal now sports a photo of theWhalen Center on its cover.

“It really is an honor to have a major research journal housed here at IC,” Fonder observed. “The othermajor American research journals arepublished at much larger institutions,including the University of Illinois andIndiana University, besides the MENCJournal of Research in Music Education.”

Both of the previous editors of thejournal were commissioned to writepapers for the Ithaca College Conferenceon American Music Education, which wassponsored by the College in 1992 as acentennial event tracing 100 years ofmusic education history in this country.

The most recent editor remembered thepublication resulting from that confer-ence, which was edited by Fonder, andtherefore asked him to take on theJHRME.

The JHRME publishes scholarly articles covering topics in internationalmusic education history as well as thehistory of music education in the UnitedStates. The first Ithaca-produced issue, in volume 25, included an article on therole and contributions of female com-posers as seen by the authors of collegemusic history textbooks, a biographicalstudy of a pioneering African Americanperformer and teacher, and an examina-tion of the extent of nationalistic andpatriotic themes in school songbooksused in Taiwan since World War II.

To subscribe, contact Mark Fonder at the School of Music at Ithaca College,Ithaca, NY 14850, (607) 274-1563, orfonder@ithaca.edu. n

JJoouurrnnaall ooff HHiissttoorriiccaall RReesseeaarrcchh iinn MMuussiiccEEdduuccaattiioonn Now Based at Ithaca College

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Iwas born in Ithaca in 1931 and started to go to concerts atIthaca College when I was a student playing trumpet in the

Ithaca High School band and orchestra in 1946–49. These wonder-ful concerts were important sources of inspiration for me. I wasparticularly thrilled by the performances of Walter Beeler’s IthacaCollege Concert Band. The players in the band were mostly WorldWar II veterans who had performed in military bands and orches-tras. The band was terrific! Hearing them influenced my decisionto become a band director.

I entered Ithaca College in the fall of 1949 as a freshman musiceducation major. The College then was scattered throughoutdowntown Ithaca. The white-columned music building was locatedat the corner of Cayuga and Court Streets. A practice room build-ing (the World War II Butler building) was situated directly behindthe music building. Its walls were so thin that when practicing oneheard sounds being created in all the other practice rooms. Facultystudios and the president’s office were in the Boardman House, a short diagonal walk across Dewitt Park from the music building.Our Little Theatre, the College’s venue for concerts and dramaproductions, was adjacent and connected to the Boardman House.Academic classes were held in second-floor rooms over the oldWoolworth 5 and 10 Cent Store on State Street (now IthacaCommons). Later these classes were taught in a new building built next to the Boardman House.

I can trace my love of American history to a class taught byMarguerite Rowland. Professor Rowland was a dynamic teacher—I can still recall how exciting she made the Battle of Quebec. One often went to the Olympia Restaurant or Home Dairy to have coffee with friends or a faculty member between classes or rehearsals. We listened to LP recordings (and sometimes evenpurchased one) at Lent’s Record Store, which was located next to the Olympia Restaurant. After-concert gathering spots were the Normandie Restaurant and College Spa on State Street.

During my undergraduate and graduate studies I was inspiredby a legion of dedicated, sensitive, and talented faculty, includingGeorge King Driscoll, Lynn Bogart, Ferdie Pranzatelli, Don Wells,Walter Beeler, Carl Wickstrom, Howard Dillingham, Donald Bube,and Warren Benson. Warren was the first composer I had everknown. Studying with him stimulated my interest in contemporarymusic. I can still recall the thrill of meeting Norman Dello Joio and discussing his music with him. A visit by “America’s composer”

Aaron Copland was another highlight. His lecture on EdgardVarese was my introduction to the music of this amazing and innovative composer. My teachers took a personal interest in me and every other student. During my undergraduate years at IC I was challenged to explore, discover, and grow as both a person and a musician in an environment that was demandingand supportive. Many of the strategies and techniques I use in myteaching and conducting are extensions of the knowledge, skills,and insights I gained from my teachers at the College.

Since receiving my master’s degree in 1964 I have returned to the School of Music numerous times as a guest conductor andteacher. The present college on South Hill is very different fromthe one I attended downtown. However, the faculty, administra-tion, and staff and, most important, the quality of its education,all remain at a very high level. The tradition of excellence contin-ues. In 1982 I commuted to Ithaca every week from my home near Boston to serve as the first conductor of the Ithaca CollegeWind Ensemble, and in 1992 the College awarded me an honorarydoctor of music degree. I sometimes wonder how many other people have three degrees from Ithaca College.

The College was also the place I met Charlotte Tayntor.Charlotte came to the College in 1951 as a cello and music education major. We were married in 1955, and during our lifetogether for the past 48 years (and counting) we have oftenshared feelings and recollections about our Ithaca College experiences, which we treasure as among the most influential and best years of our lives. n

by Frank L. Battisti ’53, M.S. ’64, D.M. (hon) ’92, IC Alumni Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award ’03

Ithaca Memories . . .

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Alex Shuhan, assistant professor ofFrench horn, and alumni percussionist

David Gluck ’89 were at home with what is normally their touring gig last October,when their brass-quintet-plus-percussiongroup, Rhythm and Brass, gave a concert

in Ford Hall. The concert was sponsored by a grant from the Robert G. BoehmlerCommunity Foundation. Robert Boehmler’38, M.M. ’61, was a musician and educatorwho established the foundation to supporteducation in the communities in which he lived.

Their innovative program was in twoparts. The first, “On Your Radio Dial,” juxtaposed a variety of music. After inter-mission the music was selected from thesongs of the Beatles, Hank Williams, Led Zeppelin, Duke Ellington, Pink Floyd,Louis Armstrong, and Stevie Wonder.

Since its inaugural season in 1993,Rhythm and Brass has lived up to the ideal of a musical presentation that is

not bound by time, geography, or culture.With the unique ability to incorporateinfluences as divergent as Josquin DesPrez, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane, JohannSebastian Bach, and Duke Ellington, thegroup searches for the commonality inthese influences and fearlessly weavesthem all into a single concert experience.

While maintaining a full touring sched-ule, Rhythm and Brass has also performedat numerous special events, including a1994 New York concert debut at CarnegieRecital Hall with celebrated jazz trumpeterRandy Brecker. Internationally, the grouphas performed in Canada, Saudi Arabia,the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and theVirgin Islands. n

Two IC Musicians at Home during Boehmler Rhythmand Brass Concert

Women’s Chorale, Wind Ensemble Convention Performances

The Ithaca College Women’s Chorale was one of two women’s ensembles chosen by blind taped audition for performance at the Eastern Division Conference of

the American Choral Directors Association in Boston in February. The other women’sensemble chosen was conducted by Kristy Kosko ’91, who sang in the Ithaca CollegeWomen’s Chorale for all four of her undergraduate years.

The program, “In Remembrance,” was dedicated to the memory of William McIver,a professor of voice at the Eastman School of Music who was women’s chorale con-ductor Janet Galván’s voice teacher for many years and who died recently at the ageof 60. The women’s chorale also commissioned a piece from Francisco Núñez, “WalkHumbly before God,” in his memory. The piece is a reflection on the ways in which ateacher’s work lives on, even after death. Núñez is a longtime collaborator with thewomen’s chorale, which has recorded all of his treble works.

The program reflected the adventurous and diverse repertoire for which thechorale is well known. They sang “Ödi Ödi” in Tamil, a language of Singapore, and “A Ma Lei A Ho,” a Tibetan folk song from Chinese Mountain Songs arranged byChen Yi. Yi, the Karel Husa Visiting Composer in 2002–3, worked with the women’schorale on the entire set of Chinese Mountain Songs. Music of Torke, Fauré, Orbán,and Hatfield completed the program.

The Ithaca College Wind Ensemble performed for the American BandmastersAssociation national convention in Williamsburg, Virginia, on March 4. Their programincluded “Shortcut Home” by IC faculty composer Dana Wilson, Morten Lauridsen’s“O Magnum Mysterium,” and music of Kabalevsky, Gould, and Gandolfi. Besides regular conductor Stephen Peterson, several guests conducted the wind ensemble:Colonel Arnald Gabriel ’50, USAF (ret); Russell Mikkelson, director of bands at OhioState University; Robert Fleming, associate director of bands emeritus at Arizona StateUniversity; Richard Strange, director of bands emeritus at Arizona State University;John Locke, director of bands at University of North Carolina at Greensboro; andRichard Clary, senior wind conductor at Florida State University. n

Faculty Notes q w e h rMARY I. ARLIN ’61 (theory) served on theprogram committee for the Association forTechnology in Music Instruction and was the chair of the session Creative Pedagogies II at the joint annual meeting of the CollegeMusic Society/Association for Technology in Music Instruction. She is on the programcommittee for the annual meeting of theMusic Theory Society of New York State,which will be held in April at the EastmanSchool of Music.

DIANE BIRR (piano) once again served on the faculty of International Workshops, a two-week program for music and art inBiarritz, France. Birr performed in severalconcerts, including one with French bassistFrançois Rabbath. She also coached stringchamber groups. Birr currently serves as president-elect of the New York State Music Teachers Association.

LES BLACK (theory) had an article on Sibelius published in Sibelius Forum:Proceedings from the Third InternationalJean Sibelius Conference. He also gavepapers at the American Mozart Society conference at Cornell (“ ‘Are We ThereYet?’: Formal Ambiguity and ThematicDrama in Mozart’s Piano Sonatas”) and at the joint New York State/New EnglandSociety for Music Theory conference at Yale (“Sibelius’s ‘Modern Classicism’ and the Integration of Modality”).

(continued on page 4)

Faculty Notes

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STEVE BROWN ’64, M.M. ’68 (jazz studies), performed as a jazz guitarist with his owngroups and accompanying local singers Cookie Coogan ’89 and Syracuse University Vocal Jazz Ensemble director Tish Oney ’94. He performed at the Cornigin Jazz Festival and the Jazz in the Square Festival in Syracuse.With jazz guitarist John Stowell he released anew CD, Crossroads, and played a duo concert at Colgate University. Brown was the guitaristwith the Central New York Jazz Orchestra. He also was a guest artist/clinician at the fourthannual Jazz Guitar Festival at the State Universityof New York College at Oswego. His trio withSteve Gilmore and IC alum Chris Persad ’84 per-formed at the Deerhead Inn in the DelawareWater Gap. He also played a concert with hisbrother Ray Brown ’68 and his Great Big Band at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz,California.

VERNA BRUMMETT (music education) conducteda high school area all-state chorus in November.She also received an IC summer grant to pursueresearch on three prominent female music educators.

PABLO COHEN (guitar) performed RobertoSierra’s Concierto Barroco with the CayugaChamber Orchestra, and the same piece plus the Villa-Lobos concerto with the Orchestra ofthe Southern Finger Lakes. He also developedand implemented the new Music in LatinAmerica class and has signed a publishing andrecording contract with Mel Bay Publications for a collection of transcriptions of music byLatin American masters Carlos Guastavino and Horacio Salgán.

LAWRENCE DOEBLER (choir) celebrated 25 years as the director of choral activities with some 70 former choir members who returned for Alumni Weekend to rehearse and perform a concert. His professional Cayuga VocalEnsemble presented major concerts in May and October.

RICHARD FARIA ’87 (clarinet) performed John Fitz Rodgers’s “The Arc of Winter” with theCornell Chamber Orchestra under Xak Bjerken in November. During the summer he was a guestartist at the Garth Newel Music Festival, where he performed a recital of clarinet chamber music.With Cornell University’s Mother MallardEnsemble he premiered David Borden’s “OddAlien Ego.” He is a regular player with the localEnsemble X and made his conducting debut withthem in September. He also performed with theSyracuse Symphony, including their Carnegie Hallconcert in April.

MARK FONDER (concert band, music education)presented a paper last July on “Achieving YourIdeal Band Tone” at the World Association ofSymphonic Bands and Ensembles conference in Jonkoping, Sweden. Three of his articles were published in Instrumentalist magazine. He presented sessions at the Midwest Band andOrchestra Clinic in Chicago and NYSSMA winterconference on innovative ways to teach in band,and he accepted a position as editor of theJournal of Historical Research in Music Education(see article, page 7).

READ GAINSFORD (piano) was in New Zealandover the summer, performing and giving master

classes. He was also on the faculty of the HeifetzInternational Music Institute, held in Wolfeboro,New Hampshire. Last fall Gainsford played anumber of solo recitals and made concertoappearances in concerts across the Northeast. He was asked at very short notice to step in as soloist on tour with the Polish Philharmonic of Resovia, with which he gave eight perfor-mances. He has also given multiple performancesof Debussy’s 12 Etudes, which he is about torecord.

JANET GALVÁN (women’s chorale, chorus, music education) conducted the North AmericanChildren’s Chorale at Carnegie Hall in June.Having prepared the children’s chorus for thepremiere of John Rutter’s Mass of the Children,she was asked by Maestro Rutter to prepare thechildren’s chorus for the second performance in May. She conducted the New Mexico JuniorHigh All-State Choir in January, the ArkansasHigh School Mixed All-State Chorus in February,and the South Carolina High School All-StateWomen’s Chorus in March. In May she will con-duct the North Carolina Middle School All-StateTreble Choir.

ANGUS GODWIN (voice) was the featured soloistat the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia National Assembly in Washington, D.C. He is the adviser for DeltaChapter at Ithaca College and serves as provincegovernor for province 17.

LEE GOODHEW (bassoon) performed with theSyracuse Symphony and Rochester Philharmonicand performed Rob Paterson’s Sonata forBassoon and Piano with DIANE BIRR inGreensboro, North Carolina.

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Whenever I’ve moved from one city to another, it’s been a compromise;

I’ve given up things I enjoy in the expecta-tion—and hope—that I’ll find more positiveaspects in the new destination.

When I moved from Hartford,Connecticut, to Ithaca a few years ago, the one thing I knew I’d miss—and findimpossible to replace—was quality classicalmusic: Along with my season subscriptionto the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, therewas a series of guest artists and ensemblesthat passed through on their way fromNew York City to Boston.

I rationalized that the Cornell and IC visiting artist series would suffice, and Iresolved to purchase every available ticket.

Following the principle that some musicis better than none, a month after I movedto Ithaca I took my wife down one hill andup another for a performance of the IthacaCollege Chamber Orchestra. I had heardthat the School of Music at IC was strong,and I thought that maybe a student ensem-ble would reflect high admission standardsand superior teaching.

To say I was overwhelmed would be anunderstatement. In a recently enlargedmodern building on the stage of a state-of-the-art auditorium sat a surprisingly largegroup of formally dressed students whoplayed as if they were lifetime professionals.The quality of the music was comparable to that of many city symphony orchestras.

Encouraged by this experience, Ireturned for more. In the ensuing weeks I attended performances of the symphonyorchestra, the concert band, the symphonicband, the jazz ensemble, a percussionensemble, and even a trombone choir.

And if that weren’t enough, the facultygave frequent performances. Theseincluded a brass quintet, a string quartet,and various trios, duets, and individualrecitals. All were superior quality.

I was impressed that the faculty responsible for directing the studentschose challenging music. The directors didn’t reach for easy pieces that wouldlead to routine rehearsals and by-the-numbers performances. They applied

A Community Member’s Perspectiveby Henry Stark

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the same criteria when choosing music forthemselves.

I couldn’t believe that each night Iattended a student band or orchestra per-formance there were so many players onstage. My eyes kept scanning the instrumen-tal sections for players I had already seen onprevious nights, but there were no dupli-cates, and my suspicious nature was satisfiedthat no “ringers” were being imported fromthe community to flesh out the groups. IC is clearly dedicated to performance.

The quality of the music never wavered.Oh sure, on a given night one group mightsound better than another and one sectionmight be stronger than another, but basi-cally the level of competence is alwayshigh. I have a friend who was voted thebest flutist in the state of Pennsylvania. Sheapplied to IC and was turned down. Thatgot my attention.

As far as missing the visiting artists inHartford, that feeling never manifesteditself. Richard Stolzman gave an amazingclarinet concert at IC. Ana Kavafian mes-merized a capacity audience with anincredible display of violin virtuosity. ElmarOliveira dazzled us with the warm tone ofhis violin playing. Our neighbor, theSyracuse Symphony Orchestra, paid us a welcome visit, and the Los AngelesGuitar Quartet, not exactly our neighbor,played in Ford Hall this winter.

And by the way, all of this incrediblemusic, this variety, this quality, is absolutelyfree and open to the public.

Now my biggest problem is waiting for the seasonal announcements of the IC School of Music to plan our schedules.

Do I miss Hartford? I think the answer is obvious. n

Trombone Invasion in June

The Whalen Center will be bursting withtrombonists June 15–19 during the

International Trombone Festival, which isexpected to draw more than a thousandtrombone players. Attendees of the festival,which was held in Helsinki last year, will come from literally around the globe.Professor Harold Reynolds will act as host for the event, featuring workshops and performances by a host of top-notch trombonists. The Philadelphia Orchestratrombone section and soloists from theWoody Herman Band, as well as others from Milwaukee, England, New York City,Hungary, Macedonia, Holland, and else-where, are scheduled to appear. Among the ensembles performing will be theUnited States Army Field Band, a Braziliantrombone ensemble, and the Capitol Bones.IC’s own student trombone troupe will offerthe opening concert. For more information,visit www.itf2004.org. n

PATRICK HANSEN (opera) continued his post atGlimmerglass Opera as the director of musical studies for the Young American Artists Program.In addition to his duties as director, he played in theSummer Gala Recital, did numerous communityopera previews, and lectured on the Glimmerglassseason throughout upstate New York.

REBECCA JEMIAN (music theory) gave a paperabout pedagogy of form to the South CentralSociety for Music Theory in February. In June shespent a week at the College of New Jersey read-ing AP tests in music theory. She taught musictheory classes at the Summer Piano Institute atIthaca College in July, and continues to play sec-ond bassoon in the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra.

TIMOTHY JOHNSON (theory) gave a talk,“Charles Ives’s Music about Ballplayers: A Major League Baseball Fan ca. 1906,” at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,New York. The research presented in this talk will be included in Johnson’s forthcoming book,Baseball and the Music of Charles Ives: A ProvingGround, scheduled for publication in 2004 by Scarecrow Press. He presented the paper“Charles Ives’s Rube and Its Derivatives” at the Music Theory Midwest meeting at theUniversity of Indiana Bloomington this past May.In November he presented “The Rube and theCity Slicker: Ives’s Compositional Models”at thenational conference of the Society for MusicTheory in Madison, Wisconsin. In January hegave a presentation, “Teaching Basic MusicTheory from a Mathematical Perspective,” at thejoint meetings of the American MathematicalSociety and the Mathematical Association ofAmerica in Phoenix, Arizona.

STEVEN MAUK (saxophone) was a featured artist at the 13th World Saxophone Congress in Minneapolis. Mauk performed Karel Husa’sConcerto for Alto Saxophone and Band with theRoyal Belgian Air Force Band. He was also the featured guest artist in March at two regional conferences of the North American SaxophoneAlliance. In Columbia, South Carolina, he presenteda master class and gave a recital, which includedWilson’s “Luminescence” and “We Sing to EachOther.” At West Point he performed Wilson’s“Calling, Ever Calling” for soprano saxophoneand wind ensemble with the West Point Band.

RICHARD MCCULLOUGH (voice) has beenappointed New York State governor of theNational Association of Teachers of Singing, in which position he will coordinate the statecompetition.

WENDY MEHNE (flute) wrote the cover article,“An Interview with Nancy Toff,” for the springissue of the Flutist Quarterly. She performed withthe Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and in theGuest Artist Series at the University of Nebraskaat Lincoln and at Hastings College. With guitaristPABLO COHEN, she played a concert and gave a master class at SUNY College at Fredonia. Thissummer she will once again perform and teachat the third Ithaca Flute Institute, which will feature guest flutists Leone Buyse, Jill Felber, andClaudia Anderson. The week of master classesand performances is open to undergraduate andgraduate flutists and young professional flutists.

In June soprano DEBORAH MONTGOMERY-COVE(voice) performed two concerts with theAnchorage Music Festival Orchestra. The first

concert featured Broadway favorites and the second was a performance of Grant Cooper’s children’s opera Boyz in the Wood, in which thesoprano plays Little Red Riding Hood. This fallMontgomery-Cove appeared with the WestVirginia Symphony Orchestra and the SyracuseSymphony. In November she joined with col-leagues KIM DUNNICK and CHARIS DIMARASto perform Handel and Scarlatti arias for theCayuga Chamber Orchestra. Spring eventsincluded a master class for the Rochester VocalArts Collaborative and another appearance with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

DEBRA MOREE (viola) presented a workshop and played in a solo recital at the second annualViola Fest sponsored by the New York AmericanString Teachers at SUNY at Binghamton. She alsogave a master class at the Boston Conservatory.

PAIGE MORGAN (oboe) and CONRAD ALEXANDER(percussion) attended the Brevard Music Festivalfor their seventh summer. They premiered musicfor English horn and marimba written for them by Brevard composer Robert Palmer.

DAVID PACUN (theory) gave three confer-ence papers on Kôsçak Yamada at the third Biennial Conference on 20th-Century Music in Nottingham, England; at Music of Japan Today in Baltimore; and at Yale. He had articles published in the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy (“Scanning Bass Patterns: A Middleground Path to Analysis”) and in theBrahms Society Newsletter (“Brahms and theSense of Ending”).

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