Recent Orchestral, Academic and Professional Appointments
- Ted Botsford ( BM & BA '06, MM '09) - Double Bass section, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
- Kevin Brown (BM '10 & MM '13) - Appointed Assistant Professor of Double Bass, Michigan State University
- Natalie Gaynor (current Master's student) - Principal Second Violin, Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet Orchestra
- Jory Herman (BM & MM '06) - Double Bass section, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
- Cristle Collins Judd (BM & MM '83) - Appointed President of Sarah Lawrence College
- Rosie Salvucci (BM '14) - Principal Double Bass, Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milano, Italy
- John Walters (current Master's student) - Second Clarinet, Detroit Symphony Orchestra
- Kelly Zimba (MM '15) - Principal Flute, Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Competitions, Awards, Performances and Premieres
Composer Lembit Beecher (MM '05) is currently the Composer-in-Residence for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Alumnus John Bland (MM '80) is a founding member of the Mid-Atlantic's newest professional brass ensemble called BrandyWine Brass. The ensemble's goal is to create new collaborative programs with other musicians and organizations in the Delaware Valley.
Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson-Cano (MM '03) is featured on a major new CD release with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on the international music label known as Naxos.
Double Bassist Shawn Conley (BM '05, MM '08), was among the musicians in the Silk Road Ensemble which won a 2017 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album: Sing Me Home.
Current honor student in organ performance Monica Czausz recently signed with Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc, one of America's premier management agencies for concert organists. Monica will perform on the magnificent 104-rank Casavant Freres pipe organ at First Baptist Church in downtown Oklahoma City in a concert presented by the American Guild of Organists.
Ryan Darke (MM '10) is Principal Trumpet of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and Associate Professor of Trumpet at the University of Arizona.
Alumnus Glenn Einschlag (MM '99) is among five distinguished faculty members in the Department of Music at the University of Buffalo to perform in a concert this February. Mr. Einschlag is an adjunct instructor at UB.
Conductor James Gaffigan (MM '03) returned to Jones Concert Hall to conduct the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He was featured on Houston Public Media to talk about his love of Houston and the music of Beethoven, Strauss, and Liszt.
Tommy Glass (MM '16) was awarded third place in the 29th annual Eleanor McCollum Competition of the Houston Grand Opera including a cash prize of $3,000. Current Master's student Geoffrey Hahn won the online Viewer's Choice Award of $500.
Alumna Sonja Harasim (MM '08, DMA '16) is using her Jade Presents Arts Partnership Grant to commission a new piece of music for violin and piano by Professor of Composition and Theory and Director of Graduate Studies Richard Lavenda.
Alumna Abigail Karr (BM '00, MM '03) recently released a CD featuring the complete Felix Mendelssohn Violin Sonatas on the Olde Focus Recording Label.
Meghan Kasanders (MM '16) is among the twenty-nine emerging artists selected to participate in the 2017 Summer Festival as a member of Opera Saratoga's Young Artist Program.
Alumna Lucia Lin (MM '85), currently in the first violin section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, performed Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Wellesley Symphony.
Alumnus Robert McCauley (MM '89) had two arias and a vocal quartet from his work The Last of V. - the Death and Life of Virginia Wolfe performed at the Society of Composers, Inc. Region VI Conference at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Verona String Quartet (Jonathan Ong, violin; Dorothy Ro, (MM '14) violin; Abigail Rojansky, viola; Warren Hagerty, cello), winners of the 2015 Concert Artist Guild Competition, performed their Carnegie Hall debut featuring a world premiere by composer Michael Gilbertson.
Tenor Brenton Ryan (MM '11), who was part of the cast, and producer Blanton Alspaugh (MM '87) were part of the Grammy Award-winning production of "The Ghosts of Versailles" for best opera recording and best engineered album, Classical, in the 2017 Grammy Award Ceremony.
Jack Swanson (MM '16) will make his Los Angeles Opera debut in the lead role in Leonard Bernstein's Candide in January 2018.
Current Master's student Anne-Marie Stanley was a finalist in the Eleanor McCollum Competition of the Houston Grand Opera.
Pianist Andrew Staupe (DMA '16) joined the Maryland Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the romantic Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in celebration of Valentine's Day at The Maryland Theatre.
Violinist Chloe Trevor (MM '13) will be featured as the soloist with the East Texas Youth Orchestra. She will also give a free masterclass for string musicians at the University of Texas at Tyler's Braithwaite Hall.
Chabrelle Williams (MM '15) was among four Houston District winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She was a member of the first class admitted to the Shepherd School Artist Diploma program.
Alumnus Daniel Zajicek (DMA '12) is among eight composers whose unpublished works have been selected for the Fort Worth Opera new work series. Daniel's work "Nothing In The Nothingness" will be presented during the final week of the 2017 Fort Worth Opera Festival in May.