NEC Update Vol. 1, No. 12, February 7, 2005

Hieken gift endows faculty chair

Grammy-winning bassist visits NEC

Carnegie Hall welcomes NEC musicians

A "Gospel Jubilee" of praise and worship

Haydn's "passione": new streaming audio

Hieken gift endows faculty chair

Charles and Donna Hieken, a Sharon, Mass., couple with deep ties to music, have fully endowed a flute faculty position at NEC--the second endowed faculty position created during NEC's $100 million Gift of Music campaign. Donna Hieken was principal flutist with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, among many other musical activities. Her husband, Charles (currently a principal at Fish & Richardson PC), was an organizer of the Bose Corporation with MIT classmate Dr. Amar Bose.

A matching grant from the Nicholas Family Challenge Grant has fully endowed the chair, with the first appointment to be announced later in the year.

Read more about the Hieken gift.

Grammy-winning bassist visits NEC

photo by Herb Snitzer

Grammy Award-winning jazz bassist Dave Holland, who taught at NEC in the late 1980s (see photo, taken in Jordan Hall during that period), visits this week for a residency that includes masterclasses with student bass players and culminates with a February 10 Jordan Hall concert involving three small student jazz ensembles.

Read more about Dave Holland's jazz residency.

photo by Kris Snibbe

Violinist James Buswell has recently recorded American violin concertos on the Naxos CD label. Buswell previously championed the music of the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu in NEC concerts, and returns to Central Europe with the music of Romanian composer George Enesco in a February 13 recital in Jordan Hall and in a March 7 "First Monday at Jordan Hall" concert. Joining him on his February 13 date are his wife, cellist Carol Ou, and pianist Meng-Chieh Liu, with additional works by Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Mendelssohn.

Explore NEC's faculty, starting with James Buswell.

Carnegie Hall welcomes NEC musicians

photo by Jeff Thiebauth

The NEC Wind Ensemble has been selected to perform in New York's Carnegie Hall on February 25 as part of the College Band Directors National Association biannual conference. Here in Boston on February 17, NEC Director of Wind Ensembles Charles Peltz (in photo) and William Drury conduct the ensemble in a Jordan Hall preview of the Carnegie Hall program. Those attending the Carnegie concert itself can also take advantage of other NEC activities planned for that weekend in New York.

Find details of New York alumni activities.

A "Gospel Jubilee" of praise and worship

photo by Jeff Thiebauth

It may be dark and cold outside, but inside the musicians will be celebrating the light of the spirit and the warmth of love at NEC's 26th Annual Thomas A. Dorsey Gospel Jubilee, February 19-20. Over two days and three concerts, voices will ring out in NEC's Jordan Hall and Roxbury's Eliot Church, praising God in musical selections drawn from the deepest rural traditions to the youngest urban expressions. Performers include Freda Battle and the Temple Worshippers plus NEC's Millennium Gospel Choir and Community Gospel Choir, and a jazz orchestra directed by NEC's Ken Schaphorst.

Explore NEC concerts and programs day by day.

Haydn's "passione": new streaming audio

photo by Paul Cortese '92 M.M.

NEC is fortunate to have on its faculty double bassist Donald Palma, who is a founding member of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the renowned conductorless orchestra. Palma has replicated the Orpheus ethos at NEC with the NEC Chamber Orchestra. Under Palma's guidance, the group is driven by student section leaders. When the group takes the stage in Jordan Hall, Palma gets to enjoy his handiwork from the sidelines, along with the rest of the audience.

As a taste of the NEC Chamber Orchestra's upcoming Jordan Hall concerts (March 2 and April 14), listen to fresh streaming audio of their performance of a masterwork from the heart of the classical period: Haydn's Symphony No. 49 in F Minor, "La passione."

Listen to the NEC Chamber Orchestra's Haydn.

cover photo by Susan Wilson

Notes magazine is for everyone: alumni, students, parents, faculty, and friends of New England Conservatory. The current issue is available in PDF form, with stories of NEC milestones and triumphs, class notes and recordings from NEC alumni, and a feature on chamber music: the most life-affirming art.