NEC Update Vol. 2, No. 5, November 14, 2005
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| News from NEC |
Vol. 2, No. 5, November 14, 2005 |
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Churchills receive teaching award |
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Harvard's 2005 Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award has gone to Mark Churchill (in photo), NEC's Dean of Preparatory and Continuing Education, and his wife, Marylou Speaker Churchill, recently retired principal second violin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who teaches both Preparatory and College students at NEC, as well as orchestral repertoire classes for violinists.
The award is named after the late pianist Luise Vosgerchian '45, an NEC alumna who taught at Harvard from 1959 and served as music department chair. |
Read more about this award.
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"Kids in Harmony" with O'Riley, Brunner |
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Acclaimed pianist and "From the Top" radio host Christopher O'Riley '81 A.D. headlines an all-American program at NEC's "Kids in Harmony" concert on December 1 with a performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The NEC Preparatory School's flagship ensembles will perform works by composers from Duke Ellington to Leonard Bernstein.
WCVB "News Center 5" co-anchor Liz Brunner will be master of ceremonies for the concert. An awards dinner preceding the concert will honor O'Riley and other world leaders in music and music education.
We invite you to take part in this evening that celebrates NEC's impact on youth music, locally, nationally, and globally. Proceeds from the evening's events will provide critical scholarship support to sustain NEC's commitment to serving students of all financial backgrounds through its Community Collaborations and Partnerships programs. |
Reserve "Kids in Harmony" tickets online.
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Young alumni go west |
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Adding to a burgeoning West Coast musical community populated with NEC alumni, two young alumni have recently moved into leading roles at two top California orchestras.
Chad Smith '95 TU, '98 M.M. (in photo) returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic in January as vice president of artistic planning. Smith has been at the New York Philharmonic this year as artistic administrator--the same position he previously held in Los Angeles. Other NEC alumni at the L.A. Philharmonic include president/CEO Deborah Borda '68 and principal cellist Peter Stumpf '90 A.D.
Announced the same day as Smith's hire in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Symphony's first associate conductor position has gone to James Gaffigan '01. Gaffigan, currently assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and music director of the Cleveland Youth Orchestra, comes to San Francisco beginning with the 2006/2007 season. Alumni at the S.F. Symphony include Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt '52. |
Find out about NEC's Los Angeles alumni group.
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Opera premieres feature alumni voices |
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| photo by Mike Hoban, courtesy Glyndebourne Opera |
Two recent world premieres that have taken the current opera season by storm feature NEC singers.
Katherine Rohrer '00 M.M. (in photo) is currently touring the United Kingdom in the Glyndebourne production of Tangier Tattoo. Composer John Lunn based the work on subject matter suggested by focus groups of young people who have not traditionally been exposed to opera. "The Marriage of Figaro it ain't," said The Times of London. The work has provoked saturation media coverage, much of it critical, but Rohrer's performance in the lead role of a femme fatale spy has garnered compliments.
In San Francisco, John Adams's Doctor Atomic, about the developers of the atomic bomb, has also galvanized audiences and journalists. A San Francisco Chronicle review called the work "some kind of masterpiece" and was followed by a laudatory editorial in the same paper. James Maddalena '76, who has long been associated with Adams and created the title role in the composer's best-known work, Nixon in China, appears in Doctor Atomic as the weatherman whose predictions control the bomb test schedule.
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Read a review of Tangier Tattoo.
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Levine joins Schuller celebration |
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Boston Symphony Orchestra music director James Levine has agreed to join Gunther Schuller for a public discussion as part of NEC's Schuller festival on Tuesday, November 15, in addition to conducting BSO performances of Schuller's Spectra on November 19 and 22. NEC's festival of discussions and concerts runs the gamut of Schuller's activities from historically informed revivals of ragtime and early jazz to Schuller's own compositions. |
Find details of NEC's Gunther Schuller festival.
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Early start to youth concert season |
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| photo by Alex Vai |
The many talented young people who make up NEC's Preparatory School ensembles have traditionally offered concerts around the holiday season. This season begins unusually early this year with a November 17 Jordan Hall concert by the NEC Youth Symphony under the baton of Steven Karidoyanes (in photo, on tour in Italy), and continues well into the new year with a Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and Prep chamber music concerts on January 22 and "Today's Youth Perform Today's Music" January 28-29. |
Find out more about NEC's Preparatory School ensembles.
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Upcoming new music concerts |
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| photo by Andrew Hurlbut |
NEC's Schuller week is the tip of the iceberg where new music offerings are concerned. Here are some NEC concert dates for new music enthusiasts to consider:
November 21: music by Xenakis, Ligeti, and Paul Elwood, performed by Stephen Drury (in photo) and the Callithumpian Consort
November 22: music by Bernard, Burke, Knussen, and Varese, performed by NEC Jordan Winds
December 5: First Monday concert includes Kurtag's Signs, Games and Messages
January 21: Boston Modern Orchestra Project, NEC's afilliate ensemble for new music
January 28-29: Today's Youth Perform Today's Music
February 1: music of young Harvard composers, performed by [nec]shivaree, the NEC Avant-Garde Ensemble
February 7: music of NEC faculty and student composers
February 14: vocal music performed by the NEC Contemporary Ensemble
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Find out more about NEC's new music ensembles.
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New Honors Ensembles chosen |
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| photo by Andrew Hurlbut |
At the beginning of November, seven student ensembles were selected as Honors Ensembles for the 2005/2006 academic year. The groups include a jazz sextet; a Wild Card trio of electric bass/tabla, percussion, and guitar; a classical "wild card" of four saxophones (in photo); a piano trio; and three string quartets. |
Find out more about NEC's Honors Ensembles program.
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Alumni give more |
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NEC is grateful to the many alumni who dug into their pockets to give to the Annual Fund during the Fall Phonathon, which ran through November 10. This year, alumni pledged 30% more than last year, in gifts both large and small.
The Annual Fund is vital to everything we do, paying for "free" concerts and masterclasses and meeting all the yearly costs that tuition alone can't cover. Every dollar you give gets us that much closer to reaching the Annual Fund goal of $2.7 million by June 30, 2006.
No gift is too small to make a difference. We urge you to make a contribution now to the Annual Fund and have a direct impact on NEC's commitment to excellence. |
Make your gift online or pay for your pledge.
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Escape the ordinary when you come to NEC to hear our faculty, guests, and the best young pre-professionals perform live. And bring a friend to escape with you for the same ticket price: Free!
New England Conservatory is located at 290 Huntington Avenue (at the corner of Gainsborough Street), Boston--a block from Symphony Hall. |
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