Stephen Czarkowski, MM, Cello and Conducting '02, BM, Cello '99 was recently named music director and conductor of the Montgomery College Symphony Orchestra and Empowered to Excel program in Rockville, Maryland. This month he is being nominated to serve on the board of trustees of the Conductors Guild at the Toronto Conference and then he will be guest conducting the All County String Concert in Hagerstown, Maryland. This past summer Stephen returned to the Georgia Governors Honors Program where he leads the Orchestra in "Death and Transfiguration" by Richard Strauss, "Requiem" of Gabriel Faure, and "The Planets" of Gustav Holsts. Early this year he served as conference coordinator of the Conductors Guild Conference held in New York City where Mannes faculty members Per Brevig, David Hayes, Robert Sherman, and Nancy Wilson served on panels.
James Mack, MM '03, BM '01, Percussion is currently on the road with the national tour of the Tony Award-winning musical, the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Janet Marlow, BM, Guitar '73 directed the Second International Ten-String Guitar Festival at The Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts/Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT from July 6-9, 2006.
Heather Coltman, MM, Piano '83 has just completed her fourth year as chair of a dynamic and growing Department of Music at Florida Atlantic University. She maintains an active performance schedule and has recently released two CDs, which feature the music of fellow Mannes graduate, composer Jeremy Beck (BM, Composition '84). Heather's 2006/2007 performance calendar includes concerts in Pittsburgh, Birmingham, Austin, California, and Brazil. She has three wonderful sons who all make music part of their lives.
Davy DeArmond, MM, Performance '04 recently won a postition in the Naval Academy Band in Annapolis, Maryland as trumpet instrumentalist.
Christopher Powell, BM, Performance '04 just won a job playing horn in the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra. He will be moving to China for at least a year.
Dorothy Clark Bergquist, BM, Voice '56 and Peter Bergquist, BM, Bassoon '58 will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on June 16. The couple met as students at Mannes and one of the honored guests at their wedding was David Mannes himself. Dorothy has retired from an active career as singer and teacher. Until recently, she spent ten years leading church choirs and composing music, mostly for use in church. Peter retired from the University of Oregon music faculty in 1995. He was an active performer for many years and he continues to work on research projects, especially as general editor of Orlando di Lasso: The Complete Motets, published by A-R Editions, Inc.
David Bobrowitz, BM, Trombone '67 continues to publish new concert band works. In 2006 he has four pieces coming out, one with the Neil Kjos Publishing Company and three with Grand Mesa Music Company.
Alma Mora Ponce, BM, Voice '69 teaches voice at Occidental College in Los Angeles and often does master classes at UCLA. She and her husband, Walter Ponce, BM, Piano '67, head of the piano area at UCLA, are active performers here and abroad.
Eveline Wong Eng, BM, Piano '72 recently received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California, majoring in Sacred Music and minoring in Music Theory and Analysis, Piano Pedagogy, and Business. She is currently the director of Music Ministry at the Fountain Valley United Methodist Church in Fountain Valley, California and also teaches music theory and keyboard at a local public elementary school through the MIND Institute Program. The MIND Institute Program was co-founded by the late Dr. Gordon Shaw whose research on the relationship between the brain, math, and music was dubbed the "Mozart Effect." Dr. Eng also teaches piano in her home studio in Huntington Beach, California.
Janet Marlow, BM, Guitar '73 is an internationally renowned ten-string guitarist and composer. Since her graduation from Mannes she has centered her 25-year dedication to the evolutionary aspects of the ten-string guitar by founding: The International Ten-String Guitar Society, The Annual International Ten-String Guitar Festival, Ten-String Guitar Publications, Playing the Ten-String Guitar Method Book and DVD Instruction, Signature Guitar set and Michael McBroom, Luthier, collaboration of the Janet Marlow Student Entry model guitar for transitioning players. Janet's concerts, recordings, composing for film and television and TV appearances have been a contribution to the awareness of the ten-string guitar world wide. www.janetmarlowmusic.com
Audrey Thompson, BM, Conducting '76 has worked as an editor since the mid-1980s. She is currently working freelance from home in Catskill, New York.
Joseph Rutkowski, BM, Clarinet '77 has been Director of Instrumental Music for the Great Neck North Secondary Schools on Long Island since 1991. For the past 14 years he conducted the Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Band at many different sites including Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at C.W. Post College, Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall. Some of these performances were also broadcast on GNPS-TV Channel 75. Many of his students have been selected for NYSSMA All State Conference. Prior to his position in Great Neck, he was Director of the Symphony Orchestra at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School for eight years. On two separate occasions, Joseph was named a Presidential Scholar Teacher and was invited to Washington, D.C. to be recognized at the Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Luncheon.
Robert Bonfiglio, BM, Composition '78 will make his Pittsburgh Symphony debut next season and also play the Villa-Lobos Harmonica Concerto in his debut with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he has been reengaged as a soloist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. This past season, he made his Teatro Colon debut with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Theo Alcantara, conducting the Villa-Lobos Harmonica Concerto and he played the U.S. premiere of Sir George Martin's - of Beatles fame - "Three American Sketches" for harmonica and string orchestra with the Wichita Symphony (Andrew Sewell, conducting).
Sookil Park, Professional Studies Diploma, Voice '78 retired as Dean of the College of Music at Hanyang University in February 2006. He is currently an honorary professor in the voice department at the school. He has served as a president of the National Opera of Korea and has been invited to be a jury member at numerous competitions in Korea and abroad such as ARD Wettbewerb (ARD Music Competition).
David Schepps, BM, Cello '78 is a tenured associate professor at the University of New Mexico. Previously he spent 11 years at Wichita State University where he was also associate professor. As a cellist, he has been a soloist and chamber musician for National Public Radio's "Performance Today" show, Lincoln Center's Bruno Walter Auditorium (NY), the Phillips Collection Series (Washington, DC), concerts in Taiwan, Switzerland, Germany, England, Italy, Canada, Mexico, and radio station throughout the United States. He has won competitions and was a soloist with regional, university, community, and youth orchestras in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.
Carrie Feiner, BM, Piano '79 is currently in her own concert management business representing distinguished pianist, Sara Davis Buechner. This season she booked over 50 concerts for Sara with major orchestras/presenters in the United States and Canada. She is also president of Carrie Feiner Enterprises, a music and entertainment company in Westchester County, NY. Carrie lives in Scarsdale, NY and has four daughters ages 10,12,14, and 16. She would LOVE to hear from other Mannes graduates from her class!
Youngkeun Park, Professional Studies Diploma, Composition '80 has been a faculty member in the composition department at Hanyang University since 1981. During this time, many of his works have been performed, including several operas, cantatas, and orchestral pieces. Since his appointment in August 2005, he has served as Dean of the College of Music, succeeding Sookil Park '78 in this position.
Harry Pellegrin, BM, Guitar '80 has spent the last five years writing novels. He recently completed a classical guitar method, one which combines the nineteenth century schools with his own spin and additions. Also, he has been performing regularly in his own locale (Albany/Schenectady/Troy, NY). He has completed three keyboard CDs, two released and one pending. For more information visit www.pellegrinlowend.com.
Lise Friedman Spiegel, BM, Guitar '82 currently teaches high school psychology and loves it. After graduating from Mannes in 1982 and Yale in 1985, she earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and had a private practice.
John Loose, BM, Percussion '86 has been a surround sound engineer at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco for nearly 10 years. Currently he is managing the company's HD video production facility as well as doing music composition, sound design, and surround sound mastering. He recently supervised the mixing of the first 7.1 channel, 96kHz trailer for Dolby with Chris Scarbosio and Matthew Wood at Skywalker Sound. This trailer promotes new high resolution formats for Blu-Ray Disc and HD DVDs. John is also active as a studio hand percussionist in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Elysabeth Muscat-Catbas, MM, Voice '89 won an award from the Maryland State Arts Council for Solo Voice for 2006. She is chair of the Peabody Preparatory Voice Department and adjunct voice faculty at Peabody Conservatory.
Cady Finlayson, MM, Violin '91 is an Irish fiddle player. Music from her album, Harp and Shamrock, is featured in the Irish baseball film, "The Emerald Diamond." For more information, visit www.cadyfinlayson.com.
Anna Tonna, MM, Voice '93 will appear with Teatro Grattacielo at Alice Tully Hall on November 11, 2006 in the North American premiere of Zandonai's "La Farsa Amorosa."
John Einhaus III, MM, Piano '96 is currently pursuing a DM in Piano at Indiana University studying with Arnaldo Cohen.
Heather O'Donnell, MM, Piano '99 is organizing a project, "Piano optophonique," with four new works for piano and film/video by young composers/film makers/video artists. The program will premiere at Berlin's Ultraschall Festival in January 2007 with further concerts in Rome, Warsaw, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. The address of this project is: http://optophoniqueeng.heatherodonnell.info. Also, this summer she willl be playing a recital with the violinist Irvine Arditti at the World New Music Days in Stuttgart, two concerts at the Musica Sacra Festival in Maastrict that will be braodcast live on KRO Radio in Holland, a recital at the Villa Massimo in Rome, a recital at the Berliner Festspiele, and a series of concerts in collaboration with the visual artists' collective "Lose Combo" in Berlin. Heather has two CDs coming soon, "Responses to Ives," a double Cd with works by Ives or written in honor of him on Mode Records, and a portrait CD of composer Bernhard Lang on Kairos Records. For more information, visit www.heatherodonnell.info
Sara Greeson, MM, Voice '05 just returned from participating in the Apprentice Artist Program at Sarasota Opera where she covered the roles of Countess in Marriage of Figaro and Magda in La Rondine.
Valerie Coleman, MM, Performance '99 is the flutist in an all-African-American woodwind quintet, Imani Winds, that has been nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award. Imani Winds does "straight" classical concerts, and also classical-crossover concerts. Their album, The Classical Underground, is nominated in the Best Classical Crossover Album category. For more information about Imani Winds, see their website at www.imaniwinds.com.
Matt Smallcomb, MM, Percussion '05 has joined the Wilkes University Conservatory as an adjunct instructor for private lessons and clinics. He is also a member of the R&B group, The Collective.
Timothy Boyd Miller, MM, Voice '05 was selected to sing a solo during the funeral for Coretta Scott King at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA.
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