Alumni News
June 4, 2014
Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod (M.Mus., voice performance, 2013). After winning the distinguished 2013 Hilde Zadek International Competition, Gan-ya Akselrod has enjoyed a very successful year singing with the Wiener Kammeroper and at the Theater an der Wien (Vienna). Adding further to her distinctions, she will be part of this summer's Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival. For more about Akselrod's impressive year ahead, see the SonoArtists website.
Carl Bolleia (M.Mus., piano performance, 2011) is currently pursuing his doctorate at the Rutgers University (New Brunswick).
Cory Bracken (B.Mus., percussion performance, 2013) currently works for Schott/EMI Music Publishers. In a Sept. 6, 2013, New York Times review, critic Steve Smith highly praised Cory's piece "For Georgie James" (percussion quartet) as played by Iktus Percussion.
Angelica de la Riva (M.Mus., voice, 2007). Brazilian soprano Angelica de la Riva continues her active and successful singing career. On May 21, 2014, she sang at a Carnegie Hall Benefit Concert for Best Buddies New York, performing with pianist Elaine Kwon in Zankel Hall along with award-winning singer/pianist/songwriter Tony DeSare. For the latest news, visit Angelica's website.
Ian Derrer (M.Mus., voice, 2004; M.F.A. Performing Arts Management).Voice Performance alumnus Ian Derrer has just been appointed artistic administrator for the Dallas Opera. He has been a leading rehearsal administrator for the Chicago Lyric Opera over the past several years.
Lindsey Eckenroth (M.A., musicology, 2010). Eckenroth has served as a managing editor for the Feminist Press during 2013–14.
Whitney George (adjunct lecturer; M.Mus., composition, 2010; Ph.D. candidate in composition, CUNY Graduate Center) and Marie Incontrera (B.A., 2006; M.Mus., music composition, 2009) have often conducted the jazz band (Eco-Music Jazz Band) of the late Fred Ho (see below). George has continued to be the highly valued assistant to professors Oppens and Gythfeldt for Con Tempo concerts at the college as well as a graduate assistant in the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music.
Ben Huber (M.Mus., voice performance, 2006). Countertenor Ben Huber (originally from Germany) recently wrote us about his leaving Barcelona several years ago and completing his initial teacher training at the University of East London (United Kingdom) and then teaching one full year in London's inner-city schools. Because of a severe shortage of teaching jobs in London (and to make ends meet), he returned to Barcelona in early 2011 and became a customer and sales support manager for Hewlett-Packard there. He and his partner, Tony, hope to move (back) to New York in the next year or two.
Quanda Johnson (M.Mus., voice performance, 2013) has had a successful first year on her Fulbright research fellowship to Nova Scotia, Canada, where she continues her research on slave songs that went north via the "underground railroad." On April 25, 2014, she presented a well-received recital/theatrical event, "Oh! To Be Free: Beyond the Veil of the Sorrow Songs," at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts in Halifax. Simon Docking accompanied at the piano. See Dalhousie University for an account of her activities.
Arsid Ketjuntra (M.Mus., composition, 2013). Ketjuntra was recently accepted to the distinguished doctoral program at the University of Missouri in Saint Louis.
Beth Keyes (B.A., music, 2009). Keyes wrote a chapter on the music of Ivor Gurney and "shell shock" for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies, eds. Blake Howe, Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, Neil Lerner and Joseph Straus (expected summer 2014).
Amirtha Kidambi (M.Mus., voice performance, 2012) and David Ruder (M.Mus., composition, 2011). Both alumni were both highly praised in a recent New York Times review (April 14, 2014) for their performances in the premiere at the Whitney Biennial of the opera Crash (in six acts, 90 minutes), the final work of American composer Robert Ashley, who died in early March 2014.
Alma Ramirez (M.Mus., violin performance, 2013). Ramirez, a citizen of Spain, has been playing tutti violin this past year in the "Orquestra Clássica do Sul" in Portugal. She says it's a classical orchestra, with a focus on the classical repertoire (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.). She is very happy with the position, because it's "a very nice new experience" to play in such a good, smaller orchestra. Last year she did have a contract offer from an orchestra in Durban, South Africa, as co-principal second violin, but when the Portugal position came up, she chose to stay closer to Spain.
Chen Reiss (B.Mus., voice performance, 2001). Soprano Chen Reiss continues with her successful operatic, concert, and recording career. She has produced seven CDs, including performances of Fauré's Requiem, Brahms' German Requiem, Mozart's Don Giovanni (under Zubin Mehta) and, more recently Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus (WDR Rundfunk Orchestra under Friedrich Haider). Her next CD is entitled "Le Rossignol et la Rose" and will include an impressive array of art songs (from Purcell to Krenek). Cover stories about her have appeared in several important European cultural and operatic magazines. Visit Chen's website for more information about her active career.
Angelina Tallaj Garcia (B.Mus., piano performance, 1997; M.Mus., piano performance, 2002; candidate for Ph.D. in ethnomusicology, CUNY Graduate Center). Garcia expects to defend her dissertation this summer. In 2014–15 she will have the honor of being a visiting professor in music at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.
Seth Woods (B.Mus., cello performance, 2010). Woods is currently working on his doctorate in cello performance at the University of Huddersfield (United Kingdom).
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