Alumni News
March 27, 2015
We always enjoy and appreciate hearing from and of our alumni. Here's the latest mid-winter 2015 news:
Mark Kroll '68, harpsichordist and fortepianist, is now Professor Emeritus at Boston University where he taught for many years. One of the founders of the esteemed Boston Early Music Festival, he remains harpsichordist for the Boston Symphony, as well as book review editor for Early Music America and Editor in Chief for the Historical Harpsichord Series (Pendragon Press). In a recent email to Professor MacIntyre, who’d sent him a photo of our music faculty in 1967, Mark wrote: “I recognize all my former teachers there: Robert Starer, from whom I learned harmony and composition, and whose music I recorded decades later; Robert Sanders, who taught me everything about analysis (and terrified us all); Jean Hakes and Robert Hickok, with whom I performed early music for the first time; Dottie Klotzman, who taught me orchestration; Karoly Köpe, for whom I served as graduate assistant/rehearsal pianist/assistant conductor in the opera department (we did in one year Così, Gianni Schicchi, Freischütz and a premiere of The Scarlet Mill by Eugene Zador); the wonderful musicology faculty (Levarie, Van Solkema, Dittmer) and wonderful librarian Walter Gerboth; Stoddard Lincoln (with whom I did not study, but who was a good friend and mentor); etc., etc. What great memories. I have always said that the Brooklyn College Music Department made me the musician and teacher that I became, for which I will forever be grateful and have a warm spot in my heart.”
During a career of more than four decades, Mark Kroll has performed throughout and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, winning critical praise for his expressive playing and virtuosity. He recently played solo recitals and gave master classes in Thailand and Hong Kong, served as the president of the Jury of the Prague International Harpsichord Competition, performed a concert for the Prague Spring Festival, and was solo recitalist and lecturer in Poland, France and England. Kroll has also been the first American harpsichordist to appear in numerous cities and countries, including Abu Dhabi and Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, and Bangkok. He has performed as concerto soloist with some of the world's major orchestras, including the Philadelphia, Boston, Minnesota and Montreal symphonies. His extensive list of recordings includes the music of J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Handel, D. Scarlatti, F. Couperin, Duphly, Balbastre, Schubert, Hummel and Biber; three critically acclaimed CDs of contemporary American harpsichord music; the harpsichord music of Vittorio Rieti; and Henri Dutilleux's Les Citations with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. As scholar and editor, Kroll has published numerous articles and four books — Ignaz Moscheles and the Changing World of Musical Europe; Playing the Harpsichord Expressively; The Beethoven Violin Sonatas (co-edited with Lewis Lockwood); and Johann Nepomuk Hummel: A Musician and His World — plus scholarly editions of the music of Charles Avison, Francesco Geminiani, Francesco Scarlatti and J. N. Hummel. He is currently preparing Geminiani's opus 4 sonatas and concerti for the complete edition of the works of this composer (Ut Orpheus), and Hummel's Sonata for Cello and Piano for Bärenreiter.
A dedicated educator, in 1989 Kroll served as Fulbright Professor and Artist-in-Residence in Yugoslavia, and in 1993 as guest professor at the Conservatory of Music in Würzburg, Germany. He has given master classes and lectures worldwide, and is professor emeritus at Boston University, where he served for 25 years as founder and chair of the Department of Historical Performance.
Deborah Pittman '74, '76 M.A. (clarient performance). After commencing her DMA at the Manhattan School of Music, Deborah Pittman moved to Sacramento, Calif., in 1981, where she played second and bass clarinet with the Sacramento Symphony until 1990. Pittman then taught for 24 years as professor of clarinet and studies in American music at the California State University at Sacramento (a.k.a. Sacramento State), specializing in studies in American musical theater. In 2014 she took early retirement and is happily keeping active with her new trio and has established a ceramics business. In the course of her career, she played with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, State Symphony of Mexico, Orchestra of New York, Dance Theatre of Harlem and in the pit for several Broadway shows. For several years she was an artist-in-residence for the Sacramento Light Opera Association's Theater Education Project, presenting the Metropolitan Opera's Creating Original Operas program at various schools in the Greater Sacramento area. For more than 10 years she has also played the cedar flute, a softwood Native American flute, and offers much thanks to her mentor, Mary Youngblood, and her flute-maker, Geoffrey Ellis. See also: http://www.csus.edu/music/faculty/pittman.html
John Henry Sheridan '03 (music composition). Guitarist John Henry Sheridan has just self-published some of his folksong settings for guitar as "Single Strings Songs, Vol. 1." They are available online through Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Google Books. Another volume, his "Single String Halloween Songs," is available through Amazon or John's website. John is now back in Brooklyn, living with his wife, Yoko, and actively teaching guitar.
Lenore Von Stein '97 M.Mus. (composition). We recently learned from Lenore that she has been producing The Facts. This TV/Web series is five years old (with 80 half-hour episodes to date) and broadcast Tuesdays at 11:30 p.m. on the public access station Manhattan Neighborhood Network. It is streamed and archived on the Web; there are both video and audio podcasts. Most episodes are original stories made of composed and improvised music and texts. Lenore produces the series and writes the music and text, while the core ensemble is made up of musicians working in baroque music, modern art music and free jazz. They have worked together for about 15 years. There are about 25 people working on the series: musicians, technicians, administrators — mostly as volunteers. Lenore started the series to give herself a base from which to develop her work. She has written a good amount of music and stories for the series, and, in her view, they have developed a new form of storytelling. Freely improvised music, with leadership changing among the musicians, creates bridges between text and composed music.
As Lenore describes the series, an eight-person TV crew tapes the episodes and a four-person postproduction crew edits and formats each episode for TV, Web and podcast. The series title refers to the issue of misinformation — how does an audience know what is true? How does the truth or depth of a cultural experience affect its audience? The Facts consists of episodes of original stories with nonfiction episodes of discussion between experts on issues relevant to the stories. The whole series' storyline concerns: 1) the development of ideas about human drives and conundrums, and 2) the evolution of the storytelling mechanics (e.g., relationships between music scenes and text scenes as well as filmic and performance arts). The characters and/or stories change each episode, but the repertoire of composed music changes more slowly — a new piece of music is usually added every other episode. There are five to eight composed pieces of music per fiction episode. Individual pieces of composed music serve different purposes (e.g., the music about a crowded public place depicts a place in one story and a character's internal dialogue in another).
Lenore is working on getting the show to appear on more TV and radio stations. She also wants to give the series to venues that will run episodes. Her nonprofit, 1687, (founded in 1994) owns the series. Web stats tell her that most of the audience, about 700 views per month, are on the U.S. coasts, Western Europe, Russia, China and Japan. Episodes can be accessed online on YouTube, Facebook, and on Lenore's website.
Sean King (saxophone performance). Sean King is having quite a success running a local music school on Quentin Road: The Inperformance Music Workshop. Sean still returns to campus regularly to sit in with Professor O'Farrill's Big Band rehearsals and concerts.
Melissa Zapata '14 M.A. (musicology). Melissa writes: "Dear Dr. MacIntyre, I am writing to let you know I got accepted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Ph.D. in Musicology Program) with a fellowship of $20,000 per year, for the first two years. Later on, I will have funding as a TA. Also, Duke University wait-listed me; I am still waiting for their decision. I wanted to thank you for all your help during this process. I will continue to keep you posted on my decision once Duke University communicates their decision. Again, thank you!"
Vin Scialla. Professor Jane Palmquist reports: "Music education alumnus Vin Scialla has just released a jazz CD called Wake Up! He is completing his doctorate at Boston University, I think, and has an active successful career in Indian music, jazz and film scoring."
Georges Vilson. Vilson has just published a book/CD set transcribing and recording Haitian voodou songs.
Georgia Lowe '14 M.Mus. (harp) is working as a “casual” harpist with the Australian Opera & Ballet Orchestra, which means the Sydney Opera House has become her workplace. In mid-April 2015, she was finishing a run of Adolphe Adam's Giselle. Next she was to work on a triple-billed ballet production of Midsummer Night's Dream. She is also teaching and playing chamber music. In June 2015, she will be performing the Glière Harp Concerto with the Beecroft Orchestra, a community orchestra in Sydney. [4/21/15]
Wei Huang'02 M.Mus. (voice). After her many operatic successes, Wei Huang was highlighted in the CUNY newsletter CUNY Matters (June 2015). See http://www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/news/cuny_matters/june_2003/dream.html
Thomas Nazziola '06 M.Mus. (composition). We are delighted to learn that, in Fall 2015, Tom will be pursuing his Ph.D. in composition at Rutgers University. In addition to those studies, he will also serve as Liaison between the percussion department and the composition department there. His responsibilities will include coaching other composers on writing for percussion, as well as providing master classes for percussionists to encourage composition for instruments of the percussion family. Additionally, he will be commissioned to compose a piece each year for the Rutgers Percussion ensemble. For the past three years (2013-15), Tom has taught a section of Theory III in the Spring term here at the Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College.
