a tempo Summer 2008

Alumni News

1960s

Linda Philpott ’62 is a realtor in Aurora and the Denver Metro Area. She is the National Association of Realtors Director and was named Aurora Realtor of the Year in 2002.

1970s

Eunice M. Koebel ’75 retired from the Fremont City School system after 31 years as an elementary general music teacher. She plays euphonium with the Northcoast Concert Band.

1980s

Kathleen Murray ’82 has been named Macalester College’s new provost, which is located in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has been at Birmingham-Southern, in Birmingham, Alabama, since 2005. Before that, she was dean of the faculty and a music professor at Lawrence University from 2003 to 2005 and dean of the Lawrence Conservatory and music professor from 1999 to 2004. She was an associate professor of music and Piano Department chair at Lawrence from 1992 to 1999 and an assistant professor from 1986 to 1992.

Jennifer Higdon ’86 was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Work in Classical Music for Zaka on her eighth blackbird disc, Strange Imaginary Animals. Her percussion concerto was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in December. Her piece Concerto 4-3, commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Wheeling Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony, received its premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the string trio Time for Three in January. The Philadelphia Orchestra with violinist Jennifer Koh and the Philadelphia Singers premiered The Singing Rooms, commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra, in January. Mr. Carter’s Notes, a piano tribute to Elliott Carter, was commissioned by the Network for New Music and premiered by pianist Marilyn Nonken at Symphony Space in New York City in February. Higdon was featured in a cover article of Gramophone Magazine, with composers Steve Reich, Thomas Ades and John Corigliano.

Scott Price ’89 was recently promoted to the rank of full professor of piano and piano pedagogy at the University of South Carolina’s School of Music. He recorded his 29th CD of educational piano music for Alfred Publishing Company. He was a guest artist and clinician for the Georgia Music Educator State Conference. He was awarded the Music Teachers National Association 2008 Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy award for the Internet journal Piano Pedagogy Forum.

Elaine Robertson ’89 presented Finale NotePad workshops at the 2007 National Technology Institute for Music Educators and the 2008 OMEA Convention. She is on the Ohio Technology Institute for Music Educators Advisory Board.

1990s

Benjamin Brecher ’91 accepted an appointment as voice and head of opera at University of California at Santa Barbara. On March 9, he and his wife welcomed another daughter into their family. Previously, he taught applied voice at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.

Nancy (Hoffman) Reichmann ’89, ’91 teaches applied oboe at University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, and is band director at Ashwaubenon High School in Ashwaubenon, Wis.

Patrick Billig ’93 traveled to China with The Windiana Concert Band based at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind., as well as soloed with the band. He also attended The International Society for the Research and Promotion of Band Music in Luxemburg 2008.

Rev. Edward Dawson, D.Min. ’93 is an instructor of music, history, religion and private organ at South Mountain Community College of Pheonix. He also serves on the South Mountain Interfaith Coalition Board and the Arizona Ecumenical Council. He hosts a weekly devotional radio broadcast titled “SELAH.” He was a speaker at the Dr. Asa Grant Hilliard III Breakthrough Conference hosted by the College of Education on the campus of Texas Southern University.

Nora Levin ’93 wrote a theory book, The Sixteenth Notes Make a Centipede – Survival Handbook for the Just-Starting Student of Music in the style of P.D.Q. Bach. She is an assistant professor of theory at the Conservatorio Superior de Música “Manuel de Falla.”

Brian Coleman ’94 is the vocal music department chair at West Carrollton High School and Middle School. In April, he will be directing the Ohio premier of All Shook Up, featuring and inspired by the songs of Elvis Presley, at West Carrollton High School.

Chad Roberts ’96 after finishing his master’s degree at Peadbody Conservatory, had taught in Baltimore Country for five years, before moving back to Ohio in 2003 where he now teaches in the New Philadelphia City Schools.

Pei-Yu Tseng ’96 is working as a band instrument repair technician in Taiwan.

Theresa Severin ’91, ’97 was a featured soloist during the national broadcast of the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors Award Gala, in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy during a segment honoring pianist and conductor Leon Fleischer.

Denise Smith Green ’97 received her master’s in library and information science in May 2007. She was appointed media librarian for the Cleveland Institute of Music’s library in August 2007. She will be singing in the chorus for the 2008 Opera Cleveland season.

2000s

Cheng-Yu Lee ’01, Po-Yuan Ku ’02, and Chih-Huan Wu ’04 performed as members of the Composition VII Saxophone Quartet at BGSU in January.

Sarah Gainok-Starks ’02 married Stuart Starks of Louisville, Ky., in July 2007. She is in her fourth year as a teacher for the Hamilton City School district teaching general music, choir, band and strings, and was nominated for Educator of the Year at the Harry T. Wilk’s Hamilton Celebrates Education Event in October 2007. She currently lives in Herbon, Ky., and commutes to Ohio everyday.

James Maiello ’02 was appointed as a senior lecturer in music history and literature for the 2008–09 academic year at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music in Nashville, Tenn.

Stacey Barelos ’03 is pursuing a doctor of musical arts degree in piano performance at University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she was awarded the David and Edith Sinaiko Frank Graduate Felloship for a Woman in the Arts. She has won the UW-Madison Beethoven Competition as a performer and composer. She frequently tours, performing and presenting music of the 20th and 21st centuries, including compositions of her own.

Lee Michael Morrison ’03 is currently the high school instrumental music director at the New World School of the Arts at Lourdes College in Miami, Florida. Under his direction the NWSA earned straight superior ratings at the district and state levels of the Florida Bandmasters Association concert music performance assessment in class AA. The NWSA Wind Ensemble is currently planning to perform the USA premiere of BGSU masters graduate Erin Rogers’ (’06) Inventory in December of 2008. Formerly, he was the director of instrumental music at St. John’s Jesuit High School in Toledo from 2003 to 2007. While he held this position, the band grew from 53 members to 110 and earned an overall superior rating at OMEA District I evaluation for the first time in 13 years. He also served as a per-service musician with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, performing with Kenny Rogers, Eydie Gorme, Steve Lawrence, Patti Austin and Debbie Reynolds. He played in the orchestras for the musicals The Producers and Chicago.

Carmen Burmeister ’04, is a permanent extra violist in the Chilean National Symphony. She has a permanent contract teaching at the University of Concepcion.

Michael Holmes ’04 has completed course work for his doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Performing as a Vandoren artist he performed as a guest with the Defiance College Community Band cabaret on March 29, 2008. Holmes also served as the director of the BGSU Summer Music Institute’s Super Sax Camp in June.

Benjamin Horen ’04 is currently teaching music in Fairfax County and has been the music director for the U.S. Performing Arts Camps at George Washington University. He performed in The Stephen Schwartz Project at the MetroStage in Alexandria, Va., April 10–May 25, 2008.

Emily (Lawry) Hatch ’05 is currently teaching general music and double reed private lessons with her husband, BGSU graduate Jared Hatch, at Woodstock International School in Mussoorie, India, in the first range of the Himalayan Mountains.

Steven Kemper ’06 is a doctoral student at the University of Virginia. As part of collaboration with two other students, he has created an avant-garde music robot, which was featured in an article in the UV’s Magazine. More information on this project and the complete article is available online.

Christa Kuebel ’06, will be teaching elementary music and beginning band at Shanghai American School in Shanghai, China, starting in August.

Noah Taylor ’06 won The Penfield Music Commission Project Wind Ensemble Composition Contest, which includes an internship as well as a money award. This award is unique in that the members of the Penfield High School Wind Ensemble develop the criteria, adjudicate and select the price winners for this competition.

Courtney Cleveland as Zawadi

Courtney Cleveland ’07 is performing the role of Zawadi in The Festival of The Lion King show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Fla.

Robert McClure ’07 won the second place prize in the IronWorks Percussion Composition Competition with his work Go!. His piece will be featured on the IronWorks CD in fall 2008.

Justin Randolph ’04, ’07 performed a major role in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol off-broadway in December. He will be singing in the world premiere of several compositions by composer Vincent Peterson in April. Other upcoming engagemenets include Vivaldi’s Gloria, the Count in scenes from Le nozze di Figaro and a recital tour with baritone Michael Turay.

Cody Rex ’07 is pursuing a master’s degree in double bass performance at the University of Michigan, where he studies with Diana Gannett. A member of the UM Symphony Orchestra, he will travel with the group to New York City for a performance at Carnegie Hall this fall.

Issue Date: Tuesday 5 August 2008 | Contact the CMA | Disclaimer