a tempo winter2008
Alumni News
60s
Denver “Denny” Seifried ’64 plays bass trombone with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, of which he has been a member for 40 years. The players’ representative on the SSO Board, Seifried performs as bass trombonist in the Dayton Symphony Orchestra and as a freelance bass and tenor trombonist in Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati. He moderates The Trombone Forum and serves as president of the Local 160 American Federation of Musicians in Springfield.
80s
Brian Bushong ’80, Dan Saygers ’81, David Saygers ’88 and Bernice Schwartz ’91, members of the Tower Brass Quintet, will perform on the Chamber Music Toledo 2007–2008 Artist Series in April.
Susan (Donley/Roberts) Slawinski ’86 and Matthew Slawinski currently reside in Defiance. They are proud to announce the birth of their son, Noah Robert, born December 7, 2006. Susan teaches vocal music in grades 5–12 for the Delphos St. John’s Schools and is also the worship director at Christ United Methodist Church in Wauseon.
Stanley George ’89, ’00; Shannon Ford ’95; Kevin Heidbreder ’85, and Jason Yost ’96, ’92, members of the saxophone quartet, Sax 4th Avenue, performed on the Chamber Music Toledo 2007–2008 Artist Series in November.
90s
Shannon Detlef Smith ’93 is currently serving as a music teacher at Stroudsburg Junior High School in Stroudsburg, Pa.
Maria Tanau ’93 plays in the first violin sections of the Detroit Symphony and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Tanau is president of the newly formed American Romanian Festival, which just finished its first season with events in the greater Detroit area and Romania.
Calesta A. Heath Day ’94 is a second-year doctoral student at the University of Kentucky. She holds a master’s degree in music education from Miami University (Ohio). She has worked as a pharmacy technician for eight years. She also performs as a soprano in the American Spiritual Ensemble.
Shannon Ford ’95 is the baritone saxophone player for the Scott Gwinnell Jazz Orchestra. The group played at the Detroit International Jazz Festival and at Cliff Bell’s in downtown Detroit in September.
Paul Heins ’96 is director of the Concert Choir at Georgetown University, where he also teaches diatonic harmony and piano. He also continues to serve as music director of the Lesbian & Gay Chorus of Washington.
Alina Voicu ’96 has opened a talent agency in Birmingham, Ala.
Jeffrey Leinen ’97 has recently been accepted into the graduate school at Boston University, where he is working toward his master’s degree in music education.
Rick George ’99 received his master of arts in Christian education from Dallas Theological Seminary. He serves as the pastor of worship ministries at Cary-Grove Evangelical Free Church in Cary, Ill.
2000s
Dana Tolan ’00, ’03 has taken a position as violinist with the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra in Lebanon, starting in January.
Leslie Heffner ’02 participated in the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute in San Francisco in summer 2007, where she performed the title role of the U.S. premiere of Handel’s Silla. She was a semi-finalist in the Young Patronesses of the Opera Vocal Competition, in conjunction with Florida Grand Opera, in March 2007.
James Maiello ’02 completed his doctorate in musicology with an optional emphasis in European medieval studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His dissertation is titled The Pistoia Choirbooks: An Introduction to the Sources and Their Repertory. He teaches instrumental, vocal and general music at Stissing Mountain Middle School in Pine Plains, N.Y.
Lee Michael Morrison ’03 is currently the high school instrumental music director at the New World School of the Arts at Lourdes College in Sylvania, Ohio. Formerly he was the director of instrumental music at St. John’s Jesuit High School in Toledo from 2003–2007. 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.
Elizabeth Baldwin ’04 received her master’s degree from Indiana University in vocal performance this past summer. She is currently a teaching assistant at Indiana University, where she is a doctoral student in vocal performance and opera. She appeared in the title role of Richard Strauss’s Arabella with IU Opera Theatre this past spring and will appear as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro with IU Opera Theatre in February and March 2008.
Jennifer (Morrison) Cooper ’05 is living in Columbus with her husband Jerad. She is an instrumental music director in Columbus City Schools.
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.
Joan Cano ’06 is currently living in Los Angeles. She will be performing in a Filipino opera titled Karim at Jasmin, which toured several cities, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Diego, in the fall of 2007.
Allison Fahler ’06 is teaching music at Elyria Community Elementary in Elyria.
Aaron Kennell ’06 is assistant band director at Aldine High School in Houston. He works with three high school concert bands, a jazz band, a marching band and a middle school concert band.
Matthew Young ’07 master’s of music theory thesis titled “Projecting Tolkien’s Musical Worlds: A Study of Musical Affects in Howard Shore’s Soundtrack to Lord of the Rings,” has been accepted for publication as a monograph by VDM Verlag Saarbrücken, Germany. He is currently a doctoral student in music theory at the University of Texas at Austin.