School Notes: School of Music
November/December 2016

Building on a jazz legacy

A jazz initiative at the School of Music is building on a legacy that can be traced to the historic 1972 Jazz Convocation in Woolsey Hall, which was the primary impetus for the Ellington Jazz Series and gave a home to Professor Willie Ruff’s concept of a “conservatory without walls.” The Yale Jazz Ensemble, which was suspended two years ago, has been reconstituted under Professor Thomas Duffy’s direction and opened to all Yale students; Grammy Award–winning jazz saxophonist Wayne Escoffery is teaching an improvisation course and, along with bassist and composer Jeff Fuller ’67, ’69MusM, coaching jazz ensembles; and distinguished saxophonist Carrie Koffman is teaching private lessons on the instrument. 

Alumni earn top prizes at Banff

Yale School of Music/ Norfolk Chamber Music Festival alumni won the top two prizes at this year’s Banff International String Quartet Competition. The Rolston String Quartet, whose members studied at Norfolk in 2016, was named first prize laureate and also won the Esterházy Foundation Prize and the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance Prize. The Tesla Quartet, whose members—including violist Edward Kaplan ’10MusM, ’11ArtA—attended Norfolk in 2011, earned second prize at the BISQC and also won the R. S. Williams & Sons Haydn Prize and the Canadian Commission Prize. The Argus Quartet, Yale School of Music’s fellowship quartet-in-residence, and the Ulysses Quartet—whose members include violist Colin Brooks ’13MusM, ’14ArtA, and cellist and Norfolk alumna Grace Ho—each earned a Career Development Award. 

Alumni news highlights

Kensho Watanabe ’09, ’10MusM, was appointed assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he’ll serve under acclaimed music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Watanabe studied molecular, cell, and developmental biology at Yale College, earning a bachelor of science degree in 2009. He earned his master’s degree in violin.

Composer Jay Wadley ’07MusM, ’08ArtA, wrote the music for James Schamus’s film Indignation, which was released in July.

Christoph Campestrini ’92MusM has been appointed kapellmeister at Vienna’s Hofkapelle, home of the Vienna Boys Choir. He will lead the famed Hofmusikkapelle, which includes the boys choir and members of the Vienna State Opera orchestra and chorus.