School Notes: School of Music
March/April 2018

Piano faculty member retires after 30 years at YSM

In November, pianist Peter Frankl performed his final recital as a member of the School of Music faculty. Frankl arrived at YSM in 1987, having established a celebrated career that has seen him perform alongside many of the world’s most appreciated artists and ensembles. Faculty and staff gathered to honor Frankl at a reception that YSM dean Robert Blocker organized in November. At the event, Frankl presented Blocker with notebooks filled with comments about each lesson he taught at YSM. At press time, Frankl was expected to return to Yale to perform on Blocker’s March 7 recital.

YSM names communications director

In January, Mackenzie Dilbeck joined the School of Music staff as the director of communications. She previously worked in the same capacity at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Dilbeck holds a graduate degree in strategic public relations from George Washington University and has extensive experience in higher-education communications and marketing.

Ellington Jazz Series features faculty member

The 2017–2018 Ellington Jazz Series kicked off in December with a sold-out appearance by vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, whose performance bolstered the New York Times’s assertion that she’s “the finest jazz singer to emerge in the last decade.” The series continued in February with the Wayne Escoffery Quintet featuring Jeremy Pelt in a tribute to late iconic trumpeter Lee Morgan. Escoffery is part of the school’s Jazz Initiative, in which he’s a lecturer in jazz improvisation and an ensemble coach. The series is slated to conclude in March with a performance by harpist Edmar Castaneda and harmonicist Grégoire Maret.