School Notes: School of Music
May/June 2018

Celebrated conductor leads Yale ensembles in concert

At press time, the School of Music was poised to welcome celebrated conductor Marin Alsop ’77 to Yale. Alsop, whose accomplishments were recognized by the university in May 2017 with an honorary doctor of music degree, was to lead the Yale Philharmonia, Yale Glee Club, and Yale Camerata in a late April concert featuring music by Beethoven and Leonard Bernstein. Alsop is the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and established the organization’s OrchKids program, which serves young people in Baltimore City.

Document calls for equitable music opportunities

An impassioned Declaration on Equity in Music for City Students, demanding students in city schools be afforded the same opportunities their suburban counterparts enjoy, is being published by the School of Music. The document was created with participants of the school’s sixth Symposium on Music in Schools. 

Alumni win Grammy awards

Guitarist Bryce Dessner ’98, ’99MusM, earned a Grammy Award as a member of The National, whose album Sleep Well Beast won in the “Best Alternative Music Album” category. Saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom ’76, ’77MusM, earned an award as a surround producer in the “Best Surround Sound Album” category for her Early Americans. Violinists Irene Cheng ’94MusM and Louis Lev ’90MusM and trombonist Rebecca Cherian ’81MusM won as members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in the “Best Orchestral Performance” category for the ensemble’s recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Barber’s Adagio for Strings. For that recording, which was engineered by Mark Donahue, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra also won in the “Best Engineered Album, Classical” category. Violinists Maureen Nelson ’00MusM and Kayla Moffett ’13MusM and cellist Joshua Koestenbaum ’80MusM won as members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in the “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance” category for the ensemble’s Death and the Maiden album, which features music by Dowland, Gesualdo, Kurtág, Normiger, and Schubert.