School Notes: School of Music
September/October 2018

Longtime faculty members retire

Aldo Parisot, Joan Panetti ’74MusAD, and Paul Hawkshaw have been named emeriti faculty.

Renowned cellist Parisot joined the faculty in 1958. After retiring from performing in 1988, Parisot turned full time to teaching. He taught Ralph Kirshbaum and Shauna Rolston, among others, and established the Yale Cellos.

Panetti, a professor in the practice of hearing and chamber music, served on the YSM faculty for 37 years. For 22 years, Panetti was the director of the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. A teacher, pianist, and composer, Panetti taught the Hearing course at YSM that transformed the practice of many ascendant musicians.

A professor in the practice of musicology, Hawkshaw was a YSM faculty member for 34 years. He served stints as associate dean, deputy dean, and acting dean. Hawkshaw succeeded Panetti as the director at Norfolk and served in that role for 12 years.

School names development director

Katie Darr, former associate director of the Yale College Alumni Fund in the Office of Development, joined the School of Music staff as development director in July.

Yale honors retired professor

Willie Ruff ’54MusM, who retired in May 2017 having spent 46 years on the School of Music faculty, was awarded an honorary doctorate at Yale’s 317th Commencement. Famously, in 1972, Ruff brought 40 jazz legends to Yale and launched the Duke Ellington Fellowship and the Ellington Jazz Series.

Pianists sweep prizes at Koussevitzky competition

Pianists from the Yale School of Music won all four prizes at the Musicians Club of New York’s 2018 Serge and Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Awards competition in late April. Sun-A Park ’17MusAM, Sophiko Simsive ’18MusM, Wenting Shi ’19MusAM, and Christopher Goodpasture ’18MusAM earned first, second, third, and fourth prize, respectively, and Fantee Jones ’18MusAM was a finalist.