School Notes: School of Music
May/June 2008

YSM cosponsors event in Beijing

The Yale School of Music and China's Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) are teaming up to sponsor a historic cultural event in Beijing prior to the Olympic Games. Ten of the world's leading conservatories will participate in a 17-day "musicathlon," in which each institution will present a series of programs in different concert venues in the city. Taking part in the event July 8-24 are the Shanghai Conservatory, Salzburg Mozarteum, Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), Royal Academy of Music (London), Liszt Academy (Budapest), the Korean National University of the Arts, Sydney Conservatorium, Beethoven Institute at the University of Music and Performing Arts (Vienna), and the Juilliard School (New York).

The finale of the "musicathlon" will be a performance of Mahler's Second Symphony ("Resurrection") by musicians from Yale and the CCOM. This concert will be held in the new National Centre for the Performing Arts. The Yale Philharmonia will be joined on stage by the CCOM orchestra and chorus, with two Yale opera alumni, soprano Jennifer Black ’05ArtA and mezzo Mary Phillips ’93MusM, as soloists. Yongyan Hu, artistic director of the Eos Orchestra Academy at CCOM and a former School of Music student, will conduct.

The concert on July 24 is part of the Philharmonia's first tour abroad in over 30 years. The orchestra will also perform in Beijing's Forbidden City Concert Hall, in Shanghai, and in Seoul. Soloists will be current student violinists Angie Cheng ’08 and Sun-Mi Chang ’09 and renowned cello alumnus Jian Wang ’88CMus.

Happy Birthday, Boris

The School of Music presented "The Twenty-first Century Pianist," a symposium that included performances, presentations, and discussions by YSM faculty and alumni, from April 3 to 5. The event honored Professor Boris Berman, chair of Yale's piano department and a faculty member since 1984, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Events took place in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Hall, except for the concluding recital on April 5, which was held in Steinway Hall in New York City. Among the performers and presenters were several current students, the school's entire piano faculty, and two dozen piano alumni. Keynote speaker was Anthony Tommasini, chief music critic of the New York Times, who was introduced by Professor Emeritus Donald Currier. For a complete schedule, photos from the presentations and concerts, and biographies, visit www.yale.edu/music/pianosymposium.

Another first prize at the Met

Baritone Edward Parks, a second-year student of Richard Cross, won first prize in the finals of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions on February 14 in New York City. According to the New York Times, Edward "showed a robust, earthy voice in arias by Bizet and Korngold." Past Met audition winners from the Yale opera program have included Barbara Kilduff ’84MusM and Christian van Horn ’03ArtA.