School Notes: School of Music
January/February 2012

Two members of Tokyo String Quartet to retire in 2013

Violist Kazuhide Isomura and second violinist Kikuei Ikeda will retire from the Tokyo String Quartet in June 2013. One of the world’s most distinguished chamber music ensembles, the Tokyo String Quartet was founded in 1969 and has been the quartet-in-residence at the School of Music and the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival since 1976. Isomura, who has been a member of the group since its inception, and Ikeda, who joined in 1974, will perform and teach with the quartet through the end of the 2012–2013 academic year. In the summer of 2013, a new violinist and violist will join Martin Beaver, first violin, and Clive Greensmith, cello. Both Ikeda and Isomura plan to teach and coach chamber music after stepping down from the quartet.

Yale Opera’s spring productions

The Yale Opera program at the School of Music has announced its plans for the spring semester of 2012. Under the artistic direction of Doris Yarick Cross, Yale Opera will present a new production of Mozart’s comedy Cosí fan tutte at New Haven’s historic Shubert Theater in February. Conducted by Speranza Scappucci and directed by Justin Way, the opera will be performed in Italian with English translations. Maestra Scappucci will be the first woman to conduct a Yale Opera production. In April, Yale Opera presents a new production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, with stage direction by Vera Calabria and musical direction by Douglas Dickson and Timothy Shaindlin. Performances will take place in Morse Recital Hall.

YSM creates career strategies office

The School’s new Career Strategies Office offers training, resources, and programs that will assist students in launching and managing their careers, including career coaching sessions; seminars and workshops on career issues; access to job banks; and assistance with creating materials such as digital portfolios. In addition, Saturday Seminars bring leading thinkers in the arts to campus to discuss important issues facing musicians today. And a new class taught by director of career strategies Astrid Baumgardner, Creating Financially Sustainable Careers in the Arts, teaches the entrepreneurial skills that artists and cultural leaders need in order to create sustainable careers.