School Notes: School of Music
January/February 2011

Carnegie Hall concerts highlight guitar, percussion

The Yale in New York series opened in November with a program of contemporary Yale guitar music in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. All the composers on the program were Yale alumni and/or faculty: Kathryn Alexander, Ezra Laderman, Aaron Jay Kernis ’83Mus, Martin Bresnick, Ingram Marshall, David Lang ’83MUSAM, Jack Vees, Samuel Adams ’10MusM, and Benjamin Verdery. The performers included Verdery as well as his students from the Yale School of Music.

In December, the series presented the Yale Percussion Group with faculty director Robert van Sice. In Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, the ensemble played four works from the late twentieth century: Thierry de Mey’s Musique de Tables,Steve Reich’s Sextet, James Wood’s Village Burial with Fire,and Mauricio Kagel’s theatrical Dressur.

Yale Opera to perform in Europe

Yale Opera students will have two international performances this year. In February, students will travel to Milan, Italy, to perform Leonard Bernstein’s Wonderful Townwith the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. In April, singers will take part in a concert performance and recording of Donizetti’s Maria Padilla as a part of the 2011 Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw, Poland.

Back home, Yale Opera’s annual run at the Shubert Theater is a brand-new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni,conducted by Giuseppe Grazioli and directed by Sam Helfrich. The production, to be performed February 11 through 13, features set design by Andrew Holland ’98MFA, costume design by Kaye Voyce, and lighting design by William Warfel ’55, ’57MFA.

Saturday Seminars continue

The school’s Saturday Seminars continue this year with a focus on career development for musicians. In these workshops, students and experts in the field take part in lively discussions on important issues related to pursuing careers in music. The September seminar examined music entrepreneurship in a variety of settings within the broad field of music. The presenters discussed practical career considerations and the variety of options open to students, as well as the financial and tax implications of various kinds of work in music. The November session explored modes of community engagement in different career paths. Other seminars will explore funding for the arts, digital media, and other areas. All seminars are streamed live and on-demand at music.yale.edu/media.