School Notes: School of Music
November/December 2010

Metropolitan Opera broadcasts come to the School of Music

This fall, Morse Recital Hall at the Yale School of Music became the latest venue to offer the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” broadcasts. A leadership gift from Frederick Iseman, Yale College Class of 1974, funded Yale’s access to the live performances as well as the technology required for the School of Music to present the broadcasts. The gift makes tickets available to all Yale students, as well as faculty and staff. The new technology was installed in September, and The Met @ Yale: the Iseman Broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD debuted on October 9 with Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold. In all, twelve broadcasts are scheduled for 2010–11, including new productions of Wagner’s Ring, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Verdi’s Don Carlo, John Adams’s Nixon in China, and Rossini’s Le Comte Ory.

Yale in New York at (Le) Poisson Rouge

The Yale in New York series expanded to a new venue, the celebrated music club (Le) Poisson Rouge. A concert on October 11 featured Sleeping Giant, a collective of five up-and-coming composers who are all YSM alumni. Along with the world premiere of Jacob Cooper’s Cello Octet, the program featured Ted Hearne’s One of Us, One of Them for percussion and piano; Christopher Cerrone’s Averno: A Fragment for soprano, mezzo-soprano, and mixed ensemble; Robert Honstein’s Why Are You Not Answering?for mixed ensemble; and Timo Andres’s Clamber Music for two violins and piano. Yale in New York continues on November 9 in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall with a concert of Yale guitarists playing music by Yale composers.

New and visiting faculty

Among the new faces on the School of Music faculty this year is Brian Lewis, an acclaimed violinist who is also widely recognized as a leader in music education. He is the Class of ’57 Visiting Professor of Music Education for the academic year. Pianist Ivo Kaltchev ’92MusM will soon conclude his semester as a visiting lecturer. Kaltchev is the chair of the piano division at the Catholic University of America as well as co-director of the Washington (DC) International Piano Festival. Another pianist, Hung-Kuan Chen, is visiting for the full academic year and will appear as a guest artist on the Horowitz Piano Series on December 1. Chen has won top prizes in the Arthur Rubinstein and Busoni competitions, is on the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory, and directs the International Piano Academy in Shanghai. Finally, the musicologist, tenor, and Yale graduate Paul Berry ’99, ’07PhD, was appointed assistant professor (adjunct) of music history.