School Notes: School of Music
May/June 2010

Oral History celebrated at Yale and Carnegie Hall

In April, the School of Music paid tribute to the Oral History of American Music (OHAM) on its 40th anniversary. The project, founded and directed by Vivian Perlis, collects and preserves audio and video memoirs from and about American composers. Interweaving archival footage with live performance, the program featured music and insight from Aaron Copland, Duke Ellington, John Cage, and several others. The concert opened with Charles Ives’s From the Steeples and Mountains, written only a few years after his graduation from Yale College in 1898. Star clarinetist Richard Stoltzman ’67MusM performed Steve Reich’sNew York Counterpoint, which was written for him, and faculty pianist Wei-Yi Yang played Copland’s thorny Piano Variations. The Mitchell-Ruff Duo—longtime faculty member Willie Ruff and pianist Dwike Mitchell—offered a set of music by Eubie Blake and Duke Ellington. Cellist Lachezar Kostov ’07MusM and pianist Viktor Valkov performed Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Lament. Former School of Music faculty member Jacob Druckman was represented by his brass quintet Dance With Shadows. Between musical selections, video segments presented highlights of footage from the OHAM archives interspersed with photographs and biographical narration. The program was presented in New Haven as part of the Chamber Music Society at Yale, and at Carnegie Hall as part of the Yale in New York series. Clarinet professor David Shifrin is the artistic director of both concert series.

Music alumni make strong showing at the Grammys

Six Yale graduates were among the 2010 Grammy nominees, and three—David Lang, Sharon Isbin, and Marin Alsop—won awards. David Lang ’83MusAM, a School of Music graduate who is now on the composition faculty, won in the category best small ensemble performance for his piece The Little Match Girl Passion.The work also won Lang the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Guitarist Sharon Isbin ’78, ’79MusM, an alumna of both Yale College and the School of Music, won for best instrumental soloist performance (without orchestra) in Journey to the New World, with Joan Baez and Mark O’Connor. Yale College alumna Marin Alsop ’77 was the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra on the recording of Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto, which won a Grammy for best classical contemporary composition. Alsop was also nominated for best classical album for her recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass.

As half of the Enso Quartet, Yale School of Music graduates Maureen Nelson ’00MusM (violin) and Richard Belcher ’00MusM (cello) were nominated for best chamber music performance for their recording of Ginastera’s String Quartets. Longtime faculty member Yehudi Wyner ’50, ’52MusB, ’53MusM, a Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, was nominated in the category of best classical contemporary composition for his piano concerto Chiavi In Mano.