School Notes: School of Music
November/December 2008

Celebrated composers among six new faculty appointments

David Lang ’83MusAM and Christopher Theofanidis ’97MusAD, two of America's most celebrated composers, have been appointed to the faculty at the School of Music. They will teach graduate students in the school's composition program, regarded by many as the most prestigious in the country. David Lang, professor of composition (adjunct), is the most recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize in music, and Christopher Theofanidis, associate professor of composition (adjunct), enjoys a reputation as both a frequently performed composer and a respected educator. The composition appointments were announced at the same time as faculty appointments in four other disciplines: Janna Baty ’93MusM, mezzo soprano, assistant professor (adjunct) of voice; Richard Holzer, associate professor (adjunct) of music history; Tiffany Kuo, assistant professor (adjunct) of hearing; and Michael Roylance, lecturer in tuba.

Longtime professors assume new roles

David Shifrin, who has served as professor of clarinet at the school since 1987, has assumed full-time responsibilities on the faculty. In addition to studio teaching and chamber music coaching, he will serve as artistic director of both the Chamber Music Society at Yale and the school's concert series at Carnegie Hall. He will also play a leading role as advisor to the school's highly regarded chamber music program. William Purvis, who has taught horn and chamber music at Yale since 1999, has been appointed interim director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments. He will continue as coordinator of brass and woodwinds, and this season serves as artistic director of the Messiaen Centenary Celebration at Yale, which will take place from December 8 to 14. The search for a permanent director of the collection was extended last spring, and the search committee continues its work this fall.

More YSM alums in the Academy

Owen Dalby ’06, ’07MusM (violin); Alma Maria Liebrecht ’08MusM (horn); David Skidmore ’08MusM (percussion); and James Austin Smith ’08MusM (oboe) have been accepted into the Academy, a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education, for the 2008-09 season. This prestigious program is an innovative two-year fellowship that offers postgraduate musicians from leading music schools performance experience, advanced musical training, and intensive teaching experience. They join second-year fellows Paul Murphy ’06MusM (trumpet), Romie de Guise-Langlois ’07ArtA (clarinet), James Deitz ’07ArtA (percussion), and Alex Reicher ’06, ’07MusM (trombone) in bringing the number of YSM alums in the program to eight out of a total of 33 fellows.