School of music

School Notes: School of Music
January/February 2014

José García-Léon | http://music.yale.edu

YSM names new quartet-in-residence

The internationally acclaimed Brentano String Quartet has been appointed the new quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music. The members of the quartet—Mark Steinberg and Serena Canin, violin; Misha Amory ’89, viola; and Nina Lee, cello—will also serve as artists-in-residence. The faculty appointment begins in fall 2014. They succeed the Tokyo String Quartet, which retired last May after 37 years at YSM. The Brentano Quartet will anchor the School of Music’s chamber music program and will perform a concert each semester. They will also spend part of each summer in residence at the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. 

Tribute to Paul Hindemith

Two concerts in November explored the legacy of composer, theorist, and educator Paul Hindemith (1895–1963), who served on the Yale School of Music faculty from 1940 to 1953. The Legacy of Paul Hindemith, which was performed on the Yale campus and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, presented Hindemith’s compositions alongside music by five of his Yale students: Alvin Etler (YSM faculty 1942–46); Lukas Foss ’40; Mitch Leigh ’52MusM; Mel Powell ’52MusB (YSM faculty 1957–69); and Yehudi Wyner ’50, ’53MusM (YSM faculty 1963–77). Wyner played the piano part in the Connecticut and New York premieres of his new piano quartet, Concordance. Hindemith’s Sonata for Four Horns, written at Yale, was introduced by faculty member Willie Ruff ’53MusB, ’54MusM, who participated in the composition’s first read-through.

Marking Penderecki’s 80th birthday

Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who served on the YSM faculty from 1973 to 1979, returned to New Haven to lead the Yale Philharmonia in two of his own works on November 1. The concert included his groundbreaking Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, written in 1960, and his Symphony No. 2. In addition, New York’s Symphony Space presented an event featuring performances and an open interview with the composer. YSM students Eric Anderson, clarinet; Nathan Lesser, violin; Colin Brookes, viola; and Alan Ohkubo, cello, performed Penderecki’s Quartet for Clarinet and Strings. The event was broadcast live on WQXR.

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