School Notes: School of Music
March/April 2015

Yo-Yo Ma receives Sanford Medal

Internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma visited Yale on January 13 to perform a benefit concert in Woolsey Hall. Ma performed a suite for solo cello by J. S. Bach and paired up with Yale assistant professor Ole Akahoshi ’95CertPF in a duet by Jean-Baptiste Barrière. The event culminated in Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C major with Ma as soloist and Yale professor Aldo Parisot ’48Mus conducting members of the Yale Philharmonia. Yo-Yo Ma also interviewed Aldo Parisot onstage, a conversation between two masters of the cello who enjoy a longstanding warm friendship. Dean Robert Blocker awarded Ma the Sanford Medal, the School of Music’s highest honor. In 1987, Yale University awarded Yo-Yo Ma an honorary doctor of music degree.

In memoriam: Frank, Rephann

The School of Music is saddened by the losses of Claude Frank and Richard Rephann. Pianist Claude Frank died December 27 at the age of 89. He was on the Yale School of Music faculty from 1973 to 2006 and was named professor emeritus in 2007. He was also a longtime faculty member of the Yale Summer School of Music/ Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Claude Frank may be best remembered for his recording of the complete Beethoven sonatas, which was named one of the year’s ten best by Time magazine and recommended above other renditions by High Fidelity and Stereo Review. In his distinguished concert career, he appeared with the world’s foremost orchestras and at major festivals, and collaborated with countless chamber ensembles. Claude Frank is remembered for his warmth, wit, and generosity as well as for the beauty of his playing.

Richard Rephann ’64MusM, harpsichordist and director emeritus of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, died on December 29 at the age of 82. After receiving his master’s degree as a student of Ralph Kirkpatrick, he joined the School of Music faculty as harpsichord instructor and assistant curator of the Collection of Musical Instruments. In 1968, he became director of the collection, a post he held for 37 years, while serving as an adjunct professor. Under his leadership, the collection tripled in size, and its home at 15 Hillhouse Avenue was transformed into a facility for conserving, studying, and exhibiting the rich holdings. In 1967, Rephann initiated the collection’s annual series of concerts, which is still active today. He received the Morris Steinert Award, the museum’s highest honor, in 2006.