Herb Alpert School of Music Class Notes

Spring 2012

Emlyn Addison (MFA Music '98) recently produced Elegy for a Stranger, the first of five audio-visual works in "New Narratives Through Transformations Of Structure."

Carey Lovelace (BFA Music '75) has been selected as Co-commissioner or the US Pavillion of the 2013 Venice Biennial.

Amy Knoles (BFA Music '82) is the composer and electronic percussionist for the Empty Room dance show at The Highways Performance Space

Ann Millikan (MFA Composition '98) has three upcoming performances in Italy, the US, and Brazil, a new video XINGU with cello soundtrack, and an upcoming comission for Pat O'Keefe for clarinet that will be featured on his record in Spring 2013.

Jim Sitterly (MFA Music '80) will be having a free concert. The world premiere of The Five Fingers will include five concertos for solo violin and will be held on May 15th at7pm in the Harbor College Music Hall.

David Trasoff (MFA World Music Performance '88) has been named the Gordhan L and Virginia B "Jinx" Patel Distinguished Visting Professor in Indian Music Arts at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music.

Winter 2012

Susie Allen (BFA Harp Performance '73) will perform an improvisational concert at the Salle Acer in Paris on January 30.

Phil Curtis - see Ronit Kirchman.

Terry Dame - see Ronit Kirchman.

Enresto Diaz-Infante (MFA Music '96) has recently released a CD Civilian Life with Pax Recordings.

Brooke Halpin (BFA Music '76) shared that his recent quiz book, Do You Really Know The Beatles?, has been developed into the app Fabfouria! The book contains over 500 questions and answers on
different periods of The Beatles history.

Steve Horowitz (Music '89) has started ManhatPro West in San Fransisco, a branch of NYC based Manhattan Producers Alliance the professional mentoring and networking community for musicians.

Toby Kasavan (BFA Music '74) reports that his CD Hold Tight, recorded under the name Fingers DelRey, is now being played on Pandora.com. He also performs with the NY Blues Project, which will play at the Triad theater NYC in March and at the Montreal Jazz and Blues fastival in August. Toby is the founder and director of Neighborhood Music and Arts, a nonprofit that provides educational performing arts programs in music, theater and dance to NYC public schools. He invites interested Calartians to consider volunteering or serving on their board. In his spare time, Toby was promoted to 5th degree black belt in Aikido.

Ronit Kirchman (MFA Music '01) is co-curating and
performing in Film Music Remix at Sundance as part
of her participation as this year's Sundance Institute/Time Warner
Fellow. Phil Curtis (MFA Composition '97) is doing her computer sound processing.  Also, Terry Dame (MFA Performer/Composer '98) will perform.

Lisa Popeil (MFA Music '80) has contributed to the upcoming Oxford Handbook of Singing on the topic of Different Sung Genres, as well as to the Oxford Handbook of Music Education. Her voice research on musical theater belting substyles has been published in the Journal of Voice and she presented a paper based on vocal range at the Voice Foundation Symposium in 2011.  Lisa will present 2012 Total
Singer Workshops in New York City and at St. Gustavus University in St. Peter, MN.

Regan Remy (BFA Music '00) will be participating in a dance show at the El Portal February 17-25 with fellow alums Cyn Mendez (BFA Dance '09), and Alex Pratt (BFA Music '01).

Richard Rintoul (BFA Instrumental Performance '79) passed away on November 25, 2011.  He had a lifelong career in music, founding the Orchestra da Camera at the Colburn School of Performing
Arts in Los Angeles, and serving as its Music Director and
Conductor for twenty-three years. Most recently, he was a lecturer at the University of California-Santa Barbara and the conductor of their Symphony Orchestra. A memorial for Dr. Rintoul was held on January 12.

Nedra Wheeler (BFA Jazz Bass '87) will perform at the Pacific Standard Time closing reception at Greystone Mansion on Jan 28 with CalArts School of Art faculty and composer Charles Gaines and A.J. Fanning.

Fall 2011

Mathew Harwich (BFA Music '11) has finished his first album titled Power Trip under the artist name MPH.

James Brandon Lewis (MFA Music '10) is the saxophonist and composer on a new album called Divine Travels to be released soon.

Jim Santi Owen (MFA World Music '05) will be having a tribute concert at the San Fransisco World Music Festival where he is the Music Director for CalArts faculty Swapan Chaudhuri.

James Sitterly (MFA Music '80) is presenting the premier of his new musical Hell Motel on October 26th and 30th at Los Angeles Harbor College

Zero Brains a music company formed by two alums, Mark Reveley (MFA Music '98) and Mike Dillon (BFA Jazz Studies '98) has released their first iPhone metronome application, Cycles.

Summer 2011

Justin Bardales (BFA World Music Performance '11) is the guitarist for Modern American Theatre. The band recently released their second album Your Rage is Attractive and have booked shows throughout the LA area.

Steve Bilow (BFA Music '82) has accepted his appointment as Production Manager for the documentary "When Art Flourishes" by Rockford College philosophy professor Stephen R. C. Hicks.

Liz Fanora Jones (Music '10) has just launched her new teaching and music website.

Alyce Korn (MFA Jazz Piano '92) recorded an album with Chilean Guitarist Waldo Valenzuela to be released in Fall 2011. Alyse teaches Suzuki Early Childhood Music with the City of Santa Clarita Seasons and also has a successful Jazz Piano program for adults. She also travels to teach in Brazil and Switzerland

The Mother Funk Yas a reggae band created in the CalArts community, opened for Bob Marley's Wailers at briXton South Bay at the Redondo Beach Pier in August. Members of the band include Alex Emami, Morgan Fitch, Drake Peterson, Tony Rinaldi, and Chris Stewart

Spring 2011

David Ake (MFA Jazz Keyboard '87) was recently named Director of the School of the Arts at the University of Nevada, Reno.  In addition, his second book, Jazz Matters:Sound, Place, and Time Since Bebop was published by University of California Press (2010) and he released The Dark, with EEA, which also features CalArts alumnus Peter Epstein (BFA Jazz Reeds '92) on Origin Records (2010). Last year, he won the Nevada Regents Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor in the state.  David shared, "Most important, he married the wonderful and lovely Kendee Franklin."

Paul Anceau (BFA Music '76) See Art Notes.

Andy Barbera (MFA Performance-Guitar'97), guitarist for Luck & Senses released Chapter 1 in 2010.

Timur Bekbosunov (MFA Vocal Performance '08) will be performing at the Grammy's MusiCares concert-benefit, the festival production of San Mercantonioin Germany, the world premiere of The Silent Steppe Cantata in Kazakhstan, and embarking on a solo recital tour with Vicky Chow 

Laura Bilodeau (MFA World Music Performance '06) recorded drums and percussion on Bonnie Pointer's new album, "Like a Picasso," available for download June 29th worldwide.

James Boyk (MFA Music '73) has been selected to perform and teach at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York.  His novel, Out of Tune Piano Blues, will be published in April.

Daren Burns' (MFA Performer-Composer '08) band Onibaba, which includes CalArts faculty Vinny Golia and alumni George McMullen (MFA Music '08), Scott Collins (MFA Music '08) and Craig Bunch (Music '99), was picked for the LA County Arts Commission’s band roster for 2011-2014. Burns completed a double CD with his band Brandy Repairs Utah in March and his new CD, Fear Is Not The Natural State Of Civilized People, featuring CalArts faculty Wadada Leo Smith and alumni Scott Collins, Sarah Phillips (MFA Music '08) and Craig Bunch, will be released soon. Currently, Burns is teaching International Baccalaureate music at Verde Valley School in Sedona, AZ.

Composer John Debney (Music '78)was a featured CalArts guest speaker on The Art of Film Composing on March 22.

Gary Chang (MFA Music '77) has accepted a year-long appointed as the Director of MFA Film Music Composition at the
University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.

Eric DeLuca (MFA Composition '96) presented at Fostering Art and Culture Project's Creative Economy Summit on Rethinking the Creative Economy.

Peter Epstein (see David Ake).

On March 16, Sean Griffin (BFA Composition '93) arranged and conducted the first performance of music faculty Charles Gaines' Manifestos Scores at the Hammer Museum.  Griffin composed and directed EMPAC's Cold Spring last winter.

The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (June 16-26) has invited the group of Calartians, led by experimental composer Jame Klopfleisch (Music MFA '10), to premiere a new interdisciplinary project titled, Landscape #4. The piece will be part of the Disk Stories section of Scenofest 2011- and educational project of Prauge Quadrennial and OISTAT.

The Revivalist profiled the James Brandon Lewis (MFA Jazz Saxaphone '10) Quartet's album Moments.

Kolleen Park (BFA Music '90), who is both Artistic Director at Kyyk Musical Studio and professor of Music at Howon University in Seoul, recently performed at the Seoul Jazz Festival. In December 2010, she was appointed as Cultural Ambassador for the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Bid Committee.

The work of Patti Preiss-Harris (Music ’95) was performed as part of the Fairfield County Festival of Women Composers on March 12.

Susie Rosso (Music '74) Wolf recently published the novel, Wherever The Wind Will Blow It.

Adam Rudolph (MFA Music '88) will conduct the Organic Orchestra's performance of his work at the Electric Lodge in Venice, CA on Sunday, March 6, 2011. He has also released his new Moving Pictures CD.

Fulbright Fellow Robin Sukhadia (MFA North Indian Music '07) returned from his work in India to moderate LACMA's multimedia performance, India's Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow and presented at Mark Allen’s (MFA Art ’99) Machine Project in Echo Park.