eNews: Internetzo – September 2026

Message from Seth Brenzel,
Executive Director

Dear Walden friends,

Happy Fall! Our inspiring 2026 season officially ends next Wednesday, September 30, with the conclusion of Walden’s 2026 fiscal year.

In this edition of InterNetzo, we share highlights from the 2026 Young Musicians Program (YMP). I hope these reflections and photos will give you a taste of the Walden magic that our students, staff, faculty, and visiting artists created during this amazing summer. It was a banner year, marked by exceptional creativity, community spirit, and joy!

The end of our fiscal year on Wednesday, September 30, means that we are campaigning to reach our fundraising goal of $440,000 for Walden’s 2026 Annual Fund. I am deeply grateful to our community of supporters, whose tremendous generosity makes possible all of what we do each season. We are 86% of the way toward our goal, and we still need to raise $60,000 to close this remarkable season on a high note and plan for a successful 2027. Every gift, no matter the amount, is deeply appreciated. Please consider making a gift today, and read on for more information about supporting Walden.

This Sunday, September 27, we will celebrate the conclusion of Walden’s 2026 season with a Walden celebration and fundraiser in San Francisco. There is still time to RSVP and join us at what promises to be a festive afternoon, with delicious food and drinks, warm Walden community, and a performance by the San Francisco-based choral ensemble Nebula Consort. Read on for more information.

This newsletter also includes a link to a survey about our 2026 Summer Concert Series, which was offered both in person in Dublin, New Hampshire, and through high-quality livestreams on our YouTube channel. Whether or not you attended any events at Walden this summer, we would so appreciate your taking a few moments to respond to the survey so that we can better understand our audience and plan next season’s programming. Participants will have a chance to win a beautiful Walden hoodie!

Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful start to the fall season.

Sincerely,

Seth Brenzel
Executive Director

A Banner Summer: The 2026 Young Musicians Program (YMP)

By Seth Brenzel, Executive Director and Director of YMP

When I return to California after a summer at Walden, I’m constantly peppered with some version of the question: “How was your summer at Walden?” In response, I’ve found myself smiling and exclaiming, “It was a banner summer!”

What made it so great? For starters, we were again on the beautiful campus of the Dublin School, welcomed by their gracious and helpful staff and faculty for our 43rd summer in residence on their campus. The weather was mostly great with just a few summer thunderstorms, a couple of too hot days, only one smoky day, and otherwise generally warm summer weather that allowed for lots of outdoor time.

Above right: Seth Brenzel (right) with YMP student Henry on faculstaff lookalike day

52 talented, creative, and engaged students from all across the United States, China, and England, joined us at our Young Musicians Program. Eight of our younger students departed after the first three weeks, and 44 students remained through until the end of Festival Week. About half of this year’s students were returning students from previous summers, and they ranged in age from 10 to 18, with varied experiences as performers, composers, improvisers, and choral singers. Among our amazing students, there was a harpist, a handpan performer, and a competitive yo-yo player, who incorporated his yo-yos into a Composers Forums piece!

We were treated to visiting artist residencies by Duo della Luna, W4RP Trio, members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Aurora Nealand and friends, and our resident ensemble The Walden School Players. Composer/percussionist Nathan Davis was this year’s YMP Composer-in-Residence. Nathan, who was joined by his family in Dublin, had previously been a member of The Walden School Players and co-founder of Non Sequitur, back in the day when they were the Festival Week ensemble-in-residence. It was simply a delight to have him (along with his family) back to Walden, and we were delighted to perform one of his choral works on our choral concert, which was inspiringly led by choral director Kari Francis.

We had a lot of fun, too, including a faculstaff look-a-like/dress up day, daily “Words of the Day” punning opportunities, swim trips, nail painting, World Cup watching, 4th of July games and treasure hunt, frisbee on the lawn, and so much more. We were able to hike three of our four mountains this summer, with only one rainout. We hiked on the Dublin School campus for the first time ever this year as one of our Saturday hikes, and we made it to the top of Monadnock for the first time since 2023! Halloween in July offered lots of fun trick-or-treating for candy, and the creative team, led by faculty member Francesca Hellerman, transformed faculty and staff offices into a spectacular haunted house. One of this year’s most inventive rooms was one that featured analog doom scrolling—a physical wheel that you kept spinning as it scrolled through printed out memes—endlessly.

Above left: A visit to the Friendly Farm in Dublin, New Hampshire; right: Analog doom scrolling on Halloween in July

We were joined by two new faculty members, Hannah Rice (a Creative Musicians Retreat alum) and Josíah Garza, a student of former Walden faculty member Sky Macklay at Peabody. Other faculty included returning teachers Paul Zito, Luke Schroeder, Aidan Gold, Veronica Kao, Camara Kambon, Emi Ostrom, and Theo Trevisan, who this season joined the Leadership Team. Other faculty members on the leadership team were director of operations Sammi Stone and Academic Deans Nate Trier and Cara Haxo. Faculty members taught many musicianship and composition classes, the core of Walden’s curriculum, and also offered such varied specialty classes as Writing for the Voice, Computer Musicianship, Conducting, Musical Storytelling, and Music and the Visual Arts, among many others.

Our staff team, ably led by Sammi, was joined by assistant choral director and assistant director of operations Brian Fancher, along with CMR alum Lu Caudle, YMP alums Justice Nious, Zach Amdur, and Lucas Blohm Villanueva, along with new to Walden staff member, Sophia Thompson. We had wonderful part-time nurses Olga DiMeglio, Carolyn Tilton, and Dawn Benson join us from the local area to help us stay healthy and manage health care at Walden in 2026. Loretta Notareschi reprised her role as a teaching mentor during faculty and staff orientation, and Rodier was back as our technical director, AKA wizard.

It was a magical summer for so many of us, and we're already preparing for next year. One of our parents wrote this as she reflected on Summer 2026: “Thank you for creating a unique, wonderful, creative, and fun community. We all benefit from having Walden in our lives.” On behalf of all of us here at Walden, you’re welcome!

Upcoming Fundraising Event

A Walden Celebration and Fundraiser in San Francisco on Sunday, September 27, from 3 to 5 pm

Join Walden this Sunday for an afternoon of delightful music, delicious refreshments, and scintillating conversation in the heart of San Francisco. This event will celebrate Walden’s incredible 2026 season and raise funds to support essential student scholarships, dedicated facutly and staff, and inspiring artist residencies at Walden’s transformative music programs.

We are delighted to present a short performance by Nebula Consort, a San Francisco-based choral ensemble specializing in a cappella works spanning the European Renaissance to the modern day. Directed by Eric Choate, Nebula includes Chris Martin, Walden’s Development Assistant, as a bass vocalist.

You are welcome to RSVP or contact us with any questions by emailing events@waldenschool.org or calling (415) 587-8157.

❤️ Support Walden today ❤️

Fiscal Year-End Fundraising Drive

Walden need your help to reach our Annual Fund goal by next Wednesday, September 30.

As The Walden School’s 2026 fiscal year comes to an end, we are deeply grateful to the hundreds of donors who have supported our programs throughout our 54th season of transformative music programs.

During Walden’s 2026 fiscal year (October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026), nearly 400 individuals, families, foundations, and corporations have collectively contributed $380,000 to Walden’s Annual Fund—and counting!

There is less than one week left to reach our goal of raising $440,000 by Wednesday, September 30. If you haven’t yet supported Walden’s 2026 season (or even if you have!), there’s still time to help us finish the 2026 season on a high note.

❤️ Support Walden today ❤️

Ways to Give

• Send a check payable to The Walden School at 7 Joost Avenue, Suite 204, San Francisco, CA 94131. To ensure that your gift will count toward Walden’s 2026 fiscal year, gifts must be postmarked on or before Tuesday, September 30.
• Give online. To ensure that your gift will count toward Walden’s 2026 fiscal year, online gifts must be made by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, September 30.
• Arrange a matching gift from your employer.
• Make a pledge. Contact us for more information.
• Make a gift of stock shares.
• Donate your car through Donate for Charity.
• Join the David Hogan Legacy Society by including Walden in your estate plans. Contact us for more information.

Contributions to The Walden School, a 501(c)(3) organization, are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.

For more information, call (415) 587-8157 or email us.

Concert Series Survey

Each summer, Walden’s Concert Series brings diverse programming and artistic excellence to the public free of charge, with livestreams available for a global audience. Click here to see a complete listing of Walden’s 2026 Concert Series.

Regardless of whether or not you were able to attend (or tune into) a Walden concert this summer, you are encouraged to fill out this brief (5-minute) survey to help us better understand our audience’s preferences and to improve planning for future seasons of Walden’s Concert Series.

If you take the survey (and if you provide your name and email address), you will be entered for a chance to win a Walden hoodie! The survey will be closed and the winner will be selected by October 31.

Take the Concert Series Survey!

Summer of Creativity Recap

Walden's Summer of Creativity ended on September 22. Thanks to the generosity inspired by our creative participants, the Summer of Creativity has raised $5,873 for Walden—and counting! Thank you to the 55 donors who have supported the campaign so far, including 33 first-time donors to Walden!

The creative work done in this campaign will remain available here: Kittie’s Halloween knitting, Dede’s modal challenge, Sarah’s fiddle tunes, Dave’s clarinet composition, Doug’s banjo arrangements, Rachel’s fungi and flora, JoAnn’s sustainable quilting, and Kate and Seven’s video pastiches based on overheard words.

We are deeply grateful to these Walden community members for their creative efforts. If you missed the campaign, you can still support Walden here.

Above: Halloween socks knitted by Kittie Cooper

Opportunities for Composers

Did you know that Walden hosts a continually updated webpage of competitions, awards, and calls for scores? Please let us know of additional opportunities that may be of interest to the Walden community.

Here are some featured opportunities with upcoming deadlines: 

Women Composers Festival of Hartford – Call for Scores & Composition Workshop

The Women Composers Festival of Hartford invites women composers to submit works for the annual WCFH conference, April 2-3, 2027 in Hartford, Connecticut. Composers can submit works to the Call for Scores to be considered for public performance, or apply to the Composition Workshop, where selected works will be read, workshopped, and recorded. In 2027, the instrumentation for both opportunities is woodwind quintet of flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon, and chosen works will be performed and/or workshopped by ensemble-in-residence Cirrus Blue. Apply by September 25 (Call for Scores) and/or October 9 (Composition Workshop).

Ghost Ensemble Call for Works

Ghost Ensemble is seeking musical works that create new pathways of relating through sound. Works should be fully realized and able to be performed by 2-9 players (see application for details). New scoring methods, conventional Western notation, graphic or text scores, and/or non-visual modes of communication (oral transmission, audio/video scores, etc.) are all welcome. Ghost Ensemble’s James Tenney Composer Travel Fund will support travel expenses up to $1,000 for selected composers to join for rehearsals and performances in spring or summer 2027. Apply by November 1, 2026.

Association of Anglican Musicians Call for Scores

The Association of Anglican Musicians (AAM) seeks to expand the repertoire of Anglican liturgical music through periodic calls for scores and a continuous partnership with publishers ECS and RiteSong. Composers are invited to submit pieces in two categories: Works for Organ and Choir and/or Hymnody and Congregational Service Music. Rolling submission—see website for details.

Walden Merchandise

Wonderful Walden merch is for sale on our website! We have Walden beach towels, blankets, vintage summer program shirts (YMP and CMR alums: ask about your year!), canvas totes, stickers, pens, pencils, and more.

See what’s available and fill out an order form here. 

Payment can be made by check, money order, Zelle, credit card, or PayPal. Zelle and PayPal payments should be directed to billing@waldenschool.org.

Please contact Mindy Williams, Walden’s Administrative Director, or call the Walden office at (415) 587-8157 if you have any questions.

🎁 Order Walden Merch 🎁

Community News

Michael Poll releases album with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor Michael Poll has released a new album, titled Portraits and Serenades, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring mezzo-soprano Simone Ibbett Brown. Poll is a past visiting artist at Walden as a classical guitarist, and he is the brother of Young Musicians Program (YMP) alum Teddy Poll, who is also a conductor. The album includes works by living composers Ian Venables, Odaline de la Martínez, Shruthi Rajasekar, and Daniel Thomas Davis, alongside Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings. This is Michael’s second recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, following Midsummer Light (2025), which featured Barber’s violin concerto, played by soloist Jack Liebeck, alongside contemporary works by Byron Adams and David Conte, a past Composer-in-Residence at Walden.

Wet Ink Ensemble to open their season with four world premieres

This Sunday, September 27, members of Wet Ink Ensemble, a past Walden visiting ensemble, will present their 28th-season-opening concert at the Zürcher Gallery in New York City. The program will consist of world premieres written by each of the four performers: past Walden visiting artists Alex Mincek (saxophone), Mariel Roberts Musa (cello), and Modney (violin), as well as former Walden faculty member Sam Pluta (electronics). Modney writes, “This concert showcases the first step of Wet Ink’s collaborative work-process, featuring new music that will be developed into larger-scale compositions in future seasons.”

Commissioned work by Cara Haxo to be premiered by Cornelius & Karre

Cara Haxo, a YMP alum who now serves as Academic Dean at YMP, is the first composer to be commissioned by the Cornelius & Karre violin-percussion duo. Percussionist Ross Karre is a past visiting artist and Technical Director at Walden. Both Karre and violinist Emily Cornelius are alums of Oberlin Conservatory, where they began their collaboration, and where Karre is an associate professor of percussion. Cara’s commissioned work, belongings, is a four-movement piece inspired by the late poet Wendell Berry’s poem The Dance. The work will be premiered across four concerts in Oberlin and Cleveland, Ohio, starting on September 30 at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Above: Emily Cornelius, Cara Haxo, and Ross Karre

T.J. Borden records album with Vinny Golia

Cellist T.J. Borden, a past Walden visiting artist, has recorded an album, The Pure Products of America Go Crazy. The album features multi-reedist Vinny Golia, as well as James McKain on baritone sax, and James Paul Nadien on drums. that will be released in October, and is currently available for pre-order. T. J. also has several exciting performances coming up, including two performances of Morton Feldman’s Patterns in a Chromatic Field with pianist Mari Kawamura as part of the Graphic Content Festival in New York City, celebrating the music of Feldman and Earle Brown in the centennial year for both composers.

Waldenites at Oberlin
We are grateful to Liam Fissell for sharing this photo of a gathering of YMP alums at Oberlin College and Conservatory. Pictured left to right: Arlo Bivins, Sabrina Lu, Thomas Cekleov, Frazar Henry, Oscar Bohnenkamp, Lexi Mattick, and Liam Fissell

We Want To Hear From You!

If you have a recent or upcoming premiere or concert, publication, award, new job, or a celebratory life event, please share your news, which needn’t be music-related (although we love your music-related news to be sure!). Email your news to alumni@waldenschool.org.

Stay in Touch

You can like The Walden School page on Facebook and join The Walden School private group to hear about events and opportunities throughout the year. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, bandcamp, and at waldenschool.org.

by Noah Mlotek

eNews: Internetzo – August 2026

Message from Seth Brenzel,
Executive Director

Dear Walden friends,

Walden’s 54th season of transformative music programs was a triumph and a delight. Our students, staff, faculty, and visiting artists inspired each other to reach new heights of creative expression, all while upholding a community spirit of kindness, collaboration, and mutual support. I am excited to share highlights of this amazing summer with you, starting below with a reflection on the 2026 Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) by Caroline Mallonee.

This edition of InterNetzo has several updates on Walden’s fundraising events, both in person and online. Please save the date of Sunday, September 27, for a Walden celebration and fundraiser in San Francisco. And be sure to check out our online Summer of Creativity, in which members of our community are raising funds for Walden through a remarkable range of creative projects.

Keep reading for more exciting news and updates from throughout the Walden community. I hope you have had a wonderful summer, with some time for rest and relaxation, and I look forward to catching up with you soon!

Sincerely,

Seth Brenzel
Executive Director

Reflections on the 2026 Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR)

From Caroline Mallonee, Director of CMR

It has been fifteen years since we held the first Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR), and I am pleased to report that the program is still going strong.

We have a dedicated group of returning faculty and an enthusiastic alumni contingent that keep Walden traditions and collective memories of summers past alive.

This summer, in residence on the beautiful Dublin School campus in Dublin, New Hampshire, we welcomed 42 participants, half of whom were new to Walden. Walden has always been intergenerational, and CMR exemplifies this; in 2026, our students ranged in age from 19 to 84. Many miniature gnomes arrived with the CMR participants—and we spent the week wondering where they came from, how many there were, and what they witnessed during our extraordinary week of music-making in Dublin.

Loretta Notareschi, Renée Favand-See, Osnat Netzer, D. J. Sparr, and I returned to teach classes in Walden Musicianship and pedagogy, advanced counterpoint, orchestration, sound mass composition, and experimental piano techniques. Steven David Beck joined the faculty to lead our Electronic Music offerings and Mike Ballard conducted the CMR Chorus and led the CMR Chamber Choir in four world premieres on Composers Forums.

In Nicole Mitchell, our 2026 Composer-in-Residence, we found a wonderful presence, insightful moderator, and generous teacher, whose music on the Opening Concert and Performers Night captivated and inspired us. She moderated all three of the evening Composers Forums, which presented 34 world premiere performances.

Ensemble Dal Niente and pianist David Friend kicked off a week of incredible performances with an inspiring Opening Concert. We were astounded by their musicianship and loved their presence in the community.

Above left: CMR Composer-in-Residence Nicole Mitchell; above right: CMR participants Evan Tarrh and John Tarrh (our first father-son duo to attend CMR!)

CMR Performers Night was one to remember! Nicole led a large group in her Birdsongs for an Equitable Togetherness, Osnat led a varied group in things to do by James Saunders (which included a rainbow umbrella), and Renée led yet a third large group in three text pieces by participants. We also heard a Renaissance vocal piece by Thomas Weelkes, a Stravinsky trumpet duo, and eight pianists playing solos from Michael Gordon’s July.

All of it was smoothly handled by our awesome Director of Operations, Sammi Stone, leading our incredible CMR staff: Francesca Hellerman, Dahlia Riddington, and Zaki Andoh. Rodier handled all our recording, livestreaming, and technical needs. Seth Brenzel oversaw it all!

I’m not sure how I’d even start to describe the astonishing diversity of offerings on display during the CMR Open Mic. Walden always surprises and inspires, and I can’t wait for next summer!

Upcoming Fundraising Event

A Walden Celebration and Fundraiser in San Francisco on Sunday, September 27, from 3 to 5 pm

Join The Walden School for an afternoon of delightful music, delicious refreshments, and scintillating conversation in the heart of San Francisco. This event will celebrate Walden’s incredible 2026 season and raise funds to support essential student scholarships, dedicated facutly and staff, and inspiring artist residencies at Walden’s transformative music programs.

We are delighted to present a short performance by Nebula Consort, a San Francisco-based choral ensemble specializing in a cappella works spanning the European Renaissance to the modern day. Directed by Eric Choate, Nebula includes Chris Martin, Walden’s Development Assistant, as a bass vocalist.

You are welcome to RSVP or contact us with any questions by emailing events@waldenschool.org or calling (415) 587-8157.

❤️ Support Walden today ❤️

Summer of Creativity Continues

Throughout the summer, Walden has been hosting the Summer of Creativity, an online campaign in which Walden community members take on exciting creative projects while raising funds to support Walden’s programs. Check out the Summer of Creativity website here!

We have eight amazing projects currently underway: Kittie’s Halloween knitting, Dede’s modal challenge, Sarah’s fiddle tunes, Dave’s clarinet composition, Doug’s banjo arrangements, Rachel’s fungi and flora, Kate and Seven’s crocheting and video pastiche, and JoAnn’s sustainable quilting.

We are deeply grateful to these Walden community members for their creative efforts. Each participant has a project page where they have been posting a wealth of entertaining updates, including photos and videos. Please check them out and consider supporting one or more (or all!) of these Walden champions.

Visit the Summer of Creativity website

Thanks to the generosity inspired by our creative participants, the Summer of Creativity has raised $4,688 for Walden—and counting! Thank you to the 45 donors who have supported the campaing so far, including 27 first-time donors to Walden!

The campaign will run through September 22 (the last day of astronomical summer!), so there is still time to follow along and support these creative projects. In fact, it’s not too late to sign up with a project of your own

Fundraising Event Recaps

July 27: Walden Giving Day

We continued our annual tradition of Walden Giving Day on the first day of Festival Week at the 2026 Young Musicians Program (YMP). It was a successful (and fun!) day of music, community, inspiration, and generosity.

Throughout Giving Day, we shared video updates from a typically jam-packed day at Walden. Updates included morning meeting, classes, chorus, outdoor fun, interviews with students, faculty, and our composer-in-residence, and the first Festival Week Composers Forum of the 2026 Young Musicians Program (YMP). We hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did!

Our videos from Giving Day will remain available on Walden’s Giving Day website. We even have three bonus videos that were not originally posted on Giving Day. We hope that you will visit the Giving Day site to experience a bit of Walden magic, or that you will send it to a friend or colleague who might be interested in learning more about Walden

Visit the Giving Day website

Our fundraising goal on Giving Day was $5,400 for Walden’s 54th summer. With your support, we raised $8,045—nearly 150% of our goal. Thank you! Gifts were made by 50 individuals and families, ranging in amount from $10 to $1,500, including 11 first-time donors to Walden.

Your support ensures that creative musicians will find a home at Walden for generations to come. No matter the amount of your gift, we are so grateful for your partnership in our mission to inspire artistic expression and personal growth through experiential music programs.

❤️ Support Walden today ❤️

August 1: A Walden celebration and fundraiser in New Hampshire

Thank you to all who joined us for a Walden celebrationand fundraiser in Dublin and Harrisville, New Hampshire, on Saturday, August 1! 

In the Louise Shonk Kelly Recital Hall on the beautiful Dublin School campus, we enjoyed a solo recital by New York Philharmonic pianist Eric Huebner (pictured above right), performing works by Beethoven, Liszt, Morton Feldman, and Scott Joplin.

Huebner has been a visiting artist at Walden during multiple seasons, where he has performed in countless world premieres of student compositions. He is married to Caroline Mallonee, Director of Walden’s Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR), and they are the parents of a Young Musicians Program (YMP) alum. Thank you for sharing your incredible artistry, Eric!

The celebration continued with a beautiful indoor/outdoor reception in nearby Harrisville, New Hampshire, where Ellen and Ed Bernard opened up their barn, and guests enjoyed delicious bites and drinks. Thank you, Ellen and Ed, for your warm hospitality!

Malcolm Gaines, a CMR alum, spoke to attendees about Walden’s impact on the lives of its participants. Inspired by Now I Walk in Beauty, a song that is frequently taught and sung at Walden, Gaines explained how Walden teaches that the creativity within each person is worth cultivating and sharing with others, making the world a more beautiful place. Gaines is married to Seth Brenzel, Walden’s Executive Director, and they are the parents of a YMP alum and uncles to another YMP alum. Malcolm’s mother, JoEllen Gaines, is an alum of Walden’s Teacher Training Institute (TTI).

We are so grateful to our host committee and to all of our event donors for their generosity. With your support, Walden raised a total of $13,600 as part of this event. Thank you!

Thank you to our raffle donors: Ellen and Ed Bernard, Joshua Goodman and Anna Lumelsky, Regina and Nicholas Silitch, Ava Marie Chocolates, and Grove and Main Antiques

Thank you to our New Hampshire event host committee: Ellen and Ed Bernard, David Bivins and Kristen Davis, Seth Brenzel and Malcolm Gaines, Leah Kenney Butler and Anthony Butler, Mary Cornog, Sarah Cornog and Chris Chesney, Anne and Thom Haxo, Robin and Leslie Kenney, Sookyoung Lee and Matthew Egan, Fred and Jean Leventhal, Anna Lumelsky and Joshua Goodman, Caroline Mallonee and Eric Huebner, Noah Mlotek, Peter Pap Rugs, Regina and Nicholas Silitch

Walden in the News

This summer, Walden was featured in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, the local newspaper for Walden’s summer home in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire!

The article, published on July 30 and written by reporter Jessica Timmons, highlighted the Young Musicians Program (YMP) and Walden’s free public Concert Series, including the YMP choral concert. The feature included pictures of a YMP student composer and The Walden School Players during a Festival Week Composers Forum rehearsal.

We are grateful to the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript for the feature, which is available on the newspaper’s website.

Walden Merchandise

Wonderful Walden merch is for sale on our website! We have Walden beach towels, blankets, vintage summer program shirts (YMP and CMR alumni: ask about your year!), canvas totes, stickers, pens, pencils, and more.

See what’s available and fill out an order form here.

Payment can be made by check, money order, Zelle, credit card, or PayPal. Zelle and PayPal payments should be directed to billing@waldenschool.org.

Please contact Mindy Williams, Walden’s Administrative Director, or call the Walden office at (415) 587-8157 if you have any questions.

🎁 Order Walden Merch 🎁

Community News

Liam Cummins and Miranda Cuckson honored by Barlow commissions

Liam Cummins (pictured at right), an alum of Walden’s Online Young Musicians Experience (OYME), was recently awarded a General Commission through the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University. This year, the endowment granted a total of $80,000 to nine composers to write works for ensembles and musicians of their choosing. Liam’s commissioned work, a twenty-minute sonata for violin and piano, will be premiered by Tianyou Ma next spring in New York. Another Barlow General Commission, a violin concerto by composer Dongryul Lee, will feature past Walden visiting artist Miranda Cuckson as soloist with Talea Ensemble. Congratulations, Liam and Miranda!

Matt Siffert opens for Rosanne Cash

Composer-songwriter Matt Siffert, a Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) alum, opened for Grammy-winning musicians Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal at Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder, Colorado, on July 20, performing songs from his latest EP, Magic of the New. The EP, released in March 2025, is available on all streaming platforms. Congratulations, Matt!

Mary Fineman releases album featuring JCC composition
Mary Fineman, an alum of the Junior Conservatory Camp (JCC), Walden’s predecessor program, has released a new album of solo piano music called Watercolor. Fineman first composed the title piece during one of her summers as a student at JCC, studying with Grace Newsom Cushman and Shari Fleming. Since then, she has arranged Watercolor for string quartet and included it in a suite for Pierrot ensemble entitled Suite from the Faraway Pavilion, for which she received the Vinnie Ream Prize from the National League of American Pen Women. Watercolor is available on all streaming platforms, with a physical album and book coming soon.

Luke Poeppel receives Solti Foundation Award

Luke Poeppel, a Young Musicians Program (YMP) alum, was named a winner of the 2026 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award alongside 15 other conductors. This prestigious award supports promising young American conductors as they develop their professional careers. Luke previously received this award in 2025. In June, Luke conducted a concert of world premieres with the Grossman Ensemble, a leading contemporary music ensemble in residence at the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. The concert included a new work called “waggle dance” by former YMP faculty member Katherine Balch. A review in Chicago’s Hyde Park Herald stated: “The evening’s success was due in part to the fine work of conductor Luke Poeppel, who led the Grossman Ensemble admirably, with polished sound and careful attention.” Congratulations, Luke!

Anuj Bhutani receives Princess Grace Award in Theater
Composer Anuj Bhutani, a CMR alum, was awarded a Princess Grace Award in theater, receiving the Robert and Gloria Hausman Honor. Bhutani was nominated for the award by Beth Morrison Projects, which has named him winner of their 2026 BMP: Next Gen competition for his autobiographical vocal-theater piece MANU. The work “weaves a personal story of institutional trauma with the Hindu flood myth of survival, as two narratives collide and collapse into one. Through live performance and a hybrid musical language, it becomes a work about endurance, identity, and the force of memory in shaping who we are and who we become."

Nicolás Lell Benavides and Chris Martin at Chamber Music Conference of the East

Nicolás Lell Benavides, CMR and Teacher Training Institute (TTI) alum, was a Composer-in-Residence this summer at Chamber Music Conference of the East, where he mentored Chris Martin, Walden’s current Development Assistant, who was a Composition Fellow. Mentorship was also provided by Senior Composer-in-Residence Donald Crockett at the conference, held annually at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. In 2013, Benavides held the same fellowship alongside Caroline Mallonee, who was Composer-in-Residence that year. Several other Walden alums and past Walden Composers-in-Residence have held the same role at Chamber Music Conference in past seasons.

Above: Nicolás Lell Benavides, Donald Crockett, and Chris Martin (photo credit: Danielle Cho courtesy of Nicolás Lell Benavides)

Mackenzie Melemed presents multi-year piano recital tour

Pianist Mackenzie Melemed, a YMP alum, is currently presenting Keys Across America, a piano recital tour featuring nearly two centuries of America piano music. The program features music by influential composers including Amy Beach, Florence Price, Aaron Copland, and Ned Rorem, as well as new works written for Mackenzie by composers Laura Kaminsky and Avner Dorman. The program also includes New England Idyls by American composer Edward MacDowell, who, with his wife Marian, founded the MacDowell artist residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, near Walden’s summer home in Dublin, New Hampshire. (See the next news item for more about the Walden-MacDowell connection!) Launched in November 2025 and running through 2028, Keys Across America will be the largest tour of American piano music in celebration of the United States’ 250th Anniversary. Legendary pianist Emmanuel Ax has said about Mackenzie and his program: “He’s a truly exceptional artist. This is the most interesting take on the recital program that I have seen in a long time."

PRISM Quartet releases new album
On August 14, the leading saxophone ensemble PRISM Quartet released a new album titled Generate Music. First performed in June 2024 at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia and Roulette in Brooklyn, this body of work explores ties between Black and Jewish Americans. The album features the work of eight composers, including PRISM Quartet member and past Walden board memeber Matthew Levy, as well as Yotam Haber, a past Composers Forum moderator at YMP. This summer, during a visit to MacDowell in Peterborough, New Hampshire, a group of YMP students heard a presentation by Haber, who has received multiple MacDowell Fellowships. PRISM Quartet and Walden have a longstanding partnership through the Walden School/PRISM Quartet Student Commissioning Award, a collaboration that has resulted in 23 premieres of commissioned works by YMP alums since 2000.

Sky Macklay and Sam Pluta welcome baby Berns

Bernard Tucson Pluta (nickname Berns), son of former Walden faculty members Sky Macklay (who is also a CMR and TTI alum) and Sam Pluta, was born on June 30th in Baltimore. Berns (and many other babies in the busy hospital!) were summoned by the full moon that night. The name Bernard is a nod to composer Bernard Parmegiani, who is a favorite of both parents. They highly recommend listening to Parmegiani’s piece Violostries and the album La Création du Monde! Bernard’s middle name, Tucson, is after Sky’s late paternal grandfather, Gale “Tucson” Macklay, who took Tucson as his cowboy nickname on a road trip in Wyoming at age 18 and used it for the rest of his life. Berns already loves swim trips and being serenaded with Sanctus, Non Nobis, and other Walden songs! Congratulations, Sky and Sam!

We Want To Hear From You!

If you have a recent or upcoming premiere or concert, publication, award, new job, or a celebratory life event, please share your news, which needn’t be music-related (although we love your music-related news to be sure!). Email your news to alumni@waldenschool.org.

Stay in Touch

You can like The Walden School page on Facebook and join The Walden School private group to hear about events and opportunities throughout the year. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, bandcamp, and at waldenschool.org.

by Noah Mlotek

eNews: Internetzo – June 2026

Message from Seth Brenzel,
Executive Director

Dear Walden friends,

Happy summer! Walden’s 2026 Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) was a blast, with participants of all ages spending an inspiriational week composing, improvising, singing, studying, and performing together, while building a vibrant creative community. We hosted an all-star cast of visiting artists and were privileged to have Nicole Mitchell with us as Composer-in-Residence.

Our 2026 Young Musicians Program (YMP) began just a few days ago. Together with the entire YMP faculty and staff team, I was overjoyed to welcome 52 students, ages 10 to 18, to the beautiful Dublin School campus in Dublin, New Hampshire, where they will spending the next five weeks immersed in music, creativity, and community.

This edition of InterNetzo brings updates on the exciting concerts and fundraising events taking place this at Walden summer. Our online Summer of Creativity is underway, with members of our community taking on diverse creative projects while supporting Walden’s programs. It’s not too late to sign up with a project of your own! And mark your calendars to join us in Dublin, New Hampshire, on Saturday, August 1, for a celebration and fundraiser featuring Eric Huebner, pianist of the New York Philharmonic, as well as Sunday, September 27, for a celebration and fundraiser in San Francisco at the historic War Memorial Green Room.

Thank you for all the ways you support and engage with Walden and our creative community. I wish you a wonderful and music-filled summer, and I hope our paths cross soon!

Sincerely,

Seth Brenzel
Executive Director
(415) 587-8157

P.S. Check out this video of CMR participants rehearsing Birdsongs For Equitable Togetherness by Composer-in-Residence Nicole Mitchell.

Video credit: Bob Bassett

Walden's Summer of Creativity

Support Walden creatively this summer–wherever you are!

This summer, Walden is hosting the Summer of Creativity, an online campaign in which Walden community members take on exciting creative projects while raising funds to support Walden’s programs.

Check out the Summer of Creativity website here! We have five amazing projects currently underway: Kittie’s knitting, Dede’s modal challenge, Sarah’s fiddle tunes, Dave’s clarinet composition, and Doug’s banjo arrangements.

We are still seeking more participants! If you’d like to take on a creative project of your own, you can sign up here, or write to us at donors@waldenschool.org to discuss ideas for a project.

Projects of all kinds are welcome, whether musical or nonmusical–including collaborations!

Upcoming Fundraising Events

Monday, July 27: Giving Day

Save the date for Walden's annual online day of giving, which will take place on the first day of Festival Week at the Young Musicians Program (YMP). we'll share live video updates throughout the day, including snippets of Walden classes, rehearsals, and other daily activities, as well as interviews with students, faculty, staff, and artists about what makes the Walden experience special. Mark your calendars and tune in to support our students!

Saturday, August 1: A Walden Celebration and Fundraiser in New Hampshire

Featuring Eric Huebner, pianist of the New York Philharmonic

We are delighted to present pianist Eric Huebner as the featured artist for a Walden celebration and fundraiser in Dublin, New Hampshire, on Saturday, August 1, starting at 2 pm. Please mark your calendars and join us to celebrate the culmination of Walden’s 2026 season.

Pianist Eric Huebner has drawn worldwide acclaim for his performances of new and traditional music since making his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 17. In January 2012, he was appointed pianist of the New York Philharmonic and currently holds the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Piano Chair. A devoted teacher as well as performer, Huebner is Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He has been in residence at The Walden School during multiple seasons.

Community Event Recap

PRISM Quartet premieres works by Walden alums

Young Musicians Program (YMP) alum Henry Vidaver (pictured, left) was selected last year as the winner of The Walden School/PRISM Quartet Student Commissioning Award, a longstanding partnership in which Walden and the PRISM Quartet collaborate to select a student composer, mentor that composer in completing their final score, and PRISM provides a world premiere performance experience.

In concerts in Philadelphia and New York City, on June 6 and 7, PRISM gave the first performances of Vidaver’s commissioned piece for saxophone quartet, Via Appia, on a program titled Premieres. The concerts also featured a new commissioned work by YMP alum Teddy Poll, recipient of PRISM’s Robert Capanna Commissioning Award.

Read more about Henry Vidaver and the PRISM commission

Walden sponsored receptions after both concerts, and we were pleased to see Walden alums, board members, and supporters in both cities. It was a busy weekend for Henry, who also graduated from high school on June 6. Congratulations, Henry!

Above: PRISM Quartet with Henry Vidaver. Left to right: Zachary Shemon, Matthew Levy, Henry Vidaver, Timothy McAllister, and Taimur Sullivan (photo credit: David Bivins)

Henry Vidaver is the 24th winner of the PRISM Quartet/Walden School Student Commissioning Award, initiated in 2000 and presented annually to a current or recent YMP student. Described as "a bold ensemble that set the standard for contemporary-classical saxophone quartets" (The New York Times), PRISM has commissioned more than 300 works from eminent composers. Walden is proud to collaborate with PRISM Quartet on this opportunity to support young composers in their creative development.

Walden's Concert Series Continues

Each summer, Walden’s award-winning Concert Series presents leading professional musicians and ensembles on concerts that are offered free of charge to the public and webcast through high-quality livestreams.

This summer, Walden presents exciting concerts and presentations by The Walden School Players, Ensemble Dal Niente, Duo della Luna, the International Contemporary Ensemble, W4rp Trio, New Orleans-based jazz performer Aurora Nealand, and Composers-in-Residence Nicole Mitchell and Nathan Davis.

All concerts are free and open to the public, as well as livestreamed on Walden’s YouTube channel for a global audience. We hope you will join us—whether in person or virtually—for a season of dynamic performances, creative collaborations, and diverse new musical voices. Here are the concerts coming up this week:

TONIGHT: Tuesday, June 30, at 7:30 pm Eastern
YMP Composers Forum I

Featuring newly composed/improvised works by Young Musicians Program (YMP) students and discussions moderated by Susan Botti and Walden faculty member and Academic Dean Cara Haxo

Watch the YMP Composers Forum I livestream!

Friday, July 3, at 7:30pm Eastern
Aurora Nealand and Friends

On the Fountain Arts Building patio, Dublin School, Dublin, New Hampshire

Join us for a special evening of traditional New Orleans jazz at Walden! This annual outdoor performance, proudly co-presented with the Monadnock Folklore Society, is a beloved tradition of the Walden and Dublin communities. Aurora Nealand is a sound artist and multi-instrumentalist (saxophones, accordion, voice) based in New Orleans, Louisiana. An established bandleader, composer, performer, and improviser, and a former Walden faculty member, Nealand has become a prominent force in the New Orleans music scene since she first arrived in 2004.

This outdoor concert will not be livestreamed.

Walden Merchandise

Wonderful Walden merch is for sale on our website! We have Walden beach towels, blankets, vintage summer program shirts (YMP and CMR alumni: ask about your year!), canvas totes, stickers, pens, pencils, and more.

See what’s available and fill out an order form here.

Payment can be made by check, money order, Zelle, credit card, or PayPal. Zelle and PayPal payments should be directed to billing@waldenschool.org.

Please contact Mindy Williams, Walden’s Administrative Director, or call the Walden office at (415) 587-8157 if you have any questions.

🎁 Order Walden Merch 🎁

Community News

Isaac Goodman receives national songwriting award

Young Musicians Program (YMP) alum Isaac Goodman is one of eight young musical theater songwriters selected as winners of the 2025–2026 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge for High School Students, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Alliance for Musical Theater (NAMT). Isaac’s song, “Another Dreamer Down the Hall,” is about a once-promising musical theatre songwriter now disillusioned by the industry, who finds his quiet Brooklyn apartment disrupted by a young composer who moves in down the hall. The song was premiered on June 15 during a live awards show and concert in New York City, which can be viewed here. Leading up to the concert, the winning songs were professionally orchestrated, and the students worked with mentors and musicians to hone their orchestrations while learning about process, technique, and production. Congratulations, Isaac!

Aaron Nichols receives Morton Gould Young Composer Award

YMP alum Aaron Nichols was recently named one of 17 recipients of the Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. The ASCAP Foundation in recognition and encouragement of talented young composers of concert music ranging in age from 13 to 30. The juried national competition is named in honor of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Morton Gould for his lifelong commitment to encouraging young creators. Congratulations, Aaron!

Cara Haxo featured on She ROARS! concert in Cleveland

She ROARS! is an annual concert series in Cleveland featuring the music of living female composers. The first concert this year, held on May 31 at the Bop Stop in Cleveland, was devoted to the music of Caro Haxo, a YMP alum, faculty member, and Academic Dean, who also serves as vice-chair and treasurer of the Cleveland Composers Guild. The concert featured nine works by Haxo, several of which were inspired by literary texts. A review on clevelandclassical.com stated: “A single-composer program can be risky, but this one showed Haxo’s range as well as her consistency. Her music turned literary, experiential, and visual prompts into pieces that roared with clarity and purpose.” The concert was livestreamed and can be viewed here. Congratulations, Cara!

Stephen Woltosz completes first year at Juilliard

CMR alum Stephen Woltosz has completed his first year in the composition program at the Juilliard School’s Extension Division. Over two semesters, six of his original works were performed by Juilliard musicians, including solos for flute, cello, piano, viola, and clarinet, and a trio for clarinet, viola, and piano. His clarinet solo, River, is named after his black Labrador retriever, a competitive agility dog who performs at the national and international level. Stephen credits his summer at CMR as the moment live collaboration stopped being something to fear and started becoming something to lean into—a lesson that made him far more at ease this year when working with performers. Stephen’s musical background also includes pipe organ studies, participating in the Stanford Jazz Workshop, writing electronic dance music, and winning Best Original Score at the Park City Film Festival.

Nnenna Ogwo’s Juneteenth LP celebration returns

The New York City-based music collective Juneteenth LP returned to Joe’s Pub for its 11th Juneteenth celebration. Founded by Nnenna Ogwo, Juneteenth LP reimagines classical music programming by embracing elements of jazz, funk, spirituals, and the blues, and its annual Juneteenth concert has become a beloved New York tradition. Ogwo is both a YMP and CMR alumna, as well as a past board member, faculty member, and visiting artist.

Jonathan Newmark performs with the US Army Band Woodwind Quintet

On May 21, CMR alum Jonathan Newmark (far left in photo below), performed with the United States Army Band Woodwind Quintet at a concert in Rockville, Maryland. The Quintet performed two of Jonathan’s works, including a wind quintet and a wind/saxophone sextet. They also performed piano-wind sextets by Francis Poulenc and Christopher A. Kaminski. The Quintet has since commissioned Jonathan to write a piano-wind sextet for them, only their second such commission.

Newmark, a neurologist, professor of neurology, and retired colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, will be appointed by Governor Abigail Spanberger of Virginia to a third four-year term on the Secure and Resilient Commonwealth Panel, an advisory group that assists the Governor’s staff and the state legislature on addressing threats to the people of Virginia.

Noah Stein conducts premiere of choral-orchestral work

YMP alum Noah Stein composed Avodat Hakodesh: A New Sacred Service as his senior undergraduate thesis at Yale. Stein conducted the premiere performance on April 19 at Battell Chapel in New Haven, Connecticut, in which YMP alum Charlie Zhong, also a student at Yale, sang in the chorus. For his composition, Stein was awarded the Beekman Cannon Friends of Music at Yale Prize “for the senior who has done distinguished work in an intensive major and who submits the best senior essay on a musical subject, or a musical composition exhibiting unusual originality and promise.” The premiere performance can be viewed here. Noah will start a master’s program in choral conducting this fall at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Congratulations, Noah!

Orchestral piece by Ruth Hertzman-Miller performed in Boston

On May 31, Horizon Ensemble performed an orchestral work by Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) alum Ruth Hertzman-Miller at the Church of the Covenant in Boston. Titled The Activity of Sound, the piece explores highway traffic sounds. Ahead of the performance, Horizon Ensemble’s Artistic Director, Julian Gau, interviewed Ruth about the work.

Summer update from Mivos Quartet

In May, past Walden visiting ensemble Mivos Quartet visited the University of California San Diego (UCSD), where they performed the complete string quartets of Steve Reich. They also worked with composition students of Lei Liang, professor of composition at UCSD, who has been a visiting composer at both of Walden’s programs.

In June, the quartet traveled to Vienna, Austria, to appear on a radio show, Salon Zeit-Ton with Rainer Elstner on Ö1, discussing Mivos past, present, and future. Soon after, on June 24, they played the premiere of Miroslav Toth’s dystopian sci-fi opera White Death at New Opera Days Ostrava in the Czech Republic. Their final show of June takes the quartet back to Vienna, where they will present an album release concert of their latest album May Our Centers Hold at Reaktor on June 25.

We Want To Hear From You!

If you have a recent or upcoming premiere or concert, publication, award, new job, or a celebratory life event, please share your news, which needn’t be music-related (although we love your music-related news to be sure!). Email your news to alumni@waldenschool.org.

Stay in Touch

You can like The Walden School page on Facebook and join The Walden School private group to hear about events and opportunities throughout the year. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, bandcamp, and at waldenschool.org.

by Noah Mlotek

eNews: Internetzo – May 2026

Message from Seth Brenzel,
Executive Director

Summer is coming! Walden’s 2026 season begins in less than three weeks, and I could not be more excited to welcome nearly 100 participants to Dublin, New Hampshire, for another invigorating season of creative music-making. Read on to learn about our extraordinary lineup of free concerts and our superb faculty, staff, and artists who will bring the Walden experience to life once again for our students and audiences.

Even sooner than that, I hope you will join us for the premiere of a new commissioned work by Walden student Henry Vidaver, the latest recipient of The Walden School/PRISM Quartet Student Commissioning Award. Vidaver’s piece for saxophone quartet will be premiered by PRISM in Philadelphia on Saturday, June 6, at 7 pm and in New York City on Sunday, June 7, at 4 pm, on a program that also includes a premiere by Walden alum Teddy Poll. After each concert, there will be casual receptions for Walden alums and community members to gather. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us!

There are just a few spots remaining in our student body for Summer 2026. Applications for Walden’s 2026 summer programs are being accepted and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Both the Young Musicians Program (YMP) and Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) will be held on the beautiful Dublin School campus in Dublin, New Hampshire. Read on for more details, and please help us spread the word!

This edition of InterNetzo also rounds up our recent and upcoming fundraising events, including an August 1 celebration in New Hampshire featuring pianist Eric Huebner, as well as lots of exciting community news.

I hope you will join us in Dublin–or online!–to experience the extraordinary breadth of creativity that will unfold at Walden this summer.

Seth Brenzel
Executive Director
(415) 587-8157

Upcoming Community Events

PRISM Quartet to premiere works by Walden alums

Young Musicians Program (YMP) alum Henry Vidaver (pictured, left) was selected last year as the winner of The Walden School/PRISM Quartet Student Commissioning Award, a longstanding partnership in which Walden and the PRISM Quartet collaborate to select a student composer, mentor that composer in completing their final score, and PRISM provides a world premiere performance experience.

On June 6 and 7, PRISM will give the first performances of Vidaver’s commissioned piece for saxophone quartet, Via Appia, on a program titled Premieres. The concerts will also feature a new commissioned work by YMP alum Teddy Poll.

Premieres by PRISM Quartet

Saturday, June 6, in Philadelphia, at 7 pm
Settlement Music School, Germantown Branch
6128 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA, 19144
$10, $22.50, or $35 General Admission (pay-what-you-wish)
Free Parking

Sunday, June 7, in New York City, at 4 pm
Christ & St. Stephens Church
120 W 69th St, New York, NY, 10023
$10, $22.50, or $35 General Admission (pay-what-you-wish)

There will be casual receptions after the concerts in both Philadelphia and New York for Walden alums and community members to gather. Please write to us at events@waldenschool.org if you are interested in attending or volunteering to help with the receptions!

Read more about Henry Vidaver and the PRISM commission

Henry Vidaver is the 24th winner of the PRISM Quartet/Walden School Student Commissioning Award, initiated in 2000 and presented annually to a current or recent YMP student. Described as “a bold ensemble that set the standard for contemporary-classical saxophone quartets” (The New York Times), PRISM has commissioned more than 300 works from eminent composers. Walden is proud to collaborate with PRISM Quartet on this opportunity to support young composers in their creative development.

Walden's Extraordinary 2026 Season

2026 Concert Series

Each summer, Walden’s award-winning Concert Series presents leading professional musicians and ensembles on concerts that are offered free of charge to the public and webcast through high-quality livestreams.

This summer, Walden will present exciting concerts and presentations by The Walden School Players, Ensemble Dal Niente, Duo della Luna, the International Contemporary Ensemble, W4rp Trio, New Orleans-based jazz performer Aurora Nealand, and Composers-in-Residence Nicole Mitchell and Nathan Davis.

All concerts will be free and open to the public, as well as livestreamed on Walden’s YouTube channel for a global audience. We hope you will join us—whether in person or virtually—for a season of dynamic performances, creative collaborations, and diverse new musical voices.

View the complete 2026 Concert Series lineup

2026 Faculty and Staff

Each summer, Walden assembles an accomplished and well-rounded team of faculty and staff to mentor and inspire our students. Our philosophy is that by participating together in all levels of community life, faculty, staff, visiting artists, and students can create an environment where creativity flourishes and mentorship abounds.

Walden’s 2026 faculty and staff team is a wonderful mix of returning team members, team members returning in new roles, and several new staff and faculty members. Walden’s faculty are a diverse group of improvisers, composers, conductors, performers, and music scholars, all of whom are committed to the creation and dissemination of new music and to developing the next generation’s composers, performers, arts leaders, and more.

Visit our website to learn about our incredible faculty and staff:

Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) faculty and staff
Young Musicians Program (YMP) faculty and staff

Upcoming Fundraising Events

Join Walden's Summer of Creativity!

This summer, Walden is launching an online campaign—the Summer of Creativity—in which members of our community will undertake creative projects and solicit donations to Walden from their friends, colleagues, and family members in order to support scholarships and artist residencies at our summer programs. This create-a-thon is planned to run throughout Walden’s summer season, from June 13 through August 2.

We are seeking volunteers to join the Summer of Creativity. Please write to us at donors@waldenschool.org if you are interested in participating, or if you have any questions about the campaign.

Projects of all types are welcome, whether musical or nonmusical. Creative projects during previous create-a-thons have included: planting a garden pathway, learning to play a piano piece, writing a novella, composing a song cycle, writing haikus, recording an album, coding a computer application, and creating a piece of jewelry, to name just a few.

Monday, July 27: Giving Day

Save the date for Walden’s annual online day of giving, which will take place on the first day of Festival Week at the Young Musicians Program (YMP). We’ll share live video updates throughout the day, including snippets of Walden classes, rehearsals, and other daily activities, as well as interviews with students, faculty, staff, and artists about what makes the Walden experience special. Mark your calendars and tune in to support our students!

Saturday, August 1: A Walden Celebration and Fundraiser in New Hampshire

Featuring pianist Eric Huebner

We are delighted to announce pianist Eric Huebner as the featured artist for a Walden celebration and fundraiser in Dublin, New Hampshire, on Saturday, August 1, starting at 2 pm. Please mark your calendars and join us to celebrate the culmination of Walden’s 2026 season.

Pianist Eric Huebner has drawn worldwide acclaim for his performances of new and traditional music since making his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 17. In January 2012, he was appointed pianist of the New York Philharmonic and currently holds the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Piano Chair. A devoted teacher as well as performer, Huebner is Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He has been in residence at The Walden School during multiple seasons.

Event Recaps

A Walden Celebration and Fundraiser in Washington, DC

This celebration was held at the historic DACOR Bacon House in downtown Washington, DC, where guests enjoyed a duo performance by pianist Pallavi Mahidhara and violist/violinist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli, a past visiting artist at Walden. The Mahidhara-Fort duo performed music by Mozart, French baroque composer Marin Marais, and contemporary Icelandic composer Veronique Vaka.

Above: Aurélien Fort Pederzoli and Pallavi Mahidhara performing

We are very grateful to all of our event donors, who contributed $6,850 to Walden’s Annual Fund as part of this celebration. Thank you!

Thank you to our host committee: JoAnn Balingit, Seth Brenzel, Peter Colohan and Fenton Blake, Francine Hochberg-Giuffrida and Jeffrey Giuffrida, Steve Messner and Liz Prelinger, Noah Mlotek, and Will Yale

❤️ Support Walden Today ❤️

Above: Walden alums Noah Mlotek, Seth Brenzel, Russell Nadel, Tyson Laa Deng, Francesca Hellerman, and Nora Giuffrida

A Walden Celebration and Fundraiser in New York City

This event drew more than 65 guests to the historic, art-filled Salmagundi Club in Greenwich Village, for a solo recital by pianist Blair McMillen, who has appeared as a visiting artist at Walden during multiple seasons. McMillen performed works by Claude Debussy, Margaret Bonds, William Bolcom, and Gabriella Smith, as well as a composition written at Walden last summer by Young Musicians Program (YMP) alum Sébastien Nothias.

Thanks to our event donors, we raised $6,360 for Walden’s Annual Fund as part of this celebration. Thank you! Thanks also to Kate Valenta, Alex Johnston, and Scott Menchin for donating several wonderful raffle prizes.

Thank you to our host committee: Whit Bernard and Freya Zaheer, David Bivins and Kristen Davis, Seth Brenzel, Sarah Cornog and Chris Chesney, Gaela Dennison-Leonard, Andrew Jacobs and Kathy Park, Hilary Kole and Chad Hoeppner, Sookyoung Lee and Matthew Egan, Tessie McGough, Scott Menchin and Yvetta Fedorova, Noah Mlotek, Sammi Jo Stone, Solon Snider Sway and Emma Sway, Kate Valenta and Alex Johnston, Jennifer Weidman and Barry Adler

❤️ Support Walden Today ❤️

Above left: Theo Trevisan, Rodier, Solon Snider Sway, and Anne Trevisan; above right: Jonathan McCullagh, Kathy Park, and Andrew Jacobs

A Few Spots Remain for Walden 2026

Applications are being accepted for Summer 2026!

There’s still time to apply to The Walden School’s 2026 summer programs! Applications to both the Young Musicians Program (YMP) and Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) are currently being accepted and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Don't delay!

We encourage you to share the news with your friends, family, colleagues, students, and teachers.

Creative Musicians Retreat
June 13–21, 2026
Dublin School, Dublin, New Hampshire
for musicians ages 18-98

Young Musicians Program
June 27–August 2, 2026
Dublin School, Dublin, New Hampshire
for pre-college musicians, ages 9-18

Application materials for both programs are available on our website.

Write to us at applicants@waldenschool.org with any questions.

Apply to Walden 2026!

Walden Merchandise

Wonderful Walden merch is for sale on our website! We have Walden beach towels, blankets, vintage summer program shirts (YMP and CMR alumni: ask about your year!), canvas totes, stickers, pens, pencils, and more.

See what’s available and fill out an order form here.

Payment can be made by check, money order, Zelle, credit card, or PayPal. Zelle and PayPal payments should be directed to billing@waldenschool.org.

Please contact Mindy Williams, Walden’s Administrative Director, or call the Walden office at (415) 587-8157 if you have any questions.

🎁Order Walden Merch🎁

Community News

Kyra Sims voyages to Antarctica

Hornist Kyra Sims, a member of The Walden School Players, travelled to Antarctica through a fellowship from Polar STEAM, which pairs artists and educators with Antarctic scientists on polar expeditions. Apart from Metallica, Sims is the only musician in the world known to have performed on all seven continents!

During the expedition, Sims wrote a piece called First Year Sea Ice in honor of her ship, the research vessel Sikuliaq. Sikuliaq” is an Iñupiaq term meaning “young sea ice.” She also created a piece called Otto in Antarctica (Otto is the name of her horn), incorporating field recordings from the voyage, and she worked closely with the scientists on board studying the effects of climate change on the region’s complex ecosystems. Sims was interviewed about the experience by PRI’s The World.

Two Walden composers honored by American Academy

In February, the American Academy of Arts and Letters announced its 2026 Music Award winners, two of whom are connected with Walden. Katherine Balch is a former Walden faculty member and Natacha Diels is an alum of Walden’s Teacher Training Institute (TTI). Both Balch and Diehls received Arts and Letters awards, which recognize composers who have “arrived at their own voice.” Each award comes with $10,000 plus a $10,000 grant toward a recording of one of the composer’s works. A concert of works by each recipient will be presented in the Arts and Letters Library in New York City. Congratulations, Katie and Natacha!

Walden student featured at WoCo Fest

Nora Giuffrida, a Young Musicians Program (YMP) alum, had one of her compositions performed on the opening concert of WoCo Fest 2026 at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland. WoCo Fest is a celebration of music by women and gender-marginalized composers, presented annually by the Boulanger Initiative. Nora’s 2025 Walden Festival Piece, The Dove, was performed by violinist Audrey Wright, a member of the New York Philharmonic who performs with live electronics and sound-responsive light art as Luminous Being. Noah Mlotek, Walden’s Director of Development and Alumni Relations, was in attendance, along with Boulanger Initiative co-founders Laura C!olgate and Joy-Leilani Garbutt. The next day, Nora joined Noah in staffing an informational table for Walden. Congratulations, Nora, and thanks for volunteering

Victoria Cheah awarded Rome Prize

YMP alum Victoria Cheah, a composer and electronic musician, was awarded a 2026–2027 Rome Prize in musical composition. This prestigious honor supports innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities, providing recipients with time and space to work at the American Academy in Rome. Cheah is a graduate of Hunter College, received her PhD in composition from Brandeis University, and is a faculty member at Berklee College of Music/Boston Conservatory. Congratulations, Tori!

Walden Artist receives Guggenheim Fellowship

Violinist Josh Modney, who performs as Modney, has been named as a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow. Modney is a frequent visiting artist at Walden’s summer programs, often in association with the International Contemporary Ensemble. Modney also performed at a Walden celebration and fundraiser in Washington, DC, in May 2024. Congratulations, Josh!

International Contemporary Ensemble performs music by Marcos Balter and Andromeda Wen

The International Contemporary Ensemble, a frequent Walden visiting ensemble, performed two pieces by past Walden composer-in-residence Marcos Balter on May 21. The program, which also featured works by Du Yun, Anthony Braxton, and Yaz Lancaster, was followed by a discussion between Balter and the performers about the creative process of composition in today’s world. The event was co-presented by MacDowell, the renowned artist residency in Peterborough, New Hampshire, right near Walden’s summer home in New Hampshire’s Monadnock region.

On Thursday, June 4, the International Contemporary Ensemble will join the celebration of Luna Composition Lab’s 10th anniversary by presenting a concert titled Luna Lab@10, New Moons, featuring six world premieres by 2025-26 fellows, including Echoes by Andromeda Wen, a YMP alum. Alongside these premieres, the Ensemble will perform works by Luna Lab mentor composers Vivian Fung, Brittany J. Green, and Angélica Negrón.

Carlos Pereira releases new album

A new album of original compositions by YMP faculty member Carlos Henrique Pereira is available now from Salvaterra Music. Northern Readings features Pereira performing on piano and guitar alongside a small ensemble. His compositions span influences including Brazilian music, jazz improvisation, and chamber music. A review in Jazz Views describes the album as “a delightful exploration of sonic landscapes and instrumental combinations,” and quotes Carlos as citing his Walden teaching experience as a major influence on his compositional approach.

Wet Ink Ensemble performs music by Aurora Nealand

Aurora Nealand is familiar to the Walden community through her much-loved annual concert of New Orleans-style jazz during Walden’s Young Musicians Program, which will take place again this year on Friday, July 3. Nealand is also a composer and former Walden faculty member. New York-based contemporary music ensemble Wet Ink will premiere a new octet by Nealand on Wednesday, June 10, at Roulette in Brooklyn. The performance is the culmination of her time as Artist-in-Residence for Wet Ink’s 2025–2026 season. The concert will also include works by Jo Kondo, Jürg Frey, and Wet Ink member Alex Mincek. Wet Ink Ensemble has appeared on Walden’s Concert Series during multiple seasons, and the ensemble includes several Walden-affiliated artists, including Sam Pluta, Modney, and Mariel Roberts Musa.

Work of Walden alum recorded in Helsinki

This past February, Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) alum Drew Kravin produced a video recording of A Northern Summer Evening, featuring mezzo-soprano, violin, vibraphone, and piano, at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. Drew originally composed this piece for CMR in 2023. YMP and CMR alum Niki Main, who is pursuing a master’s degree at the Sibelius Academy, recruited the musicians and videographer, and coordinated and directed the video. The video description includes background about the piece as well as the text, along with the translation of the Finnish parts

Sol Quartet performs work by Derek David

In April, past Walden visiting ensemble Del Sol Quartet performed a clarinet quintet by Derek David, a former YMP faculty member, on concerts in Colorado and New Mexico. The quintet, titled Oh World, Goodnight, was co-commissioned in 2022 by Del Sol and The Rossini Club and was premiered with clarinetist Nick Davies. The piece showcases Derek’s love of Yiddish culture, klezmer music, and Baroque tradition.

Arlo Bivins works on Brian Lehrer Show at WNYC

Arlo Bivins, a YMP alum, is an intern with the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC this spring. Through the internship, he has pitched and written several segments for the show on local and national topics and plans to write more segments in the coming months. Arlo says “the experience has been incredible and has pushed me to delve further into the social sciences.” Congratulations, Arlo!

Peter Pap profiled in Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

Peter Pap, a longtime Walden supporter, was recently profiled in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript. The article focuses on his antique rug business, which has locations in both Dublin, New Hampshire, and San Francisco—neighboring Walden on both coasts! Currently, Pap is exhibiting Frank Stella’s Navajo textile collection in New York City.

Work by CMR alum premiered in Switzerland 

On April 16, a new work by CMR alum Vicente Hansen Atria was premiered by Ensemble Proton in Bern, Switzerland. Commissioned through the American Composers Forum, The Pilgrimage of Paracelsus draws on the 16th-century thinker’s rigor, imagination, and idiosyncrasies. Congratulations, Vicente!

New work by Ruth Hertzman-Miller premiered

On May 2, the Providence Medical Orchestra performed a new work by Ruth Herzman-Miller, a CMR alum. Titled The Things Between Us, the piece sets three texts by people with dementia from Living Words, a United Kingdom-based organization in which writers and artists work one-to-one in creative partnership with people in nursing homes. Congratulations, Ruth!

Walden alums premiere new work together

Two Walden community members recently performed together on the premiere of First Disobedience by Clark Nichols at Indiana University Bloomington Jacobs School of Music. The work is written for bass voice (sung by YMP alum Evan Tiapula), mandolin, and chamber orchestra. Will Hawkins, an alum and staff member at both YMP and CMR, played viola in the chamber ensemble. Congratulations to all involved!

We Want To Hear From You!

If you have a recent or upcoming premiere or concert, publication, award, new job, or a celebratory life event, please share your news, which needn’t be music-related (although we love your music-related news to be sure!). Email your news to alumni@waldenschool.org.

Stay in Touch

You can like The Walden School page on Facebook and join The Walden School private group to hear about events and opportunities throughout the year. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, bandcamp, and at waldenschool.org.

by Noah Mlotek

eNews: Internetzo – April 2026

Message from Seth Brenzel,
Executive Director

Dear Walden friends,

Spring is here, and the start of Walden’s 2026 summer season is less than two months away!

In the meantime, we have two wonderful Walden fundraising events coming up. This Sunday, April 26, Walden is hosting a celebration and fundraiser in Washington, DC, featuring pianist Pallavi Mahidhara and violist/violinist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli. Next month, we’ll be in in New York City, with a celebration and fundraiser on Sunday, May 17, featuring pianist Blair McMillen. I hope to see many Walden friends at these events! Please write to us if you are interested in attending.

There are just a few spots remaining in our student body for Summer 2026. Applications for Walden’s 2026 summer programs are being accepted and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Both the Young Musicians Program (YMP) and Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) will be held on the beautiful Dublin School campus in Dublin, New Hampshire. Read on for more details, and please help us spread the word!

This edition of InterNetzo also includes a recap of last month’s Walden celebration in Los Angeles, featuring the amazing exilio vocal octet, as well as lots of exciting community news. Thank you for staying engaged with Walden, and please let us know if you have any updates for us to share in an upcoming newsletter!

Sincerely,

Seth Brenzel
Executive Director
(415) 587-8157

Upcoming Fundraising Events

A Walden celebration in Washington, DC

Sunday, April 26, 2026
3 to 5 p.m.
DACOR Bacon House

Please join us this Sunday, April 26, for a wonderful Walden afternoon in Washington, DC! Enjoy a performance by the Mahidhara-Fort Duo, which offers audiences the rare experience of hearing both violin-piano and viola-piano works on the same program. At this event, pianist Pallavi Mahidhara and violist/violinist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli (a past visiting artist at Walden) will perform works by Mozart, French baroque composer Marin Marais, and contemporary Icelandic composer Veronique Vaka.

RSVP for Walden's event in Washington, DC!

A Walden celebration in New York City

Sunday, May 17, 2026
3 to 5 p.m.
Salmagundi Club

Our next Walden fundraising event will feature pianist Blair McMillen, who will perform at the beautiful, art-filled Salmagundi Club in Greenwich Village. Hailed by the New York Times as “prodigiously accomplished and exciting” and as one of the piano’s “brilliant stars,” McMillen is a past visiting artist at The Walden School.

RSVP for Walden's event in New York City!

We hope you will join us at one (or both!) of these events, as we gather to celebrate Walden and its mission of inspiring artistic expression and personal growth through experiential music programs. Contributions to The Walden School Annual Fund will underwrite essential student scholarships and inspiring artist residencies at Walden’s programs this coming summer.

RSVP or contact us with questions at donors@waldenschool.org or (415) 587-8157.

Event Recap

A Walden fundraiser and celebration in Los Angeles

We were delighted to see many Walden community members, and to meet several new friends, at our fabulous celebration and fundraiser in Los Angeles on March 14. The event was held in the elegant Victory Ballroom at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in downtown LA. We enjoyed a performance by exilio, a dynamic LA-based vocal octet that champions underrepresented and emerging composers, and that includes two Walden School alums as vocalists and composers: Hannah Rice and Theo Trevisan, both of whom will be on faculty this summer at Walden’s Young Musicians Program. We are grateful to the members of exilio for sharing their talents and creativity with the Walden community.

We are very grateful to our host committee and all of our event donors, who contributed $8,080 to Walden’s Annual Fund as part of this celebration. Thank you!

Thanks also to Alan Chan and Amy Bryan for generously donating raffle gifts.

On behalf of our host committee, thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate music, community, and Walden in Los Angeles! And a big thank you to everyone who made gifts of support to Walden as part of this event.

Support Walden today!

Thank you to our host committee: JoAnn Balingit, Seth Brenzel, Amy Bryan, Alan Chan, Noah Mlotek, Joshua Rubin, Danielle Schindler Cheung, Stephen Smith, John Tarrh, Theo Trevisan, Jennifer Weidman, and Mindy Williams

A Few Spots Remain for Walden 2026

Applications are being accepted for Summer 2026!

There’s still time to apply to The Walden School’s 2026 summer programs! Applications to both the Young Musicians Program (YMP) and Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) are currently being accepted and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Don’t delay!

We encourage you to share the news with your friends, family, colleagues, students, and teachers.

Creative Musicians Retreat
June 13–21, 2026
Dublin School, Dublin, New Hampshire
for musicians ages 18–98

Young Musicians Program
June 27–August 2, 2026
Dublin School, Dublin, New Hampshire
for pre-college musicians, ages 9–18

Application materials for both programs are available on our website.

Write to us at applicants@waldenschool.org with any questions.

Apply to Walden 2026!

Opportunities for Composers

Did you know that Walden hosts a continually updated  webpage of competitions, awards, and calls for scores? Please let us know of additional opportunities that may be of interest to the Walden community.

Here are some featured opportunities with upcoming deadlines:

Score Follower Call for Works 2026

Approximately 30 works will be selected by the Score Follower jury, produced as “score videos,” and uploaded to the Score Follower YouTube channel. Composers of any age, nationality, or background may submit up to three works for instruments and/or electronics. Apply by May 1, 2026.

Azrieli Music Prizes 2028

The Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) offer opportunities for the discovery, creation, performance, and celebration of excellence in music composition. For the 2028 edition, there are three prizes for chamber music: the Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music; the Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music; and the Azrieli Commission for International Music. Winners are commissioned to create new works, to be delivered in summer 2028. Apply by May 6, 2026.

Susan Bergman Gurrentz ’56 Art Gallery at Chatham University Sound+ Installation Proposals

Chatham University’s Music Program and Arts, Design, & Communication Department are seeking sound and multimedia installation proposals from the SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States) membership for its new Susan Bergman Gurrentz ’56 Art Gallery to be exhibited during the Fall 2026 semester. Exhibition attendance is not required for featured composers and artists, though those that are able to travel to Chatham’s campus in Pittsburgh will be invited to give a presentation about their work. SEAMUS membership is required to submit. Apply by May 17, 2026.

Franco Carillon Composition Proposal Contest

The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America (GCNA) invites proposals for the biennial Franco Carillon Composition Proposal Contest. The GCNA encourages composers who are relatively new to carillon composition to enter the Proposal Contest in order to receive support throughout the compositional process of a new carillon piece. The goals of this contest are to bring new voices to the carillon repertoire and to increase awareness of the carillon and its vast technical and expressive capabilities. Prize-winning proposals will be awarded $2,000 and will be published and premiered at the next GCNA Congress. Apply by June 16, 2026.

Community News

Peter Jones launches Sondheim podcast

Peter E. Jones, an alum of Walden’s Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR), has created a new podcast titled Loving You: The Untold Sondheim. Jones, who is Stephen Sondheim’s archivist, co-hosts the podcast with British theater artist Martin Milnes. The 12-episode podcast features previously unheard archival material and interviews with friends and collaborators of the legendary Broadway composer and lyricist, including Julie Andrews, Mia Farrow, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. The podcast began airing on March 5, and approximately half of the episodes have been released.

Marilyn Crispell releases album

Pianist Marilyn Crispell, an alum of the Junior Conservatory Camp (JCC), released a new album in March on the ECM record label. The album, Memento, is a collaboration with Swedish bassist Anders Jormin and features numerous compositions by Crispell, including Dragonfly, which she wrote in memory of bassist Gary Peacock. Also included on the album are several improvisations by each performer and by the duo. 

YMP alum signs with Giant Music, releases debut singles

YMP alum Maya Engenheiro has signed with the Giant Music record label under the artist name Maya Engen. With a sound described by HITS Magazine as “pop, jazz, and a tinge of country,” Maya released her debut single, called “Fool,” last month and recently released a second single, “Jade.” Both singles were also released as music videos. Congratulations, Maya!

New work by Lila Meretzky receives premiere performance

On April 16, London-based new music ensemble Apartment House premiered a new work by Lila Meretzky, a Walden faculty member. Her Quartet was performed alongside music by Michaël Lévinas, Tim Parkinson, and composer duo Morison/Opit. Presented at BBC’s Maida Vale Studio 3, the concert was recorded with plans for future broadcast on Radio 3’s New Music Show. Congratulations, Lila!

Walden Board member featured in table tennis profile

David Roberts, a member of Walden’s Board of Directors and the parent of a YMP alum, is also a competitive table tennis player. He plays at Seattle Pacific Table Tennis Club, which was recently featured in the Seattle Times. The article includes an action shot of David volleying a wide forehand. Congratulations, David!

Work of Walden faculty members performed by Talea Ensemble

On March 20, 2026, Talea Ensemble premiered a new work by former YMP faculty member Katie Balch, titled still life. The performance featured video projections designed by Ted Moore, an alum of Walden’s Teacher Training Institute (TTI) and longtime Walden faculty and staff member, who is married to Balch. Also on the program were premieres by Artun Çekem and Marti Epstein. Talea Ensemble includes several Walden visiting artists past and present: Laura Cocks (flute), Marianne Gythfeldt (clarinet), Rane Moore (clarinet), and Matthew Gold (percussion).

Yarn/Wire ensemble premieres work by George Lewis with New York Philharmonic

In concerts April 8-10, the piano/percussion quartet Yarn/Wire (a past visiting ensemble at Walden) and the New York Philharmonic premiered a new concerto by George E. Lewis, a past Composer-in-Residence at both of Walden’s summer programs. Conducted by Kwamé Ryan, the program featured Lewis’s new work, titled …ohne festen Wohnsitz…, alongside Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question and vocal selections by Igor Stravinsky, Carlisle Floyd, and Samuel Barber, sung by soprano Golda Schultz. Lewis’s work was a co-commission by the New York Philharmonic and Philharmonie Luxembourg.

In other Yarn/Wire news, the ensemble is excited to perform at the SPOR Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, April 23-24. They also recently welcomed a new member, percussionist Dustin Donahue. Congratulations to all!

Pictured above: George Lewis with the members of Yarn/Wire, from Yarn/Wire's Instgram page

Michael Gilbertson celebrates two premieres

The Del Sol Quartet, a past visiting ensemble at Walden, premiered a new work by former YMP faculty member Michael Gilbertson on March 22. The concert took place at Boston Conservatory, where Gilbertson is a composition faculty member. The work, titled Prototype, was written for Del Sol and featured Gilbertson playing the ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument invented in the 1920s. On March 29-30, the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra premiered Gilbertson’s Cello Concerto featuring cellist Zuill Bailey. The orchestra commissioned the concerto following a successful commission of Gilberston’s Symphony in the 2024-25 season. Also on the program were Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 and Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn. Congratulations, Michael!

Eliza Brown and Chris Wild welcome baby

We are delighted to congratulate Eliza Brown and Chris Wild on the birth of their daughter, Dahlia. Eliza is a YMP alum and longtime Walden faculty member. Chris is a longtime cellist in The Walden School Players and also a former Walden faculty member. Eliza and Chris look forward to introducing Dahlia to the Walden community. Congratulations and welcome, Dahlia!

In Memoriam

Nancy Tsuyuki Jerome

We are sad to share the news that Nancy Chiyoko Tsuyuki Jerome, a past YMP faculty member, passed away on November 22, 2025. She was an elementary school music teacher in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, until her retirement in 2013. She was very active at Christ Our Anchor Presbyterian Church in Cape St. Claire, Maryland, where she was involved in choir, bell choir, the Christmas Pageant, and their Music and Art Camp. She also directed their Children’s Choir for many years. Nancy is survived by her husband of 33 years, Jeffrey, her sons, Brandon and Michael, her parents, and her siblings. Our condolences go out to Nancy’s family and loved ones.

We Want To Hear From You!

If you have a recent or upcoming premiere or concert, publication, award, new job, or a celebratory life event, please share your news, which needn’t be music-related (although we love your music-related news to be sure!). Email your news to alumni@waldenschool.org.

Stay in Touch

You can like The Walden School page on Facebook and join The Walden School private group to hear about events and opportunities throughout the year. You can also find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, bandcamp, and at waldenschool.org.

by Noah Mlotek