Newsletters Archives - Page 6 of 6

Message from the Executive Director
Applications Still Being Accepted For This Summer’s Programs
Calling All Superheroes: the Music-a-thon is Underway
Walden/JCC Reunion: Register Today!
PRISM Quartet to Premiere Work by Walden Alumnus at Upcoming Concerts
Walden Announces 2012 Concert Series
Alumni Composers Forums in New York and San Francisco
Love Walden? Let the World Know
Community News & Goods
Opportunities & Organizations Listing
Now Hear This! Work by 2011 Walden Participants

Message from the Executive Director

Greetings from 37,000 feet! I am currently speeding my way across the country, moving east for an annual summer migration to New England. Today begins 10 weeks for me on the east coast as Walden 2012 ramps up. I am so excited about the coming summer of Walden programs and events. There is a palpable energy amongst the staff, faculty and administration as we gear up for Walden’s 40th season, and we cannot wait to greet our program participants in the coming days and weeks!

I look forward to two PRISM Saxophone Quartet concerts – one tonight, Thursday, in New York City and the other on Saturday, June 2, in Philadelphia. Sam Phillips-Corwin, Walden alumnus, is having a brand new piece for the quartet premiered, continuing a more than 10-year close partnership between Walden and PRISM.

I am excited to see many Baltimore area donors, alumni and supporters on June 3 at Jack and Lucy Henningfield’s home. Seth Knopp, former artist-in-residence at Walden and current artistic director of Yellow Barn, will perform a benefit concert. It’s still not too late to join us, and I hope you will – it promises to be a fantastic afternoon of music and food catered by Walden’s very own Laura Mehiel (board member, alumna and chef extraordinaire!).

More than 15 alumni, faculty and staff are engaged in fun and interesting projects to help raise funds for Walden’s financial aid programs. This year’s Music-a-Thon has already raised more than $5,000 toward a goal of $10,000, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $10,000. Projects include daily improvisation, writing music, orchestrating pieces, new mobile phone ring tones, practicing instruments, blogging about musical activities and more. I can’t wait to see the fruits of these endeavors, and I hope you will join me in supporting the work of these diligent musicians!

I look forward to the reprise of Walden’s Creative Musicians Retreat (for which there remain a few additional spots!) at Smith College. Last year’s inaugural season was a great success, and this year’s participants include alumni from all three of Walden’s programs as well as many musicians new to Walden. James Mobberley, former board member and composer-in-residence, will join us this year as the composer-in-residence at the Creative Musicians Retreat. Alumni visiting artists Wet Ink, co-led by Walden’s own Sam Pluta, will be the ensemble-in-residence, and they will rehearse, workshop and perform new works by many of the program’s participants. The program’s faculty and staff this year, enthusiastically led by program director Caroline Mallonée, is composed of Shawn Crouch, Marguerite Ladd, Sky Macklay, Ian Munro, Loretta Notareschi, Sam Pluta, and Bill Stevens.

I eagerly anticipate the Walden and Junior Conservatory Camp Alumni Reunion, June 22-25 on the campus of the Dublin School. More than 60 alumni have already signed up for a weekend of fun and reminiscing: an alumni concert, a Composers Forum, a hike up Monadnock, a dance, a ‘slide’ show, Goodnight Music, and plenty of time for catching up with old friends and making new ones. “With a moonbeam or star for light…”

And of course, I can’t wait for June 30th, the day students arrive from around the world for the 40th season of Walden’s Young Musicians Program! This year’s team of faculty and staff comprises Erica Ball, Meade Bernard, Alex Christie, Carol Thomas Downing, Renée Favand-See, Ann Goehe, Dana Jessen, Marguerite Ladd, Sky Macklay, Tony Makarome, Emil Margolis, Ted Moore, Ian Munro, Tierney O’Brien, Sam Pluta, Sarah Riskind, Peter Thompson, Leo Wanenchak, and Marie Whiteford. The aforementioned include 10 alumni of Walden’s Young Musicians Program, 10 alumni of our Teacher Training Institute summer intensive workshops and 1 alumna of our Creative Musicians Retreat. 10 of this year’s 13 teaching faculty have taught at Walden before, and 5 of this year’s staff have worked on staff at Walden before. Cumulatively and collectively, this year’s faculty & staff have at least 175 summers at Walden under their belts. The group, when not in Dublin, New Hampshire, lives in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, Singapore, California, Georgia, New York, Maryland, Tennessee, Connecticut, Louisiana, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Wisconsin. No matter where we come from, we cannot wait to greet our students for a summer of musicianship, composition, choral singing and community!

Our summer Concert Series, which begins June 10 with a concert by Wet Ink Ensemble on the campus of Smith College and concludes with the annual choral concert on August 3 at the Peterborough Town House, features a solo guitar recital by Michael Poll; Aurora Nealand, bandleader, and her Royal Roses; Duo Prism; Yarn/Wire performing nine brand new works by Walden faculty composers; and The Walden School Players (Jane Cords-O’Hara, Jane Chung, Matt Gold, Rane Moore, Tawnya Popoff, Jessi Rosinski, and Aaron Wunsch) performing a concert as well as in three Festival Week Composers Forums, where they will showcase brand new works by Walden students. Eve Beglarian will be our composer-in-residence. All in all, the series features more than 20 Composers Forums, concerts, open rehearsals, presentations and Community Connections events. All of these events are free and open to the public, so please tell your friends, family and colleagues about Walden’s exciting musical offerings this summer.

None of what Walden is planning for the coming summer could happen without the tireless efforts of our board of directors, year-round administrative team and program leadership and our hundreds of financial supporters. I want to take this opportunity to say a special thanks to Brendon Randall-Myers, who departs Walden’s year-round administration at the end of June as he pursues an advanced degree in composition at Yale University. He’s been an integral part of improvements to Walden’s online presence, newsletters and development efforts over the past three years. Thank you, Brendon – you will be missed!

I also want to thank three board members whose terms end in July. David Callan, Arno Drucker and Leslie Stephens have had a great impact on Walden during their years of service on Walden’s board. In numerous small and big ways, they each brought something unique to the ever-important work of Walden’s dedicated board of directors, and they will be sorely missed. Thank you David, Arno and Leslie!

Finally, I want to thank our hundreds of loyal and generous donors. Without your support, we could not conduct our programs and plan for Walden’s bright future. You provide financial aid; you help defray operating costs so as help keep program tuition from rising faster; you underwrite our artist residency and concert series programs. Thank you for leading the way.

There is much to look forward to over the next 10 weeks of Walden 2012. I hope to see you along the way, and if not, we will keep you posted of the summer’s goings on via event announcements and additional issues of InterNetzo. Please enjoy the rest of this installment of Walden’s newsletter, and as always, please contact me with any questions, comments, suggestions, rants and/or raves.

With warmest wishes for a terrific summer,

Seth Brenzel
Executive Director

Applications Still Being Accepted For This Summer’s Programs

There are still a few remaining places in both of Walden’s 2012 programs, the Creative Musicians Retreat and the Young Musicians Program. If you or someone you know is a musician between the ages of 9 and 999 who seeks a fun and fulfilling creative experience this summer, now is the time to let us know! Just fill out our on-line contact form to request application materials for either program. We look forward to hearing from you!

Walden’s Music-a-thon: Pow! Blam!

Picture this:

Scene: A city street. The sky is full of dark clouds rolling in. Ominous music rises.

WOMAN ON STREET: (hand to forehead) Gadzooks! Walden needs to raise an additional $20,000 by June 15 to make it possible for deserving students to attend this summer. But how???

WALDEN SUPERHERO: (clutching pencil and manuscript paper) Never fear: The Music-a-Thon is here! From now through June 15, participants in Walden’s Music-a-thon will be doing projects that will challenge them as creative people – composing, improvising, performing, singing, writing about music – even building instruments! – and you can support their creativity and hard work by visiting their fundraising pages and making a donation to Walden. All proceeds will benefit financial aid for the Young Musicians Program.

WOMAN ON STREET: (looking anguished) But can the Music-a-thon alone close that $20,000 fundraising gap?

WALDEN SUPERHERO: (exhilarated) Yes! Super-Donors to the rescue! A group of mystery donors has stepped forward to match every Music-a-thon donation dollar for dollar, up to $10,000. But we can’t do it without the help of every citizen, including you, Formerly Panicky Woman. Will you do it right now?

WOMAN ON STREET: (considerably calmer) Yes! Where do I click?

WALDEN SUPERHERO: Right here on this “Blam! Pow!!”

Scene closes as ominous music fades and is replaced by the sound of keyboard drills. Clouds part, birds chirp. Crisis averted.

I hope you will join Walden Superhero, Walden Super-Donors and Formerly Panicky Woman to help students who need financial aid at Walden this summer.

Visit the Music-a-thon site, browse the projects and pick one to support. Your donation of any size will make an immediate difference.

As of the end of day 16 of the Music-a-thon, the event has already raised $6,495. Walden Super-donors to the rescue!

Calling all alumni of The Walden School & Junior Conservatory Camp!

If you were a student, teacher, staff member, or visiting artist/composer at either Walden or JCC you’re invited to the upcoming Reunion in June! It runs from Friday, June 22 through Monday, June 25 in beautiful Dublin, New Hampshire.

Friday night we’ll have a dance with live music. Saturday morning the intrepid will leave to hike Monadnock (singing at the top, of course!), returning for optional workshops and more singing, a festive dinner, a concert featuring stellar Walden and JCC alumni, and a slide show. Sunday will include a Composers Forum, more workshops, a barbecue, and Evening Music. Every evening will conclude with the singing of Shari Fleming’s Good Night Music, followed by socializing. Those staying overnight on Sunday can enjoy Monday breakfast before hitting the road.

For more details, including information on housing options, the weekend schedule, and to see a list of who’s already registered, go to waldenshool.org/reunion. We don’t have these every year, so don’t miss your opportunity for music, fun and camaraderie in 2012!

Walden Alumnus to Premiere Work at Upcoming PRISM Concerts

A long partnership between Walden and the PRISM Saxophone Quartet has resulted in the annual commission of a new work by a graduating Walden student. This year the winning composer is Sam Phillips-Corwin. Sam, from Seattle, attended Walden’s Young Musician’s Program from 2008 through 2011. His work will share the program with minimalist masters Terry Riley and Philip Glass, as well as John Adams and Michael Torke. Join Sam, as well as Executive Director Seth Brenzel and local friends of Walden and PRISM at either of these two performances, one on May 31 in New York, the other on June 2 in Philadelphia. For more information and to buy tickets, go to PRISM’s website.

Walden Announces its 2012 Concert Series

The Walden School has gained increasing attention for the eclectic array of concerts offered free of charge to the music-loving public throughout the summer. In fact, we received the 2011 Adventurous Programming award from Chamber Music America/ASCAP! The 2012 Concert Series will be no exception, and we hope you’ll join us for as many of the events — world premiere performances, solo and ensemble recitals, Composers Forums, open rehearsals — as possible.

Something for Everyone: Alumni Composers Forums on Two Coasts

New York and San Francisco were host cities this spring to two Alumni Composers Forums. Works by a total of 15 alumni of Walden and the Junior Conservatory Camp ran the gamut from electronic works to string quartet. Read on for details about each event.

New York City

On April 29th about forty alumni and guests gathered at the Ann Goodman Recital Hall near Lincoln Center to listen to a program of new music, four of the pieces being world premieres. Co-moderators Tamar Bloch (JCC ’69-’72, YMP Faculty ’87-’04, TTI ’08) and Rebekah Griffin-Greene (YMP Faculty ’99-’11, TTI ’10) led insightful discussion that was enhanced by thoughtful and appreciative comments from audience members. To give you a taste of the evening, composers Matt Siffert (CMR ’11) and Nicole Gutman(YMP ’11) worked with the members of Trio KAVAK (flute, viola and cello) to prepare terrific world premiere performances of their works. Aaron Krerowicz (TTI ’11) performed his own work for solo mandolin and electronics, and Carolyn Gollance (TTI ’10) performed her piece for solo piano built solely on fourths, a creative exercise with which many Walden and JCC alumni are familiar!

San Francisco

Nick Benavides with Friction — Nick Benavides and Friction

Walden alumni and friends gathered in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood for our fourth annual SF Bay Area Alumni Composers Forum, which featured the huge range of styles and moods that has become a hallmark of these events. Moderated by YMP faculty members Alex Christie (YMP ’02-04, TTI ’10-11, Staff ’09, Faculty ’10-11) and Ruth Rainero (Visiting Artist ’07, Faculty ’10), the Composers Forum began with three pieces for string quartet plus or minus a member, performed by the young, enthusiastic group Friction.

Nico Samanez’s (TTI ’10) trio Stuffed started the concert with a bang, with the members of Friction dashing off imaginative passages of extended techniques and tricky rhythms, to impressive effect. Nick Benavides’ (TTI ’09-10 , CMR ’11) s.f.i.f. followed, with gorgeous harmonies and expressive melodic lines, realized beautifully by the group. The third piece, Cole Porter Fantasy (full title What if Cole Porter got the blues, heard some gospel music, met an Angel, learned to tango, and then wrote Night & Day?), by Ellen Hoffmann (JCC ’60-67), added flutist and Development Director extraordinaire Esther Landau to the quartet. The piece was by turns colorful, jazzy, lush, and a lot of fun.

The second half of the concert featured composer/performers. First up were two beautifully constructed and emotionally resonant songs by Mary Fineman (JCC Alumna), followed by a virtuosic Rondo from Victor Xie (YMP ’11). Hernando Buitrago(TTI ’11) brought an almost Andean flavor to an arrangement of his song Love Disaster for classical guitar and double bass, originally written for a full rock band. And finally, Gabriel Kyne (YMP ’11) presented an electronic score he had composed for a filmed modern dance piece. All told, the forum was a varied, stimulating experience, and we look forward to the next one!

Love Walden? Tell the World!

You have an exciting opportunity to help The Walden School make even more of a difference in the world. GreatNonprofits – a site like Amazon Book Reviews or TripAdvisor – is a website where people can share their stories about nonprofits that have touched their lives. Won’t you help us raise visibility and support for our work by posting a review of your experience at Walden? All reviews will be visible to potential donors and volunteers. Go to: greatnonprofits.org/reviews/the-walden-school — it’s easy, and only takes 3 minutes. Many thanks for your help!

Community News and Goods

The Walden School welcomes news and information from members of the Junior Conservatory Camp and Walden School communities to include in our print and online newsletters. News may be sent via mail or email. We will publish your contact information only if you specifically request that we do so. Please contact us on-line or send info to The Walden School, 31A 29th St., San Francisco, CA 94110. We reserve the right to edit submissions and regret we cannot publish all information provided. For upcoming event listings, go to www.handoverhand.org. (Note: YMP=Young Musicians Program; TTI=Teacher Training Institute; CMR=Creative Musicians Retreat; JCC=Junior Conservatory Camp).

Carol Prochazka Battye (JCC ’72) just completed a Master of Arts in Spiritual and Pastoral Care from Loyola University.

Shawn Crouch (YMP ’93-95,’96, TTI ’08, Staff ’97, Faculty ’99-00,’02,’05-07) reports that Chanticleer performed his piece The Garden of Paradise, composed for Chanticleer in 2008, in the San Francisco Bay Area on their multimedia concert “What Do You Think I Fought For?” (March 31- April 4). On April 27, the Texas A&M Century Singers performed A Kind Goodbye, a setting of a moving early poem by Mark Twain, on their American Word concert.

This spring was an eventful one for former Walden board member Ruth Franklin, (YMP ‘84-89) who is a 2012 Guggenheim fellow in the Biography category, a 2012 recipient of The Center for Fiction’s Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism, given to annually to support and encourage emerging critics, and finally a Fellow at The New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

Cara Haxo (YMP ’04-09) was awarded second prize at the 2012 statewide Ohio Federation of Music Clubs Student/Collegiate Composers Composition Contest in March for her piece “The Giving Tree” after Shel Silverstein’s children’s book of the same name, which was composed for the PRISM Quartet (Visiting Artist ‘05).

Caroline Mallonée (YMP ’87-92, TTI ’07, YMP Faculty ’98-’11, CMR Faculty ’11) had two exciting performances in May – first, the Da Capo Chamber Players performed Unless Acted Upon: Manifestations of Newton’s First Law in Carnegie hall’s Weill Recital Hall.
This quintet was commissioned last summer by The Walden School for the Firebird Ensemble. Second, The Florilegium Chamber Choir, conducted by Nicholas DeMaison (Faculty ’04-07), premiered her new choral work, Da Pacem Domine in late May. Works by Erica Ball (YMP ’06-07) and Nick himself were also premiered on the same concert.

Danielle Oberdier (YMP ’04-07) has founded AK Kerani, a fashion company that uses fashion to make a positive change in the current media and world.

Nat Osborn’s (YMP ’00-03) band went on a miniature east coast tour this May, playing in Maryland, Delaware, New York and Washington, D.C.

The PRISM Quartet (Visiting Artist ‘05) is the first saxophone ensemble to conduct a residency at the Curtis Institute of Music. The residency culminated in PRISM concerts on May 9 and 10 in Philadelphia and New York City, respectively, featuring compositions by two Curtis faculty members and five extraordinary student artists from Curtis’s composition department.

In May, Alicia Rabins (YMP ’88-93) had a work-in-progress showing of A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, a musical meditation on themes of money, communal responsibility, and the intersection of mysticism and finance, supported by the Six Points Fellowship and the LABA fellowship.

Nico Samanez’s (TTI ’10) Senior Composition Recital, Organic Abnormality, was on Sunday, May 20th in the Recital Hall at Santa Clara University.

John (Faculty ‘51-68, Visiting Composer ’97, Advisory Council ’02-11) and Marianne (JCC ’66-68) Weaver were honored in April at an American Guild of Organists event at Kimmel Verizon Hall in Philadelphia.

Transitions:

Alicia Rabins, Aaron Hartman, and Sylvia Tallulah Hartman

Alicia Rabins (YMP ’88-93) and her husband Aaron are overjoyed to announce the birth of their baby girl, Sylvia Tallulah Hartman, born April 15 2012 at 8:03 pm. Her band Girls in Trouble’s first post-baby show to welcome Sylvia Tallulah, was on May 23 in Park Slope.

Margaret (“Marge”) Wanenchak, long-time Walden donor/supporter and mother of Leo Wanenchak (Faculty ’77-84, ’89-11, Admin ’99-11, Board ’04-09) passed away in April 2012. You can read an obituary here.

Opportunities & Organizations Listing

An opportunities listing for composers of multiple levels and age ranges, as well as organizations that provide services to composers, improvisers, and experimental musicians, is available here.

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

In Arvind Ranganathan’s Colors, the composer explores his self-diagnosed synesthesia — in other words, he sees different colors when hearing certain sounds. Active visual imagination encouraged while you listen to this performance by Walden School Players Jessi Rosinski, flute; Jane Chung, violin; Steven Beck, piano; and Matthew Gold, percussion. Click here to listen.

by Matthew Klahorst (WP)

March 2012 eNews: InterNetzo

Message from the Executive Director
Upcoming Events: Walden/JCC Reunion, Music-a-thon
Announcing the 2012 Creative Musicians Retreat
Walden Seeks Nurse for Young Musicians Program
Upcoming April 6 Deadline for Young Musicians Program Applications
Walden Faculty Appear in Pre-concert Event at San Francisco Symphony
Walden Honored at CMA/ASCAP Award Ceremony
Walden/JCC Alumni Composers Forums in New York and San Francisco This Spring
Alumni – We Need Your Input!
Community News & Goods
Opportunities & Organizations Listing
Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

Message from the Executive Director

Happy Spring! With the change of seasons from winter to spring and with the days getting longer, The Walden School’s high season is now within sight. Planning and preparations for this summer’s programs are definitely in high gear. Walden will be kicking off its 40th Anniversary celebrations in June with an alumni reunion, June 22-25, 2012. A reunion committee, comprising alumni from each of our three programs along with Junior Conservatory Camp alumni, is busy at work planning the festivities and spreading the word. I hope you will join us for what is sure to be a fun weekend! Read more about it here.

Walden will also be reprising the highly successful Creative Musicians Retreat in June, again on the campus of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Former Walden board member and past guest composer James Mobberley will be the Composer-in-Residence at this year’s Retreat, and Wet Ink Ensemble, co-directed by Walden’s Sam Pluta, will be the ensemble-in-residence, workshopping participants’ compositions and works in progress. Please spread the word among your friends and colleagues and learn more about this year’s Creative Musicians Retreat at www.waldenschool.org/creative-musicians-retreat.

Applications for this summer’s Young Musicians Program are still being accepted, with a spring application deadline of April 6 (after which we will consider applications on a rolling basis, space permitting). The faculty and staff team is being finalized, and we will make further announcements about the team in next month’s InterNetzo. Guitarist Michael Poll, the percussion/piano quartet Yarn Wire and Duo Prism, among others, will perform on this summer’s concert series. For more information, visit waldenschool.org/young-musicians-program.

There is much more to read in this month’s InterNetzo, including reviews of the ASCAP/CMA awards program in January, alumni News and Goods, opportunities for musicians, information about our upcoming Music-a-thon and much more! I look forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming Alumni Composers Forums in San Francisco and New York City, or at our spring Baltimore event on June 3. And if not there, perhaps I will see you at one of our summer programs or at our Alumni Reunion Weekend in Dublin, New Hampshire!

Seth Brenzel
Executive Director

Upcoming Events: Walden/JCC Reunion,
Music-a-thon

Marshall Bessières, Tamar Bloch, and Kendra Holmgren at the 2007 reunion

Walden/JCC Reunion

It’s been five years since the last reunion, and it’s time to see your old friends again! Come share music, memories, hike, dance up a storm, and have a mini-Walden/JCC experience.

Friday night we’ll have a dance with live music. Saturday morning the intrepid will leave to hike Monadnock (singing at the top, of course!), returning for optional workshops and more singing, a festive dinner, a concert featuring stellar Walden and JCC alumni, and a slide show. Sunday will include a morning and afternoon Composers Forum, more workshops, a barbecue, and Evening Music. Every evening will conclude with the singing of Shari Fleming’s Good Night Music, followed by socializing in one of the new lounges at the Dublin School.

Bring your family! If your spouse doesn’t know what makes Walden so special, now you can show them. This is also a great opportunity for a future Walden student to experience life on campus and get a taste of what happens at camp. Children are welcome at all reunion activities that their parents deem appropriate for the particular child’s age and maturity level. There will also be activities arranged especially for children. For more information, including how to register, click here.

If you have questions, please contact us at (415) 648-4710 or alumni@waldenschool.org.

Reunion Committee:

Nick Benavides
Marshall Bessières
Tamar Bloch
Seth Brenzel
David Drucker
Ruth Franklin
JoEllen Gaines
Malcolm Gaines
Nadia Gardner
Cindy Harkum
Cara Haxo
Marguerite Ladd
Esther Landau
Carrie Mallonee

Ian Munro
Noah Mlotek
Mary Anne Polk O’Meara
Jefferson Packer
Bob Passmore
Molly Pindell
Pam Quist
Erin Quist
Brendon Randall-Myers
Alan Shewmon
Hamilton Sims
Bob Weaver
Asa Williams
John Yankee

Music-A-Thon: A Creative Musicianship Marathon to Support The Walden School

May 15 through June 15, 2012

Dust off your manuscript paper. Put your improvising hat on. Dig out your books of etudes and your Walden musicianship manual. It’s almost time for the Music-a-thon, the spiritual successor to 2010’s Compose-a-thon! This is a great opportunity to set yourself a musical goal: to get composing again, to practice cello 90 minutes a day, to improvise fearlessly, even to blog about your favorite recordings and performances. Friends and family can demonstrate their support of your efforts by making a donation to Walden. All funds raised will support financial aid. Donations may be solicited from April 9 through the conclusion of the marathon. Participants raising at least $100 are eligible for prizes, and every dollar they raise above that amount will be matched dollar for dollar by a group of anonymous donors, up to $10,000! You can support Walden by donating towards the efforts of the participants, and you can participate yourself.

Learn more at waldenschool.org/mat.

Announcing the 2012 Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR)

We are thrilled that The Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat will return to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, for its second season. We hope you’ll consider joining us for an inspirational week of creative music-making this June. The Retreat is designed for a diverse group of musicians (composers, improvisers, performers, choristers, teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, amateur and professional musicians) and includes many of the elements of a Walden summer: composing, singing, improvising, master classes, composition lessons, musicianship, computer music classes, a Saturday hike, communing with fellow musicians, and chances to hear your music performed (and have it recorded) by professional performers!

You can see the planned schedule for the Retreat here.

This summer, our Ensemble-in-Residence at CMR is the Wet Ink Ensemble (the Faculty Commissioning Ensemble of the 2009 Young Musicians Program). They’ll give a concert and play pieces by participants on two composers forums. Our Composer-in-Residence is James Mobberley (YMP Festival Moderator, 2001). The CMR faculty and administration is made up of Sam Pluta, Loretta Notareschi, Marshall Bessières, Shawn Crouch, Carrie Mallonée, Seth Brenzel and Marguerite Ladd.

Please join us in June!

Walden Seeks Nurse for its Young Musicians Program (YMP)

If you or someone you know is a Registered Nurse and would like to be an integral part of a creative, musical residential community this summer, we are seeking a full-time nurse for our Young Musicians Program. Dates of engagement are June 25 through August 6. Please read our job description for more information, and help us in the search by forwarding this pdf version to people you know who may be interested or who know of someone else who is. Thank you!

Upcoming April 6 Deadline for Young Musicians Program (YMP) Applications

There are just a few spots left in our Young Musicians Program (YMP), and April 6 is the deadline to submit your application to be considered in our Spring round of admissions. Any applications received after April 6 will be considered on a rolling basis, if space permits. Don’t let yourself or the musically gifted child(ren) in your life be relegated to our waiting list! Download a YMP applicationtoday.

Walden Faculty Appear in Pre-concert Event at San Francisco Symphony

On March 10 and 14, the San Francisco Symphonywelcomed Pamela Quist and Patricia Plude, Walden faculty members, to the stage of Davies Symphony Hall as part of the orchestra’s Mavericks Festival! The idea for the collaboration came from Susan Key, Special Projects Director in the Artistic Planning department of the Symphony. Susan attended the Teacher Training Institute in the summer of 2010 and was struck by Pam’s improv session entitled “The Happening”.

Fast-forward to 2012, when the Symphony has programmed selections from John Cage’s Song Books, and Susan made the connection: why not have a pre-concert event that was interactive, where symphony patrons would learn not just by listening, but by doing? The result was a performance of “The Happening” guided by Pam and Pat, supplemented with additional introductory improv activities which were designed to offer a first hand experience of various compositional techniques and musical elements that patrons would encounter in that evening’s concert. At approximately 500 attendees, this was decidedly the largest group Walden faculty have ever led in such activities, and Pat and Pam were happy to find the participants eager, willing, and even hungry to step out and try something new. Read the glowing review in the San Francisco Examiner.

Eliza Brown, Walden alumna and past Young Musicians Program (YMP) faculty member, just led a similarly successful evening at the University of Michigan when the Symphony travelled there on tour with the Cage program on March 23. Congratulations to all involved on a magnificent opportunity for Walden’s reach to extend beyond New England.

Walden Honored at CMA/ASCAP Award Ceremony

The Walden School received the 2012 Adventurous Programming Award for Small Contemporary Presenter/Festival in an awards ceremony on January 15 at the Westin New York in Times Square. Chamber Music America and ASCAP have collaborated for the past 24 years to honor innovative chamber music and jazz ensembles, festivals and presenters. This year’s annual awards recognized a total of eight U.S.-based professional ensembles and presenters, including Symphony Space, for distinctive performances of new music composed in the past 25 years. John O’Meara, Chair of Walden’s Board of Directors, received the award on behalf of The Walden School, and other Walden community members in attendance were Mary Anne O’Meara, Meade Bernard, Marguerite Ladd and Amelia Lukas. The morning was an opportunity for the entire American chamber music and new music communities to celebrate their endeavors.

Walden/JCC Alumni Composers Forums in New York and San Francisco This Spring

Hand Over Hand, the alumni association of The Walden School/Junior Conservatory Camp (JCC) is pleased to announce two Alumni Composers Forums this spring: one on April 29th in New York, moderated by Rebekah Griffin Greene and Ian Munro, and the other on May 6th in San Francisco, moderated by Alex Christie and Ruth Rainero. Walden students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends will gather for an afternoon of music, discussion, reuniting with old friends, and making new ones. Both forums are FREE and open to the public, and will be followed by a small reception for participants and attendees, so between new music, great people and delicious food, there are plenty of reasons to join us. For more information about the New York Composers Forum, click here, and for the San Francisco Composers Forum, click here.

We could also use your help at either of these events! If you’d be willing to help out, please let us know. We hope to see you soon!

Alumni – We Need Your Input!

Walden is evaluating the use of our alumni website, handoverhand.org, and we want to hear about what you use the site for, how often you go there, as well as possible alternatives to our current service. We’ve created a short (5 minute) survey and will very much appreciate your input.

Community News and Goods

Elizabeth Rhudy Austin’s (JCC ’52-56) Wilderness Symphony was featured on In Praise of Women, an annual event on WPRB 103.3’s program Classical Discoveries that focuses on music written by women.

Steve Beck (Visiting Artist ’09-11) received a nice reviewfrom the New York Times about his performance on Bargemusic Here and Now Series.

Duo Fado, which features Melinda Becker (TTI ’04) played a concert at the Music at Noon series at Santa Clara University in January.

Ethan Borshansky (YMP ’98-01, Staff ’05) was featured in a recent podcast for Thoughtless Music, a Toronto based electronic label that he signed with last year. His EP for the label is coming out in April with remixes and will be available through Beatport, Zero, Juno, Whatpeopleplay, and others. You can listen to the podcast here or here.

George Brandon (CMR ’11) and the Blue Unity Orchestra recently received a grant from the City University of New York’s Diversity Projects Development Fund to stage a series of participatory events as part of The City College of New York Black Studies Program’s Black History Month events. These events, which will include workshops and open rehearsals, culminated in a Blue Unity Orchestra Legacy concert at CCNY’s Harlem campus in February.

Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy’s (JCC ’61-65, Faculty ’63-65) film, From Africa to India: Sidi Music in the Indian Ocean Diaspora was screened as part of an all-day mini-symposium on theoretical issues of advocacy in ethnomusicology in March at UC Berkeley.

Alex Christie (YMP ’02-04, TTI ’10-11, Staff ’09, Faculty ’10-11) played an improv set with Brendon Randall-Myers’ (TTI ’10, Admin ’09-12) band Grains at a laundromat/café in San Francisco. Also in attendance were Gabe Kyne (YMP ’11) and Morgan Kusmer(YMP ’03-11).

Seamus Conley (YMP ‘09) is attending Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.

The two-time Grammy-nominated choral ensemble Seraphic Fire performed Shawn Crouch’s (YMP ’93-95,’96, TTI ’08, Staff ’97, Faculty ’99-00,’02,’05-07) Pie Jesu from The Road from Hiroshima, A Requiem on their 10th anniversary concert in January.

The Del Sol String Quartet (Visiting Artists ‘06) played a great set at Yoshi’s in Oakland in January, featuring music by Mason Bates, Gabriela Lena Frank, Lou Harrison, and others.

Ensemble Pamplemousse released RAANA JEDAKU, a collection of 7 works by the members of the ensemble, including Natacha Diels (TTI ’09). The album is out on Carrier Records, Sam Pluta’s (Staff ’01-02, Faculty ’03-11) label. Carrier also announced the release of Nominal/Noumenal by Alexander Sigman, which unites three of the world’s foremost contemporary music ensembles and seven edgy, engaging, and interconnected works in Sigman’s first portrait recording.

David Dueñas (TTI ’04, ’07, Visiting Artist ’10) performed in a program at Santa Clara University called Jazz Has A Dream, commemorating the life and contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Renée Favand-See (YMP ’85,’87-90, TTI ’08, Faculty ’93-97,’99,’05-07) had a number of items of interest in January, including participating in several performances with Cappella Romana of Rachmaninoff’s “Vespers”, the Manhattan premiere of her piece Looking West on a Humid Summer Evening on the Five Boroughs Music Festival, the release of the same piece on the Five Boroughs Songbook studio album, and the premiere of her piece Lighting the leaves by The Julians.

Corty Fengler (TTI ’11, Board of Directors ’09-11) sang in three concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area this spring, featuring works by Morten Lauridsen, Francis Poulenc, and David Conte.

Stacy Garrop (YMP ’87-88, Faculty ’96) had a wonderful crop of performances and commissions. Her String Quartet No. 4: Illuminations was premiered by the Cecelia Quartet, and her pieces Helios, Silver Dagger, and The Book of American Poetry were all performed several times throughout the winter.

Jennifer Higdon (Visiting Artist ’99, Advisory Council ’02-12) received a commission awarded jointly by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress; the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Inc.; and the Cypress String Quartet.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (Visiting Artists ‘11) played simultaneous gigs in their two home cities of Chicago and New York. Claire Chase (Visiting Artist ’05-09) played a solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago, while ICE played at ISSUE Project Room’s Gaudeamus Muziekweek New York.

Caroline Mallonée (YMP ’87-92, TTI ’07, YMP Faculty ’98-’11, CMR Faculty ’11) will have her piece Unless Acted Upon: Manifestations of Newton’s First Law performed in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on May 2, 2012 by the Da Capo Chamber Players. The piece was written for the Firebird Ensemble as part of the Walden Faculty Commissioning Project in 2011. Da Capo includes Meighan Stoops (Walden School Players ’04-’11) and Blair McMillen (Visiting Artist ’01-’02).

Kaeli Mogg (YMP ‘08-11) is in her first year at Oberlin’s TIMARA program.

Nat Osborn (YMP ’00-03) and The Nat Osborn Band played a series of shows on the East Coast in January.

The PRISM Quartet (Visiting Artist ‘05) will perform two concerts this spring of music by Minimalist composers and those influenced by them, including Samuel Phillips-Corwin (YMP ‘08-11), winner of the 2011 PRISM Quartet/Walden School Commissioning Award. Along with Music from China, PRISM also presented the world premiere performances of four new works for saxophones, traditional Chinese instruments (erhu, sheng, pipa, and yanqin), and percussion, by celebrated Chinese-born American composers.

Alicia Jo Rabins’ (YMP ’88-83) band Girls in Trouble played a battery of shows this winter, including a Chanukah concert in Manhattan, a UK/Italy tour, and a visit to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. She was also featured on two podcasts, one for the Contemporary Jewish Museum where she talks about how she went from attending Towson Presbyterian Nursery School to studying Torah and writing songs about Biblical women, and another talking about music by the Kapnik sisters.

A piece by Jessica Rudman (CMR ’11), “The Man Who Wants You”, was performed on the New Voices at Catholic University of America Festival in Washington, DC.

The Orchestra of St. John’s, with Ronald Mutchnik conducting, will perform Vivian Adelberg Rudow‘s (JCC ’50-51) Spirit of America on April 1 in Owings Mills, Maryland.

Trio Tritticalli, which features Helen Yee (TTI ‘09) continued their residency at Linger Cafe and Lounge in New York, performing their signature blend of styles and moods, including pieces such as the African-inspired Issue #2, Piazzolla’s Libertango, and the Arabic pop favorite, Azizah.

Pamela Z (Visiting Artist ’11) is part of a new Meredith Monk CD project “MONK MIX” which had its official release at Joe’s Pub in New York City. Z performed her version of Monk’s Scared Song along with one of her own compositions in the CD release celebration/concert. She also performed solo concerts at the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia, and Meridian Gallery in San Francisco.

Opportunities & Organizations Listing

An opportunities listing for composers of multiple levels and age ranges, as well as organizations that provide services to composers, improvisers, and experimental musicians, is available here.

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

YMP Students Nicole Gutman and Ariel Kent — Young Musicians Program Students Nicole Gutman and Ariel Kent

Walden collaborated with the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music to commission three Young Musicians Program students to write works to be performed by Apple Hill’s students. Both communities came together in the Louise Shonk Kelley Barn at Apple Hill on July 12, 2011 to listen to the world premieres! Ariel Kent’s V’la l’bon ventwas performed by Gabe Shoglow-Rubenstein and Miranda Weinberg, violins; Dario McConnie-Saad, viola; and Eddie Pogossian, cello. Click here to listen.

by Matthew Klahorst (WP)

December 2011 eNews: InterNetzo

Message from the Executive Director
waldenschool.org: Gateway to News and Features
Walden Honored with Prestigious Award from CMA/ASCAP
Now’s the Time to Apply for the 2012 Young Musicians Program
Walden Events to Warm the Heart and Spirit
Interested in Working at Walden’s Young Musicians Program in 2012?
Give to Walden Without Even Trying!
Acoustics: Music’s Empty Reason (by Alex Ness)
Community News and Goods
Opportunities & Organizations Listing
Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

Message from the Executive Director

Today, December 22, 2011, marks the Winter solstice. It seems like a particularly appropriate day to be sending you Walden’s next installment of InterNetzo, our newsletter. The solstice marks the beginning of the days getting progressively longer, as we move toward those long summer days and anticipate another season of magic at Walden’s programs.

I am pleased to share that The Walden School was selected for a 2012 Adventurous Programming Award from Chamber Music America/ASCAP for our concert series and artist residency programs, and will receive this award at a ceremony in New York City on January 15. This is exciting recognition of an important aspect of all of our programs: outstanding visiting artists who share the highest quality, innovative music with our program participants. I send along my many thanks to our dozens of visiting guest artists in 2011 who indeed enriched the experience at each of our programs and who helped make the Walden magic happen!

In this issue of InterNetzo, we also announce our redesign of waldenschool.org, Walden’s website. This was a project that we launched at the end of last spring and are now so pleased to share with the entire Walden community. We hope you like it, and we look forward to your comments and feedback.

There are lots of other features and content to peruse, including a reprint of Alex Ness’ fascinating article that appeared in the Fall 2011 issue of Recitative. There are links to our job postings, music opportunities, upcoming Young Musicians Program deadlines, and of course, news and goods from alumni & friends, where you can learn about your friends and colleagues and the goings on in their lives, both musical and otherwise.

I wanted to also take this opportunity to thank all of you who help make Walden happen each year: faculty, staff, and administration; volunteer board members and alumni association leaders; the many event hosts and volunteers; our hundreds of generous donors; alumni; partners; and of course, our parents and students and program participants, on behalf of whom we all work through the winter and spring in eager anticipation for your arrival, whether for your first or third or seventh Walden summer!

I hope you enjoy this installment of InterNetzo, and as always, I look forward to hearing from you, and hopefully seeing you at an event or program soon!

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous, peaceful New Year. Thanks for reading.

Seth Brenzel
Executive Director

waldenschool.org: Gateway to News and Features

waldenschool.org has always been the place to explore, learn and share news about The Walden School. Now it’s even better. Our enhanced website, which launched in December, offers fresh images, better navigation and all the latest news about our exciting musicians, innovative programs, concerts and events, and the most recent news about awards and honors. Improved SEO (search engine optimization) will make it easier for you to find us, and enhanced integration of social media will make it easy for everyone to link, like, share and follow.

We hope you’ll find rich rewards on our new site. Please bookmark it and visit it often. If you miss a press release, newsletter, or announcement, no worry: our archives will provide access, at any time, from anywhere in the world.

Many thanks to our partner Xiik, Jefferson Packer, Brendon Randall-Myers, and numerous others for their project management, design, photography, copy editing and content contributions.

Sign up for Walden’s e-newsletter, bookmark our site and visit waldenschool.org often! And if you have any feedback that you’d like to give us about the new site, now or anytime in the future, please write to us at contact us.

Walden Receives Prestigious Award from CMA/ASCAP

Chamber Music America (CMA) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) have chosen The Walden School receive a 2012 CMA/ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award. Read the complete press release to learn more. “This year’s award recipients represent some of the most exciting contemporary music programming in the country,” said Chamber Music America’s CEO, Margaret M. Lioi.

Now’s the Time to Apply for the 2012 Young Musicans Program

Applications are being accepted for the 2012 Young Musicians Program (YMP). New and returning applicants should submit their materials by Friday, January 6, 2012, to be considered in the early round of admissions decisions. Learn more and download application materials here.

Walden Events to Warm the Heart and Spirit

On November 11, friends gathered at the home of board member and alumnus Andrew Jacobs and his wife, Kathy Park, to celebrate and support The Walden School. Lucky guests were treated to a performance by flutist Claire Chasewho wowed the crowd with Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint and her own arrangement of Paganini’s legendary variations, complete with virtuosic extended techniques.

We are closing out the year with a series of regional holiday potlucks for alumni from Walden and the Junior Conservatory Camp. We have already had two such events with family and friends gathering to chat, sing, share food and good company.

In attendance on December 18 at a party in New York were: Matt Siffert (our event host), Marguerite Ladd, Christianne (Bessières) and John Lane, Kate Ettinger, Carolyn Gollance, Maria Marsalis, Meade Bernard, Tierney O’Brien, Ita Giventer, and Ilya Mayzus.

A December 19 gathering in the Bay Area included Corty and Alf Fengler (our event hosts), Ariel and Jill Kent, Carlos and Lucas Shimizu, Walter and Daphne Saul, Esther Landau and Caroline Pincus, Ruby Landau-Pincus, Seth Brenzel and Malcolm Gaines, Cora Brenzel Gaines, Brendon Randall-Myers and Ricki Schecter, Nick Benavides, Sophie Huet, Dina (Glendening) and Jim Keller, Ruth Rainero and Pieter de Haan, Ilana Rainero-de Haan, Steve Kusmer, Leland Kusmer, Jefferson Packer and Marcel Gemperli, and Marshall Bessières.

Walter and Daphne Saul with Walter’s Junior of Music Diploma

If you will be in the Baltimore area on Thursday evening, December 29, please join us for the last holiday gathering of the year! For details, contact Marguerite Ladd, Director of Operations and Development Assistant, at (603) 933-0150.

Interested in Working at Walden’s Young Musicians Program in 2012?

Are you interested in serving as a member of the faculty or a member of the summer staff? The Walden School is building its team for the 2012 season of its flagship Young Musicians Program. 2012 marks the 40th session of Walden, and as always, we seek to build a vibrant, talented team. Submit your materials by January 20, 2012, to be considered for a position. Learn more and review the faculty, staff and nurse job announcements here. And if you’re not interested, but know of someone who might be, we would appreciate your passing along these position announcements to interested applicants.

Give to Walden Without Even Trying!

By Marguerite Ladd

Last night I bought and shared a broccoli and mushroom pizza with friends. As we were all enjoying its greasy goodness, I smiled knowing that I had just made a donation to The Walden School. You can, too! All you need is an appetite and a web browser.

FREE and Easy Ways to Support The Walden School Every Day:

Here is how you can help:

Use GoodSearch.com when you search the internet (ex: looking up the best pizza places near you) – they will donate a penny to Walden every time you do.
Enroll your credit card at GoodDining.com and they will donate up to 6% of every dollar you spend when you eat at one of 10,000 participating restaurants
Use GoodShop.com when you shop online. They partner with more than 2,500 major brands – everything from Staples and iTunes to PetSmart and hotels.com. They have more than 100,000 coupons and will donate a percentage of every purchase you make to Walden.

It’s easy! Simply click here and choose your cause – The Walden School (Dublin, NH). You can download a customized Walden School toolbar to keep track of how much money you have earned for The Walden School by following this link.

Acoustics: Music’s Empty Reason

By Alex Ness (YMP Faculty ’05-07; YMP Staff ’03)

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

Please note: This article is drawn from Alex’s doctoral dissertation, and was published previously in our print newsletter, Recitative, which you may view on-line as well.

The simplest, most common musical assumptions have profound consequences. Consider, for example, the layout and tuning of the keys on a keyboard. Most of us take for granted a repeating pattern of seven white and five black keys. We also generally presume that each key should be tuned one-twelfth of an octave higher than the key below it. Patterns like these are, in a sense, the glue holding together the Western musical tradition—a point of agreement between composers as diverse as Bach, Beethoven, and Messiaen, to choose three famous names among thousands. If we choose, we too can spend a lifetime exploring the depths of these conventions. There is no shortage of musical discoveries to make, or material to exhaust.

Of course, we can also spend a lifetime working against the assumptions of Western art music and exploring alternatives. Like Harry Partch, we may want to compose music for uniquely-tuned instruments that we design ourselves. Perhaps we don’t even care about tuning at all, and are happy to let the musicians decide for themselves, as Louis Andriessen did in Workers Union. Or, we may simply be more interested in the conventions of the TR-808 drum machine than those of the piano.

During a period of deep depression, the philosopher John Stuart Mill was “seriously tormented by the thought of the exhaustibility of musical combinations.” Those of us who see the bigger musical picture, however, might be tormented by the opposite thought: that music is utterly inexhaustible; that each musical style, practice, convention, or decision has countless alternatives. This is hard enough to deal with as composers and performers, but it makes things especially difficult for music teachers. Put simply: out of all these possibilities, which music should we teach, and why?

Certainly, one can answer that no music is well-suited to an education, at least an education that concerns itself with truth and correct reasoning. Musical preferences are, at root, a matter of personal taste (or bias) rather than of universal truth. Any musical decision is as valid as any other; fundamentally, it doesn’t matter whether you make music with a conventional piano, a randomly-tuned homemade marimba, or an 808. From this perspective, “musical logic” is an oxymoron, because music has no logos, no essential principle that guarantees its validity. This, however, has not been the opinion of philosophers, music theorists, and pedagogues from the dawn of music theory to the present day. They have argued, to the contrary, that some music can be justified by reason—more specifically, by the mathematically rationality of acoustics, the science of sound. For two-and-a-half millennia, music instructors in the West have relied on “the nature of sound” to distinguish the good musical assumptions and decisions from the bad, and the teachable music from the unteachable.

We can trace the link between music education, acoustics, and “good music” to the mythical foundations of Western music theory itself. According to legend, once upon a time in ancient Greece the philosopher Pythagoras was daydreaming about a way to measure sounds. In his reverie, he heard, by chance, a concord of blacksmith’s hammers as they beat a piece of iron on an anvil. Seduced by the beauty of the harmony, he tried to reproduce it on the strings of a lyre. His experiments led him to discover the integer ratios of the perfect consonances: 2:1 for the octave, 3:2 for the fifth, and 4:3 for the fourth. With this discovery, Pythagoras invented a technique of acoustic music notation that remains in use to this day. But this notation interested him less as a tool to transcribe new and unusual sounds, than as an intellectual weapon to justify the consonances that he preferred, and to impose them on his students as divine law. Pythagoras devised an entire religion, educational system, and way of life around the integers 1 through 4; the students of his cult learned to worship the consonances as sacred sounds. No student dared challenge Pythagoras’ conception of good music, since to do so would mean challenging nature itself.

Acoustics, however, is a double-edged sword for musical education: insofar as it can justify a musical preference and make it educationally viable, it can also justify its alternative. It doesn’t take much imagination to invent an anti-Pythagorean religion in which the small numbers are the most profane, and the consonances therefore the leastdesirable intervals. In such a religion, we might worship the tritone instead of the octave. This too has its precedent. A different legend relates the fate of Pythagoras’ student Hippasus, who showed that the consonances were nothing special because there was nothing special about the integers themselves. Hippasus used his master’s famous theorem to construct the irrational ratio √2:1 from the hypotenuse of a right isosceles triangle and its edge. Hippasus argued that this ratio is as mathematically, metaphysically, and acoustically valid as any small-integer ratio: it too makes sound, even if that sound is the diabolical discord of an octave split into two equal halves. For the insolence of his reasoning, the gods drowned Hippasus at sea, but not before his argument had spread through the Pythagorean cult, splitting it in two as well: on one side, the acusmatici, who would continue adhering to the values of Pythagoras himself; on the other, the mathematici, who, following Hippasus’ lead, would spurn their master’s religion, devise their own mathematics and discover their own sounds.

Pythagoras was not wrong to love the sound of the octave. He was not even wrong to teach the octave; what better way to teach music than by sharing the sounds that you love? His error was, rather, to call on acoustics to explain how music should work, and to force this explanation on his students. Acoustics explains nothing about music; although it can describe sound relationships, it cannot prove which of these relationships are musical and which are not. No logic can bridge the gap between acoustic information and musical decision-making. It is the responsibility of every musician, young or old, to make their own sense of that gap. They must each decide which acoustic tools to use for their music—if any at all—and how to use them. No music teacher can do this work for them.

Nor can any logic bridge the gap between the music of the world and the music of the classroom. It is the music teacher’s responsibility to decide what to teach; but this, again, must be their own decision. Whether they choose to teach the conventional musical patterns or the exceptional ones is less important than understanding that their choice is ultimately their own, and not the necessary consequence of an inviolable musical nature. As for the right curriculum, the correct curriculum, and the only curriculum, it does not exist.

Alex Ness is a doctoral student in the music department of New York University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. As a historian of music theory, he focuses on eighteenth-century harmonic treatises, the institutionalization of music pedagogy, and heterodox musical logic. He is also an active composer, having written extensively for new music groups in New York.

Alumni: What do you think about Alex’s conclusions? Share your reactions to this article on the Community Blog at www.handoverhand.org, the alumni community site. If you’re not a member, go ahead and register. Some responses may be selected for publication in future newsletter issues.

Community News and Goods

A new solo cello suite by Erica Ball (YMP ’06-07), dedications, was performed by Michal Schmidt on a concert of new works by UPenn graduate composers in Philadelphia in November.

A chamber opera by Ann Callaway (JCC ’65-67, Faculty ’74-76, ’78-84, ‘99), Vladimir in Butterfly Country, had its concert version premiere at the 11th Annual Sonic Harvest concert this October in Berkeley.

The premiere performance of Alan Chan’s (TTI ’04, ’06, Faculty ’10-’11) Erhu Concerto “Rock-Paper-Scissors”, commissioned by St. Matthew’s Music Guild / Los Angeles County Arts with Wang Hong (Visiting Artist ’08) on Erhu is viewable on YouTube.

Shawn Crouch (YMP ’93-94, ’96; TTI ’08; YMP faculty ’99-00, ’02, ’05-07) has a slew of performances this season, including The Garden of Paradise by Chanticleer on March 30-April 4, Pie Jesu from The Road from Hiroshima, A Requiem on Seraphic Fire’s 10th anniversary concert series January 11-15 in South Florida.

Nick DeMaison (Faculty ’04-07) was the Musical Director for two big productions this fall: The Ticket That Exploded, a multi-media opera by James Ilgenfritz, which was performed at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, and Le Pauvre Matelot (The Poor Sailor) by Darius Milhaud, at Fraunces Tavern in New York.

A song by Renée Favand-See (YMP ’85, ’87-90, TTI ’08, Faculty ’93-97, ’99, ’06-07, ’09), Looking West on a Humid Summer Evening (poem by Corin See) was commissioned by the Five Boroughs Music Festival, and saw a premiere in October and a second performance in November. It will be performed in each of the five boroughs throughout the year.

Stacy Garrop (YMP ’87-88, Faculty ’96) reports that Chicago a cappella, Chicago’s premiere nine-voice choir, has released its “Days of Awe and Rejoicing” CD, including her piece Hava Nagila, which was commissioned by the ensemble. This fall also saw several premieres of new works, including The Book of American Poetry, Volumes III and IV by The Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players at Stony Brook University, Songs of Lowly Life by Volti in San Francisco, Jubilation by the Lincoln Trio in Chicago, and the upcoming Helios by Gaudete Brass on December 28 in Chicago.

Livia Gho’s (CMR ’11) choir in Vancouver, the Essonance Chamber Choir, held a joint concert series this Christmas with Ablaze Chamber Orchestra to put on Vivaldi’s Gloria in D major, which was Livia’s first instrumental conducting gig. The choir also performed works by Lauridsen and Hyokki.

Carrie Mallonée’s (YMP ’87-92, TTI ’07, Staff ’96, Faculty ’98-00, ’02-09, 11, Admin ’10-11) Carolers for chorus and orchestra (written when she was 14) was on WYPR 88.1 FM in Baltimore in November, and the San Francisco-based new music collective Wild Rumpus, which features Sophie Huet (TTI ’09) performed her piece Shadow Rings.

Teresa McCollough (Visiting Artist ’01, TTI ’05) and Wet Ink Ensemble (Visiting Artists ’09) performed a program at Santa Clara University in November featuring premieres by Sam Pluta (Staff ’01-02, Faculty ’02-08, ’10-11), Alex Shapiro (Visiting Composer ’04), and Sally Mitchell (YMP ’00-04, TTI ’11, Staff ’10).

Ned McGowan’s (Visting Artist ’01-04, ’10) concert series Karnatic Lab featured two performances in December, and Ned had a work in 31-tone tuning performed at MicroFest Amsterdam 2011.

The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco and Melody of China (Visiting Artists ’08) presented a concert celebrating the legacy of the Qin, an ancient seven-string zither, featuring performances by the Melody of China ensemble with guests Qin virtuoso Liu Li and Flutist Chen Tao, including a world premiere by Gang Situ.

Nat Osborn’s (YMP ’00-03) band Hawthorne performed at the legendary Joe’s Pub in New York in November, followed quickly by Nat’s west coast debut in San Francisco. He also performed with a new band in early December at the Rockwood Music Hall.

The duo edition of Alicia Jo Rabins’ (YMP ’88-93) band Girls in Trouble (GIT) did a month-long US tour this fall, including a residency at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum which culminated in a concert featuring a panel discussion on creative midrash with Biblical scholars. Alumni Will Rees (YMP ’86-90) and Brendon Randall-Myers (TTI ’10) made it to the show in San Francisco. GIT also performed at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Battery Park City in December, will be at the LIMMUD Conference in Warwick, UK, from December 23-29, and will tour Italy in January.

D. J. Sparr (YMP ’91, Faculty ’09-10) will appear at The Atlas in Washington, D.C. on January 6. Learn more here.

The Bill Stevens Jazz Ensemble (Visiting Artists ’10) performed an evening of jazz at Ruggero Piano in Raleigh, NC this November.

The Da Capo Chamber Players, which feature Meighan Stoops (Walden School Players ’04, ’06-11, TTI ’06-07) gave two performances of a program called Cool Britannia this October, once at Bard College and again at Merkin Concert Hall in New York.

An anthem by Bob Weaver (JCC ’57-63, CMR ‘11) and his friend Bill Pasch was published by St. James Music Press You can see and hear it by going to www.sjmp.com.

Pamela Z (Visiting Artist ’11) has too many events coming up to list here, but they include a performance at the Berkeley Arts Festival, a shared concert at Le Poisson Rouge with Meredith Monk in New York on January 20, and solo sets at San Francisco State University on February 21, the Pulse Art & Technology Festival in Savannah, GA, on February 28, and Meridian Gallery in San Francisco on March 14.

Transitions:

Carrie Mallonée’s and Eric Huebner’s (Visiting Artist ’04-08, ’11) son Henry Ericsson Huebner was born October 27, 2011 at 4:10 a.m. He weighed 8 pounds and 4 ounces. He spent his first summer (in utero) at Walden in 2011.

Opportunities & Organizations Listing

An opportunities listing for composers of multiple levels and age ranges, as well as organizations that provide services to composers, improvisers, and experimental musicians, is available here.

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

More than 100 world premieres had their genesis in 2011 at Walden’s Young Musicians Program on one of seven Composers Forums that occurred throughout the five week experience. One of these pieces was first-time student Gen Tanaka’s A Brief Return of Calm, performed by Walden School Players Jane Chung, Tawnya Popoff, and Robert Burkhart, and Walden Faculty Member Alan Chan. Gen lives during the year in Tokyo, Japan. Click here to listen.

by Matthew Klahorst (WP)

October 2011 eNews: InterNetzo

Message from the Executive Director
Hilary Kole and Friends at Birdland
Creative Musicians Retreat a great success
Lexington Symphony/Walden School Commission
Event review: Jazz in New Hampshire, and our on-line auction
Help Students Take a Bite Out of Music – Make Your Donation to Walden!
Start the school year off with Walden merchandise
Community News and Goods
Opportunities & Organizations Listing
Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

Message from the Executive Director

What a summer! What a year! How can one measure Walden’s success in 2011?

If the measure of a program were the number of people it deeply affected, Walden would impress for 2011. 24 participants from around the world, aged 19 to 69, attended Walden’s brand new Creative Musicians Retreat in June in Northampton, Massachusetts, on the stunning campus of Smith College; 56 students from everywhere from Vilnius to Tokyo, Peterborough to Seattle attended the 39th season of what has now been named the Young Musicians Program (aka ‘camp’) on the beautiful campus of the Dublin School, enjoying numerous Composers Forums, classes, chorus, hikes, open mics and swim trips; 31 music teachers from throughout the United States attended our 7th weeklong Teacher Training Institute intensive in New Hampshire; and nine students in Oberlin’s Masters in Music Teaching program attended a week of Walden-style teacher training in Ohio. Indeed, a record number of participants – more than 110 – participated in a Walden program during 2011.

If the value of Walden could be determined by the number of engaging events we presented, the School would merit high marks for its 2011 season. Over the course of the summer, we presented more than 25 public performances, community engagement concerts, composers forums and open rehearsals during June, July and August, with artists ranging in style from the Windborne Trio and Pamela Z to the International Contemporary Ensemble and Miranda Cuckson, to name but a few. More than 50 faculty, staff, administration, guest performers and composers-in-residence collaborated and combined forces to produce for our participants what we all hope was an amazing and inspiring experience of creativity, community and music.

If the strength of Walden could be measured by the number of partnerships it builds and sustains, 2011 would indicate great strength. This year we continued forging links with other outstanding arts and education organizations, both local to our summer homes and across the United States. These included partnerships with The MacDowell Colony, Monadnock Music, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Oberlin College Conservatory, Community MusicWorks in Providence, The Juilliard School’s MAP program, Music National Service, the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, the Lexington Symphony, Duke University, among many others. This was the second year that Walden was in residence as part of the music program at Dublin School. This spring, Walden faculty member Marshall Bessières taught courses in creative musicianship, composition and computer music. In 2011, Boston-based Firebird Ensemble performed world premieres by Walden faculty members and then helped coach participants in the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music’s summer performance program, who premiered works by three Walden students: Evan Johnson, Ariel Kent, and Wesley Levers.

If we were to calculate Walden’s value by the number of friends and supporters it has, we would find Walden to be rich, indeed. In order to serve the more than 110 program participants, present the more than 25 events, and nurture its myriad partnerships, Walden needed – and continues to need – the help of many friends. During Walden’s 2011, which just ended on September 30, more than 370 of you, along with more than 25 foundations and corporations, combined to provide more than $385,000 in support for our annual fund. These monies supported 100% of our financial aid program, 100% of our guest artist and composer residency programs, 100% of our alumni Composers Forums and regional gatherings, and these monies – importantly – helped defray the costs of basic operations so that we can keep our programs small, individually attentive and, as much as possible, reasonably priced. Did you know that in 2011 more than 50% of our program participants received financial aid and that Walden distributed approximately $100,000 in aid to deserving participants and families? We could not do what we do without our supporters, and I thank each of you for the role you played in making 2011 such a successful year.

We also needed – and continue to need – the help of many friends who volunteer hundreds of hours in making Walden happen. From our dedicated 20+ member board of directors, our invaluable office volunteers in San Francisco, numerous individuals who volunteered at our programs and fundraiser and events, and our volunteer alumni who help guide our HandOverHand Executive Committee, the leadership group of Walden’s alumni association, we simply could not operate without such assistance. Thank you to all of you who give time, that most precious of commodities, to Walden!

If public recognition were the indicator of Walden’s success, our grades would be off the charts for 2011. As we have mentioned before, Walden was the recipient this past year of numerous accolades. Walden was awarded the 2011 New Music Educator Award from the American Music Center (now New Music USA) and earned a spot as one of 50 finalists nationally for the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, a program sponsored by the White House. We also received notice of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts which will support our Young Musicians Program in 2012. And Walden was featured in two news articles appearing in the Monadnock Region’s Keene Sentinel and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.

But numbers – of participants, events, partnerships, donors, awards – don’t tell the real story of Walden’s value. None of these numbers can represent the incredible and thorough musicianship training that Walden participants receive. No award or trophy can accomplish Walden’s mission to, among other things, “nurture a life-long commitment to creative expression, all resulting in the development of individuals who are capable of effecting positive change in the world around them.” Only Walden’s unique programs led by its outstanding faculty, staff and artists, do this.

So what is the true measure of Walden’s impact? Here are just a few examples:

The smile on the face of a Walden student after the premiere and ensuing discussion of her composition on a Composers Forum.
The feeling that a student has when summiting Mt. Monadnock for the first time with his newfound Walden friends.
And comments like this one from a Young Musicians Program participant from 2011 – “I didn’t believe in heaven before I went to Walden.”

I hope you enjoy this issue of InterNetzo. Be sure to check out News & Goods for updates on the doings of your old friends, read Carrie Mallonee’s report on Walden’s newest program, learn about the co-commissioning project with the Lexington Symphony in Massachusetts, and review our listing of additional musical opportunities. Happy reading!

All best,

Seth Brenzel
Director, Young Musicians Program
Executive Director
sbrenzel@waldenschool.org
(415) 648-4710

Hilary Kole and Friends at Birdland

Alumni, faculty, parents and friends of Walden gathered for a festive evening with Hilary Kole and her outstanding band, who performed a spectacular set of greater- and lesser-known works from the jazz repertoire. She also performed her own arrangement of that Walden chestunut, “Do you love an apple?”. Proceeds from the event will go towards Walden’s financial aid programs in 2012.

Creative Musicians Retreat a great success

by Caroline Mallonée

The Walden School has a new kind of alumnus/a! From June 11-19, participants from 10 states across the country, Washington D.C., Canada, Japan, Belarus, and Portugal came together on the campus of Smith College for the first Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR). For over a week, the 24 musicians immersed themselves in the creative process, and the results were astounding – 35 new works were given their world premieres at two Composers Forums, moderated by Composer-In-Residence, Russell Pinkston. Participants praised the members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, who presented a concert of works by both living and historical composers on Sunday, June 12, as a kick-off to the week’s events. Classes and workshops in computer music, contemporary music, improvisation, sound painting, chorus and musicianship were offered by the faculty (Marshall Bessières, Caroline Mallonée, Loretta Notareschi, Sam Pluta and Leo Wanenchak). One participant said he had been waiting half his life for the experience CMR provided. It was an inspirational festival, and a wonderful new way for musicians to experience Walden!

The Walden School plans to offer the Creative Musicians Retreat again in June 2012. Contact us for more details.

Lexington Symphony/Walden School Commission

The Lexington Symphony, in celebration of the 300th Anniversary of the founding of Lexington, Massachusetts, approached The Walden School to help it identify a young composer (under 25 years of age) from among Walden program alumni to write a 10-15 minute orchestral work to be premiered in September 2012. The commission was announced in the spring, and over the summer, many Walden alumni composers submitted applications to be considered. A selection committee, comprising Caroline Mallonée, Marshall Bessières, Marguerite Ladd and Seth Brenzel, was formed, and late in August, the committee chose Teacher Training Institute and Creative Musicians Retreat alumna Sky Macklay as the commissioned composer for this exciting project. Sky, who is a music composition graduate student at the University of Memphis, is now hard at work on her new piece, which needs to be completed by the spring, in time for the orchestra to begin working with the score and readying it for its premiere on September 22, 2012.

Young Musicians Program and Teacher Training Institute alumna Kate Ettinger and Young Musicians Program alumnus Michael Rosen were named finalists in the commission contest. Both of these composers made outstanding applications as well, and in the end, a difficult choice to select simply one of the three finalists was made. This commission project also coincides with Walden’s 40th Anniversary celebration, which takes place throughout 2012 and 2013, and the score of the piece will include a dedication to both the town of Lexington and to The Walden School. Walden is grateful to the Lexington Symphony, its staff and board, and its music director, Jonathan McPhee, for partnering with The Walden School on what is sure to be a wonderful project.

Event review: Jazz in New Hampshire, and our on-line auction

Walden’s Online Auction Closes with a Bang

What do custom compositions, catered dinners, and eye exams have in common? They were all items won by bidders in this year’s online auction. Dozens of lucky bidders won lessons, vacations, consulting, and concert tickets in this fun – and successful! – fundraiser for Walden. The auction raised nearly $5,000 to support financial aid at Walden, and introduced the School to some new supporters in the process.

Saturday Afternoon at the Silitches

Jazz, sunshine, food, good friends – what more could you ask for? A summer fundraiser at the beautiful home of Nick and Regina Silitch in New Hampshire featured pianist Bill Stevens and bassist Tony Makarome, both aso Walden faculty members. In addition to performing, Bill also spoke to the gathered crowd from the perspective of both an alumnus and faculty member about the importance of what Walden offers to its program participants. The event raised more than $11,500 for financial aid at Walden – a stunning achievement! Many thanks to all who made the event such a rousing success.

Help Students Take a Bite Out of Music – Make Your Donation to Walden!

Imagine that you’d never had chocolate cake before – you don’t even know what it is. Feeling sorry for you, a friend tries to describe it to you and shows you a recipe, but you’re still unclear on the concept. But what if that friend gives you an actual piece of chocolate cake, tells you to turn it around in your hands, to taste it, what then? You now have a pretty good idea what chocolate cake is. And if your friend shows you how to bake one, you’ll be fluent in chocolate cake: a happy circumstance, indeed!

At most schools, students study music theory as if it were a conceptual chocolate cake. There’s a lot of lecturing and written work, but not enough direct experience – not enough cake eating – and not nearly enough baking. With every person it reaches, Walden transforms that model to one where students develop fluency and mastery through discovery, drill and creative work – composition and improvisation. Music is immediate and real and tangible at Walden, as tangible as chocolate cake should be.

Students deserve to learn music this way, but they need your help to make it happen. Have you made a gift recently? Your donation to Walden today will help make it possible for more musicians to master the creative skills they need to truly understand music, to make it as real – and delicious – as chocolate cake. Please make a contribution today.

And if you’ve already joined the more than 370 people who annually give to Walden, thank you!

Start the school year off with Walden merchandise

Though Autumn has begun, the Walden spirit carries us throughout the year. What better way to remind you and your loved ones of this great community than a sweatshirt to keep you warm all winter, a mug full of your favorite beverage, a snazzy wristband, a key chain, or any of the other items available on Merchandise Order Form available below. The perfect gift for someone whose life has been touched by The Walden School, our merchandise is of high quality and emblazoned with our distinctive logo.

Just print out our Merchandise Form and send in with your payment.

Community News and Goods

The Walden School welcomes news and information from members of the Junior Conservatory Camp and Walden School communities to include in our print and online newsletters. News may be sent via mail or email. We will publish your contact information only if you specifically request that we do so. Please send info to alumni@waldenschool.org or The Walden School, 31A 29th St., San Francisco, CA 94110. We reserve the right to edit submissions and regret we cannot publish all information provided. For upcoming event listings, go to www.handoverhand.org.

Nigel Armstrong (YMP ’00) was a finalist in the Tchaikovsky Competition. You can read articles about him here and here.

Whit Bernard (YMP ’00-02, TTI ’06, Faculty ’09) has begun his first year as an MBA candidate in social enterprise and international business at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

After 15 years in Hungary, Tamar Bloch (JCC ’69-71, YMP ’72, TTI ’08, Faculty ’75, ’77, ’87-92) is living in New Jersey, and taking care of her mother. She’s also doing translations (German and Hungarian) and just recorded her first voice-over demo CD. If you know of music making and/or teaching opportunities in the New York/New Jersey area (solfege, ear training, piano, musicianship, children’s choirs), she’d love to hear from you at solfatamar@yahoo.com.

The September 2011 edition of JazzInside Magazine featured an interview with George Brandon (CMR ’11), in which he discusses his early musical environment, the process of recording his recently released debut CD, Toward the Hill of Joy, and advice for musicians and bandleaders for coping with hassles and pressures!

Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy (JCC ’61-65) was present for a screening of her documentary film “FROM AFRICA TO INDIA: Sidi Music in the Indian Ocean Diaspora” at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco in early September. Walden administration members Esther Landau (TTI ’09, Administration ’05-11) and Jefferson Packer (TTI ’10-11, Administration ’10-11) attended both this fascinating film and the ensuing discussion. Amy hopes to attend the reunion in 2012.

Alan Chan (TTI ’04, ’06, Faculty ’10-11) is the winner of this year’s ArtEZ Jazz Composition Contest (International Jazz Festival Enschede, Netherlands) with his composition To Be Continued for jazz big band. He is also the winner of the joint Los Angeles County Arts/St. Matthew’s Music Guild Commission Award in October 2010 and his commissioned work, a concerto for erhu entitled Rock-Paper-Scissors, was premiered in June, 2011, by Wang Hong and St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra in Pacific Palisades, California. In the same month, Bitter Melon for erhu and pipa received its Asia Premiere by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Alan is currently the Artistic Director of Gateway Performance Series in Los Angeles.

Nicholas DeMaison (Faculty ’04-07) will serve as the Music Director for two upcoming productions of Pocket Opera NY, Le pauvre matelot by Darius Milhaud and The Ticket That Exploded by James Ilgenfritz. To view a , visit http://www.pocketoperany.org.

In July, Renée Favand-See (YMP ’85, ’87-90, TTI ’08, Faculty ’93-97, ’99, ’06-07, ’09)premiered a new work by Bonnie Miksch, Like water, like sound, like breath, in addition to performing two songs of her own, Driving a highway in Eastern Washington and Morning Mist. The concert took place at Old Church in Portland.

Walden board member Corty Fengler (TTI ’11, Board ’09-11) met up with Sarah Ye (YMP ’01-05) and her family last year while in Beijing.

Stephen Flynn (YMP ’01-04) started in July 2011 as the Emerging Technologies Librarian at the College of Wooster, and had his innovative cover letter website featured in Library Journal.

The music of Stacy Garrop (YMP ’87-88, Faculty ’96) has seen lots of action lately, with performances of Sonnets of Desire, Longing, and Whimsy by The Grant Park Chorus and SEVEN by the Lincoln Trio. Stacy also made an appearance at the Skaneateles Festival. SEVEN was featured on a CD by the Lincoln Trio called Notable Women, which includes the music of former festival week moderators Jennifer Higdon (Visiting Artist ’99, Advisory Council ’02-11) and Joan Tower (Visiting Artist ’09).

Tonya Ingersol (YMP ’78-80, ’83, Board of Directors ’98-01) had an exhibit of her paintings at the June Kelly Gallery in New York in September. Read more here.

In June, NPR’s All Things Considered ran a report on the week that music contributor Lara Pellegrinelli shadowed International Contemporary Ensemble (Guest Artists ’11)flutist and executive director Claire Chase (Guest Artists ’05-09). The ensembleperformed James Dillon’s symphonic cycle Nine Rivers September 14-17, 2001 at Miller Theater, Columbia University.

Alex Kazenoff (YMP ’05) graduated this summer from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Electronic Production & Design, and was offered a job as Assistant Engineer at Creative Group, an industry company in the Times Square area of Manhattan.

Aaron Krerowicz (TTI ’11) and his mandolin ensemble Syzygia performed a “Mandolin/Guitar Extravaganza” in Hartford, Connecticut on August 16, 2011. More information, including the concert program, can be found here.

Ned McGowan (Visting Artist ’01-04, ’10) reports that his ensemble Hexnut (Visting Artists ’10) has a new project, WRENCH, together with the photographs of Edward Burtynsky. The performance consists of new compositions performed in a tightly versed integration of sound and projected image, and its premiere last May had a big turnout and was a big success. Hexnut’s website has a trailer from the performance, along with photos, reviews, articles, videos, and info about upcoming concerts.

Loretta Notareschi (YMP ’95, TTI ’08, Faculty ’98-11) was awarded 2nd place in the IronWorks Percussion Duo competition for her piece This Is It; the work was performed in May 2011 in Long Beach, CA. She was also thrilled to write two cadenzas for Mozart’s Flute Concerto in D, performed by Esther Landau (TTI ’09, Administration ’05-11) in November 2010.

Anna Orias (TTI ’04-05) has opened Musically Minded Academy in Oakland, CA,with 11 teachers and more than 100 students. Nick Benavides (TTI ’09-10, CMR ’11) is teaching Creative Musicianship for the first time at the school!

Nat Osborn (YMP ’00-03) is keeping predictably busy with his bands Hawthorne and The Diamond Allegory, with several gigs early in the summer in the NYC area, and the rest of it spent finishing a record and touring Europe.

We dug up a great article by Sam Pluta (Staff ’01-02, Faculty ’02-08, ’10-11) about how to make successful live electronic music.

The PRISM Saxophone Quartet (Guest Artist ’05) made its Bang On A Can debut in June, at New York City’s World Financial Center in the Winter Garden.

Vivian Adelberg Rudow (JCC ’50-51) recently performed live dance to her piece John’s Song, at the Baltimore Museum of Art in July 2011. For the entire month of August, her No Rest Too! and The Bare Smooth Stone of Your Love were featured every two hours on NACUSA Web Radio.

Here is a great video of Kelly Smit (YMP ’93-95) doing Irish Sean-nós dance with her husband Dan Isaacson and his band Simple System.

Births and Weddings:

Mark A. Lackey (TTI ’04-05) and his wife Jennifer welcomed their new daughter Tabitha to the world in February 2011.

Danielle Schindler (YMP ’88-93) married Jason Cheung on August 27, 2011, at IslandWood, an environmental school on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Seth Brenzel (YMP ’85-90, TTI ’08, Staff/Administration ’94-11), Malcolm Gaines (CMR ’11, Administration ’99-11), Loretta Notareschi (YMP ’95, TTI ’08, Faculty ’98-11), David Drucker (YMP ’77-82, CMR’11, Faculty ’84-88, Board of Directors ’98-00), and Dede Ondishko (YMP ’74-77, Faculty/Staff ’79-85, Board of Directors ’99-02) were in attendance. The couple spent their honeymoon in Hong Kong and India.

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

The Walden School 2011 Creative Musicians Retreat Composers Forums presented the world premieres of more than 25 pieces, including Nick Benavides’ Petrichor, performed by members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

(Note: depending on your operating system, this link will either open your media player and play the track, or save the track to your computer.)

by Matthew Klahorst (WP)

June 2011 eNews: InterNetzo

Message from the Executive Director
Walden Receives Grant from National Endowment for the Arts
Lexington Symphony/Walden School Commission
Concert Series Preview
Walden’s Online Auction is starting soon!
Walden goes to Smith: Creative Musicians Retreat Preview
Events roundup
Walden receives New Music Educator Award from the American Music Center
Community News and Goods
Opportunities & Organizations Listing
Now Hear This! Works by 2010 Walden Participants

Message from the Executive Director

I send you greetings from Northampton, Massachusetts, where Walden’s first-ever Creative Musicians Retreat is about to begin. The program’s faculty and staff has gathered a few days prior to the program start and are readying Lawrence House here on Green Street at Smith College. The facilities are lovely, our contacts at Smith helpful, and so far the food is really good. The music building, Sage Hall, looks like it will be a perfect place for what promises to be an exciting week. On Saturday, we will welcome 24 participants from around the world, Russell Pinkston, our composer-in-residence, along with members of ICE, who will also be in residence with us for a concert on Monday night and two composers forums. Read more about the program here.

All of us at Walden are excited that a long-held vision at Walden, to offer a “mini-Walden” program for adult musicians is coming to fruition this year. As a result and for the first time ever, Walden will serve more than 100 participants during its three programs in summer 2011. We are excited about the future possibilities of our newest offering, and we believe the Creative Musicians Retreat will be a wonderful complement to our flagship Young Musicians Program and now nearly 10-year old Teacher Training Institute program.

On June 25, 56 young musicians, ages 9-18 from across the world will descend on Dublin School’s campus for the 39th season of our flagship Young Musicians Program. They include nearly 30 students who are returning for their 2nd or 5th or 10th summer of creativity and community; they include students from Peterborough and Lithuania and India and Los Angeles; they include drummers and singers and violinists and pianists and trumpeters and harpists. We can’t wait to welcome them in just two weeks. Our faculty and staff, comprising many alumni of both our Teacher Training Institute and Young Musicians Program, are a terrific group of mostly returning team members.

On August 3, 40 music teachers from around the world will join our stellar Teacher Training Institute faculty to participate in a weeklong intensive of courses in Walden pedagogy: musicianship, choral singing, computer music, jazz, solfege and rhythms and more. This program is a unique professional development opportunity for music teachers of all kinds, and there are still openings for this summer’s retreat. I hope you will join me in spreading the word!

Throughout the summer, The Walden School, in partnership with numerous ensembles and presenters, will offer 23 concerts, Composers Forums, open rehearsals and presentation, all of which open to the public, in Northampton, Massachusetts, as well as Keene, Dublin, Peterborough and Jaffrey, New Hampshire. The 2011 Concert Seriesbegins on June 12 at Smith College with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and concludes on August 5 in Dublin, New Hampshire, with Dave Eggar. It is a wonderfully diverse, eclectic and exciting series, and I hope to see many of you at one or more of these events.

There is much to celebrate at Walden these days, with our School being honored with the 2011 American Music Center’s New Music Educator award, an NEA grant and our being named a finalist in the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program awards. All of these honors are built upon the incredibly hard work of Walden’s dedicated faculty, staff, board and administration. I want to offer my sincere appreciation to each of these individuals who work tirelessly during the summer and throughout the year to ensure Walden’s continued strength.

Finally, I want to draw your attention to an exciting commission opportunity for our alumni composers. The Lexington Symphony in Massachusetts has partnered with Walden in identifying an alumnus/alumna (of any of Walden’s programs!) to compose a piece in celebration of the city of Lexington’s 300th anniversary. This is a wonderful opportunity for Walden alumni who are young composers (under the age of 25). Please pass along the news.

Have a creative and musical summer! Hope to see you soon.

Seth Brenzel
Director, Young Musicians Program
Executive Director
sbrenzel@waldenschool.org

Walden Receives Grant from National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has recognized the vital importance of Walden’s Young Musician Program by awarding it a $35,000 grant. The 2011 grant marks the fourth NEA grant received by The Walden School in 10 years. The NEA is an independent agency of the federal government that advances artistic excellence, creativity and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The Walden School is one of 229 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations recommended for a grant as part of the federal agency’s Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth grant support program, providing more than $7.4 million in funding.

In other recent news, on May 5 The Walden School was named one of 50 finalists for the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award (NYHYP) by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and its partner agencies, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Out of 471 nominations from 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, Walden was named a finalist and is in contention for a $10,000 one-time grant and an invitation to attend the White House awards ceremony hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Lexington Symphony/Walden School Commission Opportunity for Alumni

The Walden School has been selected by the Lexington Symphony (Massachusetts) to partner with it in selecting one of the School’s alumni to compose a new work for orchestra in celebration of the town of Lexington’s 300th Anniversary. This is a great honor, and we at Walden are excited about this exciting new collaboration. The performance of the new work, scheduled for September 2012, will also coincide with celebrations planned for Walden’s 40th Anniversary.

The Walden School invites alumni of its programs, under the age of 25 as of July 1, 2011, to apply for the commission. The selected composer will write a 10-15 minute work for orchestra (overture, tone poem, etc.) by January 1, 2012, and will receive a $1,000 commissioning prize, up to $500 reimbursed in travel and score preparation costs, a performance of the work on the Lexington Symphony’s concert season in September 2012, a professional recording of the performance of the work and opportunities to participate in the rehearsal and preparation of the work for performance. Travel to and from the performance and rehearsals will be at the expense of the selected composer, as will copying and score/parts preparation expenses.

To apply, please write to Seth Brenzel, Executive Director, The Walden School, with the following information no later than July 11, 2011:

Name:
Date of Birth:
Address / Phone / Email:
Year(s) attending The Walden School:
Walden School program(s) attended:

In addition, short answers to each of the following questions should be provided.

Why do you want to receive this commission? How will it fit into your development as a composer?
What are your plans for the commission? What is your intended project?
What experiences do you have writing for orchestra and/or large chamber forces, if any?

Please include up to three (3) scores and recordings (if available) of representative works. These will NOT be returned to you. Please also include a resume or CV.

A committee of Walden faculty will select several finalists who will be recommended to the Lexington Symphony for final selection during July. We will notify all applicants of the results no later than July 31, 2011.

Concert Series Preview

Walden’s 2011 Concert Series will feature an eclectic and exciting mix of artists, including a concert of cutting edge contemporary music by the International Contemporary Ensemble, a performance and Q&A session with the acclaimed composer/performer/improvisor Pamela Z, student and faculty commissions by the fantastic Firebird Ensemble, and much more. As always, Walden’s Festival Week will see the world premieres of more than 50 new pieces by Young Musicians Program Participants, with this year’s Festival Forums moderated by composer Paul Morevec. The full concert schedule, along with more information about each performance, is available here.

Walden’s Online Auction is starting soon!

This summer, Walden is holding an Online Auction, seven weeks of musical period-themed shenanigans and community fun to support our programs. The auction will be held June 25 through August 14, 2011, with different items to bid on each week corresponding to a different musical period. We’ve got some great items already: tickets to the San Francisco Symphony; a painting by Mike Stevens; and a chance to meet Nora, the piano-playing cat!

We need many more items to make the auction fun and successful, so we hope you’ll consider donating – and soliciting – goods and services. Ask your favorite restaurant, spa, bookstore, or pottery painting studio if they ever donate gift certificates for nonprofit auctions. Or consider what you might donate yourself – a customized poem or musical composition; 3 hours of babysitting; two nights at a timeshare someplace warm? If you are interested in donating, you can use this form. We want to have all items in hand by June 15, if possible, so if you’ve got something to donate, let us know today!

In other news, Walden has been added to greatnonprofits.org, and it would be incredibly helpful if you could write a review of our organization. If you haven’t supported Walden yet this year, or if you would like to again, there are many ways to do so in the coming months: make a donation by check, make a donation by credit card by calling us at (415) 648-4710, or make a donation online at www.waldenschool.org/donate. Every gift, no matter the size, helps make Walden possible. Thank you!

Walden goes to Smith: Creative Musicians Retreat Preview

From June 11-19, Walden will present its first-ever Creative Musicians Retreat. Participants from 10 U.S. states, Japan, Portugal, Israel, and Canada will come together on the campus of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts for an inspirational week of creative music-making. Highlights of the week’s activities will be a concert by the acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and two Composers Forums, during which new works by participants will be performed by members of ICE. Our composer-in-residence, Russell Pinkston, will moderate the discussions with the composers, performers, participants and audience members following each piece.

The Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR) was conceived to offer training and development opportunities for the well-rounded musician (ages 18+). Caroline Mallonée, Director of the program, has been associated continuously with the Walden School since 1987, her first year as a student in Walden’s Young Musicians Program. Carrie writes, “I am thrilled to see come to fruition several years of planning efforts on the part of the many Walden community members who supported the creation of this program. I have already been in frequent touch with each of this year’s participants as we prepare for the week’s events – they are without exception a wonderful group of diverse, talented people – and I can’t wait to see how the community develops and learns from itself over the course of the Retreat. The CMR Faculty and Staff are eagerly awaiting the chance to work with them, and I know the week will be a rewarding and inspiring experience for all involved.”

To learn more about the Creative Musicians Retreat, please visit www.waldenschool.org/retreat/. If you missed the chance to participate in this year’s retreat, look out for future summers! If you are in New England, please join us for our concerts and forums in Earle Recital Hall, which are free and open to the public:

International Contemporary Ensemble Concert, Sunday, June 12 at 7:30
Composers Forum I, Wednesday, June 15 at 7:30
Composers Forum II, Friday, June 17 at 7:30

We’d love to see you there!

Events roundup

On a sunny spring day in the lovely Baltimore home of Lucy and Jack Henningfield, more than sixty friends of Walden gathered to celebrate the School and listen to a stunning piano recital by jazz great and Walden alumnus Cyrus Chestnut. Board member and YMP alumna Laura Mehiel, along with her mother and aunt, provided delicious food, and Cyrus performed a genre-bending program including a jazzy take on Chopin, a Joplin rag, and originals. He also walked the audience through an exercise he learned from YMP teacher Cindy Harkum, who just happened to be in attendance, and incorporated the sound of the ringing house phone into one of his improvisations. Cyrus also spoke to the importance of creativity and the influence that his Walden experience had on his own music-making.

Walden and JCC alumni had another chance to meet up at two performances by PRISM Saxophone Quartet (Visiting Ensemble ’93, ’94, ’99, ’05). On June 3 and 4 in New York and Philadelphia, the group performed a program of premieres, including “The Giving Tree,” a work by Cara Haxo (YMP ’04-09), most recent winner of the annual PRISM/Walden School Young Composer Commissioning Award.

Walden receives New Music Educator Award from the American Music Center

Dear Friends of Walden,

On May 2 we traveled to New York City to stand with Seth Brenzel, Walden’s Executive Director, as he accepted the American Music Center’s 2011 New Music Education Awardon behalf of the entire Walden community. It was a proud moment for everyone involved with Walden.

For nearly 40 years The Walden School has been advancing innovative, creative, and highly effective methods to help people of all ages express themselves through original improvisation and music composition. We have helped generations of students discover, develop, and fully claim their personal creative voices. In the last ten years we have published two texts documenting our activity-based methods and thorough curriculum, and we have developed a Teacher Training Institute, which serves a broad spectrum of the music education community.

Now the word is out. Walden is taking its place on the national stage!

In August music teachers from all over the country will once again converge in Dublin, New Hampshire, to engage in an experience that is part music immersion, part professional development, part refreshing retreat. There will be young teachers, just starting their careers. There will be seasoned college professors. There will be public and private school teachers, studio teachers, and composers who primarily teach through residency programs. It is always a highly eclectic group comprising some of the most forward thinking, creative musicians in the country.

We invite you to ride the tide of creativity, enthusiasm, and recognition! Please consider the musicians and music educators whom you know. Invite them to consider our 2011 Summer Teacher Training Intensive, August 3-10, in Dublin. We are still accepting applications and would love to work with YOUR friends and colleagues.

As Seth noted in his acceptance speech in New York, The Walden School envisions a world with a higher concentration of people who approach life creatively, collaboratively, and with conviction. Artists of all kinds lead the way in such an endeavor, and Walden has long specialized in offering educational tools that empower musicians to be leaders in the quest.

The word is out. Will you help us spread it?

Sincerely,

Patricia Plude
Director, The Walden School Teacher Training Institute

Pamela Quist
Co-Founder, The Walden School
Assistant Director, The Walden School Teacher Training Institute

Community News and Goods

The Walden School welcomes news and information from members of the Junior Conservatory Camp and Walden School communities to include in our print and online newsletters. News may be sent via mail or email. We will publish your contact information only if you specifically request that we do so. Please send info to alumni@waldenschool.org or The Walden School, 31A 29th St., San Francisco, CA 94110. We reserve the right to edit submissions and regret we cannot publish all information provided. For upcoming event listings, go to www.handoverhand.org.

Deena Ball, mother of Erica Ball (Young Musicians Program ’06-07) reports new artwork, festival participation, upcoming classes and more. Read more at www.deenasball.com.

Marshall Bessières’ (Faculty ’03-11, Teacher Training Institute ’08) new piece “Winter” was premiered by Choral Chameleon on Sunday May 22nd in New York City. Marshall performed the electronics with the group live on the iPad. Read more at marshallbessieres.com/music.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), directed by Claire Chase (Visiting Artist ’05-09), have a busy summer ahead of them, including a free ICElab concert at New York’s (le) Poisson Rouge featuring premieres from composer and percussionist Nathan Davis (Visiting Artist ’01-07, ’09), a residency at MCA Stage in Chicago, and two parties to benefit the ICElab program. Read more at iceorg.org.

Clogs (Visiting Artists ’03) returned to London in May for several shows celebrating Steve Reich’s 75th birthday at the Barbican Centre’s Reverberations Festival, performing with musicians including Shara Worden, Nico Muhly, Lisa Kaplan and the New London Children’s Choir. More details at clogsmusic.com.

Miranda Cuckson (Visiting Artist ’08, ’11) played several exciting concerts in May, including a performance of Perez Velasquez’s piece for violin and electronics, “Un ser con unas alas enormes”, and an appearance with her group counter)induction at Tenri Institute, featuring works using new electronics spatialization software from VRSonic. Concerts this summer include counter)induction performing at Bargemusic on June 3, and solo appearances at the Bard Festival and the quirkily named “Nono, MuchMore Warped” festival. For details, visit www.mirandacuckson.com.

Natacha Diels (Teacher Training Institute ’09) performed at the Cal Berkeley Center for New Music and Audio Technologies with Ensemble Pamplemousse on May 5. Read more about the event, and about Ensemble Pamplemousse.

Stacy Garrop (Young Musicians Program ’87-88, Faculty ’96) appeared on Cedille Records Day on WFMT 98.7 FM this month. Selections from The Book of American Poetry were performed at the DePaul Concert Hall in Chicago, and her new CD, “In Eleanor’s Words: Music of Stacy Garrop” was given a great review by critic Jay Harvey of the Indianapolis Star. Read the review here, and learn more about the cd here.

Evan Johnson (Young Musicians Program ’09-10) met 2011 Pulitzer Prize Winner Zhou Long at the Pulitzer ceremony, where Evan’s father, Mark Johnson, was also receiving a Pulitzer prize. Zhou Long and his wife Chen Yi, both composers, have long been supporters of Walden, and Zhou Long visited Walden with Chen Yi in 1997.

The Nief-Norf Summer Festival chose Caroline Mallonée (Young Musicians Program ’88-92, Teacher Training Institute ’07, Faculty ’96,’98-00,’02-’11) as a winner of its first annual call for scores. Her 2009 piece, North South East West, for four percussionists in four corners, was performed in June at Furman University in Greenville, SC. She was in residence during the festival to work with the performers. Here’s the press release.

An EP by Aimee Bayles produced by Nat Osborn (Young Musician Program ’00-03) has just been released. Nat is also finishing up a short film called “Maybe She Dies Like This” by a film-maker named Jo Henriquez , samples of which can be heard on his website, natosborn.com.

Kelli Pearson (Teacher Training Institute ’10) reports that she has a new website, www.smartfirstgraders.com, for parents, teachers, homeschoolers, grandparents, and anyone else who is helping to raise smart first graders. It has tips for helping with math and reading, learning games and activities, experiments, etc.

The PRISM Saxophone Quartet (Visiting Artists ‘05) recently presented number of concerts. First were two concerts celebrating the release of their new CD, Dedication, in Philadelphia and New York City. They followed this with two concerts of world premieres, including a work by Cara Haxo (Young Musicians Program ’04-09). Cara had a nice profile published in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Alicia Rabins’ (Young Musicians Program ’88-93) band Girls in Trouble has new tour dates up for June. This tour celebrates the release of their new album, Half You Half Me, which was released on May 17th.

Alan Shewmon (Junior Conservatory Camp ’63-69, Young Musicians Program ’72) presented a concert on May 28th featuring works by Bartók, Ginastera, Ravel and Stravinsky, including the Stravinsky-Shewmon transcription of excerpts from Pétrouchka that he performed this past winter at Walden’s San Francisco Alumni Composers Forum.

Transitions

Major Life Events in the Walden/JCC Family

The Rev. Joseph Lafayette Giles, former senior pastor of University Baptist Church and longtime Walden friend and supporter, passed away on May 2 at the Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville, at 81. Here is a link to the Baltimore Sun obituary.

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

The Walden School 2010 Young Musicians Program Festival Forums presented the world premieres of more than 50 pieces, including Lenny Kloser’s Medicine Bottle, performed by Lenny on guitar, with Sam Pluta on live electronics.

(note: depending on your operating system, this link will either open your media player and play the track, or save the track to your computer)

by Matthew Klahorst (WP)

April 2011 eNews: InterNetzo

Message from the Executive Director
Walden Honored with National Music Education Award
Apply to Participate in a Walden Program (or two!)
Join jazz luminary Cyrus Chestnut and help support Walden
Event Roundup and Preview: Spring 2011
Walden Profiled in San Francisco Classical Voice
Read Walden’s 2010 Annual Report Online!
Community News and Goods
Opportunities & Organizations Listing
Now Hear This! Works by 2010 Walden Participants

Message from the Executive Director

Greetings from Baltimore, where the leadership team for Walden’s Young Musicians Program has gathered to develop this summer’s curriculum and plan for our upcoming 39th season. In addition to planning for ‘camp’, we’re in the midst of reviewing applications for our Creative Musicians Retreat to be held for the first time at Smith College in June, and for our Teacher Training Institute to be held in Dublin in August. There are still spaces available in each of our programs. I hope you’ll consider joining us and telling your friends, family and colleagues about our unique program offerings.

This issue of InterNetzo touches on many areas of interest to Walden supporters and alumni: a prestigious award bestowed on Walden by the American Music Center at an awards ceremony in New York on May 2, an exciting concert and support opportunity in Baltimore on May 1, a musical offering from one of our 2010 Composers Forums, updates from alumni, faculty and supporters, and much more.

This is an exciting time of year for all of us at Walden, as we ready our programs to welcome participants from around the world. Walden is so fortunate to have the support of hundreds of dedicated supporters who help make all of what we do possible. Without such support, we would not be able to provide any financial aid to deserving students and music teachers, or offer the rich and diverse concert series that we do. Thank you to those of you who have already made a gift to our annual fund this year. We really appreciate it. In 2010, more than 450 supporters invested in Walden and made all of it possible. Read about it here. I hope you’ll consider joining them in making 2011 our best year ever!

In next month’s InterNetzo, we will preview our Concert Series, which begins this year in Northampton with a concert by the International Contemporary Ensemble on June 12. We will also give you information about our faculty and staff, and tell you a bit about some of this year’s program participants. In the meantime, I hope that your spring is off to a great start.

Seth Brenzel
Director, Young Musicians Program
Executive Director
sbrenzel@waldenschool.org

Walden Honored with National Music Education Award

The Walden School will receive the 2011 New Music Educators Award from the American Music Center on May 2, 2011, at an awards ceremony in New York City.

The New Music Educator Award was established by the American Music Center’s Board of Directors in 2006. This award is open to conductors, professors, lecturers, academics, and others who have made important contributions in the realm of education, but might not always be well known to the rest of the new music community. Previous winners include musicologist Charles Hamm and the New World Symphony.

The Walden School is the recipient of our New Music Educator Award, honoring their creative philosophy and curriculum, as well as their contribution toward motivating and mentoring decades of successful students.”
– Joanne Hubbard Cossa, President and CEO of the
American Music Center

Also being honored at the awards ceremony will be preeminent composers William Bolcom and John Harbison, the Copland House and So Percussion, a fantastic quartet of percussionists dedicated to the performance of contemporary music. Many congratulations to everyone involved with Walden, whether since 1972 or since last month! This is a terrific acknowledgement of the great work that we all do together.

Apply to Participate in a Walden Program (or two!)

Applications are still being accepted for each of our programs — it is certainly not too late to plan to spend part of your summer with Walden! And if you can’t attend one of Walden’s programs this summer, we hope you will tell your friends and family and colleagues about what a terrific experience they will have if they do! Limited need-based financial aid is available for all programs.

Creative Musicians Retreat – NEW!
June 11-June 19, 2011 on the campus of Smith College
For more information and to download application materials, visit: www.waldenschool.org/creative-musicians-retreat/
Any adult (18+) musician is invited to join Walden faculty, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and Composer-in-Residence Russell Pinkston for a weeklong workshop in musicianship, composition, choral singing, improvisation, and more! Space is limited to 25 participants.

Young Musicians Program (aka YMP)
June 25-July 31, 2011 on the campus of the Dublin School
For more information and to download application materials, visit: waldenschool.org/young-musicians-program
Join Walden’s top-notch faculty and staff for a 5-week summer music immersion experience of musicianship, composition, choral singing and many other enriching activities. Open to young musicians ages 9-18. Guest artists will include Paul Moravec, Pamela Z, Eric Huebner, and the Firebird Ensemble, among others.

Teacher Training Institute’s Developing Creative Expression (aka TTI)
August 3-August 10, 2011 on the campus of the Dublin School
For more information and to download application materials, visit: waldenschool.org/teacher-training-institute
Walden’s master teaching faculty will lead a group of 40 like-minded music educators through a professional development experience like no other, and provide pedagogy instruction in musicianship, solfege, rhythms, improvisation, composition, choral singing, computer music,and jazz musicianship. Grammy-nominated Dave Eggar will appear in concert as part of the workshop!

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Join jazz luminary Cyrus Chestnut and help support Walden

We hope you’ll join us for a musical afternoon with jazz great and Walden alumnus Cyrus Chestnut. Hailed as “the best jazz pianist of his generation” by Time Magazine, Chestnut will perform a program of standards and original works in this intimate house concert. We hope you can join us for hors d’oeuvres, drinks, conversation and spectacular music to benefit Walden.

Date: Sunday, May 1, 2011
Time: 3-5:30 p.m.
Location: A private home in Baltimore, Maryland
Please contact us for details

$100 per person suggested donation.
Smaller and larger contributions also welcome.
All donations go towards financial aid for Walden’s programs.

RSVP now by email or call (415) 648-4710.
There are still a few prime seats left!

Can’t attend, but still want to make a gift? Click below.

Your gift of any size makes it possible for creative young people and music teachers to have the experience of a lifetime at Walden. Thank you!

Event Roundup and Preview: Spring 2011

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, April 10, 2011, to be exact, over 30 Walden and JCC alumni and friends gathered for the annual New York Alumni Composers Forum at Ann Goodman Recital Hall in the Lincoln Center neighborhood of Manhattan. Works by Alex Ness (Staff ’03, Faculty ’06-08), Evie Grainger (YMP ‘09-10), Michael Johanson (YMP ’79-86, Faculty ’89, ’93, ’95-96), and Steven Jon Kaplan (YMP ’74) were performed. Bassist Rebekah Griffin Greene (TTI ’10, Faculty ’99, ’01, ’10) and her trombonist husband Terry Greene performed their own improvisation. Other performers included baritone Jefferson Packer (TTI ’10; Administration ’10-present), violinist Jane Chung (Visiting Artist ’04, ’09-10), cellist Jane Cords O’Hara (Visiting Artist ’08, ’10), and guest pianist Solon Gordon. Forum moderators Marguerite Ladd and Michael Johanson engaged the composers, performers, and audience in lively discussion about the works being presented. Afterwards, a reception at the hall flowed into a group dinner around the corner at a local restaurant, where 14 of the participants continued the conversation well into the evening.

If you missed the New York Forum for reasons of timing or geography, you’ll have another chance to meet up with other Walden and JCC alumni at two upcoming performances by PRISM Saxophone Quartet (Visiting Ensemble ’93, ’94, ’99, ’05). On June 3 and 4 in New York and Philadelphia, the group will be performing a program of premieres, including “The Giving Tree,” a work by Cara Haxo (YMP ’04-09), most recent winner of the annual PRISM/Walden School Young Composer Commissioning Award. PRISM’s programs are electrifying – outstanding works performed brilliantly by committed performers.
Click here for details and for ticket information.

Read Walden’s 2010 Annual Report Online!

2010 was an outstanding year at Walden, thanks to our wonderful supporters. Click hereto see who contributed to The Walden School last year and what their giving accomplished. If you haven’t already made your 2011 donation to The Walden School, you can do so online by clicking below. Thank you!

Community News and Goods

The Walden School welcomes news and information from members of the Junior Conservatory Camp and Walden School communities to include in our print and online newsletters. News may be sent via mail or email. We will publish your contact information only if you specifically request that we do so. Please send info to alumni@waldenschool.org or The Walden School, 31A 29th St., San Francisco, CA 94110. We reserve the right to edit submissions and regret we cannot publish all information provided. For upcoming event listings, go to www.handoverhand.org.

Jim Altieri (Faculty ’02,’06-07, Teacher Training Institute ’06) recently collaborated with the band Pearl and the Beard on their new album, Killing the Darlings. He played violin several tracks, and composed a French horn quartet for a track that was performed by the acclaimed quartet Genghis Barbie. More information is available here. Jim also played accordion in Elevation Maps, a piece by Tristan Perich for five accordions and five channel one-bit audio, in a tour this month which includes several East Coast cities, as well as Santa Fe, New Mexico. After a mini-tour with Peter Evans (Guest Artist ’07-08)and Sam Pluta (Staff ’01-02, Faculty ’03-10), they’ve been getting lots of great feedback about “Sum and Difference”, their album of laptop / acoustic instrument duets. You can check the album out on Carrier Records’ website. Finally, he’s been at work with singer-songwriter Matt Singer on his new album, contributing accordion parts to several songs, and playing with his band live and on tape. See tweeg.net for more details.

Erica Ball (Young Musicians Program ’06-07) had a piece featured on a concert by the Arneis Quartet, along with a composer-audience discussion, at the public library in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Kate Ettinger’s (Young Musicians Program ’03-05) orchestra piece Caedo, Caedere (2011) was recently premiered at Oberlin by the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra. You can read more here.

Jane Lange (Young Musicians Program ’09-10)was named a recipient of 2011 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Award. The winning piece is Moments, which was composed last year at Walden. Read the article about her in the San Francisco Classical Voice.

Aurora Nealand (Faculty ’03-07, Visiting Artist ’09-10)is a featured artist on the HBO show Treme. Read more about the show here.

This has been a big month for Nat Osborn (Young Musicians Program ’00-03), who appeared multiple times with groups Hawthorne, Nat Osborn and the Diamond Allegory, and also accompanying Aimee Bayles, whose album he recently produced.

Alica Rabins’s (Young Musicians Program ’88-93) band Girls in Trouble has a new album, “HALF YOU HALF ME”, which will be released by Jdub Records on May 17 (and available at shows starting in April). The album features ten new songs and beautiful design by the band’s artist-musician-designer friend David Pokrivnak. A tour of California, the Southeast, the Northeast, and a big NYC show at Joe’s Pub on May 19th will follow. More information about that show is available here. Alicia also had some poems on the back cover of the March/April American Poetry Review.

A small but vibrant group of Los Angeles-based Waldenites got together this April, with alumni Alan Shewmon, (Junior Conservatory Camp ’63-60, Young Musicians Program ’72)Ted Masur (Teacher Training Institute ’04-07, Faculty ’08), Alan Chan (Teacher Training Institute ’04, ’06, Faculty ’10), Julian van Eyken (Teacher Training Institute ’08), and donor and designer Chris Maikish joining Seth Brenzel (Young Musicians Program ’85-90, Teacher Training Institute ’08, Staff ’94, ’96-97, Admin ’94-11) and Esther Landau (Teacher Training Institute ’08, Admin ’05-11).

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

The Walden School 2010 Young Musicians Program Festival Forums presented the world premieres of over 50 pieces, including Kaeli Mogg’s ROUGH, performed by Amelia Lukas, flute, Meighan Stoops, clarinet, Jake Tejada, trumpet, Steve Parker, trombone, and Nadia Sirota, viola.

(note: depending on your operating system, this link will either open your media player and play the track, or save the track to your computer)

by Matthew Klahorst (WP)

March 2011 eNews: InterNetzo

Message from the Executive Director
Walden Honored with National Music Education Award
Apply to Participate in a Walden Program (or two!)
Event Roundup and Preview: Spring 2011
Reflections on a Residency at the Dublin School
Community News and Goods
Opportunities & Organizations Listing
Now Hear This! Works by 2010 Walden Participants

Message from the Executive Director

Greetings from Walden’s year-round office here in San Francisco. There is much to report on about Walden: a new program, an award from the American Music Center, new board members, new staff, upcoming deadlines for applications to our programs, residencies and partnerships and more. I invite you to peruse all of the articles in this month’s InterNetzo, which is brimming with news and information about your favorite summer music festival, school and camp!

This year, we are piloting our first-ever Creative Musicians Retreat, designed for Walden and JCC alumni, parents, friends and interested adult musicians who want to have their own weeklong Walden experience. Directed by Caroline Mallonée, the program features faculty members Marshall Bessires, Leo Wanenchak, Loretta Notareschi and Sam Pluta. Activities will include daily chorus, classes in musicianship topics, computer music, music history and analysis and daily composition lessons for those who are interested. The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) will be in residence, along with composer Russell Pinkston. I hope you’ll consider joining us at what promises to be a fantastic week of the very best of Walden musicianship, community, composition and creativity on the campus of Smith College, June 11-19. And please tell your friends and colleagues.

Walden’s Young Musicians Program starts on June 25, and we have a wonderful roster of guest artists and residencies to tell you about (in April!). Our faculty and staff team is nearly complete, and there are only about 5 more places in our student body for this upcoming summer. I’ll look forward to previewing more about ‘camp’ in next month’s issue of InterNetzo. Our 2011 Teacher Training Institute, August 3-10 in Dublin, New Hampshire, is taking shape as well. Music educators from California, Texas, New Jersey and everywhere in between are making plans to join Walden’s teacher training faculty for a week of practical music pedagogy training. Participants will be able to learn proven methods for developing the creative voices of their own students, enjoy a weeklong retreat with other like-minded music teachers and develop their own musicianship skills in computer music, improvisation, ear training, solfege, choral singing, rhythms, theory and composition.

Marshall Bessières, a long time Young Musicians Program faculty member, is currently in residence at the Dublin School, assisting Jessica Harrison (Teacher Training Institute alumna from 2009-2010) in presenting classes in creative work from the musicianship course, as well as two sections of computer musicianship. This residency follows on Bill Stevens’ successful residency in the spring of 2010, about which you can read separately in this month’s newsletter.

In October 2010, Walden welcomed Jefferson Packer to the team as Walden’s Director of Administration. Jefferson keeps the office running smoothly, handles marketing and outreach tasks, and manages Walden’s finances. He is a Teacher Training Institute alumnus from August 2010, a pianist and singer, holds degrees from Harvard University and San Francisco State University, speaks 5 languages (or is it 6?), and comes to us most recently from the San Francisco Symphony, where he was the Manager of the acclaimed San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. We’re fortunate to have his expertise and energy devoted to Walden. To learn more about Walden’s administrative staff, please visit: http://www.waldenschool.org/about/staff.shtml.

In July 2010, we bid farewell to two outgoing members of Walden’s Board of Directors: Leo Wanenchak and Rita Mitra. They both contributed so much to the furthering of Walden’s mission and the work of the board during their tenures. We are grateful for their terrific service, and of course, we look forward to their continued involvement in the School. We also welcomed four new directors to the board in July: Chad Shampine of New York City; Robin Kenney of Peterborough, NH; James Athey of Washington, DC; and Anne Haxo of Haydenville, Massachusetts. To learn more about Walden’s board of directors, visit the board page on Walden’s website: http://www.waldenschool.org/about/board.shtml. We are excited about what each of them brings to the work of the Board of Directors and thank them for already jumping in and making wonderful contributions to Walden.

There is a lot happening at Walden as we prepare for our 39th season. Each of our programs offers something special for our participants – whether they are creative music educators, young musicians interested in composition and improvisation, or now, adult musicians seeking a creative Walden experience. I hope you, your family and your colleagues will join us in beautiful New England this summer.

Seth Brenzel
Director, Young Musicians Program
Executive Director
sbrenzel@waldenschool.org

Walden Honored with National Music Education Award

The Walden School will receive the 2011 New Music Educators Award from the American Music Center on May 2, 2011, at an awards ceremony in New York City.

The Walden School is the recipient of our New Music Educator Award, honoring their creative philosophy and curriculum, as well as their contribution toward motivating and mentoring decades of successful students.”
– Joanne Hubbard Cossa, President and CEO of the
American Music Center

Apply to Participate in a Walden Program (or two!)

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Event Roundup and Preview: Spring 2011

The Walden School/Junior Conservatory Camp community loves to get together. We love to gather in support of Walden’s programs, to celebrate our successes, to sing, to share new music and conversation together. And we love to simply get together to enjoy our friendships.

In early October, more than 100 friends of Walden gathered at Birdland on a crisp New York evening to hear three alumni of Walden’s programs: vocalist Hilary Kole, pianist Bill Stevens and drummer Eric Mrozkowski. The musical synergy between the three was astounding, supported by the very able bass playing of Gray Hackelman. The atmosphere was festive and the conversation engaging, and the event raised more than $10,000 for Walden’s financial aid programs. Attendees included numerous East Coast board members, alumni and family and friends. Check out the photos here!

In mid-October, 75 friends joined us at the Getty mansion in San Francisco in celebration of Walden’s generous supporters. In this glorious setting, we were treated to an outstanding performance by legendary pianist and member of Walden’s Advisory Council, Leon Fleisher, and the award-winning Cypress String Quartet. The program included solo piano and chamber works by our host, Gordon Getty, as well as Debussy, Korngold, Jenő Takács, and Brahms’ arrangement of the Bach Chaconne for the left hand. Attendees included our local supporters and board members from near and far.

Alumni also had numerous opportunities to get together in December, with holiday potlucks in New York, Baltimore, and San Francisco. In Baltimore, Ellen, Ed and Meade Bernard hosted a party with two dozen guests. Mid-way through the party, the house received a Skype call from the Walden office in San Francisco, so Esther and Seth got to say hello to guests, including Tom Hecht who was in town from Singapore. Seth also Skyped into the party in New York, where Walden faculty member and TTI alumnus Marshall Bessières cheerfully hosted nearly 20 people into his apartment. And in San Francisco, Walden’s Development Director Esther Landau and her wife Caroline Pincus welcomed 30 guests into their home. There was much singing, including a group reading of Carrie Mallonee’s newly published choral work, Dona Nobis Pacem.

More new works were shared and discussed when alumni gathered at Composers Forums in Baltimore and San Francisco. All told, these programs featured dozens of performers presenting new music by 19 alumni of the Junior Conservatory Camp and Walden’s Young Musicians Program and Teacher Training Institute. Music ran the gamut from both traditional and improvisational choral settings and piano solos to jazz and chamber rock. Noah Mlotek and D.J. Sparr co-moderated in Baltimore, and our San Francisco moderators were Cody Wright and Alex Christie. Both Forums were followed immediately by mini-reunions at local restaurants.

Want to join us at an event this spring or summer? Here’s a brief list of what’s coming up:

• Alumni Composers Forum on April 10 in New York

• Fundraisers on May 1 in Baltimore, May 15 in San Francisco, and July 30 in Dublin

• The premieres of alumna Cara Haxo’s new work for PRISM Saxophone Quartet on June 3rd and 4th in New York and Philadelphia, respectively.

And, for those of you wanting a deeper immersion in the Walden community than a single event can provide, consider attending one of Walden’s three Walden’s three programs this summer – now there’s something for everyone at Walden!

Reflections on a Residency at the Dublin School

By Bill Stevens

When I first caught wind of the proposed initiative for a member of Walden’s faculty to be in residence during the year at the Dublin School (our campus hosts for the last several decades), I only had to think about it for a few seconds before piping up and saying “I’ll do it.” And so it happened that last spring I spent a month at the Dublin School, teaching two musicianship classes, offering some private lessons, mentoring and collaborating with Dublin’s music teacher Jess Harrison, and giving a concert with my jazz trio. I was drawn by the chance to deepen the relationship between our two programs, not just academically and artistically, but personally as well. I was first a Walden student in 1992; 2010 was my fourteenth on that campus. Some members of the Dublin community have been around all of those summers, and yet beyond knowing each others names and saying a casual hello, we’ve had few moments of meaningful contact. For me, these relationships have transformed, having had the chance to sit together over dinner day in and day out, to share stories and laughter, and to partner in building a community in which a group of students can grow and flourish. I enjoyed learning that Andy likes to kid, Jan loves to kvetch, and Brad throws a killer curveball. (I volunteered my services as umpire during a pick-up softball game, which, for those who don’t know me personally, is amusing because I really am blind.)

Arriving in Dublin in mid-April 2010, I was struck by all the ways in which it felt much like being back at Walden. The smells in particular were poignantly nostalgic for me: the crisp mountain air, the characteristic floor polish in the schoolhouse (which used to be the library), and the tomato soup and veggie Reubens in the lunch buffet. The touch and articulation of the recital hall piano, now soft, now biting, took me back to the composer’s forum when I was fourteen and sharing my music at Walden for the first time. It was a bit colder, true, even snowy at times; but though there were no blessings before meals or singing in the evenings, though breakfast began at 7:00 instead of 7:45 and there was no rest hour in the schedule (I did snag a few unofficial rest hours on general principle), there were still small classes ripe with humor, teachers who obviously care about their students, and even a few student / faculty pranks, such as the recurring disappearance of the Maypole in advance of May Fair, much to Jan’s distress and the clandestine glee of the freshman class. I was surprised and delighted by how quickly I felt at home.

And of course, I was drawn by the chance to teach musicianship outside of the immediate Walden environment, which I found to be unexpectedly tricky, without pianos tucked away in every available nook and when students aren’t eating, breathing, and dreaming music, creativity, solfege, and the overtone series every hour of the day. Even so, it was fun for me to experience that the discover-drill-create process really does hold up, regardless of the trappings of the teaching situation, gently guiding a class to that tipping point when a creative activity becomes more than just an exercise and something of heart comes to the surface, right there in the middle of the school day. For my E block class, we found this with group improvisations with perfect fourths, focusing on a particular mood, having a conductor cuing intensity, or following the contours of a narrated story. I continue to be amazed at what emerges from young people when provided with adequate space, intention, and care.

The golden section of the residency for me was doing a concert with my jazz trio. Weldon Kollock, trombone, and Chip Newton, guitar, traveled up from North Carolina for a few days to join me for a show of blues, bebop, bossanova, and The Beatles. These are some of my favorite musicians to play with. We all agree that it is most rewarding to play for an audience that is present and engaged, and this surely was that; as Jess put it after, “I’ve never seen this community so energized on a Friday evening before!” (These kids have a highly structured schedule during the week, so having any attention left to give come week’s end is a pretty thorough compliment). Weldon joined me on campus again for another show last summer, as part of Walden’s 2010 concert series (July 11, 2010), along with TTI alumnus Eric Mrozkowski on drums, YMP faculty member Tony Makarome on bass, and my very own brother, Mike Stevens, on paint brushes. (Jazz with live painting; check it out!)

It was a good month. As Brad Bates, Dublin School’s Headmaster and a driving force in bringing this residency into being, put it, “Your visit far exceeded my expectations for what could be accomplished during this first year of collaboration between our two schools.” I know that Seth and I are similarly thrilled with how the experiment turned out. I think we’re all looking forward to further partnership in the years to come.

I have a collection of journals, discussing the residency in greater detail, up on my website, along with sound files from our April 30th concert in Dublin: please feel free to peruse these at your leisure.

Community News and Goods

The Walden School welcomes news and information from members of the Junior Conservatory Camp and Walden School communities to include in our print and online newsletters. News may be sent via mail or email. We will publish your contact information only if you specifically request that we do so. Please send info to alumni@waldenschool.org or The Walden School, 31A 29th St., San Francisco, CA 94110. We reserve the right to edit submissions and regret we cannot publish all information provided. For upcoming event listings, go to www.handoverhand.org.

The first issue of a new online journal, SCOPE, featured a great article on the life and music of Elizabeth Rhudy Austin. (JCC ’52-56) You can read the entire issue here, by clicking the image of the magazine’s cover, and the article about Elizabeth, ‘Composer in waiting’, starts on page 22. Austin was also included in a new book – Women of Influence in Contemporary Music: Nine American Composers, edited by Michael Slayton, which was just released by Scarecrow Press.

Erica Ball (YMP ’06-07) has a new website, www.ericajball.com, featuring upcoming concert listings, audio samples of recent works, and links to fellow musicians and composers.

Nathaniel Baron-Schmitt (YMP ’05-07) is a freshman at Cornell and according to his parents, “is enjoying it immensely.”

Gabriel Bolkosky (Visiting Artist ’01-03) reports that his website, www.gabrielbolkosky.com, has entered the 21st century, and now you can download individual tracks from his CDs, or an entire album. Make sure to check out the Star Wars cloned wedding music!

Sophie Coran (YMP ’00-05) is in Copenhagen at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. She reported early on that she was intimidated by the feeling of being an outsider living in a strange country, but loved the school itself, and said the experience, while scary, is a fun, exciting adventure.

Shawn Crouch (YMP’93-5,’96, TTI ’08, Staff ’97, Faculty ’99-00,’02,’05-07) and the Miami Choral Academy (MCA) were featured in an article in BMI’s online magazine MusicWorld. Shawn is the founding director of MCA, a tuition-free afterschool program that creates a little league-type network of choral ensembles for children from underserved communities of Miami-Dade. In just over a week, 200 students rehearsing at four elementary schools explored vocal music, rehearsed for performances, and worked with interns who connected classroom academics (reading, writing, math) and music. You can follow them on their blog and media page on their website. ShawnCrouchMusic.com has information about upcoming performances of his music this year, including a performance of his work “My Metropolitan Sky” this month by the Maryland All-State Wind Ensemble.

Marilyn Crispell (JCC ’60-64) performed several concerts at Sons d’Hiver in Paris in January, one with Joelle Leandre’s Stone Quartet, and the other a solo concert.

A new face has joined the Del Sol String Quartet (Visiting Artists ’06): Kathryn Bates Williams has taken over for Hannah Addario-Berry as cellist of the Quartet. SHADES, Del Sol’s Fall 2010 Home Season series, included four world premieres of commissioned works by Joan Jeanrenaud, Amy X. Neuburg, Ronald Bruce Smith, and Daniel Ward, as well as Osvaldo Golijov’s “Tenebrae.” Composing Together, Del Sol’s semester-long, public school composing program in collaboration with local composer/educator Katrina Wreede, involves groups of middle and high school students in the hands-on process of composing their own music, which Del Sol “workshops” with the kids and then performs and records in a final concert for the whole school.

Carol Thomas Downing (Faculty ’82-86, ’88-94, Visiting Artist ‘05) writes: “I had the privilege of conducting a very special Virginia Children’s Chorus performance marking the choir’s first appearance for national TV, filmed this past December, 2010. LifeTime TV is preparing a series of episodes to honor deployed United States military persons, and staging surprise reunions with their loved ones. The producers recently asked our Virginia Children’s Chorus to be part of one of their major feature episodes in this series. Our story involves the staging of a “dream wedding” at the Chrysler Museum for a young couple who had a very simple ceremony to be married prior to the bride’s deployment. The Concert Choir and girls from the Chamber Singers provided all of the music for the episode.

As the bride walked down the aisle to her groom, the choir sang Franck’s “Panis Angelicus”, and the sound was absolutely ethereal as it resonated throughout the space. Possibly even more lovely was Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” at the recessional. Many of the Lifetime TV staff remarked at how astonishingly beautiful the children sounded, and at their highly professional demeanor as they stood on the stairs of Huber Court for about four hours of filming. The wedding, though VERY long, went beautifully. Our singers sounded fabulous – like angels. They were gems – every one of them was SO patient and professional. A lot of stop-start, standing & waiting, then in the middle of a glorious phrase, “CUT” etc… What troopers!!!” The episode, titled “A Proper Wedding”, will air Sunday, April 3, 2011 at 10:00pm and three other times that week on the Lifetime channel.

On November 5th, Friends of Rain, Lewis & Clark’s new music ensemble, presented Renée Favand-See’s (YMP ’85,’87-90, TTI ’08, Faculty ’93-97,’99,’05-07 ) song cycle “Lonesome Songs” for soprano and piano. The program also featured music by Michael Johanson (YMP ’79-86, TTI ’06, Faculty ’89, ’93, ’95-96), along with music by Lou Harrison and Peter Schickele.

The second and third movements of the “Mythology” Symphony by Stacy Garrop (YMP ’87-88, Faculty ’96) were premiered by the Albany Symphony in May 2010, with David Alan Miller, conductor. You can listen to the performances here. She also has a new CD, produced by Cedille Records. It consists of three recent chamber works: “Silver Dagger” for piano trio, based on three versions of an Appalachian folk song about star-crossed lovers; “In Eleanor’s Words” for mezzo-soprano and piano, which features texts written by American stateswoman and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt from her My Daysyndicated newspaper column; and String Quartet No. 3: “Gaia”, which explores concepts of the mythical Greek goddess of the earth as well as of our modern day planet. The CD features strong performances by the Lincoln Trio, Biava Quartet, mezzo-soprano Buffy Baggott, and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang. You can listen to samples at Cedille Records, and find more information about the music on the CD here.

Jennifer Higdon (Visiting Composer ’99) was recently featured in an article in the SF Classical Voice, and violinist Hilary Hahn’s recent recording of Higdon’s violin concerto was reviewed in the same publication.

Caroline Mallonée’s (YMP ’88-92, TTI ’07, Faculty ’96,’98-00,’02-09, Admin ‘11) Dona Nobis Pacem, a piece for a cappella choir written in 2003 in response to the US invasion of Afghanistan, is now available from Boosey & Hawkes! You can listen to a performance by the Duke University Chorale, conducted by Rodney Wynkoop, here. For more information about Caroline Mallonée, visit www.carolinemallonee.com.

Ned McGowan (Visiting Artist ’01-04,’10) wrote a new piece, “Solar Neon”, for the debut concert of a new music ensemble which includes the famous 31-tone organ. For the entire month of December and part of January he was in Ahmedabad, India for a production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with singers, musicians and dancers from Europe and India. The premiere took place in Ahmedabad and performances followed in Pondecherry and Chennai. The production will come to the Netherlands in October 2011 with performances in the Schouwbergen in Den Haag, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. You can read more about it and follow its development here.

Ned’s work for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, entitled Radiance, was premiered last July. The 40- minute work places the ensemble around the bowed piano; you can see some moments from it here, and read a review in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. In May, 2011, Hexnut (Visiting Artist Ensemble ’10) will premiere a new project in collaboration with photographer Edward Burtynsky.

Mackenzie Melemed (YMP ’06-07) was selected as a finalist in the Youtube Symphony Orchestra! He was one of a few pianists chosen by judges from the London Symphony, the Berlin Philarmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony.

Gary Monheit’s (JCC ’72, Faculty ’75-78,’80,’97, Board of Directors ’99-00) jazz group Fortune Smiles appeared at Yoshi’s jazz club in Oakland in February, celebrating the release of their new self-titled CD. You read more about Fortune Smiles and purchase a copy of their CD here.

Nat Osborn (YMP ’00-03) has kept busy with two bands, Nat Osborn and the Diamond Allegory and Hawthorne, with numerous shows up and down the east coast. He produced a 5-song EP for Aimee Bayles, and Lucy York Struever presented a program of work using his compositions for her company York Dance Works, including a brand new 10-minute work and a piece they put together a number of months ago. You can listen to it here; the piece is called “Burro Buracho Bolero.”

Sam Pluta’s (Staff ’01-02, Faculty ’03-10) record label Carrier Records is proud to announce the release of Yarn/Wire’s debut album, “Tone Builders.” Beautifully recorded at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at RPI, Tone Builders features commissioned works for two pianos and two percussion by Alex Mincek, Aaron Einbond, Kate Soper, Eric Wubbels, David Franzson, Sam Pluta, and Mei-Fang Lin. Visit http://www.carrierrecords.com to check out the album.

The PRISM Quartet (Visiting Artists ‘05) was featured at Chamber Music America’s 2011 National Conference. Their annual performance of a work by a Walden-commissioned composer will feature the premiere of “Giving Tree” by Cara Haxo (YMP’04-09) and will take place in New York and Philadelphia over the June 4-5 weekend. Go to http://www.prismquartet.com for more information.

Alicia Rabins (YMP ’88-83) played three shows in February, performing as a soloist with four string players, with a power trio version of her band Girls in Trouble, and finally with the Girls in Trouble quartet at the GenNext Interfaith Conference, playing a short set after a short set after a panel discussion by young Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders. You can read more about the latter event here, and listen to Girls in Trouble here.

At the Chamber Music America Conference in January, Nadia Sirota, (Visiting Artist ’10)new-music broadcaster and violist of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, along with her brother, Jonah Sirota, violist of the Chiara Quartet, and her father, composer Robert Sirota, president of the Manhattan School of Music, joined Grammy-winning bassist/composer/conductor John Clayton, former artistic director for jazz for the LA Philharmonic and his son, pianist Gerald Clayton of the Gerald Clayton Trio, for a panel discussion about tradition and innovation.

D. J. Sparr (YMP ’91, Faculty ’09-10) was featured in this article on the ALIAS chamber ensemble website. He has also been appointed resident composer at the California Symphony, based in Walnut Creek, California.

New Music Box featured a great interview with composer Christopher Theofanidis(Composer in Residence ’08).

John Weaver’s (JCC Faculty ’51-68, Visiting Composer ’97, Advisory Council ’02-11) student Paul Jacobs won the Grammy in the category Best Instrumental Solo Performance (without orchestra) for his album Messiaen: Livre Du Saint-Sacrement.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen (Visiting Artist ’10) played a host of concerts this winter in London, Oxford and Brighton, including performances of Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra and European Doctors Orchestra, a program of Mozart, Ives and Ravel with pianist Tim Horton at Holywell Music Room, the oldest custom-built concert hall in Europe, Delius’ Concerto for Violin and Cello with cellist Gemma Rosefield and the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra at the Brighton Dome, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio with pianist Tom Poster and cellist Gemma Rosefield at St Paul’s Covent Garden, and Richard Causton’s Fantasia and Air, Bartok’s Violin Sonata, and Bach’s Chaconne at Wigmore Hall.

An essay by Larry Wetzler (JCC ’62-63) entitled “The Music of Unthinkable Anxiety and Nameless Dread” was published in a book called Music and Psyche: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Explorations. You can learn more and purchase the book here.

Transitions

Major Life Events in the Walden/JCC Family

Stacey and Kevin Cronin (YMP ’78-82) have a new baby, Olivia Quinn Cronin, who was born on October 20.

Nathan Davis (Visiting Artist ’01-07,’09-10) married Sylvia Davis in August 2010.

Stephen Flynn (Young Musicians Program ’01-04) married Emily Alinder this summer, with Daniel Cadieux (Young Musicians Program ’03-04)as best man, and Noah Mlotek(Young Musicians Program ’03-04, Teacher Training Institute ’09, Staff ’08-09) as a groomsman.

Jean Eichelberger Ivey, former Walden festival week moderator, passed away on May 2, 2010.

Jennifer and Brooke Joyce (Faculty ’00-10) are happy to announce the birth of Keegan Patrick Joyce on Sunday, October 24 at 9:19 pm.

Eliza Brown‘s (YMP ’00-02, TTI ’07, ’10) and Chris Wild’s (TTI ’10) wedding was in June 2010. Other Waldenites present included Pat Plude, Marshall Bessières, Seth Brenzel, Malcolm Gaines, and Sophie Huet.

Caroline Mallonée‘s (YMP ’88-92, TTI ’07, Faculty ’96,’98-00,’02-09, Admin ‘11) and Eric Heubner’s (Visiting Artist ’04-08) wedding was in June 2010. Carrie and Eric met at Walden during the summer of 2004, and Eric proposed to Carrie years later on the dock of Dublin Lake! You can read a New York Times article about the wedding here. Other Waldenites present included Amelia Lukas, Nicholas DeMaison, Aurora Nealand, Seth Brenzel, Malcolm Gaines, Jim Altieri, Whit Bernard, Marshall Bessières, Molly Pindell, Georgann Nedwell, Sam Pluta and Alexander Ness.

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

(note: depending on your operating system, this link will either open your media player and play the track, or save the track to your computer)

by Matthew Klahorst (WP)

Newsletters

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ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE

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Applications Still Being Accepted For This Summer’s Programs

Walden’s Music-a-thon: Pow! Blam!

Calling all alumni of The Walden School & Junior Conservatory Camp!

Walden Alumnus to Premiere Work at Upcoming PRISM Concerts

Walden Announces its 2012 Concert Series

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Walden/JCC Reunion

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Music-A-Thon: A Creative Musicianship Marathon to Support The Walden School

May 15 through June 15, 2012

Announcing the 2012 Creative Musicians Retreat (CMR)

Walden Seeks Nurse for its Young Musicians Program (YMP)

Upcoming April 6 Deadline for Young Musicians Program (YMP) Applications

Walden Faculty Appear in Pre-concert Event at San Francisco Symphony

Walden Honored at CMA/ASCAP Award Ceremony

Walden/JCC Alumni Composers Forums in New York and San Francisco This Spring

Alumni – We Need Your Input!

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Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

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Message from the Executive Director

waldenschool.org: Gateway to News and Features

Walden Receives Prestigious Award from CMA/ASCAP

Now’s the Time to Apply for the 2012 Young Musicans Program

Walden Events to Warm the Heart and Spirit

Interested in Working at Walden’s Young Musicians Program in 2012?

Give to Walden Without Even Trying!

By Marguerite Ladd

Acoustics: Music’s Empty Reason

By Alex Ness (YMP Faculty ’05-07; YMP Staff ’03)

Community News and Goods

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Opportunities & Organizations Listing

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

Table of Contents

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Hilary Kole and Friends at Birdland

Creative Musicians Retreat a great success

by Caroline Mallonée

Lexington Symphony/Walden School Commission

Event review: Jazz in New Hampshire, and our on-line auction

Help Students Take a Bite Out of Music – Make Your Donation to Walden!

Start the school year off with Walden merchandise

Community News and Goods

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

Table of Contents

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Walden Receives Grant from National Endowment for the Arts

Lexington Symphony/Walden School Commission Opportunity for Alumni

Concert Series Preview

Walden’s Online Auction is starting soon!

Walden goes to Smith: Creative Musicians Retreat Preview

Events roundup

Walden receives New Music Educator Award from the American Music Center

Community News and Goods

Transitions

Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

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Walden Honored with National Music Education Award

Apply to Participate in a Walden Program (or two!)

Join jazz luminary Cyrus Chestnut and help support Walden

Event Roundup and Preview: Spring 2011

Read Walden’s 2010 Annual Report Online!

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Now Hear This! Works by 2011 Walden Participants

Upcoming Events: Walden/JCC Reunion,
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Inspiring
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