Cali School Faculty News

In the past few months, Cali School faculty have been active internationally as performers, composers, teachers and researchers.

In summer 2018, clarinetist Benjamin Baron played the Summerscape Opera and Bard Music Festival with the American Symphony Orchestra. He also played the American Symphony Orchestra’s fall concert at Carnegie Hall. He performed with the Broadway shows My Fair Lady, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera. New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Quintet of the Americas with the Jackson Height Orchestra, and The Nutcracker with the Harrisburg (PA) Symphony.

Soprano Karen Driscoll returned to Worcester (MA) Chorus to perform as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Choral Fantasia. She also presented in recital, her one women opera project, Before Breakfast by Tom Pasatieri at the Cali School. Cali School vocal coach LeAnn Overton accompanied the performance.

Collaborative pianist Dmitri Korneev’s composition Arabesque for flute and piano won Second Prize at the Prokofiev’s Russian National Composers Competition.

Jan Prokop was recently appointed Associate Music Theater Voice Coordinator at Montclair State University; a Master Teacher in the NATS Intern Program at the University of Colorado (Boulder), June 2018; Body Mapping instructor for RespiroOperaNYC©, June 2018; voice teacher at Broadway for All, July 2018; writing Body Mapping chapter for the NATS publication of So You Want To Sing With Physical Awareness.

Marissa Silverman published an article in the Journal of Music Teacher Education titled “Popular Music Pedagogies: An Approach to Teaching 21st-Century Skills.” Her presentations and workshops included: State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education: SEADAE Annual Conference; New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Annual Conference; Ball State University (IN); Western University (Ontario, CA); University of Saskatchewan. She published Gregory Haimovsky: A Pianist’s Odyssey to Freedom as part of the Eastman Music Studies, and with David Elliott, the 2nd edition of Music Matters: A Philosophy of Music Education, translated for the Chinese audience. She served as interim board chair from September 2018-present on the Board of Directors, Crossing Point Arts: Bringing the Arts to Survivors of Human Trafficking.

In July, Wendy Stern was guest tutor and presented “Work and Play: Creating a Playground for Deep Practice” at the Australian National Teachers Conference, Melbourne Australia. She was a guest clinician at Bay Area Fall Flute Workshop, San Francisco (CA), gave premiere performance of Daniel Dorff’s Spirit of the Hudson Sonata for Bass Flute and Piano at the New Jersey Flute Fair, and was a recitalist and guest clinician at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City. She also gave the premiere performance of Russell Scarbrough’s Flute Quartet at Mud-Atlantic Flute Fair, Weston (VA).

Sasha Enegren performed concerts with Savannah Philharmonic, gave the world premiere of Raphael Fusco’s Four Sacred Songs (St. Michael’s Church, NYC), presented recitals and masterclasses in Iowa and Minnesota, including a performance of French horn professor Jeff Scott’s composition Elegy for Innocence. In November she toured and taught masterclasses and lessons in Havana, Cuba with Quintet of the Americas. Performances in the tri-state area include concerts at Carnegie Hall, performed Concerto for wind quintet and orchestra in Queens with Quintet of the Americas. With a NEA grant she gave world premiere of Lev Zhurbin’s For the Sparrows, a collaborative performance with Queens elementary schools PS 69 and PS 149.

Patrick Burns recently conducted the Marywood University Wind Symphony and the PMEA District 5 Band in performances around Pennsylvania.

Gregg Rossetti presented a chapter from his dissertation in the game studies track at GameSoundCon, in Los Angeles (CA). The talk was on how musical tropes in early console-based role-playing video games are used to establish a cultural and political identity of their respective imaginary worlds.

Collaborative pianist Soyeon Kim served on Ferro Vocal Program faculty in Chianti, Italy last summer. Her performances in New York City include Seoul in NYC, a concert hosted by the Seoul National University Alumni Association, and the Armistice Day Concert: Music of the World War I Era, hosted by the New York Flute Club.