The Miró String Quartet in Residence at Kent State Kent State University (KSU) has named members of the Miró Quartet full-time faculty artists-in-residence at its Hugh A. Glauser School of Music. KSU President Dr. Carol Cartwright compared the import of the ensemble's residency in the April issue of Northern Ohio Live magazine to that of "a major scientist joining our faculty." As part of the residency, the quartet will spend part of its summers in residence at an annual summer chamber music festival presented by KSU at Blossom Music Center in cooperation with The Cleveland Orchestra. The Miró, made up of violinists Daniel Ching '95 and Sandy Yamamoto, violist John Largess, and cellist Joshua Gindele '97, presented their Naumburg concert in March at Alice Tully Hall. Also on the program was the world premiere of a commissioned work by David Schober '97, his String Quartet. Onward and Upward with eighth blackbird In Chicago, as ensemble-in-residence at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, eighth blackbird members – Molly Alicia Barth '97, Michael J. Maccaferri '95, Matthew Albert ‘96, Nicholas Photinos '96, Matthew L. Duvall '95, and Lisa Kaplan '96 – have feathered their new nest with another ASCAP/CMA Award for Adventurous Programming. The ensemble that The New Yorker calls "fiendishly good" is represented by ICM Artists, Ltd. and offered two world premieres: Paul Moravec's The Time Gallery and Frederic Rzewski's Pocket Symphony in April at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1950s After a 20-year hiatus during which his children grew up, Aldo Mancinelli '52 resumed his career as a pianist last year, playing festivals in the Czech Republic and France. Besides scheduled repeat performances in those countries in July 2001, he expects to appear in Italy this season. He will also offer performances in Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and California. His recently released all-Beethoven CD contains the 4th piano concerto, recorded in Prague with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, as well as Sonata in E-flat Major, op. 31, no. 3. He was appointed distinguished visiting artist at McMurry University in Texas for the coming school year. He is, he reports, "Enjoying his ‘retirement!'" In January, Jeremy Rosen performed four piano compositions – three waltzes and a ballade – by Robert Kreis '58 at New York City's Third Street Music School Settlement. Robert's Quintet for Brass was performed last November at a benefit concert for the 13th Street Repertory Company, also in New York. Robert directed a musical, Eating Raoul, which ran this spring at the Comedy Club of New York. 1960s Browning Cramer '65 has played in the first violin section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for the past 21 years and is an Artist Member of the Bronx Arts Ensemble, with whom he performed a Brahms clarinet quintet last October. He found time to moonlight this past year, performing with the Chamber Soloists of Austin, Texas, in a February program that included the Dvorák Terzetto and a flute quintet by the 19th-century German composer Bernhard Molique. Browning's wife, Alicia Edelberg, who is associate concertmaster of the New York City Opera, also performed. New Yorker Joseph Stoddart '67 reports that he would be happy to say hello to any Obie dropping in for performances at Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall – he is an habitué of both. He is also available to help out-of-towners secure tickets to sold-out events at either venue. "I know my way around the box offices pretty well," he says, "and I can point you to a restaurant where you won't get fleeced before the opera!" Savvy travelers can call him at 212-875-8528 or send e-mail to ajosephstoddart@webtv.net. Last fall, Edna Breinig Chun '68 was appointed vice president for human resources at Kent State University (KSU), where she oversees operations at the school's eight campuses. She holds a master of arts degree in Chinese literature from Columbia University and master and doctoral degrees in music from Indiana University; at Oberlin she majored in music with a piano performance emphasis. Before joining KSU she was associate vice president for human resources at Portland State University in Oregon. She also served as director of human resources at California Polytechnic State University and was chair of the California State University Human Resources Directors Council. A tornado warning issued for Alliance, Ohio on September 20 did not dissuade people from attending a concert by Jody Wise '68 at Mount Union College – Presser Recital Hall was filled nearly to capacity. The concert, one of 21 Jody presented on a three-month tour, "Millennium Mosaic: A Celebration of American Piano Music," showcased American composers from the 1890s through the 1990s, among them Samuel Barber, Amy Cheney Beach, Paul Bowles, Derwin Holder, and Andras Szentkiralyi '64. "Andras and I had the luxury of working a full day together on his Sonata no. 2 for Piano, sharing ideas and insights," Wise reports. "His is a significant and substantive work, and it was very gratifying that it was so well received." Highlights from the program will be presented on public radio stations in Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Wisconsin. The tour gave Jody the opportunity to meet with several Oberlin grads and friends along the way. 1970s Several Obies celebrated the true millennium at the annual Winter Sun Music Festival at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, December 31, 2000 through January 4, 2001. After chamber music and solo performances by guest artists, the festival culminated in an orchestra concert featuring William Thomas '72 as conductor and violinist Paul Goldsberry '72 as concertmaster. The Afro-American Symphony by William Grant Still, who attended the Conservatory from 1916 until 1919 and received an honorary doctorate in music in 1947, was featured. Others at the festival were violinist Eric Nordstrom '96, pianist Dragana Bajalovic '71, and violist Anthony Gilbert, a senior. Organist Christa Rakich '74 has been appointed music director of the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Boston's Jesuit Urban Center. Besides her liturgical responsibilities, she directs the center's concert series, which features the center's renowned 1863 Elias and George Greenleaf Hook pipe organ. At the American Guild of Organists 2000 National Convention Rakich performed Franck's A-major Fantaisie, Hindemith's First Sonata, Bach's Clavierübung III, and Pamela Decker's Rio abajo rio on the 1965 D. A. Flentrop organ at Seattle's St. Mark's Cathedral. Christa has also been appointed adjunct associate professor of organ and harpsichord at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. EMA record-label president Jeremiah Murphy '79 released his second CD, Another Perspective, last July. Co-produced on the EMA label by Murphy and Terrence Richburg, it features vocal and piano performances of Murphy's gospel-music compositions. The CD is available at amazon.com. Daryl Davis '79 was among those in attendance at the release concert. 1980s The second solo CD by Carolyn Hove '80, Ascending to Superlatives, released in October 2000 by Crystal Records, is a collection of chamber works for English horn in combination with various instruments. It features music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Paul Turok, Gerhard Samuel, Alan Hovhaness, and William Kraft. Kraft's Encounters XI: The Demise of Suriyodhay was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and written expressly for and premiered by Carolyn (the orchestra's solo English horn player since 1988) and Raynor Carroll, its principal percussionist. Samuel's Lyric Scene (for English horn, two violins, and cello), was also written for Carolyn, who is joined in the work by her colleagues in the orchestra. A faculty member at California State University at Long Beach, Carolyn has been a champion of new music since her days with Ralph Shapey and the Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago. Frederick Haas '83, is living in Philadelphia with his partner of five years, Daniel Meyer, a physician, in a renovated Victorian rowhouse that was featured in the March 2000 issue of Architectural Digest. One of Frederick's favorite activities is playing four-hand, two-piano repertoire in the music room where sopranos Claudia Gunnar Carlsson '77 and Lisa Snyder '81 are often featured. Frederick is chair of the organ committee for the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia's newest arts complex. Katja Linfield '87 married Michael Rice in August 2000 on a flower farm in Stillwater, Minnesota. Bridesmaids were Elizabeth Simkin '88 and Jennifer Ries '87. Katja's piano trio, the Bakken Trio, received a McKnight Foundation grant in 2000, and, in conjunction with Minneapolis composer Anthony Gatto, received a Meet the Composer commissioning grant for a new piano trio to premiere in 2001. For more information, please visit www.bakkentrio.org. In February Ariane Sletner '88 performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, op. 35, with the Upper Arlington Symphony (Ohio). She also presented the Tchaikovsky as soloist with the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia in 2000 where she will again be featured soloist in 2001 performing the Brahms Violin Concerto, op. 77. Double-bassist Anders Dahlberg '89 is the interim executive director of the Fontana Music Society, a Kalamazoo, Michigan not-for-profit that organizes and presents chamber and jazz concerts. He also manages the Bullock Performance Institute at Western Michigan University, plays in the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and is finishing his doctoral studies at Michigan State University. 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