UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ESTABLISHED 1957 | RENOVATED 2015
REOPENING CELEBRATION SERIES
SPRING 2015
The University of Kansas School of Music would like to acknowledge the following for their unwavering support and advocacy in helping us share our music with the world: Funding for the concert series is provided by Reach Out Kansas, Inc., The Law Offices of Smithyman & Zakoura, and The Zakoura Family Fund, a Fund of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.
Reach Out Kansas, Inc.
The concert series is the kick-off event for the University of Kansas sesquicentennial (KU150).
Dear Friends: Welcome to the all-new Swarthout Recital Hall! What has been a dream for so many, for so
long, is now a reality. This hallowed space, which has served the KU musical community for more than a half century, has been modernized and is now ready for the next 50 years. With
superior acoustics and the visual appeal for experiencing great music making, the University of Kansas can once again stake claim to the finest recital hall in the Heartland of America.
So many individuals, many of whom are acknowledged in this commemorative
booklet, are responsible for helping make this $2.5 million dream a reality. We are so very grateful to them, and especially to the Muriel McBride Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City for providing the lead gift of $1 million dollars. I would be remiss if I did not also
acknowledge the KU Endowment Association, development director Michael Arp, and the
School of Music advancement assistant Kylie Smith for their tireless efforts in facilitating the gifts needed for creating our wonderful new space.
Music at KU has such a rich and vibrant heritage. We are thrilled the University has
designated our series of musical concerts associated with the renovation of the recital hall to be part of KU 150, the sesquicentennial celebration for KU. This series of concerts is
intended to celebrate this tradition of great music making and music teaching at our beloved institution. In addition to the line-up of exciting guest artists, KU alumni and current
students spanning almost 70 years will be featured. For their visionary support for the series, the School of Music thanks Jim Zakoura, Lee Smithyman, and Reach Out Kansas, Inc.
In our rapidly changing world, at least two constants remain. First, music is and
always will be one of the greatest sources of beauty and inspiration for mankind. Second, KU alumni will always love their alma mater. This beautiful space will help sustain these truths and continue the legacy for generations to come. The difference Swarthout Recital Hall will
make for KU and the students who learn here will be as profound in the future as it has been in the past. Thank you for celebrating with us! Yours truly,
Robert Walzel, DMA
Dean, School of Music
Swarthout Recital Hall Established 1957
When Murphy Hall was built in 1957, the primary recital hall was named in honor of Donald M. Swarthout (1884–1962), the longest-serving dean in the history of the KU School of Fine Arts. Swarthout held the position from 1923 to 1950, a major period of growth in musical instruction on Mount Oread. Member of a family that was no stranger to musical achievement, Swarthout’s brother was Max van Lewen Swarthout (1880–1954), who was for a time dean of music at the University of Southern California, and a cousin was Gladys Swarthout (1900–1969), the prominent American soprano. His daughter, Elizabeth Swarthout Hayes (BM, KU, 1932) was a prominent pianist who taught at American University. Donald M. Swarthout was a pianist, cellist, and choral director who was born in Pawpaw, Illinois. He studied for a year in 1898-99 at the Balatka Musical College in Chicago and then, like many young American musicians of his generation, went abroad to complete his training. He attended the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig, Germany from 1902–1905 and 1910–1911, graduating in 1911, and also worked with French pianist Isidor Philipp in 1905–06. Swarthout started his American teaching career at Oxford College (1906–10) and Miami College (1908–10) in Ohio, moving on to Illinois College for Women from 1911–14, where he chaired the piano department. Swarthout then spent nine years at Millikin College in Illinois, where his brother Max was department chair.
| Donald Swarthout with bust by KU Professor Emeritus, Eldon Teft |
| Donald Swarthout |
Swarthout’s tenure at KU included contributions in many areas and a truly national reputation. The University’s offerings in music grew from undergraduate performance degrees in piano, voice, violin, organ, and composition, and artist certificates in each of the instruments, to include undergraduate and master’s degrees in music education and a Bachelor of Arts in Music, and the number of faculty members grew accordingly. Swarthout was an important choral director at KU, organizing the Lawrence Choral Union, which included as many as 500 students and townspeople. Starting in the 1930s he concentrated on the Westminster A Cappella Choir, which performed on campus and, for about a decade, at First Presbyterian Church in Lawrence. In 1940 it became known as the University A Cappella Choir. Upon his arrival, Swarthout organized the University String Trio and the University String Quartet, playing cello in both. He also transformed the May Festival into the Music Week Festival, which included visiting performers and local groups. In 1929 he insisted that the event include young American performers, an innovation he also added to the Concert Course, the local series. Swarthout was also responsible for upgrading what was then known as Christmas Vespers into a grander occasion that attracted an audience from around the region to Hoch Auditorium. Swarthout’s national reputation at KU included four terms as president of the National Association of Schools of Music, starting in 1944, and nineteen years as secretary and two years as president of the Music Teachers National Association. He was president general of Pi Kappa Lambda, national music honorary, in 1934–37. After retiring as dean in 1950 because of a mandatory age requirement, Swarthout spent five more years on the KU piano and choral faculties, and then served as visiting professor of piano at Catholic University in Washington from 1955 to 1959. He died in Washington on 12 June 1962. He earned three honorary doctorates during his career: Illinois Wesleyan University (1932), Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas (1933), and Millikin University (1953).
Private Event VISITING ARTIST SERIES: LEON FLEISHER and the FLEISHER-JACOBSON PIANO DUO LEON FLEISHER, PIANO KATHERINE JACOBSON, PIANO Monday, March 30 | 6:30 p.m. free simulcast to be held at 130 Murphy Hall open to the public, but seating is limited
VISITING ARTIST SERIES: ERIC EWAZEN, COMPOSER with KU FACULTY & STUDENTS Tuesday, April 14 | 7:30 p.m. free and open to the public
Private Event A CELEBRATION OF KU MUSIC ALUMNI Wednesday, April 1 | 7:00 p.m. open to the public, but seating is limited
VISITING ARTIST SERIES: DAVID SCHIFRIN, CLARINET with THE BORROMEO STRING QUARTET Monday, April 27 | 7:30 p.m. free and open to the public
VISITING ARTIST SERIES: SUSANNA PHILLIPS, SOPRANO Tuesday, April 7 | 7:30 p.m. free and open to the public VISITING ARTIST SERIES: LAWRENCE BROWNLEE, TENOR and MARTIN KATZ, PIANO Thursday, April 9 | 7:30 p.m. free and open to the public
KANSAS VIRTUOSI Sunday, April 19 | 2:30 p.m. free and open to the public
VISITING ARTIST SERIES: DEBORAH BROWN, VOCALIST with KU JAZZ STUDENTS Friday, May 1 | 7:30 p.m. free and open to the public
Leon Fleisher and The Fleisher-Jacobson Piano Duo Leon Fleisher, piano | Katherine Jacobson, piano Leon Fleisher J.S. BACH / PETRI (1685–1750) “Sheep may safely graze” from Hunting Cantata, BWV 208 Leon Fleisher LEON KIRCHNER (1919–2009) For Piano Left Hand Leon Fleisher DINA KOSTON (1929–2009) Thoughts of Evelyn (2000) Leon Fleisher J.S. BACH / BRAHMS (1685–1750) Chaconne for the Left Hand from the Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (1717-1723) arr. Brahms (1877) | INTERMISSION | Leon Fleisher and Katherine Jacobson, piano four hands FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828) Fantasy for piano four-hands, D. 940 (1848) Allegro molto moderato Largo Scherzo. Allegro vivace Finale. Allegro molto moderato Leon Fleisher and Katherine Jacobson, piano four hands MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937) “La Valse” (arr. for four-hands by Lucien Garban) program subject to change
Leon Fleischer and Katherine Jacobson are managed by:
Frank Salomon Associates 121 West 27th Street Suite 703 New York, NY 10001-6262
www.franksalomon.com
LAWRENCE, KS | Monday, March 30, 2015
ŠJennifer Bishop
| Mr. Fleisher records for Sony Classical, CBS Masterworks, Vanguard, Desto, Odyssey, and Deutsche Grammophon | • | Ms. Jacobson records for Sony Classical |
Visiting Artists LEON FLEISHER Visiting Artist, piano
Legendary pianist Leon Fleisher represents the gold standard of musicianship and, at 85 years young, he continues to impart his life-affirming artistry throughout the world, thriving in a sustained career as conductor and soloist, recitalist, chamber music artist, and master class mentor. Mr. Fleisher made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1944, and in 1952 he became the first American to win the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition, establishing himself as one of the world’s premier classical pianists. At the height of his success, he was suddenly struck silent at age 36 with a neurological affliction later identified as focal dystonia, rendering two fingers on his right hand immobile. Rather than end his career, Mr. Fleisher began focusing on repertoire for the left hand only, conducting and teaching. Not until some forty years later was he able to return to playing with both hands after undergoing experimental treatments using a regimen of rolfing and ‘botulinum toxin’ injections. In performance, Mr. Fleisher’s 2014–2015 season includes recital appearances of left hand and four hand programs with his wife, the noted pianist Katherine Jacobson, at the Schleswig Holstein and Menuhin Festivals, a performance of the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos in F Major, K. 242 with A Far Cry at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, and recitals and chamber music engagements around the country, including the Brahms Piano Quintet with the Juilliard String Quartet in Philadelphia. Recent concerto appearances include Mozart with the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival, the Prokofiev Concerto No. 4 at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra conducted by Jaime Laredo, and performances with the Dover Quartet in New York and the Ying Quartet as part of a residency at the Eastman School of Music.
©Chris Hartlove
KATHERINE JACOBSON Visiting Artist, piano
A Minnesota native, pianist Katherine Jacobson’s performing career as soloist, duo pianist and chamber musician has received international acclaim. In 2004, her Carnegie Hall debut with piano duo partner Leon Fleisher was praised in The New York Times for its “abundant musicality and refined technique.” Orchestras with which Ms. Jacobson has performed include the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the New York String Orchestra, among others. She has concertized in Europe, Scandinavia, the Far East and South America, as well as in the United States and Canada. With Leon Fleisher, she recorded the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 242 with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (Sony). A solo CD will be released in 2014 featuring music of Scriabin, Mozart and Schubert. Ms. Jacobson graduated from St. Olaf College where she was a student of Ann Surace and Margaret Birkeland. She received her Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Vitya Vronsky and was inspired by the duo piano team of Vronsky and Babin. At the Peabody Conservatory of Music, she worked with mentor and future husband, Leon Fleisher. Katherine Jacobson is on the faculty of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
©Jennifer Bishop
SUSANNA PHILLIPS Visiting Artist, soprano
Alabama-born soprano Susanna Phillips, recipient of The Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, continues to establish herself as one of today’s most sought-after singing actors and recitalists. The 2014-15 season will see Phillips return to the Metropolitan Opera for a seventh consecutive season, starring as Antonia in Bartlett Sher’s production of Les Contes D’Hoffmann under the baton of James Levine, as well as a reprise of her house debut role of Musetta in La Bohème. Additional engagements include Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro with Paul McCreesh and the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon and the title role in Handel’s Agrippina with Boston Baroque under Martin Pearlman. Phillips’s 2014-15 orchestral engagements are highlighted by a performance of Fauré’s Requiem with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra with Jaap van Zweden and a return to the San Francisco Symphony for Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas. Additional performances include Strauss’ Four Last Songs at the opening night gala of the Louisiana Philharmonic’s season and with the Mexico National Symphony Orchestra, a Music of the Baroque concert conducted by Jane Glover, and Mendelssohn’s arrangement of Bach’s Matthäus-Passion with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia.
©Zachary Maxwell
A passionate chamber music collaborator, this season Phillips will join Eric Owens and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society for an all Schubert program, the 2014 Chicago Collaborative Works Festival, and at Twickenham Fest, a chamber music festival she co-founded in her native Huntsville, Alabama. Highlights of Phillips’s previous seasons include numerous Metropolitan Opera appearances as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Pamina in The Magic Flute, and Musetta in La Bohème, as well as a special concert performance as Stella in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire at Carnegie Hall opposite Reneé Fleming, which she went on to perform, to rave reviews, at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
2015 Grammy nominee Lawrence Brownlee is the most in-demand American tenor in the world in the bel canto repertoire. He continues to astonish audiences with the elegance and agility of his instrument. From firmly American roots, Mr. Brownlee has become a star on the international scene, lauded for the seemingly effortless beauty of his voice.
LAWRENCE BROWNLEE Visiting Artist, tenor
In the 2014-15 season Mr. Brownlee returns to Seattle Opera for his role debut as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and to the Metropolitan Opera as Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, which will be seen in cinemas around the world as part of the Live in HD series. He also performs with Opernhaus Zürich as Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola opposite Cecilia Bartoli, followed by his role debut as Ferrando in Così fan tutte with the Bayerische Staatsoper, and appears with Festspielhaus BadenBaden as the Italian Tenor in a new production of Der Rosenkavalier. Mr. Brownlee has been featured in nearly every major theater in the world and enjoys a relationship with many prominent conductors and symphony orchestras. Operatic highlights of Mr. Brownlee’s career include: La Cenerentola in Milan, Houston, Philadelphia, and the Metropolitan Opera; L’italiana in Algeri in Milan, Dresden, Boston, Houston, and Seattle; I Puritani in Washington, Seattle, and the Metropolitan Opera; Mosé in Egitto in Rome; Il turco in Italia in Toulouse and Berlin; Tancredi with the Detroit Symphony and a European tour with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées; La donna del lago in Santa Fe and Washington; Semiramide and L’elisir d’amore, both at the Caramoor Festival; Armida at the Metropolitan Opera; La fille du régiment in Hamburg, Cincinnati, and at the Metropolitan Opera; Salieri’s Axur, re d’Ormus in Zürich; L’ape Musicale in Vienna; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Geneva; Le Comte Ory in Vienna; and the world premiere of Lorin Maazel’s 1984 at Covent Garden. An Ohio native, Mr. Brownlee received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Anderson University and a Master of Music degree from Indiana University. He is a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
©Derek Blanks
MARTIN KATZ Visiting Artist, piano
One of the world’s busiest collaborators, Mr. Katz has been in constant demand by the world’s most celebrated vocal soloists for more than four decades. He has appeared and recorded regularly with Marilyn Horne, Frederica von Stade, Karita Mattila, Samuel Ramey, David Daniels, Jose Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Kathleen Battle, just to name a few. Season after season, the world’s musical capitals figure prominently in his schedule. A native of Los Angeles, his piano studies began at the age of five. He attended the University of Southern California and studied accompanying with Gwendolyn Koldofsky. Conducting now also plays a significant role in his career. He has partnered several of his soloists on the podium, and has been pleased to conduct several staged productions for the University of Michigan’s Opera Theatre, the Music Academy of the West, and San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola program. The profile of Martin Katz is completed with his commitment to teaching. Since 1984 he has led the University of Michigan’s program in collaborative piano, and played an active part in opera productions. He has been a pivotal figure in the training of countless young artists, both singers and pianists. Mr. Katz is the author of a comprehensive guide to accompanying, “The Complete Collaborator,” published by Oxford University Press.
Eric Ewazen’s music has been performed by distinguished soloists, chamber ensembles, vocalists, wind ensembles and orchestras around the world. His music can be heard on some 70 commercially-released CDs, by some of the finest recording artists of the 20th/21st centuries. He has been a guest at over 150 colleges and universities worldwide, including 17 different countries and 47 states of the 50 United States. During 2015 his music will be performed by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Boise Philharmonic, the Anchorage Symphony, the MasterWorks Festival Orchestra of Indiana, the ShenZhen Symphony in China, and the Isis Chamber Orchestra in London, where Dame Evelyn Glennie will be playing his marimba concerto. During the summer of 2015, he will be the composer-in-residence with the Jeju Festival of Winds in South Korea and SliderAsia in Hong Kong. He will also be a guest composer with the International Trombone Association Convention in Valencia, Spain, and the Stavanger Conservatory in Norway. In the U.S. he will be teaching at the Atlantic Music Festival in Maine, and with the Imani Winds Summer Music Program in NYC. The Buffalo Philharmonic just released a CD featuring his Triple Concerto for Three Trombones and Orchestra. Upcoming CDs, one devoted to his piano music and another to his trumpet music, will be released by Albany Records during the spring/ early summer. He has been a faculty member of The Juilliard School since 1980. He is grateful to his friend, Professor Steven Leisring, and the School of Music of the University of Kansas for featuring his music as part of the festive ceremonies and concerts involved with the rededication of their concert hall!
ERIC EWAZEN Visiting Artist, composer
DAVID SHIFRIN Visiting Artist, clarinet
©Jim Leisy
Clarinetist David Shifrin is active as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber music artist. Artistic Director of Portland’s Chamber Music Northwest since 1981 and of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York from 1992 to 2004, Mr. Shifrin was a winner of the coveted Avery Fisher Prize in 2000, Yale University’s Cultural Leadership Citation in 2009, and the 2012 Interlochen Center for the Arts Ovation Award for distinguished alumni. He has appeared with such distinguished ensembles as the Guarneri, Tokyo, and Emerson string quartets, and with major symphony orchestras worldwide, including Philadelphia, Minnesota, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee and Denver. A frequent guest at numerous summer festivals, Mr. Shifrin has appeared at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, performing the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in its original version. His Delos recording of this concerto received a Record of the Year award from Stereo Review, and he has been nominated for three Grammy awards. A graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy (under Fred Ormand) and Curtis Institute of Music, he is professor of music at Yale University, artistic director of the Chamber Music Society at Yale series, the Yale in New York series at Carnegie Hall and the Phoenix (winter) Chamber Music Festival. In addition to his extensive catalogue on Delos, Mr. Shifrin has recorded for the Angel, RCA, Nonesuch, Arabesque and CRI labels.
The visionary performances of the Borromeo String Quartet have established them as one of the most important string quartets of our time. Now celebrating their 25th anniversary, the Borromeo have performed a vast repertoire worldwide and collaborated with many of today’s great composers and performers. They have been the faculty ensemble-in-residence at the New England Conservatory of Music for twenty-two years and work extensively with the Library of Congress, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
BORROMEO STRING QUARTET Visiting Artists
Audiences and critics alike have championed the Borromeo’s ability to bring back the contemporary fire to often-heard repertoire, while making even the most challenging new music approachable. “To hear and see them perform has always felt to me like taking a private tour through a composer’s mind,” says Cathy Fuller, Classical New England host on WGBH radio. “They probe and analyze from every angle until they discover how to best unveil the psychological, physical, and spiritual states that a great piece of music evokes. They’re champions of new music… but they also thrive on making the old classics sound vital and fresh.” The quartet has presented string quartet cycles by Lera Auerbach, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, Schoenberg, Gunther Schuller, Shostakovich, and Schubert, and will begin their first cycle of the Tchaikovsky string quartets at the Gardner Museum this season. They’ve enjoyed collaborations with composers John Cage, György Ligeti, Gunther Schuller, Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach, Jennifer Higdon, Steve Mackey, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Derek Bermel, Lior Navok, Pierre Jalbert, James Matheson, and Curt Cacioppo, among many others. The Borromeo Quartet have received many awards throughout their illustrious career, including Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and Martin E. Segal Award, and Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award. They won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and top prizes at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France.
©Christian Steiner
Nicholas Kitchen violin Kristopher Tong violin Mai Motobuchi viola Yeesun Kim cello
DEBORAH BROWN Visiting Artist, jazz vocalist
Deborah Brown has traveled extensively throughout the world, performing in the finest jazz venues and concert halls. Originally from Kansas City, her singing has taken her from Moscow to Amsterdam to Stockholm, as well as London’s Ronnie Scotts. Her career started in Kansas City and grew to include places from Los Angeles to Atlanta and beyond 50 states throughout her career, performing with her own ensembles and with jazz legends like Johnny Griffin, Clark Terry, Ed Thigpen and Horace Parlan. Singing with Jimmy Heath and Roy Hargrove to Joe Lovano, Bobby Watson and Terell Stafford, she has been accepted as one of the jazz legends herself. She was on staff at the prestigious conservatory in Hilversum, now known as the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and has been a guest throughout the states at various universities: The University of Greely Colorado, Middle Tennesee State College, Sinclaire Community College in Dayton, Ohio and East Washington State University, as well as others. Committed to teaching and performing the jazz repertoire to the highest degree, Mrs. Brown has dedicated her energies to performing and sharing her skills around the world with great success. She always invites the audience to enjoy themselves.
Alumni Performers JEFFREY BERUAN | MM ‘07; BM ‘04 | Alumnus, bass Jeffrey Beruan is an important emerging artist whose singing has been described as “intensely dramatic,” “melodious,” and “powerful.” Recent highlights for him include Sarastro (The
Magic Flute ) for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, a role debut as George Benton, the Prison War-
den in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking for Madison Opera, a reprise of Ferrando (Il Trovatore) for Sarasota Opera, a role and company debut singing Pluton in Charpentier’s La Descente
d’Orphée aux Enfers for Gotham Chamber Opera, a return to Caramoor International Music Festival for Sparafucile (Rigoletto), a reprise of Sarastro for Opera Saratoga, a reprise of
Capellio (I Capuleti ed I Montecchi) for Washington Concert Opera, and Spettro in Franco Faccio’s Amleto. Mr. Beruan looks forward to a reprise of Sarastro (The Magic Flute), a reprise of
Zuniga (Carmen), the King (Aida), Don Fernando (Fidelio) and the Bass Soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – all for to be announced companies.
JOYCE CASTLE | BFA ‘61 | Alumna, mezzo-soprano University Distinguished Professor of Voice, Joyce Castle celebrated her 40th year as a per-
forming artist in 2010. Since her debut in 1970 at San Francisco Opera as Siebel in Faust she has sung over 130 roles in opera houses all over the United States, France, Germany, Italy,
Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Israel and Brazil. She was a leading artist at the New York City
Opera for twenty-five years as well as fourteen seasons at the Metropolitan Opera. Conductors with whom she has performed are: James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Raymond Leppard, Mi-
chael Tilson-Thomas, James Conlon, David Zinman, Marin Alsop... With Leonard Bernstein playing the piano, she sang the first performance of his work Arias and Barcarolles. The cel-
ebrated composers Jake Heggie and William Bolcom have written song cycles for Miss Castle. Professor Castle received her Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and was awarded the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award.
PAUL GARNER | MM ‘82 | Alumnus, clarinet Paul Garner is Associate Principal and E-flat Clarinetist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He has been a member of the orchestras of New Orleans and Denver, and also served in
the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point. He is a member of the Grammy-nominated
new music ensemble Voices of Change, and his chamber music affiliations include Fine Arts
Chamber Players, Nasher Sculpture Center, and Walden Chamber Music Society of Colorado. Garner is Principal Clarinetist of the Music in the Mountains Festival of Durango, Colorado,
and has performed at the Vail Bravo Festival, Grand Teton Festival, and Brevard Music Festival. He has published in The Clarinet, and has served on the faculty of Southern Methodist
University since 1999, where he teaches clarinet and chamber music. He holds degrees from
the University of Kansas and Michigan State University and his teachers include Kalmen Opperman, Larry Maxey and Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr.
ALAN HARRIS | BM ‘58 | Alumnus, cello BM, University of Kansas; MM, Performer’s Certificate, Indiana University. Studied with
Raymond Stuhl and Janos Starker. Recording for Vox. Master classes, solo and chamber music performances throughout the United States. Artist faculty, Aspen Music Festival (1974-). Recipient, 2004 Eva Janzer Memorial Award at Indiana University for universal contributions to the art and teaching of cello playing. Performed with the Cleveland Quartet, the Eastman Quartet and Rochester Chamber Soloists. Principal cellist, Rochester Chamber
Orchestra (1966-72) and Eastman Chamber Orchestra (1965-68). Assistant principal cellist,
Rochester Philharmonic (1965-69). Faculty member, Inter-American University, Puerto Rico (1959-61), Ohio Wesleyan University (1961-65), Aspen Music Festival (1974-), Cleveland
Institute of Music (1976-84, 1987-99), Northwestern (1984-87), Eastman (1965-76, 1986-87, 1994-98, 1999-present).
ROBERT HILLER | MM ‘72; BM ‘65 | Alumnus, piano Robert Hiller grew up in Humboldt, Kansas. He studied at KU with Richard Angeletti and John Perry and received his Master of Music in piano in 1972. Since 1967 he has lived in
Stuttgart, Germany, where he taught from 1972 to 2012 as a voice coach at the State University of Music, studying with Hubert Giesen and Konrad Richter and graduating with the Concert Diploma. In addition to teaching a Lied Class for 11 years at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, Hiller has performed with singers and taught master classes in many countries, including the United States, Germany, Austria, Japan and Mexico. In 1993,
Hiller accompanied Patricia Wise, Joyce Castle and David Holloway at the inaugural concert
of the Lied Center. In April 2015, Hiller will teach at Ars Vocalis Mexico and will perform and teach in Japan.
DAVID HOLLOWAY | MM ‘67; BM ‘64 | Alumnus, baritone David Holloway sang with the New York City Opera and major US opera companies, includ-
ing Boston, Central City, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Kansas City, New
Orleans, Omaha, San Diego, Santa Fe, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. in repertoire of
seventy-five major roles, including Figaro in Barber, Figaro and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Giovanni in Don Giovanni, Onegin in Eugene Onegin, Scarpia in Tosca, Germont in Traviata, and Rigoletto in Rigoletto. He sang seven seasons with the Metropolitan Opera in New York
City, and for ten years he was leading baritone at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. He was Toreador in Carmen two seasons at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, a performance filmed and available on DVD. For eleven years, Mr. Holloway was Head of Voice at Roosevelt University. He is Director of the Apprentice Program for Singers at the Santa Fe Opera.
NANCY IVES | BM ‘83 | Alumna, cello Nancy Ives is Principal Cello of the Oregon Symphony. She received her BM from the Uni-
versity of Kansas (’83, studied with Ed Laut) and MM and DMA from Manhattan School of
Music (studied with Marion Feldman). Nancy is an avid chamber musician with a particular affinity for new music, and is a member of fEARnoMUSIC and a frequent guest of groups
such as Chamber Music Northwest, 45th Parallel, Third Angle, and Portland Cello Project.
Her composition Shard is featured on a recent PCP album. She has joined the faculty of Lewis and Clark College, teaching cello and chamber music, is a founder of Classical Up Close,
and has served on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Symphony. She is currently “Cellist
in Residence” on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s arts magazine State of Wonder and blogs at
nancyives.com and classicalupclose.com. Nancy is grateful for the nurturing preparation she received at KU for this diverse and rewarding professional life.
MARIA KANYOVA | DMA ‘95; MM ‘92 | Alumna, soprano Critics have hailed Maria Kanyova as an extraordinary singing actress. Robert Trussell of the
Kansas City Star wrote of her portrayal of Pat Nixon, “Her voice could stop time.” Throughout Ms. Kanyova’s busy performing career of leading roles, she has performed with Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Dallas Opera,
New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Boston Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, San Diego Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Saint Louis Opera Theatre and Canadian Opera Company, along with many other prestigious opera
companies. Her signature roles remain Violetta in La traviata, the title role of Madama Butterfly and Pat Nixon in Nixon in China, also recorded on the Naxos Label. Ms. Kanyova has enjoyed the opportunity of premiering new operas and reviving more recent operas. She recently
performed the role of Blanche in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire with Kentucky Opera and
premiered the role of Miriam in Adamo’s Gospel of Mary Magdalene with San Francisco Opera. Ms. Kanyova is a graduate of KU with an MM and DMA in Vocal Performance.
WILLIAM LANE | FINE ARTS ‘67 | Alumnus, french horn William Lane began playing the horn when he was ten but, surprisingly, received no formal instruction until he entered the University of Kansas and studied with Gerald Carney. Mr.
Lane graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, where his teacher was James Stagliano. While a student living in the East he appeared as soloist with the Boston Sym-
phony. He subsequently played solo horn for the Buffalo Philharmonic for six years prior to moving to Los Angeles. Mr. Lane joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic as a Principal Horn
in 1973. His many solo performances with the orchestra include appearances at Hollywood Bowl, Music Center, and Disney Hall.
Initiating his studio career in 1974 with John Williams, Mr. Lane enjoyed a vast record-
Mr. Lane is a farmer in Knob Noster, Missouri and his hobbies include tennis, reading
ing career in motion picture and TV as well as classical recordings with the LA Philharmonic. and spending time with the horses.
CYNTHIA MUNZER | BM ‘67 | Alumna, mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano Cynthia Munzer has sung over 20 roles in 223 performances with the Metropolitan Opera in the US and Japan. Audiences have known her through Met Opera Broad-
casts and over 20 Met recordings on Sirius with Pavarotti, Milnes, Domingo, Sutherland, and Caballé. Munzer has garnered rave reviews as leading artist with 90 opera companies and
major symphony orchestras: The Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, Los Angeles and
Hong Kong Philharmonics, San Francisco, National, and American Symphonies. L’Opéra de Montréal, New York City, Dallas, Houston Grand, Florentine, and Washington Operas have presented Munzer as Carmen, Amneris, Dame Quickly, and Octavian.
Munzer is an associate professor at the University of Southern California. Her students
are winners at the Metropolitan Opera, Berlin Opera, young artists at The Santa Fe Opera,
New York City Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin and London’s Royal Opera. Known for her master classes at the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Met Guild, universities in the USA,
China, Taiwan, Croatia, British Columbia, Mexico, Austria, Germany, Italy, and Australia, Ms. Munzer is also Artistic Director of Musiktheatre Bavaria in Germany.
LINDSAY OHSE | MM ‘08; BM ‘06 | Alumna, soprano With a voice described as “dazzling and crystal clear,” soprano Lindsay Ohse began the
2014/2015 season singing Governess in Britten’s Turn of the Screw and returning to Santa Fe
Opera to cover the role of Lu Mu-zhen in the American premiere of Huang Ruo’s Sun Yat-Sen. Other notable performances include Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Pittsburgh’s Resonance Works, a much-lauded Messiah with the Fresno Master Chorale, the title role in Poulenc’s
Mamelles de Tirésias with Brava Opera, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Opera Southwest, Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo with Portland Opera, Marie in La Fille du Regiment at Wichita Grand Opera, Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites with Des Moines Metro Opera, and
Queen of the Night with both Sarasota Opera and Santa Fe Opera. Upcoming engagements include a return to Portland Opera to star in Show Boat as Magnolia Hawks.
PHYLLIS PANCELLA | BA ‘86 | Alumna, mezzo-soprano Phyllis Pancella’s recent performances have included Mrs. Lovett in Virginia Opera’s production of Sweeney Todd (a role she debuted at KU) and Despina in Cosi fan tutte with Sir Thomas
Allen at the Boston Lyric Opera, as well as performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Hong Kong Bach Chorale, and the Prague Fes-
tival of New Music. This summer she will make her Santa Fe Opera debut as the Marquise in Daughter of the Regiment. She was proud to return to KU last fall for a recital with the violist
Paul Neubauer and a fine visit with her undergraduate voice teacher, John Stephens, and was
promised at the time that her next appearance here would be in a newly renovated Swarthout Recital Hall. Bravi tutti!
DELORES STEVENS | BM ‘52 | Alumna piano Pianist Delores Stevens won the coveted Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena,
California and recently received the “Living Legacy Award” from the Young Musicians Foundation. As a member of the acclaimed Montagnana Trio, she gave more than 500 concerts
throughout Europe and North America. Ms. Stevens toured Japan twice in the 90s, once for the US State Department, and recently she performed in Australia and South America.
Delores Stevens is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of both the Martha’s Vineyard
Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Palisades in Los Angeles. She served six terms
as governor and trustee of The Recording Academy (GRAMMY) in Los Angeles and has been Director of the Chamber Music Program for the Young Musicians Foundation for the last two decades. She is former director of piano studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills and director of chamber music at Mount Saint Mary’s College in Los Angeles.
HUGO VERA | DMA ‘10; MM ‘02 | Alumnus, tenor Tenor Hugo Vera is described as possessing a “truly heroic voice” that is both “beautiful and
brilliant.” In addition to The Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Vera has sung with Spoleto, USA, Kan-
sas City Symphony, New York City Opera, Illinois Symphony and Chorus, Fort St. Symphony and Chorus, Opera Memphis, Aspen Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Sarasota Opera,
the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera North, Aspen Opera Theatre, The Minnesota Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Nashville Opera, Shreveport Opera, and Tanglewood
Music Festival. In 2014-2015 he returns to The Metropolitan Opera to work on productions of Aida and Don Carlos, a debut with New Opera NYC, Artist-in-Residence Tour at Westminster College (UT), Presbyterian College (SC), University of Texas-Rio Grande, and Glow Lyric
Theatre. Vera debuted and world premiered as Carl Jung in the opera Sabine Spielrein with the
Center of Contemporary Opera, as Don Jose with Local Opera Local Artists, and as Tenor soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with Concert Choir of Brattleboro (VT). He currently maintains a voice studio in New York City. He is also Artistic & General Director of Lawrence Opera Theatre.
CAROL WILCOX-JONES | BM ‘69 | Alumna, soprano Carol Wilcox-Jones has enjoyed performing leading roles with major opera companies in the United States and Canada, including the Metropolitan Opera, Houston, Miami, Washington
Opera at Kennedy Center, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Toronto, Calgary, Caracas Opera, and many others. Carol recorded the world premiere role of Aurelia in Captain Jinks
for the Kansas City Lyric and has been a featured soloist with many symphonies and festivals. She also maintained her music theatre career, performing leading roles with St. Louis MUNY Theatre, Kansas City Starlight, and Straw Hat Circuit Theatres. As Artist-in-Residence and
Coordinator of Applied Vocal Studies at Muskingum University, Carol has taught voice, vocal methods, lyric theatre workshop, directed opera and music theatre, and designed a Music
Theatre minor. Carol holds a Master of Arts in Vocal Pedagogy (Ohio State University) and is Artistic Director of the Summer High School Music Theatre Camp at Muskingum.
PATRICIA WISE | BMED ‘66 | Alumna, soprano During a career that lasted thirty-five years, soprano Patricia Wise appeared in nearly all the world’s major opera houses and concert halls and has extensive recording and film
work to her credit. She has an extraordinary repertoire of well over forty leading operatic
roles encompassing the stratospheric demands of Mozart’s Queen of the Night, as well as
those of the more lyrical Micaela. In 1989 the title of “Kammersänger” was bestowed upon her by the Austrian government and the Vienna State Opera, where she was a leading
soprano for fifteen years. In addition to her operatic career, Ms. Wise’s concert career in-
cluded performances and recordings of many of the great vocal orchestral works with some of the world’s best orchestras and conductors.
From 1995 until 2013, Patricia Wise was a Professor of Voice at the Indiana University
Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. Since retirement, Ms. Wise has moved to New York, where she established a studio to continue teaching voice. In addition to fre-
quent master classes in the United States and Europe, Ms. Wise is in demand as adjudicator in various vocal competitions.
Other Distinguished Alumni* Megan Adams Turbak Rebecca (Mann) Allen Bev Benso Katie Bieber Judy Bowser Lindsey Bush Perry Sharon Campbell Joe Carr Tara Curtis Katherine Dick Catherine Dowling Matt Foerschler Andrea Garritano Alex Goering Judy Gorton Parkinson Kristee Haney Leann Hillmer Maggie Hires Anna Hoard Jeff Jasperson
Jedidiah Kruger Allison Lewis Laura McCorkill Patty McGrew Robert McNichols Madison Mikenna Dugan Dustin Peterson Demi Renault Elaina Smith Marva Lou Sneegas Vanessa Thomas Tausha Torrez Shaun Whisler Jennifer White Scott Wichael Joseph Winans Marci Ziegler
*Other distinguished Alumni as available at press time.
Kansas Virtuosi Faculty Performers
Peter Chun viola Michael Davidson trombone Sarah Frisof flute Vince Gnojek saxophone Jeff Harshbarger bass Ji Hye Jung xylophone Ed Laut cello Steve Leisring trumpet VĂŠronique Mathieu violin Steven Spooner piano Paul Stevens horn Robert Walzel clarinet Scott Watson tuba
The Kansas Virtuosi will present Serenade for Winds, op. 149 by KU music faculty member James Barnes and Sadat by New York-based composer Mohammed Fairouz (both world premiere performances). Barnes, who retires in May, has enjoyed a long and distinguished career at KU. Fairouz, whose composition In the Shadow of No Towers was premiered by the KU Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in 2013, completed Sadat on a commission from Reach Out Kansas, Inc. For more information about KU Faculty, please visit music.ku.edu/faculty
Donors Swarthout Hall RENOVATED 2015 WITH A LEADERSHIP GIFT FROM: The Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation OTHER GENEROUS DONORS: Tom and Judy Strunk Bowser Harriet Kagay Coppoc and Gordon Coppoc Charles and Rie Couch and Oregon Lumber Company CVR Energy, Inc. Jack and Jan Gaumnitz Mar Lan Construction Donna Geisler and Sarah Merriman Kenneth V. and Marilyn J. Hager David and Gunda Hiebert Barbara A. Nordling and Nordling Family, LLC Estate of John and Frances Peterson Sabatini Architects Drew Snyder and Sue Wilkie Snyder Robert and Barbara Wunsch James Zakoura
WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM:
Gwen E. Adams James C. Barnes Chuck and Dee Blaser Claude and Debi Bockhold Lawrence E. Bodle and Lynne Campbell Bodle Julia Broxholm Joyce Malicky Castle Richard V. and Lisa A. Chapman Richard H. and Carol A. Chatelain Janet Diehl Corwin Judith Dutton Ken Emde and Judith Zotika Emde Delmar D. and Evelyn M. Falen Vincent A. and Jane D. Gnojek Nancy Rutherford Hawkins Steven K. and Debra G. Hedden Charles Hung and Scott McBride Smith Thomas L. Jenkins and Judith Gripton Jenkins Don J. Kallos John H. Kelly, PhD and Sangeetha L. Kelly Paul R. and Joy E. Laird Edward Laut and Donna Mae Laut J. Alan Martin and Debra Lewis Martin Larry and Linda W. Maxey
Mary K. McCarthy Laura L. McCorkill Roger D. Merryfield and Zoann Banker Merryfield Russell Roderic Miller Gary L. Mitchell Scott B. Murphy and Joy R. Murphy, MD David Reynolds, DMA and Rina H. Reynolds Kent P. and Donna C. Saylor Kathleen Craig Schmidt Jeffery A. and M. Teresa Shoemaker Daniel W. and Elizabeth J. Solomon John A. and Barbara A. Stephens The School of Music Ambassadors Club Lee M. Smithyman, Esq. and Nancy Smithyman Lisa M. Taylor Allan and Valerie Thoennes Karen J. Tietze Jeffrey S. Vitter, PhD and Sharon Weaver Vitter Robert L. Walzel Jr. and Marcie Walzel Thomas J. Whittaker, MD and Lissa C. Whittaker Ketty Wong
music.ku.edu Murphy Hall | Lawrence, KS music@ku.edu | 785-864-3436
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