Faculty Notes
Photo catpion: Bass summit. (From the left): Bass Department Chair Rich Appleman, Jeff Eckels ’78, former Bass Department Chair Bill Curtis, Harvie Swartz ’70, Joe Macaro ’76, Assistant Professor Dave Buda, and Professor Bruce Gertz. The group met at the recent International Society of Bassists Convention at Butler University in Indianapolis after a farewell recital by classical bassist Gary Karr.
Professor Julius P. Williams was commissioned by the Reston Chorale in Reston, Virginia, to write a work for chorus, orchestra, and soloist based on the life of New England-born priest, civil rights advocate, and Virginia Military Institute valedictorian Jon Daniels. The work will be premiered during the chorale’s 2002/2003 concert season.
Professor Charles Chapman is penning a series of interviews with top guitarists that will appear monthly on the Guild Guitar and Fender Musical Instruments Corporation websites. The first, with Jimmy Bruno, is available online at www.guildguitars.com/artist_pages/jimmy_bruno.php(Opens in a new window).
“High on a Mountain,” from the CD Shifting Sands of Time by String Department Chair Matt Glaser and his group Wayfaring Strangers, was a featured cut on the CD sampler for the January issue of Jazziz magazine. Jazziz is committing proceeds from the CD to the American Red Cross.
Participating in this year’s International Association of Jazz Educators conference in January, were Music Business/Management Department Chair Don Gorder, Professor Victor Mendoza, Assistant Professor August Watters, and Associate Professors Joanne Brackeen, Laszlo Gardony, John Lockwood, and Jamey Haddad. Leading student groups were Professor Phil Wilson (the Berklee Rainbow Band), Associate Professor Tiger Okoshi, and Assistant Professor Winston Maccow. Gary Burton and pianist Makoto Ozone also gave a special performance.
Tiger Okoshi presented a seminar on his work with autistic children at Harvard University’s Reischauer Institute of Japan. In May he will go to China for performances and classes sponsored by the Chinese government. He heads a student group that was featured at the recent International Trumpet Guild Conference and will lead them during a trip to Bermuda for a March performance.
Associate Professor Carolyn Wilkins released the CD Healin’ Time, a collection of 14 African- American spirituals and original songs.
Associate Professor Dan Bowden authored Mel Bay’s Complete Accompaniment Method for Guitar for Mel Bay Publications. The book gives insights to folk-, rock-, and jazz-accompanying styles and is available in music stores and on-line at www.members.aol.com/dbow. (Opens in a new window);
In October, Assistant Professor Apostolos Paraskevas gave a masterclass and recital at the Guitar Foundation of America Music Festival. In December, he performed Alexandros Kalogeras’s Guitar Concerto at Boston University, with Lukas Foss conducting. Foss later conducted Paraskevas’s piece Night Wanderings at Carnegie Hall with the National Festival Orchestra. In June, Foss and Paraskevas will present the third and fourth guitar concertos by Paraskevas at Carnegie Hall.
An excerpt from Assistant Professor Jennifer Andrews’s nonfiction manuscript Parts received an honorable mention at the New Millennium Writings Awards and was a finalist in the Peralta Press Oh-One Awards. The manuscript will be completed December 2002.
Songs by Assistant Professor Michael Wartofsky were featured in Boston Sings Boston, a cabaret show featuring 16 new songs by 10 Boston-area songwriters. The show ran for four nights in November at Club Café in Boston.
Associate Professor Fred Bouchard wrote an article on Joe Lovano’s Berklee classroom lecture style for Down Beat magazine’s December issue. He also penned liner notes for several CDs and articles on Portuguese table wines and port for Beverage Business magazine.
Don Gorder and Music Business/Management Department Associate Professor Peter Alhadeff attended the College Music Society Conference in Santa Fe in November, where they represented the planning team for the Academic and Recording Industry Alliances Institute, which will hold a meeting at Berklee in June. Gorder also served as a panelist for the Access to Amsterdam music and media conference in October.
At the recent Acoustical Society of America meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Assistant Professor Tony Hoover chaired a session called “The Integration of Synthesis Techniques with Acoustical Music.” Berklee faculty members presenting papers at the conference included Brass Department Chair Tom Plsek, Music Synthesis Department Chair Jan Moorhead, and Associate Professor Alex Case.
Associate Professor Steve Rochinski was spotlighted in the November issue of Just Jazz Guitar. His CD Otherwise, released on the Jardis Record label, has been featured on German public radio.
Associate Professor Marc Rossi released a live duo-piano CD with Ben Schwendener called Living Geometry. The new disc features original music by each pianist.
Associate Professor Rob Lussier arranged Michael Brecker’s “Slings and Arrows” for big band and Brecker is performing it at his clinics around the country.
Among the faculty who worked on the Shekinah CD were Professors Bill Scheniman, Stephen Webber, and Carl Beatty, Assistant Professor Mark Wessel, and Associate Professors Jeff Dorenfeld, Mitch Benoff and Kurt Biederwolf. [See page five for more on the Shekinah CD released by Epic Records.]
Ensemble Professor Hal Crook’s group Um released the CD Stray Dog for Outrageous Records. The band includes Assistant Guitar Department Chair Rick Peckham, John Medeski (piano), Dave Zinno (bass), and Bob Gullotti (drums). The CD is available at www.ropeadope.com(Opens in a new window).
