Motifs: January/February 2018

January 3, 2018

We'd love to hear from you! Submit your own motif.

Chris Czukor (IAC/NMC 66-67, 69, IAA 67-70, IAA St 70) had five books published in 2017, including her nonfiction book, “How to Have Fun With Your Aging Parents,” which is an Amazon bestseller and a Book Excellence Award Finalist. She also published all four books of her Edwardian novel series, “His Majesty’s Theatre,” through Endeavour Press.

Roslee Blooston (IAC/NMC 69, IAA 69-70) just finished a whirlwind 15-month tour for her first book, “Dying in Dubai: A Memoir of Marriage, Mourning and the Middle East” (Apprentice House Press), which was a 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year winner and a 2017 Eric Hoffer Book Awards finalist.

David Harris (IAC/NMC 69, IAA 75-77) was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Ontario in August 2017 after 30 years as a criminal defense lawyer specializing in appeal work.

Daniel McCarthy’s (IAC/NMC 69, IAA 70-74, IAC St 73, IAC Fac 95-06) Chamber Symphony No. 1 for Marimba and Winds is being re-released by The North Texas Wind Symphony on GIA Records, featuring Mark Ford on marimba and conductor Eugene Corporon. McCarthy’s music theory texts, "Theory Essentials" and "Theory for Today's Musician" (3rd Edition, featuring the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra) are being published in early 2018 by Routledge.

Kathy Manning (IAC/NMC 68-73, UNIV 74) is running for Congress in North Carolina’s 13th district.

Kathleen (Kaska) Perez (IAC/NMC 75-76, IAC St 84-89, 96-02, ICA St 02-13) has accepted the position of Director of Marketing, Communications and Publications at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Matthew Nosanchuk (IAC/NMC 76-78, 80) is now Vice President at Quadrant Strategies.

Starr Parodi (IAA 76-77) received the 2016 "Best Piano Album - Solo" award for her album "The Heart of Frida" from the ZMR Music Awards. Starr was commissioned for the ninth consecutive year to write music for the Laguna Pageant of the Masters Orchestra, and recently co-produced and arranged the "To All The Little Girls" music video with two-time Oscar winner Terry Sanders.

Adam Levin (IAC/NMC 77, UNIV 78) was accepted into the Long Island Composers Alliance (LICA). Co-founded by composer and electronic music pioneer Herbert Deutsch, LICA is "the only organization devoted to creating, promoting, presenting, recording and preserving the best original contemporary music by composers working and living on Long Island." Its luminaries have included Lukas Foss and Elie Siegmeister. Levin's induction was based on several works, including “Things Left Unsaid” and “Islands: I. Pandora's Box II. Needle's Eye III. Testament,” released by Different Drum Music (ASCAP).

Marna Seltzer (IAC/NMC 78-81) and Carla Dirlikov Canales (AS 96) were included in the Musical America 2017 Movers and Shapers.

Chicago-based composer Jim Stephenson (IAC/NMC 79-84, 86, IAA 83-83, IAC Fac 04, 08) was recently commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to compose a bass trombone concerto featuring Charlie Vernon. Stephenson’s low brass concerto, "Pillars,” is set to premiere in June 2018 with the Minnesota Orchestra. Other recent works were premiered by the St. Louis and Montreal Symphonies. His second symphony for band, VOICES, won the National Band Association’s Revelli Award for best composition of 2017, and was recorded by the U.S. "President's Own" Marine Band.

Emily (Gloger) Bracale (IAC/NMC 81, IAA 81-85) won the $3,000 grand prize in the Winning Writers North Street Book Competition for her book, "Our Last Six Months."

John Marshall (IAC/NMC 82, IAA 83-86, IAC St 85, IAC Fac 94-95, 07-17) recently released two innovative and amusing music videos of jazz and rock classics with his wife and musical partner, Lynne Feller-Marshall. The videos, “Take Five” and “Purple Haze” may be accessed on YouTube.

Rachel Zinman (IAA 83-84) has just released her first book, “Yoga for Diabetes, How to Manage your Health with Yoga and Ayurveda” with Monkfish Publishing. Rachel was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2008 and has since become an advocate for yoga and diabetes. She credits her passion for writing from taking a "Man and Destiny" class at Interlochen with instructor Howard Hintze in 12th grade.

Denise Tryon (IAC/NMC 88, IAA 88-89, IAC St 89) was recently named the new Associate Horn Professor of University at Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. Tryon also released a new album, “A Pair of Aces,” with Karl Pituch, Principal Horn at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Teresa Anne Volgenau (IAA 89-91) will have an art installation of her current collection, "Contemporary Romance," at Dazzle in Denver, Colorado from Jan. 23 through Feb. 28, 2018. Much of her work on canvas pulls from her extensive career in the performing arts as a dancer, actress and choreographer.

Ana Velasco (IAA 89-91, IAC St 91) married her longtime partner, Paul Styles III, on Dec. 16 in an intimate ceremony that took place in Merrillville, Indiana. The couple and their daughter reside in Bloomington, Indiana, where Ana works as the Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Research at Indiana University.

Rufus Wainwright (IAC/NMC 90) will premiere his second opera, Hadrian, on Oct. 13, 2018.

Beth Poquette Drews (AS 93-94, IAC 95-97) has been named Teacher of the Year for the Dallas Independent School District. Poquette Drews teaches orchestra, mariachi and guitar (Modern Band) for LV Stockard Middle School. Dallas ISD is located in Dallas, Texas and employs 10,000 teachers.

Cellist Jeremiah Shaw, IAA (96-98) played at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 6 with the Naumberg Chamber Music Award-winning Telegraph Quartet.

Eve Fairbanks (IAC 96-00) had an article published in The Washington Post in January of 2018.

Richard Hinds (IAC/NMC 96-97, IAA 97-00) is currently the Associate Choreographer for Come From Away on Broadway. He was the Associate on the Broadway productions of Newsies and Jekyll and Hyde. Richard worked on the Off-Broadway production of Here Lies Love as well as the National Tours of 9 to 5 and High School Musical.

Stanford Thompson (IAC 00-03, IAC St 05-06, 08) returned as a guest lecturer with Drexel University's Arts Administration Program, University of Pennsylvania's Urban Studies Program and as a faculty member of the Global Leaders Program. New assignments included lectures at the University of Michigan's Arts Leadership Program and Carnegie Hall's Ensemble Connect. Thompson was also profiled in Forbes and was named one of Ebony’s Power 100 Community Crusaders.

Katie Curatolo (IAC 00, IAA 02-04, IAC St 04) is now the Manager of Artistic Operations at Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

Edward McPherson (IAA 02-04) is now the Executive Director of the Island Moving Company of Newport, Rhode Island.

Miles Mykkanen (IAC 02-04, IAA 08-09) played the title role in Candide in the Arizona Opera's production, and will reprise the role in the Palm Beach Opera's production, which opens Feb. 23.

Zach Goldbaum (IAC 04-06) had an article published on Racked in January 2018.

Chad Goodman (IAC 06-07) was appointed Music Director of the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra in Walnut Creek, California.

Anne Malin Ringwalt (IAC 08-10, IAA 11-13) is a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry candidate at the University of Notre Dame, and specializes in translation theory and the phenomenology of religion. Ringwalt and her partner, Will Johnson (IAA 11-13), are in a musical duo called Fawn; their music video "Good Earth" premiered on NPR's All Songs Considered in January 2017, and their debut LP is forthcoming.

Catherine Andre (IAC 09, IAA 09-13) directed the hilarious restoration comedy The Recruiting Officer at The Center at West Park in New York City with fellow Arts Academy alumni Kendall Cafaro (IAC 11-12, IAA 12-13), Tony Macht (IAC 07-10, IAA 11-13) and Sheridan Stevens (IAC 07-08, IAA 10-12, IAC St 12). The show ran Feb. 1-3 and 6-10.

Garrett Law (IAC 10, IAA 10-13) was appointed Assistant Organist-Choirmaster at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is also the Assistant Director of the Choir School at St. Peter's, an after-school music education program that serves approximately 100 young choristers from the Charlotte area.

Isolde Fair (IAC 14-16) wrote and performed "To All The Little Girls" and was asked by The New York Times to perform it at the Women in the World Summit at Lincoln Center. Fair also performed the song with 180-voice Seattle Women's Chorus and placed first in the Kiwanis competition for violin. She is the concertmaster of her middle school orchestra.

Jimena Caballero (IAC 15-16) and Maria Vertiz (IAC 11-12), along with Berklee College of Music and Mexico's General Consulate in Boston, are taking part in a support initiative for Oaxaca Mexico, which was struck by several earthquakes in September.