Alumni Spotlights

Dr. Kayoko Dan (B.M., Music Studies, ’00) has been announced, after a two year search, as the new music director at the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera.  Dan has been selected as the eighth Music Director of the CSO and the first woman to hold the position.

Kim Perlak (D.M.A., ’08) is a classical guitarist, scholar, and educator whose versatile and inclusive approach to music values new composition, multi-stylistic collaboration, the expression of American culture, and public service.

Perlak is on the faculty of Concordia University Texas, Austin Community College, and the National Guitar Workshop. 

See Perlak this Sunday, April 3^rd at 3pm at Concordia University-Texas for "Ben and I Play for Peace," an instrumental concert in the classical and jazz styles.  This concert will help raise money for disabled children in Iraq.  Suggested donations for this event are $25 for general admission and $10 for students.

Butler School of Music Alumni have joined forces with 13yr old guitarist Ben Werdegar, CNN Hero Brad Blauser, and classical musicians from across the country to purchase wheelchairs for disabled children in Iraq. This concert event, “Ben & I Play for Peace” will take place on April 3, 2011 at 3 p.m. in Austin, TX and in two “sister cities” - Denver, CO and Sarasota, FL. The proceeds will benefit Blauser’s “Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids”, adding to Ben’s personal fund raising total of $19,000 - which he raised by playing at his neighborhood coffee shop in San Francisco. This event was conceived by Austin guitarist and professor Dr. Kim Perlak (Butler School of Music - DMA 2008) after meeting Werdegar at the 2010 Verdery Guitar Masterclass in Kihei, Maui, run by critically acclaimed guitarist/composer Benjamin Verdery. The Austin program will include the world premiere of a work by composed by Verdery especially for this event. Perlak and Werdegar will be joined by additional Butler School of Music Alumni: Karla Hamelin, cello; Ellen Johnson, flute; Blythe Cates, voice; Eric Miller, bassoon; Tenly Williams, oboe; Josh Davies, trumpet; Amy Harris, violin. For ticket information and to donate, please visit: www.kimperlak.com  and click on "ben-and-i-play-for-peace". WHERE: Austin Concert: Concordia University Auditorium; Building A; 11400 Concordia Univevrsity Drive; Austin, TX 78726 - WHEN: Sunday April 3, 2011 @ 3pm  ADMISSION: Donations accepted at the door.

B. Suzanne Hassler (M.A., ’91) received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship to attend the NEA Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in fall 2010. The institute, co-directed by András Szántó and Anya Grundmann, included study with noted artistic director and author Joseph Horowitz. In addition to daily sessions taught by Columbia University faculty and invited experts, the institute included performances by Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk, René Pape, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, and the New York Philharmonic.

For more information on the NEA Arts Journalism Institute visit http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/page/217-nea-arts-journalism-institute-in-classical-music-and-opera/218.

Cherise Lukow (B.M., Music Performance, 2009) moved to Paris after graduation, and has performed as a FAVA guest artist for the city of Paris at both the l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris and la Residence de l’Ambassadeur des Etats-Unis. She was awarded the top prize for female voice in FAVA’s Grands Concours de Chant, and signed with the Added-Lewis International Artists Agency. She also received the first prize mention marked “à l’unanimité avec les félicitations du jury” at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.

Quinton Morris (D.M.A., Music, ‘08) will be making his New York City debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, January 15, 2011. Student and senior discount tickets are available. For ticket information, call 212/247-7800 or go online at www.carnegiehall.org

Hank Hehmsoth (M.M., ’76) won first place in the 2010 NACUSA Texas Composition Competition. Hehmsoth is a jazz performing artist and National Endowment for the Arts fellow. He teaches Jazz Piano/Improvisation, Composition/Arranging, Film Scoring, and Music Technology at Undergraduate and Graduate levels at Texas State University; he is also the Director of Computer Applications and is WebMaster for the School of Music.

Eric Neuville (M.M., School of Music ’08) will be performing in Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program’s upcoming production of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in April.

lives in Marlton, NJ, with his wife Diane. He is organist-choirmaster at Kemble Memorial UMC, Woodbury, NJ, and serves as Music in Worship R&S Chair for the Eastern Division of the American Choral Directors Association. Ken remains active as a choral clinician and adjudicator. He and Diane have six grandchildren, three in NJ and three in Texas.