With its acclaimed conservatory students, talented faculty and appreciative audiences, Longy School of Music is a newsmaker in Greater Boston and on the world stage. Below are select recent features and news stories, demonstrating the expansive activity of Longy’s musical community.
2008
April 20, 2008 — Marlboro College
Robert Merfeld performs at Vermont college
This concert features pianist Robert Merfeld, a faculty member at Longy School of Music, who has performed internationally as a soloist and with orchestras and chamber music ensembles.
April 19, 2008 — The Boston Globe
Fostering community
Other organizations often lease facilities at Longy for events, such as this group that presented music on a glass harmonica, an instrument based on an invention of Benjamin Franklin.
April 17, 2008 — Danville (Virginia) Register
Countertenor has eye on Longy’s opera program
An accomplished soloist with the Morgan State University Choir in Baltimore is thinking about coming to the “esteemed Longy School of Music” to pursue a degree in opera.
April 11, 2008 — The Boston Globe
Quartet embraces vibe of playing in a club
This article announces the Pacifica Quartet’s first-of-its-kind performance in a new venue— “Longy at the Regattabar” — which also featured Longy faculty pianist Wayman Chin in a Dvorak quintet and four Longy graduate students, who joined Pacifica in a Mendelssohn octet.
April 11, 2008 — The Boston Globe
No conductors need apply
Longy faculty violist Roger Tapping performs with A Far Cry, a conductor-less group that includes several alumni and students from Longy School of Music, where they held a concert April 19.
April 5, 2008 — Winchester Star
Bach, Crumb and Kessler featured works at cello recital
Cellist Pamela Ambrose, showcased in this performance, is originally from Seattle, Wash., and received her B.A. in cello from Longy School of Music. She is now on the faculty of Winchester Community Music School.
April 4, 2008 — Baltimore Sun
Acclaimed quartet plays at Wilde Lake
Performing 90 concerts per year around the world, members of the Pacifica Quartet are outstanding ambassadors for Longy School of Music, where they are serving a four-year residency as visiting artists in chamber music.
April 3, 2008 — Washington Post
Second cast of “Rigoletto” proves to be first-rate
JiYoung Lee, who received her graduate degree in voice from Longy School of Music in 2003, stepped in to sing in the Washington National Opera’s performance of Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” capturing this review: “The Korean soprano was angelic, with radiant sound in the aria ‘Caro nome's’ high pianissimos and impressive pyrotechnic control.”
March 29, 2008 — Brookline Tab
Kegel named artistic director of children’s chorus
Alysoun Kegel, a master’s student in the Dalcroze department at Longy School of Music, is the new artistic director of the PALS Children's Chorus, considered “one of the nation’s premier treble-voice ensembles,” and housed at the Lincoln School in Brookline.
March 26, 2008 — The Boston Globe
Dr. Joseph Horner, 73; inventor indulged love of chamber music
This farewell to Dr. Joseph Horner, a member of the Board of Trustees at Longy School of Music, reports his two great loves — inventing things and chamber music: “He knew the ins and outs of four instruments and relaxed by playing chamber music for hours on end.”
March 18, 2008 — The Boston Phoenix
Is there a pianist in the house?
At the last minute, Anton Kuerti, an Austrian/Canadian pianist who studied at Longy School of Music, stepped in to play for the debut of one of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s two new assistant conductors, his son Julian.
March 3, 2008 — Columbia Missourian
Robert Shay, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the conservatory at Longy School of Music, is named the new director of the School of Music at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
March 2, 2008 — Press-Register (Mobile, Alabama)
Jayne West performs with Mobile Symphony in Mahler No. 4
Soprano Jayne West, a member of the voice faculty at Longy School of Music, describes the challenges of waiting to enter the third movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, which must flow seamlessly into the concluding fourth movement.
February 29, 2008 — Amherst Bulletin
Valley mourns Musicorda founder
Leopold "Terry" Teraspulsky, who founded the Musicorda Chamber Music Festival based at Mount Holyoke College, was a professor emeritus of music at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and also previously served on the faculty of Longy School of Music.
February 23, 2008 — The Boston Globe
Boston Symphony Orchestra goes chamber as Levine returns
The page turner shown with pianist Peter Serkin in this photo of a BSO concert is Longy alumnus and violinist Michael Winer '06, who works in Concert Hall Services at Longy School of Music.
February 18, 2008 — Utica Observer-Dispatch
Pacifica Quartet at Colgate University
Performing worldwide, including this concert at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., the Pacifica Quartet also illuminates the international stature of Longy, where the ensemble is serving a four-year residency as Visiting Artists in Chamber Music.
February 15, 2008 — The Boston Globe
He was eclectic before eclecticism was cool
Announcing a program presented at Longy School of Music of William Bolcom's violin and piano works, this article highlights the Michigan-based composer’s stylistic range as a “master of both ragtime piano and cabaret songs.”
Feburary 14, 2008 — Brattleboro Reformer
Duo plays Bartok at Marlboro College
Robert Merfeld, a member of the piano and chamber music faculties at Longy School of Music and Boston and Harvard universities, performed the works of Hungarian composer Bela Bartok in this concert with violinist Bayla Keyes at Marlboro College, Vermont.
February 9, 2008 — The Boston Globe
Longy pianist solos with Boston Symphony Orchestra
Performing the “Petite Symphonie Concertante" by Swiss composer Frank Martin with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, pianist Randall Hodgkinson, a member of the Longy faculty, was among three soloists, also including a harpsichordist and harpist, who “brought out this music's graceful flow and elegant sense of gesture.”
February 8, 2008 — The Boston Globe
An avant-garde thinker takes a turn with a trio
Longy faculty saxophonist Charles Kohlhase is showcased in this feature about “a trio where the unusual instrumentation, with overlapping saxes and no rhythm section, creates a warm, contemplative sound through an elegant balance of melodic elements and free improvisation, as well as judicious use of quiet.”
February 7, 2008 — Winchester Star
“Kaleidoscope” connects fragmented worlds
Led by Adriana Ausch, a Dalcroze eurhythmics instructor at Longy, this special program—presented at Winchester Community Music School for children during school vacation week— connects words, music, dance and visual arts through creative games.
February 1, 2008 — The New York Times
Finding a tangle of knots, untying them smoothly
This landmark concert presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York City, showcased the five string quartets of the luminary composer Elliott Carter, a Longy alumnus who turns 100 this year, played by the Pacifica Quartet, who are serving a residency at Longy: “Their performances were filled with vigor, humor, delicacy and swing.”
SummerPlus 2008 (published in January) — The Strad
In the Beginning
Among music visionaries highlighted in this major feature on summer festivals that have shaped successful chamber ensembles is Longy cellist Terry King, who with Laura Bossert, also on Longy’s faculty, co-founded LyricaFest. This New Jersey festival was the springboard for the critically acclaimed Haussman Quartet, which includes three Longy graduates—violinist Isaac Allen ’04, Bram Goldstein ’04 and cellist Yuan Zhang ’03’05. To download PDF, click here.
January 2008 — Accent
Longy student wins international piano competition
Conservatory student Dizhou Zhao, of China, who studies at Longy with Victor Rosenbaum, won the 2nd Biennial Louisiana International Piano Competition in October, as highlighted in Yamaha’s magazine. Zhao will perform at Carnegie Hall during the 2007-08 season and with the St. Peterburg Symphony in Russia. To download PDF, click here.
January 2008 — Muso magazine (United Kingdom)
Another level: Longy among top schools for advanced performance training
In this major feature, Michelle Vachon, a 26-year-old mezzo-soprano who received a master’s degree at Longy, says that continuing in a two-year Graduate Performance Diploma (GPD) program allows her to apply finishing touches to her voice training.
Click here to download PDF.
January 24, 2008 — The Newburyport Daily News
Early Music chair is guest harpsichordist with Symphony by the Sea
Harpsichordist Frances Conover Fitch, chair of Longy’s Early Music Department, joins the Symphony by the Sea for Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major," which features a 65-measure harpsichord cadenza to conclude the first movement.
January 19, 2008 — Massachusetts American String Teachers Association
Reflections on the Carl Flesch Symposium: His Teaching and Influence
Clayton Hoener, associate chair of Longy’s Strings Department, provides a lively review of the symposium: “It was an exciting event with the buzz of something highly anticipated. History was present in Pickman Hall those two days, a small, yet significant sliver of time and an opportunity to gather, celebrate, and immerse one’s self in pedagogical practice as promulgated by Carl Flesch.”
January 3, 2008 — Houston Chronicle
Longy alumnae has lead role in “Phantom — The Las Vegas Spectacular''
In a musical that jump-started her performing career, Kristen Hertzenberg, a 2003 opera graduate of Longy, plays “Christine” in the Las Vegas production of “Phantom,'' which opened in June 2006 at The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.
January 2008 — Opera News
Key ingredient
Brian Moll, chairman of Longy’s Collaborative Piano Department, interviews renowned pianist Julius Drake, identified as a "genuine musical partner” in this article describing the intimate collaboration of singers and accompanists that inspires superb performances.
2007
December 2007 — The Juilliard Journal
All about Elliott
Elliott Carter, who studied music at Longy and became a member of the Juilliard faculty, will be honored at a special festival at Juilliard, scheduled January 25 to February 2, 2008, in celebration of his approaching 100th birthday and life as a prominent 20th-century American composer.
December 30, 2007 — The Boston Globe
Comings and goings
The arrival of Karen Zorn as Longy’s president is among notable changes in the Boston area’s arts community in 2007.
December 30, 2007 — The Boston Globe
Year’s “best in arts”
Music critic Jeremy Eichler highlights Karen Zorn’s appointment as president and the Pacifica Quartet’s residency at Longy among 2007’s top achievements in Boston’s buzzing classical music scene.
December 27, 2007 — The Boston Globe
Harvard professor passionate about biology and music
John Pappenheimer is remembered for his dynamic teaching of physiology and his love of classical music and the cello, which he often played with Longy students.
December 23, 2007 — The Boston Globe
Longy musicians in sync with Harvard knitters
During the holidays, Longy conservatory students serenaded customers at the busy Harvard Square Post Office while Harvard students knitted wool scarves to donate to homeless shelters.
December 18, 2007 — The Boston Phoenix
Ida Haendel’s “breath-stopping” Bach
At a Longy symposium for legendary violinist/pedagogue Carl Flesch, one of Flesch’s most notable students, Ida Haendel, gave “one of the most breath-stopping violin performances” the music critic had ever heard.
December 4, 2007 —The Justice (Brandeis University)
Renaissance man conducts his own career
Nicholas Brown, who is studying conducting at Longy and music history at Brandeis, also manages choruses, plays the French horn and is involved in theater productions.
November 30, 2007 — Rocky Mountain News
“In the Company of Angels”
Soprano Cristi Catt, a Longy faculty member, is interviewed in advance of a holiday concert with a creative angel theme, performed in Denver by the Boston-based vocal group Tapestry, of which she is a founding member.
November 16, 2007 — WGBH 89.7FM
Broadcast of Pacifica Quartet and Karen Zorn (soundtrack)
In this live one-hour WGBH radio program, Longy President Karen Zorn shares her vision for Longy, “a very optimistic school,” and the Pacifica Quartet performs two high-energy quartets by Mendelssohn and Hindemith.
November 13, 2007 — The Lexington Minuteman
Live at Longy
Photographed with Karen Zorn at her presidential inauguration are Board of Trustees chairman Bonny Boatman of Waban, Mass., and trustees Charlotte Hall of Martha’s Vineyard and Joan Griscom of Lexington.
November 11, 2007 — Green Bay Press
Longy president is Wisconsin town’s pride
Among hundreds of people to attend Karen Zorn’s inauguration on November 4 was Connie Kramer, band director at Lena (Wisconsin) High School and Zorn’s former bassoon teacher, who describes the day-long festivities in Cambridge.
November 2, 2007 — The Boston Globe
Long road to Longy
With her inauguration as Longy School of Music's 10th president, pianist and arts administrator Karen Zorn continues a legacy begun in 1915 by renowned oboist Georges Longy to train outstanding musicians who perform around the globe.
November 2, 2007 — Opera News
Longy’s Wayman Chin reviews Boston Lyric Opera
In addition to serving as chair of the Chamber Music Department and Longy’s artistic adviser, Wayman Chin reviews opera performances. He is a colorful and gusty writer, as evidenced by this excerpt: “She has real presence; if she can learn to trust in it, rather than eating the scenery.”
October 26, 2007 — The Boston Globe
“Curious George Goes to Music School”
Ticket demand was so vigorous for this children’s show that Longy added an impromptu same-day performance, the first of four in Longy’s 2007–08 popular Family Series.
October 20, 2007 — The Boston Globe
Pacifica Quartet gains a toehold in Boston
Described in this concert review as “confident interpreters of the standard repertoire and also fearless exponents of contemporary music,” the Pacifica Quartet is serving a four-year Visiting Artists in Chamber Music residency at Longy, which “is wise to have recruited them.”
October 7, 2007 — The Boston Globe
Trickle-down fiddling celebrates Carl Flesch
Three pillars of the violin world who trained with the legendary Carl Flesch — Roman Totenberg, Eric Rosenblith and Ida Haendel — participate in a two-day Longy symposium that recounts Flesch’s life and renowned teaching techniques.
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