Faculty Notes

Associate Professor and trumpeter Tiger Okoshi led the Berklee Scholarship Jazz Quartet in a May appearance at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. It was the fourth annual performance by a Berklee student group at the club.

Guitar Professor Charles Chapman released Come Sunset, an album consisting of nine solo guitar pieces and five with guitar, bass, and violin. Backup players included Bass Department Chair Rich Appleman, Jesse Williams (bass), Paula Zeitlin (violin), Mark Small (guitar), and instructor Steve Hunt mastered it. Chapman also performed at the Kirkmichael International Guitar Festival in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Professor Peter Cokkinias played bass clarinet in a live performance with the New England Conservatory Faculty Clarinet Ensemble that aired on WGBH-FM as part of the International Clarinet and Saxophone World Chamberfest.

Voice instructor Jerome Kyles wrote and produced music for the CD Joyful Noyze recorded by his gospel group Jerome Kyles & Divinity.

Associate Professor and singer Lisa Thorson participated in June’s Sant’Elpidio Jazz Workshop and Festival in Sant’Elpidio a Mare, Marche, Italy, with faculty members Greg Burk (piano), Lello Molinari (bass), Jon Hazilla (drums), Garrison Fewell (guitar), and Rick DiMuzio (saxophone). Thorson also released the CD Out to Sea with pianist Cho Yoon Seung ’00. Visit her web site at www.lisathorson.com.

Assistant Professor Gaye Tolan Hatfield released her CD Smooth Around the Edges, which spotlights her vocals, flute, and percussion performances on 11 original songs. The disc includes faculty members Dave Buda (bass), Ken Cervenka (trumpet), and Dino Govoni (saxophone), as well as husband Brad Hatfield ’75 (keyboards), and alumni Jon Chase ’74 (drums), Peter Murray ’78 and Dave Mann (saxophones), and guitarists Berndt Schoenhart ’91 and Judson Crane ’00.

Associate Professor and guitarist Lauren Passarelli and vocalist Cindy Brown ’83 released Two Tru’s Shadow Language with backing from faculty members Sandra Kott and Thaddeus Hogarth, as well as alumni Mark Kohler ’82, Sarah Burrill ’77, Kimberly Rullo ’91, and Leni Stern ’80. The disc features 16 original songs and is available online at www.feather-records.com.

Al Kooper’s band the Funky Faculty, featuring Tom Stein (bass), Bob Doezema (guitar), Larry Finn (drums), Scott DeOgburn (trumpet), and Daryl Lowery (sax), played at the Whaling Blues Festival in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and in Detroit in September. Tom Stein is managing the judging again for this year’s John Lennon Songwriting Contest.

Associate Professor and pianist Jennifer Elowsky-Fox released her debut solo piano CD Pictures and Images on Shader Gator Productions. The CD features compositions by Debussy, Bolcom, Janacek, and local composer Stephen Halloran and is available online at www.madeintheshademusic.com.

Associate Professor and pianist Laszlo Gardony performed at the Cambridge River Festival in June with Associate Professor Stan Strickland and vocalist Shelley Neill. He also played at the W.C. Handy Music Festival, at the California Worldfest with String Chair Matt Glaser’s group, and with the David “Fathead” Newman Quartet in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Music Therapy Chair Dr. Suzanne Hanser has been elected to a three-year term as president of the World Federation of Music Therapy.

Associate Professor and vocalist Kris Adams released her second CD Weaver of Dreams on Jazzbird Records, which is available at www.krisadams.com. It features arrangements of standards by Adams and Ear Training Chair Steve Prosser. Tim Ray (piano) and faculty members Matt Marvuglio (flute), Greg Hopkins (trumpet), Dino Govoni (saxophone), Paul Del Nero (bass), Bob Tamagni (drums), played on the disc.

Assistant Professor and steel drum player Ron Reid performed in a Lincoln Center jazz concert entitled Pan-o-rama with Othello Molineax, Vincent Herring, and David Williams.

Associate Professor Sheila Katz is on sabbatical this semester and is a scholar-in-residence at Brandeis University, where she will complete her book Women and Gender in Early Palestinian and Jewish Nationalism.

Associate Professor Dick Lowell was the musical director, arranger, and conductor for vocalist Ida Zecco’s CD Better to Have Loved.

Professor Anne Peckham recently presented voice clinics at the New Park Music School in Dublin, Ireland, and at the MENC National Conference in Nashville, TN.

Pianist and Assistant Professor John Arcaro performed with vocalist Toni Ballard and trumpeter/vocalist Christine Fawson ’02 at the Jazz in July series at Boston’s Downtown Crossing. For their Ryles date, they added Associate Professor Bob Kaufman (drums) and Todd Baker (bass).

Associate Professor Fred Bouchard visited northern Spain’s Basque country to cover the 26th Annual Vitoria Jazz Festival for Down Beat and Bar and Beverage Business magazines.

Rittor Music of Japan released Assistant Professor Dave Limina’s instructional book, CD, and DVD titled Accelerate Your Keyboard Playing. Limina cowrote Instant Keyboard with former Piano Department Chair Paul Schmeling and a second book titled The Hammond Organ Complete: Tunes, Tones and Techniques for Berkee Press.

Assistant Professor Sky Traughber helped to negotiate and sign saxophonist and Associate Professor Walter Beasley to a multi-album record deal with N-Coded Music. Assistant Professor Maggie Lange handled the legal details.

Assistant Professor Lori Landay presented papers and participated in panel discussions on literature and digital media in Boston, Denver, Colorado, and Glasgow, Scotland. She is presently writing a book titled The Jazz Age: Modernism, Jazz, and American Culture in the 1920s.

Voice Department faculty members Jude Crossen and Adriana Balic collaborated to write and perform original music for an independent film entitled Screenwriter. The film premiered last summer at the Woods Hole Film Festival in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

General Education Professor Peter Gardner presented a series of lectures and workshops at the Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland last summer.

Associate Professor Neil Leonard is creating sound works for two media installations; one is located in Japan and the other in Italy.

Associate Professor Wayne Naus played the national anthem on trumpet at Fenway Park for two Boston Red Sox games.

Associate Professor Gabrielle Goodman sang with Marcus Miller and Terence Blanchard at the Wilmington Jazz Festival with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra conducted by her brother David Bunn ’83. Goodman also sang backup on Patti Labelle’s mini tour last summer.

Associate Professor Armsted Christian wrote  arrangements for two John Coltrane compositions performed at the 25th annual John Coltrane Memorial Concert held in September at Northeastern University.

An excerpt of Assistant Professor Amy Merrill’s play Cigarettes and Whiskey was published in the September 2002 Journal of Popular Music Studies.

Assistant Professor Tony Hoover was named president of the National Council of Acoustical Consultants. A Philadelphia-area studio for which Hoover was the acoustical consultant was featured in the August issue of MIX magazine. Hoover chairs the Acoustical Society of America’s Technical Committee on Architectural Acoustics.

Professor Richard Boulanger was featured in RAM and Electronic Musician magazines in articles about the development of Csound. Boulanger has been invited to be a judge for a RAM-sponsored music competition.

Assistant Professor and bassist John Funkhouser appeared in July on NBC’s “Today Show” backing 10-year-old autistic jazz piano prodigy Matt Savage.