Motifs: July 2024
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Annie Fullard (IAC/NMC 76, IAC Fac 16-17) was recently announced as the incoming Director of Chamber Music at The Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University. A violinist and founding member of the Cavani Quartet, Fullard will join the Peabody faculty in Fall 2024.
Phyllis Weliver (IAC/NMC 76-77, 79-86; IAA 82-86; IAC St 86-89, 91-92, 94-96, 98-00; ICA St 92-94), a professor at Saint Louis University, will be a Macgeorge Fellow at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and, jointly, a 2024 Sugden Fellow at Queen's College, University of Melbourne, Australia. As historical consultant for Zadie Smith's The Fraud (2023), Weliver recently enjoyed a rare opportunity for a researcher to support the authenticity of a modern novel.
Dermot Mulroney (IAC/NMC 79) and Jackson Rathbone (IAA 01-03) will star in Phil Blattenberger’s forthcoming crime thriller Laws of Man.
Lilly Schwartz (IAA 82-84, IAC St 89) recently joined the Presidio Theatre as executive and artistic director. Schwartz comes to Presidio after more than 10 years as the artistic director of SFJAZZ.
Michael Arden (IAC 99, IAA 99-01, IAC St 01) will direct the Broadway premiere of the new musical Maybe Happy Ending at the Belasco Theatre this fall. The musical—which features music by Will Aronson, lyrics by Hue Park, and a book by both Aronson and Park—will star Emmy Award-winning actor Darren Criss and Helen J Shen. Dane Laffrey (IAA 99-01, IAC St 01) will design the set and additional video.
César Alvarez (IAA 97-99) recently released their debut album, egg. Alvarez, who currently serves as assistant professor of music at Dartmouth College, performed songs from the album at Joe’s Pub in New York City on May 25, 2024.
Obadiah Baker (IAC 98, IAA 99-01) won the Great Lakes Emmy Award for Best Musical Composition/Arrangement for the PBS documentary The Shadow Between Us. The film received four total nominations and received two awards. Baker recently graduated from Drexel University with an Ed.D. in Leadership and Management with a concentration in Creativity and Innovation.
Alexis Michelle (IAC 97-00, IAA 00-02) starred as Albin in a production of La Cage aux Folles at Barrington Stage Company in the Berkshires.
Keitaro Harada (IAA 02-04, IAC 03) was recently appointed director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Harada will act as the Music and Artistic Director Designate during the 2024-25 season before taking the helm in 2025. Harada joins three fellow Arts Camp and Arts Academy alumni—violinists Kristin Greenlaw-Gibson (IAA 87-89, IAC St 90-91) and William Manley (IAA 86-90) and tubist Timothy Northcut (IAC/NMC 78)—who are musicians in the orchestra.
Austin Stewart (IAA 02-05) will join the Aspen Music Festival and School as the next vice president for advancement. Dr. Stewart will join the senior management and work closely with that team, President & CEO Alan Fletcher, and the Board of Trustees on strategic planning, operations, and oversight of philanthropic programs to advance the goals of the AMFS.
Mikio Sasaki (IAC 05, 07-08) joined the Grammy Award-nominated Canadian Brass in June. Sasaki first met fellow quintet members Chuck Daellenbach, Joe Burgstaller, and Jeff Nelsen at Interlochen Arts Camp in the summer of 2008.
Jack Schwimmer (IAC 07-08, IAC St 10-12, ICA St 15-19) was recently appointed Development Director of Rosie’s House, a free afterschool music program based in Phoenix, Arizona.
Noah Ricketts (IAA 09-10, IAC St 10) is currently starring as Nick Carraway in the Broadway production of The Great Gatsby.
Sunny (Wenxin) Liu (IAA 09-11) directed the documentary film Pianoman, which made its debut at the Atlanta Film Festival. The film follows an undocumented Mexican immigrant as he strives to achieve his dream of establishing a piano factory in Yonkers, New York. Fellow alumna Moni Guo (IAA 10-12) served as composer and music supervisor for the film. Trevor Misplay (IAC 07-08, IAA 08-12) and Gaga Won (IAC 10-11, IAA 10-12) also contributed.
Samuel Hollister (IAC 10-13, IAC St 16-17) was named the Assistant Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony under Music Director Stéphane Denève starting in September 2024. He will also be The Fred M. Saigh Youth Orchestra Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. Hollister was recommended by conductors Marin Alsop and Leonard Slatkin and chosen over three other candidates invited to audition following an international search.
Sav Buist (IAA 12-13) and Katie Larson (IAC 05, 08-12; IAA 12-14)—known professionally as The Accidentals—and Joshua Davis (IAA Fac 18-24; IAC Fac 20, 22-23) headlined the closing night of the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City on July 6, 2024.
Ada Brooks (IAA 13-15) recently won a euphonium position with the West Point Band. Brooks’ journey from audition to boot camp to first concert was chronicled in a New York Times feature written by Sarah Diamond.
Tianlu “Jerry” Xu (IAA 13-16) recently won a cello position with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Nathaniel Heyder (IAA 14-17) has been selected as one of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music’s 15 composers-in-residence. Cristian Mӑcelaru (IAA 97-99, IAC 98) and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra will rehearse Heyder’s short piece unbound: Phase 1 and present the work’s world premiere as part of the Festival’s Aug. 3 program.
Jessie Thoman (IAC Fac 15, 17) was recently appointed the inaugural associate dean of the Division of Performing Arts at Alfred University. Thoman previously served as Professor of Music at the University of Tennessee.
Vocalists Daniel Voigt (IAA 17-21), Neenah Fuste (IO 20, IAA 20-22), and Briggs Williamson (IAA 20-24) and trumpeter Dr. Curt Christensen (IAC/NMC 78-81) will perform in Opera Night at Barns of Rose Hill in Berryville, Virginia on Friday, Aug. 23. The showcase will feature a selection of arias by renowned composers.
Aspen Jacobsen (IAA 20-22) and her co-writer, Isabella Gueck, recently won the 2024 New Moon Songwriting Challenge with their song “Pray for Love.” Current Arts Academy students Zinnia Dungjen (IAA 22-) and Audrey Mason (IAC 19, IAA 22-) were runners-up in the statewide competition for Michigan songwriting duos.
Christine Keedy Brown (IAC 21-22) was a finalist for a Silver Knight Award, an honor sponsored by the Miami Herald and the Knight Foundation that celebrates academic excellence and community service projects by south Florida high school students. Brown has also received a National Merit Scholarship to study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she intends to participate in the MIT Orchestra.
