Motifs: March/April 2020
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During this difficult time, we want to celebrate those who are making our world a safer, brighter place. If you are working on the frontline of the COVID-19 crisis, checking on elderly neighbors, shopping for those in quarantine, or helping the world respond to this crisis in any way, we want to hear your stories. If you have done something to support your community, or received support from another Interlochen alumnus/na, please let us know at content@interlochen.org.
After several decades away from the harp, Carol Levin (IAC/NMC 57-62) is now back and enjoying a post-retirement career as an improvising electronic musician. She has recent album releases with the CHA Trio and Spontanea quartet (Right Brain Records), and frequently plays with experimental, jazz, and blues ensembles in Seattle. She would love to reconnect with Interlochen friends!
Carolyn Ward (IAC/NMC 63, IAA 63-65) earns her living as a realtor in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is pursuing a second career as a film/tv actor with the O'Agency. After years of singing in the University of New Mexico University Chorus and performing on stage in Albuquerque's very active community theatre scene, she is looking forward to growing her new career over the next 20 years.
Christina Britton Conroy’s (Chris Czukor - IAC/NMC 66-67, 69, IAA 67-70, IAA St 70) nonfiction book, “How to Have Fun With Your Aging Parents,” largely based on her music therapy work, won the National League of American Pen Women’s B. Marjorie Davies Roller Nonfiction Award.
Barbara Donner (IAC/NMC 73-74) is the 2019 recipient of The Del Hughes Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Art of Stage Management from the Stage Managers' Association. Barbara has been an opera stage manager for 40 years and is currently working on her 89th production with the Los Angeles Opera.
Jeff Dalton (IAA 76-79) has been named a director of the Cybersecurity Certification Accreditation Board, a Department of Defense-sponsored organization whose mission is to protect government technology and information assets from foreign and domestic attacks.
Scott Burgess (IAA 78-82) was recently appointed chief audio engineer for the Aspen Music Festival and School, a new role for his fourth season at Aspen. He continues to serve during the academic year as manager of recording labs and lecturer at the University of Colorado Denver.
Jeff Van Valer (IAC/NMC 79-81, 83, IAC St 87-90) is a neurologist and sleep medicine physician from Indiana. He serves as assistant professor of neurology at the Indiana University School of Medicine and is the author of “The Devil's Tricycle,” a self-help book about migraines, insomnia, and caffeine. He has also written two novels in a series (starting with a summer at Camp), “The Light in the Trees” and “White Birch Graffiti.” He has two children, Martha and Joe.
Production has wrapped on Helstrom, Marvel’s latest live-action television series. The series features Elizabeth Marvel (IAA 83-87, IAC/NMC 82-83) as Victoria Helstorm. The series is expected to debut on Hulu in 2021.
Teresa Anne Volgenau (IAA 89-91) has been best known as a dancer/performer on both coasts and abroad since graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy. She has served as an instructor for the Joffrey Ballet, and has worked extensively as a choreographer and actress. By 2016, she felt it was time to switch gears from her life as a performer to pursue her passion and desire as a visual artist. Working in acrylics and inks, she has developed a unique representational style that reflects her experience in dance, love of romantic gestures, and poetic connection to the metaphysical. Current showcases/installations listed on her newly launched, print-on-demand website. She continues to privately coach up-and-coming ballerinas in Denver, Colorado.
Erin Rettig (IAC/NMC 90-91) was featured recently in the March 2020 issue of Mix Magazine, highlighting his role in the recent installation of the new Meyer Bluehorn monitoring system on the Newman Scoring Stage at the Fox Studio Lot in Los Angeles, California.
Sara Maimone (IAA 97-99) has been an employee at the Ocean City School District in Ocean City, New Jersey since 2005. First hired as a one-to-one aide for a disabled student, she also directed and choreographed for the Drama Guild. Maimone then became the high school library aide and returned to Rutgers University to earn her Masters of Library and Information Science. While completing her degree, she became an administrative assistant for the Ocean City Board of Education. She has returned to the media center for the 2019-2020 school year as the librarian at the high school.
Annie Burgstede Compton (IAA 99-02) received the 2020 Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Writing on a Daytime Drama for her time served as the associate head writer of The Young and the Restless.
Alan Barnosky (IAC 03-04) recently released his latest EP, Lonesome Road. Americana UK called it “...smoothly crafted.”
RJ Magee (IAC 02-05, IAA 06-08) is the casting director for Theality TV, a reality show documenting the making of an Off-Broadway musical. The reality series wrapped filming with a final performance of the original musical Little House On The Ferry at Teatro LATEA in New York City on Feb. 15, 2020, and was followed by a reunion hosted by pop culture icon Michael Musto. Theality TV is currently being developed for various streaming platforms.
Jessica Kahkoska (IAC 07-08) and Michael Bello (IAC 07-08) are collaborating on a new musical theatre project called Letters to the President, a multi-composer musical event that explores American history through letters written to U.S. presidents. The piece premiered in 2019 at the Great Hall at the Cooper Union, and will have a world premiere production at Berkshire Theatre Group in summer 2020.
Claudillea Holloway (IAC 10, IAA 11-13) was a contestant on The Voice UK. Holloway’s blind audition, which featured her singing Mozart’s “Queen of the Night” aria from The Magic Flute, aired on Feb. 15. Holloway was a member of Meghan Trainor’s team and later joined will.i.am’s team. She made it through to the “battles” phase of the competition before being cut in the “knockouts” round.
Nathaniel Heyder (IAA 14-17) was recognized as an emerging composer in Division 2 (ages 21 and under) of Tribeca New Music’s Young Composer Competition. Other alumni receiving accolades in the competition included David Biedenbender (IAC Fac 09-10) and Stephen Karukas (IAA 14-15, IAC St 16), who earned merit awards in Division 1 (ages 22-35). Frazar Henry (IAC 14) received the honorable mention in Division 2, with fellow alumni Olivia Bennett (IAC 18) and K.R. Palka (IAC 15) joining Heyder as Division 2 emerging composer honorees.
Salvador Flores (IAC 16-17) won first prize in the North American Saxophone Alliance’s collegiate classical solo competition. Fellow alumni Philip Kleutgens (IAC Ins 17) and Charles Lilley (IAC 12-13) were also finalists in the competition’s college division. Kyle Kato (IAC Ins 19) and current Arts Academy students Zachary Costello (IAC 18-19, IAA 18-20), Taylor Simpson (IAC 19, IAA 19-20), and Josef Viramontes (IAC 19, IAA 19-20) were finalists in the high school competition.
