Month: January 2024

Curtis Mourns the Passing of Clara O’Brien (Opera ’87)

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The Curtis community mourns the loss of esteemed opera singer and alumna Clara O’Brien (Opera ’87), professor of voice at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Admired for her “exquisite mezzo timbre and flawless vocal technique” (Opernwelt) as for her “towering acting ability” (Die Welt), Ms. O’Brien was known for her unusually large vocal and stylistic range. She received her Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music, her Master of Music degree and performer’s certificate from the Eastman School of Music, and completed her opera training at the Curtis Institute of Music, followed by a year’s residency with Chicago’s Lyric Opera Center for American Artists.

Her international career began when she was awarded the Sonderpreis des Badischen Staatstheaters—a prize created especially for her at the first International Coloratura Competition by Sylvia Geszty in Stuttgart, Germany. Shortly thereafter, Ms. O’Brien began appearing regularly on opera stages throughout Germany, Luxembourg, France, and Switzerland; and in Chicago and Dallas.

An award-winning interpreter of art song, she won the Grand Prix Paul Derenne and International Concours de chant de Paris. In Germany, her performances of late-Romantic and Modernist German lieder garnered critical praise. Ms. O’Brien can be heard on various recordings, including releases on the Bella Musica, Metiér, Ablaze, and Albany Records labels, and she was recorded and broadcast on Southwest German radio and television and NPR.

In 2003, she began teaching at UNC Greensboro and continued to perform regularly and give master classes in the United States and Europe. She also served as the co-director of À la carte, a concert series of eclectic music, alongside her husband Dr. Lance Hulme, professor of music at North Carolina Central University.

Our heartfelt sympathies and condolences go out to Ms. O’Brien’s family, friends, colleagues, and her students.

Photos of Clara O’Brien courtesy of Ablaze Records.

Curtis Symphony Orchestra Presents “Beethoven, Ortiz, and Barber” on January 27

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Press Contacts:
Patricia K. Johnson | patricia.johnson@curtis.edu | (215) 717-3190
Ryan Scott Lathan | ryan.lathan@curtis.edu | (215) 717-3145

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PHILADELPHIA, PA—January 3, 2024—The Curtis Symphony Orchestra returns to Verizon Hall on the Kimmel Cultural Campus for its second concert of the 2023–24 season on Saturday, January 27, at 3 p.m. with “Beethoven, Ortiz, and Barber.” Acclaimed conductor Michael Stern (’86) leads Curtis’s gifted young musicians in an afternoon of extraordinary emotional contrasts. The program opens with the Philadelphia premiere of Latin GRAMMY®-nominated composer Gabriela Ortiz’s kaleidoscopic Kauyumari (“The Blue Deer”) under the baton of first-year student Benoit Gauthier, Curtis’s Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow. A rhythmic tour-de-force, this thrilling work follows the hoofed blue spiritual guide of the Huichol people of Mexico on a peyote-fueled journey through the invisible world as they communicate with their ancestors, heal the wounds of the soul, and serve as guardians of the planet.

The concert continues with legendary 20th-century composer and Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber’s (’34) soaring First Symphony (in One Movement)— a muscular, lyrical piece that packs a powerful wallop within the span of 20 minutes, condensing the dramatic intensity, delicacy, and sweeping grandeur of a traditional four-movement symphony into one. The final piece of the concert, Ludwig van Beethoven’s transcendent Violin Concerto in D major, features the exquisite artistry of internationally renowned violinist Pamela Frank (’89), Herbert R. and Evelyn Axelrod Chair in Violin Studies at Curtis, and winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize. Opening with a quiet whisper, the concerto is one of classical music’s most intimate, impassioned masterpieces, a revolutionary work that combines blazing virtuosity with the elegance of a traditional symphonic structure.

Conductor Michael Stern has long been devoted to building and leading highly acclaimed orchestras known not only for their impeccable musicianship and creative programming, but also for collaborative, sustainable cultures that often include a vision of music as service to the community. Stern currently holds three music director positions: with the Kansas City Symphony, where he concludes his 19-year tenure at the end of this season; with the National Repertory Orchestra, a summer music festival in Breckenridge, Colorado; and with the newly rebranded Orchestra Lumos (formerly the Stamford Symphony). Stern was recently named artistic advisor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. And, following a 22-year tenure as founding artistic director of Iris Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee, he now serves the newly reimagined Iris Collective as artistic advisor.

As part of his ongoing activities to engage and mentor young musicians, he was asked by Yo-Yo Ma to be the music director of YMCG, Youth Music Culture Guangdong; he was also invited to the National Orchestral Institute, Music Academy of the West, and has been a regular guest at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Stern’s illustrious American conducting engagements have included the Boston, Chicago, and Atlanta Symphonies; the New York Philharmonic; and the Minnesota Orchestra. Stern has also served as guest conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Internationally, he has led major orchestras in London, Stockholm, Paris, Helsinki, Budapest, Israel, Moscow, Taiwan, and Tokyo. He was chief conductor of Germany’s Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Orchestre National de Lille, both in France.

Stern received his music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his primary teacher was the noted conductor and scholar Max Rudolf.

Pamela Frank, a 1989 Curtis graduate, has established an outstanding international reputation across an unusually varied range of performing activity. She has performed regularly with today’s most distinguished soloists and ensembles, including the orchestras of Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Baltimore; the Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Israel philharmonics; the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; and the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zürich.
As a recitalist, she has performed in the major cities of the world. A sought-after chamber musician, she has appeared at many international festivals, including Aldeburgh, Verbier, Edinburgh, Salzburg, Tanglewood, Marlboro, and Ravinia. Her chamber music projects include performances with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, the late Peter Serkin, and her father, the late pianist Claude Frank; and frequent appearances with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Musicians from Marlboro. In 1999 she was awarded a coveted Avery Fisher Prize.

With Claude Frank, she recorded the complete Beethoven sonata cycle for Music Masters Classics and an all-Schubert disc. For Sony Classical, Ms. Frank recorded the Chopin Piano Trio and Schubert Trout Quintet with Mr. Ax and Mr. Ma. On Decca she has recorded all of the Mozart violin concertos, the Dvorak concerto, and, with Peter Serkin, the complete Brahms sonata cycle.

Since 2008 Ms. Frank has been the artistic director of the Evnin Rising Stars, a mentoring program for young artists at Caramoor Center for the Arts. Her newest venture is the formation of Fit as a Fiddle Inc., a collaboration with physical therapist Howard Nelson in which they use both their expertise for injury prevention and treatment of musicians. Ms. Frank joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1996.

Acclaimed for its “otherworldly ensemble and professional level of sophistication” (The New York Times), the Curtis Symphony Orchestra offers a dynamic showcase of tomorrow’s exceptional young talent. Each year the 100 extraordinary musicians of the orchestra work with internationally renowned conductors, including Osmo Vänskä, Vladimir Jurowski, Marin Alsop, Simon Rattle, Robert Spano, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who also mentors the early-career conductors who hold Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellowships. This professional training has enabled Curtis alumni to assume prominent positions in America’s leading orchestras, as well as esteemed orchestral, opera, and chamber ensembles around the world.

The Curtis Symphony Orchestra returns to Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Cultural Campus on Saturday, March 9, at 3 p.m., with “Ra, Mackey, Tchaikovsky,” with conductor Robert Spano (’85). The concert includes two world premieres, Te Deum by James Ra (’04) and Steven Mackey’s Aluminum Flowers for solo electric guitar and orchestra, featuring the jaw-dropping virtuosity of guitarist Jiji (’15). To learn more about these performances, as well as the Curtis Opera Theatre, Ensemble 20/21 concerts, Curtis Recital Series, and more, visit Curtis.edu/Calendar.

Single tickets for “Beethoven, Ortiz, and Barber” start at $19 and are available for purchase at Curtis.edu. The flexible Choose Your Own subscription option offers 25% off ticket prices when purchasing tickets to two or more performances. To order a subscription, visit Curtis.edu/Subscribe, call (215) 893-7902, or email tickets@curtis.edu.

 

Curtis Symphony Orchestra
The Jack Wolgin Orchestral Concerts

Beethoven, Ortiz, and Barber
Saturday, January 27 at 3:00 p.m.
Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center; Broad and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia

Michael Stern, conductor (’86)
Benoit Gauthier, Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow
Pamela Frank, violin (’89)
Curtis Symphony Orchestra

GABRIELA ORTIZ Kauyumari
SAMUEL BARBER (’34) First Symphony (in One Movement), Op. 9
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61

Orchestral concerts are supported by the Jack Wolgin Curtis Orchestral Concerts Endowment Fund.

Guest conductor appearances for each Curtis Symphony Orchestra performance are made possible by the Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser Chair in Conducting Studies.

 

About the Curtis Institute of Music
At Curtis, the world’s most talented young musicians develop into exceptional artists, creators, and innovators. With a tuition-free foundation, Curtis is a unique environment for teaching and learning. A small school by design, students realize their artistic potential through intensive, individualized study with the most renowned, sought-after faculty. Animated by a learn-by-doing philosophy, Curtis students share their music with audiences through more than 100 performances each year, including solo and chamber recitals, orchestral concerts, and opera—all free or at an affordable cost—offering audiences unique opportunities to participate in pivotal moments in these young musicians’ careers. Curtis students experience a close connection to the greatest artists and organizations in classical music, and innovative initiatives that integrate new technologies and encourage entrepreneurship—all within a historic campus in the heart of culturally rich Philadelphia. In this diverse, collaborative community, Curtis’s extraordinary artists challenge, support, and inspire one another—continuing an unparalleled 100-year legacy of musicians who have led, and will lead, classical music into a thriving, equitable, and multidimensional future. Learn more at Curtis.edu.

Photo credits: 1. & 4.) The Curtis Symphony Orchestra; Matt Genders Photography. 2.) Conductor Michael Stern; Jennifer Taylor, courtesy of Kirshbaum Associates Inc. 3.) Violinist Pamela Frank; Nicolas Lieber.

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Student Spotlight: Adrian Wong

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“To sit in chamber and orchestra rehearsals where they’re playing my music and trying to sort of coach them or tease this idea out of them that matches with mine, I think that’s one of the things I enjoy the most about writing new music and working with musicians who are playing new music.”

Award-winning composer and Curtis masters student Adrian Wong began playing piano at age four, choral singing at fourteen, and composing at sixteen. The Hong Kong native entered Curtis in 2021 and studies with Richard Danielpour, Nick DiBerardino, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Steven Mackey, and is the Milton L. Rock Composition Fellow. Winner of the 2021 American Prize in Composition in the shorter choral works category (student division), he won first prize in the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild’s New Generation 2019 composition competition, and has been published by G. Schirmer | Hal Leonard under the Eugene Rogers Choral Series.

Mr. Wong studied privately with Dr. Jennifer Higdon, who served on the faculty at Curtis for many years. She suggested he apply to the school, and was the main reason he pursued his compositional studies here. A proponent of contemporary music and works about current issues, he likes to dispel the misconception that all new classical music sounds like Schoenberg and Stravinsky, noting that the field is broad, and there are modern composers who are incorporating EDM, pop, rock, and other genres in their compositions. Once a member of a rock band, he grew up playing soccer and continues to play pickup at Penn Park in Philadelphia twice a week between his studies at Curtis.

Photos of Mr. Wong courtesy of the artist’s official website.

Sound Off: Headshots

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Read the article HERE.
By Brian Wise

From styling to angles and approachability, five members of the Curtis community—from artists and alumni to a vocal faculty member—discuss what musicians should look for in professional headshots.

From the Fall 2023 Issue

Curtis Mourns Former Trumpet Faculty Member Frank Kaderabek

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Curtis mourns the loss of renowned orchestral trumpeter and the school’s former longtime faculty member Frank John Kaderabek, who passed away on December 28, 2023, at age 94, in East Falls, Pennsylvania. A Curtis faculty member from 1975 to 2007, he remains the longest-serving trumpet faculty member in the school’s history.

Born in Cicero, Illinois, in 1929 to Czech immigrants—his father a butcher and mother a seamstress, Mr. Kaderabek’s first love was the violin. While his mother wanted him to play accordion for Czech parties, his parents compromised when a family friend offered to provide lessons and an instrument in middle school. His lessons continued at Morton High School, and he played in Big Bands, polka bands, and Czech dances. In 1946, at age 17, he began studying with Edward Masacek, a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s trumpet section since the early 1920s.

In the fall of 1948, he received a scholarship to attend Chicago Music College (now the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University), where he served as a member of the Chicago Musical College Chorus, and a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago during the ensemble’s 1949–50 season. As the Korean War broke out in 1950, he spent the war years as the solo cornet at the West Point Military Academy. During this period, he studied with Nat Prager and Harry Glantz from the New York Philharmonic.

He served as principal trumpet of the Dallas Symphony (1953–58), associate principal trumpet in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner (1958–66), principal trumpet of the Detroit Symphony (1966–75), and finally as principal trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra (1975–95), a position he held until his retirement. Mr. Kaderabek was on the faculty at Curtis for over three decades, and he also taught at West Chester University, Oakland University, University of Michigan, and Temple University. Following his retirement, he continued to practice the trumpet every day, and he enjoyed woodworking, refinishing old furniture, collecting model trains, visiting flea markets, and reading. A lifelong student, he began piano lessons in his late eighties.

The Curtis community extends its deepest sympathy and condolences to Mr. Kaderabek’s wife Mary; his children; close friends; family members, colleagues, and students.

Read tributes to Mr. Kaderabek by the International Trumpet Guild and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. To learn more about how to attend the celebration of life and reception on January 6 for Mr. Kaderabek or to join virtually, click HERE.

Photos of Frank Kaderabek courtesy of William Langley Photographers and Legacy.com. Photo of Mr. Kaderabek with student Christopher Konfirst (Trumpet ’05), taken in 2004 by David DeBalko, courtesy of Curtis Archives.