SFSU MUSIC FACULTY

Department Chair

Patricia Taylor Lee

Graduate Coordinator

Victoria Neve

Faculty

Professors -

Ronald Caltabiano, William Corbett-Jones, Richard Festinger, William Hopkins (emeritus), Patricia Taylor Lee, Carolynn Lindeman, Victoria Neve, Wayne Peterson (emeritus), LeRoy Roach, and Dee Spencer

 

Associate Professors -

Dean Suzuki, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez

 

Assistant Professors -

Joshua Habermann, Hafez Modirzadeh

 

Applied Music Instructors -

Deborah Benedict-Jackson, Stephen Braunstein, Sara Ganz, Shinji Eshima, Karen Gottlieb, Saul Gropman, McDowell Kenley, Fred Lifsitz, Linda Lukas, Eddie Marshall, David Motto, Greg Murai, David Rosenthal, Zachariah Spellman, Wayne Wallace, Sandy Wilson, Jim Witzel, John Worley, Ge-Fang Yang, and Paul Yarbrough

 

Lecturers -

Bryan Baker, Josh Levine, Inara Morgenstern, Lisa Sanchez, James Schwabacher, Andrew Speight, David Xiques

 

Artist in Residence-

Branford Marsalis

B.A. with honors, Mills College; M.A., Yale University; D.M.A., Temple University

Pianist Patricia Taylor Lee came to SFSU from West Chester University in Pennsylvania where she was a professor of keyboard music and also served as chair of the Keyboard Department, Acting Dean of Graduate Studies, Interim Dean of the Faculty of Professional Studies, and Associate Vice-president for Academic Affairs. She also taught piano at the University of California at Davis and was pianist with the Sacramento Symphony. Professor Lee is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Alpha Iota, national music honorary; she holds the Master Teacher's Certificate of the Music Teachers' National Association. She has performed widely in solo recital, chamber music and with orchestra. Lee is the author of numerous publications for music teachers and a frequent adjudicator of state, national, and international music competitions. She has directed the CSU Summer Arts Chamber Music workshop for two summers and lectures widely on piano music, including that of her former teacher, Darius Milhaud.

Dr. Lee has served on the board of the National Piano Foundation and as a trustee of Mills College and is presently on the boards of the San Francisco Community Music Center Library and the Performing Arts Library and Museum, and Friends of Chamber Music. She was a 1990 recipient of a San Francisco State University Meritorious Performance and Professional Promise Award. In 1993 and 1994 she led music delegations to Eastern Europe and to the former Soviet Union under the auspices of People to People. She is currently a member of the Commission on Accreditation of the National Association of Schools of Music.

B.A., Stanford University; M.A. (Voice), New England Conservatory of Music

Mezzo-soprano Deborah Benedict-Jackson is active as a performer and instructor. She has performed leading roles with West Bay Opera, Berkeley Opera, and Diablo Light Opera. Ms. Benedict-Jackson, was an apprentice artist with Santa Fe Opera, Portland Opera, and Long Beach Opera. Recently, she has given recitals at Walla Walla College, Washington, San Francisco State University, and Herz Hall, U.C. Berkeley. She sang the Alto Rhapsody with the U.C. Berkeley Men's Chorus, Honegger's King David, and was soloist in Haydn's St. Theresa Mass. She is soloist at Trinity Episcopal Church, San Francisco, and directs and sings with Opera Bravo, an operatic quartet formed in 1990.

B.M., M.M., D.M.A., The Juilliard School with Vincent Persichetti and Elliott Carter. Professional studies: Peter Maxwell Davies, Elie Siegmeister, Andrew Thomas; Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (conducting), Harold Farberman (conducting)

Dr. Caltabiano's home page

Composer Ronald Caltabiano first came to international attention in the early 1980s with his String Quartet No. 1, premiered in Great Britain by the Arditti Quartet and in the United States by the Juilliard Quartet. Orchestral commissions and perforamances by the San Francisco Symphony, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the BBC Symphony, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Notable chamber works include Concerto for Six Players, commissioned by the Fires of London for their farewell performance; On the Dissonant and Rotations, both commissioned by Australian ensembles; and prominent commissions by American organizations, including the String Quartet No. 2 (Emerson Quartet), Quilt Panels (Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center), and Clarinet Quartet (consortium of new-music ensembles). Vocal works include song cycles, dramatic cantatas, and a chamber opera, Marrying the Hangman, on a text by Margaret Atwood.

Major awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation were anticipated by a number of awards from BMI and ASCAP as well as two Bearns Prizes. Since working as assistant to Aaron Copland during the last five years of that composer's life, Caltabiano served on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory before coming to SFSU.

For additional information, see his entry in the New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians

Professional Studies: University of Southern California, Juilliard School, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Academia Chigiana, Siena, Italy

Pianist William Corbett-Jones has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa, and the Far East as recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and in collaboration with internationally renowned colleagues. His concertizing in Europe has included recitals in most of the major capitals, with the Lausanne and Winterthur Orchestras in Switzerland, and the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Italy. Professor Jones has performed for the BBC, Hilversum, Basel, Lausannne, Cologne, Paris, Brussels and Istanbul radios, and has often appeared at festivals such as the Salzburg Chamber Music Festival and the Meiringen Festival in Switzerland.

Jones' repertoire extends from the Baroque to the Modern. He has presented several cycles of the Sonatas of Beethoven and Schubert, and the complete solo works of Mozart and Chopin.

Professor Corbett-Jones has held professorship at the Taiwan National Academy of Arts, La Salle College of the Arts in Singapore, the Sidney Conservatorium of Music, Australia, and most recently, the Xinjiang Normal University, the College of Fine Arts, in Urmqi, China. He also concertized and gave master classes at the Hong Kong Academy of Arts and at several universities in Taiwan.

B.A. Stanford University; M.M. The Juilliard School

Double-bassist Shinji Eshima is Assistant Principal Bass of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and a member of the San Francisco Opera and Skywalker Ranch Orchestras. He has performed as soloist with several ensembles throughout the Bay Area and has distinguished himself as a teacher.

B.M. (magna cum laude), San Francisco State University; M.A., Ph.D. (Composition), University of California at Berkeley

Composer Richard Festinger has taught Music Theory and Composition at the University of California at Berkeley and Davis, and at Dartmouth College. At San Francisco State University, he teaches Music Theory and Composition and directs the Electronic Music Studio. He is also a research affiliate of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University.

Mr. Festinger is a founding director of Earplay, the San Francisco-based contemporary music ensemble which has achieved national recognition for its performances of new American music. Mr. Festinger frequently appears as a guest conductor with the Earplay ensemble, which has presented nearly 200 new American works, including more than 70 world premieres.

Mr. Festinger was a composition student of Andrew Imbrie and Richard Feliciano. From 1978 to 1980, he studied composition in Paris as a recipient of the George Ladd Grand Prix de Paris. He studied jazz arranging and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and, before turning to serious composition, led his own groups as a jazz performer. He also studied conducting with Jeremias Kacinskas and Michael Senturia, and pursued postdoctoral studies in Computer Music at Stanford University in 1985, where he was a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Language and Information.

In recent years, Mr. Festinger's music has received performances throughout the United States and Europe. He has received commissions from the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Parnassus, Earplay, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Alexander String Quartet, and the California Association of Professional Music Teachers. His music has also been performed by such notable groups as Griffin, New Millennium, and the Wellesley Composers Conference. His compositions are published by Fallen Leaf Press of Berkeley, California and by C.F. Peters Corporation of New York, London, and Frankfurt. Two recent works, Septet and A Serenade for Six, are scheduled for release on Centaur Records. Mr. Festinger was the 1993 recipient of the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Click here to visit Richard Festinger's web site.

B.A. (With honors), University of Washington; M.M. (Harp, with honors) The Cleveland Institute of Music

Karen Gottlieb performs regularly as second harpist with the San Francisco Symphony and other Bay Area ensembles, including the California Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and Berkeley Symphony. She is also principal harpist with the prestigious Cabrillo Music Festival. In 1990 she toured with the San Francisco Symphony on their European Festival Concert Tour and in 1983 she soloed with the San Francisco Boys Chorus on their concert tour of Australia and New Zealand. Gottlieb has performed with Broadway shows such as A Chorus Line, Hello Dolly, Woman of the Year, Nine, and The Tap Dance Kid, and has accompanied contemporary singers Tony Bennett, Ann-Margaret, Neil Sedaka, Anthony Newley, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme.

B.M., M.M., Manhattan School of Music

Guitarist Saul Gropman is active as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He has performed in Europe, South America, and across the United States. Mr. Gropman has collaborated with both the Alexander and Kronos String Quartets, with tenor Paul Sperry, and has appeared as soloist with the Sacramento Symphony, New York Chamber Orchestra, Inland Empire Symphony, and the Symphony of the Redwoods. Since 1989 Mr. Gropman has been artistic director of the Morrison Artists' Series at San Francisco State University. Saul Gropman received both his B.M. and M.M. degrees as a scholarship student of Manuel Barrueco. He was chosen by Maestro Andres Segovia to perform in his Master Classes in Los Angeles and New York and also participated in the III Concurso Internacional de la Guitarra in Alicante, Spain under José Tomas.

B.F.A., University of New Mexico; M.S. (Trombone), The Juilliard School; M.A. (Musicology), New York University; D.M.A., Stanford University

McDowell Kenley is principal trombonist of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, a position he has held for 17 years. He studied with Glenn Dodson, Edward Kleinhammer, Arnold Jacobs, Alan Ostrander, and Robert Harper. Mr. Kenley's prior professional experience has been as both principal and bass trombonist with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and includes years as a freelance musician in New York (including jazz ensembles and Broadway shows), as well as regular positions in symphonic and operatic orchestras in Germany and the Netherlands. Mr. Kenley played with "Doc" Severinsen's Now Generation Brass for approximately 5 years, and was a member of the NBC Tonight Show Orchestra. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda.

Professional Studies: Indiana University, Tanglewood Music Center; Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Allegheny College

Mr. Lifsitz studied violin in his native Boston with Marylou Churchill and at Indiana University with Paul Biss. As a member of the Alexander String Quartet he has performed throughout Europe and North America, appearing regularly at halls such as Amsterdam's Concertgebauw and New York City's Lincoln Center. He has been an Artist in Residence at The Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies in Wye, Maryland and has held similar positions at St. Lawrence University, Baruch College, and North Carolina School of the Arts. Prior to joining the Alexander Quartet Mr. Lifsitz performed over several seasons with the Boston Symphony and taught Chamber Music and Violin at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. Mr. Lifsitz continues to perform as soloist and in recital. In 1995, along with his Quartet colleagues, Mr. Lifsitz received an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Allegheny College for his service to the arts and education.

B.M. (Music Education), Oberlin College Conservatory of Music; M.A. (Music), San Francisco State University; D.M.A. (Music Education), Stanford University

Carolynn Lindeman is a past President of MENC - The National Association for Music Education and past president of CMEA - The California Association for Music Education. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and the President's Committee on the Arts of the John F. Kennedy Center. Active as a speaker, she has addressed educators in almost every state and in Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, Mexico, South Africa, and Israel. In April 2001 Dr. Lindeman led the first delegation of music educators on a People to People Ambassador Program to Cuba. The recipient of two San Francisco State University Meritorious Performance and Professional Promise Awards, Dr. Lindeman was given the California Arts Council 2001 Outstanding Arts Educator Award, the CMEA: The California Assocation for Music Education Award for Extraordinary Service to Music Education in March 2000 and the California Band Directors Association Friends of Music Education Award in February 1999. She is the author of PianoLab: An Introduction to Class Piano, Fourth edition (Wadsworth, 2000), coauthor with San Francisco State University Professor Emerita Patricia Hackett of Music Lab: Introduction to the Fundamentals of Music (Wadsworth 1988) and The Musical Classroom: Models, Skills and Backgrounds for Elementary Teaching, Fifth edition (Prentice-Hall,2001), compiler of Women Composers of Ragtime (Theodore Presser, 1985), and the author of over fifty articles. She is the series editor for twenty-three publications related to implementing and assessing the National Standards in Music (MENC, 1995-2002).

B.M.E., Ohio University; M.A., (Flute Performance) University of Iowa; Diplome Superieur de Concertiste de Flute, Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris, France

Ms. Lukas is currently Second Flute with the San Francisco Symphony and has performed extensively throughout the world as a soloist and ensemble musician. Before coming to San Francisco, Ms. Lukas was a member of the faculty at San Diego State University.

B.A. (With honors), M.A. (Piano Performance), San Francisco State University; Doctoral Studies, Stanford University

Ms. Morgenstern teaches piano and music theory. She frequently plays in duo piano, instrumental, and vocal recitals in the Bay Area and has lectured on various topics from rudiments of theory to class piano and piano accompaniment. Ms. Morgenstern has assisted with many opera workshops and productions, most recently with the Opera Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz and with Bay Shore Lyric Opera at Capitola. She also teaches piano and coaches diction and interpretation in her private studio.

B.M., Illinois Wesleyan; M.M., D.M.A., University of Kansas

Pianist Victoria Neve teaches piano and music theory. She has distinguished herself as a piano soloist, chamber musician, duo pianist, and accompanist in concerts throughout Northern California and in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Tennessee. Her appearances include presentations for the College Music Society, the National Conference on Women in Music, the Memphis State Music Festival and the State Convention of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers. Dr. Neve has been heard on radio as a piano soloist on the National Public Radio series "Early Series," as well as on stations KQED in San Francisco, KPFA in Berkeley, the University of California, Santa Cruz radio station, and KMVR in Northern California. Her repertoire ranges from the music of the early Classic composers, performed on a period instrument, through the 20th century.

Dr. Neve's doctoral dissertation, excerpts of which have been published in Piano Quarterly, is entitled Virtuoso Aspects of Mozart's Independent Piano Variations, a study of the development of piano virtuosity in improvisatory forms in the late 18th century. She has also written for Clavier magazine and reviews CD recordings for the Sonneck Society Bulletin.

Dr. Neve is Founder and Director of the San Francisco Young Pianists' Competition, held annually since 1983. She has adjudicated numerous other competitions, including the San Francisco Youth Symphony Young Artists' Competition, the Young Keyboard Artists' Association Auditions, and various events sponsored by California schools, colleges, and music teachers' associations. She has given Master Classes at schools, colleges, and pianists' associations in New Jersey, Illinois, and California.

B.A., M.A., Ph.D., University of Minnesota; advanced study, Royal Academy of Music (England)

Composer and pianist Wayne Peterson is the 1992 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music. His works have been performed by the San Francisco, Oakland, and Minnesota orchestras, the Group for Contemporary Music, Speculum Musicum, the Washington Square Players, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. Mr. Peterson has recently completed compositions for the American Composers Orchestra in New York City and the San Francisco Symphony, as well as a piece for the Alexander String Quartet, commissioned by the Gerbode Foundation and a work for the Earplay Ensemble of San Francisco, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation. Other recent honors include a Composer's Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1986) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1989-90). His music is published by C. F. Peters, Boosey and Hawkes, Lawson-Gould and Seesaw Music.

Click here for information on the Wayne Peterson Prize in Music Composition.

B.A., Washington State College; M.A., Washington State University; advanced study, University of California at Berkeley

Professor L. LeRoy Roach came to San Francisco State University after several years of successful experience as a teacher and conductor of instrumental music in California schools. He has received commendations from the Music Educators National Conference, the California Music Educators Association, the California Band Directors Association and was recently cited in a feature article "Musician Profile" in The Performing Arts, Bay Area Arts Journal.

The Symphonic Bands at San Francisco State University, under his direction, were recognized as exemplary ensembles throughout the state and have presented numerous clinics and concerts. As a guest conductor Roach has conducted numerous state, county and area honor bands and orchestras, including the 1986 CBDA All-State High School Honor Band, the 1988 Northern California Band Directors Association Honor Band, and the 1988 Western States Collegiate Wind Band Festival at California State University at Fresno. Mr. Roach has served as president of both the California Music Educators Association and the California Band Directors Association.

B.F.A., California Institute of the Arts; advanced study (Percussion), The Cleveland Institute of Music

Mr. Rosenthal has been the principal percussionist of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra since 1982. He has also played with the San Francisco Symphony and Opera, the Chamber Symphony of San Francisco, The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Cabrillo and Ojai Festival Orchestras, as well as many other performing organizations. He has recorded for CRI, Columbia, and Reference records.

B.A. (Music Instruction), Universidad de Guadalajara; M.M. (Composition), Peabody Conservatory; M.M. (Composition), Yale University; Ph.D. (Composition), Princeton University.

Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez The music of Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez has been described by the press as "vigorously organized and highly visceral...neither eclectic nor post-modern nor owing allegiance to any passing fashion". Born in Mexico City in 1964, he grew up in Guadalajara, and later studied at the Peabody Conservatory, Yale University, Princeton and Tanglewood under Henri Dutilleux, Jacob Druckman, and Martin Bresnick. Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez is currently the American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Fellow, and has won this year the First Prize at the Sinfomnica Orchestral Competition in Mexico, as well as the Lee Ettelson Composition Award. He has also been honored in recent years with fellowships from the Guggenheim, Fromm, Rockefeller and Camargo Foundations, and has received two B.M.I composition awards, the Mozart Medal from the governments of Mexico and Austria, and a Fulbright Fellowship. Sanchez-Gutierrez is a member of MexicoÕs prestigious Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte and was named Person of the Year 2000 by the Mexican daily Pœblico. Among Mr. Sanchez-GutierrezÕs recently completed commissioned works are "Of Gold" (a Meet the Composer commission for Chanticleer), "Afterlight" (A.S.C.A.P./the American Symphony Orchestra League for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project), "LuciŽrnagas" (The Carnegie Hall Co. for Eighth Blackbird) and "El Mozote", an evening-long collaborative work with French coreographer Pascal Rioult, Argentinean director Susana Tubert and the U.S.-based Core Ensemble (Barlow Endowment). He is currently working on commissions from the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the San Francisco Arts Commission, marimbist Makoto Nakura and the U.S./Mexico Fund for Culture. He has written for all media, including film, theatre and multimedia productions.

Click here to visit Prof. Sanchez-Gutierrez's home page.

Professional Studies: Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara; The San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Mr. Spellman has been principal tubist for the San Francisco Opera since 1977. He is also principal tubist for the Marin Symphony and the Golden Gate Brass, and is a founding member of the San Francisco Tuba Quartet. Mr. Spellman has performed at the Tanglewood and Grand Teton Music Festivals and has been a concerto soloist for the Lake Tahoe Summer Music Festival and the Portland Youth Philharmonic. He is also a clinician for the California Band Directors Association. Mr. Spellman has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the Oregon, Oakland and Houston Symphonies.

B.S. (Music Education), Florida A&M University; M.M. (Music Composition), Washington University; Ph.D. (Education), University of San Francisco

Dianthe "Dee" Spencer co-directs the Jazz and World Music Studies program at San Francisco State University. She has served as assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Dartmouth College, Berklee College of Music, and Simmons College. A jazz pianist, singer, and composer/arranger, she performs in a wide variety of educational and cultural settings and lectures widely on the history of the jazz combo. At Berklee, Dee played with Branford Marsalis, Wallace Rooney, Greg Osby, Terri Lynn Carrington, Jeff Watts, and Marvin "Smitty" Smith. Her areas of expertise include jazz performance and improvisation, piano performance, and electronic music synthesis.

The recipient of many honors, awards, and grants, she was recognized for "Outstanding Contributions to Jazz Education" by the International Association of Jazz Educators in 1986, 1989, 1990, and 1994. Recent activities include the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy in the Schools Committee, where she served as director of the 1994 San Francisco Bay Area All-Star Grammy High School Jazz Band. She has performed with former Tower of Power vocalist Lenny Williams, jazz legend John Handy, and was featured with the Bobby Murray Blues Band. Recent activities include a Bay Area Women's Philharmonic collaboration project with the Oberlin Dance Collective, Bobby McFerrin, and Voicestra. She is a member of the San Francisco Urban Institute, and has served as president of both the Northern California Chapters of the International Association of Jazz Educators and the Society of Ethnomusicologists. She also serves on the board of directors of the Community Music Center. Dee is actively involved with middle school and high school jazz band directors. Her current research deals with promoting jazz education as a violence-prevention tool for at-risk youth.

B.A. (Music Theory and Literature, magna cum laude), Seattle Pacific University; M.A. (Music History); Ph.D. (Historical Musicology), University of Southern California

In addition to teaching music history that emphasizes contemporary and experimental music, Dr. Suzuki is also active in the music community, locally, nationally and internationally. He is working on a book detailing the evolution of American Minimal music and its relation to contemporaneous movements in the arts. He produces and hosts "Discreet Music," a weekly radio program featuring new, ambient, world, experimental, and unusual music on KPFA-FM in Berkeley. As a music critic and journalist, he regularly contributes to several publications, including Wired, Pulse, Musicworks, Audion, and Goldmine, among others. Dr. Suzuki serves on the Board of Directors for the Paul Dresher Ensemble/Musical Traditions. He also researches, writes about, and lectures on inter-media arts genres including Text-Sound Composition (Sound Poetry) and Sound Sculpture. He co-edited Boabab, the cassette journal of Sound Poetry, and in 1999 delivered a paper titled "Minimalism in American Text-Sound Composition" at the First International Congress of Polypoetry and Seventh Barcelona Polypoetry Festival in Spain.

D.R.S.A.M. (Teaching and Performance) Glasgow; A.R.C.M. (Teaching), London; Royal Danish Conservatory of Music (Soloist Class Debut); M.M. (Performance), Yale University; Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Allegheny College

A native of Northumberland, England, Sandy Wilson completed his graduate studies at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen as a recipient of two Danish Government Scholarships and the Sophus Berendsen Award. While performing as a member of the Royal Chapel Orchestra, he studied composition with Niels Vigo Bentzon and cello with Ehrling Blondahl-Bengtsson. Mr. Wilson was principal cellist at the age of 21 in the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft Orchestra in Lucerne, Switzerland, at which time he also performed extensively in duo recital with Swiss pianist, Hedy Salquin. In 1979 Mr. Wilson moved to the United States, completing a degree at Yale University as a student of Aldo Parisot, Otto Werner Mueller and the Tokyo Quartet. He co-founded the Alexander String Quartet in 1981 and has since lived in this country, devoting most of his energies to the development of the Quartet. Mr. Wilson has written and frequently participates on panel debates on the subject of chamber music residency development and presentation.

With his quartet colleagues, Mr. Wilson directs the Morrison Center for the Advanced Study of Chamber Music. In 1995, Mr. Wilson, along with his Quartet colleagues, received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Allegheny College for his service to the arts and education. He serves on the board of Chamber Music America.

B.A. (Music), San Francisco State University

Guitarist Jim Witzel has distinguished himself as a freelance jazz artist. For 20 years he has led and performed with jazz groups in the Bay Area and in Los Angeles, working with John Handy, Mark Isham, Art Lande, Mel Martin, Glen Cronkhite, Mike Clark, and Dave LeFebvre, among others. He has hosted and performed on his own weekly television series, "Jazz After Midnight," and has been featured with his own group at both the San Jose and Stanford Jazz Festivals.

Mr. Witzel has twice toured Europe as a performer and teacher. His recordings include Up Until Now and, most recently, Give and Take, released by the Joplin & Sweeney Music Company.

B.A. Wuhan Conservatory, China; Artist's Diploma, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati; Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Allegheny College

Ge-Fang Yang, violinist, was born in Wuhan, China. He came to the United States as a Starling Scholarship student of Dorothy Delay and Kurt Sassmannshaus in 1988. Mr. Yang has served as a faculty member at the University of Kentucky, at the Aspen Music School, and most recently at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati. He continues to be active as a soloist and has performed and studied chamber music with the LaSalle and Tokyo String Quartets. In 1995, Mr. Yang and his Quartet colleagues received Honorary Doctorates of Fine Arts from Allegheny College for their service to the arts and education.

B.A. Davidson College; Professional Studies: Pennsylvania State University; Artists Diploma, Hartt School of Music ; Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Allegheny College

Paul Yarbrough, violist, is a native of Clearwater, Florida. Mr. Yarbrough's teachers have included Elaine Lee Richey, Lillian Fuchs, Raymond Page, and Sally Peck. A frequent soloist with orchestras, he has also given numerous solo recitals throughout the United States and was principal violist of the Chamber Orchestra of New England. In 1995, along with his Quartet colleagues, Mr. Yarbrough received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Allegheny College for his service to the arts and education.

Top | Back to the Department of Music Home Page