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Collaborative PianoJacobs School of Music

Faculty News

Artist Recital with Prof. Carballo

On October 18, 2022, collaborative faculty colleague Kimberly Carballo and her vocal partner, Dr. Amanda Russo Stante, premiered two song cycles in a guest recital at Mercer University Townsend School of Music in Macon, Georgia. The duo reprised them at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania on October 21. Dr. Russo Stante received her Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees from Indiana University.

“The past few years have provoked a deep shift worldwide in how we make meaning,” says Professor Carballo. “Homes turned into spaces of work and school, and many people tried to make new sense of their professional lives. Two new works by Dr. Christopher Schmitz and Dr. Alice Jones examine how we make meaning of a place (in this case, the Ohio River Valley with author Scott Russell Sanders’s Wilderness Plots) and make meaning of our lives (through diary entries from Benjamin Franklin, an enslaved woman, Louis XVI of France, and others).” They will offer the Midwest premieres at Indiana University on March 4, 2023 at 4:00pm in Auer Hall, free to the public.

Faculty Happenings Summer 2022!

Anne Epperson

Professor Epperson was guest faculty for the second week of the Collaborative Piano Institute at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she conducted two master classes, taught upwards of 50 private lessons, and enjoyed observing other master classes and inspiring performances. She also participated in a roundtable discussion on all things collaborative. Pictured here left to right are Anne Epperson (Indiana University), Elena Abend (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Christopher Turbessi (Temple University), Martin Katz (University of Michigan). On her experience at the institute, Professor Epperson remarked, “As always, I am learning as much as I am teaching!”

Kevin Murphy

Professor Murphy, shown here in a master class as part of the Tel Aviv International Summer Opera Program in Israel, is the Artistic Director of this renowned program. This summer, before traveling abroad, he was on the coaching staff of the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico and following his work in Israel he returned to Chicago, where he is Director of the Program for Singers at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute. He is pictured here with pianist Dr. Allan Armstrong, faculty member of the Voice Department at the IU Jacobs School of Music.

Charles Prestinari

Dr. Prestinari was on the coaching staff of the Tel Aviv International Summer Opera Program in Israel this July. The program was founded in the early 1990’s and has trained some of today’s finest classical vocalists who have sung in the world’s most important venues. The intensive course, which engages participants daily with individual coaching, classes and performance seminars, also includes concerts and opera productions. Dr. Prestinari has been part of the Chamber and Collaborative Music Department since its inception in 2016.

Aram Arakelyan

Dr. Arakelyan was an official pianist for the 54th International Horn Symposium, this year at Texas A&M University – Kingsville. Here he is in the opening night Featured Artist Concert with esteemed colleagues Barbara Jöstlein Currie (4th Horn in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Jennifer Montone (Principal Horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra), and Julia Pilant (Assistant Principal Horn of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.) Dr. Arakelyan was also an official pianist for the IHS Symposium in Los Angeles, California in 2015.

Chih-Yi Chen

As part of Summer Music 2022, Dr. Chen joined guest faculty Sarah Kapustin, violin, and Roeland Jagers, viola, in several concerts at Indiana University presented by Jacobs Summer String Academy. Their all-Brahms recital, pictured here, included a performance of the Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40. The piece was written for natural horn, violin and piano, but is often performed with viola or cello in place of the horn.

Futaba Niekawa

Dr. Niekawa and her violin partner Kerry DuWors, known as duo526, offered the first Sonata Seminar @ IU, an intensive five-day performance seminar to explore the art of listening for both pianists and violinists. Since 2018, duo526 Sonata Seminar has been offered at Brandon University, Canada. This year, duo526 was thrilled to bring its program to IU’s Jacobs Academy. The four violin/piano duos participating had private coachings, training, masterclasses and wellness sessions. The week concluded with a public performance featuring all four teams.
Dr. Niekawa also spent several weeks as a collaborative pianist at the Perlman Music Program in Shelter Island, New York.

Nathan Cheung

Dr. Nathan Cheung, Post-Doctoral Visiting Professor, was part of the professional collaborative staff at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine, one of the world’s premier music institutes providing an intensive and in-depth exploration of chamber and solo music. Each summer, 250 students from more than 20 countries and nearly every state attend the Festival to study with distinguished faculty and guest artists.