Studio Alumni News
HYEJIN KWON (MM '11, Vocal Accompanying) was Metropolitan Opera conductor Steven White's assistant and pianist for the Lyric Opera Baltimore's La Traviata, accompanying a cast that included Metropolitan Opera singers Elizabeth Futral and Jason Stearns. She returned again for Lyric Opera's productions of Faust and Le Nozze di Figaro. Hyejin was also recently commended in the Washington Post for her work with Repertory Theatre of Washington as performance pianist for Don Giovanni. The review stated, "Pianist Hyejin Kwon was a find stand-in for the orchestra and doubled brilliantly as recitative accompanist on harpsichord." Hyejin was awarded a full tuition fellowship and additional stipend for Aspen Music Festival in Collaborative Piano. She is currently working as a Studio Pianist at the University of Toronto.
KA NYOUNG YOO (MM'10, GPD'12, Vocal Accompanying) was recently awarded the Peabody Preparatory's "Pianist of the Year" award for her vocal and cello accompanying. Ka Nyoung has accepted a position at Towson University as staff accompanist and as their official Master Class pianist. She was recently invited to perform with several members of the Towson voice faculty in their operatic recital program, Viva L'Opera!, and began coaching for the Towson University Opera Department in the fall.
CHRISTINE PULLIAM (MM '10, Vocal Accompanying) is currently teaching and accompanying at Kings College in New York City. She has been working as a resident artist with the Opera Company of Brooklyn, where she was performance pianist for concert operas Alcina, Cosi fan Tutte, and the Mozart version of the Messiah. Christine is a member of the Opus Nine Ensemble, and was a coach/performance pianist for a production of Don Giovanni at the West End Theater in New York City. She performed Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin with bass Ian Pomerantz. Christine also works as a vocal coach for the Palisades Opera, the Atlantic Music Festival in Waterville, Maine, and recently participated in Academie Francis Poulenc in Tours, France, a song festival for French melodie for singers and pianists.
YOOHEE SHIN (MM, '09) Vocal Accompanying) joined FBN Opera Productions in January 2009 as pianist for its tour of John Davies opera for children, Pinocchio.
MIYOEN HAN (MM '08, Vocal Accompanying) was selected to be the pianist for the Horn and Trumpet workshops at Boston University's Tanglewood Institute. After Miyeon joined VOCES INTIMAE for a complete performance of Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch in Dallas, Texas, Scott Cantrell of the Dallas Morning News wrote: "Star of the show was pianist Mi Yeon Han, whose luminous, unforced tone and telling inflections caught the ear again and again."
MIAOMIAO WANG (MM '08, Vocal Accompanying) works as a pianist, vocal coach, and opera accompanist in the greater Boston area, where she is a doctoral candidate at Boston University. She joined San Francisco's Merola Opera Program as one of five apprentice coaches, and has also coached for Anchorage Opera. Miaomiao was the recipient of the Charlotte Cohen Milman Endowed Scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she earned a post graduate diploma in Collaborative Piano.
DANA SCOTT (MM '08, Vocal Accompanying) is a collaborative pianist and conductor in the Washington, DC and Baltimore area. She recently conducted the premier of Momia in el Closet at the Gala Theatre in DC and was host and accompanist for Washington National Opera's High School Institute at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Scott works as a coach and accompanist for the Little Patuxent Opera Institute (Columbia, MD), Opera AACC (Severna Park), Harbor Opera, Centre Stage (Baltimore, MD), and Washington Opera's Summer Opera Institute. At the Kennedy Center, Ms. Scott worked as a rehearsal pianist for Jerry Herman, Christine Baranski, and Jeff McCarthy in Mame. She served two seasons as the Music Director for FBN Production's The Three Little Pigs, an opera outreach program (Columbia, SC). Ms. Scott also performs with Annapolis Children's Choral, Arundel Vocal Arts Society, Bach in Baltimore, and Opera AAACC. She performs at Germano's Trattoria frequently as a cabaret pianist, and Emmanuel United Methodist Church where she works as pianist and organist. Ms. Scott received high collaborative marks in the Vocal Arts Society Competition (D.C.), and was a semi-finalist in the 2007 William Garrison Piano Competition. As a soloist Ms. Scott is a winner of the Sidney DeKnight Piano Competition (PA), a national competition committed to promoting aspiring ethnic musicians. She frequently appeared as a soloist with the Imperial Symphony Orchestra in Lakeland, Florida and was a recitalist on the Mary Baker Eddy Library Millenium Series, and the James George Charitable Trust Series in Boston, MA. Ms. Scott serves as piano instructor, jazz ensemble director, and staff accompanist for the Saint James School in Hagerstown, MD. She also maintains a small private studio in the Laurel area.
MING-CHING WU (MM '08, Vocal Accompanying) was the recipient of the Vladimir Horowitz scholarship for the study of collaborative piano at the Juilliard School of Music. She is finishing her doctoral studies in Collaborative Piano at Eastman School of Music.
JEROME TAN will join Marilyn Horne on a Mediterranean Music Cruise: A Musical Voyage from Venice to Athens as accompanist to singers Nicole Cabell, Sasha Cooke, Kelly Markgraf, and Joshua Stewart. As the recipient of the Marilyn Horne award for Vocal Collaboration, he has played "The Song Continues" and "On Wings of Song" programs in New York, as well as Ms. Horne's birthday Gala at Carnegie Hall. The New York Times recently praised him as "confident and articulate."
MATTHEW ODELL spent the summer as a vocal coach at the Conservatoire in Nice, with several performances in Nice and in Paris. He will perform all of Samuel Barber's songs, including several unpublished songs, at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts' Bruno Walter Theater. These two concerts will celebrate Barber's centennial and the 50th anniversary of Lincoln Center and will include manuscripts of Barber's works and readings from some of his correspondence. Recently Matthew was the soloist in a performance of Messiaen's Sept Haikai with the AXIOM Ensemble at Columbia University's Miller Theatre in New York. Alex Ross of the New Yorker wrote that "the AXIOM Ensemble sharply illuminated the complexities of 'Seven Haiku'..." According to the New York Times' Anthony Tommasini "the performance, with excellent pianist Matthew O'Dell, was vibrant and compelling." Odell's upcomiong performances include an appearance later this month at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall with the Marilyn Horne Foundation. In February he took part in the multi-concert celebration of the reopening of Alice Tully Hall as the soloist in Messiaen's Des canyons aux etoiles with David Robertson and The Juilliard Orchestra.
WILLIAM WALDROP remains active as a Musical Director/Conductor/Keyboardist for the National Tours of CATS, Phantom of the Opera, and The Lion King.
