Alumni in the News

Susan Verdi Webster (Ph.D., Art History, ‘92) has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for the next academic year.  Webster was one of just two scholars selected in the Fine Arts Research category.  She is currently the Mahoney Professor of Art and Art History at the College of William and Mary.

Dr. Kayoko Dan (B.M., Music Studies, ’00) has been announced, after a two year search, as the new music director at the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera.  Dan has been selected as the eighth Music Director of the CSO and the first woman to hold the position.

Lisa D'Amour (M.F.A., Playwriting, '96) was one of three Pulitzer Prize finalists in drama for her play Detroit. Premiered at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater in September 2010, Detroit is described by the Pulitzer jury as “a contemporary tragicomic play that depicts a slice of desperate life in a declining inner-ring suburb where hope is in foreclosure.” Detroit will be produced on Broadway in early fall of 2011 under the direction of Austin Pendleton. This marks D'Amour's Broadway debut.

Aimée Rhodes Lubin (M.F.A., Studio Art, ’03) and her mother, Suzan Cook, are holding a joint exhibition called Abstract Gestation: From LA to West Texas: An Artistic Dialog Between a Mother and a Daughter.  The exhibition is taking place at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, April 4^th – 29^th.

Kim Perlak (D.M.A., ’08) is a classical guitarist, scholar, and educator whose versatile and inclusive approach to music values new composition, multi-stylistic collaboration, the expression of American culture, and public service.

Perlak is on the faculty of Concordia University Texas, Austin Community College, and the National Guitar Workshop. 

See Perlak this Sunday, April 3^rd at 3pm at Concordia University-Texas for "Ben and I Play for Peace," an instrumental concert in the classical and jazz styles.  This concert will help raise money for disabled children in Iraq.  Suggested donations for this event are $25 for general admission and $10 for students.

Butler School of Music Alumni have joined forces with 13yr old guitarist Ben Werdegar, CNN Hero Brad Blauser, and classical musicians from across the country to purchase wheelchairs for disabled children in Iraq. This concert event, “Ben & I Play for Peace” will take place on April 3, 2011 at 3 p.m. in Austin, TX and in two “sister cities” - Denver, CO and Sarasota, FL. The proceeds will benefit Blauser’s “Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids”, adding to Ben’s personal fund raising total of $19,000 - which he raised by playing at his neighborhood coffee shop in San Francisco. This event was conceived by Austin guitarist and professor Dr. Kim Perlak (Butler School of Music - DMA 2008) after meeting Werdegar at the 2010 Verdery Guitar Masterclass in Kihei, Maui, run by critically acclaimed guitarist/composer Benjamin Verdery. The Austin program will include the world premiere of a work by composed by Verdery especially for this event. Perlak and Werdegar will be joined by additional Butler School of Music Alumni: Karla Hamelin, cello; Ellen Johnson, flute; Blythe Cates, voice; Eric Miller, bassoon; Tenly Williams, oboe; Josh Davies, trumpet; Amy Harris, violin. For ticket information and to donate, please visit: www.kimperlak.com  and click on "ben-and-i-play-for-peace". WHERE: Austin Concert: Concordia University Auditorium; Building A; 11400 Concordia Univevrsity Drive; Austin, TX 78726 - WHEN: Sunday April 3, 2011 @ 3pm  ADMISSION: Donations accepted at the door.

Join M.M. Pipkin (B.F.A., Studio Art, 1973 and M.F.A., 1975) for a walk with nature. Come explore the gardens and forests that have captivated Pipkin’s attention for the past 30 years. Pipkin is noted for her large-scale and intimate watercolors exploring the beauty of the natural world. From flowers and fallen leaves, to the Blue Ridge Mountains and forests, Pipkin celebrates the splendor of nature through transparent color and light. She invites you to share in the wonder of the natural world March 2nd- April 27th at the North Carolina Botanical Garden.  A reception with Pipkin will be held Sunday, March 20th from 2-4pm in the DeBerry Gallery for Botanical Art and Illustration.

Maxine Graham Price (B.F.A., 1959) is part of the Best of Texas exhibition at the Russell Collection Fine Art Gallery in Austin, TX. An Artists’ Reception will be held on Friday, March 4th from 6:30 – 9:30 pm. RSVP to 512/478-4440 to attend.

B. Suzanne Hassler (M.A., ’91) received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship to attend the NEA Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in fall 2010. The institute, co-directed by András Szántó and Anya Grundmann, included study with noted artistic director and author Joseph Horowitz. In addition to daily sessions taught by Columbia University faculty and invited experts, the institute included performances by Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk, René Pape, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, and the New York Philharmonic.

For more information on the NEA Arts Journalism Institute visit http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/page/217-nea-arts-journalism-institute-in-classical-music-and-opera/218.

Shaun Patrick Tubbs (MFA Acting ’10) was cast in The Book of Grace Written and Directed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks, at Zach. Opens June 2, 2011.

A South Texas family breaks through familial borders when a young man named Snake returns home, lured by his stepmother Grace, to reunite with his father, a border patrol agent. The prodigal son confronts his father, and fences are erected as everyday life erupts into a battle for personal survival. At once fiercely intimate and explosive, this surprising and truly original play finds three people bound together by longing, passion and ambition.