Update to Hartt Alumni

Here is the September 2015 email update sent from the Hartt Board of Trustees' Alumni Committee to all alumni for who the University of Hartford has an email address.

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Dear Fellow Hartt Alumni, I hope you have been well since last summer’s email sent to all Hartt alumni about the exciting things that were happening at Hartt and preview for the 2014–15 year. Now, I wanted to reach out, once again, on behalf of the Hartt Board of Trustees’ Alumni Committee to highlight some of the exciting things that happened at Hartt during the past year and to preview some upcoming events. Hartt, and the University of Hartford as a whole, have made a real commitment to improving alumni engagement. Everyone at Hartt wants you to feel a continuing connection to the school and this update is one way we are doing that. We hope that you will consider coming to a performance, reaching out individually to a former professor, attending an alumni event, or finding another way to remain involved. For now, let’s talk about our alma mater.

THEATRE DIVISION presented the rarely performed musical On Your Toes and is preparing for Nicholas Nickleby.

In 1936, the musical On Your Toes, written by Rodgers and Hart, opened on Broadway.  Prior to Hartt’s production, On Your Toes had never been performed north of New York City. The show, which requires both a full ballet company and a music theater company, is a massive undertaking. Hartt’s production was directed by Alan Rust, director of the Theatre Division, and choreographed by Ralph Perkins and Stephen Pier. A full orchestra, conducted by Edward Cumming, skillfully added an important component to the grand show, which includes the jazz ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." This coming year, the Theatre Division will present another rare production. Charles Dickens’s Nickolas Nickleby will be performed in two parts on consecutive nights and both parts combined during weekend days in November. The Hartt School Theatre Division Presents The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby Presented in Two Parts Tuesday–Sunday Nov. 3–8, 2015 Part I: Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 3 p.m. Part II: Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Dickens’s England Evening Package Saturday or Sunday Parts I and II with a traditional Dickensian dinner between shows, hosted at the University of Hartford’s 1877 Club. Tickets are available by visiting hartford.edu/tickets or calling 860.768.4228.

Hartt Alumni Award—2015 Recipient and a Call for 2016 Nominations

Boykin speaks on Lincoln stage in May. Phillip Boykin ’95 was the 2015 Alumni Award recipient. Boykin was presented this honor at the Hartt Commencement in May. At commencement, Boykin spoke passionately to the graduating students and assembled guests sharing both the struggles he has experienced and his triumphs. He was a featured performer in the recent Broadway production of On The Town, Boykin has had an amazing career since graduating Hartt. Visit his webpage. If you know of a Hartt alumnus or alumna worthy of consideration for the Hartt Alumni Award, please nominate him or her.

Hartt Welcomes a New Class as the Tradition of Opening Convocation Continues!

Alumni and the 2014 Tony Awards

Alumni of The Hartt School had a big year on Broadway, and several are involved in productions nominated for Tony Awards this week.  Congratulations to all!

The 2014 Tony Award nominations were announced on Tuesday (April 29), and the awards will be handed out on June 8 in a ceremony to air live on CBS.

Here are some of Hartt alumni who are affiliated with Tony-nominated productions:

• Douglas Lyons ’09 and Kevin Duda ’01 are in the cast of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. The show received multiple Tony nominations, including Best Musical.

• John Brink ’09 is in the cast of  Les Misérables, which was nominated for Best Revival of a Musical.

• Orin Wolfe ‘01 is a producer of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, which received multiple Tony nominations, including Best Musical. Wolfe also is a producer of Once, which won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Musical.

The alumni listed above are just a few of the Hartt graduates who have appeared on Broadway during the 2013–14 theater season.  Other Hartt alumni on Broadway include the following:

• Alison Cusano ‘09, is in the cast of A Night with Janis Joplin, and she performed the lead role in previews. The show has now moved off-Broadway.

• Christine Dwyer ‘07 plays the lead role of Elphaba in the Broadway production of Wicked.

• Hartt alumnus Kyle Wrentz is in the cast of The Lion King.

Christine Dwyer starring in Wicked

Congratulations to Hartt Theatre Alumna, Christine Dwyer.

Spring 2014 Performance - Highlights

Below are some highlights from the Spring 2014 Hartt performance calendar.  There are multiple performances at Hartt nearly every night of the semester, so this is just a sampling of the performance from the Music Division and the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series. 

Hope to see you at some of these performances.

January 30 – February 2 – Alfred C. Fuller Music Center/Millard Auditorium

Hartt Opera Theatre presents Kurt Weill's Street Scene, with music direction by Doris Lang Kosloff and stage direction by Lawrence Edelson.

February 6 – Alfred C. Fuller Music Center/Millard Auditorium

The Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series – Sybarite5.  One the fastest-rising chamber music ensembles in the United States, the string quintet (quartet plus bass) Sybarite5 has been earning rave reviews and cheering audiences from coast to coast. After winning the prestigious Concert Artists Guild Competition last year (the same competition previously won by Imani Winds, eighth blackbird, and many other now-celebrated artists) the group enjoyed a raucous, sold-out debut performance at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Its latest album, Everything in its Right Place, is a collection of Radiohead songs arranged expressly for them.

February 14 & 15 – Lincoln Theater

Hartt Collage - An Evening of Continuous Music, Dance, and Theatre.  Hartt’s gift to the community, Hartt’s annual Collage Concert features continuous music, dance, and theatre. This concert is FREE, but tickets are required. Early reservations are recommended.

March 1 – Trinity Episcopal Church, 120 Sigourney St., Hartford

Music for a Large Space (a public gathering) by David Macbride.  The premiere performance of Music for a Large Space (a public gathering) for winds, brass, percussion, vocalists, and audience by Hartt faculty composer David Macbride, with the Hartt Symphony Band (James Jackson, Director) and the Hartt Independent Singers (Matt Cramer, vocalist leader).

March 7 - Cathedral of St. Joseph, 140 Farmington Avenue, Hartford

Mozart Requiem – The 140 voices of The Hartt School choruses and the Soli Deo Gloria Orchestra, the cathedral's resident chamber orchestra, will present an inspirational program featuring Mozart's Requiem under the direction of Edward Bolkovac, The featured soloists will include Louise Fauteux, soprano, Hartt alumni Judy Bowers, mezzo soprano, and Craig Hart, bass, as well as current Hartt doctoral student Jerron Jorgensen, tenor. The concert will also include additional incidental music by Mozart and Albinoni.

Additional Information Concerning Malcolm Morrison

Dear Hartt alumni,

We write to inform you, if you have not yet heard, that former Hartt School Dean Malcolm Morrison died on November 8. We send you this news of his passing with great sadness; we have lost a great leader and lover of the arts, mentor, faculty member, and friend. Malcolm left his stamp on The Hartt School and the University, and changed so many lives for the better. We know you join us in expressing our deepest sympathy to his wife, Jo, his daughter, Nikki, and their entire family.