2017 Commencement

Some photos from the 2017 Commencement at the University and Hartt ceremonies.


http://www.hartford.edu/news/commencement/default.aspx

Dr. Macbride to Receive the Humphrey R. Tonkin Award for Scholarly and/or Artistic Creativity

At the 2017 Undergraduate Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 21, Professor David Macbride '73, Professor of Composition and Music Theory, will be presented with the Humphrey R. Tonkin Award for Scholarly and/or Artistic Creativity.


Composer and pianist David Macbride ’73, DMA, has written numerous works, ranging from solo, chamber, and orchestral music to music for film, TV, dance, and theatre, with an emphasis on percussion. During his more than 30 years teaching composition and music theory at The Hartt School, he has inspired and mentored hundreds of students, many of whom have gone on to become noted professional musicians.


An alumnus of The Hartt School, Macbride is universally recognized as one of the world’s most important composers of percussion music. The Humphrey R. Tonkin Award for Scholarly and/or Artist Creativity recognizes his works that challenge musicians technically, musically, and emotionally. His ability to embrace life’s issues and struggles is evident in pieces such as “Staying the Course,” a composition known to “shake the listeners to their core,” as it presents one note for every soldier who died in the Iraq war.


As a pianist, Macbride has toured much of the world performing recitals and is also known for his innovative audience-centered compositions. A recent work, “Percussion Park,” is a musical landscape where the audience is invited to freely roam the performance site in search of the music. The commissioned piece “Silent Hands” features an American Sign Language interpreter as part of the ensemble, and is intended to show connections between the expressiveness of sign language and musical gestures.


Macbride’s artistic endeavors have had a major influence on his teaching. He founded The Hartt School’s “Composers Ensemble,” providing an outlet for student composers to perform their own works, and initiated a course encouraging students to perform locally, having presented countless concerts himself throughout the Greater Hartford area and earning the University of Hartford’s Community Service Award in 2001.


Reflecting on his career at the University, Macbride acknowledges his mentor, Professor Emeritus Edward Diemente: “He provided me with positive experiences that set the stage for my composing to develop into a lifelong habit… I often remind my students that we are blessed to be in this world, the world of music, the world we live in.”     

2016 Alumni Award Presented to Jimmy Greene

Hartt alumnus, Jimmy Greene, was presented with the 2016 Alumni Award today at Commencement.  Jimmy is pictured here with Interim Dean Clark Saunders.

Below is Jimmy, along with fellow Hartt alumni Dave McLellan and Marcos Carreras, both of whom are currently serving on the Hartt Board of Trustees.

Ed Alton - 2014 Hartt Alumni Award Recipient

Bachelor of Music,
Double Bass/Composition '81
Hartt Alumni Award 2014

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 The Hartt School is pleased to announce that Ed Alton, BMus ’81 will be honored with the 2014 Hartt Alumni Award at the annual Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 18, 2014. The award honors an alumnus who has achieved professional and critical recognition of distinguished professional accomplishments as an artist, scholar, or educator in an area of the performing arts.

Mr. Alton has sustained an impressive career in the Los Angeles TV, film and recording industries for nearly thirty years. To date, he has composed scores for over 530 episodes of 31 different prime time network TV series and performed as bassist on over 70 feature film soundtracks. His career has been distinguished by numerous accolades including five ASCAP Top TV Composer Awards, an Emmy Nomination, and several Gold & Platinum record awards.

Hartt Alumni of the Year - 2013 Robert Brubaker

The following recently appeared on The Hartt School website.

Robert Brubaker

Bachelor of Music, Vocal Performance '77

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The Hartt School is pleased to announce that celebrated tenor Robert Brubaker ’77 (Bachelor of Music) will be honored with the 2013 Hartt Alumni Award at the annual Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 19.  Mr. Brubaker has established himself as a leading tenor in opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, praised for the clarity and power of his voice and the impact of his acting.  He has appeared at The Metropolitan Opera, the Salzburg Festival, Opéra National de Paris, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, and other major opera houses around the world.  Mr. Brubaker, who will speak at Hartt’s graduation ceremony, also will share his experiences and insights with students and other interested members of the University of Hartford community at Hartt's Paranov hour on April 25, from 12:15 PM to 1:05 PM, in Millard Auditorium.

As Opera News summed it up when writing about his Golitsin in the new Andrei Serban production of Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina at the Bastille, unveiled in December, 2001, "Brubaker once again showed that, for sheer stamina in high-lying music, he has few rivals.”

Recent engagements include the Kaiser in Die Frau Ohne Schatten with Deutsche Oper Berlin; Laca in Jenufa at the English National Opera; Boris in Katya Kabanova at the Theater an der Wien; Mephistopheles in the premiere of Busoni's Doktor Faust at Teatre de la Maestranza in Seville; a return to the Glyndebourne Festival for the world premiere of the new opera, Love and Other Demons, composed by Peter Eötvös; Herodes in Salome in Bologna; Alviano in Die Gezeichneten at Los Angeles Opera; a reprise of Don Ygnacio in Of Love and Other Demons at Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg; Loge in Das Rheingold at Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville; Mao Tse-Tung in Nixon in China at the Metropolitan Opera; the title role in Der König Kandaules for Vienna Volksoper; Captain in Wozzek at Santa Fe Opera; and the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel and Mime in the Ring Cycle at the Metropolitan Opera.
Upcoming engagements include Mime in Siegfried at Seville; Mime in Das Rheingold and Siegfried at Teatro Massimo Palermo; Malatestino in Francesca da Ramini and Mime in the Ring Cycle at the Metropolitan Opera; Luigi in Il Tabarro and Canio in I Pagliacci with Opera St. Louis; an appearance with Dallas Opera in 2014; and returns to the MET in upcoming seasons.

Other career highlights include Mime in Siegfried at the Metropolitan Opera conducted by James Levine and broadcast internationally; his appearances at the Salzburg Festival in the title role of Zemlinsky's Der König Kandaules, and as Alviano in Die Gezeichneten, both with Kent Nagano; as Count Pierre Bezukhov in War and Peace with the Opéra National de Paris, directed by Francesca Zambello; Mephistopheles in the Metropolitan Opera's premiere of Busoni's Doktor Faust; Golitsin in Khovanshchina at the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; Albert Gregor in The Makropulos Case at the Metropolitan Opera opposite Catherine Malfitano; the same role at Houston Grand Opera and English National Opera, where it was also recorded for Chandos Records with Sir Charles Mackerras; Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos at Covent Garden on opening night of Antonio Pappano's first season as music director; Guido Bardi in Zemlinsky's Eine Florentinische Tragödie with James Conlon conducting; Aegisth in Elektra, and Herodes in Salome at Teatro alla Scala; his Glyndebourne Festival debut singing his first Laca in a revival of Nicholas Lehnhoff's acclaimed production of Janáček's Jenufa, followed by the same role for his Dallas Opera debut; the title role in Peter Grimes with the Canadian Opera Company conducted by artistic director Richard Bradshaw, with the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, with the English National Opera and at Aldeburgh; and the title role in Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg at the Opéra National de Paris and Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.



Mr. Brubaker has also performed Dimitri in Boris Godunov at the Opéra National de Paris; Gherman in Pique Dame with Olga Guryakova as Lisa at Montpellier Opera; the same role at Teatro San Carlo in Napoli and the Hamburg Staatsoper; Siegmund in Die Walküre with Teatro Real in Madrid and also with Austin Lyric Opera; Jimmy Mahoney in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Deutsche Oper Berlin; Edward Fairfax Vere in Billy Budd at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa; Dick Johnson in Puccini's La fanciulla del West at Austin Lyric Opera and in concert with the Melbourne Symphony; Arbace in concert performances of Idomeneo with the Munich Philharmonic led by then-music director James Levine; Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Teatro Real in Madrid; Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; and Chairman Mao in Nixon in China, Don José in Carmen, Jim Mahoney in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Filke in From the House of the Dead, and Sergei in an acclaimed revival of the David Poutney production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for English National Opera.



Mr. Brubaker appears on DVD, as Count Pierre Bezukhov in War and Peace with the Opéra National de Paris, directed by Francesca Zambello and directed by Gary Bertini available on TDK; and as Alviano Salvago in Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten from the Salzburg Festival, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff and conducted by Kent Nagano.

Mr. Brubaker can be heard on audio recordings as the title role in Der König Kandaules from the Salzburg Festival conducted by Kent Nagano, available on Andante Records; Gregor in The Makropulos Case conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras and Boris in Katya Kabanova conducted by Carlo Rizzi (slated for future release) on Chandos Records; and on Naxos American Classics' recording of Avodat Shabbat by Herman Berlinski, conducted by Gerard Schwartz.



Mr. Brubaker, a Mannheim, Pennsylvania native, received his degree from the (then) Hartt College of Music in Hartford, where he studied with David Ray Smith.  He and his wife now reside in New York City, where he studies with Bill Schuman.

To learn more about Mr. Brubaker, visit http://www.belcantoglobalarts.com/brubakerbio.php

Posted by Michael Menapace ('93)
Trustee