Alumna Alex Schenck is in her first year at the highly prestigious American Academy of Arts in Philadelphia. AVA is the premiere school for opera and all students are on 100% scholarship. Only six singers were chosen to enter the program this year. Alex is cast as Aldonza in Massenet’s Don Quichotte under the direction of Tito Campobianco, who sends flattering kudos for Alex’s voice and terrific acting.

Jason Switzer (BM Voice) attended the American Academy of Arts after CSULB. Jason has performed on opera stages throughout the US and Europe including Candide with at Musikfest Bremen, Vienna the Munich Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. More recently, he has performed at the Bard SummerScape Festival under Leo Botstein and the solos in Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the National Chorale Avery Fisher Hall in NYC.

Alumnus Wesley Jacobs runs a successful publishing company, Encore Music Publishers, which specializes in music for brass and particularly for his own instrument, tuba. When Wes was a student here, he was in a trio with Karen and Richard Carpenter, playing bass. His time with the Carpenters is documented  in “The Karen Carpenter Story,” a program produced by BBC Radio 2. After CSULB, Wes played tuba for the Detroit Symphony. He has edited etudes and written books on playing tuba himself, including the highly regarded “Loud Playing for Tuba” and most recently published John Van Houten’s edition of “Ten Studies by Johannes Brahms.”

Kurt Peregrine is the new Intern for South Coast Symphony. He will gain experience in all aspects of the symphony, including: marketing, public relations, operations, finance, business development and research, and work directly with symphony Board Members.

The Daily 49er has a great article on Craig Richey’s success at the Sundance Festival. The article notes, “Richey said he had two goals in mind while composing the score to “The World According to Dick Cheney.” He wanted to make the music both serious and mature while maintaining an overall narrative feel.

“After finishing the process, Richey was invited to the premiere at the Sundance Festival in January.

“Richey described the premiere as a “vicarious” experience after receiving some intense reactions from the audience.”

Alumna Olga Artemova was accepted as one of five conductors from the US and Canada to participate in the 33rd Annual Vancouver Chamber Choir National Conductors’ Symposium with Jon Washburn. It was a week-long intensive course which consisted of podium sessions, technique sessions with the choir and Jon, and interest sessions with some of the staff of the organization, who talked about fundraising, publicity, boards and administration. The week culminated with a full performance.

Olga reports that she met many talented and prominent folks who sing with the choir, including Larry Nickel, CEO of Cypress Publishing, Stephen Smith, composer and Will George, CSULB alum from Frank Pooler’s years, who studied voice with Arpine Pehlivanian. She highly recommend this to emerging conductors who are looking to learn something new and receive significant podium time with a professional choir.

Jeff Jarvis will serve as an adjudicator this semester at the Irvine Jazz Festival (Irvine CA), Fresno City College Jazz Festival (Fresno CA), Next Generation Jazz Festival (Monterey CA), Workman HS Jazz Festival (Industry CA), Valhalla Jazz Festival (El Cajon CA), and Super Jazz At The Ranch (Stevenson Ranch CA). He will also conduct the Hart District Honor Jazz Band at Stevenson Ranch.

Alumnus Josh Nelson has written the music for a national commercial for Johnson and Johnson. It airs every Thursday around 9:15am on NBC.

The Classic FM Orchestra in Bulgaria performed alumnus Roger Przytulski’s piece Blue Mountain on their 2012 summer tour. The piece was so well received that the America for Bulgaria Foundation commissioned Roger to compose a celebratory piece to mark the occasion of a gala concert in which Joshua Bell was coming to Bulgaria for the first time to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.

Spirit Rounds, a ten-minute work for orchestra, was premiered February 9th, 2013, in a nationally broadcast live television event in Bulgaria.

Blue Mountain is scheduled to be performed by the Irvine High School Symphony Orchestra. He also has a premiere of Canyon Trails for 3 Guitars by the Triada guitar trio this summer.