Artistic Faculty and Guests Biographies
Chun Chi An, Valse Fantasie (1967), rehearsal accompanist.
As a music director, An has been employed at Ballet Department, IU Jacobs School of Music for 14 years. Prior to joining the IU Jacobs School of Music, he was the company pianist for Cleveland Ballet and Deutsche Oper am Rhine,(Germany) from 1987-1992. In 1986m he obtained his Master of Music from the University of Utah, where he served as a regular pianist for the Ballet Department, University of Utah and Ballet West. In addition, An obtained an extensive academic and work history while in China. In 1967, An graduated from Beijing Music School. As a principal pianist, he worked with Beijing Central Ballet from 1973 to 1982 and was a pianist for many visiting artists appearing in the People's Republic of China, including Dame Margot Fonteyn and Baryshnikov.
Jasmin Arakawa, Les Noces, piano.
A native of Japan, Jasmin Arakawa has performed in venues all around the world, including the United States, Canada, Italy, France, Holland, and Japan. Also a sought-after collaborative pianist, she has been featured in numerous vocal recitals and chamber music scenes. After making her orchestral debut with the Koishikawa Philharmonic Orchestra at age16, Arakawa completed her bachelor’s degree at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, studying with Katumi Ueda. Currently, Arakawa is pursuing a doctoral degree at Indiana University under the tutelage of Emile Naoumoff. She is a winner of the Latin American Music Competition and a recipient of the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Award. Arakawa is also an avid harpsichord player and studies with Elisabeth Wright.
Karina Avanesian, Valse Fantasie (1953), piano.
Avanesian hails from Voronezh, Russia. After a few years at the Voronezh Special Music School for Gifted Children, she made her debut with the Voronezh Philharmonic orchestra and gave her first solo recital at age 12. Soon after, she entered the Moscow Central Special Music School attached to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory where she studied with Mogilevsky, Sakharov, and Naumov, among others. In 1999, she became a bachelor’s degree student of Monique Duphil at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Oberlin, Ohio). Avanesian majored in both piano performance and music history, and, upon completing her degree at Oberlin in 2003, earned her master’s degree and a performer diploma in Piano at the Jacobs School of Music. Avanesian is studying with Edlina-Dubinsky, pursuing her doctorate. She has recently joined the music faculty at Vincennes University. Avanesian has given solo and chamber recitals and played with orchestras in Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. She is also an avid collaborative pianist and feels equally at home with opera, art song, chamber music, and instrumental accompanying.
Evelyne Brancart, Les Noces, piano.
Evelyne Brancart is currently professor of music (piano) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington and chair of the piano department since August 2001. Previous teaching positions include The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Rice University in Houston, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Aspen Summer Music School, where she innovated a seminar devoted to Chopin and Liszt Etudes.
Brancart was born in Belgium, where she studied 10 years with Spanish master Eduardo del Pueyo and later with Maria Curcio, Leon Fleisher, and Menahem Pressler. She was a prizewinner in many international competitions, including Queen Elisabeth-Belgium (where she returned as a judge in 1999), Montreal, Viotti-Italy, Munich (with her duo partner, cellist Anthony Ross), and Gina Bacchauer-Salt Lake City. She played many recitals all over Europe (Wigmore, Queen Elisabeth, etc.) and made several recordings with BBC orchestras before moving to the United States in 1980. She made her debut in Alice Tully Hall in 1982 with a much-noted performance of Chopin 24 etudes and Brahms Paganini Variations.
Brancart is very involved in chamber music. Between 1986 and 1990, she was a member of the Seraphim Trio, with whom she performed all Beethoven piano trios. More recently, she performed all the Beethoven violin and cello sonatas. She has appeared with artists such as Frederico Agostini, Atar Arad, Jeremy Denk, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Tony Ross, Arnold Steinhardt, and the Orion String Quartet. She played at the Ravinia Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Da Camera (Houston), Leicester Music Festival in England, Mozart Festival in Lille France, Music at the Red Sea in Israel, Perry Sound and Sainte-Petronille in Canada, Bay Chamber in Maine, Close Encounters with Music in Florida, and the Festival D'Horrues in Belgium.
She is a Steinway Artist.
Chih-Yi Chen, Les Noces, piano.
Pianist Chih-Yi Chen’s versatile qualities as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative player have distinguished her amongst pianists. Her works with the Indiana University Violin Virtuosi, directed by Mimi Zweig, have given her recognition as a specialist in violin repertoire and an increasingly sought-after ensemble player. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chen began to show a gift as a pianist at an early age of three. An IU graduate, Chen has studied with Lev Vlasenko, former chairman of the piano department at Moscow Conservatory, Michel Block, and the pianist of the former Borodin Trio Luba Edlina-Dubinsky. Chen is a faculty member with the IU Piano Department, teaching piano accompanying. She has also been the official pianist of the Indiana University Violin Virtuosi since 1998 and a faculty member of the IU Pre-College String Program since 2000.
Marina Eglevsky, Valse Fantasie (1953), Regisseur.
Born into a dance family of classical ballet, Marina Eglevsky has studied and performed with the leading luminaries of 20th-century ballet. Her father was the danseur-noble Andre Eglevsky, and her mother, Leda Anchutina, was a pupil and protégé of Michael Fokine and former soloist with the New York City Ballet. Eglevsky grew up backstage with New York City Ballet, from an early age taking Mr. Balanchine’s company class and later studying at both her parent’s school, the Eglevsky Ballet School, as well as School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theatre School. Her extensive performance credits include dancing in Balanchine’s Nutcracker for several years and the Eglevsky Ballet, the former a collaboration between Balanchine and Andre Eglevsky. At 14 years of age, she was taken into New York City Ballet; by age 15, she had joined the Rebecca Harkness Ballet of New York as soloist. She later danced as a principal dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Hamburg Ballet. Eglevsky worked extensively with choreographer John Neumier in Harkness Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet, as well as John Neumier’s own Hamburg Ballet, dancing the role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Marie in Nutcracker as well as other roles choreographed exclusively for her.
Throughout a career that found her guest-performing and starring with international companies, Eglevsky would dance the lead roles in ballets including Copellia, Cinderella, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Rodeo, and Giselle, paired with such famed partners as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Helgi Tomasson, Fenando Bujones, Robert Weiss, and Lawrence Rhodes. Other career highlights include being personally invited to dance in a festival with Rudolph Nureyev at Lincoln Center in New York and starring as Maggie in the Broadway production of Brigadoon at the Majestic Theater in New York, under the direction of Agnes DeMille and Vivian Matalon (co-starring with Olympic champion ice skater John Curry). Eglevsky inherited and continues to stage several Balanchine ballets worldwide. She has staged these works for companies including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, and Paris Opera Ballet. In 1998, she staged Balanchine’s Sylvia Pas de Deux for the Kennedy Center Honors during the presidency of Bill Clinton. She also received the prestigious Issie Award for her outstanding work in staging ballets. Eglevsky’s teaching career began at the University of North Carolina School of Arts. She has also taught at Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and guest taught at other leading schools around the country. Trained in both Western and Eastern medicine as well as alternative healing modalities, she has a practice in medical and psychosomatic bodywork, with a focus on coaching professional dancers. She is also on staff at the Shawl Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley, Calif.
Nicholas Fitzer, Les Noces, tenor.
Born in Detroit Mich., Nicholas Fitzer is a recent graduate of Eastern Michigan University. He is in his first-year master’s student at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he studies with Costanza Cuccaro. He has performed with many companies around the Great Lakes, including the Michigan Opera Theatre, Toledo Opera, Comic Opera Guild, and The Arbor Opera Theatre. Recent roles include Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), Gastone (La traviata), and Nanki - Poo (The Mikado). This marks his IU debut. In the spring, he will appear in West Side Story.
Sharon Harms, Les Noces, soprano.
A Colorado native, soprano Sharon Harms is a second-year master's student at Indiana University. She received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Northern Colorado, where she sang several diverse roles, including Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Beth in Little Women, Turandot in Busoni's Turandot, and Hexe in Hänsel und Gretel. She was also lead soprano in UNC's vocal jazz ensemble, Northern Colorado Voices. With an affinity for new music and working with composers, Harms has had the opportunity to première several works. She is a student of Carol Vaness.
Sung-Mi Im, Les Noces, piano.
Korean-born Sung-Mi Im was born into a musicial family. After a successful debut at the age of five, she continued her studies at Seoul National University and Boston University, where she was a recipient of a Dean's Scholarship and Kahn Award. As an active soloist and chamber musician, Im regularly performs at music festivals worldwide, such as the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Sitka Music Festival, Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Moon Beach Music Festival in Japan, Bargemusic in New York, and Kuhmo Music Festival in Finland. She has taught piano at Yonsei University in Seoul and is currently teaching chamber music at the Jacobs School of Music.
Charles Latshaw, Valse Fantasie (1967), Conductor.
Charles Latshaw currently serves as music director of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, artistic partner for the Washington Sinfonietta, and principal guest conductor of the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra in Washington, D.C. He has held conducting fellowship positions with the Vienna Philharmonic in 2007 and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2008. Latshaw was assistant conductor to the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and music director of its youth orchestras from 2004 to 2009.
Hee-Seung Lee, Jeux, piano.
Born in Korea, Hee-Seung Lee began her piano studies at age four and made her Civic Center debut at age five. Her first appearance in the United States placed at CSU Dominguez Hills Concert Hall as the SYMF Young Recitalist winner in 2001. She has won first prize at the Music Teachers’ Association of California State Piano Concerto Competition, Redlands Bowl Young Artists Competition, Glendale Piano Competition, Esther M. Johnson Awards Competition, Rotary International Dan Stover Memorial Music Competition, Robert Turner Piano Concerto Competition, and Palisades Symphony Young Artist Competition. Lee was invited to perform at the 2002 Martin Luther King Holiday Celebration in Pasadena and at the benefit concerts dedicated to the victims of 9/11 by the Pasadena Human Relations Commission, as the only Asian guest performer at both events. She has appeared with Palisades Symphony, Los Angeles Doctors Symphony, and Crossroads Chamber Orchestra. Her chamber groups, coached by Daniel Rothmuller, Ida Levin, and Peter Stumpf, performed at the LACMA Bing Theatre in 2002 and, in 2004, for Sundays Live Concert, both broadcast live on KMOZART. The same year, she performed at the young artists concert in Redlands Bowl, broadcast on cable TV. She attended Aube Tzerko Piano Academy of New Roads School in Santa Monica as the Sony Scholar and was awarded a Dean’s Talent Award Scholarship with a full tuition scholarship to attend Oberlin Conservatory of Music. In 2005, she was selected to perform a Mozart piano concerto at the Mozart 250th Birthday Celebration Festival in Oberlin and, in 2008, she received the Piano Faculty Prize in Accompanying from Oberlin, upon her graduation. She studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky, Mack McCray, Alvin Chow, and James Giles during summers and participated in master classes by Victor Rosenbaum, Mykola Suk, and John Perry. At Oberlin, she studied with Angela Cheng for her bachelor’s, and she is currently studying with Arnaldo Cohen at the Jacobs School of Music for her master’s. in piano.
Jacquelyn Matava, Les Noces, mezzo-soprano.
Mezzo-soprano Jacquelyn Matava is a first- year master’s student in voice at Indiana University, studying in the studio of Mary Ann Hart. A native of Farmington, Conn., she attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude with a double major in music and economics. Matava has sung as a soloist in performances of Durufle’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in E-Flat, W. A. Mozart’s Requiem, and J. S. Bach’s B Minor Mass and Magnificat. She is also an associate instructor in the Music Theory Department.
Daniel Mayo, Les Noces, bass.
Bass-baritone Daniel Mayo is a second-year Master of Music student studying with Paul Kiesgen. Mayo has been an active member of Indiana University’s Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, being featured as a soloist in Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles and participating in the world première of Shulamit Ran’s Credo. He will be performing the role of the Second Priest in Indiana University Opera Theater’s upcoming production of W. A. Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. In 2008, he made his professional opera debut as Count Ceprano in Verdi’s Rigoletto with New Opera Saint Louis. Mayo received his undergraduate degree in voice from the University of Illinois and is a graduate of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis “Artists-in-Training” program.
Jooneun Pak, Jeux, piano.
Jooeun Pak was born in Seoul, Korea, where she began playing the piano at the age of four. At the age of 10, she began entering competitions, winning the gold medal in the Korean National Piano Competition and the grand prize in the Kyung Huang Newspaper Competition. Upon graduation with high distinction in academics and the arts, she pursued both music performance and pre-med at the University of Puget Sound, where she received a full scholarship upon entrance and numerous honorary scholarships during her attendance including the Doc & Lucille Weathers Memorial Award and Delwen & Geniece Jones Music scholarship. She has won several national and international competitions, placing first in the University Concerto Competition and second in the Chautauqua International Competition. Pak graduated cum laude. She currently is a doctoral student whose study is supported by an IU Jacobs School of Music Fellowship. She holds a Master of Music and a Performer Diploma from Indiana University.
Mimi Paul, Valse Fantasie (1967), Regisseur.
Mimi Paul of Swiss- Russian heritage calls Washington D.C., her native city. She began her ballet training at the Washington School of Ballet with Lisa Gardiner and Mary Day, two of Washington’s prominent teachers at the time. When the Washington Ballet was formed with Frederic Franklin and Mary Day as co-directors, Paul joined in the company. In subsequent seasons, she danced the leading role in Ondine with Frederic Franklin, choreographed for her by Mary Day. She also starred in Les Sylphides and Swan Lake. When she was sixteen, she spent a summer in London, studying at the Royal Ballet School. Upon her return, she was chosen by George Balanchine to receive a Ford Foundation scholarship to the School of American Ballet. Within six months, she was invited to join the New York City Ballet. While in the corps de ballet, she was soon dancing Principal roles in such ballets as the second movement of Symphony in C, Bugaku, Four Temperaments, Western Symphony, Divertimento No. 15, Concerto Barocco, and the first movement of Episodes. On a summer hiatus, she worked with Vera Volkova for a month in Denmark. Her promotion to Principal Dancer followed her successful performances while on tour in Europe.
With her superb sense of line, musicality, mysterious personality, and powerful stage presence, she generated her own kind of magic. This made her dance phrases burn in ones memory. Her repertoire grew to include Liebeslieder Waltzes, Serenade, Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Valse, Apollo, Antony Tudor’s Dim Lustre, and Jerome Robbin’s Afternoon of a Faun. Roles created for her by George Balanchine were the Emerald section of Jewels, Valse Fantaisie (1967), and Don Quixote.
After her tenure at the New York City Ballet, Paul joined American Ballet Theatre. There, she danced the lead roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Massine’s Gaite Parisienne, Tudor’s Lilac Garden, Alvin Ailey’s The River, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Paquita, and Les Sylphides. Paul was a dance professor at the North Carolina School of the Arts for nine years. In 1997, she staged Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 in Florence Italy for the Balanchine Trust. More recently, she has coached principals in the Washington Ballet. In the fall of 2008, Paul was filmed coaching the roles created for her by George Balanchine for the Balanchine Archival Foundation. In 2009, she spent time coaching principals in her role in Balanchine’s Emeralds with Violette Verdy at the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet.
Doricha Sales, Valse Fantasie (1953), Ballet Mistress.
Doricha Sales received training at the Boston Ballet with founder E. Virginia Williams, as well as the School of American Ballet and Walnut Hill School of the Arts. She has danced with Boston Ballet II, Boston Ballet, Dance Theater of Florida, and Florida Dance Theater and has been a guest with Ballet Florida and the Indianapolis Ballet Theater. She has been an advocate of arts and education, working as director of ballet for Rochelle School of the Arts, as a dance representative of the Hawaiian Alliance for Arts and Education, and served on the Committee for Artistic Excellence in Florida. Sales has two degrees, both of which she obtained at Indiana University: a Bachelor of Science in Ballet and History and a Master of Science in Ballet Pedagogy and Educational Psychology.
Howard Sayette, Les Noces, Regisseur.
Howard Sayette has enjoyed a distinguished career as a dancer, teacher, and ballet master. Born in Los Angeles, he received his early training there with David Lichine, Tatiana Riabouchinska, and Michel Panaieff, continuing in New York with Robert Joffrey, Leon Danielian, and Hector Zaraspe.
Sayette’s link to the ballets of the Diaghilev era began when he was a member of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and danced in some of the great ballets of Massine, Fokine, and Balanchine. He continued his dancing career as a soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, which was directed by Alicia Markova, and worked with such great choreographers as Antony Tudor, John Butler, and Alvin Ailey.
Sayette first became acquainted with Bronislava Nijinska in 1969, when he was guest artist with the Buffalo Ballet and danced in her ballet Brahm’s Variations, which shared a program with her Les Biches at the Jacobs’s Pillow Dance Festival.
In 1972, Sayette began a long association with the Oakland Ballet, one of the few companies in the world to revive and maintain some of the great ballets of the Diaghilev repertoire. In 1981, he renewed his acquaintance with Bronislava Nijinska’s daughter, Irina, when she came to Oakland Ballet to stage her mother’s Les Noces, the first American company to do so. Following Les Noces, the company also acquired Nijinska’s Les Biches, Le Train Bleu, Bolero, and a section of Chopin Concerto, for its repertoire.
For the recent celebration of the 100th anniversary of Diaghilev bringing the Russian ballet and opera to Paris, Sayette has staged Les Biches for Ballet West, NBA Ballet in Tokyo, and Rome Opera Ballet, and has re-staged Les Noces for the Kirov Ballet at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and for the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.
In addition to the ballets of Bronislava Nijinska, Sayette has staged many productions of Eugene Loring’s Billy the Kid and Ruthanna Boris’ Cakewalk for companies worldwide.
Andrew Smith, Les Noces, Principal Percussion.
Percussionist, clinician, and educator, Andrew Smith has performed in the national spotlight for over two decades. He has performed under conductors including Kenneth Schermerhorn and Ray Cramer at venues including Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, and the Hollywood Bowl. A former resident of Nashville, Tenn., Smith taught as adjunct percussion instructor at Middle Tennessee State University from 1999 to 2008. He has performed with Lalo Davila, Mat Britain, and The Canadian Brass and has been recorded on numerous albums and instructional videos. He has been a featured performer numerous times at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. In addition, Smith is an education-artist clinician for Pearl/Adams, Evans drumheads and Innovative Percussion.
Carmen Helena Téllez, Les Noces, Conductor.
Camen Helena Téllez is director of Graduate Choral Studies, director of the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and director of the Latin American Music Center at the Jacobs School of Music. She has conducted several world and collegiate premières at Indiana University, including John Adams' oratorio El Niño in 2002, Osvaldo Golijov's opera Ainadamar in 2007, Gabriela Ortiz's video-opera ¡Unicamente la verdad! in 2008, and James MacMillan's Sun-Dogs,which she commissioned, in 2006. She has also conducted many canonic works at IU, and, in 2000, she became the first woman on record to conduct Berlioz's monumental Grande Messe des Morts, an event with 450 performers on stage. This is her second performance with the Indiana University Ballet Department, after a Carmina burana in 2001. Earlier in September she conducted a staged production of Carmina burana in Brazil that she also designed. Téllez is also known as an interdisciplinary artist and scholar. She has a Doctor of Music from the Jacobs School. Her doctoral dissertation on Handel's oratorio Athalia won the Julius Herford National Prize for the best dissertation on a choral topic.
Irina TerGrigoryan, Valse Fantasie (1953), rehearsal accompanist.
Irina Ter-Grigoryan received her degrees of piano performance, pedagogy, and as an accompanist in the former Soviet Union. Ter-Grigoryan served as a faculty member at the Baku State Conservatory and as an accompanist for the Azerbaijan State Theater Opera and Ballet. She was selected from a small pool of musicians to accompany international and regional competitions representing the Soviet Union. During her time in the United States, Ter-Grigoryan has continued her work as an accompanist with the Temple Square Concert Series Recitals in Salt Lake City, Utah, the University of Utah, and Ballet West, and as a collaborative pianist at DePauw University.She currently holds the position of accompanist and music director with the Indiana University Ballet Department.
Violette Verdy, Valse Fantasie (1967), Ballet Mistress.
Violette Verdy is currently a Distinguished Professor of Ballet at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for 20 years and an international ballerina with major companies in America and Europe. She is a former artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet and Boston Ballet. Throughout her career, she has taught for many ballet companies and schools, including New York City Ballet, the Royal Ballet, the Paris Opera, the Australian Ballet Company, the Royal Danish, and, most recently, the Bolchoi Ballet Company, the first outside female teacher invited since 1917. Verdy is also the principal artistic advisor for the Rock School of Ballet, Philadelphia Penn. In 2009, she was recognized as Chevalier (Knight) in France's National Order of the Legion of Honor, an award from President M. Nicolas Sarkozy. The order is France's highest decoration.
Guoping Wang, Les Noces, Ballet Master.
A native of China, Guoping Wang studied ballet at the Ballet Department of the Shanghai Dance School and in the graduate program at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. He danced with the Shanghai Ballet Company from July 1980 to October 1991 and joined Ballet Chicago in 1993, performing leading roles with the company through 1995. In 1997, while also a member of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Wang was recognized by the Chicago Dance Community with a Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Dance Achievement. Wang has been on the faculty of the School of Ballet Chicago and a guest teacher and coach for Indiana University Ballet Theater. This is his fifth year as a full-time faculty member at IU.
Anthony Weinstein, Valse Fantasie (1953), piano.
Anthony Weinstein was born in Simferopol, Ukraine. He began his musical studies at home, as he is part of the fourth generation of musicians in his family. At age 11, he became a student at the School Years (Shkolniye Gody) Choral Music School in his native city, and, as a member of the school's Senior Choir, won international choral competitions in Bulgaria, Spain, and the former Soviet Union. After Weinstein’s family immigrated to the USA in 1993, he began piano studies with Derison Duarte at the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1998, he became a student at both Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Oberlin, Ohio). Weinstein received a double degree (Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Arts) with majors in piano and pure mathematics and a minor in music history. While at Oberlin, he studied with Haewon Song and Sedmara Zakarian Rutstein. In 2003, Weinstein was accepted as a master's degree student in piano at IU Jacobs School of Music. He began his doctoral work with Edlina-Dubinsky in the Fall of 2006. He has been an associate instructor of piano and music theory as well as piano accompanying coordinator at IU and has recently been hired as the director of the Accompanying Center at the DePauw University School of Music. With his wife, Karina, Weinstein combines an active solo repertoire with a strong interest in collaborative and chamber music.
