School of Music Welcomes New Faculty and Staff
Alexander Ezerman
The
School of Music is pleased to announce that Alexander Ezerman has joined the
School of Music as the new associate professor of cello. He will begin instruction
in Fall 2008.
Ezerman comes from a family where the cello runs four generations deep, including two former associate principals of the Philadelphia Orchestra. A prize winner in national and international competition, he has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician across the United States, Canada, Europe and South America. He is newly appointed to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as Associate Professor of Violoncello. His previous position was at Texas Tech University, where he was a founding member of the Botticelli String Quartet. He also regularly performs with his wife, violinist Stephanie Ezerman, as the Ezerman Duo. An active advocate and performer of new music, he has been involved in numerous premiers, and has performed all twelve of the “Sacher” pieces for solo cello in a single recital. His most recent premiere, Ignis Fatuus for solo cello, by composer Teresa LeVelle, has been recorded on the Innova Label. During the summer, he is on the faculty of the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington Vermont. He has previously been on the faculties of the Brevard Music Center and the Killington Music Festival. Ezerman holds a BM degree from Oberlin College Conservatory and a Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His primary mentors include Timothy Eddy, Norman Fischer, David Wells and his grandmother Elsa Hilger.
Miriam Fields
The School of Music is pleased to announce that Miriam Blackwelder Fields has been named as the new director of development for the School of Music. Fields has served as associate director of development in UNCG’s Alumni Relations Office since 2005. She returned to UNCG after serving as the director of alumni relations at Greensboro College for seven years. Prior to that post, she was the director of operations and marketing for Carolina Beauty College. A 1985 UNCG graduate in sociology and psychology, she is married and has two children.
Clara O'Brien
The School of Music is pleased to announce that Clara O'Brien will join the School of Music as assistant professor of voice. Clara comes to UNCG from the University of Oklahoma with extensive performance experience worldwide. Mezzo Soprano Clara O’Brien’s European career began with the 1st International Coloratura Competition, Sylvia Geszty when she was awarded the Sonderpreis des Badischen Staatstheaters; a solo contract with the State Theater of Baden, Germany. Before coming to Europe, she had sung in the United States with the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, the Aspen Music Festival and various regional musical organizations. She has appeared on the stages of many European cities including Berlin, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Dresden and Frankfurt. Her performances have been noted in Opernwelt as Best Performances in both the Emerging and Established Artist categories. Other awards include 1st Prize, Erika Köth Meisterkurs and Finalist in the International Belvedere Competition. Her many roles range from Baroque to contemporary and include Octavian, Komponist, Adalgisa, Mignon, Dorabella, Donna Elvira, Elisabetta (Maria Stuarda), Rosina, Cenerentola, Musetta, Hélène (La Belle Hélène), Fenena (Nabucco) and numerous roles at the International Händel Festspiel.
Clara O’Brien is also a recitalist and has won the Grand Prix Paul Derenne, International Concours de chant de Paris for her interpretation of Impressionist and post-Impressionist French mélodie. She is also a noted interpreter of late-Romantic and Modernist German Lieder. Her recording of Schönberg’s Das Buch der hängenden Gärten was released in 2007. Other recordings include releases on the Bella Musica and Albany Records labels and she has been recorded and broadcast on Southwest German Radio and Television.
Ms O’Brien studied at the Eastman School of Music (M.M., Performance Certificate) and the Dana School of Music (B.M., Summa cum laude) and completed her stage training at the Curtis Institute of Music. She was a Fulbright Scholar and was awarded a fellowship to the Münchener Singschul’. She returned to the U.S. and is currently Assistant Professor for Voice at the University of Oklahoma. She has also taught at the American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria and gives masterclasses throughout the United States.
Abigail Pack
The School of Music is pleased to announce Abigail Pack will join the School of Music as associate professor of horn. A native of Roanoke, Virginia, Ms. Pack received her Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. in 1994 before earning a Master of Arts degree in Horn Performance and Pedagogy in 1996 from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA, where she was a teaching assistant and toured with the faculty brass quintet. Ms. Pack recently completed her doctoral degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed her doctoral coursework there in May 2001 before returning to Virginia to begin her present teaching position at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. She has held teaching positions at Knox College in Galesburg, IL., Western State College in Gunnison, CO., and in the Gunnison Watershed School District in Gunnison, CO. and was awarded the Bolz Teaching Fellowship while in residence at UW-Madison.
Ms. Pack has held playing positions with the Barton Symphony Orchestra, Quad Cities Symphony rchestra, Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, and with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. She currently performs as a member of the Madison Brass, Montpelier Winds, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, the Southwest Chamber Orchestra, the Roanoke Opera, and with the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and Winds of Wintergreen (WOW). She serves as the Virginia State Area Respresentative of the International Horn Society, on the advisory board of the Southeast Regional Horn Workshop, and on the advisory board of the American Hunting Horn Society.
