Lee, Washburn Appointments

NEC Announces Appointments of Collaborative Pianist Pei-Shan Lee '09 DMA and Choral Conductor Erica Washburn to Faculty

Cameron Stowe to Serve as Collaborative Piano Chair for 2009-10

Washburn Becomes Interim Head of Choral Activities

Thomas Novak, Dean of the College at NEC, has announced two new faculty appointments and a reorganized collaborative piano department to take effect in September.
 
Cameron Stowe, who joined the Collaborative Piano department in 2007 will serve as chair of the department, succeeding Irma Vallecillo who retired in the spring. Pei-Shan Lee, who received her Doctor of Musical Arts from the Conservatory in May, will join the full-time Collaborative Piano faculty for the 2009-10 academic year where she will be teaching studio lessons, sonata performance, and the Collaborative Skills courses. She will be an active participant in all departmental events and activities, and will also take part in a summer review of the accompanying program.

Erica Washburn, who is completing her doctorate in Vocal Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music, will become Interim Head of Choral Activities, filling the vacancy left by Amy Lieberman.
 
Biographies

Pei-Shan LeePianist Pei-Shan Lee '09 D.M.A. is in high demand as a duo and chamber music partner, performing in recitals with violinists Ani Kavafian, Joseph Silverstein, Korbinian Altenberger, Ryu Goto, and Stefan Jackiw; violists Kim Kashkashian, Beth Guterman and Dimitri Murrath; cellist Paul Katz, pianist James Tocco, and members of the Avalon, Jupiter, Parker, and Ariel String Quartets. In Boston, she performs regularly at NEC, MIT, the Boston Ballet, and in recitals with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Miss Lee also works frequently with the BSO’s guest conductors and soloists, and recently participated in the documentary filming of violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter.

Lee is also on the faculty of the Perlman Music Program, has served in the same capacity at the Chautauqua School of Music, and has worked as collaborative pianist at the Cleveland Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, and The Meadowmount School for Strings.
 
Her performances have taken her to The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, as well as venues in France, Germany and Belgium. In recent summers she has performed at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Caramoor Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Perlman Music Program, Heifetz International Music Institute, Chautauqua School of Music, Music Academy of the West, Pro Quartet in France, the International Piano Festival in Spain, and the International Summer Festival at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

A native of Taiwan, Lee came to the US for piano study after winning the Youth Division of Taiwan’s National Piano Competition. She earned her B.M. in Piano from the Manhattan School of Music, an M.M. from The Juilliard School, an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music and her D.M.A. from NEC. She received the Rosa Lobe Memorial Award from CIM in recognition of the highest level of artistic achievement in collaborative piano. Former teachers include Irma Vallecillo, Anne Epperson, Samuel Sanders, Jonathan Feldman, Solomon Mikowsky, and Yu-Yun Chen.

Erica WashburnConductor and mezzo soprano Erica Washburn received an M.M. in Choral Conducting and an M.M. in Vocal Performance from East Carolina University in 2006 after earning a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Westminster Choir College. As a graduate student at ECU, Washburn served as conductor of the ECU Women's Chorale, and was the student of Dr. Daniel Bara and John Kramar. Performance credits while in residence in North Carolina include Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the East Carolina University Symphony, Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, Rebecca Nurse in The Crucible by Robert Ward, and Aminta in Mozart's Il re pastore.
 
Washburn made her Eastman Opera Theatre debut in January 2008 portraying the role of Mother/Allison in the premiere of Lee Hoiby’s This is the Rill Speaking. She has also performed selections of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Genesee Valley Orchestra & Chorus, and appeared as a soloist at the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery for the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative Festival.
 
She has given numerous recital performances and has also served as chorus master for the April 2008 Eastman Opera Theatre production of Lehar’s The Merry Widow.
 
Washburn has taught, lectured or conducted at the New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA) Choral Camp, the New York All-State Mixed Choir (Zone 7 Area) and the Greatbatch School of Music of Houghton College. She is a candidate for the degree of Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music, where she has studied conducting with Dr. William Weinert and voice with Karen Holvik and Jan Opalach.

For further information, check the NEC Website at: http://necmusic.edu/faculty

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 720 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world.  Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars.  Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide.  Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions.  On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors.  Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.

NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 106-year old, beautifully restored concert hall.  These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz and opera scenes.  Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Public Relations Manager
New England Conservatory
617-585-1143
ellen.pfeifer@necmusic.edu