School Notes: School of Music
November/December 2024

Convocation marks new school year

The Yale School of Music community held its annual convocation on September 5 in Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. The ceremony featured performances by faculty guitarist Benjamin Verdery, flutist Sophia Jean ’25MusM, and pianists Ryan Sheng ’25MusPF, Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner ’20MusAD, and Michelle Kim (one of the school’s collaborative pianists). School of Music dean José García-León offered remarks that included words of encouragement to members of the incoming class. “Your individuality is one of your greatest assets and one of the main reasons you were selected to join our school,” García-León said. Yale University provost Scott Strobel formally installed the entering class. Those in attendance sang Schubert’s “An die Musik,” led from the stage by Jean and Sánchez-Werner, and followed the sound of Brazilian rhythms, played by the Yale Percussion Group, to a reception at the Elm City Club.

Alumni in academia

Ian Rosenbaum ’10MusM, ’11MusAD, joined the faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. Rosenbaum is a member of Sandbox Percussion, which also includes School of Music alums Jonny Allen ’13MusM, ’14MusAD; Victor Caccese ’13MusM; and Terry Sweeney ’15MusM. The quartet received a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in March. Rosenbaum was named associate professor of percussion at Peabody, where his fellow faculty members include percussionists and School of Music alums Ji Su Jung ’19MusM, ’20MusAD, and Jeff Stern ’16MusAD. Yale School of Music lecturer in percussion and Yale Percussion Group director Robert van Sice retired from his faculty position at Peabody at the end of the 2023–24 academic year.