 | Joan Panetti is stepping down as director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School after 22 years in the post. During her tenure, she doubled the number of performances at the Norfolk Festival, oversaw the renovation of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate's Music Shed, and introduced new programs for concertgoers. |
At the close of the summer 2003 season, after 22 years of contributions to the world of chamber music, Joan Panetti will step down as director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music, to devote more time on composing, performing and teaching.
Robert Blocker, dean of the Yale School of Music, describes Panetti as "the guiding force that elevated the Norfolk program to international status." He adds, "She is an eminent artist/educator who, through perseverance and passion, developed a community where music is celebrated and where young artists and faculty nurture each other."
Blocker has appointed Paul Hawkshaw, former associate dean of the School of Music, as artistic director of the Norfolk Festival, effective this September. James Nelson, from the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, has been named general manager of the festival.
Panetti has served as director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music since 1981, while simultaneously holding her post as professor of music at the School of Music. One of only three directors in the Norfolk's 62-year history, Panetti was already a member of the "Norfolk family" when she began her tenure as director, having composed, performed, and taught there since the early 1970s.
Under Panetti's leadership, the number of festival performances has doubled from 20 in 1981 to nearly 40 in 2003; audience numbers have increased 70%; and the program has enjoyed continued financial stability. The festival's 1906 concert hall, the Music Shed, underwent renovation to provide handicap access, improved artist facilities and a recording studio. To nurture future concert-goers, Panetti introduced the festival's "Kids Come Free!" program as well as $5 young adult ticket prices. Both programs are sponsored in part by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.
Panetti has also helped develop the two-month Yale Summer School of Music into a top training ground for young professional musicians and ensembles. The program now features a two-week Contemporary Music Workshop, which brings together composers and performers, and six weeks devoted to chamber music performances and studies. Panetti has assembled a roster of renowned artist-faculty, many of them Yale alumni from throughout the world, who -- in addition to teaching students -- join current Yale faculty in performing innovative programs as part of the festival.
Panetti received her M.M. and D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music. As a pianist she has toured extensively throughout Europe and the United States and frequently performs in chamber music ensembles. Her recent CD with violinist Syoko Aki has been highly acclaimed in Japan where it was released. A noted composer, Panetti is currently working on a commission by Music Accord to compose a Piano Quintet for the Tokyo String Quartet.
Her many awards include Yale's Morse Fellowship and Camargo Fellowship, as well as top awards in the BMI competition, International Bach Competition, International Gottschalk Competition, and Harvard University's Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award. She has received national recognition for her course "Hearing" at the Yale School of Music. Panetti will continue to serve on the faculty of the School of Music, where she has been since 1979.
Her successor, Paul Hawkshaw, joined the School of Music in 1984, after receiving his Ph.D. in musicology from Columbia University. Currently a professor of music history, his principal area of research has been the music of Anton Bruckner. He has co-edited six volumes of Bruckner's "Collected Works," two volumes of essays ("Perspectives on Anton Bruckner") and is currently working on a biography of the composer for Yale University Press. His latest book on Bruckner's psalms was published in the spring of 2002 in Vienna.
In addition to his teaching and writing, Hawkshaw has spearheaded several School of Music ventures, including the renovation of Morse Recital Hall and Sprague Hall and the Yale College Class of 1957's "Music in the Schools Initiative."
The festival's new general manager, James Nelson, was director of programs at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut, where he oversaw the expansion of programs resulting from the addition of a second theater in 2001. Nelson previously held positions with the Hartford Symphony and with the Portland Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Music Northwest, both in Portland, Oregon. At Yale, Nelson will be responsible for the administrative and financial management of the Norfolk Festival and Summer School of Music.
The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival will open its 2003 season on June 28 with a performance by eighth blackbird, a new music ensemble. (See Calendar, page 10.) The festival, which will continue through Aug. 23, will feature performances by the Claremont Trio, Gryphon Trio, Miró Quartet and Tokyo String Quartet. Individual artists include pianists Claude Frank and Yehudi Wyner, violinists Donald Weilersten, Erick Friedman and Syoko Aki, violist Jesse Levine, flutist Carol Wincenc, clarinetist David Krakauer, trumpeter Allan Dean, guitarist Eliot Fisk among many others, pianist/composer Pablo Ziegler, the jazz duo of Dwike Mitchell and Willie Ruff, and more.
The festival is located on the grounds of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate located at the junction of routes 272 and 44 in Norfolk, Connecticut. Ticket prices are $40, $25 and $15 for adults; $5 for young adults, age 18-25, and free for children.
For further information, call (860) 542-3000; send e-mail to norfolk@yale.edu; or visit the festival's website at www.yale.edu/norfolk.
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