Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 21, 2008|Volume 36, Number 22

Richard Lalli

Lalli named next master of
Jonathan Edwards College

Richard Lalli ’86 D.M.A., professor (adjunct) of music, has been named the next master of Jonathan Edwards College (JE), effective January of 2009, announced President Richard C. Levin.

Gary and Sondra Haller, the current master and associate master, “have graciously agreed to remain in JE for the fall term, assisting the college in moving back in after its major renovation,” noted Levin in a letter to the residential college community.

Lalli has taught music at Yale since 1984, first in the School of Music and most recently in the Department of Music. For his distinction as a teacher, especially for his undergraduate course “The Performance of Vocal Music,” Lalli received the Sidonie Miskimin Clauss Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities at last year’s Class Day exercises during Commencement weekend. The citation noted that he “teaches his students interpretation, technique, diction, repertoire, literature, musicianship … and let us not forget ‘taste’ and then sends them off to populate the miraculous array of opportunities Yale offers, many of which he helped nurture, foster, galvanize or even develop himself.”

Lalli has also held teaching appointments at Vassar and Amherst colleges and at the Mannes School of Music.

For the past six years, Lalli has conducted the Yale Collegium Musicum, an ensemble devoted to early music. He also coordinates the Shen Musical Theater Curriculum, a program he developed that brings professionals in musical theater composition, lyric and book writing, and performance to teach in the Departments of Music and Theater Studies and in the School of Drama. He was recently named artistic director of the Yale Baroque Opera Project, which introduces undergraduates to historical, theoretical and performance aspects of 17th-century Italian opera. The project is funded by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Grant that was awarded to his colleague Professor Ellen Rosand.

A fellow of JE, Lalli has been active in many musical projects there. In 2002, he directed the Opera Theatre of Yale College’s production of “Dido and Aeneas” in honor of the 90th birthday of former JE master Beekman Cannon (now deceased). He has also been an adviser to many other JE-sponsored productions.

Lalli, a baritone, has appeared around the world as a singer and pianist. He has given solo recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Spoleto Festival USA, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Weill and Merkin halls in New York, and the U.S. Embassy in Paris. He has been particularly active in the performance of chamber music, appearing with the Boston Camerata, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Mirror Visions Ensemble, the Folger Consort and the new-music ensemble Sequitur. In the coming year, he will present multiple performances with pianist Peter Serkin and the Brentano String Quartet. Lalli has premiered the works of numerous composers, most recently songs by Ned Rorem, and his recording of Yehudi Wyner’s “The Mirror” was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005.

Joining Lalli in the JE Master’s House next January as associate master will be his partner, Dr. Michael Rigsby, an associate professor at the School of Medicine and medical director of the Yale University Health Services. Rigsby’s chief academic interests have been in the field of chronic viral infections, particularly HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis. He has held local and national leadership positions in the Department of Veterans Affairs, where he was director of the national HIV and Hepatitis C Program Office. At Yale University Health Services, he oversees medical care in all departments and has led the development of a Population Health program that expands the quality and reach of health care through data-drive performance improvement programs.

Rigsby shares Lalli’s interest in music. He studied the French horn at the North Carolina School of the Arts and Manhattan School of Music before deciding to pursue a career in medicine. Rigsby currently concentrates on the performance of early music, playing a number of early stringed instruments. He has performed with groups throughout the Northeast.

In announcing the new master and associate master, Levin also expressed his “deepest gratitude” to Gary and Sondra Haller for “the wonderful care they have given to JE over many years.”

“In the great JE tradition,” said Levin, “Master Haller has galvanized the extracurricular life in the college, supporting and nurting many musical events, ensuring that JE students are exposed to the rich cultural life of New Haven and New York … and organizing many special exhibitions of art in his own home. Sondra Haller has offered her warmth and nurture to JE students, taking part in the JE College Council and ensuring in every way that JE would be a ‘home away from home’ for each and every student, and a welcoming haven for all fellows and guests.”

Levin also thanked the members of the search committee, which was chaired by Meg Urry, professor and chair of physics, and included Michael Levene, assistant professor of biomedical engineering; Dr. Robert Lyons, associate clinical professor of internal medicine; Beth Miller, associate director for development and external affairs at the Yale Center for British Art; and students Simone Berkower ’09, Rafe Bonvillian ’08, Jeff Brown ’09, Maureen Gaj ’10, Zahreen Ghaznavi ’08 and Bobby Gibbs ’10.

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Campus Notes