Brandeis Magazine

In March, composer and MFA student Tina 
Tallon ’13 completed a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She worked on two projects: a piece for solo cello and electronics, commissioned by International Contemporary Ensemble cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman, and a short piece for soprano and clarinet, which will premiere in May 2013. Tallon, who earned a bachelor’s in biological engineering and music at MIT in 2011, was a fellow at the UC Davis Composition Workshop earlier this year.

In December 2012, the Boston Society of Film Critics handed out its yearly commendations citing the work of local theaters, arts groups and film series. Among the honorees were Sharon Pucker Rivo ’61 and Lisa Rivo, executive director and associate director of the Brandeis-based National Center for Jewish Film, recognized for their annual restoration of historically significant Yiddish and Jewish films, which are then shown around the world.

Tova Speter ’00, an artist and community muralist based in Cambridge, Mass., is helping to lead an arts project growing out of a partnership between the city’s Community Art Center and pharmaceutical giant Novartis. Speter and three other artists are mentoring local children as they create murals that will line a pedestrian walkway at the Novartis facility under construction on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge’s Area 4. Speter has also headed community mural projects in Israel, Argentina, China and Panama.

Jose Kim ’13 and Demi Su ’14 are two of the 125 U.S. students who recently won $5,000 scholarships from the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund. In January, the scholars were feted at the fund’s 2013 awards dinner, held at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which also honored Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz with a Fashion Impact Award. Both Kim and Su hope to work in the fashion industry after graduation. Since 2010-11, nine Brandeis students have won YMA scholarships, which include access to internships and mentoring.

This year’s Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts will be held April 25-28. On the evening of the 26th, Leonard’s daughter Jamie will co-host an event at Slosberg Music Center titled “Late Night with Leonard Bernstein,” featuring performances of her father’s favorite music, including works by Copland, Confrey, Coward, Schubert and Chopin. Jamie is the first Bernstein family member to attend the festival.

Eric Hill, the Louis, Frances and Jeffrey Sachar Chair in Creative Arts, is the director of “Visions of an Ancient Dreamer,” presented at Spingold’s Mainstage Theater from April 25-28. The play is Hill’s new adaptation of Euripedes’ “Orestes” and “Iphigenia at Tauris,” using translations of the original ancient Greek text by Leonard C. Muellner, professor of classical studies, and Brandeis students. The production, which also includes Indian narrative dance performed by the Navarasa Dance Theater, explores how myths connect across cultures and time.