Brandeis Magazine

Sidney Wolinsky ’67 was nominated for a 2018 Academy Award for his film editing on director Guillermo del Toro’s film “The Shape of Water,” which went on to win four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Wolinsky has been announced as the film editor on del Toro’s next project, a remake of the 1947 noir film “Nightmare Alley.” He has worked as a film editor on the TV series “The Sopranos,” “The Walking Dead” and “House of Cards,” and won an Emmy for his work on the “Boardwalk Empire” pilot, which was directed by Martin Scorsese.

University of Florida history professor Jack E. Davis, PhD’94, received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in history for his book “The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea,” an environmental history of the Gulf of Mexico. The Pulitzer history award has been something of a lock for Brandeisians over the past 13 years. Alan Taylor, PhD’86, won the prize in 2014 for “The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832.” David M. Oshinsky, PhD’71, won it in 2006 for “Polio: An American Story.” And University Professor Emeritus of History David Hackett Fischer won it in 2005 for “Washington’s Crossing.” In addition, David I. Kertzer, PhD’74, won the 2015 Pulitzer in biography for “The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe.”

Four Brandeis alums were among the 18 recipients of this year’s awards in music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Aylward, MFA’06, PhD’08, earned the Walter Hinrichsen Award in Music, which recognizes the publication of a work by a composer. Laurie San Martin, PhD’02, received the Andrew Imbrie Award in Music, given to a composer in midcareer. Peter Van Zandt Lane, MA’08, PhD’13, was awarded a Charles Ives Fellowship, which recognizes composition. And Scott Wheeler, MA’83, PhD’84, earned an Arts and Letters Award in Music, which honors outstanding artistic achievement and acknowledges composers who have arrived at their own voice.

The April North American premiere of “The Rosenbergs (An Opera),” the first opera produced by the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, was directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky ’98, assistant professor of theater arts. The performances were co-produced by Boston University and Brandeis. The opera, set in 1953, is adapted from letters written by Ethel and Julius Rosenberg while they were in jail, sentenced to death for conspiring with the Soviet Union to commit espionage against the United States.

Glory days: Jon Landau ’68 co-produced “Springsteen on Broadway,” a concert residency by Bruce Springsteen at the 984-capacity Walter Kerr Theatre, which was honored with a special award at the Tony Awards in June. The show’s run, which began in October 2017, has been extended until December. Landau has been Springsteen’s manager since 1978. Landau also served as co-producer (alongside Priscilla Presley) of the critically acclaimed two-part HBO documentary “Elvis Presley: The Searcher.”

Leonard Bernstein is headed back to Brandeis. A centennial-birthday exhibition titled “Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music” will be on view at Spingold’s Dreitzer Gallery from Oct. 4 to Nov. 20. Organized by the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, the exhibition includes artifacts and photographs — on loan from the composer’s family and other collections — that explore his life, Jewish identity and social activism. Additional materials from University Archives and Special Collections will document his time at Brandeis.