Class Correspondent

Larry Bakst, P’05, who calls himself “technically ’72 but functionally ’71,” sang leading operatic roles from 1979-2013 all over the world. After winning several singing competitions, including at the Metropolitan Opera, he moved in 1987 to Germany, where he raised his family with his wife, Kathryn Wright. Over the last 15 years of his operatic career, Larry sang the parts of Verdi’s Otello and Beethoven’s Florestan; many performances of Wagner’s “Tannhäuser”; and the title role in Wagner’s “Siegfried,” which may be opera’s most demanding dramatic tenor role. “Not bad for a nice Jewish boy,” Larry says. He now lives in the more prosaic but stable Athens, Georgia, where his wife is musical director of the University of Georgia opera department and he teaches voice at nearby Truett McConnell University. Ruth Sheri Liberman, P’12, writes, “I think of how many years have passed in all our lives. Have we stayed true to our principles? Have we accomplished even a little of what our youthful exuberance promised? On the eve of my last term of teaching college — which I’ve done for some 40 years — I am reminded how we were once the rebels, the children of the ‘medium is the message’ era.” Fran Rosenblatt Samuels writes that her wonderful son, Seth, is getting married in August to the equally wonderful Suzy Goldenkranz, who is the niece of Michael Goldenkranz ’74. Fran adds, “Coincidentally, I was Michael’s residence counselor his freshman year and my junior year. We have been reunited by the kids.” Fran, who recently became an Israeli citizen, is planning to move to Israel permanently, though she will visit the U.S. frequently. Jane Sutton has published a new children’s picture book, “Paulie’s Passover Predicament” (Kar-Ben Publishing), about a moose that wants his first Seder to be perfect, but it’s not. This is Jane’s 11th book for children. Barbara Freedman Wand, an estate and charitable-planning partner in the Boston office of Day Pitney, was admitted as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar before the full court on Feb. 20 in Washington, D.C. Barbara was one of 12 members of the Hadassah National Attorneys Council who met with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg following the swearing-in ceremony.
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