Yale Women's Slavic Chorus Newsletter - Spring/Summer 2002

[Note: Since this newsletter was produced several years ago, some of this information may be seriously out of date.]

Gossip Around The Well
Alumnae Notes -- Spring 2002
edited by Ann Mackey '85

Thanks to all of you (over eighty!) who wrote in this Spring to share your news. Your enthusiastic participation makes this a wonderfully fun project (albeit one I had a hard time finding time to complete). People are listed more or less in order of Slav vintage, most recent Slavs first, with some minor rearranging on editorial whim. More than thirty years of Slavdom -- now officially in its second generation.

A few common themes: 

• As always, many, many of you expressed a yearning to do some Slavic singing. Some reported that they managed to make local connections from last year's newsletter, and I hope this year's newsletter will allow others to do the same. Click here for the current list of music seekers by location. I don't publish E-mail IDs on the site without very explicit permission, but am happy to facilitate connections between willing Slavs, so feel free to contact me (Ann Mackey) at asm@pipeline.com to make connections.
  


• This forum also presents the opportunity for a little professional networking (at least one job connection has resulted from a Slav connection so far). Again, please feel free to E-mail me.
  


• In the past year a number of "missing" Slavs found their way back through the alumnae website. Please take a moment to check the Missing Slavs page and let me know if you can help locate someone.
  


• Several of you noted that the Sissy Spacek character in In the Bedroom conducts a Slavic Chorus. While I gather the film is well worth seeing on its own merits (haven't managed to see it myself), there's one more bit of incentive, if it's still in theaters (maybe not, by now), or at your local video store (maybe soon).
  
  

Finally, for those of you who are wondering about the current Slavs, and what they've been up to, stay tuned for the actual Slav newsletter, which we hope will be published online soon. Meanwhile, enjoy the following quote from Galen Brandt '75: "The current and just-graduated crop of Slavs, whom I had the genuine pleasure of working with ... and whose workshops and gigs I've dropped in on, are maybe the coolest chicks on the planet, and are carrying on the Mystery Girl tradition with passion, style, commitment, skill, innovative flair, obvious fun and real love for each other." 

Ann Mackey '85
June/July 2002

~  ~  ~

Ellie Johnson (1999-2001) is an editor at a small academic press, doing mainly acquisitions, as well as some developmental editing. She lives in and is "in love" with Park Slope, which she reports "seems to have become the post-Yale hub for young Slavs." Sarah Hipkens (1997-2001), Catherine Price (1999-2000), Erica Catlin (1997-2000) and she all live within a five block radius of each other. She recently decided to become more involved in her community, and that is taking shape in her joining the Park Slope Food Co-op and deciding to spend "some serious time" walking around town on weekends. She plans also to do some kind of dance class or exercise class. "And maybe to sell lemonade on the side of the road." Sophie Oberfield (1998-2001) is volunteering with the Massachusetts Forests and Parks AmeriCorps program, living in Hawley, MA in the very northwest part of the state. She would love to connect with Slavic music in the Pioneer Valley or anyplace else.

Moving on to the Bay Area, Karen Edwards (2000) got her PhD in Mathematics from UC Berkeley, then left at 8am the next morning to go on "an amazing" trip to Bulgaria with the Slavs ("What a way to celebrate!"). Since she's started teaching math at Diablo Valley College and lives in downtown Oakland with her fiancé Matt (getting married probably in July 2003). Another Bay area Slav, Judy An (1997-2000) is also getting married -- on July 28th -- to her high school sweetheart. She and her fiancé are both second-year students at UC Berkeley Law School, where Judy's majoring in intellectual property and technology law. She is currently taking intermediate Bulgarian and doing research on Bulgarian constitutional law. Emma Tsui (1996-99) reports that she is coming up on the end of "three wonderful years" of living in San Francisco. She currently "shares a home with the magnificent Abigail Arons (alto/second extraordinaire and dumbek-owner), a quick skibble away from Golden Gate Park, and within a ya helo's distance of two local sops, Becca Widiss (1997-99) and Sam Godbey (1998-99)." They sing together "sporadically, but enthusiastically." In the fall, she will be beginning a master's program in public health and "may have to bid my favorite Bay Area Slavs farewell." After three years of working on some national and California-based public health research projects, she is looking forward to beginning another round of academic immersion, with the goal (potentially) taking her show on the road internationally once the degree is finished. Gabi McColgan (1997-98) is few months away from receiving her Masters of Music in Voice at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and will likely be in San Francisco for the next few years. Abigail Arons adds "the Bay Area is ripe for a Slav reunification, if only one of us had the time to orchestrate it. But we sing when we can." 

Two Slavs from the late 90s have made their homes in Texas, one in Houston, the other in Austin. Jill Kelly (1996-99) teaches 7th grade English at a charter school in southwest Houston, and lives in "a Magic Cottage." She wrote from Tallahassee, where she was visiting Sarah Van Wart (1998-99): "We just resurrected our Slavic spirits to perform tonight at a benefit concert. We sang under the name, 'Red Hot Slava,' and the people of Tallahassee were pleasantly shocked to hear Eastern European folk music sandwiched between modern dance and spoken word poetry. It was quite fun. I've been spreading the Slav luv at my school. I started an international folk chorus, and our first Slav song was Bela Boya. They started out begging to sing N'Sync songs but now they're hooked on the Bulgarian tunes. we are currently learning Ujezhal. The other vaguely related thing in my life right now is Capoeira. It's an Afro-Brazilian martial art that incorporates singing and drumming. For the Slavs who sang when I was in the chorus, it will not come as a surprise that my gymnastics training is converging with my Slavic experience to create a whole new phenomenon. Sarah Van Wart is also the one who really got me turned onto it, and we played Capoeira in the benefit tonight as well." Tania Tolstoshev (1997-99) discovered the Austin Balkan Singers through last year's newsletter, and now sings with them along with Harriet Dinerstein (1973-75). Tania wrote "it's so wonderful to be singing Slavic music again -- some of the YSC favorites as well as hundreds of songs that are new to me." They perform occasionally around Austin, and just performed at an Austin Friends of Traditional Music day-long festival. She's currently working at an advertising agency in Austin -- MAKOS Advertising, but is considering a jump into the publishing world. "Being a developmental editor in a big NYC trade house working on literary fiction is my new dream."

Margaret Hayden (1995-98) relocated to from the DC area to Boston this April, and is now working for a documentary film production company outside Boston and "very happy to be in the same city as Stephen Licht." She reports that she was excited to move, but sad to leave behind wonderful Slav citymates Christine Evans, Tania Brief, and Dee Harris (1977-81, 85-86)." Christine, Nick, Sarah Hipkens (1997-2001) and she, plus Miriam Stewart's mom and sister, saw Kitka together in December in Baltimore. "They are always so amazing." Margaret reports that Tania Brief (1995-98) is attending law school at Georgetown and clerking for a judge in NYC this summer and Christine Evans (1997-2000) is leaving DC for the Bay Area to start her PhD in Russian History and "hopefully to begin her fabulous Bay Area Slav career."

Ada Sheng (1995-98) and with Veronica Relea (1999-2001) are already in the Boston area, both first year students at Harvard Law School, and sometimes sing Slav songs together. Also in Massachusetts, Helene Lesterlin (1994-97) is currently an MFA candidate in Dance at Bennington College, choreographing, directing, performing, making costumes and sculptures, and loving it. She is slowly adding a song a week to her jazz standards repertoire "with the idea of starting a little band."

Alexandra Tekerian (1994-98) is in New York, singing and pursuing her acting career, side by side with her painter-husband, Kevork Mourad. Emily Lehrman (1995-97) is now working in Development at Choate Rosemary Hall and reports "a chance encounter with former Slav Margarita Hiebaum-Fichtl (1995-96) in NYC informed me that she is married to a nice man from Germany."

Eden (Brody) Werring (1994-96) says she is "doing great ... happily living in Sebastopol, California" with husband Joel Werring (who also graduated from Yale M.F.A in Painting '96), whom she married in July. Eden is directing a dynamic non-profit called Summer Search that mentors low-income high school kids. They are planning to move back east sometime in the next few years, but she is very eager to find some Slavs to sing with in the coming year. She has a great Small World Slav story: "By chance of luck, over the winter holiday, we had brunch with my cousin, Sam, his wife, Lauren Wojtyla, and their kids. They live in Mozambique, and I had never met Sam's wife or children before. Lauren and I were sitting on the couch getting to know each other, when we realized that not only had we both gone to Yale, but we had both been Slavs. It was a revelation! So there we were, in a Brooklyn apartment, singing Shto Mi E Milo and loving it, Lauren's daughter Moriel looking on in stunned amazement." (Ed note: This was a particularly nice coincidence because Lauren had been on our Missing Slavs list for years!)

Angie Rodel (1993-96) is a grad student in ethnomusicology at UCLA, studying Bulgarian choral music and punk rock as her fields of specialization. She runs a women's choir at UCLA called "SuperDevoiche." They've been lucky enough to have a professional Bulgarian singer, Tzvetanka Varimezova, here as a visiting faculty member all year. The choir is open to the public, so any Slav alums who are in the LA area and itching to sing are welcome to contact her.

Alana Conner Snibbe (1993-96) married Scott Snibbe in September of 2001, and reports, "the fearless and talented Angela Rodel taught 5 of my non-Slav friends a Bulgarian wedding song (slezni, slezni!), which they sang in my wedding. Slav Margaret Hayden soloed the alto. It was fantastic!" (Margaret adds that the wedding was "on a beautiful Memphis lawn" and that Alana "was an absolutely radiant bride.") Alana and Scott now reside in San Francisco, where Scott is a technology artist, and Alana is finishing up her Ph.D. in social psychology at Stanford. 

Anne Egger (1993-95) has decided to escape graduate school with an MS in geology rather than continuing on to a PhD. "There were many reasons for this decision, of course, but a major part was a desire to teach, not to do research." She's back in Utah, applying for teaching jobs and picking up some curriculum development and other miscellaneous jobs on the side. And she's getting married on October 5, out in the desert near Bluff. She extends the following invitation: "Any Slavs who can make it are welcome. I'm hoping to at least get Jessica Ruvinsky and Kristin Lewis to come, but I would love to have a whole chorus available to sing!" She also reports that she and Jessica " ended up singing with Born to Drone, the small group in the Bay Area whose director, Jeanne Benioff, got in touch with Ann Mackey looking for Slav voices in the area. By the time I joined, I was just deciding to leave school, so I went to rehearsals and got a chance to sing a little bit but never performed with them." Jessica is still singing with them, as is Galen Brandt. Jessica Ruvinsky (1993-95) reports just that she's "trying to get a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology."

Alexandra (Sasha) Kirilcuk (1992-95) is at Harvard " slogging away at a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures." She's hoping to graduate by the end of the next academic year, but says " it's going to be a race to the finish line." She reports that "life in Boston is very pleasant, though, and I enjoy teaching the Harvard students, so I won't be all that heartbroken if it takes me a little longer than that to finish." In late-breaking summer news, she adds that she recently became engaged to Dan Lyons, a fiction writer and journalist at Forbes Magazine. They plan to get married on September 1.Sasha also enjoys hanging out with Kristin Lewis (1991-94), who is also at Harvard, getting her PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology at Harvard. Kristin sings in a local Bulgarian band called Zdravets, which she describes as "great fun." They, have a monthly folk dance/concert in Arlington, MA, and information can be found on their website. Among other things, they perform at the annual "Balkan Night" sponsored by the Folk Arts Center of New England.

Ingrida Karins Berzins (1993-94) got a master's at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (part of Tufts) in 2000, where she sang (for part of the time) with the school's Ambassachords a capella group. They sang some Russian tunes, "along with stuff in English, Latin, Hebrew, French ... a very mixed and fun bag." She and her husband Andris moved to Philadelphia in the fall of 2000. He works for a wireless networking startup and she's at Penn Law. After finishing her first year, she's on leave for this school year, staying home with their daughter, Lucija Karins Berzins, born on July 3, 2001. "She is a delight and never tires of listening to mom and dad (and grandparents) sing, although we fear she will develop an aversion to the Latvian folk songs we sing to her while administering liquid vitamins (yuck)." Inga's planning on starting back at school in the fall.

Karen [Wyse] Niedermier (1992-94) is still in Minneapolis, and loves her job. Her daughter Sophie is almost three.

Chani Waterhouse (1990-93) is living in Vermont, and working as a domestic violence educator and batterers' intervention group facilitator. She sings country and bluegrass music "with a group of gals who come to my house once a week, but not out in public." She's getting married this summer, and plans to have Mandy Rice (1991-94), sing a duet with her at the wedding, "just as a good Slav should."

Sylke Jackson (1989-92) bought a house in Nyack, NY this November. She has two year old daughter named Lucy and is expecting another child in late June.

Francesca (Cesca) Smith (1990-92) just finished her PhD in Geology after "many many many years studying really old grass." She has been living in Colorado while a student at the University of Chicago and will head off to a post doc who knows where after taking the summer off to recuperate. She hopes to get some travel and some backpacking in. She will be moving to State College, PA shortly, and wonders if there are any Slavs in the area with whom she can sing.

Heather Clague (1989-92) is living in the Bay Area. Her son is about to turn 4, and "thoughts are on the conception of a second one." She is about to finish psychiatry residency at UCSF (in Spring 2003) and will probably be starting a private practice in Berkeley after she graduates.

Kim Hannon Parrott (1987-91) reports "all is well here in Baltimore. We are expecting child #2 sometime around Bastille Day. I continue to do part-time freelance writing and consulting. It means juggling a lot of balls at once, but I've determined that I like variety in my work life. Alas no news on the musical front."

Ann Lininger (1987-90) reports that she and her husband welcomed a new baby, Julia Rose, into their family in September. "She and Adam, her brother, are silly and lots of fun." She recently started a part-time job, at the Community Development Law Center in Portland. It's a program of Legal Aid Services of Oregon, and provides transactional legal help (contract drafting, employment law counseling, and other corporate services) to non-profit groups in the state. "If anyone works with a non-profit in Oregon that would like some free or low-cost legal help, please give me a call. I also welcome strictly personal calls!"

Lisa Sitkin (1987-90) is living in Berkeley, working in San Francisco as a media lawyer ("mostly first amendment with some copyright and trademark thrown in") and recently discovered that her neighbor, who is French, sang in a Slavic chorus back in France. They have been getting together weekly to sing, but could use a third or even fourth voice to fill in some of the missing parts. If there are Slavs or other enthusiasts in the area who'd like to sing informally, they can get in touch with me.

Kathy Blume (1986-90) reports she is still living the itinerant Actor's Life, dividing my time between pavement-pounding in NYC and easy livin' in Vermont where my husband Mark Nash is the Artistic Director of Vermont Stage Company." She notes that "sleeping with the AD has a few perks, including getting to play Stella in 'Streetcar,' Lucky in 'Godot,' and coming up in September, the title role in 'Sylvia.' She went up to Fairbanks last August to see Jeannette DeMallie Gorda (1986-90) and her family, and reports back that "they're living in a lovely house that Rhett built high in the hills above Fairbanks. Sasha is verbal, gorgeous, sensitive, and loves more than anything to be read to. Caleb, at the time of our meeting, was mostly in the eating, sleeping, and pooping stage of life, but seemed a very mellow little lad and fun to roll around on the floor with."

Laura Wolf-Powers (1986-90) recently from Manhattan to Park Slope, Brooklyn with her husband Josh, where they are "both dwellers and landlords(!) in a wonderful 4-story brownstone." When she can tear herself away from the garden, she's finishing up her dissertation in urban planning. She's also been teaching at the Milano Graduate School of Urban Policy and Management at the New School and doing some consulting with a local not-for-profit. She just landed an Assistant Professor job starting in September 2002 at the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment at Pratt Institute here in Brooklyn and reports that she is "very very happy about the job and even happier not to have to move" and that "life's good but there's not enough singing!"

Laura Olson (1985-89) is still teaching at University of Colorado Boulder and working on her book, which is now nearing completion. It's entitled "Performing Russia: Folk Revival and Cultural Identity from Peter the Great to Post-Socialism." She's excited to be close to finishing what turned out to be a pretty huge project! "Big thanks are due to the Yale Slavic Chorus for initially turning me on to the subject of Slavic folk music and dance revival."

Jessie Bonn (1987-89) writes "Adam Yechiel was born at home this July, a bit more than 10.5 lbs in a seamless and timeless inside-outing, right into the outstretched arms of tickled siblings, father, me. I bend my ears to pick up strains of song among the shards of this broken world. Sing out, Slavs and friends! (I also have a music recommendation for Slavs: L'Orient Imaginaire: Labyrinth: Medieval & Bulgarian Music. ISBN 7 0630-11756-2 0 )"

Laurie Koloski (1987-89) married her husband, Dave Cornelius in January 2001. "We spent a week in southern Utah before the wedding, in glorious 70-degree weather, but of course the clouds came in the same day our guests did, and instead of the red cliffs of Zion as our backdrop, we had to settle for a pretty pedestrian fireplace inside the restaurant we'd chosen. Even with the rain and snow outside, though, it was a beautiful wedding, and most of our guests hung around for a weekend of hiking and hanging out, which was wonderful." She and Dave bought their first house last summer, and are now living "la rancha vida" in the 'burbs. She's still at William & Mary, teaching in the history department and "trying to find time for my research (not easy)."

Anne Burt (1986-89) lives outside of New York, has a two-year-old daughter, Tessa, and works as a freelance writer and as an adjunct professor of writing and literature at Seton Hall University.

Elizabeth Carls (1986-89) is in law school in the Boston area. She in touch with Jessica Ruvinsky and Vlasta Maric who in turn ran into Sarah Tolbert in LA recently. Elizabeth visited with Laurie Koloski, last spring in Williamsburg, VA, where she is in the history department of the College of William and Mary. Elizabeth remports: "Jeannette [DeMaillie Gorda], and Kimmy [Kim Hannon Parrott], are fine, with their respective young families. Melissa Pozsgay gave birth to a son Hugo, sometime in October, 2001. According to the YAM, Bernarda Strauss is a pediatrics resident at MGH."

Monica Russel y Rodriguez (1985-87) has a son, Mateo, 6 months old when she wrote, and a daughter Marisol, nearly 2 years old, who "loves to sing Jingle Bells during breakfast." She's busy taking care of the two of them with her husband Marty Lariviere (also Yale TD 88). She is working at Northwestern University in the Anthropology dept., teaching, writing when she can, and having a good time. She reports "I had the distinct pleasure of a visit from fellow Slav, Holly Wardlow, who seems to be doing great. She was a very good sport during our brief visit. We chatted while chasing Marisol around the playground."

Eve Vogel (1985-87) is in Oregon, working on her PhD in Geography. She expects to actually start working by late spring or summer on the dissertation on who and what really gets included in "collaborative" or "participatory" management in the Columbia Basin and hopes to be done about June 2004. She's been "doing the Eugene-Portland shuttle for a long time," but will be back more or less permanently in Portland by April. Also in Oregon, Janet Goering Patin (1984-87) is now the proud mom of a little boy named Ludovic, born Summer 2001.

Holly Wardlow (1985-87) finished her second year as an assistant professor of anthropology at University of Iowa, and reports that although she loved the job, she was not so thrilled with Iowa City, and was seeking something "more urban." She has just landed a job as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Anthropology department, and she and her partner Ken are living in Greek Town, just south of the Danforth (for those who know Toronto) and reports they are "so happy to be gone from Iowa City." Ken's comment: "All so-so things must come to an end."

Ariela Katz (1984-87) is still living in Paris with her husband, Michael Ostrove, and I are still living in Paris. She is an architect, but has left practice for a few years to do a PhD in architectural history at NYU. Her dissertation work focuses on pre-WWII French Modernism and working-class identity, but she has also worked on Central European and Russian topics ("a little Slavophilia--is that a word?--remains"). She also teaches periodically (architecture and architectural history) in a Columbia University junior year abroad program here. Michael specializes in international law and arbitration--both public and private. She reports "after a slightly rocky period of adjustment (and despite the sadness of a recent family loss), we have come to enjoy our life here a great deal. Still looking forward to coming home in a few years time, though."

Myra Furlong Paci (1984-87) is living in Berkeley, CA with her husband Michael Furlong and three-year-old daughter Adriana and reports "we're all loving it." She's teaching screenwriting at San Francisco State University and California College of Arts and Crafts and is in the process of distributing her recently completed feature film, Searching for Paradise, which she wrote and directed and which stars Chris Noth, Jeremy Davies, and Susan May Pratt. "Maybe it'll play at a festival or theater near y'all some day soon." She says she doesn't have time to Slav sing, but plays her flute with my daughter and sang Dilmano Dilbero to her Bulgarian neighbor the other day and got a laugh.

Regina D'Amico (1982-86) lives in Connecticut but is now in Bulgaria until August "having quite a time". She received an IREX grant for multi-media documentation on village music. When she wrote she had already recorded in 20 villages -- "with 70 more to go!!" So far, she says, the results are "stunning."

Formerly missing Slav Anna Weesner (1985-86) Anna Weesner was rediscovered for us by one of her students who was doing a web search on her name and found the alumnae website. Anna is now an assistant professor of Composition in the Music Department of the University of Pennsylvania.

Stephanie Frank Singer (1983-85) is living in Center City Philadelphia, and about to quit her tenured college professorship ("Why? Hostility from a close colleague, too many expectations for too little compensation, some gender issues, and because I can.") Her first book, Symmetry in Mechanics: A Gentle, Modern Introduction, is getting great reviews and is available on Amazon.com. For more information, see also her website at www.symmetrysinger.com. Musically, she's playing a lot of chamber music ("most notably with the high-flying Icarus Quartet"), and thinking of auditioning for a local a capella group called Diva. Personally, she reports "I am in good health after years of fighting depression and various stress-related problems. And I have a great daughter (Sofia, 7 years old), I guess you could say things are going well!" She'll be looking for freelance gigs as a writer, mathematician, musician and/or teacher, so asks that anyone please let her know if you have a suitable project for her.

Mandy Katz (1982-85) has been in the same house in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of Washington, DC for more than 10 years, and supplied the following report: "We recently fulfilled a longstanding dream by installing a gazebo in the front yard this fall. My husband, Jonathan Massey, still works from home, running a solo practice in appellate law. I am a stay-at-home jack-of-all trades: some volunteering; less freelance writing; lots of homework, housework, chauffeuring, plumbing, chaperoning, and all the other stuff that goes into running a household for five. For fun, I really like cooking and crafts, but I'm way too sloppy for Martha Stewart standards. Just started a 'knitting club' in the school's after-care program, but the numbers aren't encouraging: just me and 14 kids who have never picked up needles before! We've got the whole family involved in music, though not Slavic. I'm in my fourth year of piano lessons, and our three kids take piano, too. Two of them -- Seth, who's 8, and Daisy, 5 -- also play violin. Emily, 9, is the family's best pianist; she's also taking trombone and sings in a school choir whose repertoire includes some very impressive African drumming. Their dad, Jonathan, 'plays' classical CDs, runs the video camera at recitals, and is a most loyal and encouraging 'practice dad' who has even learned to read a little music in the process. As for singing, however -- not even in the shower. Other Slav news: We have had the good fortune of seeing Stephanie Singer and her daughter Sofia on their occasional visits 'home'" to Stephanie's parents, since we live around the corner from the house Stephanie grew up in. We also see former Slav and rabid baseball fan Mindy Portnoy pretty regularly, as she's one of our two rabbis at Temple Sinai, a reform schul here in Washington.

Anne Friesen Witwer (1983-85) is living in Denver, and is currently enduring a major home/kitchen remodel. "We are living in the basement and not eating very well." She has three boys, Will, Peter and Charlie, in 5th, 3rd and Kindergarten (respectively). This means that next year we will have a child in middle school -- a terrifying thought. She is singing in the church choir, "a poor substitute for Slavic music," but loves the director. Occasionally, she convinces people to sing a Slavic trio with her. She would love to get together with other Slavs in Colorado.

In the midwest, Amanda Pratt Siegel (1982-85) is living in Indianapolis with three kids, Jonah (7), Ruth (almost 5) and Isaac (2). She's not singing "except along to Carole King's Really Rosie and other children's music tapes." Laurie Walter (1981-84) has been living in the Chicago area and working at Chicago State University ever since she left New Haven and the Slavs in 1984. She's currently an Associate Professor of Zoology, teaching mostly human anatomy all these years, and (more excitingly) president of the CSU chapter of the faculty union, an AFT affiliate. Her two sons are both taller than she is -- Andy is 18 and a freshman at Lewis & Clark College in Portland OR and Brendan is 13 and an aspiring basketball player. Her husband, Dan, is still into computers, music, and history. Laurie's dancing and singing these days are, respectively, Scottish and British Isles.

Anna Teigen (1983-85) reports that her daughter Maija, whom some of the 1983-85 Slavs knew as a 7 to 9 year old has just turned 27. "She is a lovely young woman, now teaching viola and violin in Boston and free- lancing in orchestras around the city. She also works at Rayburn Music co. in downtown Boston." Anna also has a son, Max, "who is 14 years old, plays cello and bass and goes to Green Meadow Waldorf School." She has been teaching violin at this school for 13 years and I plays fiddle with contra-dance band: Hot Under the Caller. We play for the NYC dances at a church near 14th a couple times a year and also at Alpine Boat Basin for summer dances, as well as various dances in CT, NJ, PA etc. She recently attended a concert by the Boston group: Libana at nearby Sunbridge College (a Waldorf teacher training school). There she saw Allison Coleman (1981-85) who has been performing with them for about 10 years. "The concert was great and the community absolutely loved them!"

Kacey Amrita Carmichael Davidson (1982-83) is living north of San Francisco in Sebastopol, studying Waldorf education, practicing expressive arts therapy and authentic movement, singing in the shower, and mostly raising Theo (almost 5) and Gabriel (one). She'd love to hear from other Slavs living or visiting in the Bay Area. She was recently visited by Daphne Layton (1981-83) who lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with her husband, Jim Madigan, and two sons, Elliot (6) and Julian (4). Daphne reports "After getting an Ed.D. from Harvard in 1992, I've been working for the University of Massachusetts President's Office (system administration) for the past nine years. Currently I am Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. My musical outlet in the Boston area has been playing the violin with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, although when I lived in Washington, DC in the mid 1980's I was the founding director of another women's Slavic chorus, Slaveya. YSC still provides some of the greatest memories of my undergraduate years at Yale." 

Elizabeth Traver (1982-83) has bought a house in northern Idaho with her partner Paul, but is headed for Antarctica to make some extra money to pay it off more quickly. She will be in Antarctica at least until August (there's no way out until then), probably until October, when her contract expires.

Lauren Wojtyla (1981-84), runs a consulting firm in Mozambique, where she lives with her husband Sam and children. She was on our Missing Slavs list for years and years, and was rediscovered by sheer happenstance through a family connection with Eden Brody Werring, Slav of the 90s.

Laura Otis (1980-83) is starting her second year of the MacArthur fellowship and is still at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, but thought it would be a good idea to come home and teach again for awhile. If Hofstra lets her, she would like to alternate years between New York and Berlin. She is working on a book on how ideas emerge in labs, "focusing on one 19th-century German physiology lab full of interesting personalities."

Nina Pillard (1980-83) is in D.C., working as a law professor at Georgetown teaching constitutional law, civil procedure, and legal theory. Her husband David Cole, is a fellow Yale grad and fan of Slavic Music whom she met during her Slav days. They have two kids, Sarah (2) and Aidan (5) who "keep us busy with painting and pasting, toy trains, water play, reading aloud, making things with play-doh or playing street hockey on the back patio." In their spare time, they "mostly do legal work or just hang out with our family and friends." They just decided to train for the 4.4 mile Chesapeake Bay swim in June. "I'm not sure how good the odds are that both of us will make it from here to there, but that's the plan. I sing only to my kids these days, but haven't mustered the old Slav favorites (yet). I'd love to hear about Slavic music in D.C." Also in DC is Elizabeth O'Hearn (1977-81) who is a neurologist/neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins caring for people with movement disorders, studying mechanisms of neuronal degeneration, teaching, and having fun." Wish I were singing!" Miriam [Rosenberg] Rollin (1979-81) is also in DC, and is singing -- as part of Slaveya, the Yale Slavic Chorus alumnae-started Balkan women's a capella folk music singing group started in the mid-80s, and still going strong! In fact, we performed a couple weeks ago at the winter mini-fest of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington (a regular "gig" each year), and we'll also perform (as we do, each year) for the annual FSGW summer festival at Glen Echo, Md. In addition to singing she is "enjoying family life (wonderful 5-year-old daughter and great husband) and work life (federal policy advocacy for investments in kids, such as early childhood education, after-school programs, and abuse/neglect prevention)" 

Elizabeth Letts (1979-83, 1992-95) is living with husband and three kids (10, 7, and 5 -- a boy and two girls) in Kennett Square, PA and working at Planned Parenthood. 

Lise Hamilton Laurin (1976-79, 1980-81) has started singing with a new chorus out of Portsmouth. "The director believes that anyone can sing, so there are no auditions, no written music, and lots of interaction--musically and otherwise. I haven't had so much fun since the 30th reunion! There are two choral members who speak fluent Russian, so I've been bringing in our Russian music to see if any would suit the both-sex chorus." She just started a new job as director of product marketing for a start- up company in the semiconductor industry, which she expects will be "a challenge, as well as a lot of fun." She's also looking to volunteer with a nonprofit that is dedicated to helping the earth, so if anyone knows a group that needs some help with PR or promotion, please let her know.

Karen Sandness (1975-77, 1978-79, 1980-81) has found an informal group in Portland, OR that meets once a week to sing Balkan music. She's learning some new songs, but the group's repertoire also includes such old favorites as Iz Dolu," Majka Rada, Shto Mi E Milo, and Dilmano Dilbero. She reports "This is the first time in oh, about eighteen years that I've had a chance to sing this music on a regular basis. We're not anywhere near performing level, although we have sung a couple of numbers for an informal gathering of folk musicians and dancers that meets every week at a local pizza place. Ix-yay!" No foreign travel this year, she attended two translators' conventions in California, one in Monterey in May and another in Los Angeles in November.

Tara Ayres (1979-81) started a new job in October as the Director of Global Resources for an international IT consulting company. She reports "It's a wonderful job, albeit extremely demanding, and it allows me to use both my HR and IT management skills, and to learn a lot about new technologies, so I'm happy with it." She's headquartered in Madison, but the company's headquartered in San Francisco, so she gets to stay in her "beloved adopted home town," but gets to travel to SF a lot, spending between a third and half her time there. She's still singing with a couple of jazz combos. "One of the exciting things about spending so much time in California is that I've been able to hook up with other musicians there, and we're starting to get some gigs in small clubs. Being the new face (voice) on the block is helpful there, and having San Francisco gigs on my resume is opening doors for me in Madison. The downside to traveling so much (and working such long hours) is that I've had to give up some of my community and political commitments. Before I started the new job, I was the media coordinator for the Madison Area Peace Coalition, that was organized after September 11th. I'm trying to find ways to stay active in social justice work without having to be here in person all the time."

Karen Clarke Wiedemann (1979-81) is living in London and "hoping for a Slav European tour." Her door is open to any touring Slavs who may be passing through. 

Stephanie Kosarin (1979-80) reports that "Life is still (mercifully!) great here in Ann Arbor. My son Jack is now, unbelievably, 10 years old, and is a wonderful artist, film maker and comic. He's basically my life, except for my 72 ballet students and 14 piano students that I teach "on the side." We will have our annual dance recital in a marvelous Gothic Church that I recently "discovered"....the theme of this year's concert will be 'The Spirit of Humankind' ... sparked, of course, by Sept. 11." She intends to visit New York City this spring or summer "let me know if, by chance, there would be some Slav event in New Haven or NYC sometime soon. That's life in a nutshell....serene in its wacky way."

Ellen McLaughlin (1976-80) was, when she wrote, in rehearsal at the Public Theater (NYC) for her own play, Helen, "an exceedingly loose adaptation of the Euripides play of the same name. It stars Donna Murphy and is being directed by Tony Kushner, who wrote Angels in America. We begin performances on March 19th (the whole production was pushed back three weeks due to the health crisis of one of the actors) and runs through April 21st. I like the play (well, I would, I suppose). It's the first time I set out to write something which was actually funny and I've had a wonderful time sitting in a rehearsal hall listening to people laugh for a change. Not the usual uncontrolled sobbing, in other words. It's refreshing."

Kathy Hartmann-Campbell (1973-75, 1977-78), who has lived in Basel, Switzerland since 1982 with her Swiss husband, Werner (a letter from whom was in her pocket when she successfully auditioned to sing the solo of I Dumai Zlato), has a delightful nine-year old daughter, Julia, a long-haired cat called Blacky and her own business providing communication skills training and consulting to corporate and business clients. Kathy reports that she "is back to a single client status, this time the Bank for International Settlements, the bank of the world's central banks, kind of a UN of banks. Geographically, it is the nearest multinational organization to our house. I can get there by bike or car within 10 minutes. I really didn't plan this, but I think the universe answered some unconscious wishes. Now that things have slowed down a bit for me I realize how insane the past several years have been. I loved working in the U.S., but when I look back at how I juggled all of my roles without any hired help (administrative or childcare), I think it's a miracle we all survived. I miss the time I had on my own and to visit friends on those trips, but I notice now that I am not travelling the toll they took on me physically. The work I am doing is all "extensive", i.e. several sessions of 1 - 4 hours, instead of several days at a time. In a way, it's a lot more work, but it fits much better with being a mother and housewife as well."

Amy Bressler Nee (1975-78) reports from the Boston area "Kid a little taller, self a little older, hair a little browner (out of a tube) -- maybe the only change that's happened in the last twelve months. It's time for me to figure out how to look for a next job."

Sarah Lewis Bachman (1976-77) is in the Bay Area "wrapped up on a project on child labor, human rights and globalization, and have not yet gone to the local Slavic singing group...but plan to someday soon!"

Mia Brandt (1974-77) sends the following report: "I am Director of Communications at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, which has meant some interesting travel (also emotional and harrowing) to India (earthquake) Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda, Honduras (Hurricane Mitch) etc. Have husband Andre who is a staff developer/arts curriculum/artist in residence guy devoted to some of the city's poorest public schools, and three kids, a girl Kyle (13) a boy Dane (10) and our third (adopted from China and 3 ) daughter Shea. All three are doing great; Dane has a neurological/mild development disorder and has been our miracle boy, lots of joy but still a ways to go and that sense that you wish the world would be less narrow minded about what it values. When people shake their heads and say 'Oh it must be hard to have a kid with special needs' I must correct them and tell them that he is a joy; it's the rest of the world's attitude about whatever is slightly different that provides the 'hard' part. Oh well...that's the superficial version of the news. The best to all."

Minta E. Phillips (1971-77) says "Hello from North Carolina -- resonated with the Slavic music of 'In the Bedroom', film and thought of all of you!"

Anne Rogal Winiker (1974-76) worked as a Primary Care physician in an urban clinic in Boston for 12 years. She's married and has 2 children, a boy, Kim, aged 9 and a girl, Abigail, aged 12. "Two years ago I left my job and have been home full time since then. It has been wonderful to be home-based and also have more time and space for myself. I sing sometimes with my husband's band (he's a professional musician and plays lots of weddings, public celebrations, private parties), and sing at our synagogue's choir. No Slavic singing these days, except when I'm out cross-country skiing or something like that. Love to all."

Julie [Sullivan] Winn (1974-76) and her family (four children 18-9) just moved to London after twelve years in Paris. "I am not singing since I left Paris (where I was in the much-too-good-for-me Paris Choral Society at the American Cathedral). But my daughter Lucy Winn will be going to Yale in September 2002 and has a good voice. She is hoping to do some singing with some of the groups. She is on a year off before college and spent the fall in Venice where she sang with an Italian gospel choir."

Lucy Jewett Lowenthal (1973-75) works as Director of Marketing and Membership at Environmental Defense, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, where she has been about five years. Before getting into fund-raising, and in the years since graduating in the class of 1975, she worked primarily in publishing both at Time Inc and National Geographic. Her husband Peter works also in environmental work, focusing on Solar Energy. They live in Bethesda, and have have two children, Rachel (13) and Max (11). 

Harriet Dinerstein (1973-75) is still in Austin ("aka the Live Music Capital of the world"), and continues to sing with the Austin Balkan Singers, joined recently by Tania Tolstoshev (1997-99) who discovered the group through the last Slav newsletter. "We're delighted to have her join us." They do events around town, performing for a local organization of Russians, at a recent "Austin Friends of Traditional Music" concert, and will be returning to a local coffee house where we've performed in the past. They used to do mostly a capella music, but recently have been honing their instrument skills, and do a number of songs accompanied by prim, tambura, mandolin, guitar, and/or accordian.

Jane Peppler (1972-75) was amused when her daughter Hannah, a freshman member of the current Slavs, sent this email about Dobro Doshle: "I almost have a heart attack every time I try to hit that octave note, but it sounds fantastic when it works. We were practicing it in Silliman as we were leaving rehearsal, and we made some guy actually fall down. He was sort of jogging up the stairs as we were coming down, and when he had passed us we did the eh-heEEEEEEEEEE and he literally fell down in shock (unhurt but quite startled). It was hilarious." Jane would also like you to know that her band Mappamundi has released a CD called "World Music Our Way" which includes Minka (done with a choir of two voices, trombone, clarinet, and bowed double bass), Polegnala, Savo Vodo, Za Lesam, and other Slav and non-Slav songs. See the website at www.mappamundi.com for more information and realaudio files.

I'm not going to even try to edit the contribution from Galen Brandt (1971-75) into the third person. Following is her contribution in full. "This is Galen Brandt, '75. (Yes, there was a Slavic chorus back then, and we rocked!!) I'm happily dividing my time between living with my love, Bruce Damer, in Boulder Creek, California (about an hour south of San Francisco) and by myself on a little lake in Denville, New Jersey (exit 39) -- I know, it's a commute, but what price schizophrenia. On the left coast, I raise pigs (as pets! I'm a vegetarian!) and cats, cultivate 3D avatar communities on the web as a principal of DigitalSpace Corporation (www.digitalspace.com), perform with, write and speak about virtual healing -- healing applications of virtual reality (www.virtualgalen.com; terrible little baby website but it'll get there), and in a recent and altogether relevant development, am singing, thanks to Ann Mackey's tireless and fruitful alumnae efforts, with a Bay Area-based Slavic chorus (hooray!) called Born to Drone which features among its shifting and core members, you guessed it, many Yale Slavs, which is of course wonderful. It also features many Yale Slav greatest hits, at least from my (ancient) era. We are currently rehearsing, among others, Bre Petrunko, Molih ta and Dilmano,dilbero. I find I mostly remember the words and tunes (can't remember my phone number, but will doubtless die humming obscure verses of Molih ta) which is good, since without my glasses and very strong light, I can no longer see them in print (just you wait, younger, thinner Slavs, just you wait. It's a great time of life, actually, the late forties -- all sorts of self-forgiveness sets in; but more on that later). On the right coast, I've co-founded a record label, Ancient Records, which I mention because its flagship (and right now, only) band, The Ancient Ecstatic Brotherhood of Paranoise, features in its latest recording, "Ishq" (sufi for "transcendence"), none other than five stellar (some current, some former) members of the Yale Slavic Chorus (what a coincidence!) wailing away to great advantage. It is getting incredible reviews in every magazine you never heard of. If you simply must have a copy, www.paranoise.org can help you order one -- I highly recommend it, but then, I would. I've been writing odd songs for years, nay, decades, which somehow wrap themselves around Slavic harmonies, Slavic melodies, if not whole phrases of actual Slavic tunes, and have released one CD and am threatening to release others. If I may be permitted a few maudlin, heartfelt sentences, singing with members of the chorus at my 25th (!!!) reunion was one of the great moments of past years. I've also loved the few NYC Slavalongs I've been lucky enough to attend. And I gotta say, the current and just-graduated crop of Slavs, whom I had the genuine pleasure of working with on the aforementioned shamelessly plugged album, and whose workshops and gigs I've dropped in on, are maybe the coolest chicks on the planet, and are carrying on the Mystery Girl tradition with passion, style, commitment, skill, innovative flair, obvious fun and real love for each other. And one more thing -- check out Slav alum Jane Peppler's band, new CD and website (www.mappamundi.com). She, and her music, are absolutely amazing -- she brought down the house (well, the chapel) at the 25th reunion concert. I owe you email and a phone call, Jane -- let this be my first step towards reparation. What women, what music -- need it, and you guys, now more than ever. Thanks all of you for the good times and good talks, and here's to more yipping in our collective future! 

Wyn Kelley (1970-72) writes "I have been doing the same thing for many years -- teaching in the Literature Dept at MIT, which I love. Married to and have two children, a daughter (in college at Columbia) and a son (a high school senior, attending Vassar next fall). The main legacy for me of the Slavic Chorus was not continuing in music (too bad) but retaining an affectionate sense of female solidarity and song which has influenced much of what I do (teaching women authors, for example, focusing on gender and race)." Kathy Slobogin (1970-74) is in the DC area, working for CNN. Priscilla Whiteman Kellert (1971-74) is still in New Haven. She teaches at Hopkins and direct the Freshman Outdoor Orientation Trips (FOOT) Program at Yale. 

Finally, news from three founding Slavs: Acording to Slav Mandy Katz, Mindy Portnoy (1969-70?) is one of two rabbis at Temple Sinai, a reform schul in Washington. She and her husband have two children -- a daughter attending University of Maryland and a son in high school. Last May, to celebrate her (15th?) anniversary at the temple, Mindy took a couple busloads of congregants to Baltimore to watch her throw out the first pitch at an Orioles game. Mandy reports that Mindy is "well-loved for her warmth, good humor and accessibility." Jan Roth Hauptman (1969-72) lives in New York and plans to attend her 30th class reunion in New Haven this spring and would love to sing with Slavs from 1972. Professionally, she continues to work in operations for Metro New York Developmental Disabilities Services Office and is thinking about doing some private consulting in the field of mental retardation. The Manhattan Psychological Association kept her very busy this year coping with the effects of what happened on 9/11. She reports her husband and son are "doing well." Marianna Rafal Steriadis (1969-1972) is in Florida, has a nineteen-year-old son dances Greek folkloric dance with the Hellas Dancers of Holy Trinity, Clearwater, FL, seriously enough to travel all the way to Spokane WA this year to the FDF Dance Competion. Merideth Wright (1969-71) lives in Vermont (she's Vermont's Environmental Judge), and is still singing (Balkan music, early music, Georgian music) and dancing (Balkan, Scandinavian, New England contra dancing). She says "I'm lucky to be married to someone who also loves these things." They went to Bulgaria in the summer of 2000 on a singing tour, her son just graduated from college and her daughter, Sophia Emigh, is a freshman in Branford. Merideth is also planning to work on a major Slavic Chorus archives project, and invites anyone who is interested in helping to contact her through this site.