1960s

Mary Leipziger (’60) is a photojournalist. Her work can be seen in publications such as the Culver City Observer.

Carol Aronson-Shore (’63) is a professor emerita at the University of New Hampshire. She completed a series of oil paintings, Four Seasons at Strawbery Banke, in summer 2021. Her work was included in a late summer 2021 online exhibition by the Barn Gallery in Ogunquit, Maine, which featured work by artists from the Ogunquit Art Association.

Howardena Pindell (’65) showed her work in a solo exhibition, A New Language, at Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland, from November 13, 2021, through May 2, 2022. The show will move to Kettle’s Yard, the University of Cambridge’s modern and contemporary art gallery, from July through October 2022, and then to Spike Island in February 2023.

1970s

Michael Max Mosorjak (’71) showed recent oils and gouaches in an exhibition at Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pa., in October 2021. He is in his 43rd year as a painting conservator and has worked for numerous museums and public and private collections. He has been an instructor of art and a lecturer in conservation at several colleges and universities.

Janis Lieberman (’72) performed in concert as part of the trio Sierra Ensemble in her adopted hometown of San Francisco, Calif., in February 2022. Lieberman, a horn player, is a founding member and manager of Sierra Ensemble.

Kate Katcher (’73) wrote the comedy The Little Sisters of Littleton, about a septuagenarian sibling rivalry (one sister’s ex resurfaces and starts a relationship with the other sister). Stray Kats Theatre Company presented a staged reading of the play at the Newtown Arts Festival in September 2021 in Newtown, Conn.

Craig Lucas (’73) is a Tony-nominated playwright who wrote and directed the play Change Agent, which ran at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., from January 21 through March 6, 2022. The play imagines conversations between six of history’s most celebrated and controversial figures responsible for influencing major decisions that are still shaping our country today.

Ivan Schwartz (’73) is the founder and director of the sculpture and design firm StudioEIS, which he runs with his brother and sister. The siblings pride themselves on the extensive research behind their work—their team includes historians, sculptors, costume experts, foundry partners, and other specialists. Schwartz and his team crafted a seven-foot-tall bronze sculpture of President John F. Kennedy (Hon.’55), for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in honor of its 50th anniversary celebration. It was unveiled in early December. StudioEIS sculptures stand in museums and public spaces across the nation, depicting historical figures including Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman.

Rick Butler (’74) has designed sets or stage lighting for the Yale Repertory Theater, Youth Concerts at the BSO, Hartman Theater Company, Stamford Center for the Arts, Classic Stage Company in New York, LaMama Experimental Theatre Club, and the Juilliard School. He has worked in the art departments of more than 50 projects for film and television, including Sleepless in Seattle, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and The Talented Mr. Ripley. As a production designer for film and television, he has worked on Pieces of April, Person of Interest, Bored to Death, and Power Book II: Ghost. He lives on Cape Cod, Mass., and continues to work on many projects at home and abroad.

Kathleen Joy Peters (’74) and her mother, E. Loretta Ballard, were represented in the exhibition Afro-American Images 1971: The Vision of Percy Ricks, which ran from October 24, 2021, through January 23, 2022, at the Delaware Art Museum, in Wilmington, Del. The show was a remounting of an exhibition artist Percy Ricks presented at the then newly formed organization Aesthetic Dynamics, Inc. The Delaware Art Museum collaborated with Aesthetic Dynamics, Inc., to present work by most of the artists from the 1971 show, working to rehang the exhibition as accurately as possible.

Paula Plum (’75) was appointed interim artistic director of Gloucester Stage Company for 2022. Plum is a 30-year veteran of the Massachusetts theater.

Tracy Burtz (’78), a painter, is represented by Thomas Deans Fine Art in Atlanta and had a solo show there in May 2021. She is also represented by East End Gallery in Nantucket, Mass., and had her work on exhibit there during summer 2021.

Dave Wysocki (’78) performed Joni Mitchell’s legendary album Blue in honor of its 50th anniversary at the Next Stage Arts Project in Putney, Vt., in November 2021. Wysocki, a double bassist, has performed with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, and Hanover Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Upper Valley Mozart Project and the Abendmusik Chamber Players.

Marsha Goldberg (’79) exhibited her work at ART FAIR 14C in November 2021. The exhibition had 80 booths and was held at the Glass Gallery at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, N.J.

Patricia Randell (’79) played the nurse in Nathan Darrow’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The show was a partnership with the South Orange Department of Recreation & Cultural Affairs and the Maplewood Department of Recreation & Cultural Affairs and was performed live on an outdoor stage at Floods Hill in South Orange, N.J., in July 2021.

1980s

Jason Alexander (’81, Hon.’95) reprised his role as Asher Friedman on the fourth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which premiered on Amazon Prime in February 2022. Alexander also played Jeff Bezos in a mock trailer for the Apple TV+ show The Problem with Jon Stewart. Alexander was featured  in the Anti-Defamation League’s Concert Against Hate in December 2021.

Amy Brier (’82) had a photo of one of her Roliquery sculptures—hand-carved spheres of limestone that, when rolled in sand, leave behind patterns—featured on the cover of Paper, Teller, Diorama, an anthology of creative writing. Her most recent limestone piece, In the Time of Covid, was a collaboration with two other carvers and was installed on the grounds of Hoosier Village, a retirement community in Indianapolis, Ind. It was commissioned to honor its caregivers during the pandemic. Brier also celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Indiana Limestone Symposium, which she cofounded. She is an associate professor and chair of fine arts at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, Ind.

Anthony Tommasini (’82) retired from the New York Times in December 2021 after 21 years as its chief classical music critic.

Michelle Mendez (’83,’90) retired from her career as an art teacher at Canton High School in Canton, Mass., where she taught from 2003 to 2021. Prior to that, she taught part time at Walpole High School and Newbury College.

Julianne Moore (’83) starred in Apple TV+ and A24’s Sharper and played Heidi Hansen in the film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen. In October 2021, she appeared in Michael J. Fox’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson’s comedy and music benefit show in New York. She also starred in Jesse Eisenberg’s film When You Finish Saving the World, which premiered at Sundance in January 2022, and will star alongside Natalie Portman in the upcoming drama May December.

Darryl Bayer (’84) is the artistic director and conductor of The Woodlands Symphony Orchestra in The Woodlands, Tex. The orchestra performed on July 3, 2021, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion’s “Stars at Night–A Salute to Service” event.

Michael Chiklis (’85) plays Red Auerbach in Adam McKay’s HBO series about the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Chiklis also appeared in McKay’s film Don’t Look Up, which premiered on Netflix in December 2021.

Kathy Johnson Bowles (’86) has had more than 100 works from her Veronica’s Cloths mixed media and textile series selected for publication in 49 art and literary journals across the US, including the American Journal of Poetry and the William and Mary Review. She has penned critical essays about art and has curated more than 125 exhibitions of Chinese, African, and American art. In 2021, her work was exhibited at NYC Phoenix Art, Emery Community Arts Gallery, University of Maine, Farmington, Visionary Art Collective, Art Gallery 118, and Northern Illinois University Art Museum. She is executive director of the Everhart Museum in Scranton, Pa.

Michelle Lougee (’89,’94) had her work displayed in Upsurge, too, a show about climate change and the harm humans are causing to the planet, at Storefront Art Projects in Watertown, Mass. Lougee crochets sea creatures from single-use plastic and showed a tapestry made from grocery bags in the show, which ran from September through November 2021.

1990s

Erik Blome (’92) was chosen to sculpt a statue of Dale Hawerchuk, the late Hockey Hall of Fame forward, for the Winnipeg Jets. The statue will be unveiled in True North Square in Winnipeg in August 2022.

Cindy Moore (BUTI’87, CFA’92) teaches art at Bridlewood STEM Academy in Flower Mound, Tex., and is a teacher for the Flower Mound Cultural Arts Commission. Moore formed Creatives Unite, a nonprofit through which creatives use their gifts to bring awareness to everyday issues and stand up for injustices.

Shea Justice (’93) was a featured artist in 13FOREST Gallery’s exhibition Essence: In Celebration of Juneteenth in summer 2021. The exhibit brought together 15 Boston-based artists working in diverse media to commemorate the first year in which Juneteenth was recognized as a state holiday in Massachusetts. Justice also had an exhibit at All She Wrote Books in Somerville, Mass., for Black History Month 2022.

Valerie Coleman (BUTI’89, CFA’95), an acclaimed flutist and composer, and the Philadelphia Orchestra performed her piece “Seven O’Clock Shout,” inspired by the ritual in New York City early in the pandemic of cheering for essential workers at 7 pm, at Carnegie Hall’s reopening on October 6, 2021.

Paul Woodson (’95) has narrated around 300 audiobooks and over the years has received three Society of Voice Arts and Sciences Voice Arts Award nominations for audiobook narration. He received an AudioFile magazine Earphones Award in 2021 for his narration of J.W. Rinzler’s All Up. 

Jennifer Elowsky-Fox (’97) and Maja Tremiszewska (’14) were pianists in the New York premiere of 24 Preludes & Fugues by American composer Larry Bell at Merkin Concert Hall in January 2022.

Joseph Conyers (BUTI’98) is director of BUTI’s Young Artists Orchestra. He served as artistic director and conductor for the Young Artists Instrumental Program’s virtual premiere of Ashé, a commission by Valerie Coleman (BUTI’89, CFA’95). Conyers is acting associate principal bass in the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Zachary Keeting (’98), who teaches at the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Conn., was named one of five emerging artists to watch in the state by CT Insider in July 2021.

Michael Roberts (’98) was named executive vice president and chief marketing officer of MetLife. He previously served as chief marketing officer for the Vanguard Group’s Retail Investor Group and Bank of America’s merchant services business.

Aesop Rock (’98) collaborated with producer Blockhead for their album Garbology, which was released in November 2021.

Dana Clancy (’99) used the Sunday New York Times as canvases for the works in her project Breaking News/Broken Year. The School of Visual Arts director began the project in September 2020, painting over part or all of each chosen page with blocks of color. Clancy added portraits of people she’s Zooming with along with words—usually things those people have said. “Words written over weeks feel like a shared public space—the kind of space I’m missing and want for all of us,” she says. The project is also, in a way, part of her preparation for the September 2022 launch of a new CFA Master of Fine Arts program in visual narrative, which will integrate fine arts with sequential art storytelling practices, both written and visual.

2000s

Gregg Mozgala (’00), right, established the Apothetae, a theater company that produces works that explore the experiences of people with disabilities. Mozgala, who was born with cerebral palsy, collaborated with his former BU roommate Moritz von Stuelpnagel (’00), a Tony Award–nominated director, on Teenage Dick, a satirical retelling of Shakespeare’s Richard III, which ran at Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company this past winter. “The idea was to augment the canon and to present a wide range of work that could serve as a container for the casting of not just one but multiple characters with disabilities, and hopefully generate not only employment but conversation,” Mozgala says about forming the Apothetae. Mozgala was recently included in The Kennedy Center Next 50 list.

Akiko Fujimoto (’01) conducted the world premiere of a cello concerto called Sampson’s Walk on Air at the Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO) in October 2021 as one of seven candidates for the VSO’s new music director. She is music director of the Mid-Texas Symphony.

Nina Yoshida Nelsen (’01,’03), Michelle Johnson (’07), and Chelsea Basler (’11) were featured in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana in October 2021.

Ian Loew (’03) started the podcast Down the Pit, which discusses the world of classical music and its future. The podcast is available on all major platforms. Please reach out to admin@downthepit.com if you’re interested in being a guest on the show.

Uzo Aduba (’05) and Edmund Donovan (’12) performed in the Broadway production Clyde’s this past winter. Clyde’s follows a truck stop sandwich shop that offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption. Aduba is the inaugural host of Netflix Book Club, a series in which the streaming service highlights the literary properties it has adapted for the small screen. She was featured in the sports drama National Champions and will appear in Painkiller, a Netflix limited series focusing on the origins of the opioid crisis. She was nominated in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series–Drama for her role in In Treatment at the 79th Golden Globes.

David Delmar Sentíes (’06) is founder and executive director of Resilient Coders, which trains people of color from low-income backgrounds for high-growth careers as software engineers and connects them with apprenticeships.

Autumn Ahn (’08) had her work in the exhibition Boomshakalaka at False Flag Gallery in New York, N.Y., from November 20, 2021, through January 10, 2022. In 2021, Ahn was invited for a two-month residency at Selebe Yoon Gallery, in Dakar, Senegal, and showed her work there in an exhibition, Mots de neige, histoires en sable.

John Beder (BUTI’03, CFA’08) directed the film Dying in Your Mother’s Arms, which was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award in the category Outstanding Short Documentary. It was published by the New York Times as part of its Academy Award–nominated series Op-Docs. The film was also a Vimeo Staff Pick of the Month and received awards from film festivals around the country.

Heather Braun (BUTI’01,’02, CFA’08,’13) was a coach at the Danbury Music Centre’s second annual Chamber Music Intensive in August 2021. She is the first violinist of the Arneis Quartet.

Julia Noulin-Mérat (MET’06, CFA’08) was an executive producer of More Than Musical’s 90-minute opera film of La Boheme, which was made in partnership with Opera Columbus, Opera Omaha, and Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, N.Y. The film was shot during the pandemic and updated the story’s original themes of sickness and poverty with contemporary threads of racism and immigration. Noulin-Mérat is creative director of More Than Musical and general director and CEO of Opera Columbus.

2010s

Erik Grau (’10) and Kamal Ahmad (’16) were jurors and award judges for juried exhibits at Piano Craft Gallery in Boston, Mass., in collaboration with the Unitarian Universalist Ministry and the Newton Art Association in 2021 and 2022. Ahmad is the director and Grau is the president of the Piano Craft Gallery.

Elias Stern (’10) won two 2021 CLIO Entertainment awards for his role as creative director on a campaign for Activision and Call of Duty. Stern is an associate creative director at the agency Giant Spoon.

Zach Horn (’11) showed his work in the solo exhibition Cookout, which contemplates his spiritual relationship with food. The show was on view at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading, Pa., throughout July 2021 and at Gallery 263 in Cambridge, Mass., from September 30 through October 30, 2021.

Kyle Larson (’12) had paintings on display in summer and fall 2021 at Oklahoma Contemporary’s ArtNow 2021, which showcased the new work of artists with active studio practices in Oklahoma. Larson is an associate professor of art at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

Louise Billaud’s (’14) article “#BeTheChange: Breaking Barriers for Sustainability in Community Bands” was featured in the fall 2021 issue of Canadian Winds, Journal of the Canadian Band Association. Billaud is a professor of music at New River Community College in Dublin, Va.

Ford Curran (’14) is a graphic designer and an archivist at BU’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center. Curran has created portraits of the last two directors of the Gotlieb Center. His artwork has been published in literary magazines, used commercially by universities and schools, and exhibited twice at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum staff exhibition.

Taylor Apostol (’15) had sculpture exhibits at Arts Worcester in Worcester, Mass., Pingree School in Hamilton, Mass., and Nearby Gallery in Newton, Mass. Apostol completed a portrait monument for poet and writer Julia Dorr with Evan Morse (’15) for the Rutland Sculpture Trail in Rutland, Vt.

Evan Morse (’15) held a dedication for a memorial he recently installed for the late Jim Blackburn, his high school track coach in Newton, Mass. He also had exhibits in Lenox, Mass., and Newton, and is participating in the Goetemann Artist Residency in Gloucester, Mass.

Jennifer Jaroslavsky (CAS’15, CFA’17,’19) performed in Seaglass Theater Company’s The Lure of the Sea, a concert of classical repertoire that highlights the relationship of fishermen and women to the sea, in August 2021.

Jay Rauch (’18) and Aaron Michael Smith (’18) are members of the Boston/Seattle experimental duo grein. They released their debut album, TAXIC GNOSIS, in December 2021. Cassette tapes can be ordered on dinzuartefacts.com/dnz70 and digital downloads can be found on grein’s Bandcamp and on other streaming services.

Malik Tricoche (’18) had a solo exhibition titled Romanticismo & Disciplina at the ICI Venice in Italy in September 2021.

Dylan Wack (’18), Emma Laird (’22), Mishka Yarovoy (’23), Makhamahle Kekana (’24), Alan Kuang (’24), and Gayane Kaligian (Pardee’22) were in the ensemble for Apollinaire Theatre Company’s production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in August 2021. The production was bilingual, with dialogue in both Spanish and English.

Elizabeth Flood (’19) was one of 20 visual arts and writing fellows in 2021–2022 at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Mass. Her paintings survey the complex layers of extraction, violence, and expression within the American landscape.  

2020s

John Dally (’20) joined the College of Art and Humanities faculty at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho, as a professor of music and director of instrumental activities and music education.

Peter Everson (’20), a trumpet player, performed at the Peninsula Music Festival’s February Fest in 2022 in Egg Harbor, Wisc. He and his father, trumpeter Terry Everson, an associate professor of music at CFA, collaborated with other musicians to produce the works of Vivaldi, Holloway, Ketting, Hansen, Johnson, Hubeau, and Stephenson.

Anna Harris (’20) performed a violin jazz concert for Boston Public Library’s Concerts in the Courtyard Series in August 2021. Harris is a soloist, teacher, and chamber and orchestral musician, and has enjoyed performing in venues such as Benaroya Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, and the Brevard Music Center.

Charles Suggs (’20) presented work in an exhibition titled Transfixed at the VERY Gallery from December 4, 2021, through January 22, 2022. Included in the show was his “Body Stare” monotype series, in which he depicts a Black man rendered bare-chested and unblinking. On top of each image, he has made marks that allude to scars.

Michael Sundblad (’20) joined Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Ill., as dean of liberal arts, business, and  IT in August 2021. His research focuses on equity in higher education.

Sam Weinberger (’21) painted a mural at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (SEMC), Boston University’s newest teaching hospital in Brighton, Mass. The five-foot-tall, 100-foot-long mural displays portraits of healthcare workers as a tribute to frontline workers. Weinberger’s proposal was chosen by Brighton Main Streets and SEMC.

Amanda Fallon (’21), Meg McGuigan (’21), and Erica Terpening-Romeo (’21) worked on Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s production of Lorena: A Tabloid Epic, pictured above, written by Eliana Pipes (GRS’21). Fallon was the production’s lighting designer, McGuigan was the scene designer, and Terpening-Romeo was the director. Terpening-Romeo also directed Incels and Other Myths by Ally Sass (GRS’21) at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre in December 2021.