Susan Rome (’87) (second from left) finished a run of the world premiere of Becoming a Man at the American Repertory Theater in spring 2024. Nile Scott Studios

Community Engagement

Class Notes

Winter 2025 updates from the CFA alumni community

1960s

Barbara Hong (’63) has studied abroad in three countries, once with a Fulbright grant. She is a musicologist specializing in Finnish music and has been a church organist and chamber music pianist.

Judy Bergman Hochberg (’67,’69) makes pieces that combine photography and printmaking. She is a longtime member and past president of Full Tilt Print Studio in Dedham, Mass. For the past 20 years, she has created photogravure etchings from her photographs using photopolymer plates. The California Society of Printmakers included an article that she wrote about her process in their annual journal, Focus on Black and White.

Carolyn Michel (’68) has enjoyed a career in professional theater. In March 2024, she directed Better Late at the Sarasota Jewish Theatre.

Steve Robinson (CGS’66, CFA’69) produced two audio podcast series in 2024: No Regrets: The Music and Spirit of Billie Holiday, with 13 one-hour episodes, and Valentin Silvestrov: A Composer’s Journey, with five one-hour episodes. In September, he also completed a two-hour radio documentary on cellist David Soyer, founder of the Guarneri string quartet, which aired on classical radio stations. Robinson is also the executive producer of The Architects of Music, a series of movies available on YouTube.

1970s

Lorraine Shemesh (’71) had a solo show, On Balance, at Gerald Peters Gallery in Manhattan in spring 2024. The hardcover book, Lorraine Shemesh: On Balance, which documents 30 years of her work in paint, paper, and clay, accompanied the exhibition. Shemesh was one of the featured artists for another recent book, Nerikomi: The Art of Colored Clay by Thomas Hoadley (Bloomsbury Press, 2024). The National Academy of Design in Manhattan exhibited her painting Chrysalis (pictured, right) in a group show that ran from June to September 2024.

Deborah Weintraub Perlman (’72) creates 3-D collages by transforming flat images into raised architectural forms that add depth, texture, and shadows. Each piece invites the viewer to travel through doorways, walkways, ramps, and passages, leading them to spaces of mystery, questions, and the unknown, she writes. She is a member of national and regional professional artist organizations, and her work is held in several private collections. From April 2023 to May 2024, she showed her work in three solo exhibitions, at the Morean Art Center in St. Petersburg, Fla., the Frank Gallery in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, in Pompano Beach, Fla.

Judith Feins (’73) continues to paint and show her work in a few galleries in northern California and online. Feins was primarily a plein air landscape painter for many years but now is creating larger studio work.

Katherine Austin (’75,’78) continues to paint, focusing on scenes of life around classic car shows and the people who love them. She exhibited her work in a curated show in Bend, Ore. Austin, who pursued a career in architecture after graduation, serves on the Oregon State Board of Architect Examiners as well as leadership in the American Institute of Architects locally. She also was mayor of Sebastopol, Calif., and, over the last nine years, has served on multiple boards and committees for the city of Bend. She now designs homes for Habitat for Humanity in central Oregon.

Carol Barsha (’75,’77) returned to gallery neptune & brown in Washington, D.C., for her spring 2024 solo exhibition Carol Barsha: A Piece of Magic, which was inspired by her surroundings, personal experiences, and the teachings of her mentor, Philip Guston. The show featured multimedia works that delved into the intricate complexities of Barsha’s imagination. Barsha’s work was also on view at Salon Zürcher in spring 2024 in the group show 11 Women of Spirit, Part 9.

Joanna Kao (’75) loves experimenting with media and has made several translucent works. She writes that the pieces can be hung away from walls, in the space of an exhibition hall or in front of windows—with a varying light source, the work takes on a temporal dimension. Kao often incorporates painting, collage, and found objects into her work.

Margaret Cording Petty (’75) taught music theory, composed music for choirs, and directed choirs at a college near Paris, France, for 30 years. Petty received her doctorate at the Université Paris-Sorbonne in musicology, contributed articles to French publications, served on a French-language hymnal committee, and taught church music and hymnology for many years at a seminary in Aix-en-Provence. Since her return to the United States, Petty has been freelancing as a cellist, playing with several orchestras and various solo venues. She’s also an adjunct cello instructor at High Point University, leading a chamber string ensemble, composing for groups, and playing in faculty ensembles. She met her husband in France and they recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.

Robert Stuart (’77) had a retrospective solo exhibition of paintings and collages, Progression: Work by Robert Stuart, at Principia College in Elsah, Ill., in fall 2024. He has had more than 40 solo exhibits in his career.

Tracy Burtz (’78) had a solo show, Voices, at The Painting Center in New York, N.Y., in January 2024. Burtz was also featured in the group exhibition Solitude at Edgewater Gallery in Middlebury, Vt., in spring 2024.

Susan Nichter (’78,’84) is a professor at Suffolk University. She spearheaded a collaborative four-channel video installation, Living Images, for the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District, which was on view from fall 2023 through spring 2024 in an empty Downtown Crossing storefront. The project involved 60 students and 3 faculty members from Suffolk, including Suffolk faculty member Kristen Mallia’s (’18) graduate students. For the installation, students collected stories, images, and film footage that reference how both indigenous people and immigrants created flourishing businesses in Boston. Nichter and other Suffolk faculty and students also showed their work in Square Donuts and the Missing Camera at Boston’s Kingston Gallery in November 2023. Nichter will be an artist-in-residence at Chateau d’Orquevaux in France.

1980s

Cindy Gold (’80) appeared in various productions in Chicago, Ill., including Wipeout at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington at Steppenwolf Theatre, and A Christmas Carol at Goodman Theatre. She also performed in Idomeneo at the Aspen Music Festival. Gold was a tenured professor at Northwestern University for 27 years and retired from teaching in June 2024.

Susan Hoaglund (BUTI’78, CFA’80) retired from teaching music and German in June 2024. Her career began at the Clara Schumann Music School in Germany, where she taught violin and viola and coached chamber music and the youth orchestra. She returned to the US and taught strings for a decade at St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H. During this time, she was also the director of scheduling for BUTI. Hoaglund moved to the Philadelphia, Pa., area in 1994. She received her second master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania and became the head of the music department at the Shipley School, where she founded the school’s strings program. Hoaglund ended her career at a charter school in Rhode Island. Her retirement plans include part-time teaching, travel, and writing.

Traci Marmon (’80) has been an executive assistant at Maddalena Productions for more than 10 years. She is also a partner at First Source Talent Management Agency in Los Angeles, Calif., which manages actors, writers, directors, and artists.

Jason Alexander (’81, Hon.’95) made his Chicago stage debut in the play Judgment Day, which ran in spring 2024 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

George Hagerty (’82,’84) is the director of facilities at Yale University Art Gallery.

Wynn Harmon (’82) played Doc in West Side Story at Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy, and Francis Fuller on Law & Order: SVU. He also appeared in the world premiere of Anna Deavere Smith’s Love All, a play about the life of Billie Jean King, at La Jolla Playhouse.

Thomas Riccio (’82) published Sophia Robot: Post Human Being (Routledge, 2024), which is based on his 20 years working with the world’s leader in humanoid social robots, Hanson Robotics. He was Hanson Robotics’ creative director from 2018 to 2019, and created characters and personalities for several robots. Riccio works extensively in indigenous performance, ritual, and shamanism, conducting creative projects and research worldwide. He recently concluded a seven-year research project with the Miao people of southern China. He also created a 10-channel video immersion for SP/N Gallery in Dallas, Tex., in March 2024.

John Near (’85) published his fourth book, Autobiographical Recollections of Charles-Marie Widor (University of Rochester Press, 2024).

Dianne Betkowski (’86) joined forces with renowned flamenco guitarist and composer Miguel Espinoza to form Miguel Espinoza Fusion, a world music, flamenco, and jazz fusion ensemble. They completed a one-week residency at the University of Texas-Austin’s Butler School of Music. They have also been to Casper College, the University of Denver, Washington University, the University of Missouri St. Louis, East Central College, St. Olaf College, Duquesne University, and the University of Illinois.

Xanda McCagg (’86) had an installation of her paintings at the Two E Lounge at the Pierre Hotel in NYC in April 2024.

Susan Rome (’87) (pictured above, second from left) has been nominated for nine Helen Hayes Awards and won one. She finished a run of the world premiere of Becoming a Man (pictured) at the American Repertory Theater in spring 2024. Rome teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and at Johns Hopkins University. Nile Scott Studios

Lucia Giannetta (’88) starred in Our Love Is Here to Stay, a journey through the unexpected twists of love, in March 2024 at the Hunt and Fish Club in New York, N.Y.

Carole Rabe (’88) retired from her role as an assistant professor of visual arts at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., where she was also director of the Hess Gallery. Rabe showed her work in the exhibition Chasing Color: Christiane Corcelle and Carole Rabe in spring 2024 at Concord Art Association in Concord, Mass.

Michelle Lougee (’89,’94) had a solo exhibit, reVisions, at the McCoy Art Gallery at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., in spring 2024.

Catherine Sheridan (’89) was inducted into the Moles, a heavy construction industry organization, in May 2023. Sheridan was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award by the South Asian American Association, Inc., in September 2023 and was named Woman of the Year by WTS International’s Greater New York chapter in October 2023.

1990s

Emery Stephens (’93) was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor of music at St. Olaf College in fall 2024. Stephens completed three teaching artist residencies, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Luther College, and Concordia College.

Jonathan Newman (BUTI’90, CFA’94) is the composer of a large-scale new work, which is the title piece on soprano Fotina Naumenko’s album Bespoke Songs, available on the New Focus Recordings label and streaming on all music platforms. Bespoke Songs is a cycle of love songs. It features 12 poems in 6 languages by women writers spanning two millennia, set for soprano and chamber music. In spring 2024 he was a resident artist at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Newman lives with his family in Virginia, where he serves as director of composition and coordinator of new music at Shenandoah Conservatory.

Georgia Jarman (BUTI’92,’93, CFA’97) debuted with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a soprano soloist in Peer Gynt in March 2024. Jarman has been in roles spanning lyric and bel canto repertoire as well as 20th-century works and new commissions. The landmark compositions of Sir George Benjamin—Written on Skin and Lessons in Love and Violence—hold special significance for her. Jarman has debuted the pieces at the Venice Biennale Musica, Staatsoper Hamburg, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opera National de Lyon, and at the Beijing Music Festival with Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Lawrence Renes. She recently returned to the role of Isabel (Lessons in Love and Violence), again joining Mahler Chamber Orchestra on a European tour. During the 2023–24 season, she joined the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of Benjamin himself. In January and February 2024, she sang Agnes (Written on Skin) in her debut at Deutsche Oper Berlin under Marc Albrecht.

Crystal J. Leotaud-Ramos (BUTI’91, CFA’97) was named Music Educator of the Year by the Long Island Arts Council of Freeport, N.Y.

Jennifer Buzzell (’98) was elected to the board of directors of the Tessitura Network, a nonprofit organization that powers the success of arts and culture around the globe via its Tessitura CRM software.

2000s

Marc Beaupre (’00) celebrated his 20th year as the sole proprietor of MB Graphics and Beagle Printing. The company prides itself in being a one-stop shop for all visual projects, working with anyone from small family-owned businesses to colleges and Fortune 500 corporations.

Christopher Scanlon (BUTI’98, CFA’01) is an assistant professor of trumpet at the University of Florida, following four years on the faculty of Northern Illinois University. He is a member of the Axiom Brass, Palisade Trumpet Collective, and Silver Spruce Trio, and has been co-principal trumpet of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra since 2008.

Arturo Chacón-Cruz (’03) performed in the lead tenor role in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at Barcelona’s Liceu Opera House. He sang the lead tenor (Rodolfo) in La bohème in Spain’s Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Opera, as well as in Bordeaux, France, and also performed in the role of Don Jose in Carmen at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège in Belgium.

Nina Yoshida Nelsen (’01,’03) (left) was named Boston Lyric Opera’s artistic director. She began the role on February 1, 2024. She is a cofounder of the Asian Opera Alliance and has a career as a singer. Nelsen finished a run as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly at Opera Carolina and has also performed with companies such as the Washington National Opera, Lincoln Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Seattle Opera. She will continue her performing career while serving as the Boston Lyric Opera’s artistic director.

Laura Metcalf (’04) performed in the world premiere of Anahata, a cello and guitar double concerto by Grammy-nominated Brazilian American composer Clarice Assad and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, in Hartford, Conn., in February 2024.

Greg Hildreth (’05) starred in Queen of Versailles at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre in summer 2024 with Kirsten Chenoweth and F. Murray Abraham. The musical is based on the 2012 documentary of the same name that tells the story of a wealthy Orlando family that sets out to build the largest private home in America, modeled after the Palace of Versailles in France. Queen of Versailles will transfer to Broadway in the 2025–2026 season.

Gregory K. Williams (BUTI’01, CFA’06) released his debut album, Shadows: The Unaccompanied Viola Sonatas of Günter Raphael, on February 2, 2024, via Affetto Records. It’s the first US release to feature all three unaccompanied viola sonatas by German-Jewish composer Günter Raphael (1903–1960), whose works were banned during the Nazi regime.

Steve Eulberg (’07) completed a one-year interim director of music position for Covenant Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho, in September 2023. In October 2023, he became director of music for King of Glory Lutheran Church, also in Boise. Eulberg continues to teach preschool music for Music Together Boise North End.

Justin Casinghino (’09) premiered From Either Side of the Table, a new work for a dual wind ensemble, as part of the 2024 Washington D.C. International Music Festival at the Kennedy Center.

Chaerin Kim (’09) was elected an associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2024. She is a multi-instrumentalist and one of the few people in the world whom you can see performing as a soloist with two instruments on the same stage as an orchestra. She is an internationally acclaimed harpist, pianist, composer, conductor, and educator. She is the winner of 13 international competitions and has been a judge 100 times at 40 international competitions. Kim teaches both piano and harp at the University of Massachusetts Boston and was invited to conduct a festival orchestra in Estonia.

Clare Longendyke (’09) released her first album, …of dreams unveiled, in March 2024. Anthony R. Green (’06) composed two new works for the album. Longendyke also performed at the Palladium in Worcester, Mass., in January 2024. She works on curating programs that expand the classical concert stage to be more inclusive and imaginative.

2010s

Brian August (’10) is a stage manager at various opera houses across the country. He is in his 5th season at Houston Grand Opera, and 14th summer season at Des Moines Metro Opera. August is the revival director of Tomer Zvulun’s Maria de Buenos Aires. He has directed it at Opera San Antonio and the Florentine Opera Company in Milwaukee. In 2023, August was invited to speak on a panel called Creating a Humane and Sustainable Environment for Stage Managers, at the United States Institute of Theatrical Technology. He was elected one of the national vice presidents for the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), where he also cochairs the Staging Staff Caucus, serves on the Work Rules and Contracts Committee, and has participated in numerous negotiation committees. He was also one of the AGMA representatives in collaboration with Opera America and the Office of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services working to develop a nationwide anti-harassment training program for the arts.

Lucy Chen (’11,’15) was named one of the Women of Influence by the Jacksonville Business Journal. She is the vice president of advocacy and community engagement for the Cathedral Arts Project.

Stephen Marotto (’11,’18) released his new recording featuring the complete works for cello and piano by Morton Feldman on Mode Records. This recording was made in collaboration with pianist Marilyn Nonken. This project includes music from each stage of Feldman’s career. It was produced by Jeff Means and Brian Brandt and was recorded at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center  (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

Sydney Lemmon (’12) appeared in the hit show Succession and starred in the psychological thriller play Job, which had performances at Broadway’s Hayes Theatre through October 27. Job transferred to Broadway after two sold-out runs off-Broadway at Soho Playhouse and the Connelly Theater. The play follows Jane (Lemmon), who was placed on leave at her big tech company following a viral incident. She would do anything to return to her job, but Loyd (Peter Friedman), the therapist who needs to authorize her return, suspects her work might be doing more harm than good.

John Bian (’14) was appointed second violin in the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Evan Kent (’14) is an active performer-scholar teaching research methods and community music and activism at the Levinsky-Wingate Academic Center in Tel Aviv, Israel. His one-person autoethnographic performance, Shards, has appeared throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. It was voted Best Solo Musical Performance by the Marsh Theater in San Francisco and has been turned into a book published by Routledge.

Carolyn Regula (BUTI’11, CFA’15,’18) is based in Las Vegas and performs with the Pop Strings Orchestra and multiple electric string quartets. Regula has played at prestigious events such as the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix and the Life Is Beautiful festival, and has appeared in the trailer for Super Bowl LVIII. In addition to live performance and teaching, she has a virtual career where she is known as The Cello Doll. She has been managing a growing social media and YouTube community that exceeds 29,000 followers. In fall 2022, Regula released her debut album as The Cello Doll, Escaping Darkness.

Megan Wimberley (’15) started Cowgirl Artists of America (CGA), an organization working to increase opportunities for and representation of female western artists and makers, in 2021. CGA has since grown to more than 300 members, established important partnerships with industry leaders, and helped female western artists and makers learn skills to grow their art business and reputation. CGA partnered with the A.R. Mitchell Museum of Western Art in Trinidad, Colo., on the exhibition Women’s Work, which showcases and celebrates the contributions of women in the American West. Additionally, OETA, Oklahoma’s PBS station, featured Wimberley’s work, CGA, and Women’s Work in an episode of its series Gallery America in April 2024. She exhibited work at the Mountain Oyster Club in 2023 and was invited to participate in a second year at the Cowgirl Up! exhibition at the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Ariz.

Daniel Beilman (’16) was a quarterfinalist for the 2025 Grammy Music Educator Award. 

Bryn Boice (’16) is the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s (CSC) associate artistic director. She worked with Mackenzie Adamick (’24) on CSC’s production of The Winter’s Tale, which ran in summer 2024 at the Boston Common. Boice was the show’s director and Adamick was the sound director.

Ben Salus (’16) performed in another episode of The Food That Built America on the History Channel, playing Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas. The episode aired in spring 2024. Salus was also on the producing team of the 2023 New York Times DealBook summit. He worked with some of the world’s most impactful CEOs and leaders to deliver a newsworthy and memorable event.

Edward (Ted) Messerschmidt (’17) writes that his second child was born in February 2022. Messerschmidt participated in the 2023 Inside Outside Songwriting Collaboration Project, which pairs songwriters with incarcerated musicians. He also published an article on instrumental music in prisons in the International Journal of Community Music in February 2024.

MaryRuth Miller (’17) went on tour as a member of the ensemble Lyyra, the only professional six-voice women’s a cappella group in the US. Lyyra was created by the VOCES8 Foundation to build support and visibility for upper voices and their potential.

Daphne Panageas-Britton (’17) teaches English and provides art therapy out of her studio in upstate New York.

Brantly Sheffield (’17) is preparing for his second solo show with Ro2 Art Gallery in Dallas, Tex., in spring 2025. Ro2 Art is preparing to ship two of his paintings to Louisiana for a juried group exhibition at the Masur Museum of Art. Sheffield had his first solo show at Ro2 Art in summer 2023.

Alex Delano (’18) began freelancing full-time, leading her to the digital agency oakpool, which was featured in Forbes magazine in fall 2023. Delano recently became a partner at the firm. She is also releasing a documentary called Meko, backed by Larry Weinberg, a lecturer in BU’s Los Angeles Study Abroad Program. The documentary focuses on a climate change refugee in the Bahamas. 

Desiré Graham (’18) received a 2024 Princess Grace Award. The awards program recognizes creative generators and performance-based creatives. Graham works with Double Edge Theatre, VLA Dance, and Wender Collective as a recurring collaborator. She also curates the Black Residency and hosts the workshop series Somewhere in Between for BIPOC and ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American) peoples to discover the use of communal singing. 

Yoon Jung Huh (’18), a flutist, and Choah Kim (’19), a pianist, perform as the Flano Duo. They have had recitals in New York, New Jersey, and Seoul, and have released two albums, which are available online.

Krista Bruschini (’19) cofounded a business in multicultural music education, offering trips to different global destinations to learn music from different cultures. The first trip took place in Bali, Indonesia, in summer 2024. Bruschini also has a private lesson studio, Kreate Music, offering in-home and virtual lessons in piano and voice. Pursuing the private lesson studio full-time has allowed her the opportunity to structure her schedule as she chooses, while doing what she loves. Learn more about her work at www.kreatemusic.com.

Suah Kim (’19) is an adjunct cello faculty member at Changwon National University in Changwon, South Korea.

2020s

José Martínez (’20) is the artistic director of FAN Chelva (Festival of Arts and Nature), held in Chelva, his hometown in Valencia, Spain. At the 2024 festival, he performed on tuba while Adam Gautille (’13) performed on trumpet. In addition, Martínez was the guest principal tuba with Utopia Orchestra and its founding conductor Teodor Currentzis in its Germany and Greece tour in October and November 2024. In August 2024 he performed in Bogotá, Colombia, with the National Orchestra of Spain, and completed a master class at Bogotá’s Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Devin Wilson (’20) presented his MFA thesis exhibition, The Pigeon Has Landed, at UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts in spring 2024. The project explored the pigeon as the symbolic nexus of capitalism. Serving as both a reflection on obsolete technology in delivery services and an exploration of pigeons as agents of militarized spying, the project confronts the whimsical yet unsettling conspiracy theory that posits “birds aren’t real.” The work in the exhibition explored the satirical nature of internet meme culture.

Mai-Han Nguyen (’21) is a visual development artist in Nickelodeon Animation’s Artist Program.

Xuerong (Kyra) Zhao (’21) released her first solo album, which includes music by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Schumann. The recording is available on all platforms.

Emma Cavage (’22) received the 11th Annual Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation’s Charles Abbott Fellowship. Cavage is the youngest person to receive this fellowship.

Devon Russo (’22) won the 2023 American Prize in Vocal Performance–Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Award. North Star Music published his first piece, Three Songs for Bass Voice by Henry Purcell, arranged in the Britten tradition. Russo also took part in the Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum Salzburg in the Lied and Oratorio course in 2023, performed with Trinity Repertory Company, the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Boston Baroque, and Handel & Haydn Society Choruses, and took on the following roles: artist-teacher in classical voice and opera theater director at the University of Rhode Island; director of choral activities at Bryant University; assistant conductor for the Handel & Haydn Society Youth Choruses: Chorus of Soprano and Altos; and choral fellow at Marsh University.

Fady Demian (’23) received SpeakEasy Stage Company’s Thomas Derrah Emerging Artist Award, presented at SpeakEasy’s 2024 Spring Gala. Demian is an actor and a writer currently working on Amazon Prime’s The Terminal List: Dark Wolf. He was recently in SpeakEasy and the Huntington’s coproduction of The Band’s Visit alongside Andrew Mayer (’11) and Jesse Garlick (’14), and he has performed with numerous theaters in the area, including Actors’ Shakespeare Project and Moonbox Productions.

Sarah Wang (’23) was cast as Violetta in the national tour of Pretty Woman. In the 1990 movie on which the musical is based, Violetta is the opera singer who performs a segment from Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata in the scene where the character Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) takes Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) on a date to the opera.

Téa Chai Beer, Cody Robert Hook Bluett, Sarai Bustos, Huakai Chen, Natalie Conway, James Gold, Abbi Kenny, Yingxue (Daisy) Li, Julia McGehean, Sayak Mitra, Stephanie Petet, Jacob Salzer, Sidharth Shah, Sophie Thervil, and Ellen Weitkamp are all 2024 CFA graduates who were featured in the School of Visual Arts alumni exhibition This Time Tomorrow at New York City’s Morgan Lehman Gallery in summer 2024.

Natalie Darst Xia (’24) received the Fulbright-Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship to study in Paris for the 2024-2025 academic year. In addition to pursuing violin studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, she will participate in the Franco-American cultural program as a resident at the Fondation des États-Unis.

Tommy Vines (’24) had a four-show off-Broadway run of their play, i love you and i always will or charlie’s play, in July 2024. It is an experimental, movement-based memorial play Vines wrote for their good friend Charlie Foster, who passed away from terminal brain cancer in 2022. The play was first performed at BU’s Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre in September 2023. Vines is the project’s playwright, director, producer, and lead actor. The play also features Jojo Leiato (’24), Trev Turnbow (’24, Pardee’24), Emma Weller (’24), and Nicolas Zuluaga (’24) in the cast. Katelyn Thompson (’24) is the play’s stage and production manager and Madeline Riddick-Seals (’24) is its scenic designer and codirector.

Mengyin Wang (’24) and Mengxi You (’24) had their presentations featured at the Tcherepnin Society’s conference in April 2024 in New York. The presentations were titled Cultural Integration in Alexander Tcherepnin’s Cycle of Seven Chinese Folk Songs Op. 95 and Seven Songs on Chinese Poems Op. 71.

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