In Memoriam
Curtis is saddened to learn of the passing of those in our Curtis alumni and community family. We offer our sincerest condolences to both loved ones and colleagues.
The tributes below, to those who have passed since spring 2022, barely scratch the surface of the accomplishments, relationships, and influence that made each person unique. We invite you to join us in celebrating their memories through pictures and obituaries.
Please send any additions or corrections to overtones@curtis.edu for inclusion here, as well as possible publication in Overtones magazine.
1940s
STANLEY DRUCKER (Clarinet ’45), who was a member of the New York Philharmonic for 60 years, passed away on December 19 at age 93. Regarded as the dean of American orchestral clarinetists, Mr. Drucker joined the New York Philharmonic in 1948 at age 19 where he played more than 10,000 performances in 60 countries during his 60-year tenure with the orchestra. In 1960 he was appointed principal clarinet by Leonard Bernstein (Conducting ’41). His career highlights include 191 solo appearances, 64 performances of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, the first performances of the clarinet concertos by William Bolcom and John Corigliano, and more than a dozen acclaimed recordings. Read more.
NED ROREM (Composition ’44) died November 18 in New York City. He was 99. A faculty member from 1980 to 2001, Mr. Rorem was a prolific author and a composer of hundreds of art songs, along with numerous orchestral and chamber works. In 1993, André Previn, Gary Graffman, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere in Philadelphia of Mr. Rorem’s Piano Concerto No. 4 (for left hand). The work was dedicated to Mr. Graffman, whose subsequent performance at Carnegie Hall was described by the New York Times as “electrifying.” Read more.
01 - 02 Stanley Drucker (Clarinet ’45)
02 - 02 Ned Rorem (Composition ’44)
1950s
ELIZABETH YOCKEY ILKU (Harp ’53), who played with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for 30 years and led a career that spanned jazz, chamber music, and Motown classics, died on August 21, 2023, of natural causes. She was 95 years old. Ms. Ilku began harp studies in Webster City, Iowa, then went on to study with Carlos Salzedo at Curtis, where she joined the Angelaires, a harp quintet that toured extensively under Columbia Artists Management and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, among other TV programs. After posts in the New Orleans and Halifax Symphony Orchestras, Ms. Ilku became principal harp of the Detroit Symphony from 1958 to 1988, during which time she moonlighted as a Motown session musician. Her harp can be heard on albums by the Temptations, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and Smokey Robinson. She taught harp for many years at the University of Michigan and Detroit-area colleges. At Curtis Ms. Ilku met her husband, Julius Ilku (Double Bass ’54), and the two performed jazz together, including as members of the Swing Easy Quartet in the 1950s. She is survived by her children, Carol and David Ilku.
CARLOS VILLA (Violin ’58), renowned Colombian violinist, passed away on June 6 at age 84. Upon graduation from Curtis, at the invitation of a Swiss concert manager, he was invited to travel to Zurich and take private lessons with Yehudi Menuhin. In the late 1960s, Otto Klemperer appointed him concertmaster of London’s New Philharmonia Orchestra, and in 1973, he was appointed conductor-concertmaster of Saltzburg’s Camerata Academica in Austria. Mr. Villa then became artistic director and conductor of Bogota’s Orquesta Filarmónica de Colombia and visiting professor of violin and chamber music at the National Conservatory in 1980. Beginning in 1978, he moved to New York City and became a member of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Westchester Philharmonic, and the American Composer’s Orchestra. Read more.
1960s
FREDERICK ORVILLE LEWIS JR. (Composition ’63, ’65), a pianist, composer, and music teacher who was a tireless presence in Philadelphia musical life, died on October 7 at the age of 90. Born in Philadelphia on September 16, 1933, Mr. Lewis received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Curtis and later joined its board of directors. He taught music for four years at the Granoff School of Music, followed by eight years in the Philadelphia School District. His longest affiliation was with the Community College of Philadelphia, where he taught piano, composition, music history, theory, and other courses until retiring in 2009. In his teens, Mr. Lewis was a gifted baseball player whose pitching won him a spot on the farm team of the Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland Athletics). But music was his first calling, and while serving in the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s, heplayed in a band that accompanied Bob Hope and other visiting entertainers (he later played keyboards in the Monarchs, a Philadelphia band). After his discharge in 1957, Mr. Lewis married Despina Chletcos, who was his first adult piano teacher (and who taught piano from their Upper Darby, Penn. home). She died in 2016. Mr. Lewis is survived by their three children and six grandchildren.
GEOFFREY MICHAELS (Violin ’60), a violinist and pedagogue who was a member of the latter-day Curtis String Quartet, died on February 17 from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 79 and living in Voorhees, N.J. Born in 1944 in Perth, Australia, Mr. Michaels became, at age 14, the youngest winner of the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s concerto competition, bringing him tours throughout the country. He entered Curtis at age 16, studying violin with then-director Efrem Zimbalist, and violin and viola with Oscar Shumsky. While still a student in the 1960s he was appointed second violinist of the Curtis String Quartet. Mr. Michaels was a prizewinner at several major competitions including the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the Tchaikovsky Competition, where he played Mr. Zimbalist’s Coq d’Or Fantasy. He later gave the U.S. premiere of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso, broadcast over Voice of America. A co-founder of the Philadelphia-based Liebesfreud Quartet, he taught violin and chamber music at Princeton, Temple, and Florida State Universities; Swarthmore and Haverford Colleges; and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Read more.
WILLIAM YEATS (Voice ’60), singer and educator in Philadelphia, died on February 18 at age 93. For 35 years he served as vocal director at South Philadelphia High School where he conducted multiple choirs and ensembles and staged over 20 Broadway musicals. He also served as director of the AllPhilly High School Opera Workshop where he led productions of Ravel’s L’Enfant et Les Sortilege, Hindemith’s Hin und Zuruck, and Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. Born in Durant, Okla. in 1930, Mr. Yeats served from 1950–52 in the U.S. Army’s 45th Infantry Division in Japan and Korea. He earned music education degrees from Oklahoma State and Indiana Universities before receiving his Artist Diploma from Curtis. A regular tenor soloist in the Philadelphia area, Mr. Yeats performed at Congregation Rodeph Shalom for 43 years. He also appeared with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, Reading Symphony Orchestra, and the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College.
1970s
VINCENT W. BARBEE (Horn ’77), a horn player and member of the National Ballet of Canada for 40 years, died on July 28. He was 71 years old. Mr. Barbee was born on May 19, 1952, in Raleigh, N.C. and attended the North Carolina School of the Arts before attending Curtis. After graduating in 1977, Canada’s National Ballet hired him for a national tour, which led to a permanent position. He moved to Toronto, where he was also active as a freelancer. Described by his colleagues as kind and ready with a joke, he enjoyed dining out, cycling, and hiking. Mr. Barbee is survived by his brother, sister-in-law, and extended family.
CHARLES EDMUND CALLAHAN JR. (Organ ’75), an organist, teacher, and authority on American organ-building, died on December 25, 2023, at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. He was 72 years old. Mr. Callahan’s books, The American Classic Organ and Aeolian-Skinner Remembered, are standard reference works on 20th-century American organ history. Born in 1951 in Cambridge, Mass., Mr. Callahan studied at Curtis and at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. In 1988, he settled in Orwell, Conn. and taught at Middlebury College, Catholic University, and Baylor University. Among his original works were commissions for Papal visits from the Archdioceses of St. Louis and New York. Mr. Callahan was often consulted on organ design and restoration, and in 2014, he was honored with the Distinguished Artist Award of the American Guild of Organists, which cited “his illustrious career as composer, performer, teacher, and consultant, and his lifelong service to the sacred music profession.”
1980s
MICHAELA PAETSCH (Violin ’84), who rose from a large string-playing family to pursue a wide-ranging career as violin soloist, died of cancer on January 20 at age 61. She lived in Bern, Switzerland, for much of the past 30 years. Ms. Paetsch came to Curtis as a student of Szymon Goldberg, with whom she had previously studied at Yale University. In 1985, Ms. Paetsch won the bronze medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition; the next year, she participated in the International Tchaikovsky Competition. By the late 1980s, her career was increasingly centered in Europe, where she appeared with the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bergen Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Her recordings included a noted set of Paganini’s 24 Caprices in 1987 and a collection of works by Daron Hagen (Composition ’84) in 2015. Ms. Paetsch was born in Colorado Springs, Colo., the second oldest of seven children, to parents who performed in the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra. After teaching their children string instruments, they formed the Paetsch Family Chamber Music Ensemble, which toured the region in the 1970s. Ms. Paetsch is survived by her husband and daughter.
CHARLES WETHERBEE (Violin ’88), a founding member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet and a longtime concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, died of cancer on January 9. He was 56 years old. Mr. Wetherbee, who was known as “Chas,” studied at Curtis with the late Aaron Rosand (’48). His orchestral career began when he was appointed principal second violin of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Five years later, he moved to Ohio to join the Columbus Symphony as concertmaster, a post he held from 1994 to 2011. An active chamber musician, in 2005, he co-founded the Carpe Diem String Quartet, an ensemble with an eclectic repertoire that includes folk arrangements as well as five volumes of Taneyev string quartets. For the past decade, Mr. Wetherbee lived in Boulder, Colo., where he taught violin at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and served as concertmaster of the Boulder Philharmonic. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Mr. Wetherbee debuted at age six with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and later appeared internationally with the Japan Philharmonic, Philharmonic Orchestra of Bogota, and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, among other ensembles. Mr. Wetherbee is survived by his wife and three children. Read more.
1990s
JOHN “JEFF” FREEMAN (Trombone ’91), who built on a passion for music and science to work as an audio engineer for Dolby Laboratories, died on September 12. He was 53. A native of Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Freeman earned a Bachelor of Music degree at Curtis, followed by a Bachelor of Science in physics from North Carolina State University in 1996. He worked briefly as a research assistant at NASA, focusing on lasers and electro-optics, before bringing his love of physics and music to multiple roles at Dolby Laboratories. For the past 22 years he held roles ranging from licensing engineer to, most recently, director of applications engineering and testing. He is survived by his wife, his two children, and extended family.
2000s
VITALIJ KUPRIJ (Piano ’00), a keyboardist, composer, and member of the progressive rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO), died on February 20 at age 49. Mr. Kuprij was a member of the TSO from 2009–19 and rejoined the group in 2021, recently performing on their November/December 2023 tour. The TSO’s shows are a holiday season staple, known for their rock opera theatrics and dazzling light shows. Born in 1974 in Volodarka, Ukraine, Mr. Kuprij showed early promise on the piano, taking top honors at the All-Union Chopin Competition in the Republic of Kazan and the Geneva Duo Violin and Piano Competition. He began his studies at the Kyiv State Music Lyceum with Nina Najditsch, before studying with Rudolph Buchbinder at the Basel Conservatoire in Switzerland. In 1995, Mr. Kuprij moved to Philadelphia to study at Curtis with Gary Graffman (Piano ’46). Meanwhile, he cultivated interests in both classical and rock music. He formed his first progressive metal band in 1993, Atlantis Rising (later renamed Artension) and played with other prog-rock acts. He also toured as a recitalist throughout the U.S. and abroad. He was recently composing a piano concerto, which he planned to dedicate to the memory of his late father, a trombonist. In addition to his musical talents, Mr. Vitalij was, according to the TSO, “an accomplished chess player, an avid fisherman, and simply a fun-loving soul.” Read more.
Curtis Community Members
FRANK BAYLEY, former longtime trustee of Curtis, passed away on Sunday, September 13 at age 83, following a battle with cancer. He had been a part of the Curtis family for the past twenty-five years. Read more.
CHRIS HODGES, Curtis’s longtime director of admissions, passed away on February 12 at age 66. Mr. Hodges joined the Curtis staff in 1995 and was an integral part of the school for 25 years. Read more.
R. ANDERSON “ANDY” PEW, former longtime trustee of Curtis, passed away on June 25 at age 85. The former chairman of the Pew Charitable Trusts, director at the Glenmede Trust Co., executive at Sun Oil Co., and beloved philanthropist, dedicated 11 years (1992–2003) to serving the Curtis community, and will be sorely missed. Read more.