Inauguration, 2013: Singing for Salovey

It's official: Yale celebrated the start of the Salovey era with fanfare and music (Yale/Marsland photo)

Yale knows how to celebrate--glowingly and with precise homage to history and tradition. With a changing of the guard at Woodbridge Hall, early October presented hints of fall at its peak:  a little bit of chill and a lot of partly sunny skies. Early October, more important at Yale, marked another signature moment in its 312-year history. Peter Salovey '86 Ph.d. was officially celebrated as Yale's 23rd president.

Yale music contributed to a full weekend of inauguration festivities, capped with a grand concert on Saturday evening in Woolsey Hall (Oct. 12), hosted by Robert Blocker, Yale's current Dean of Music.  Donned in their Saturday-evening best (white ties, tails, black dresses, and tuxedos), Yale groups, representing much of the fabled tradition of music on campus, participated in the celebration.  Concert-goers were afforded a chance to hear, all in one setting under one palatial roof, performances from the Yale Glee Club, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Yale Camerata, the Yale Cellos and an ensemble of Yale guitarists.

Rosenthal '08 performed at the Inauguration Concert

 And at the apex of the concert before the hall blared "Bright College Years," they got to hear Westchester's own Claudia Rosenthal '08, '14 MM, soprano, who with a baritone soloist sang a rousing tribute number, "Make Our Garden Grow," from Leonard Bernstein's Candide. They were accompanied by the Yale Symphony Orchestra and the Yale Glee Club.

Rosenthal, originally from Edgemont, is currently a graduate student at the Yale School of Music. She is a member of Yale Opera, a program that permits students to perform in full-stage productions during the school year.

Before the Bernstein number, Blocker enunciated the lyrics for the Woolsey audience: "We'll build our house and chop our wood and make our garden grow."

Then he directed his remarks to Salovey:  "Peter, you're the curator's of Yale's garden. We'll work beside you, with you, and for you in tilling soil, watering, fertilizing, and promising to make Yale's gardens grow bountifully."

Rosenthal followed with her performance, promptly joined by Yale Camerata and the Yale Glee Club. "We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good," she sang. "We'll do the best we know," she contemplated Blocker's sentiments that alumni, faculty and students will support Salovey in his role. (See Celebration Concert, 1:33 mark, for Rosenthal.)

As a member of Yale Opera today and as an undergraduate at Yale, Rosenthal has performed often on campus.  In April, she performed at Yale and at Carnegie Hall in New York in the Music School's special commemoration of the music of Paul Hindemith, composer and Yale professor.  The performance at Carnegie Hall was part of the School's "Yale in New York" program.

In Feb., she performed at the Shubert Theater in New Haven in Yale Opera's production of I Capuleti e i Monteechi, a bel canto opera vaguely linked to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."  In the production, she sang the role of Giulietta.  She has also sung in roles in other productions in New York, including Don Pasquale and Falstaff and has performed in roles off-Broadway.

Rosenthal with father, Steve, at YWAA banquet (YWAA photo)

At Yale, Rosenthal majored in both music and art history. While still an undergraduate, she sang at YWAA's Centennial Banquet in 2008, a performance Westchester alumni still rave about.

After Yale, she attended music schools at the Hartt School (in Hartford) and the Mannes College/New School (in New York).  At Mannes, she earned a master's degree. She decided to pursue another master's degree at Yale with emphasis on opera performance, arriving in time to renew her bid to help "make Yale's gardens grow."

TW