Kauffman Advisors
Here’s a closer look at Eastman's Kauffman Advisors, individuals who exemplify both prestigious success in their professions and a demonstrated spirit of entrepreneurship. They will be a resource to our students by making themselves available (on a limited basis) to offer advice and guidance. They are also a part of the University of Rochester Center for Entrepreneurship, which oversees the Kauffman Foundation grant's implementation and promotes entrepreneurship throughout the University through communications and innovative programming.
- Ron Carter - Bassist, Composer, Author, Recording Artist, Educator
- Alan Buz Kohan - Writer, Composer, Lyricist, Producer, Arranger
- Roger Manners - International Marketing Manager, Yamaha Corporation Japan
- John Paulson - Founder and President, MakeMusic, Inc.
- Judith Ricker - Division President, Marketing Communications Research, Harris Interactive
- George Steel - Executive Director, Columbia University's Miller Theatre
- Robert Thompson - Managing Director, Thompson Music Group, LLC
Ron Carter
Bassist
Composer/Arranger/Author
Recording Artist
Educator and Spokesman
Eastman Graduate
Ron Carter is among the most original, prolific, and influential bassists in jazz. With more than 2,500 albums to his credit, he has recorded with many of music's greats: Tommy Flanagan, Gil Evans, Lena Horne, Bill Evans, B.B. King, the Kronos Quartet, Dexter Gordon, Wes Montgomery, and Bobby Timmons. In the early 1960s he performed throughout the United States in concert halls and nightclubs with Jaki Byard and Eric Dolphy. He later toured Europe with Cannonball Adderley. From 1963 to 1968, he was a member of the classic and acclaimed Miles Davis Quintet. He was named Outstanding Bassist of the Decade by the Detroit News, Jazz Bassist of the Year by Downbeat magazine, and Most Valuable Player by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 1993 Ron Carter earned a Grammy award for Best Jazz Instrumental Group, the Miles Davis Tribute Band and another Grammy in 1998 for Call 'Sheet Blues', an instrumental composition from the film 'Round Midnight. In addition to scoring and arranging music for many films, including some projects for Public Broadcasting System, Carter has composed music for A Gathering of Old Men, starring Lou Gosset Jr., The Passion of Beatrice directed by Bertrand Tavernier, and Blind Faith starring Courtney B. Vance. Carter shares his expertise in the series of books he authored, among which are Building Jazz Bass Lines and The Music of Ron Carter; the latter contains 130 of his published and recorded compositions.
Carter earned a bachelor of music degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and a master's degree in double bass from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He has also received two honorary doctorates, from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, and was the 2002 recipient of the prestigious Hutchinson Award from the Eastman School at the University of Rochester. Carter has lectured, conducted, and performed at clinics and master classes, instructing jazz ensembles and teaching the business of music at numerous universities. He was Artistic Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Studies while it was located in Boston and, after 18 years on the faculty of the Music Department of The City College of New York, he is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus although, as a performer, he remains as active as ever.
Credit: http://www.roncarter.net/
Alan Buz Kohan
Writer, Composer, Lyricist, Producer, Arranger and Creative Consultant for the television, music and entertainment industry
Eastman graduate
Alan Buz Kohan has been active in the television, music and entertainment industry for over forty years, in the multiple capacities of writer, composer, lyricist, producer, arranger, and creative consultant.
Kohan has been head writer for more than 200 television special and series, including five seasons on the Carol Burnett Show, twenty-eight specials for Perry Como, the Sammy Davis, Jr. series, the Dolly Parton Show, five Bing Crosby specials, five Presidential Inaugural Galas, eight Comic Relief Specials, eighteen Academy Award Oscar Shows, seven People's Choice Awards, seven Emmy Awards, seven Grammy Awards, three Tony Awards, two American Comedy Honors, the Ace Awards, the Country Music Awards, and numerous other award shows and specials. He also wrote and co-produced the Emmy award-winning “Motown 25 Yesterday, Today, Forever” special, the show where Michael Jackson introduced the famous “Moonwalk”. Prominent among the specials he has written and/or co-produced are productions for Frank Sinatra, Julie Andrews, Luciano Pavarotti, Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, Diana Ross, The Jackson Five, Goldie Hawn, Carol Burnett, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Michael Crawford, Michael Jackson and the glorious Miss Piggy and the Muppets.
Among the many awards and citations he has received over his career, he is most proud of the thirty-one National Emmy nominations, and thirteen wins from the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, the second highest individual total of Emmy Awards in Academy history. He has also been nominated for and won awards for the Writers Guild, the George Foster Peabody Award, three Ace Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, and the award from the International Film and Television Film Festival of New York.
As a composer and lyricist, he has written a number of million-selling records for such artists as Michael Jackson, (“Gone Too Soon”) Diana Ross, Robert Goulet, The Ray Charles Singers, and the famous Christmas duet for Bing Crosby and David Bowie called, “Peace on Earth”.
Born in the Bronx, New York, he graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, and then went on to the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, where he got his Bachelor of Music degree in 1955, and his Master of Music degree in 1956 with a major in Composition. For his Masters thesis, he was given permission by Dr. Howard Hanson to write and produce a musical revue, which even though not of a “classical” nature, was the basis for his being granted his Masters degree. The experience of writing, staging and directing that show served him in very good stead over the years, as he would never have been able to get such experience anywhere else but at Eastman. “My gratitude is never-ending.”
Roger Manners
International Marketing Manager,
Yamaha Corporation, Japan
International Public Relations and Marketing for wind, string and percussion instruments
Roger Manners is in charge of international public relations and marketing for wind, string and percussion instruments at the Yamaha Corporation in Japan. He has run Yamaha’s marketing promotion and artist relations programs since 1990, when he was the first non-Japanese ‘life-time’ employee ever to be hired by the company. He is also the first and only non-Japanese in management and has helped Yamaha create many of its major marketing policies. Originally a musician, Roger was co-principal trumpet with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra from 1980 until 1990, and prior to that played in other orchestras in the US, Mexico, Canada, and the UK. In addition to orchestral, solo and chamber performance, Roger has done a great deal of studio work for movies and television, and has taught in conservatories and universities.
John Paulson
Founder and President, MakeMusic, Inc.
Eastman Graduate
Born in 1948, John Paulson is the founder and President of MakeMusic, Inc., the publicly held company that develops and markets the SmartMusic® music practice system and Finale® music notation software. From 1982 to 1990, Mr. Paulson was Chairman and CEO of Springboard Software, Inc., a publicly held company he founded to develop and market educational consumer software products. He has a Master of Arts in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music and taught high school instrumental music for nine years in Minnesota. A published composer and arranger, he continues to be active as a music clinician and guest conductor. In addition to serving on the Global Economic Summit of the Music Products Industry and a variety of music industry and music education task forces, he has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Music Merchants, the Wenger Corporation, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the American Composers Forum.
Judith Ricker
Division President,
Marketing Communications Research,
Harris Interactive
Oboist
Eastman graduate
Judith Ricker is Senior Vice President at Harris Interactive, the fastest growing market research company in the world, and the pioneer of research conducted over the Internet. Judy is responsible for leading the Marketing Communications Research division, a practice she founded in 2001. The division focuses on developing state-of-the-art methods for testing and tracking advertising and other communications programs through all stages of development, using online methodologies. Most of her work has been in the area of corporate image and reputation, advertising effectiveness, competitive brand profiles, co-branding viability and new product concepts.
Prior to joining Harris Interactive, Judy held a variety of Business Research positions at Eastman Kodak Company, including one supporting both the Chief Marketing Officer and the Vice President of Public Relations with brand, reputation and advertising research. Her research on Kodak’s Corporate Advertising Campaign contributed to the company’s 1997 Gold Effie award for advertising effectiveness.
In addition to her role at Harris Interactive, Judy has been active in Rochester’s music scene for nearly three decades. Upon her graduation from the Eastman School of Music in 1976, she became a member of the oboe section of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, a position she held until 1991. She is a founding member of the Antara Winds, and continues to perform with this renowned woodwind quintet, which celebrated its 22nd anniversary this year. She served on the faculty of the Hochstein Music School from 1979 until 1991, where she taught oboe and chamber music. She has been on the Board of Directors of Hochstein since 1997. Judy has been a member of the Greater Rochester Women’s Philharmonic since its founding in 1992. She is also an active performer with the Rochester Oratorio Society, the Broadway Theater League, and other local organizations.
Judy holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music and an MBA from the William E. Simon School of Business Administration of the University of Rochester. In 1975 the Eastman School awarded her the coveted Performer’s Certificate, and in 1991 The William E. Simon School of Business Administration and the University of Rochester selected her as the University’s Outstanding Adult Student.
George Steel
Executive Director, Columbia University's Miller Theatre
Conductor, performer, impresario
Portrait by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
George Steel has made his reputation in New York as a champion of both early and new music, as a conductor, performer, and impresario. Founder and conductor of the Gotham City Orchestra and the acclaimed Vox Vocal Ensemble, last season’s conducting engagements included sold-out performances of Bach’s Mass in B Minor, two concerts of holiday music at the Guggenheim Museum Rotunda, and Bach’s complete single keyboard concerti. Other recent conducting appearances show the breadth of his work: conducting four DJs in John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 5 at the Lincoln Center Festival, the complete works of Tudor composer Robert Parsons, Baroque masses by Francesc Valls and Antonio Lotti, the Three Little Landscapes of Hiroshima by avant-garde Japanese composer Hikaru Hayashi, an all-Leonard Bernstein show, and works of Feldman and Cage for Carnegie Hall. Steel trained as a chorister at the Washington National Cathedral, where he also studied carillon on a 53-bell JohnTaylor instrument.
Called a “programming superhero” by the Village Voice, Steel has been the Executive Director of Columbia University’s Miller Theatre since 1997, where he has earned a strong reputation for innovative programming and attracting new audiences. He was the recipient of the 2001-02 ASCAP-Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, the 2003 Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center, and the 2003 ASCAP Concert Music Award. Earlier this season, Steel performed Cage’s complete works for carillon, returned to the Guggenheim Museum Rotunda leading the Vox Vocal Ensemble, and conducted a concert in St. Paul’s Chapel that included the U.S. premiere of John Zorn’s Hermeticum Sacrum.
Robert Thompson
Managing Director, Thompson Music Group, LLC
Eastman graduate
Producer, Conductor, Publisher, Professor, Writer and Musician, Robert Thompson is Managing Director of Thompson Music Group, LLC, a music production and publishing company. Prior to founding his own company in 2005, Thompson was the Chief Executive Officer and President of Universal Edition, the world’s third largest classical music publishing company and home to composers such as Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Arvo Pärt, Arnold Schönberg, and Kurt Weill, among many others.
Thompson produced the Grammy-nominated recording, Allegresse, by composer Maria Schneider for ENJA Records, and served as Music Consultant to the Johnny Depp- Cate Blanchett Film The Man Who Cried for Universal Pictures. He has been increasingly successful in placing contemporary classical music in major motion pictures, including the music of Arvo Pärt, in Fahrenheit 911, The Insider, Swept Away and Heaven. He produced and performed in the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's La Pasión Según San Marcos (“a magnificent triumph of Latin-American music” …The Los Angeles Times) for which the live recording also received a Grammy nomination. Thompson worked extensively with The Kronos Quartet and Nonesuch Records in producing their Grammy-winning recording of Alban Berg’s The Lyric Suite, and has continued to produce live concerts throughout the USA and Europe, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Upcoming projects in 2006-2007 include ”The Baseball Music Project”, a series of concerts for orchestra with Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, which celebrate the 150-year-old tradition of music written about America’s favorite pastime; “Tabula Rasa: The Music of Arvo Pärt”, and “The DaVinci Code Concerts”.
Thompson is a voting member of NARAS (The Grammys), is currently First Vice-President of The Music Publisher’s Association of America, and serves on Boards at both ASCAP and BMI. In 2005, Thompson was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of South Florida in Tampa.
