Cathy Weinfield, a graduate of High School South, Class of 2001, is playing English horn and oboe in the Honolulu Symphony this season through May.
“My new apartment in Waikiki is two blocks away from the beach and has a view of the sun setting over the Pacific everyday on the 11th floor,” she says. “I am enjoying every possible second of the constant 85 degree sunny weather, palm trees, volcanic green mountains, and being paid to play in an orchestra every week.”
Weinfield began playing violin in the fourth grade and oboe in the fifth grade. Active in bands and orchestras throughout WW-P schools, she was also a member of Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra and Philadelphia Youth Orchestra in high school. In her freshman year she was in the marching band’s color guard unit.
She received a bachelor’s degree of music in oboe performance from Northwestern University, Class of 2005, and a master’s of music in oboe performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2007. (The News, May 1, 2009)
Scott Altman of West Windsor is the new general director of Arizona Opera as of October 12. Altman, co-founder of Opera New Jersey, most recently served as its general and artistic director. He and his wife Lisa launched the West Windsor-based company in 2002 with a personal investment of $17,000. The operating budget grew to $1.7 million in 2009, making the organization one of the country’s fastest growing professional opera companies.
“I am greatly honored to lead Arizona Opera into the next chapter of its illustrious history,” Altman said in a press release. “The critical balance between producing the best work possible in this important and compelling art form — while also being fiscally prudent during today’s very challenging business environment — is something to which I intend to pay the utmost attention. My family and I are thrilled to be making this move, and I look forward to becoming quickly integrated into both the organization and all of the communities and individuals that love and support it.”
In Altman’s earlier career as a singer, he performed bass-baritone roles on stages throughout the country, including the New York City Opera, Arizona Opera, San Francisco Opera, Connecticut Grand Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Orlando Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Wolf Trap Opera, and as guest artist with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He also appeared twice as a soloist at Carnegie Hall.
Scott and Lisa, will relocate to Arizona with their two sons Zackary, 7, and Aaron, 4.
