Hey there to the Class of 1984.

I've heard from many of you and I THANK YOU for making our class newsletter an ongoing success. I've spoken to several of you in the last few months and I treasure the close friendships that I have renewed with some of you these last two years.

It is my sincere hope that you will take this opportunity to contact IAA and get in touch with your old friends. The Alumni Dept. has the contact info and will be more than happy to pass on whatever info they have on who you're looking for. I know some of you may hesitate to pick up the phone or haven't gotten around to emailing someone who was such a close friend to you so long ago. But my personal take on it is that the friendships that I have renewed (and you know who you are, if you're reading this...), you all have made my life so much richer. I have loved every minute of those long phone calls, emails and pictures.

Here's who submitted an update this time around:

Jamie Coulter

My update: Life as a father is so good. Tons of work, but worth all of it. Snow is melting here today, it will stay for a while though, there is so much of it. I’m taking a digital photography class this semester so I sent a few photos to post, hopefully they will make it up. I’m finally finishing my BA (in nothing, like Seinfeld; but they call it general studies because "nothing" doesn’t sound very good).

One photo is me in front of my 88 Volvo (drives like a boat) with 238,000 miles on it, holding Cyrus in the wet snow. He always falls asleep on a walk.

Another is a few years ago resting in the canoe on the Moisee River in Northern Quebec, 21 days in roadless wilderness on a beautiful river is a great life. There were ten of us, three adults, five teenagers a nine year old and a three year old. Everyone flipped at one point or another in white water, fortunately we packed our food well.

Another photo is of me (blurry, with feet in the air) playing Capoeira Angola (Afro-Brazilian dance/fight/game). (Note from the Alumni Office: this one didn’t come through, Jamie! Feel free to send it again.) Capoeira is my main source of exercise and creative expression. It is way too much fun. The last one is just a silly Photoshop exercise. Anyway, not much other news.

Check out the organization I work with online at www.kroka.org, think about sending your kids to maybe the most amazing outdoor summer experience possible. Financial aid (beyond our sliding fee scale) is available. This year I am teaching Expedition Pre-Columbus, Cape Cod Surfing Bonanza as well as some others. It is great work even though it doesn’t pay well and can be pretty challenging at times.

I am so glad Laurie is keeping us all in touch. It is really fun to stay connected to one’s various roots. Take care, live well.

Liza Grossman

Living in Cleveland since I left Interlochen has been an amazing journey. After finishing school with degrees in Music Ed and Music Performance, I founded the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (CYO) in 1995: www.cyorchestra.org.

It’s an amazing group of high school musicians - close to 100 of them - we are always looking for new works to premiere, so any composers out there please do send me your scores! We only play 20th and 21st century music. We have three concerts per season and LOVE doing world premieres. Being on that podium is my favorite place to be - the energy from the members is addictive and way too much fun for words.

Mark Jackobs and Stan Konopka (IAA 82-85), both in the Cleveland Orchestra and stand partners, premiered a double viola concerto that Stan wrote in 2000 and in addition, Mark premiered (violin concerto) "Riders on the Storm: The Doors Concerto with us in 2001 as part of our series "Rock the Orchestra". Each season a rock artist comes in and we play their music transcribed for orchestra and they join us on stage for the show. This is a picture of Jon Anderson, lead singer of YES performing with us last May.

I regularly spend time with Julie Myers-King (IAA 84-85), as she and her husband Rich King (principal horn - Cleveland Orchestra) and their son Charlie (2 in July) live a few blocks from me. Julie is an amazing cellist in town and plays with the Akron Symphony, Sarasota Opera and gigs and teaches regularly. Julie and Rich premiered a concerto for horn and cello with CYO in ’99 called "From Your Shadows Eye". This is a picture of Charlie King and my 4 year old dog, Barney playing in Julie’s back yard.

Tina Jameson, (IAA 83-85) is still a very dear friend of mine. She and her husband, 11-year old daughter and their son, who was just born in November, live in Chicago. Adam Pelty (IAA 82-85) and I are good friends and have the opportunity to see each other when one of us is passing through either Cleveland or New York! Fiona Murray (IAA 84-87) is also a very dear friend who lives in NYC and is a violinist and a brilliant teacher that anyone would be lucky to have.

Since 1999, I have been on the conducting faculty of IAC - that has been quite an experience - Byron and Ann Hanson - Tim Wade - Howard Hintze the list goes on and on. The campus looks great - the only updates are really a few new buildings, lit walkways and campus maps. The theatre department has two new major buildings, and Grunow was redone as a rehearsal space. It is not the same building - sort of sad, actually. There is a salad bar and a cereal bar at each meal - no more greasy food as the only resort!

My mom, brother, his wife and my two nieces also live in Cleveland. My sister, Sadie (IAA 93-97) recently moved to Cleveland and is working in the theatre world here. Cleveland is a very arts friendly town. Its wonderful having the opportunity to be a part of the scene here - it’s bigger than most think.

If any of you are ever on the North Coast - please feel free to contact me - I would love to hear from you! With this, I send peace and love to all.

Rebecca Kramer

Rebecca is rescues small dogs in Los Angeles. If you’d like more information, contact me or go to http://smalltime.petfinder.com.

Chaille Percival-DeFaria

I am finally getting back to it: three kiddies later. They are still young, but I am getting enough sleep to think music again. I have a show March 5th, here in LA. I will be performing with John, my hubby and IAA alumnus (76-77), as well as a full band, performing all my original material. I'm looking forward to it. I am sending a couple of updated pics.

Daniel Stevenson

I received an email from Daniel. If you’d like more information, contact me!

Eric Winiecke

I came across your newsletter while I was doing research on summer camps for my oldest daughter, Eleanor, who will be 8 in June. (She's a little young for this summer, but I know she'll get a kick out of working on art projects and music all day!) Time flies. Besides Eleanor, we have a son Adam, 5, daughter Cassidy Claire ("C.C."), 3, and finally Luke, who just turned 1 in December! It's a blast!

Well, after graduating from college I got a job as a runner at the CBOE in 1989 where I was a floor-trader until last year. Now I have an office 3 blocks from our home in Hinsdale, IL. (Close enough to help out, but far enough away to regain my sanity!) I've enjoyed reading bits of information about everyone and can't really believe that 20 years has gone by. My apologies for not writing sooner. Thanks for all the work that you've done keeping track of everyone!

Laurie Housholder Orth

My mind is full of too many details. We are about to relocate to Atlanta from Pittsburgh where we’ve lived for seven years. House hunting via the internet and getting this house ready to sell. In the mean time, my husband John has been commuting to Alpharetta, GA since September. He comes home on the weekends. The blessing in all of this is that he has a great job that he loves. We are SOO ready to live like a regular family again. Marriage and parenting by cell phone is a challenge. My sons miss John very much, as I do. But wait, there’s a Silver Lining... we appreciate each other so much more.

Dylan just turned 8 and is in second grade. I brought cookies to school for his birthday party and got to observe his music class. It was pretty neat to see him clapping out rhythms and singing. Emmitt is almost 4 and he’s doing very well in preschool. He’s learning lots of new words and phrases. He’s been a little delayed in talking but he’s catching up fast. His favorite thing to say now is, "Big Burp" and "Ripped One." Thank you to my husband for teaching him that one. He’s into Thomas the Tank Engine and loves to play with his train tracks and train cars.

We got a new greyhound in January named Angel. She came to us right before our 4th dog, Sallymae, went to the big rabbit chase in the sky. Sally was 14 and had a good life with us for 11 years. It was tough to send my dog pal to the rainbow bridge, but it was time. We have had 4 rescued, retired racing greyhounds over the last 11 years, and they all got old at the same time, so it’s been a difficult 16 months...as you can imagine. Losing a beloved family pet is hard. I have had very comforting emails and phone calls from some of my Interlochen buddies when the grief was right in my face. I thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for that.

In the midst of doing Mom things, laundry, cooking, making lunches, cleaning up, car pooling, soccer games, homework sessions, reading stories, bath time, breaking up fights, grocery shopping, etc, I have managed to fit in one more opera with the Pittsburgh Opera. I’m in the chorus of Faust and we’re just starting to stage the show. My babysitter is a Godsend, as I couldn’t make the rehearsal scheduled without her. I call it my secret life. I love all the artsy-fartsy people I work with and the chorus sounds AWESOME. It’s the best dang-gone chorus I’ve ever had the honor to sing in. Singing in the opera feeds my artistic soul.

And side-by-side with all of the above, I’m building up my Mary Kay business before we move. It is such a flexible business that I can work around my family. I have just been promoted to Senior Sales Director and I have picked up my third new free car from the company. Here’s a picture of me and Emmitt at the car dealership on Monday picking up our new Mary Kay car.

I have enjoyed hearing from so many of you and I want to encourage you to send me your updates and pictures. Our Class of ‘84 newsletter updates keep going because of YOU, so contact me.

For now, I’m at ljdeorth@nauticom.net or you can call me at (724) 741-0324. I’m on Eastern Time. Again, I’m warmed by the eternal bonds of Interlochen friendships that can override all else.

Always sounding the call for YOU,

Laurie (Housholder) Orth