Delta David Gier (IAC/NMC 77), conductor of the South Dakota Symphony, has been awarded the 2022 Ditson Conductor's Award. Established in 1945 as part of the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the prestigious award honors conductors who have a distinguished record of championing contemporary American music. Gier joins a distinguished list of past winners with deep Interlochen connections, including Howard Hanson, Thor Johnson, Frederic Fennell, Eugene Ormandy, and JoAnn Falletta.

Melanne Mueller (IAC/NMC 81-82, IAA 82-83, IAC St 84), founder and CEO of Avie Records, recently worked with the New York Youth Symphony on their debut recording, released on April 8. The self-titled album features four works by three African-American women composers, Florence Price, Valerie Coleman, and Jessie Montgomery, and debuted at Number 2 on Billboard's Classical Chart. The album, recorded during the height of the COVID pandemic lockdown using a socially-distanced approach, brought young musicians together during a time of separation.

Jazz flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny (IAA 83-84) will release CASCADIA, a new album by the Dmitri Matheny Group on the Origin Records label on June 17. The album showcases timeless classics and original jazz from the Pacific Northwest and is available for streaming. All About Jazz has called the group "an all-star jazz band featuring some of the most accomplished musicians in the western United States". Over his 30-year career, Matheney's discography includes 120 albums on which he appears as a composer, arranger, producer, annotator, or flugelhorn soloist.

Luba Byman Staller (IAC/NMC 48-49) of San Luis Obispo, California passed away on April 2, 2022.

Judith Helen Silverman (IAC/NMC 57-62) of Chevy Chase, Maryland passed away on Tuesday, April 12, 2022.

Dr. Elizabeth (Byerrum) Seaman (UNIV 64-67) of East Lansing, Michigan passed away on April 4, 2022.