Brooklyn College lost accomplished soprano and teacher Martha Jean Hakes on May 24, 2007, at age 77. Hakes taught at Brooklyn College from 1963 until her retirement to San Francisco in 1989. In addition to teaching, Hakes was a regular soloist at the Brooklyn College Baroque Festivals and many other Brooklyn College concerts, including the college’s premier of Stravinky’s Les Noces. A Washington Post article from 1970 eloquently captures the beauty of Hakes’s voice: “She is a superb artist, a singer for all seasons, really. She combines vocal felicity with astonishing technical dexterity, and both of these are governed by an unerring sense of musical styles. Few are the singers in any category who can spin out a phrase as she does, with an equal mixture of emotional suspense, rhythmic flair, and stunning dynamic control.” Hakes will be missed by Brooklyn College and all those who knew her music.
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Professor of History and Harpsichord at Brooklyn Conservatory Stoddard Lincoln died at age 82 on Arpil 6, 2007, at his home in Ringoes, N.J. after a long battle with emphysema. While teaching at the conservatory from 1964 to 1989, Lincoln also contributed regularly to The Musical Times, The Record Guide, Music and Letters, and The Musical Quarterly. In 1989 Novello published Lincoln’s edition of 50 selected Scarlatti sonatas. Lincoln was an expert in English Restoration theater music from the period between Purcell and Handel and was also an active and accomplished harpsichordist and fortepiano player in New York. Those who knew Lincoln will never forget his incisive wit and his mastery as a teacher, performer and scholar.
