Roxbury Latin alumnus Chris Kolovos, Class of 1994, has been appointed as the next Head of School at Boston University Academy. BU Academy is an independent, co-ed day school located on the Boston University campus, serving just under 200 students in grades 9 through 12. The school’s curriculum combines liberal arts coursework with classes at Boston University.

Chris Kolovos serves currently as the Associate Head of School at Greens Farms Academy, an independent, pre-K-12 day school in Westport, Connecticut. In his six years at Greens Farms Academy, Mr. Kolovos has overseen the school’s academic program, from faculty hiring and professional development to curriculum and accreditation; directed institutional efforts to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion; spearheaded the creation of a new schedule, service-learning program, and faculty evaluation system; and led the adoption of new courses focused on STEM, sustainability, global studies, and social justice. Mr. Kolovos previously served as Director of Global Education at Belmont Hill School, where he chaired the history department and designed programs around global citizenship. After graduating from Roxbury Latin, Mr. Kolovos earned his AB in history from Harvard, from where he graduated magna cum laude. He later earned a law degree at Harvard, while serving as coordinating editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Mr. Kolovos will assume his role as BU Academy’s Head of School in the summer of 2020.

This spring, Isaiah Goldsmith ‘19 won first place in the state at the Sons of the American Revolution Oratory Contest. On July 7, he will represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at the National Contest in Santa Ana, California. The topic of his essay is the long history of mistreatment of U.S. veterans throughout American history.

This is not Isaiah’s first trip to the National Oratory Contest. Last year, he represented Massachusetts with an essay on the modern history of taxation without representation with a focus on the U.S. response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Isaiah served this year as president of RL’s Model United Nations and is a longtime member of the Debate team. A young man dedicated to social activism, his speeches tend to cover topics of injustice and individual struggle.

Isaiah’s passion for civic engagement has also fueled a serious commitment to his Jewish faith. This year, he completed the yearlong Himmelfarb Fellowship with the Tikvah Fund, which included two national conferences and 50 hours of learning on Jewish philosophy. He was the selected speaker this spring for the Jewish Teen Foundation of Greater Boston’s Teen Grant Maker program. On the leadership council there for three years, he has helped to develop grant processes that funded programs addressing domestic violence, opioid addition, and child abuse. 

His hometown of Brookline has also recognized Isaiah this year (and not for the first time) for his social impact. In large part because of his role on the planning team for the March for Our Lives Boston after the Parkland shooting, Isaiah won the Brookline Community Service Award and was nominated for Brookline Youth of the Year this spring. Isaiah’s significant contributions to his town, state, and faith are remarkable, particularly given his many commitments at RL. We wish him well on his speech at the sons of the American Revolution National Oratory Contest in July.

Roxbury Latin alumnus David S. Lourie, Class of 1989, has been appointed as the 29th Head of School at Collegiate School—a private, boys K-12 day school on the Upper West Side of New York City. (Roxbury Latin’s current Headmaster, Kerry Brennan, served Collegiate as its 27th Headmaster prior to his beginning his duties at RL in 2004.)

Mr. Lourie currently serves as Head of School of St. Anne’s-Belfield, a pre-K-through-12 day-and-boarding school of 900 students in Charlottesville, Virginia, a position he has held for more than a decade. Mr. Lourie has also served as the Head of two other schools, while also teaching, coaching, and directing theater. Although committed to independent schools, Mr. Lourie has learned and worked in a variety of educational settings. He earned a B.A. in History from Yale University in 1993 and an M.A. from Teacher’s College at Columbia University in 2005, where he was also a fellow at the Klingenstein Summer Institute. Since 2006, Mr. Lourie has served as St. Anne’s-Belfield’s Head of School, where he has also consistently taught upper-school history. This past winter he directed the school musical, Beauty and the Beast.  Prior to St. Anne’s-Belfield, Mr. Lourie served as Head of School of the Midland School in Los Olivos, California, and prior to that he founded and led a charter school in Tampa, Florida. He began his career teaching and coaching directly out of college at Tampa Preparatory School. Mr. Lourie will leave St. Anne’s with a long list of accomplishments, including the adoption of two strategic plans, the innovation of the K-12 curriculum to focus on 21st-century learning, the creation of an annual summer professional-development program, and significant growth of the school’s endowment. Mr. Lourie has been active in the Virginia Association of Independent Schools and currently serves as its President.

Those associated with St. Anne’s-Belfield identify Mr. Lourie as a strong and bold educator:

“He never stops thinking about what could be better for the institution.”

“He jumps in with faculty and becomes part of the faculty community.”

“He is…empathic and kind. He does what is best for school and students.”

Mr. Lourie will begin his tenure at Collegiate as of July 1, 2020.

After years of impromptu performances in unusual places—American campgrounds, hostel courtyards in rural Spain, a mountain pass in the Swiss Alps—David Leach (RL Class of 2009) and Julia Connor officially formed the violin and piano duo Room to Spare in the spring of 2018. The duo’s name reflects the pair’s spacious approach to music making; they draw inspiration from a wide variety of musical traditions—from jazz and classical, folk and rock.

On February 21, David and Julia performed for students and faculty in Rousmaniere Hall as this year’s Daland Concert, established in memory of Andrew Daland ‘46. In Hall, the duo performed not only some of their original compositions, but also the world premier of a piece written by Jonathan Weiss of Class II, titled The Strongest Tree Bends in the Wind.

As David said to the audience, he and Julia knew that “Jonathan’s musical styles would be a good fit for Room to Spare. Lots of odd meters, punchy rhythms, crunchy harmonies. There was a lot of creative back and forth in this process… early on we were cutting measures, adding measures, moving material around, and as the structure of the piece became more clear and fixed, that allowed us to focus more on interpretive elements such as dynamics and tempo alterations… One of the things that’s wonderful about performing new music is that there is a real process of exploration and experimentation—you’re not relying on an interpretation history. With a composer like Bach or Beethoven, there are hundreds of interpretations of each work out there… With a new piece of music, it’s more like setting out on a trek across a newly discovered planet—no maps, no guide posts, just your musical intuition and best guesses.”

Julia and David are both graduates of the double degree program at the Oberlin College and Conservatory.  David studied there with pianist Dan Wall, legendary drummer Billy Hart, and saxophonist Gary Bartz. In 2013, Downbeat Magazine recognized David as a member of The Little Big Band, named one of the best undergraduate jazz ensembles in the U.S.  Having studied piano since the age of six, David fell in love with the instrument when he was sixteen and encountered the music of New Orleans pianist James Booker.  Today, David draws inspiration from classical composers such as Brahms, Shostakovich, and Beethoven; jazz artists McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane; folk artist Paul Simon; and rock groups Led Zeppelin and System of a Down. He has performed with various jazz and blues groups in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Washington D.C. as a pianist, composer, and arranger.  David currently serves as the music director for Grace Community Boston, where he produces and performs a weekly jazz service. David is also a poet, holding an MFA in creative writing from Boston University, where he studied with former U.S. poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky.

A violinist, Julia enjoys creating music that blurs the lines between classical, jazz, folk traditions, and free improvisation—performing everything from baroque music on period instruments to new works by living composers.  She has collaborated on several recording projects with musicians at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, including the Music Alliance Project, a genre-defying ensemble unifying a string quartet and a jazz trio under the leadership of pianist and composer Chase Morrin.  She plays regularly with Emmanuel Music and Boston Baroque, and last month she joined the faculty of the Intercambio de Musica—a Classical Music exchange program—at the world-renowned Panama Jazz Festival. An advocate for new music and female composers, Julia has commissioned several pieces, including Dana Kaufman’s Scratch the Surface for solo violin, which she premiered at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall and went on to perform as part of the Hartford Women Composers Festival.  Julia holds a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston.

The Andrew Daland ’46 Memorial Concert Fund was established by Andrew’s wife, Pamela Worden, and his family and friends, with the purpose of bringing a musical concert to Roxbury Latin boys each year in Andrew’s memory.  Mr. Daland was himself a fine musician. Since the Fund’s establishment, the school has been privileged to hear guitarist Jason Vieaux; the a cappella group Cantus; Elijah Rock; Roxbury Latin’s own, violinist Stefan Jackiw, Class of 2003; Yale’s Whiffenpoofs; and last year, iconic singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards.