SSMF faculty for 2012
Lin He, violin
Guido Calvo, violin
Eli Matthews, violin
Patricia González, violin/viola
Hillary Herndon, viola
Natasha Farny, cello
Paul York, cello
Sidney A. King, double bass
Marian Shaffer, harp
Frances Cobb, harp assistant
Patricia George, flute
Robert Stephenson, oboe
Ramon Wodkowski, clarinet
Hunter Thomas, bassoon
David Brockett, horn
Bruce Heim, Horn
Peter Bond, trumpet
Mark Babbitt, trombone
Eric Bubacz, tuba
Amy Griffiths, saxophone
John Kilkenny, percussion
Gary Hammond, piano
As a soloist and chamber musician, violinist Lin He has performed concertos with the Drake Symphony, the Houghton Philharmonia, the Jiang Su Symphony, the Louisiana Sinfonietta , the Southern Tier Symphony, the Tuscarawas Philharmonic, and the Wooster Symphony. He has also presented recitals at universities across the United States as well as at the East China Normal University, the Nanjing School of the Arts, the Xi’an Conservatory of Music and the Xinghai Conservatory of Music. Most recently, he performed solo recitals and gave master classes at Arizona State University, Florida State University, Pennsylvania State University, San Diego State University, SUNY Fredonia, and Tulane University. June 2011 marked his 2nd year as the featured violin soloist for the annual Hospice Chautauqua County concert.
As an orchestral player, Mr. He has performed with the Shanghai Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic , Boston Symphony, and New World Symphony, and has worked under the direction of Marin Alsop, James Conlon, James DePreist, Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn, David Robertson, Christopher Seaman, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, Edo de Waart, and David Zinman. He is a regular addition to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, including the successful fund-raising concert of the Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 at LSU.
Summer festival appearances have taken Mr. He to venues such as the Music Academy of the West and the Tanglewood Music Center where he had a solo performance in Ozawa Hall in 2001. In 2005, Mr. He appeared at the Aspen Music Festival , where he served as Assistant Principal Second Violin for the Festival Orchestra and was the featured violinist for the world premiere concert of American-Chinese composer Huang Ruo. Lin He has been a laureate of the Padesta Solo Competition, the ASTA competition, and a finalist for the Marlboro Music School and Festival. Mr. He received the Creative Achievement Award, the William Forest Chamber Music Award, and the 2003 John Celentano Award for Excellence in Chamber Music from the Eastman School of Music. Mr. He has been featured on several live radio broadcasts and on the 8 CD set of The Complete Musician (a theory textbook written by Steven Laitz at the Eastman School of Music).
Mr. He has previously taught at Eastman School of Music and Pennsylvania State University. Lin He is now serving as Assistant Professor of Violin at the Louisiana State University School of Music, President of the Louisiana String Teachers’ Association, and Acting Concertmaster of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. During the summer, he teaches at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival .
Born in Shanghai, China, Mr. He began his musical training at the age of five. Mr. He received his doctorate from the Eastman School of Music , where he studied under the tutelage of Zvi Zeitlin. Other major influences include Sylvia Rosenberg, Paul Kantor, Kyung Sun Lee, James Lyon, Joanne Feldman, and Peiwen Yuan.
His recent CD release from Centaur Records of French Sonatas for Violin and Piano with colleague Gregory Sioles received favorable reviews and his upcoming projects include a concerto debut with the LSU Philharmonia and a concert tour during the summer of 2012 in major cities of mainland China.
His website is www.linheviolin.com
Costa Rican born Guido Calvo received his first musical training in the Conservatorio Castella, a prestigious music school for talented children. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at the Universidad de Costa Rica, where he studied with preeminent violinist Walter Field, and his Master’s at the Rubin Academy of the University of Tel Aviv, under the guidance of distinguished professor Yair Kless. Mr. Calvo was concertmaster of the Herzliya Chamber Orchestra in Israel during the 1986-1987 seasons, and of the Symphony Orchestra of the Universidad de Costa Rica in 1988.
He was a SSMF faculty member in 1998 and from 2001 to 2003 and a violin Mentor in the 2002 Hot Springs Music Festival in Arkansas. He was a violin instructor in several Kibbutzim at the Emek Chefer music program in Netanya, Israel and he also was the director of the International Music Camp in Playa Tortuga, Costa Rica in 2004. Guido Calvo was a member of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica since 1979 and for 21 years he was its Assistant Concertmaster.
He has been a soloist with the Universidad de Costa Rica Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de El Salvador and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica on several occasions.He also is the first violin of the Cuarteto Scala, formerly the quartet in residence at the Universidad Nacional Heredia, Costa Rica. He is currently a violin professor and Head of the String Department of the Music School and Concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of the Universidad de Costa Rica.
When Eli Matthews was seven years old and heard Eugene Fodor perform the Paganini violin concerto he knew exactly what he wanted to devote his life to. His parents enrolled him in the local Suzuki program in Memphis, TN where he excelled. At the age of eleven he was invited to play the Mozart violin concerto in D at the international Suzuki festival in Alberta, Canada. The following year he was accepted into the Starling Preparatory String Project at the University of Cincinnati where he began studies with Kurt Sassmannshaus and Dorothy DeLay. As a high school student he began winning competitions and performing the virtuoso concertos of Paganini, Vieuxtemps, and Ernst all across the United States. In the summer he continued his studies at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival and later at the Aspen Music Festival. He attended the Univ. of Cincinnati for college where he continued to be a prizewinner at the university as well as many national competitions. His performances at the university included the Sibelius concerto conducted by Keith Lockhardt and the Berg concerto with Gerhard Samuel and the Cincinnati Philharmonia.
After school Eli performed and toured with the Cincinnati Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra, where he now holds the position of Associate Second Violin. Eli continues to perform in recitals across the country, collaborating with former Columbia artist Michele Grossman on the piano. He performs chamber music with his colleagues in the Cleveland Orchestra, where he founded the orchestra’s acclaimed ‘Musically Speaking’ series that has the artists engage their audiences with discussion and commentary about the music that is being performed.
Eli finds his most important and rewarding work to be with the young students he works with, whether it is teaching privately in his home or coaching the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra musicians in chamber music, orchestra, and solo repertoire. His teaching methods are extremely diverse, having studied intensely the teaching and playing methods of Flesch, Galamian, Ysaye, Sevcik, Dounis, and of course Paganini, his first and lasting love. He is currently working on a book to combine all these methods into one philosophy. In 2009 Eli returned to Sewanee as a faculty member where his sons Nathanael (cello) and Harrison (violin) have now attended for several seasons.
“The Sewanee Summer Music Festival is one of the most special places on earth for me. After touring all over the world performing in all of the great concert halls I still can’t wait to get back to Sewanee! What happens there every summer is simply magical, and just a few short weeks can make an incredible difference in young musicians’ lives. I am thrilled that my schedule will allow me to return next summer to meet and work with the next generation of students.
Patricia González, violin/viola
Patricia González began studying music at the Youth Program of the National Symphony Orchestra with violinists David Azurdia, José Chain and Tetsuo Yagi. She was concertmaster of the Youth Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1982 and in 1981, won first prize at the Young Soloists Competition of the National Symphony.
In 1982 she went on a scholarship to the Rubin Academy of the University of Tel Aviv where she studied under Yair Kless and Arthur Zisserman, graduating in in 1987. She played in the Herzelia Chamber Orchestra in Israel as principal of the second violin section from 1983 to 1987. She was a viola teacher at the National Music Institute from 2003 to 2008 and since 2001, she has been a violin and viola teacher at the Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica.
González was the violist of the Scala String Quartet, which was the Quartet in Residence of the Universidad Nacional from 2007 to 2009, and principal viola of the Chamber Orchestra of the Universidad de Costa Rica in the 2008 and 2010 seasons. She is a member of the first violin section of the National Symphony Orchestra since 1979 and from 2011 she will be its co-Assistant Concertmaster. She is currently working for a Doctoral Degree in Education.
Violist Hillary Herndon has earned a national reputation for her brilliant playing, insightful teaching and creative multi-faceted programming. She has been heard on NPR and PBS and has collaborated with some of the world’s foremost musicians, including Carol Wincenc, James VanDemark and Itzhak Perlman, who described Hillary as “having it all… a gifted teacher and an excellent musician.”
Hillary’s passion for integrating music with other interests has led to collaborations with actors, dancers, social workers and sociologists, the first trans-Atlantic master class via Internet2, the use of high-speed video equipment to analyze bow strokes, and performances reaching beyond traditional concert halls to venues such as the Miami City Book Fair and the American Museum of Science and Energy.
Ms. Herndon is dedicated to expanding the available repertoire for the viola through research, performance and advocacy of little known works. Her recitals will often feature composers such as Fernande Decruck, Minna Keal and Sergei Vasilenko alongside the standard viola repertoire of their contemporaries. Currently, Hillary is recording a 2-cd set of forgotten works by women of the early 20th century.
In addition to her chamber and solo performances, Hillary Herndon has acted as Principal Violist of the New World, Colorado Springs, Eastman and Juilliard Symphony Orchestras under the direction of today’s best conductors, including Michael Tilson-Thomas, Seiji Ozawa, Neeme Jarvi, Yuri Temirkanov, James Levine and Sir Norrington. She has participated in international festivals such as Tanglewood, Interlochen, the Heidelberg Scholssfestspiele and the National Repertory Orchestra.
A committed teacher, Ms. Herndon has a thriving studio at the University of Tennessee and holds summer positions at both the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Tennessee and the Round Top Festival Institute in Texas. She is the founder and director of the Annual UT Viola Celebration, an event that involves hundreds of violists from across North America. Her recent appearances include presentations and master classes at Juilliard, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts, SUNY Fredonia, Arizona State University, University of Alabama, and the Perlman Music Program. Ms. Herndon has also been invited to present a master class at the 2012 International Viola Congress. Her public instruction and teaching philosophy have been complimented through the publication of several articles in the Journals of the American Viola Society and the American String Teacher Association.
Ms. Herndon received her Masters Degree from the Juilliard School where she studied with Heidi Castleman, Hsin-Yun Huang and Misha Amory while serving as a Teaching Assistant to Ms. Castleman. She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Eastman, where she studied with George Taylor and graduated with High Honors.
Cellist Natasha Farny has a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician and university professor. Accolades from the press signal her playing as “technically quite impressive,” imbued with “eloquence” (Sunday Post-Journal) and “long lines of beauty and strength” (Buffalo News.) A passionate performer, she has appeared as soloist with several orchestras including the Boston Symphony, the Abilene Philharmonic, and the Greeley Symphony Orchestra, as well as regional orchestras in Orchard Park, New York and Erie, Pennsylvania.
Ms. Farny has given sonata recitals in Leipzig’s Mendelssohn Haus, live on public radio in Chicago and in Rochester, NY, and in venues across the American northeast and midwest. She has also participated in numerous music festivals locally and in Europe including the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England, The Banff Summer Master Classes, the Kronberg Cello Festival (Germany), the Schleswig Holstein Festival Master Classes, the Leipzig Internationales Kammermusikfestival, Yellow Barn Music Festival, the Bay View Music Festival (MI), and the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival. This coming spring, Ms. Farny will present cello recitals in Prague and neighboring cities.
Additional chamber music ventures include performances with the Mercury Piano Trio and ANA, a trio that specializes in commissions of new works for soprano, cello and piano. Ms. Farny has recently enlarged her sights to include the study and performance of Edgard Varèse, using the Theremin Cello. She appeared in performances of the complete works of Varèse at New York City’s Lincoln Center Festival and in Europe, at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, the Paris Festival d’Automne, London’s Southbank Centre.
After pursuing undergraduate studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale University, Natasha Farny earned a Master of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Juilliard School. After her studies at Juilliard, she spent a year in Leipzig, Germany studying at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,” under a fully-funded stipend from Citibank. In addition to her doctoral work with advisor Maynard Solomon on a monograph of the Beethoven C Major Cello Sonata, she studied with such luminaries as Ronald Feldman, Orlando Cole, Stephen Doane, Joel Krosnick, and Harvey Shapiro. Currently Ms. Farny teaches cello at the State University of New York at Fredonia and at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Tennessee.
An accomplished soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Paul York has appeared in recital and with orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. York serves on the string faculty at the University of Louisville, where he maintains an active teaching and performing schedule. Recent solo appearances include a performance of Karel Husa’s Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Colored Field for Cello and Orchestra by Aaron Jay Kerniswith the Louisville Orchestra and Vivaldi’s Double Concerto in G Minor with internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Of his performance at Carnegie Hall, New York Concert Reviews said “The fiendishly difficult solo part was brilliantly played by cellist Paul York; one had to be in awe of his playing.”
An avid chamber musician, Mr. York is a member of the Louisville String Quartet and was a founding member of The Logsdon Chamber Ensemble, a Texas Commission of the Arts Touring ensemble as well as ensemble-in-residence at Hardin-Simmons University. In April of 2006, he performed recitals throughout Japan. As a champion of contemporary music, Mr. York has commissioned works for the cello by such composers as Stefan Freund, Marc Satterwhite, Steve Rouse, Paul Brink, and Fredrick Speck. He also premiered the work Ballad for Solo Cello and Seven Cellos by Grawemeyer and Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Aaron jay Kernis as well as Alfred Bartle’s new orchestration of Bartok’s First Rhapsody for cello with the Sewanee Festival Orchestra.
Mr. York has participated in numerous summer festivals. He is currently a member of the artist faculty at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, where he performs solo and chamber works, in addition to his teaching schedule. He has also performed at Strings in the Mountains in Colorado, the Abilene Chamber Music Series, and served as principal cello with the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra. He has held principal cello positions with numerous regional orchestras and performed as a member of the cello section of the Saint Louis Symphony under the direction of Leonard Slatkin.
Mr. York received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and his master of music degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he studied with Ronald Leonard. Other teachers include Gabor Rejto, and Louis Potter. The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Mr. York was selected to participate in the prestigious Piatigorsky seminar at the University of South California. Mr. York can be heard on the Centaur, Arizona University Press and CRS labels. His latest CD of premiere recordings entitled Cello Vision will be released on the Centaur label in 2009.
Sidney A. King is the instructor of double bass at the University of Louisville School of Music. He has recently retired as the assistant principal bassist of the Louisville Orchestra, having held that position from 1984-2006. As an active soloist and chamber musician, Mr. King performs frequently throughout the Midwest in various recital settings, including service for fourteen years as a core member of the Kentucky Center Chamber Players. He has held a position on the board of directors of the International Society of Bassists (2003-2006).
He has been a performer at the Grand Teton Music Festival since 1992, often serving in titled positions with that orchestra. Mr. King has performed as principal bassist with the Houston Grand Opera, the Texas Opera Theater, the Sunflower Music Festival, and the Des Moines Metro Opera. He has also performed with the Detroit Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, and the North Carolina Symphony. Mr. King also served as the double bass instructor at Indiana University Southeast and has long been involved in music education, teaching and coaching many youth ensembles as well as giving numerous solo performances in public and private schools.
Marion Shaffer is Principal Harpist with the Memphis Symphony and Iris Orchestras and is in residence at the Germantown Performing Arts Center. She is on the faculty of Vanderbilt University, University of Memphis, and the Hutchinson School. She performed and taught at SSMF from 1979 to 2008.
She received her BA degree from Stephens College, graduating summa cum laude in both harp and piano. She studied at the Vienna Academy for Music and the Performing Arts, and received a Fulbright scholarship to Cologne, Germany, for further study. Her principal teachers include Mimi Allen, Marjorie Tyre, Lucile Lawrence, and Hans Joachim Aingel. In 1974 she earned an M.A. in music and German at Memphis State University.
Ms. Shaffer has performed with the Memphis Symphony since 1974, four seasons as pianist and 31 seasons as Principal Harpist. As a charter member of the Iris Orchestra, she has held the principal harp position since the orchestra’s formation in September of 2000. In 1995, Ms. Shaffer was awarded a Rockefeller cultural exchange grant to collaborate on a harp method book based on the traditional “Sones” of Mexico. In May of 2007 she toured China, giving masterclasses and performing at the Shanghai Conservatory and Shanghai Middle School. she also performed in the Festival Virtousi in Recife, Brazil, in December, 2007. Photos courtesy of the Blair School of Music.
Frances Cobb, B.M. in Harp Performance, Piano Minor, Vanderbilt University, May, 2010. Ms. Cobb studied harp for 15 years and piano for 18 years. Her principal harp teachers include Ruth Moore Cobb, Katy Cobb, Martha Rosenbaum, and Marian Shaffer. Ms. Cobb was a member of the SSMF Harp Studio from 1999 to 2008, and returned to teach in 2009 as a Harp Specialist.
She has also recently participated in special coachings with acclaimed harpists such as Elizabeth Hainen, Yolanda Kondonassis, Gillian Benet-Sella, Joan Holland, Ann Hobson-Pilot, Kathleen Bride, and June Han. She has been performing in professional orchestras including the Arkansas and Memphis Symphony Orchestras since 2002. Ms. Cobb has been the Principal Harpist of the Vanderbilt Orchestra and Wind Symphony, and a member of the Vanderbilt Harp Ensemble, from 2006 to 2010. She has performed on Nashville Public Television, with Nashville Ballet, and with the Vanderbilt Opera and Chorus.
Internationally known performer and teacher, flutist Patricia George travels the world performing and teaching. She has presented her “Famous Flute Spa” masterclasses for more than 300 universities, conservatories, public schools, and flute associations. In January 2011, George became Editor of Flute Talk Magazine and continues to write the monthly column “The Teacher’s Studio.” She has also written for the Idaho Music Educator’s Notes, the National Flute Association’s Flutist Quarterly, Keynotes Magazine, and Chamber Music America.
As a performer George has toured the United States, Europe, Russia and the Middle East. Her performances have been heard on National Public Radio affiliates in Tennessee, Idaho and Utah. With Trio Terra Nova (Flute, Bassoon, Piano), she has appeared at the International Double Reed Conventions held in Arizona, Wisconsin and at the Centre for the Arts in Banff, Canada, in addition to regularly scheduled performances at Temple Square Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City, UT, Brigham Young University – Provo; Brigham Young University – Idaho; and throughout the Intermountain West. With the Amadeus Trio (Flute, Cello, Piano) she presented over 90 concerts a year for several years throughout the Intermountain West. She has soloed with the Amarillo Symphony, Eastman-Rochester Symphony, Quincy Symphony, Brigham Young University – Idaho Symphony Orchestra, the Magic Valley Symphony, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Elkhorn Music Festival Orchestra, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival and Cumberland Orchestras, the Idaho Symphony, the Idaho State Civic Symphony, and Wisconsin Lutheran College Orchestra. She has co-authored: Flute 101: Mastering the Basics for the Beginning Flutist, Flute 102: Mastering the Basics for the Intermediate Flutist, and The Flute Scale Book, all published by Theodore Presser Company. Patricia George is an active member of the 5,500 member National Flute Association. She has served as Secretary of the Board of Directors, a member of the Flutist Quarterly Review Board, and is currently a member of the Advisory Board of Directors. She has performed or presented workshops at the NFA yearly conventions since 2001. She has also presented workshops at the Western International Band Clinic (Seattle, WA) and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic (Chicago, IL). Patricia George has been the flute professor at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival since 1998. Many of her SSMF students have continued their musical education at elite flute institutions such as Juilliard, University of Southern California, Rice, Ohio State University, University of Texas, Florida State University, Carnegie Mellon University, Rutgers, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Boston University. Previously she has served on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music Preparatory Department, Brigham Young University – Idaho, and Idaho State University where in 1996 she was awarded the Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Service. She is also flute professor at the American Band College (Sam Houston State University).This July she will teach a masterclass at the Totally Flute Forum masterclass at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. George earned the Bachelor of Music degree (with distinction) in Applied Flute, the Master of Music degree in Performance and Musical Practice and the Performer’s Certificate in Flute from the Eastman School of the University of Rochester. Her teachers include the legendary American flutists Joseph Mariano (Eastman School of Music and the Rochester Philharmonic), William Kincaid (Philadelphia Orchestra), Julius Baker (New York Philharmonic) and Frances Blaisdell. She performs on sterling silver Verne Q. Powell flutes, one made in 1964 and the other in 1997. The results of her experiments into the acoustics of the flute, particularly those relating to the crown, are now being used by many flute manufacturers. She is a clinician for Conn-Selmer, Inc and is a Verne Q. Powell Artist. Patricia George is married to American composer Thom Ritter George and is the mother of three musical children (Dr. Samantha George, Lawrence University Violin Professor; Dr. Alexander George, Metropolitan State University Horn Professor; and Clara George, San Francisco-Based Free-Lance Musician).
Robert Stephenson joined the Utah Symphony Orchestra in 1980. He has served as Principal Oboe under Music Directors Varujan Kojian, Joseph Silverstein, Keith Lockhart and Thierry Fischer. He has twice been a member of the Utah Symphony Music Director Search Committee and the orchestra’s Artistic Committee. Prior to coming to Salt Lake City, Mr. Stephenson played Principal Oboe for three years with the Savannah Symphony and Georgia Chamber Orchestra under Christian Badea. He is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Curtis Institute of Music.
Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Mr. Stephenson has performed at the National Music Camp (Interlochen, MI), the Academy of the West with Maurice Abravanel, the Spoleto Festival in Italy and Charleston, SC and Tanglewood. He has also played at festivals across the nation such as the Blossom Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Elkhorn Music Festival (Sun Valley, Idaho), the Temple University Music Festival, The Park City Music Festival and the Deer Valley Music Festival. He has been on the faculty at the Symphony School of America, the University of Utah, the Aspen Music Festival and the Sequoia Chamber Music Workshop.
The Southern Music Company publishes his “Twinkle Variations” for solo oboe and Jeanne, Inc. is the publisher for both his “40 New Melodic and Technical Etudes” and “Dance Etudes” for oboe or saxophone. Versions of Dance Etudes will also be made available for flute and for bassoon in 2011. Mr. Stephenson has often appeared as soloist, having performed concertos by Bach, Barlow, Barbirolli, Bellini, Telemann, Handel, Haydn, Cimarosa, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Mozart, Salieri, Corigliano, Strauss, Rimsky Korsakov and Vaughan Williams and in July, 2008, the new oboe concerto by Thom Ritter George at the International Double Reed Society Convention in Utah. Robert performs often with the woodwind quartet, “Three Fish and a Scorpion”.
He teaches privately and at the University of Utah, makes and sells a lot of high-altitude oboe and English horn reeds and enjoys being the father of three bright and beautiful future taxpayers. Robert also finished his second oboe etude book, “Dance Etudes”. It is one of the only etude books available for all woodwinds. He is married to flutist Lisa Byrnes. He likes to spend time exercising, making ceramics, watching PBS and listening to NPR, cooking, going out to restaurants, watching good movies, renovating an old house and traveling.
Having settled in London (UK), American clarinetist Ramon Wodkowski enjoys a diverse musical career as an orchestral player, chamber musician and mouthpiece craftsman.
Ramon has performed with orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and as guest principal of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, English National Ballet and City of London Sinfonia. He has worked under conductors including Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Oliver Knussen, Heinz Holliger and Semyon Bychkov, at venues including the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms), the Salzburg Mozarteum, Barbican Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Having graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy, Ramon earned a bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Master’s degree from the Yale University School of Music. He went on to study at the Royal College of Music in London, where he gained an Artist Diploma, won the prestigious Frederick Thurston prize, and was subsequently awarded the 2005-6 David Bowerman Junior Fellowship.
Ramon’s principal teachers have been Richard Hosford, Franklin Cohen, David Shifrin, Richard Hawkins and Theodore Oien.
In addition to his busy performing schedule, Ramon is an internationally renowned mouthpiece craftsman, and his clients include many of the world’s leading soloists, orchestral musicians, teachers and chamber musicians. He specialises in refurbishing and customising clarinet and saxophone mouthpieces, and also makes his own models. A leading authority on mouthpiece history, acoustics and design, Ramon has been invited to present lectures at institutions including Yale University, University of Southern California, Rice University, Manhattan School of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Northwestern University, Michigan State University and New York University.
For more information about Ramon’s mouthpieces, clients and endorsements, please visit www.ramonwodkowski.com, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/
Since 1996, Hunter Thomas has served as the Principal Bassoonist of the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra in Alabama, an orchestra with which he has performed since high school. Following a recent performance, The Huntsville Times refers to his “hauntingly lovely first solo” in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6. Hunter has made numerous solo appearances with the HSO, including his acclaimed performance in 2005 of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto under the direction of Carlos Miguel Prieto. As an orchestral player, Hunter performs regularly with the Chattanooga Symphony, the Tuscaloosa Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Alabama Symphony and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, with which he has recorded for the Dorian CD label. From 1980-1985, Hunter was the Principal Bassoon of the National Orchestra of Colombia, South America.
Since 2007 Hunter has been artist faculty at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Sewanee, Tennessee. In March 2011, Hunter appeared as Guest Artist Clinician at the Middle Tennessee State Bassoon Festival in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
In recent seasons he has performed the Weber Concerto with the Huntsville Youth orchestra, the Mignone Concertino with the Sewanee Philharmonia Orchestra, the Andriessen Concertino with the Huntsville Chamber Winds, and the Telemann Concerto for Flute and Bassoon with the Huntsville Symphony. He currently serves as the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra’s personnel manager and librarian, bringing a high degree of professionalism and efficiency to that organization’s artistic operations.
Hunter has inspired and mentored countless North Alabama music students. He maintains an active private studio of bassoonists at all playing abilities and serves on the faculty of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Many of his students have been accepted to prestigious schools and festivals nationwide. His students have appeared on the radio show From the Top, and have been finalists in the Marine Band Concerto Competitions. Hunter is in demand throughout the region as a chamber music coach and festival teacher, and has spent numerous hours in public school band rooms and youth orchestra rehearsals, volunteering his time and expertise in support of music education. Hunter was named the 2003 Harold J. Wilson Music Educator of the Year and served on the Board of Trustees of the Huntsville Youth Orchestra.
Hunter attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Louisville, and has studied with many distinguished teachers including as George Goslee (Cleveland Orchestra), Sol Schoenbach (Philadelphia Orchestra), Leonard Sharrow (NBC Symphony), Dan Welcher (Louisville Orchestra) and Kenneth Moore (Oberlin College). He is a Sewanee Summer Music Festival alumni (1973, 1974), and attended the Sarasota Music Festival two summers.
David Brockett is serving as Acting 3rd Horn of the Utah Symphony for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. During the two previous seasons he played 2nd Horn with The Cleveland Orchestra; over the past two decades he has spent four full seasons and portions of many others with that orchestra, appearing in subscription concerts at Severance Hall and the Blossom Music Festival, playing on numerous recordings, and touring around the world. David was Acting Assistant Principal Horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Acting Principal Horn with the Cincinnati Pops for the 1990-91 season, and has also performed frequently with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Key West Symphony, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, the Erie Philharmonic, the Akron Symphony, the Blossom Festival Concert Band, the Detroit Concert Band, and as Featured Alto Horn Soloist with the Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band. He has played in the orchestras of the Pittsburgh Opera, the Cleveland Opera and Ballet, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.
David was a founding member of the Burning River Brass, with which he made four CDs and went on more than a dozen national tours. He also performed and toured with the Cleveland Chamber Brass in the 1990s, including a residency at the Odenwald Festspiele in Germany. He has taught at Penn State University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Kent State University, Cleveland State University, the University of Akron, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He arranges music for brass and has frequently conducted university and festival brass ensembles.
David has played on numerous radio, television, and film soundtracks, including Tom Selleck’s Last Stand at Saber River and several NBC television specials.
David Brockett was born in London, Ontario and grew up in the Detroit area. He earned a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master of Music from the University of Akron. His principal teachers included Roy Waas, Richard Solis, Albert Schmitter, and Dale Clevenger.
This is David’s third season teaching and performing at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. He is in residence for the entire 2009 festival, performing with faculty brass and woodwind groups and participating in the direction of the annual Brass Concert.
David Brockett lives in Cleveland is married to soprano Adele Karam.
Bruce Heim is the Horn Professor at the University of Louisville and a member of Sonus Brass. Soon after graduation from The Juilliard School in 1974, he was appointed Principal Horn of the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra. He has served on the faculties of Louisiana State University, University of Missouri, Oklahoma State University, University of Oklahoma, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. As a chamber musician, he has performed at music festivals in Italy, Germany, the Republic of China ( Taiwan), Venezuela, and many states of the U.S. Mr. Heim has frequently performed and recorded with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, including their 1993 and 1998 European tours and numerous East Coast tours. He also occasionally performs with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. For the 2005/2006 season, he served as Acting Co-Principal Horn of the Louisville Orchestra.
He has performed as a concerto soloist and solo recitalist in many states of the United States and in Venezuela. He has appeared as a solo recitalist for the International Horn Society at regional and international workshops. His 2003 appearances as a soloist included the Brevard Music Festival (Britten Serenade), and Utah State University (Strauss Concerto No. 1). In November 1997, Mr. Heim was invited to be the featured artist at the 1997 International Horn Festival of Mérida ( Venezuela). He performed the Haydn Horn Concerto No. 1 with the Mérida Symphony Orchestra and presented master classes and recitals. Heim returned to Venezuela in 1988, 2001 and 2003 with the brass quintet, Sonus Brass.
As a member of Sonus Brass, he has performed extensively throughout the United States, the Far East, and South America. Their first compact disc, “Captured: Sonus Brass!” was released to unanimous critical praise by the five major brass magazines and the American Record Guide. Sonus Brass has been a featured ensemble at International Trumpet Guild (1999, 2001) and International Tuba and Euphonium Association (formerly T.U.B.A., 1992) conferences.
In addition to teaching the horn students at the UofL, he directs the UofL Horn Ensemble, coaches chamber music, performs regularly with the faculty wind and brass quintets, and teaches music theory. Heim maintains an active schedule of private teaching and fulfills invitations as a concerto soloist, clinician and adjudicator. In 2001 and 2004, he was the horn clinician for the American Band College in Ashland, OR. Professor Heim has a graduate degree in music theory from the University of Tulsa. An interest in the study of musical intonation and tuning systems formed the basis of the topic for his master’s thesis. This document continues to be circulated among instrumentalists and conductors who share a curiosity about the intricacies of the subject of intonation and how to teach it more effectively.
Peter Bond plays Third Trumpet in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He studied with Vincent Cichowicz of the Chicago Symphony, Robert Nagel of the New York Brass Quintet and Yale School of Music, Arnold Jacobs, and Adolph Herseth of the Chicago Symphony. Mr. Bond taught for ten years in the Mason Gross School of Music of Rutgers University. While in the Atlanta area he played Principal Trumpet with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Ballet, and lead trumpet in Broadway plays including Evita, 42nd Street, Chorus Line, West Side Story, and Three Penny Opera. He moved to the Principal Trumpet position with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in 1987 and has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the New Jersey Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera and Chamber Music Festival. His philosophy of teaching is “using singing and speech as models for easier, more natural, and more musical brass performance.”
Mr. Bond earned a BA in Music Education at Western Illinois University in 1978 and a MM in Performance at Georgia State University in 1980.
In constant demand as soloist, orchestral musician and teacher, Mark Babbitt enjoys a high degree of success in all areas of trombone performance.
Mark has performed extensively with the Seattle Symphony and Opera. In 2009 he performed Wagner’s Ring Cycle with the Seattle Opera. With the Seattle Symphony he has recorded the music of Bodine, Borodin, Brahms/Sheng, Dvorak, McKinley, Mahler, and Schuman. He has performed as guest principal trombone with the Seattle Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Peoria Sym phony Orchestra, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. Additionally, he has worked with numerous orchestras throughout the country, including: Rochester Philharmonic, Chautauqua Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra, and Erie Philharmonic.
Mark has been active in the recording and film soundtrack industry, including: “Valkyrie”, “The Incredible Hulk”, “Alpha and Omega”, “The Forbidden Kingdom”, the video game “Prince of Persia”, and Trey Anastasio’s critically acclaimed album “Time Turns Elastic”. He can be heard on Naxos, Albany, MCC, Mark, and R.E.D. Distribution record labels.
Active as a soloist, Mark has performed with numerous ensembles throughout the country. He has won a number of competitions, including the National Solo Competition in Washington, D.C. and the Washington Awards Tour sponsored by the Ladies Music Club of Seattle.
Dr. Babbitt is associate professor of trombone at Illinois State University. Prior to ISU, he was associate professor of trombone for ten years at Central Washington University. Since 2007 he has been on the artist faculty at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Tennessee. He holds degrees in performance from the Eastman School of Music (B.M. and Performer’s Certificate), Cleveland Institute of Music (M.M.), and the University of Washington (D.M.A.).
Eric Bubacz has an extensive career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral performer. He studied for three years at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY before transferring to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he completed his Bachelor of Music. While in school, Eric was a member two different brass quintets, both of which competed and placed second at the New York Brass Conference Quintet Competition. During the summers, he attended several noted festivals including: The National Repertory Orchestra, Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Sully Music Festival, Centre d’Arts Orford, Harmony Ridge Brass Seminar, Festival of Art and Musical Excellence and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, where he was the first tubaist to win the Chamber Music Prize. Shortly after graduating from Curtis, he attended the Colonial Euphonium and Tuba Institute where he won second prize at the International Tuba Solo Competition. He also placed first on tuba in the International Women’s Brass Conference Solo Competition.
As an orchestral player, Eric has been named Principal Tuba of the Haddonfield Symphony (1992-1997), the Canton Symphony (1998-2007) and the Reading Symphony (1996-present). He has also performed as an extra musician with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Blossom Festival Band. In 1997, Eric began working as an extra with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. By 2000, Eric was also playing with the Pittsburgh Symphony Brass and can be heard on several of their recordings, including Cantate Hodie – Sing Forth this Day and The Spirit of Christmas. From 2002-2005, Eric regularly acted as Principal Tuba of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of his work with them include four European Tours, three performances at Carnegie Hall and a performance at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II.
Since moving to Atlanta in the 2006, Eric has become an active teacher and performer throughout the Southeast. In 2007, he was appointed Principal Tuba of the La Grange Symphony. He has also substituted regularly with the Atlanta Symphony, Birmingham Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Greenville Symphony, Columbus Symphony and Augusta Symphony. That year he was also invited to be the guest artist for Jacksonville State University’s premier Octubafest in Jacksonville, Alabama. Most recently, he has been appointed adjunct professor of tuba at Georgia State University, in addition to his extensive studio of private students in the Atlanta metro area.
American saxophonist Amy Griffiths has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan and maintains a busy concert schedule with a wide range of musical styles. She can be heard in diverse musical settings from classical solo and chamber music to jazz and popular music and her performances have been broadcast by NPR affiliates throughout the US. She performs frequently as a soloist with pianist Yien Wang and appears often as a member of the Fountain City Ensemble, an unusual and versatile chamber group with whom she has toured the United States and Japan. As a jazz musician, she can be heard in a jazz quartet with her Schwob School of Music colleagues and plays in various big band settings in the Atlanta area.
Recent concert tours have included performances at the14th World Saxophone Congress in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the 2006 International Clarinet Association conference in Atlanta, the 2010 Women in Music Festival at the Eastman School of Music, and a concert with the Fountain City Ensemble at the American Musicological Society’s annual conference in Indianapolis in November 2010. She will perform again with the FCE at the International Clarinet Association conference in Los Angeles in August 2011.
She has performed with the Phoenix (AZ) Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Charleston Symphony, the Newt Hinton Ensemble, and most recently with the Atlanta Opera in their 2011 production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
She has been featured on numerous occasions as a soloist with percussion ensemble and has recorded several works with the Columbus State University Percussion Ensemble to be released on CD in 2011. In November 2010 she was a featured soloist with the CSU Jazz Ensemble and during the 2011-2012 concert season she will be featured with the CSU Wind Ensemble performing the Dahl Concerto.
Griffiths graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts with a high school diploma and a Bachelor of Music degree. She then studied in France for two years before attending Arizona State University, where she earned the Master of Music degree in saxophone performance and pedagogy. She earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Louisiana State University. Her former teachers include James Houlik, Claude Delangle, Jean-Yves Fourmeau, Joseph Wytko, and Griffin Campbell.
Dr. Griffiths is currently the saxophone professor at Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music in Columbus, GA where she teaches saxophone, chamber music, pedagogy, small group jazz and jazz history. Her students regularly participate in solo and chamber music competitions and attend summer music festivals. As an educator Dr. Griffiths has presented recitals, clinics, and masterclasses at universities and colleges throughout the United States and abroad. Her website is amygriffiths.net.
John Kilkenny is currently Director of Percussion Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He enjoys a multi faceted career that includes orchestral performances with the National Symphony, Washington National Opera and Ballet, Washington Concert Opera, Cathedral Choral Society, Washington Chorus, Choral Arts Society, the Master Choral of Washington, and virtually every other Washington DC area performing arts organization. Chamber music appearances include collaborations with flautist Karen Johnson, pianist Carlos Rodriguez, the Folger Consort, Verge Ensemble, Talujon Percussion, Chris Deviney, John Tafoya, Robert Van Sice, Gregory Zuber, and She e Wu. Michael Daugherty’s UFO Percussion Concerto, and the Washington DC area premiere of the Philip Glass Concerto Fantasy for two Timpanists and Wind Symphony are included in his highlights of his recent concerto appearances.
John appeared as the solo percussionist for a 2008 award winning production of Macbeth at the Folger Shakespeare Theater and completed writing the solo percussion music for Don McCullough’s choral work – Let my People Go, a Musical Journey through the Underground Railroad, which premiered in April 2008 at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has been a part of several recent and upcoming commissions, including works from Peter Erskine, Jonathan Newman, Jesse Gessford, Dennis Hoffmann, Peter Klatzow, and Alejandro Vinao and Don McCullough.
John was an Artist in Residence for the Indiana University Summer Percussion Workshop/Academy from 2007-2010. From 2005-2007 John was the coordinator of the University of Maryland Summer Percussion Workshop. Sought after as a clinician and guest conductor, he has appeared at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Juilliard Summer Percussion Academy ( summer 2011), John Philip Sousa Foundation National High School Honor Band, the Music for All Summer Symposium, Western International Band Conference, The Virginia Music Educators Conference, and at several universities throughout the country. John Kilkenny is Yamaha Performing Artist and proud sponsor of Vic Firth mallets, Remo drumheads and Sabian cymbals.
John received his Bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School and a Master’s degree from Temple University. His primary instructors include Jonathan Haas, Gregory Zuber and Alan Abel.
George Mason University School of Music
Gary Hammond has been praised in the Pianist Gary Hammond has been praised in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America as a recitalist and chamber musician of the first rank. The New York Times has described his playing as “eloquent — a strong feeling of musical expression and intelligent thought.” Mr. Hammond’s performances have taken him to Glazunov Hall in the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia; the Musikdagar Festival in Sweden; the Auditorio Nacional in Costa Rica. He has appeared at Weill Hall and Merkin Hall in New York; Ordway Hall, St. Paul; Boston’s Gardner Museum; Glenn Memorial Hall, Atlanta; Meany Hall, Seattle; the Hochschule in Munich, and Hong Kong’s City Hall. He has been heard on New York’s WQXR, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and on live broadcasts from WNYC and Radio 4 Hong Kong.
Mr. Hammond performs regularly with the acclaimed cellist Astrid Schween as part of the Schween-Hammond Duo. In New York he opened the Young Concert Artists series at the Morgan Library with soprano Marvis Martin and baritone Randall Scarlata, and presented the complete piano and violin sonatas of Beethoven with violinist Frank Almond for the New York chapter of the American Beethoven Society. A recording at WQXR of a Paquito d’ Rivera piece with flutist Marina Piccinini resulted in an invitation to perform on d’ Rivera’s set at the Blue Note.
A native of Seattle, Mr. Hammond is a graduate of the University of Washington and the Juilliard School. His teachers include Randolph Hokanson, Bela Siki, Josef Raieff and Herbert Stessin. He is on the faculties of Hunter College, City University of New York; the Graduate Center, CUNY; and the Sewanee Music Festival, University of the South. He has served as Artist-in-Residence at Emory University, and has appeared at other festivals including the Academies Internacionales du Grand Nancy, France; Musiques en Mer, Italy; the Colorado College Music Festival, Colorado Springs; the Hot Springs Music Festival, Arkansas; and the Oregon Coast Music Festival, Coos Bay. Mr. Hammond has recorded for the Altarus and Partita labels; the American Record Guide commented on his all-Brahms disc with cellist Astrid Schween and clarinetist John Marco, “…this is a fantastic release, with performances at or near the top of the list. Do search out this recording-it is outstanding.” His release on the Naxos label of the Celebre Tarantelle by Gottschalk and other Creole Romantic pieces has also received critical acclaim. Mr. Hammond has been a frequent participant in the Friends and Enemies of New Music series in Manhattan, has collaborated with the American Composer’s Orchestra, with singer Marni Nixon and actresses Claire Bloom and Luise Rainer.
