Welcome to my website. The information included here reflects my professional life as a performer and teacher. Highlighted also are the activities of my flute studio and accomplishments of former students.
photo by Brooks de Wetter-Smith
If you are interested in the Shepherd School you will want to click on Flute Studio, and also on Advice/Inspiration, which discusses topics of special interest, including what I look for in a prospective student. To hear samples from my releases Dedicated to Barrère and Dedicated to Barrère, Vol. 2, featuring music written for the great Franco-American flutist Georges Barrère, click on Listen.
The 2011-12 academic year concluded with some major excitement for the Shepherd School flute studio. At the end of April Kayla Burggraf traveled to the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena as flutist of the Noctua Wind Quintet, a group of Shepherd School sophomores who have been friends since their Orientation Week at Rice. (For those of you who may not know, ”noctua” means owl in Latin, and owls are the symbol of Rice). The quintet not only won a first prize in their division but also received a bronze medal two weeks later at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in South Bend. Way to go, Noctuas!
Later in May Kate Ladner (MM ’12), won second flute in the Fort Wayne Philharmonic after having just won the principal flute position in Des Moines. Shortly after that she won the solo piccolo position in the Nashville Symphony and is now enjoying her first season in that chair. In addition, Gina Choi Hughes (MM ’12) is serving as substitute second flute in the Houston Symphony for the 2012-13 season. Meanwhile, Henrik Heide (BMus ’10) has joined Melanie Lançon (MM ’07) and Matthew Roitstein (MM ’09) as a flute fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami, making the NWS flute section 100% Rice grads. And the innovative, Houston-based woodwind quintet, Wind Sync, of which Garrett Hudson (MM ’10) is a founding member, has recently won the Concert Artists Guild Adventurous Artists Award in New York after having been featured at the Grand Teton Music Festival. The group is also featured in the October-November 2012 issue of Chamber Music America magazine. Congratulations to all!!
Congratulations also to students (past and present) who were featured artists at the National Flute Association’s 40th convention in Las Vegas in August: Hilary Abigana (with her amazing hybrid arts ensemble, The FourthWall), Jessica Anastasio, Michelle Cheramy, Martha Councell-Vargas, Catherine Ramirez, Nina Perlove, and Mihoko Watanabe. It was a real delight to hear you.
For information about various recitals, ensemble concerts, and master classes throughout the year please see our Studio Events calendar, which will be updated as events are scheduled. Concerts and Classes lists my upcoming performances and also some of the festivals where I’ll be during the summer months. 2013 summer residencies will include Musicfest Northwest in Spokane, WA (as flute adjudicator); The Panoramic Flutist in Boulder, CO; the Sarasota Music Festival in Sarasota, FL; Clarinetopia at Michigan State University in East Lansing; the Texas Music Festival at the University of Houston; Panama with YOA Orchestra of the Americas; and Flauti Al Castello in Anghiari (Arezzo), Italy.
Flauti Al Castello is an 8-day residential seminar that I’ll co-teach with Italian-American flutist Sergio Pallottelli. All classes, meals, and concerts will be in a 15th-century castle where seminar participants will also stay. In addition we’ll visit surrounding towns in the beautiful Tuscan hills to enjoy art and further sample the world-renowned Tuscan cuisine. A former doctoral student who studied in Italy recently said to me ,”When I lived in Italy I felt as though the air was singing!” I’m really looking forward to teaching in such an inspiring environment, and have begun studying Italian! For further information: http://sergiopallottelli.wordpress.com/flauti-al-castello
Thank you for visiting…Enjoy the website!