Susan
Hicks Brashier earned a B.M. degree in Oboe Performance
from Oberlin College-Conservatory and continued her musical studies at
Yale University, earning an M.M. degree in Oboe Performance. Teaching
experience includes the University of Missouri-Columbia, Appalachian State
University, the University of Kansas, and Rutgers University. Ms. Brashier
is an active solo and chamber music recitalist and has performed throughout
the United States and in Europe. She has performed with the St. Louis,
North Carolina, Roanoke and Kansas City symphonies and as principal oboist
with the Kansas City Camerata and Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Brashier
also performs extensively as a baroque oboist and is currently playing
with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. In the fall of 1998 she moved to Valdosta,
Georgia, where her husband is Director of Bands at Valdosta State University.
Ms. Brashier performs as principal oboist with the Albany (GA) Symphony,
and maintains a private studio of junior high and high school oboists.
Ms. Brashier is on sabbatical from Summerfest this season.
Jane
Carl, Associate Professor of Clarinet at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, is a native of Michigan and received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. She was a member of the South Bend Symphony, the Flint Symphony, and the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra in Detroit, and has performed with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Carl has been on the faculty of Notre Dame University, Hillsdale College, and Andrews University, and has taught at the University of Michigan. She is also an active recitalist and chamber musician. She has performed regularly with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra including a sabbatical replacement on bass clarinet in 1997-98, European tour and recordings as second clarinet in 1998-99, and acting assistant principal clarinet from 1999-2003. She can often be heard performing with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She is the artistic chair and host of ClarinetFest 2008, the annual conference of the International Clarinet Association, held in Kansas City July 2-6, 2008. Dr. Carl performed at the 2007 China International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in Beijing. She has performed with Summerfest since 1991 and is currently one of its Artistic Advisors.
Alexander
East is the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Kansas City Symphony. In addition to duties with the symphony, which often include leading the section as principal for opera, ballet and chamber orchestra performances, Alex is also heard frequently in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the Kansas City region and beyond. Before settling in Kansas City, Alex spent two seasons as a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach under the direction of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and was recently invited back as an alum guest coach. Alex has been featured as soloist with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Sedalia Symphony, the Erie (PA) Chamber Orchestra and the Fredonia Chamber Players. During the summer, he has participated in the Banff and Sarasota music festivals and continues to perform annually with the Sun Valley (ID) Summer Symphony. Alex received his training at Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music. His teachers have included Tsuyushi Tsutsumi, Janos Starker, Laurence Lesser and Colin Carr. Alex has performed with Summerfest since 2001.
Shannon
Finney has served as Associate Principal Flutist of the Kansas City Symphony since 1994 and has been a member of the chamber music ensemble Summerfest since 1996. In 2006 she began serving as Flute Faculty and Principal Flutist for Birch Creek Music Center. She was the winner of the first National Flute Association Piccolo Artist Competition in 1993 and a fellow at Tanglewood in 1994. Ms. Finney has served as substitute Piccolo with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Her teachers include Walfrid Kujala, Mary Stolper, and Karla Flygare, and she has a BM and MM in Flute Performance from Northwestern University.
Mary
Grant received her undergraduate degree in violin performance from Rice University, where she studied with Raphael Fliegel. She received a master’s degree from Queens College-City University of New York, where she studied with Ruth Waterman and Ani Kavafian. While in New York City, she played with the National Orchestral Association, a training orchestra for young musicians. She also studied baroque violin with Nancy Wilson. She has played with the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra in Europe and the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado. Mary has been a violinist with the Kansas City Symphony since 1989 and is a founding member of Summerfest. She is currently one of Summerfest’s Artistic Advisors. She, her husband, and two cats live in Stilwell, Kansas.
Joshua
Hood, bassoonist, received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Lewis Hugh Cooper. Mr. Hood then completed his Master's degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University with Benjamin Kamins, former Principal Bassoonist of the Houston Symphony. Other teachers have included Stephen Maxym, Principal Bassoonist of the Metropolitan Opera, Dennis Michel of the Chicago Symphony and John Clouser, Principal Bassoonist of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Since his orchestral debut with the Flint Symphony (Michigan) in 1986, he has performed with a variety of symphonies, including the Kansas City Symphony, Houston Symphony and the North Carolina Symphony. He joined the Charlotte Symphony in 1995 and since then has been featured as a soloist with both the symphony and the Charlotte Repertory Symphony to outstanding reviews. He was the recipient of the Houston Symphony Internship, Brenda Harris and the Herb Alpert Scholarship. He has held the Transamerica Life Companies Chair with the Charlotte Symphony. He has also performed with several festivals, including the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, May Music Festival in Charlotte NC, Gateways Music Festival in Rochester NY, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA and with Ritz Chamber Players on the Amelia Island Music Festival in Florida. He has performed with Summerfest since 1998.
Dr.
Michael Kimber has performed with Summerfest since 1995. His career has included concerts throughout North America, Australia, and Europe as violist of the Kronos Quartet, the Alexandria Quartet, and the Atlanta Virtuosi; twelve seasons as principal violist of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra; and numerous solo recitals and solo performances with orchestra. Formerly viola professor at the University of Kansas and the University of Southern Mississippi, he now lives in Iowa City, plays in the Cedar Rapids and Quad City Symphony Orchestras, teaches at Coe College, and has served as visiting professor of viola at the University of Iowa. He enjoys increasing success as a composer, with commissions and frequent performances of his music in the U.S. and abroad.
Jessica
Nance has been a member of the Kansas City Symphony since 1995 and Assistant Principal Viola since 1997. She has performed locally with the Boulevard String Quartet, newEar, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, and on a variety of chamber music, solo and educational projects. Before moving to Kansas City, Jessica was Principal Viola in the Michigan Opera Theatre and the Windsor (Ontario) Symphony, and performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She attended the University of Michigan, where she studied with Yizhak Schotten. Jessica is married to trumpeter Brian Rood and has two children. When not playing the viola, she enjoys running and triathlon training. Jessica has performed with Summerfest since 2000.
Melissa
Rose has performed as a collaborative pianist in Russia, Argentina, and throughout the United States. Melissa is an Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the piano department at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. She has performed in the Middle Tennessee area with the Nashville Symphony, Nashville Ballet, Alias Chamber Players, and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra's Historic Franklin Chamber Music Festival. She continues to be involved in performances of contemporary music, including residencies with BMI composers Joan Tower, Jake Heggie, and Robert Beaser and the Centaur recording of J. Mark Scearce's Magritte Variations. She received degrees in solo piano performance from Yale University and West Chester University of Pennsylvania and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano chamber music and accompanying from the University of Michigan. Melissa lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, Daniel Schafer, and sons, Jacob and Vladimir. She has performed with Summerfest since 1994.
Program
annotator Marian Wilson Kimber is Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of Iowa, where she received tenure in 2007. She holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Florida State University and has taught for the past 18 years at universities in the south and midwest. Her research centers on Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, and explores issues surrounding biography, gender, and musical reception. Her current scholarship investigates turn-of-the-century performances that combined music with recited poetry. Wilson Kimber is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, published most recently in Musical Quarterly and Nineteenth-Century Music Review, and forthcoming in the Journal of Musicological Research, Performance Practice: Issues and Approaches, and Mendelssohn in the Long Nineteenth Century. Marian is married to Summerfest violist Michael Kimber, and they are the parents of a budding cellist and Lego designer.
Susan
Hicks Brashier earned a B.M. degree in Oboe Performance
from Oberlin College-Conservatory and continued her musical studies at
Yale University, earning an M.M. degree in Oboe Performance. Teaching
experience includes the University of Missouri-Columbia, Appalachian State
University, the University of Kansas, and Rutgers University. Ms. Brashier
is an active solo and chamber music recitalist and has performed throughout
the United States and in Europe. She has performed with the St. Louis,
North Carolina, Roanoke and Kansas City symphonies and as principal oboist
with the Kansas City Camerata and Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Brashier
also performs extensively as a baroque oboist and is currently playing
with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. In the fall of 1998 she moved to Valdosta,
Georgia, where her husband is Director of Bands at Valdosta State University.
Ms. Brashier performs as principal oboist with the Albany (GA) Symphony,
and maintains a private studio of junior high and high school oboists.
Ms. Brashier is on sabbatical from Summerfest this season.
Jane
Carl, Associate Professor of Clarinet at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, is a native of Michigan and received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. She was a member of the South Bend Symphony, the Flint Symphony, and the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra in Detroit, and has performed with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Carl has been on the faculty of Notre Dame University, Hillsdale College, and Andrews University, and has taught at the University of Michigan. She is also an active recitalist and chamber musician. She has performed regularly with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra including a sabbatical replacement on bass clarinet in 1997-98, European tour and recordings as second clarinet in 1998-99, and acting assistant principal clarinet from 1999-2003. She can often be heard performing with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She is the artistic chair and host of ClarinetFest 2008, the annual conference of the International Clarinet Association, held in Kansas City July 2-6, 2008. Dr. Carl performed at the 2007 China International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in Beijing. She has performed with Summerfest since 1991 and is currently one of its Artistic Advisors.
Alexander
East is the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Kansas City Symphony. In addition to duties with the symphony, which often include leading the section as principal for opera, ballet and chamber orchestra performances, Alex is also heard frequently in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the Kansas City region and beyond. Before settling in Kansas City, Alex spent two seasons as a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach under the direction of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and was recently invited back as an alum guest coach. Alex has been featured as soloist with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Sedalia Symphony, the Erie (PA) Chamber Orchestra and the Fredonia Chamber Players. During the summer, he has participated in the Banff and Sarasota music festivals and continues to perform annually with the Sun Valley (ID) Summer Symphony. Alex received his training at Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music. His teachers have included Tsuyushi Tsutsumi, Janos Starker, Laurence Lesser and Colin Carr. Alex has performed with Summerfest since 2001.
Shannon
Finney has served as Associate Principal Flutist of the Kansas City Symphony since 1994 and has been a member of the chamber music ensemble Summerfest since 1996. In 2006 she began serving as Flute Faculty and Principal Flutist for Birch Creek Music Center. She was the winner of the first National Flute Association Piccolo Artist Competition in 1993 and a fellow at Tanglewood in 1994. Ms. Finney has served as substitute Piccolo with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Her teachers include Walfrid Kujala, Mary Stolper, and Karla Flygare, and she has a BM and MM in Flute Performance from Northwestern University.
Mary
Grant received her undergraduate degree in violin performance from Rice University, where she studied with Raphael Fliegel. She received a master’s degree from Queens College-City University of New York, where she studied with Ruth Waterman and Ani Kavafian. While in New York City, she played with the National Orchestral Association, a training orchestra for young musicians. She also studied baroque violin with Nancy Wilson. She has played with the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra in Europe and the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado. Mary has been a violinist with the Kansas City Symphony since 1989 and is a founding member of Summerfest. She is currently one of Summerfest’s Artistic Advisors. She, her husband, and two cats live in Stilwell, Kansas.
Joshua
Hood, bassoonist, received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Lewis Hugh Cooper. Mr. Hood then completed his Master's degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University with Benjamin Kamins, former Principal Bassoonist of the Houston Symphony. Other teachers have included Stephen Maxym, Principal Bassoonist of the Metropolitan Opera, Dennis Michel of the Chicago Symphony and John Clouser, Principal Bassoonist of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. Since his orchestral debut with the Flint Symphony (Michigan) in 1986, he has performed with a variety of symphonies, including the Kansas City Symphony, Houston Symphony and the North Carolina Symphony. He joined the Charlotte Symphony in 1995 and since then has been featured as a soloist with both the symphony and the Charlotte Repertory Symphony to outstanding reviews. He was the recipient of the Houston Symphony Internship, Brenda Harris and the Herb Alpert Scholarship. He has held the Transamerica Life Companies Chair with the Charlotte Symphony. He has also performed with several festivals, including the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, May Music Festival in Charlotte NC, Gateways Music Festival in Rochester NY, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA and with Ritz Chamber Players on the Amelia Island Music Festival in Florida. He has performed with Summerfest since 1998.
Dr.
Michael Kimber has performed with Summerfest since 1995. His career has included concerts throughout North America, Australia, and Europe as violist of the Kronos Quartet, the Alexandria Quartet, and the Atlanta Virtuosi; twelve seasons as principal violist of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra; and numerous solo recitals and solo performances with orchestra. Formerly viola professor at the University of Kansas and the University of Southern Mississippi, he now lives in Iowa City, plays in the Cedar Rapids and Quad City Symphony Orchestras, teaches at Coe College, and has served as visiting professor of viola at the University of Iowa. He enjoys increasing success as a composer, with commissions and frequent performances of his music in the U.S. and abroad.
Jessica
Nance has been a member of the Kansas City Symphony since 1995 and Assistant Principal Viola since 1997. She has performed locally with the Boulevard String Quartet, newEar, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, and on a variety of chamber music, solo and educational projects. Before moving to Kansas City, Jessica was Principal Viola in the Michigan Opera Theatre and the Windsor (Ontario) Symphony, and performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She attended the University of Michigan, where she studied with Yizhak Schotten. Jessica is married to trumpeter Brian Rood and has two children. When not playing the viola, she enjoys running and triathlon training. Jessica has performed with Summerfest since 2000.
Melissa
Rose has performed as a collaborative pianist in Russia, Argentina, and throughout the United States. Melissa is an Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the piano department at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. She has performed in the Middle Tennessee area with the Nashville Symphony, Nashville Ballet, Alias Chamber Players, and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra's Historic Franklin Chamber Music Festival. She continues to be involved in performances of contemporary music, including residencies with BMI composers Joan Tower, Jake Heggie, and Robert Beaser and the Centaur recording of J. Mark Scearce's Magritte Variations. She received degrees in solo piano performance from Yale University and West Chester University of Pennsylvania and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano chamber music and accompanying from the University of Michigan. Melissa lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, Daniel Schafer, and sons, Jacob and Vladimir. She has performed with Summerfest since 1994.
Program
annotator Marian Wilson Kimber is Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of Iowa, where she received tenure in 2007. She holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Florida State University and has taught for the past 18 years at universities in the south and midwest. Her research centers on Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, and explores issues surrounding biography, gender, and musical reception. Her current scholarship investigates turn-of-the-century performances that combined music with recited poetry. Wilson Kimber is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, published most recently in Musical Quarterly and Nineteenth-Century Music Review, and forthcoming in the Journal of Musicological Research, Performance Practice: Issues and Approaches, and Mendelssohn in the Long Nineteenth Century. Marian is married to Summerfest violist Michael Kimber, and they are the parents of a budding cellist and Lego designer.