Masterpieces by Black and Native American Composers

Titus Underwood is the principal oboist of the Nashville Symphony and the associate professor of oboe at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. An Emmy Award winner, he is the recipient of the 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Award. Underwood will perform the Ulysses Kay Oboe Concerto, the first oboe concerto written by a prominent Black composer in the mid-20th century. This performance will be the third in 81 years. This beautiful concerto written in E minor served as Kay’s final thesis for his graduate degree at the Eastman School of Music. In 1940, It was performed by the Rochester Civic Orchestra with Professor Robert Spenkle as the soloist. Underwood is an F Lorée Artist.

Macky Auditorium Concert Hall

Ted Soluri, the principal bassoonist of the Dallas Symphony, will perform Ghost of the White Deer by the Native American Composer, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Based on the Chickasaw legend, this work is a romantic and dramatic bassoon concerto, which tells the legend of two young Chickasaw Indians in love. In this concerto, the bassoon depicts all aspects of the characters, specifically the timbre and calling of the sacred white deer. In 2017, Soluri’s first album, Sempre Libera was released on Azica Records. His second album, Songs of Late-Season, will be released this year and features French music for bassoon and harp. Soluri is a Fox Artist and plays a red maple 601.

Both works by Ulysses Kay and Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate call for a large orchestra. The programming of both works was made possible in part by generous support from the Dallas Symphony, Fox Products and the American Music Research Center of the University of Colorado Boulder, College of Music.

New works from around the globe

Erin Hannigan is the Principal Oboe of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and was previously a member of the Rochester Philharmonic. She will perform Jeremy Gill’s Serenada Concertante for Oboe Chamber Orchestra. The only other performance of this work was with the Dallas Symphony. Before coming to Dallas, she was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic from 1994-2001. Summer performances have included those with the Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, CO and the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, CA. Orchestral performances outside Dallas include engagements as guest principal oboist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Hannigan is an F Lorée Artist.

Sophie Dervaux will perform the world premiere of Concerto for Bassoon by Bruno Delepelaire. This work was written for Ms. Dervaux for the IDRS 2022 conference. Dervaux is the principal bassoonist of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Previously, she was the principal contrabassoonist of the Berlin Philharmonic. Dervaux is a prizewinner of several prestigious competitions, including the international ARD Competition Munich and the Beethoven-Ring Bonn. She performs as a soloist with many prestigious orchestras and is currently teaching at the Muk – Music and Arts University of the city of Vienna. Dervaux has been a “Püchner Artist” since 2014 and is passionate about making her instrument even better known.

Viola Wilmsen, principal oboe of the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, will perform the Concerto for Oboe, Op.7 by Comtesse de Grandval. A French composer of the Romantic era, Grandval was a well-respected and recognized composer during her lifetime having studied composition with Frédéric Chopin and Camille Saint-Saëns. Wilmsen is the first women and German national to win first prize at the 9th International Oboe Competition in Japan. She obtained first prizes in other international contests, including “Audi Mozart” of the Italian Mozart-Society and the Mozarteum of Salzburg/Austria, “Michal Spisak” in Poland, “Young Musician of the Year” in England and “Louis Spohr” in Germany. Viola Wilmsen is a Marigaux artist.

Rie Koyama will perform the US premiere of Sinfonia Concertante: Réminiscences, Op 25b by Gotthard Odermatt for bassoon and strings. She won first prize in twenty-four national and international competitions, including The Muri, and in 2012 the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb. In 2013, she won the bassoon category of the 62nd international ARD Competition Munich. From 2015-2020, Koyama was the principal bassoonist with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and in November 2020, she joined the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra as a principal bassoonist.

Chamber Recital Hall – IMIG 

Sarah Roper, the new president of IDRS and the Solo Oboe of the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Spain, will perform Grace Mary Williams Carillons Concertino for Oboe and Orchestra. Williams is the most notable female composer from Wales, and she is the first British woman to score a feature film. This piece was commissioned by the BBC in Wales, who requested “something light-weight and entertaining.” Roper has held positions as the Associate Principal Oboe, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, NZ, and Associate Principal Oboe, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Spain. Sarah has recorded with OboeClassics, including Quartets for oboe and strings, digital tracks of Fantasy for oboe by Malcolm Arnold, Cuarteto con oboe and Silentium Amoris by Jesús Torres. Sarah is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and is a Howarth of London LXV oboe artist.

IMIG Music Building 

Fábio Cury, (Master in Arts from UNICAMP and Ph.D. in Music from USP), is professor of bassoon at São Paulo University and principal bassoonist in the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and São Paulo Opera. He will present the US premiere of Concert for Bassoon, String Orchestra, and Harp by the Brazilian composer, André Mehmari. Cury’s recordings include Bach’s works performed on the baroque bassoon and recordings with Camerata Aberta, a group dedicated to the performance of new compositions. He has recorded works by Brazilian composers, and his album Velhas e novas cirandas: Brazilian music for bassoon and orchestra was awarded APCA Prize for best CD in 2010.  Cury performs on a Püchner bassoon model superior and currently acts as artistic and executive director of the USP Symphony Orchestra.

Katherine Needleman, the 2003 IDRS Gillet Fox Competition winner and the principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony, will perform Oboe Concerto by the British composer Ruth Gipps. Needleman gave the US premiere of this work with the Richmond Symphony in November 2021. She found this work to be “languishing unplayed since its London premiere eighty years ago.”  During the COVID-19 lockdown, she presented a series of eleven weekly solo oboe recitals to an online audience of more than 75,000 and growing. She curates Coffee, Patisserie, and Classical Music at An Die Musik, exploring the connection between composer and performer and focusing on historically under-programmed music. Needleman is a Howarth of London Artist.

Hans Agreda, Venezuelan bassoonist, the contrabassoonist for the Tonhalle Orchester in Zurich, Switzerland, and professor at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste will perform the world premiere of Barroqueanas Sudamericana Nr. 3 for Contrabassoon, Strings and Cembalo by Efraín Oscher. In 2004 he won first prize and the audience award in the Schmolz-Bickenbach competition. His CD, Kaleidoskop was nominated for the Opus Klassik 2020 award in Germany. Agreda is a Fox artist.

Monica Ellis and Toyin Spellman-Diaz will present the world premiere of works for solo oboe and bassoon commissioned by IDRS. Bassoonist Monica Ellis is a founding member of the Grammy nominated wind quintet, Imani Winds, who in their 24th season, continue to make ground-breaking art while maintaining a vigorous international touring schedule.Recording credits include 8 albums with Imani Winds. Oboist Toyin’s orchestral career includes performances with the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Hailed by the Washington Post for her “smooth, controlled tone and excellent technique,” Toyin has performed concertos with the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Manhattan Virtuosi, and with the Kennedy Center Youth Orchestra. In 2021, the Curtis Institute of Music added Imani Winds to their faculty.

Michael Garza, principal bassoonist of the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in China from 2001 to 2021, will present the US premiere of Call and Fall by the Chinese composer, Wang A Mao. Michael is a founding member of the Asian Double Reed Association and has been a member of the ADRA board since 2010. Since graduating from the Yale School of Music in 2000, Garza has been active in performing new works by contemporary Asian composers. Although many works by his Asian-based composer friends and colleagues have been performed in Asia, few have been performed outside of that continent. Garza desires to bring these unique colors and textures to audiences in the USA and abroad.

Jamie González, Chilean oboist and the professor of oboe at Hochschule der Künste Bern in Switzerland, together with guitarist José Antonio Escobar (Chile) will perform works for oboe, oboe d’amore, cor anglaise, tenor oboe, and guitar by Albeniz, de Falla, Piazzola, and Rodrigo. González works with Josef Oboe of Okinawa/Tokyo to improve, innovate, and develop the modern oboe. He finds and brings to the audience hidden gems of oboe repertoire. He shares his experience of more than 20 years by presenting masterclasses for oboists and composers around the world. González is a Joseph Oboe Artist.

Margaret Marco, professor of oboe at the University of Kansas, and the principal oboist of the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, will perform the premiere of Duo for Flute and Oboe by the Ecuadorian composer, Leonardo Cardenas. Her career began as the principal oboist of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Maracaibo. She has performed and taught master classes at Central and China Conservatories in Beijing; the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan; the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, California; and many others. Marco has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and is recorded on the Naxos, Parma, and Navona labels. She served as Chair of the Gillet-Fox Oboe Competition from 2008-2019.

Old Main and the Flatirons at the University of Colorado Boulder. (Photo by Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado)

Darrel Hale and Amy Pollard will present the rarely performed Duo Sonata for Two Bassoons by Sofia Gubaidulina. This work is one of the first major pieces featuring extended techniques and is an excellent example of the blending of modern sounds with more traditional forms. Darrel Hale joined the UNT College of Music in August of 2021 as Associate Professor of Bassoon. A native of Denver, Colorado, Darrel Hale is Principal Bassoon of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. He served as Acting Principal Bassoon of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra under Lucas Richmond. Hale graduated with a BM degree in bassoon performance from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studied with Yoshiyuki Ishikawa. He continued his training at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio where he studied extensively with William Winstead.

Amy Pollard is Professor of Bassoon and Associate Director of Performance at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia. She formerly served as lecturer of bassoon at Baylor University and has also been on the faculty at the University of Dayton and the Cincinnati School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Pollard has been a summer faculty member of the Interlochen Arts Center Advanced Bassoon Institute. She is currently second bassoonist with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, Symphony Orchestra Augusta, the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

Jung Choi, Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of North Texas, will present Hilary Tann’s Songs of the Cotton Grass. Tann composed beautiful songs for oboe and soprano voice yet in the range of a mezzo, based on the poems by the female poet Menna Elfyn. The work explores the diverse colors of the two voices in a form of a song cycle.” Choi taught oboe at the Seoul National University and the Missouri State University. As an avid chamber musician, she performs actively as a member of ensemble Sunyul based in Seoul, Korea, and founded the double reed ensemble, Duel Duo, in order to promote music by composers of underrepresented groups.

Sprightly Companions, an ensemble of period oboe, oboe d’amore, English horn and period bassoon (Jeanine Krause, oboe; Antonello Cola, oboe; Clements Schlemmer, oboe; Marti Lutz, Organ/Harsichord), will perform the rarely heard Trio Sonata by Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. Sprightly Companions founder, Jeanine Krause is praised as delightful and so refreshing (Boston Musical Intelligencer) and performs on oboes and recorders with orchestras and as a soloist in North America, Europe, and worldwide. Krause is the artistic director of the European Division of Symphonie des Dragons, an oboe band fashioned after the great wind bands of 17th and 18th century Versailles

Baroque and Beyond

Geoffrey Burgess, The Double Reed Oboe Editor and a leading exponent and authority on the baroque oboe, will present a recital Dances for Queens – We often forget that many of the most important musical patrons in the Baroque were women. Music accompanied queens in their daily lives and celebrated the sovereign charm they brought to the lives of others. This program brings together music for queens and about queens.” Burgess is an Internationally renowned Baroque oboist and musicologist and has performed with Les Arts Florissants, and has been a featured soloist with the Washington Bach Consort, Philadelphia Bach Collegium, The Brandenburg Orchestra of Australia, and Trinity Wall Street, (NY). Baroque oboe instructor at Eastman, Burgess’s most recent book, The Pathetick Musician explores Baroque music interpretation.