Rocky Ridge Staff
SoYoung Lee, Music Director at Rocky Ridge Music Center, received her Doctorate in Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the University of California, Santa Barbara. An award winning pianist and a Regents Scholar, she is a recipient of the Ernő Dohnányi Piano Prize, Gwendolyn Koldofsky Accompanying Fellowship and the Corwin Composition Award. SoYoung is involved with a number of music and dance projects including Bach2Brazil and In the Mist chamber ballets in collaboration with choreographer and former Balanchine dancer Viki Psihoyos, a multi-disc recording project of Schumann with pianist Sergio Gallo and baritone Daniel Ihasz. She has held director positions at Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory Adult Education & Preparatory Department, Millikin University Preparatory Division and the Boulder Arts Academy & Boulder Ballet. SoYoung served on the music faculty at Millikin, State University of New York, Fredonia and was a visiting Piano Pedagogy faculty at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She attended the University of Birmingham and the Birmingham School of Music in England, the University of Southern California and the University of California at Santa Barbara on a full music scholarship. SoYoung is equally at home as a performing artist, teacher, producer, and an arts advocate.
Claudia Anderson - Director of Junior Programs
CLAUDIA ANDERSON is known for her originality and brilliance as a solo and chamber music performer across the U.S. She is a founding member of the innovative flute duo ZAWA! and of New Prairie Camerata, a chamber initiative that showcases a community’s historical and architectural gems through performance and stimulates community participation. A Fulbright scholar to Italy, Ms. Anderson was subsequently principal flute of the Orchestra del Teatro Massimo in Palermo. She is presently principal flute with the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony in Iowa, a guest artist and clinician at many colleges and music series around the country, and on the faculty of Grinnell College. She serves also as flute faculty and program director during the summers at Rocky Ridge Music Center (www.rockyridge.org).
Equally at home in both the standard and contemporary repertoire, Dr. Anderson has commissioned and arranged works for solo and duo format and has moved into composition more recently. Writing about artistry in flute playing and chamber music as community is a current passion, as well as riding her Triumph Bonneville motorcycle. Other faculty positions have included the Universities of Iowa and Northern Iowa, Ithaca College and the University of California at Santa Barbara. National Flute Association positions have included Coordinator for the Chamber Music Competition and adjudicator for HS Soloist, Young Artist, and Convention Performers Competitions. Claudia’s artistic and pedagogical inspiration came from the following great artists who were her teachers: Severino Gazzelloni, Thomas Nyfenger, Geoffrey Gilbert, William Bennett, and Peter Lloyd. Her recorded solo and duo performances can be found on the Centaur, Neuma and CRI labels. Her solo CD, American Flute (Centaur, 1994), was awarded five stars from Classical Pulse. Duo CDs include ZAWA! (Neuma, 2001), ZAWA2 (ZawaMusic, 2006) and Duos for Flute and Oboe (Centaur, 2005).
Karen Dusek - Administrative Manager
Karen Dusek graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a performance degree in clarinet with high distinction. Her professional development includes MBA courses and various workshops in nonprofit administration from the Community Resource Center, the Colorado Nonprofit Association, the National Guild of Community Schools for the Arts, the National Performing Arts Convention, and the League of American Orchestras.
Formerly, Karen served as Program Director at the Parlando School for the Arts and the Boulder Arts Academy in addition to teaching music for over 20 years. Karen promotes high standards in music education as the Center Representative in Colorado for the National Music Certificate Program, the US affiliate of the international Royal Conservatory of Music. In this role, Karen has been preparing students and administering exams since 1998 for this internationally recognized music certification program.
Her artistic pursuits include recordings on CRS and CBS Master Recording labels and performance collaborations with directors and principal dancers from local ballet companies. She played clarinet and bass clarinet with the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra for 23 years, and also formerly played in the Penfield Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic both in New York. Her professional affiliations include the International Clarinet Association, the Denver Musicians Association, and she is a lifetime member of Pi Kappa Lambda, the national honor society for musicians.
A gifted clarinetist, Karen recently set aside her professional performance pursuits to focus on arts administration, teaching, and a reconnection to her cultural roots through both the hammered and mountain dulcimers.
Daniel Ihasz - Dean of Student Affairs
Lyric
Baritone Daniel Ihasz earned a Master of Music degree in Performance and
Literature from the Eastman School of Music, along with the prestigious
Performer's Certificate. Since 1992, he has been a member of the voice
faculty at the State
University of New York at Fredonia where he is currently an Associate
Professor and Co-Chair of the Voice Area.
He has served as recitalist and clinician in Colorado, Wisconsin and Puerto
Rico as well as Artist in Residence for the 2002 Canitcum Novum Festival
in Caracas, Venezuela. Other engagements include appearances with Dave
Brubeck, Glimmerglass Opera (including the world premiere Central Park
taped for PBS - Great Performances and broadcast in January 2000), Carolina
Chamber Chorale (Piccolo Spoleto Festival), Central City Opera, Opera
Sacra, New York State Baroque, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester
Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Oratorio Society, Madison Opera, Madison
Symphony, Milwaukee Opera and the Fredonia Chamber Players. Recording
labels include Centaur, Albany and Naxos.
Daniel Ihasz currently serves as the NATS Vice President and Auditions
Coordinator for the local chapter and recently as Coordinator for the
2003 NATS Summer Intern Program.
Kaori Uno - Assistant Dean of Student Affairs
Kaori Uno is currently pursuing her Artist Diploma in Bassoon Performance at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She received her Master of Music degree at University of Colorado at Boulder, and graduated from the Aichi Prefecture University of Fine Arts and Music in Japan as one of four outstanding graduating seniors in the class of 2003. Her principal teachers include Yoshiyuki Ishikawa, Ryohei Nakagawa, Yoshiaki Aotani and Yoshiyuki Nakanishi.
Kaori has performed nationally and internationally as both soloist and chamber musician, earning many awards and much recognition including the Honor Competition at the University of Colorado (2004 and 2007), fifth of 137 bassoonists at the 24th Japan Wind and Percussion Competition in 2007, and a finalist in the Tsuyama Japan International Double Reed Competition in 2003.
Kaori was a member of the Arundo Winds, the award-winning graduate woodwind quintet at the University of Colorado, from 2004-2008. While she was a member, Arundo won first prize in the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and a silver medal in the wind division of the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In 2008 the Arundo Winds was a semifinalist of "Le Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon" in France. Also they participated outreach programs at Venezuela in 2006. In the summer of 2008, former Arundo members formed the “Antero Winds” as a professional woodwind quintet based in Boulder, CO. Their upcoming recitals include a New York City debut in January ‘09, Carleton College in Minnesota in May ’09, and many outreach concerts and recitals in Colorado. For more information, please visit www.anterowinds.net
Kaori participated in the National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and School, Kyoto International Music Student Festival, and the Colorado Mahler Fest Orchestra. As a member of the Japanese Double Reed Society bassoon ensemble, she performed at the conference of the 2001 International Double Reed Society in West Virginia. Kaori has also performed in a bassoon octet at the fifth Tokyo Double Reed Festival in 2002.
Diane Birr - Adult Piano Seminar Program Director
Pianist Diane Birr has collaborated with numerous vocalists and instrumentalists in recitals and master classes throughout the United States, and in Russia, Australia, Canada, France, Scotland, Austria, England and Norway. Dr. Birr has served as an official accompanist for the Music Teachers National Association’s (MTNA) national competitions, the International Double Reed Society Conference, the International Horn Society Conference and the International Trombone Festival. She is a frequently featured as pianist on the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Chamber Music Series in Ithaca, NY and is currently a member of the Troica trio, which in summer 2010 performed at the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Sydney, Australia, in addition to releasing its first CD entitled Troica - music for trumpet, saxophone and piano. From 1998-2004 Birr served on the faculty of International Workshops, a two-week music and arts festival held in various locations around the world performing in recitals with faculty members including string bassist Francois Rabbath and violinist Eduard Melkus, as well as coaching chamber music.
Birr holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Accompanying and Chamber Music from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Jean Barr. Dr. Birr maintains an active role in professional music organizations and is currently serving as MTNA's Eastern Division Director and as a member of the MTNA Board of Directors. Associate Professor Birr is on the faculty of the School of Music at Ithaca College, where she teaches group and private piano, as well as coaches chamber music and instructs a piano collaborative class for keyboard majors.
Paul Miller - EMF&W Program Director
Dr. Paul Miller has performed on Baroque string instruments throughout the United States and Germany. He has lectured at and performed on instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Other notable solo engagements have been in Munich, Germany, with the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and the Bethlehem Bach Festival in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He will be performing as a viola d'amore soloist with the Philadelphia ensemble Vox Ama Deus in 2012, and as a violinist, violist and viola d'amore soloist with Early Music Colorado and Boulder-based Ensemble Seicento in fall 2011. Miller is currently collaborating on a recording project that will chart the history of the viola d'amore over three centuries, with Thomas Georgi of the Canadian-based Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.
Miller is a committed music educator as well as a performer. The Boulder-based ensemble "Pearl," which he founded in early 2011 has provided extensive performance opportunities for five students during its first year of existence, and will be the ensemble-in-residence of St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Denver, Colorado.
Currently serving on the music theory faculty of the University of Colorado in Boulder, Miller holds a PhD from the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY), a Master's in viola performance (Eastman), and a Bachelor's degree from Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY). Miller studied at Harvard University and the New England Conservatory (Cambridge and Boston) during his undergraduate degree. His research is forthcoming in an issue of Perspectives of New Music.
Ilona Vukovic-Gay - Junior Student Seminar Session 2 Coordinator
Ilona pursues a career as a composer and a performing musician. In the Tucson Symphony Orchestra she is the Young Composer’s Project Instructor, the Assistant Principal Viola and the violist in the TSO String Quartet. She is also on the Arizona Commission on the Arts roster as the violist in the Southwest String Quartet. She has a Bachelor of Violin Performance from Manhattan School of Music and a Masters of Musical Arts in Viola and Composition from Yale University. She studied the violin with Rafael Bronstein, viola with Walter Trampler and composition with James Drew and Yehudi Wyner. She was awarded a Fulbright Grant for further study in London.
Ilona’s compositions include a series of musical dramatizations of Susan Lowell’s children’s books such as the “Three Little Javelinas.” These compositions feature the TSO string quartet performing as soloists with the orchestra. Every year one of these musical stories is the main composition on the TSO’s week long KinderKonzert series. In addition to the Young Composer’s Project, Ilona is actively involved as a music educator in Tucson. She has created a class of Kinder Komposition for the very young student, been an instructor in Tucson’s “Opening Minds through the Arts” program and taught creative composition classes in Arizona residencies. She teaches and performs at over thirty schools in the Tucson area each year. Previously she had been on the New College (Sarasota, Florida) faculty teaching music theory and composition. Her other compositions have been performed in the United States and Europe, with a premiere of her composition “Mladost” at London’s Wigmore Hall.
Ilona has been the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Young Composer’s Project instructor for the past eight years. The class is a living laboratory of music composition that has several hundred alumni. Many have continued as composition majors at the college level and have been winners and finalists in the Morton Gould ASCAP Foundation awards. The Young Composer’s Project is a unique and nationally recognized program that has been a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts grant for the last four years and was lauded last year by cellist YoYo Ma.
Laurie Plank - Recreational Director
Laurie grew up walking barefooted in the rural Pennsylvania countryside. To this experience, she credits her deep connection to nature, which she has carried throughout her life. Laurie graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a B.S. degree in biology. She recently completed her Master of Arts in ecopsychology at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She is a graduate of the Wilderness Awareness School’s Kamana 1 naturalist program and is currently pursuing the second level of Kamana study. She is an organic gardener as well as an advocate of the Permaculture, local source, and ecovillage movements. She has studied meditation in the Shambhala tradition, and is a long time practitioner of Kripalu yoga. She has attended workshops in Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication, and utilizes these principles in the practice of Council, which forms the basis for much of her work.
Laurie hopes to bring to Rocky Ridge Music Center a wilderness immersion program that takes full advantage of the spectacular natural areas available literally right outside our cabin doors. It is her intention to invite the students to allow a deeper connection with the natural world to inform their music.
Mike Daggett - Property Manager
A Rocky Ridge Day
