Junior Music Program

Cobus du Toit

JMP Faculty

South African native Dr. Cobus du Toit is on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As an international soloist and chamber musician Cobus has concertized in Russia, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, France and Indonesia. Pretoria News declared: “du Toit makes you believe the impossible. With du Toit in flight one is never aware of technique alone. He is driven by purely musical inspiration.” In addition to being the principal flute for the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Cobus also performs with the Antero Winds, a professional woodwind quintet which holds an annual residency with the Aspen Music Festival. Cobus self-produced two recordings available through online platforms: Tríptico with classical guitarist Patrick Sutton and Mythavian with pianist Doreen Lee. Cobus received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Pretoria. His principal teachers include John Hinch and Christina Jennings.

Rebecca Mindock

JAS & JMP Faculty

Dr. Rebecca Mindock is the Associate Professor of Double Reeds at the University of South Alabama. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Oboe Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Colorado-Boulder, from which she also has a Master of Music degree. She earned bachelors degrees in Music and English Literature from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Dr. Mindock is currently principal oboist of the Gulf Coast Symphony and the Wyoming Symphony, and plays English horn and oboe with the Mobile Symphony and section oboe with the Pensacola Symphony. She has previously held chairs with the Victoria Symphony in Texas and the Longmont Symphony in Colorado, and has also performed with the Meridian Symphony, the Corpus Christi Ballet Orchestra, the Kingsville Symphony Orchestra, the Boulder Bach Festival, the Denver Philharmonic, the Fort Collins Symphony, the Western Nebraska Chamber Players, Colorado Mahlerfest, and the Colorado Symphony. She recently performed in Tokyo, Japan at the 2015 International Double Reed Society conference and as a soloist and clinician with the 2016 Cusco Music Festival “Armando Guevara Ochoa” in Peru. Recordings featuring Dr. Mindock are available on both Flying Frog Music and Centaur Records, including her CD of music for oboe, bassoon and piano as a member of the Three Wood Trio and her upcoming CD with Trebuchet, the faculty woodwind trio at the University of South Alabama. Her primary teachers include Peter Cooper, James Brody, Sherie Aguirre, and Nancy Brown.

Jerome Fleg

JMP Faculty

Jerome Greyson Fleg has played as a freelance, chamber, and orchestral clarinetist throughout the United States, Europe and South America. He is principal clarinet with Boulder Chamber Orchestra and Antero Winds, and bass clarinet with the Central City Opera. Mr. Fleg has toured as the principal clarinet with the Mantovani Orchestra and has played with the Colorado Symphony, Greeley Philharmonic, Ft. Collins Symphony, Gettysburg Symphony, and Columbia Symphony Orchestra. His performances have included many venues such as Carnegie Hall, and he has worked with many musicians such as Grammy award-winning composer Marvin Hamlisch.

Mr. Fleg is currently on the faculty of the University of Wyoming. He has presented master-classes and clinics throughout the country and abroad at places such as the University of Kansas, Iowa State University, Archipelago Summer Festival and Carleton College. Jerome has been featured as an adjudicator in competitions such as the National MTNA Competition, Aurora Symphony Concerto Competition, and Colorado Youth Symphony Concerto Competition. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in clarinet performance and music education from the Peabody Conservatory and a Master’s degree in clarinet performance from the University of Northern Colorado. His principal teachers have included: Bil Jackson, Andy Stevens, Mark Nuccio, Steven Barta, Dan Silver and Bill Welty.

As a member of the Antero Winds (wind quintet), Mr. Fleg won 1st Prize in the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and silver medal in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The group has also participated residencies with the Aspen Music Festival and the FESNOJIV Youth Orchestra Program in Venezuela. This ensemble has recently performed in New York, Minnesota, and Venezuela and has upcoming concerts in Canada, New Mexico, and throughout Colorado. The Antero Winds have been described as “an inspiring young quintet of young musicians that exude energy.”

Mr. Fleg has received awards such as the 1st place in the University of Northern Colorado Orchestra Concerto Competition, “Best Should Teach” silver award from the University of Colorado, Dean’s Scholarship from the University of Northern Colorado, and the “Martha and William Bill” Memorial Prize at the Peabody Conservatory. Also an avid conductor, Mr. Fleg is the conductor of Colorado Youth Symphony’s Philharmonia Wind Ensemble, assistant conductor of their Philharmonia Orchestra, and has served as conductor for the Archipelago Music Festival.

Grant Larson

JAS & JMP Faculty, JAZZ Program Director

An active recitalist and proponent of new music, saxophonist Grant Larson has premiered works for saxophone by Paul Hanson, Philip Wharton, Chiayu Hsu, Steven Makala, and John Drumheller at regional and national conventions. He is the soprano saxophonist with the Chautauqua Saxophone Quartet and has performed with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Fargo/Moorhead Symphony Orchestra. Grant currently serves as the Saxophone Practicing Artist at Denver School of the Arts, and wind ensemble conductor for the Colorado Youth Symphony Orchestras. Equally comfortable in both classical and jazz settings, Grant has performed on stage with notable artists such as Maria Schneider, Kurt Elling, Mulgrew Miller, Art Lande, Brad Goode, Johannes Weidenmueller, Peter Erskin, Ray Charles, Ignacio Berroa, and “Slammin” Sammy K. He has released two jazz albums of original compositions under the Dazzle Recordings label (Denver, CO). Grant holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Saxophone Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Colorado at Boulder; a Master of Music from the University of Colorado; and a Bachelor of Music from Concordia College. Previously, he served on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Concordia College, and the Boulder Arts Academy. For more information, please visit www.grantblarson.com.

Dawn Kramer

JAS & JMP Faculty

Dawn Kramer is a freelance trumpet player in the Denver area. She is currently a member of the Boulder Brass, the Darren Kramer Organization, and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. She is second trumpet at the Buell Theatre. She has subbed with the Colorado Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, Denver Brass, and many regional orchestras and chamber ensembles.

As a Colorado native, Ms. Kramer attended the University of Colorado. She has toured as lead trumpet aboard several cruise lines, a Miami-based salsa band, as well as the internationally acclaimed rock band, Matchbox Twenty. These travels took her across the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Mexico. She has appeared on the Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, the Rosie O’Donnell show, and VH1 Storytellers.

She has recently performed at the International Trumpet Guild, the International Association of Jazz Educators, and the Colorado Music Educators Association conventions.

Ms. Kramer teaches privately and is a staff member of both the Rocky Mountain Center for Musical Arts and the Colorado Honor Band Association.

Donald Williams

JAS & JMP Faculty

A long-time resident of Colorado, Williams is a founding member of the Apollo Chamber Brass, a non-profit group dedicated to educational outreach and the continuing advancement of chamber music, and he is currently second/associate principal trumpet in the Wyoming Symphony. Recently, he performed as a guest artist at Sul Ross State University in Apline, TX and has presented master classes there and at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA. In 1999 Williams was a featured soloist with the University of Northern Colorado Symphonic Band, and he regularly performs with orchestras throughout Colorado, Cheyenne and New Mexico. An active private instructor and clinician, he has been teaching in the Loveland, Boulder and Denver areas for over a decade. He currently maintains a large private studio and lives in Littleton with his wife, son, and daughter.

David Rife

JAS & JMP Faculty

David Rife, a native of South Carolina, received a Bachelor of Music Degree in Violin Performance from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Music Degree in Violin Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music.  He has studied with Donald Weilerstein, Mazuko Ushioda, Jerry Lucktenburg, Dennis Bourret, and members of the Cleveland Quartet. David moved to Tucson in 1983 to join the Tucson Symphony Orchestra where he is presently the Assistant Concertmaster.  He is a dedicated violin teacher and first violinist of the Tucson Symphony String Quartet and the Southwest String Quartet.  The Southwest String Quartet is very active throughout the State of Arizona as performers and clinicians.  In the summer of 2007 the quartet was invited to be the quartet in residence at the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra Festival.  In 2005 David was awarded the teacher of the year of the state of Arizona by the American String Teachers Association.  His students have won local and statewide competitions and are presently attending major music schools throughout the country.

Wynne Wong-Rife

JAS & JMP Faculty

Wynne Wong-Rife has a multi-faceted career as a member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, The TSO String Quartet and the Southwest String Quartet. In addition, she teaches a large class of violin students, several of whom have placed in competitions and soloed with local orchestras. After studying with John Ferrell at The University of Arizona for one year, she transferred to the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Peter Salaff of the Cleveland Quartet, and was awarded a B.M. with Distinction in Violin Performance. At Eastman she met and became engaged to David Rife, and in 1981, both decided to attend New England Conservatory of Music. Wynne graduated from the New England Conservatory in 1983 with a M.M. in Violin Performance, and then returned to Tucson with David to marry and start a family. Wynne and David have two daughters, Melissa and Molly (both ‘cellists) and four cats. In addition to teaching and performing, Wynne also enjoys photography, knitting and Starbucks (not necessarily in that order).

José Leonardi Moore

JMP Faculty

Violinist and violist José Leonardi Moore born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has served as a violinist and violist in different orchestras such as The Akron Symphony, Akron Baroque, Cleveland Opera Circle, Tuscarawas Philharmonic, Warren Philharmonic, Puerto Rico Symphony and Puerto Rico Philharmonic orchestras, among others. Dr. Moore is the Second Prize Winner at the 2009 Concerto Competition at the University of Arizona, Second Prize Winner at the 2006 Tuesday Musical Competition in Ohio, First Prize Winner at The University of Akron Concerto Competition 2006; First Prize Winner at the Puerto Rico Conservatory Concerto Competition 2003, and awarded several other prizes in other competitions besides being awarded Outstanding Graduate Student in Strings 2006 and 2007, at the University of Akron, Ohio. Dr. Moore also performed in masterclasses for Ernest Salem, Axel Strauss, Elmar Oliveira, Linda Sinanian, among others. Summer festivals he has attended include FOSJA (Puerto Rico), Stony Brook (NY), Academie Musicale Internationale “Barbara Krakauer” (France) and Meadowmount (NY). In 2005 he was chosen to represent his native Country, Puerto Rico, to be part of the Latin America Youth Orchestra in Venezuela under the baton of the great Claudio Abbado. Dr. Moore earned his Bachelors of Music Performance degree from the Puerto Rico Conservatory where he studied with Dr. Francisco Cabán, Dara Morales and Henry Hutchinson. He also holds a Masters degree in Music Performance from The University of Akron in Ohio, where he studied violin and viola with Prof. Alan Bodman, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona where he was teaching assistant to Prof. Mark Rush. He currently teaches the Suzuki and Traditional Methods, is the first violinist of the Sheherazade String Quartet, teacher for the TUSD, orchestra teacher at the Waldorf School, member of the Tucson Pops Orchestra, substitute violinist for the Tucson Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony and Co-Concertmaster of the Tucson Repertory Orchestra.

Ilona Vukovic-Gay

JAS & JMP Program Director

Ilona Vukovic-Gay 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.

Mary Beth Tyndall

JAS & JMP Faculty

Mary Beth Tyndall is a cellist in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and performs in the symphony’s string quartet. She is also on the Arizona Commission on the Arts roster as a member of the Southwest String Quartet. As a chamber musician she has performed a wide variety of string quartet works from the classical to contemporary periods. She is also actively involved in educational programming and performances for young people. She is known for her portrayals of the more outrageous characters in the children’s books of Susan Lowell (such as Josefina Javelina), which the quartet dramatizes annually as soloists in the Tucson Symphony Kinderkoncerts series. The chamber music festival created by the Southwest String Quartet is a two week workshop in Tucson for middle and high school students. Mary Beth is one of the original founders of this festival and is the primary cello coach and orchestra conductor. She has also taught at the Chamber Music in the Mountains camp on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, the Northern Arizona University Summer Music Camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, the Tucson Cello Congress, the Valley of the Sun Suzuki Workshop in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra Summer Festival in Alaska. She is frequently a sectional coach for Tucson adult amateur orchestras and youth orchestras. In 2016, she was named Outstanding Studio Teacher by the American String Teachers Association. Mary Beth has a Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance and Music Education from Ball State University and a Master’s Degree in Cello Performance from the University of Arizona. She has studied with Joseph Saunders, Gordon Epperson, Claus Adam, Martha Gerschefski and Hans Jorgen Jensen. She maintains a large studio of cello students of all ages and levels! Many of her students have performed as soloists with local orchestras and are continuing their studies in music conservatories around the country.  As a performer and teacher her philosophy is one of joy, self-expression and personal growth through music.

Ken Marrs

JAS & JMP Faculty

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Ken Marrs began studying the double bass with Derek Weller and Stuart Sankey.  He received a bachelor’s of music education in choral and instrumental music from Indiana University where he studied bass with Bruce Bransby and Lawrence Hurst.  Ken has performed with the Ann Arbor, Flint, Saginaw Bay, Toledo, and Tucson Symphony Orchestras as well as the Arizona Opera Company and Tucson Chamber Artists, where he also has performed as a vocalist.  He received his master’s in choral conducting under Maurice Skones at the University of Arizona.  Ken has taught music and performed with orchestras on four continents.  He played electric bass in a 13 piece band that accompanied the Artifact Dance Ensemble’s tour of China.   Ken has taught orchestra, choir, concert band, jazz band, music discovery and guitar at the elementary, middle and high school levels.  He has directed youth, adult, church and community choirs in Michigan, Indiana and Arizona.  The orchestras at Sahuaro High School where he has taught for the last decade have received high ratings (Superior with Distinction) at state festivals and competitions.  His ensembles travel for clinics with university professors from throughout the southwest annually.  His students have won competitions and played with local orchestras.  Ken enjoys hiking, biking, swimming, yoga, camping, and the outdoors.

Nathan Hess

JMP Faculty

Nathan Hess has appeared throughout the United States and Europe in solo, chamber, and concerto settings. He has soloed with the Manassas Symphony Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic, Erie Chamber Orchestra, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, and York Symphony Orchestra, among others. Recent recital appearances and masterclasses have included the American Liszt Society Festival; The Americas Society in New York City; The Second Sunday Recital Series in Binghamton, NY; The Southwest String Quartet in Tucson, AZ; Duke University; University of Wisconsin Eau Claire; Bowling Green State University; West Chester University; Morgan State University; Buffalo Piano Teachers Forum; and the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Pittsburgh.

Hess holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the Bachelor of Music degree from James Madison University, where he was named a Presser Scholar. He has performed in chamber music settings with members of orchestras such as the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and Buffalo Philharmonic. Hess has also acted as orchestral pianist with the Erie Philharmonic.

Dr. Hess is especially interested in twentieth and twenty-first century American music. He presented a lecture-recital on Ned Rorem’s music at the 2014 College Music Society Northeast Regional Conference, and in April 2014 he performed Lukas Foss’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird at the Americas Society in New York City. Upcoming 2017 recitals and masterclasses include Randolph College, Duquesne University, and the Steinway Society of Western Pennsylvania. For five years Hess chaired the piano program at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts in Erie, teaching piano to some of the state’s most talented pre-college students. He performed in and produced a set of recordings for the textbook Harmony in Context, published by McGraw-Hill and written by Miguel Roig-Francoli. In addition to teaching and performing, Dr. Hess is active in Music Teachers National Association and also adjudicates frequently throughout the region and East Coast. He is Chair of the D’Angelo Department of Music and Assistant Professor of Piano at Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA. He can be heard on the Centaur label in a recording with flutist Susan Royal and in a recent recording of Bach arias produced by the International Trumpet Guild.

James Welch

JAS & JMP Faculty

James Welch serves on the faculty at the State University of New York at Fredonia as a collaborative pianist and instructor of class piano.  He has accompanied for students and faculty on various instrumental juries and recitals, the accompanying and vocal coaching of the mainstage musicals, and various master classes.  International experiences have included the Lyric Arts performing ensembles’ tour of the Marche region of Italy in collaboration with the Postacchini String Quartet, and master classes at the Conservatorio G.B. Pergolesi (Fermo, Italy) with Tenor, Giuseppe Sabatini. During the summer seasons James has served on the faculties for the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp (Interlochen, MI), The New York State Summer School of the Arts Choral Program (Fredonia, NY) and the Rocky Ridge Music Center (Estes Park, CO), as an accompanist for instrumentalists and vocalists on repertoire including art songs, opera, musical theater, choral, jazz, pop, and instrumental. As a soloist, James was a Second Prize winner of the 2007 Bradshaw and Bouno International Piano Competition (New York, NY), and has appeared in master classes and performed at SUNY Fredonia (Fredonia, NY), SUNY Buffalo (Buffalo, NY), East Carolina University (Greenville, NC), Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD), Portland, Oregon, and Ambialet, France. James holds a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from East Carolina University and a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance and a Performer’s Certificate from SUNY Fredonia.  He has spent the past two summers studying piano with Paul Roberts from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, at his summer festival in Ambialet, France.

Derek Granger

JMP Faculty

Derek Granger is the Director of Choirs at Flowing Wells High School in Tucson, Arizona. Under his direction, the Flowing Wells Choirs have maintained an active presence in the community, have earned numerous superior ratings at state and local festivals, and were invited to perform with the University of Arizona Community Chorus (2015) and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra (2016). Past teaching experience includes teaching vocal jazz with Christian Youth Theatre of Tucson and beginning band with Basis Charter Schools.

A native of Las Vegas, Nevada, Derek graduated from the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music in 2011 with degrees in Music Education and Saxophone Performance. Summer studies have included choral conducting institutes at Westminster Choir College and the Eastman School of Music.

Active in the Tucson arts community, Derek is a member the Presidio Saxophone Quartet and regularly performs with Arizona Repertory Theatre, Artifact Dance Company, and The Rogue Theater. Derek will begin his MM graduate studies at Indiana University in the fall of 2017, where he will hold the position of Associate Instructor of saxophone.