This preview has been provided by the Eastern Music Festival.
EMF Featured Faculty members perform concerti by Mozart including Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, K.417 and Sinfonia Concertante for Winds in E-flat Major, K.279b.
About the Artists
Les Roettges, principal flute of the Eastern Music Festival, has been principal flute of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1986. A native of Ohio, Mr. Roettges became a student of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Maurice Sharp at age 15. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory and a master’s from The Juilliard School, and he studied for a year in Paris. His teachers include Paula Robison, Julius Baker, Alain Marion, and Robert Stallman. Mr. Roettges was the winner of the first annual James Papoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition. He is a regular participant in the Amelia Island (FL) Chamber Festival, the Madison (GA) Festival, and the Saint Augustine (FL) Festival and has participated in the Colorado Music Festival, the Bowdoin (Maine) Chamber Music Festival, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. Before taking the position in Jacksonville, he performed as the principal flute for the Philharmonic Orchestra of Mexico City, Solisti New York, the Opera Ensemble of New York, Bel Canto Opera Company of New York, the Boston Philharmonic, and many other freelance orchestras in New York and Boston. This is his tenth season with EMF.
Randall Ellis attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he studied with Ronald Roseman. He is principal oboist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society, and is solo English horn in the New York Pops Orchestra. He is the oboist in Windscape Woodwind Quintet, artists in residence at the Manhattan School of Music. He was principal oboist of the New York Chamber Symphony and received two Grammy nominations, including one for his recording of Howard Hanson’s Pastorale. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and the American Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Ellis has appeared as a guest artist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has concertized and recorded with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has been a soloist with the New England Bach Festival, the International Bach Festival of Madeira, the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York, and Chamber Music at the 92nd Street Y. Mr. Ellis has freelanced with the Ensemble Wien-Berlin, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Philomusica and the Orchestras of the Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, and the American Ballet Theatre dance companies. Mr. Ellis has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s Sunday Morning, and many times on PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center. His performances have been heard on National Public Radio, European radio, and NHK Radio and TV in Japan. Mr. Ellis has recorded for EMI/Angel, Columbia, Sony, RCA, Vox, Nonesuch, CRI, Pro Arte, Delos, and Deutsche Grammophon. He has performed with Winton Marsalis at Jazz at Lincoln Center and on Broadway in the orchestra for the musical Wicked. He teaches oboe and chamber music at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Shannon Scott has been principal clarinet of the Eastern Festival Orchestra since 1991. She is the instructor of clarinet and history of music and clarinetist for Solstice Woodwind Quintet at Washington State University School of Music in Pullman, Washington. As part of the Scott-Garrison Duo (flute and clarinet) with husband Leonard Garrison, Dr. Scott performs and is active in commissioning new music for the ensemble. Since moving to the Northwest, she has performed with the Spokane, Walla Walla, and Washington-Idaho symphonies. Before joining the WSU School of Music faculty, Dr. Scott taught clarinet and survey of music in fall 2006 and performed with the Northwest Winds Woodwind Quintet at the University of Idaho. From 1988 to 2006, she served as principal clarinetist of the Tulsa (Oklahoma) Opera Orchestra and the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra. While in Tulsa, she taught clarinet at the University of Tulsa, Oral Roberts University, Northeastern State University, and Tulsa Community College. She holds degrees from Juilliard, École Normale de Musique de Paris, Conservatoire Regional Marcel Dupre, Yale University, and Northwestern University. Her major clarinet teachers were Robert Marcellus, Keith Wilson, and Stanley Drucker. Before joining the Tulsa Philharmonic, she was associate principal clarinet of the Orchestra of the Opera of Lyon, was second clarinet for the Grant Park Symphony in Chicago, and played in the Marlboro Music Festival, where she participated in Music from Marlboro tours and recorded for the Marlboro Recording Society.
Chad Cognata joined the Colorado Symphony as Principal Bassoon in 1991. He has performed as a solist with the CSO on several occasions, including performances of concertos by Mozart and Vivaldi. Since 1996, Mr. Cognata has held the position of Principal Bassoon with the Cabrillo Music Festival, a summer festival in Santa Cruz, California, dedicated to contemporary orchestral music. He has participated in the Aspen Music Festival, where he served as Principal Bassoon of the Aspen Festival Orchestra. He has also performed with the symphonies of Pittsburgh and Nashville. He is the Instructor of Bassoon at the University of Denver, and has also taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has presented master classes at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Cognata did undergraduate work at Indiana University, Bloomington, and received a B.F.A. in Music from Carnegie-Mellon University. His primary teacher was Leonard Sharrow, former Principal Bassoon with the NBC, Pittsburgh, and Chicago Symphonies. He has also studied with Sidney Rosenberg and Ryohei Nakagawa.
A native of Florida, Kevin Reid is currently the principal horn of the Jacksonville Symphony and has previously been a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. His solo performances include Mozart’s Forth Horn Concerto and the Sinfonia concertante. He has an M.M. from Southern Methodist University, where he studied with Greg Hustis, and a B.M. from Florida State University, where he studied with William Capps. He has played with symphony orchestras in Dallas, Waco, Tallahassee, Albany, Aspen, Boston, Breckenridge, and the Dominican Republic. Mr. Reid is on faculty at the University of North Florida and served as visiting professor of horn at Florida State University for the 2006-2007 school year. Mr. Reid has been at EMF since 2000.
The mission of the Eastern Music Festival is to promote musical enrichment, excellence, professional collaboration, innovation, and diversity through a nationally-recognized teaching program, music festival, concerts, and other programs which will enhance the quality of life, health, and vitality of our region. The Eastern Music Festival and School, founded in 1961 in Greensboro, North Carolina by Sheldon Morgenstern, is an internationally-renowned classical music festival and institute for young musicians that runs for five weeks each summer. The institute accepts students ages 14 through 22 from around the country and the world. The EMF faculty consists of world-class performing artists selected from top orchestras and music schools nationally and internationally. Led by music director Gerard Schwarz, the Eastern Music Festival and School celebrates its 51st season in 2012.
