 Fredonia Woodwind Quintet includes (clockwise, from far left) Dr. Marc Guy, Laura Koepke, James East, Dr. Susan Royal and Dr. Sarah Hamilton. |
The Fredonia Woodwind Quintet will offer a program featuring works by 20th century composers Bill Douglas, György Ligeti, Ruth Crawford-Seeger and Carl Nielsen on Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 8 p.m., in the Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall at SUNY Fredonia.
The concert is free and the public is invited to attend.
Members of the quintet include Dr. Susan Royal, flute; Dr. Sarah Hamilton, oboe; clarinetist James East; Dr. Marc Guy, horn, and the newest member of the School of Music woodwind faculty, Laura Koepke, on bassoon.
The “Suite Cantabile for Woodwind Quintet,” by Douglas, “Six Bagatelles” by Ligeti, “Suite for Woodwind Quintet” by Crawford-Seeger, and “Kvintet, Op. 43” by Nielsen are the featured works on the program.
Mr. East is executive director and Principal Clarinetist with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, and Principal Clarinetist with the Erie (Pa.) Philharmonic Orchestra in Erie. Professor of clarinet at the Fredonia School of Music, he has been a member of the faculty since 1970. He has appeared as a soloist with the Erie Philharmonic, WNYCO, Sun Valley Summer Festival Orchestra and the United State Navy Band. He also performs with his wife, pianist Phyllis East, and as a member of the East Trio with their son, cellist Alexander. He holds performance degrees from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, was solo clarinetist with the Eastman Wind Ensemble during advanced study at the Eastman School and spent a year in Salzburg, Austria, as a student at the Mozarteum. His principal teachers were Robert Marcellus, Stanley Hasty, George Waln and Leon Russianoff.
Dr. Guy has been teaching horn and music theory at SUNY Fredonia since 1983, and prior to that he performed all over the world as the hornist with the Annapolis Brass Quintet. He plays regularly with SUNY Fredonia faculty ensembles, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, and the Erie Philharmonic. Dr. Guy has also performed in the Baltimore, Chicago, Chautauqua Symphonies, and with Keith Brion's New Peerless Sousa Band. In his studies at the Peabody Conservatory, Northwestern University and SUNY Stony Brook, his teachers included Robert Pierce, Dale Clevenger and William Purvis, respectively.
Dr. Hamilton is associate professor of oboe at SUNY Fredonia. She is the English horn player with the Erie (Pa.) Philharmonic and principal oboe with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra. She also performs frequently as oboist and English horn player with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony. Dr. Hamilton has appeared as a soloist with the Erie Philharmonic, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Fredonia College Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, and at conventions of the International Double Reed Society. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Ohio State University, as well as a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Music degree from Wayne State University.
Ms. Koepke has performed with many of New York's finest orchestras, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, American Composers Orchestra, New York Pops, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York City Opera, and the Westchester Philharmonic. Since 1998, Ms. Koepke has been a member of the internationally acclaimed woodwind quintet, Quintet of the Americas. Ms. Koepke has performed as a guest artist with Zephyros Winds, North Country Chamber Players, Sequitur, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Also a member of the Curiously Strong Winds, Ms. Koepke has performed at the Bard Festival, Bang on a Can, and Festival of the Hamptons. Other festival appearances include the Lincoln Center Festival, Bar Harbor Music Festival, Maverick Concerts, and the Weekend of Chamber Music Festival. She graduated from Baldwin-Wallace College and holds a master’s degree and Artist Diploma from Yale University School of Music.
Dr. Royal performs regularly with the Buffalo Philharmonic, having performed in Carnegie Hall on two New York State tours and on a Buffalo Philharmonic recording released in 2003. A winner of SUNY Fredonia's President's Award for Excellence, Dr. Royal has been a concerto soloist with the Knoxville Symphony, Ars Nova, Stony Brook Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, and the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, the latter two of which she has been a member since 1983. She has performed with the Chautauqua Symphony, the New Haven Symphony, the Bach Aria Group at the Bach Aria Festival, and at the Roycroft, Bach and Beyond, June in Buffalo, and the New College Music Festivals. She recently recorded for Mode Records, NYC, and collaborated on a CD entitled “Freedom Flight,” which was featured on a recital tour of Puerto Rico in 2001. Dr. Royal has a Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College, Master of Music degree from Yale University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from SUNY Stony Brook.
