Shout Chorus!
Welcome to our first concert of the 2023-2024 season in Phoenix! We’re trying out something new this season, actually, a lot of new things! We’ve not been doing printed programs for a while, but wanted to provide some information to you.
Tonight’s program is:
Impressions by Thomas Breadon
- Serene and Nocturne
Shout Chorus by Kenji Bunch
Pastorale by Amy Beach
Miniatures for Woodwind Quintet by William Grant Still, Arr. Adam Lesnick
Danza de Mediodia by Arturo Marquez
The concert will conclude with a glass of wine or sparkling water outside the sanctuary - we’re looking forward to it!
Bios:
Dr. Thomas Mark Breadon, Jr. is an active educator, bassoonist, and composer living in Phoenix, Arizona. He is currently adjunct faculty at Glendale Community College where he teaches bassoon and composition lessons, chamber music, music theory, and humanities courses. He is also in his first year as Band Director at Arizona School for the Arts and maintains a private bassoon/composition studio in the greater Phoenix area. For the last three summers he has taught bassoon, chamber music, improvisation, and composition at the Mill Ave Chamber Players Summer Chamber Music Camp.
Dr. Breadon performs as a bassoonist with Mill Ave Chamber Players, West Valley Symphony, and a myriad of ensembles throughout the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. In addition to orchestral and chamber music, he performs as an improviser with many varying artists including Provisions DJ Collective, Oh My Ears, and Black Air.
Dr. Breadon maintains an active career in music composition and arranging. In the summers of 2017 and 2018, his works Impressions for Wind Quintet and Aesop’s Fables were recorded by Mill Ave Chamber Players. In fall 2019, his works Lyddimy for bass clarinet and bassoon and Sonatine for violin and piano were recorded by faculty members at Grand Canyon University. Most recently, he premiered a new work entitled North American Folktales for woodwind quintet and narrator as a continuation of the Mill Ave Chamber Players educational programming.
Thomas received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from Arizona State University, holds Masters degrees in bassoon performance and music theory from The University of Akron, and received a Bachelors in Music Performance from Morehead State University.
Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Nikolaus Flickinger is the owner-operator of OBONIK, a company that specializes in handmade oboe and English horn reeds, and a longtime member of Mill Ave Chamber Players. Nikolaus received his Master of Music degree in oboe performance from Arizona State University and is currently the principal oboe player of the West Valley Symphony. Prior to moving to Arizona, Nikolaus attended the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he received his Bachelor’s degree.
Nikolaus’s previous performance experiences have been with Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Phoenix Opera, Orquesta Sinfonica de la UANL (Monterrey, Mexico), Phoenix Metropolitan Opera, Flagstaff Symphony, American Institute of Musical Studies Orchestra (Graz, Austria), Mesa Symphony, Musica Nova Orchestra, and Sarasota Festival Orchestra. Nikolaus Flickinger is adjunct faculty at Glendale Community College. He is also the primary oboe teacher at Arizona School for the Arts and manages his own private studio.
Rose French is the founder of the Mill Ave Chamber Players and Coordinator of Instrumental Music at Phoenix College. She has been a contributing artist at the International Horn Symposiums in Ithaca, Los Angeles, London, Natal (Brazil), Brisbane (Australia), and Cape Town (South Africa), where she also the won the Dorothy Frizelle International Horn Excerpt Competition. In the Southwest, Rose is principal horn of the West Valley Symphony and performs with the Phoenix Symphony, Arizona Opera, Tucson Symphony, Flagstaff Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica de Monterrey, and Orquestra de Baja California. She’s toured China twice as principal horn of the American Festival Orchestra.
Rose has been a guest artist and chamber music coach at the Saarburg International Chamber Music Festival (Germany), Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the Arizona Chamber Music Experience. She served as Exhibits and Advertising Coordinator for the International Horn Society, maintains a private studio, and teaches at Rosie's House: a non-profit music academy that provides free instruction and instruments to under-served youth. She has published two books, Rangesongs (2012) and Horn Player’s Songbook (2015), both published by Mountain Peak Music. French completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees at Arizona State University and holds degrees in music education, music technology, and music performance from Duquesne University.
Dr. Sabrina Hu enjoys a versatile career as a performer, educator, and director. She has performed in many prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York City, the National Concert Hall in Ireland, and recitals throughout major halls in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Sabrina’s performances have been broadcast live on BBC, RTE and RTHK television and radio, and they have been described as “warm, sensitively balanced and flexible” with “emotional engagement…expressive depth” by the Irish Times. She has collaborated with artists such as soprano Measha Brueggergosman, harpist Sylvain Blassel, percussionist Andy Akiho, pianist Cathal Breslin, and as a concerto soloist with conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky and the Ulster Orchestra. As a founding member of Trio Festivale, she has toured internationally and commissioned many new works for flute, cello and piano.
Sabrina currently teaches flute at Phoenix College in Arizona. Previous teaching positions have included Rhodes College in Memphis TN, Lycoming College in PA, and the National University of Ireland. Sabrina has performed in several orchestras, including the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Wexford Opera Orchestra, the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Iris Orchestra, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to performing and teaching, Sabrina is also founding Co-Artistic Director of an exciting chamber music festival in Europe, The Walled City Music Festival in Derry, Northern Ireland. Since its inception in 2008, the festival has become one of the most successful arts organizations and festivals in the U.K/Europe, with past Artists such as the Kronos Quartet, Sir James Galway, Bang on a Can, Anne Akiko Meyers, and the Labeque Sisters. Sabrina has also worked as the Director of Operations and Educational Programming for the PRIZM Ensemble in Memphis, TN.
Originally from Houston, Texas, Sabrina’s early studies were at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston. She then attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where she completed a Bachelor of Music, studying with Keith Underwood. Further studies were at the Royal Northern College of Music with Peter Lloyd in Manchester, England where she completed a Master of Music. Sabrina completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Michigan State University as a student of Richard Sherman.
Clarinetist and Florida native Johnathan C. Robinson holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts and a Master of Music degree from Arizona State University. Before moving to Phoenix in 2007, Dr. Robinson received his Bachelor of Music degree from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC.
Dr. Robinson is a Teaching Artist and Board Member for the Daraja Music Initiative (DMI). Daraja Music Initiative is a non-profit organization that provides music and conservation education to primary students in Moshi, Tanzania, during the summer. Dr. Robinson has also studied solo and chamber repertoire at the Belgium Clarinet Academy in Oostende, Belgium, with clarinetists Robert Spring and Eddy Vanoosthuyse.
Before joining Brophy College Preparatory's faculty in 2019 as the Director of Instrumental Ensembles, Dr. Robinson was the Director of Bands and the Single Reed and Bassoon Instructor at Arizona School for the Arts. He previously held the position of Principal Clarinet with the Chandler Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Opera, and Scottsdale Arts Orchestra. Dr. Robinson resides in Phoenix, where he enjoys an active career teaching and performing.
His primary teachers include Peter Wright, Bob Listokin, Daniel McKelway, Igor Begelman, and Robert Spring.
Our next concert is December 2 at a private home in Central Phoenix. We’ll be performing the Nutcracker with Comedian Genevieve Rice, who will be sharing an updated take of the original Nutcracker story by ETA Hoffmann. Paired with this concert will be a custom cocktail by Jessica Savidge of Savidge Kitchen AND after the concert we will hold our first White Elephant party. MACP has been doing white elephant parties for years and we thought it would be a barrel of laughs to share with you! Tickets are available now on our website.
Lastly, thanks for joining us tonight! We’re incredibly grateful you’re hear to enjoy live music and each other’s company. We look forward to seeing you again in our 16th season and beyond!