Musicians

David Carter : Clarinet

David Carter is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Arkansas -- Fort Smith. He is a member of the Tulsa Opera Orchestra and regularly appears with the Tulsa Symphony. He previously taught as an adjunct instructor of clarinet at the University of Oklahoma; an adjunct instructor of clarinet, saxophone, Arts and Western Culture, and Woodwind Techniques at Oklahoma Baptist University; and an adjunct instructor of clarinet at Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan). He also teaches as a member of the artist faculty at the International Music Camp and is a founding member of Duo Avanzando with percussionist Ricardo Coelho de Souza.

Dr. Carter is the former principal clarinetist of the Dearborn (Michigan) Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra. He served as artist-in-residence for the St. Clair Shores Symphony Orchestra’s 2000-2001 season where he performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto under Charles Burke. As the winner of the 2006 University of Oklahoma Concerto Competition he performed the first movement of John Corigliano's Clarinet Concerto with the University of Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra under Jonathan Shames. Other recent playing engagements include those with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de la UANL (Monterrey, Mexico), and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Carter earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma as a Graduate Alumni Fellow. He was awarded the Provost's Dissertation Prize in Humanities and Fine Arts for his DMA document, Corigliano's Clarinet Concerto: The Clarinetist's View. He also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Texas, Master of Music degree from the Ohio State University, and a Graduate Certificate in Orchestral Studies from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. His principal teachers include David Etheridge, Theodore Oien, James Pyne, and James Gillespie.

Lanette Compton : Horn

Lanette Compton has been Assistant Professor of Horn at Oklahoma State University since 2005. She earned her Bachelors of Music Degree in performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as a student of Allen French and her Masters of Music Degree in performance from the University of North Texas as a student of Dr. William Scharnberg.

Lanette is presently a member of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and Tulsa Opera Orchestra. She has also been a member of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Texas Wind Symphony, Allen Philharmonic Orchestra, Flower Mound Chamber Orchestra, Garland Symphony Orchestra, Los Colinas Symphony Orchestra, Signature Symphony Orchestra, University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra, University of North Texas Wind Symphony, Camerata Chamber Winds and the Myriad Brass Orchestra. Lanette has also performed with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Dallas Wind Symphony, Fort Smith Symphony, and Enid Symphony Orchestra.

Lanette has performed on more than a dozen CD’s, including the critically acclaimed CD The Manne We Love: Gershwin Revisited featuring the Steve Houghton Quintet and the University of North Texas Two O’clock Lab Band. She has performed as soloist with the OSU Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Chamber Winds, North Central Texas College Singers and the University of North Texas Wind Symphony. She has performed at the Mid-South Horn Workshop, Texas Music Educators Association Convention, College Band Director’s National Association Convention, World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Convention, and the American Bandmasters Association Convention.

Lanette is a member of the Quartz Mountain Music Festival Orchestra in Altus, Oklahoma and has been on the faculty of the Western Chamber Music Institute held at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado. Visit the horn studio website at horns.okstate.edu.

Allyson Eskitch : Piano

Allyson Eskitch, originally from Kansas, began her formal musical training at age seven. Allyson received a Bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the University of Kansas and a Master’s degree in piano performance from the Peabody institute. Her primary teachers have been Alice Downs, Ann Schein, and Sequeira Costa. While at the University of Kansas, Ms. Eskitch played for such artists as Richard Goode, Claude Frank, and Abbey Simon. Ms. Eskitch has participated in several chamber music festivals and has performed both as a soloist and collaborative artists all over the United States.

Throughout her career, she has maintained an active studio, teaching students of all ages and skill levels. Many of her students have received honors in various festivals and competitions, and several have continued their studies while majoring in music at college. Currently, Ms. Eskitch resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she teaches piano at the University of Tulsa and at Barthelmes Conservatory. She is a founding member of Trio Aleszky, which includes her husband, Paulo Eskitch, violinist and Lou Lynch, cellist. In her free time, Ms. Eskitch enjoys spending time with her husband, processing photos and stargazing.

Winona Fifield : Violin

Winona Vogelmann Fifield is Concertmaster of the Tulsa Opera Orchestra and Associate Concertmaster of the Tulsa Symphony. Born in New York City, she studied at Juilliard and Indiana University, where she was a student of renowned teacher Josef Gingold. Other teachers include Margaret Pardee, Franco Gulli and Igor Gruppman. Winona was recently invited as a guest Associate Concertmaster for the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev. She won principal positions with Albany Symphony, Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, Houston Ballet Orchestra, and has played with many professional orchestras including the New Jersey Symphony and Utah Symphony. Festivals include Schleswig-Holstein under Georg Solti, Grand Teton Music Festival, and Breckenridge Music Festival.

Krassimira Figg : Violoncello/Founding Musician

Krassimira Vassileva Figg completed her studies in Bulgeria, won several international competitions, and served as principal cellist with one of the major Bulgarian national orchestras. She decided to move to France, where she furthered her studies and obtained a performance degree in chamber music and cello.

Krassimira has broadcast for the Bulgarian, Italian and French radio and television. In France, she continued to play in orchestras - The French National Orchestra; Orchestra Nationale de Bordeaux, and many chamber music ensembles. Since 1999 in Kansas City, she has been on the faculty of the KCYA School of the Arts, and was a substitute for the Kansas City Symphony. She is a member of the Tulsa Symphony, and is the founder of CelloRondo, a cello quartet based in Kansas City, who in 2006 recorded their first CD.

Lise Glaser : Oboe

Lise Glaser is principal oboe for Tulsa’s professional symphony, opera, ballet and choral groups as well as for the Des Moines Metro Opera company in the summer. She is also adjunct oboe faculty for The University of Tulsa. Her main teachers were John Mack at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Peter Bowman at the St. Louis Conservatory of Music. She has toured Europe as co-principal oboe of the Utah Symphony, performed with the St. Louis Symphony in Carnegie Hall, subbed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and been heard on NPR’s “Performance Today” as a recitalist. Lise is very fortunate to have performed with conductors such as Kurt Masur, Robert Spano, Esa Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, and Andre Previn. She is married to composer/organist Eliot Glaser. They have a 5th grade son, Nathan, share their home with 3 cats and 2 dogs, and fix up old houses on the side.

Michelle Exley-Johnson : Horn

Michelle currently plays second horn in the Tulsa Symphony and has played with the Tulsa Philharmonic, Illinois Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony. She studied with John Keene at the University of Denver and with Gail Williams and Dale Clevenger at Northwestern University. She plays with the TSO Woodwind Quintet and is delighted to be a part of the Tulsa Camerata. Michelle is also a Certified Personal Trainer and a triathlete and loves the outdoors. She lives in Tulsa with her husband Chad and their three dogs.

Richard Ramey : Bassoon

Richard Ramey, a musician versed in classical, jazz, and Latin-American music, draws upon his varied musical background in his work as a performer and educator. He is Professor of Bassoon at the University of Arkansas and Principal Bassoon with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Tulsa Ballet, Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, Tulsa Opera Orchestra, and the Fort Smith Symphony. His membership in chamber music groups include the Ramey Trio, Lyrique Quintette, Boston Mountain Chamber Players, the bassoon quartet, Uncle Roy's Bassoons, and the Latin group, Olor a Café. He has also been a member of the Flagstaff Festival of the Arts Orchestra, Music Festival of Arkansas, Grand Rapids Symphony, the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, and while in Los Angeles, The Baroque Consortium.

A renowned expert in wind chamber music, Mr. Ramey has performed in the chamber setting for over 30 years. Several of his performances have been heard on NPR's "Performance Today." Mr. Ramey has recorded four CDs: Olor a Café, featuring music for bassoon, piano, and Latin percussion, Night Sessions, featuring the bassoon quartet Uncle Roy's Bassoons, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue featuring the Lyrique Quintette, and Time Labyrinths, with oboist Theresa Delaplain. His next recording projects are a three-disc collection of unaccompanied works for bassoon, a three-disc collection of music by the American composer Robert Baksa, a duo-bassoon collection, and an instructional CD set of the Weissenborn Advanced Studies for Bassoon. His recordings appear on the Naxos, Javelina, and Nuance labels.

Mr. Ramey is the Artistic Director of the Boston Mountain Chamber Players, the faculty performing ensemble in residence at the University of Arkansas. While doing graduate work in Tempe, Arizona, he co-founded the Nouveau West Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble known for its seamless blending of 20th-Century works with those of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic masters, and for its regular commissions of new orchestral works by contemporary composers such as R. Carlos Kakai and David Ward-Steinman.

He holds degrees in Bassoon Performance and Musicology from the University of Southern California, a masters degree in Bassoon Performance from Arizona State University, and is a DMA candidate at Michigan State University. His teachers included Willard Elliot, David Breidenthal, Alan Goodman, Manuel Zegler, Michael O'Donovan, and the internationally-acclaimed bassoonist, Norman Herzberg.

Mr. Ramey does have musical interests outside of the bassoon. He is also a performer of the theremin, the oldest commercially-produced electronic instrument, and recently acquired one of the last Etherwave Pro Limited Edition theremins produced by Moog Music.

Ann Raphael : Piano

At age 6, Ann made her first appearance in the Tulsa Federation of Music Clubs' "Baby Artist Contest", held in All Souls Emerson Hall. Her introduction to collaborative work began as a teenager when she soloed 6 times with the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Franco Autori. She has been "hooked" ever since, with ensuing years spent as soloist and chamber musician. Her teachers include Mary Rives-Brown; Aldo Mancinelli; Luiz Carlos de Moura Castro; Edward Gates; and Rita Bouboulidi. While music has been ever in the forefront, Ann earned a B.A. in French from the University of Tulsa, where she also received the Freeland Award. Living primarily in the Northwest as an active freelance pianist, she is pleased to return to her native state where the arts continue to be honored.

John Rush : Flute

John Phillip Rush is Principal Flutist with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Tulsa Ballet and Tulsa Oratorio Chorus. Mr. Rush is on the faculties as the Instructor of Flute at the University of Tulsa and Oral Roberts University.

After studying the modern flute and receiving a Bachelor of Music from Wayne State University in Detroit (1996) and a Master of Music from Louisiana State University (1999), John studied historical transverse flutes with Eva Legêne and music history through the Early Music Institute at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

In the spring of 2002, John was a prizewinner in the Early Music America Summer Study Competition. With the prize from this competition, he was able to continue his early flute studies with Stephen Preston, professor of Baroque Flute at the Guildhall School of Music in London. John graduated from Indiana University in the spring of 2003 with a Master of Music degree in Historical Flute Performance and Early Music History.

John's principal teachers include: Kathryn Lukas, Eva Legêne, Dr. Katherine Kemler, Clement Barone, Eleanor Lawrence, Jeffery Zook and he has previously studied with Dr. Joanna Cowan White, Joan Heneghan, Dr. Penelope Fischer, and Ervin Monroe.

An active chamber musician, Mr. Rush is responsible for new works by commissioned composers Niel Currie, Kenneth Froelich, and Gary Schocker. John has presented solo and chamber recitals in Tulsa (OK), Cincinnati (OH), Detroit (MI), Ann Arbor (MI), Flint (MI), Mt. Pleasant (MI), Bloomington (IN), Baton Rouge (LA), New Orleans (LA), and in New York at Barge Music.

Laura Talbott : Violin/Viola

A vibrant musician and innovative educator, Laura Talbott is a violinist and violist equally dedicated to performing and teaching. She is Associate Professor of Violin and Viola at Oklahoma State University, where she was named the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Professor by the OSU Student Council in 2007. Laura has held teaching positions at the Meadowmount School of Music, Indian Hill Music Center, Bands and Orchestras of America Summer Symposium, Triada Music Festival, and Boston University. She is currently President of the Oklahoma chapter of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).

An avid chamber musician, she is the violinist of the Eos Piano Trio. She has served as the principal violinist of the Janus 21 Chamber Ensemble of Boston and performed as part of the Brightmusic Chamber Music Series (Oklahoma City), Mannes Conservatory’s annual Beethoven Institute (NYC), Triada Music Festival (Ludlow, VT) and Tulsa Brown Bag-It Recital Series. In addition, Laura is the Artistic Director of the Frontiers New Music Ensemble, an ensemble she co-founded. She has appeared as a recitalist throughout the United States.

Dr. Talbott has an extensive background as an orchestral musician. She is currently a member of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, playing in their viola section; she also performs with the Tulsa Ballet (viola) and the Tulsa Opera (violin). In the past, Dr. Talbott has performed with the New Hampshire Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Boston Virtuosi, Ann Arbor Symphony, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Cantata Singers Chamber Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra.

Dr. Talbott received her doctorate in string performance from Boston University. She holds additional degrees from Vanderbilt University (B.M.) and the University of Michigan (M.M.). Her principal teachers have included Peter Zazofsky, Paul Kantor, Christian Teal, and John Kochanowski. Dr. Talbott has spent summers at Interlochen, Meadowmount, Tanglewood, Oberlin Baroque Institute and the Aspen Music Festival, where she was a fellowship student.

Jesus Villarreal : Double Bass/Founding Musician

Jesus Villarreal is currently a member of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and Signature Symphony and lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with his wife Liza, and son Burton Alexander. He has worked with many of today's preeminent conductors and soloists while a member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Eastern Music Festival Orchestra. He has also played with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Grant Park Orchestra and the Austin Lyric Opera.

Jesus holds a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Studies from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and a Bachelor of Music in Double Bass Performance from the University of Texas at Austin. Jesus began playing the Double Bass at the age of 11 in the public schools in Austin, TX, and started his private studies with the principal of the Austin Symphony Orchestra and Double Bass professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. David Neubert. While in Chicago, he had the pleasure of studying with Stephen Lester and Michael Hovnanian of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Andrew Anderson of the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

While a student at the University of Texas, Jesus was able to perform with the UT Early Music Ensemble on Viola da Gamba, and with the New Music Ensemble under the tutelage of acclaimed American composer Dan Welcher. Playing in this diverse range of ensembles helped to shape his musical persepective, which Jesus is eager to share with the Tulsa audience through Tulsa Camerata.

Liza Villarreal : Violin/Founding Musician

Liza Villarreal is a violinist with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Tulsa Ballet and is Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Tulsa Opera Orchestra. She also works as a full-time orchestra director for Tulsa Public Schools, teaching grades 7-12 at Central Junior High/High School. Liza earned her Master of Music from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied violin with Dr. Eugene Gratovich. She also worked closely with Dr. Laurie Scott as Assistant Director of the University of Texas String Project from 2003-2005. In 2001, Liza graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tulsa, where she earned her Bachelor of Violin Performance degree studying with Derry Deane. Liza has performed in several summer music festivals, including the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. When not playing or teaching the violin, Liza spends all of her time with her husband, Jesus and their three-year-old son Burton, who hopes to play the bass just like his dad.

Phil Wachowski : Viola/Founding Musician

Phillip Wachowski started studying violin at age 10. In high school he studied with Elaine Lee Richey. At the North Carolina School of Arts, he switched to viola and studied with Emile Simonel, Jerry Horner and Heiichiro Ohyama. He has played in the viola sections of the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony, Winston- Salem Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Greensboro Symphony, Roanoke Symphony and the Brattleboro Bach Festival. He played Principal Viola in the New York String Seminar and the Summer Programs of the North Carolina School of Arts in Siena, Italy and Sion, Switzerland. After leaving the North Carolina School of Arts, he played in the viola section of the Kansas City Philharmonic and advanced to Associate Principal. When the Kansas City Philharmonic folded, Mr. Wachowski moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to become part of the Tulsa Philharmonic viola section and advanced to Associate Principal. While in Kansas City, Mr. Wachowski was a founding member of the Janssen Chamber Players. In Tulsa Mr. Wachowski was a founding member of the Anadarko Chamber Players and the Brady Arts Quartet. Mr. Wachowski has been a Faculty or staff member of the New Hampshire Music Festival, the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, Symphony School of America and the Music Festival of Arkansas. He is presently Associate Principal Viola of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and Principal Viola of the Light Opera Oklahoma Orchestra.

Announcer:
Jason Heilman : Announcer/Founding Member

A freelance musicologist, translator, and writer, Jason Heilman was born in Wisconsin and grew up in Tulsa, where he played trumpet in the Tulsa Youth Symphony before graduating from Memorial High School. He received his bachelor’s degree in trumpet performance from the University of Tulsa, as a student of Ronald Predl and Timothy McFadden, before going on to earn his master’s degree in music history from Northwestern University, where he continued his trumpet studies under Charles Geyer. Jason ultimately completed his Ph.D. in musicology and European studies at Duke University in 2009. An expert on Austrian and Czech music at the turn of the twentieth century, Jason was the recipient of a full-year fellowship from the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften in Vienna, where he researched his doctoral dissertation on hybrid national identity in the patriotic music of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to World War I. Jason has taught music history and appreciation courses at Duke and at the University of Texas at Austin, and has played trumpet with orchestras and chamber ensembles in Tulsa, Ft. Smith, Chicago, Austin, Raleigh-Durham and Vienna.

Guest Artist:
Petronel Malan : Piano

“Formidable… dizzying… magical.” These words from New York reviewer Harris Goldsmith vividly illu-strate pianist Petronel Malan’s uniquely captivating style. Indeed, as a multiple Grammy® nominee and gold medalist of several international piano competitions, Ms. Malan continues to enthrall audiences worldwide.

Lauded by reviewers as an unmistakably creative force in the classical music industry, Ms. Malan’s critical ac-claim culminated in the nomination of three Grammy® Awards, including “Best Instrumental Solo Album 2004” for her debut disc “Transfigured Bach: The Bach Transcriptions of Bartok, Lipatti and Friedman.” As an exclusive recording artist for the internationally award-winning label Hänssler Classic, 2006 saw the release of “Transfigured Mozart” and in 2008, “Transfigured Beethoven.” “Transfigured Tchaikovsky” (2011) in-cludes the world premiere recordings of the complete lieder transcriptions by Isaac Mikhnovsky.

Ms. Malan maintains a full performance schedule as recitalist, orchestral soloist and chamber musician in ma-jor venues throughout the world. After her European debut in Rome, in 1987, further highlights have include Carnegie Recital Hall, Théâtre du Châtelet & Salle Cortot (Paris), Mozarteum (Salzburg), Liszt Museum (Bu-dapest), Orchestra Hall (Chicago), Alte Handelsbörse (Leipzig), Levoca (Slovakia), Bass Hall (Fort Worth), as well as appearances at the Ravinia and Gilmore International Piano Festivals. Petronel has appeared with or-chestras such as St. Petersburg State (Russia), Martinů (Czech Republic), Bucaramanga (Colombia) Batumi (Republic of Georgia) Sicilian Chamber (Italy), and several orchestras in the US and South Africa, under the batons of Vasily Petrenko, Bernhard Gueller, Dmitry Manilov, Yoshimi Takeda, Omri Hadari, Wolfgang Bothe, James Brooks, Robert Hanson, and Fuzao Kajima.
Ms. Malan’s career was launched following five gold medals in 2000 at international piano competitions throughout the United States. These included the Louise McMahon, Missouri Southern, Los Angeles Liszt “Budapest Concert” and Hilton Head International Piano Competitions. She also garnered the grand prize in the 2000 Web Concert Hall Competition and gold medals in both the Grace Welsh Piano Competition and the Entergy Young Artist Award.

Born in South Africa, Petronel Malan began lessons with her mother at age four, continuing with Adolph Hallis, a student of both Matthay and Leschetizky. Having debuted with the Johannesburg Symphony at age ten and subsequently winning all major national competitions in her native country, Ms. Malan moved to the United States to further her studies. Following a degree at Michigan State University, Petronel Malan com-pleted her graduate degrees at the University of North Texas. Her teachers have included Steven de Groote, Ralph Votapek and Joseph Banowetz. She also received coachings from American legend Earl Wild.

Although a permanent resident of the United States, Ms. Malan continues her strong ties to her native South Africa. In 2003, she received the “Rapport/City Press Prestige Award” as one of the “10 Most Inspirational Women in South Africa.” A popular celebrity in her home country, she has appeared on magazine covers and many features, as well as picture-clues in crossword puzzles. Apart from a love for vintage gowns, Ms. Ma-lan’s stage wardrobe is designed by foremost South African designers. A frequent speaker and promoter for classical music in schools, music scholarships in her name are awarded annually to promising young South African musicians.