Laura Koepke and friends to perform concert of chamber music for bassoon
 School of Music bassoonist Laura Koepke will give a faculty recital with special guests on September 11 at 8 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall. |
The SUNY Fredonia School of Music presents a faculty recital featuring bassoonist Laura Koepke with special guests on Tuesday, September 11 at 8 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall on the SUNY Fredonia campus. This event is free and open to the public.
This evening of chamber music is the first faculty recital of the new academic year and includes Richard Strauss’ Duo Concertino for clarinet and bassoon with guests Jay East (clarinet) and I-Fei Chen (piano), Georg Philipp Telemann’s Sonata IV for two bassoons with bassoon student Alex Davis, and Beethoven’s Sextet, Op. 71 with Andrew Seigel and Liz Widzinski (clarinet), Renee Dee (bassoon), Marc Guy and Neil Kimel (horn). In addition, Ms. Koepke will perform four short bassoon chamber pieces with members of her studio.
Laura Koepke, Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the State University of New York at Fredonia, has performed with many of New York's finest orchestras, including numerous concerts with the world-renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, on European and US tours, and at home in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. She has also performed with the 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. Three recordings with the quintet include “Dancing in Columbia” (MSR Classics,) “Karel Husa-Recollections” (New World Records,) and "Sounds of Brazil” (MSR Classics.) 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. Ms. Koepke joined the SUNY Fredonia music faculty in 2007. Previous teaching positions include New York University, Manhattan School of Music Pre-college, Aaron Copland School of music at Queens College, and Western Connecticut State University. She graduated from Baldwin-Wallace College and holds a Masters Degree and Artist Diploma from Yale University School of Music, where she studied with Stephen Maxym and Frank Morelli.
Guest Artist Neil Kimel’s career as a horn player began as anything but a traditional or predictable one. After receiving a B.A. in Cinema Studies from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, he was invited to join the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida where he performed under the baton of its music director, Michael Tilson Thomas. Neil then returned to his home town of Chicago
where diverse performance opportunities included backing up various acts on Oprah Winfrey’s popular television show, flying to Hawaii to perform with soprano Charlotte Church, playing in
a pit for a Broadway show, and recording numerous commercial jingles. Summers were filled with performances with many festival orchestras including Spoleto USA, the National Orchestral
Institute, and the Tanglewood Music Center where Mr. Kimel was awarded both the C.D. Jackson Memorial Prize and the Harry Shapiro Award for Outstanding Brass Playing. He then won the position of second horn with Chicago’s Grant Park Orchestra in 2000 with whom he has appeared on 7 recordings. The winters found Mr. Kimel fleeing Chicago’s cold and snow for sunshine and warmth as third horn with the Sarasota (FL) Opera Orchestra. Additionally, Neil has performed with the Symphony Orchestras of Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Chicago and the Cleveland Orchestra with whom he toured to Vienna playing in the famed Musikverein.
Sir Andrew Davis appointed Mr. Kimel as second horn to the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago in 2008. When Neil leaves the opera pit, he is the principal horn of the Chicago Philharmonic with whom he has appeared as soloist, a member of both the Barossa Wind Quintet and Tower Brass of Chicago, as well as a chamber music coach at Northwestern University. Privately, Mr. Kimel coaches musicians of all instruments in audition preparation and mental techniques that lead players to a more consistent performance.
Mr. Kimel is also the featured presenter for the School of Music’s first Health and Success Symposium on September 10. The symposium includes workshops and sessions throughout the day and a special presentation in the evening. Additional clinicians include Joaquin Farias from Seville, Spain, and Maxine Davis from NYC. The main topics of the day will be Focal Dystonia among performers, Feldenkrais as a technique for performers, and effective preparation for abnormally stressful situations, such as interviews or performance auditions. Details about this event will be available online at www.fredonia.edu/music.
