Woodwindiana Biographies

Born in Palmira (Valle-Colombia) in 1976, he received his bachelors degree (clarinet and conducting) from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and a Professional Performance Certificate at the Lynn University Conservatory in 2008. He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the Caribbean area, and has been featured at several clarinet festivals in the US.

He is a member of the faculty at Furman University (Greenville, NC), where he teaches clarinet, coaches and conducts woodwind ensembles, and serves as Coordinator of Woodwind Studies. Dr. Chesebro received his BM from Wisconsin State University at Stevens Point and both the MM and DM in woodwinds from Indiana University.

He grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and received his first professional training as a clarinetist in the US Air Force Bands from 1962-1966. He received his BM (1971), MM (1973) and DM (1984) from Indiana University in clarinet performance, with minors in music history and music theory. He presently teaches clarinet at William Jewell College (since 1985) and plays principal clarinet in the Liberty Symphony and the St. Joseph Symphony in Missouri.

Erik is a member of the U.S. Army Field Band and The Novacane Clarinet Quartet. He earned his MM, and is currently pursuing a DM, at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, studying with Howard Klug. Erik received his BM in Clarinet Performance from Furman University in 2011.

He has composed over 100 performed works, ranging from solo, chamber, and orchestral music to pieces involving live performance with electronic instruments, music for dance and large theatre works; he is also active as a pianist, conductor, and lecturer. Among many awards, Don has received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2005) and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a Professor of Composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 1992.

Born in Spain in 1932, he immigrated to the US during the Second World War. After completing high school he attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Tulane University and Washington University, and subsequently taught theory and composition at Lindenwood College in St. Charles, MO and at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada.

Belgian composer and arranger of vocal, instrumental and digital music. Honorary professor of harmony, counterpoint and fugue at the Ghent Royal Conservatory of Music. Arranger and guest-conductor of the B.R.T.N. Choir (Belgian Radio & Television), and known as a passionate jazz freak

Best known as a collaborative pianist, having performed internationally with many of the world's great soloists. He made his solo piano debut at Lincoln Center, performing the Gershwin Concerto in F. He currently serves as Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano at the University of North Texas in Denton, and as Staff Keyboardist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Professor of Clarinet at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He received his Doctor of Music Degree at Florida State University where he studied with Frank Kowalsky. He holds a Masters Degree in Clarinet Performance from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana where he studied with James Campbell and Howard Klug; and a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Utah, where he studied with Christie Lundquist.

A native Southern Californian, and presently residing in Tujunga, CA, he is active as a composer, arranger and orchestrator in both the classical and commercial fields. With over 170 compositions to date, and an equal number of arrangements, the center of his creative output has been chamber music, primarily for various combinations of woodwinds. With a clarinetist's understanding of the instrument's capabilities, and an abiding interest in writing mutually attractive music, Mike's pieces are highly accessible in a conservative, contemporary style.

Daniel Levin studied composition and clarinet at the IU School of Music, where his teachers included Claude Baker, David Dzubay, Don Freund and James Campbell. An accomplished composer, arranger, and instrumentalist (piano, clarinet and saxophone) in both classical and jazz, he has also had extensive experience as an accompanist, studio teacher, and musical director.

He is Music Director of the Falls Church Concert Band and performs as a pianist with the Doc Scantlin's Imperial Palms Orchestra in Virginia. Previously, Adam was Artistic Director for the Katy Performing Arts Society in Texas. He has received commissions from, among others, Katy Wind Symphony, Association of Texas Small School Bands, Congregation Brith Shalom, and American Stage Festival. Adam received his Bachelor of Music Theory at the University of North Texas and his MM in operatic composition at the University of Louisville.

Born in Uruguay in 1944, she studied composition with Carlos Estrada and Hector Tosar, and attended the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales of the Instituto Torcuato di Tella (Buenos Aires) in 1969-70. In 1974 she moved to Venezuela where she was appointed to the faculty of the National Conservatory of Music, returning to Uruguay in 1998 where she teaches at the Escuela Universitaria de Musica and at the Uscuela Municipal de Musica. She is a specialist in contemporary tango performance and has written several modern tangos for solo piano.

With a Master's Degree and an Artist Diploma from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Jorge returned to his native Venezuela following a two-year teaching position at Arizona State University, taking positions as the Assistant Principal and Eb Clarinetist of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Caracas and Professor of Clarinet at the Latin American Clarinet Academy. He currently resides in Boston, MA where he teaches at the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

With an international reputation as the solo clarinetist of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic for 50 years, Alfred Prinz's life as a composer and pianist is less well-known. As a permanent resident of Bloomington, Indiana, Prof. Prinz continued to compose and teach in his retirement. He died at the age of 84 on September 20, 2014.

A semi-retired physicist presently living in Rockville MD, Joe has played clarinet and bass clarinet "forever" and has been composing and arranging for over forty years, mostly for band and clarinet ensembles. His music education was sporadic, most importantly consisting of sitting in on and making himself a nuisance in various courses at the Tel Aviv University music academy when he was on the physics faculty of that institution.

Received his Masters Degree in composition in his native country of Romania at the Bucharest State Academy, where most of his composition teachers were disciples of the Romanian composer, Georges Enesco. Immigrating to Israel in 1961, Professor Shapira joined the faculty of the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, where he has sustained a pedagogical career in the Theory Department while, at the same time, continuing his creative activity as a composer.

Holds degrees in music composition from the Eastman School of Music and Yale University. The recipient of numerous prizes (Hanson, McCurdy, Sernoffsky, Osborne-Kellogg, BMI-SCA), two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, two Maryland State Arts Council grants, and first prizes in international composition/performance competitions sponsored by Musician magazine (1992) and Keyboard magazine (1994).