The Texas Flute Society is proud to present our 2011 Guest Artists
Linda Toote, Jill Felber, Jonathan Keeble, Seth Allyn Morris

 

A native of New York, Linda Toote is the Principal Flutist of the Boston Lyric Opera.  She performs regularly with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops and Esplanade Orchestras, having appeared as soloist with these groups on several occasions.  She has held Principal Flute positions with the Tampa, Atlanta and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, the Santa Fe and Lake George Opera Orchestras.  Invitations from the Baltimore, Detroit and St. Louis Symphonies have included recent recording and touring with these orchestras.  An avid educator, and former member of the faculty of the University of Tampa and Emory University, Ms. Toote is currently on faculty at Boston University and Boston Conservatory. During the summer months she is on faculty at the Aria Institute, has coached chamber music and masterclasses at the Tanglewood Music Center and serves  as Director of the Flute Workshop of Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute.  Recently, Ms. Toote dedicated 15 months to the task of organizing performing flutists from over 20 countries as the Program Chair for the 37th Annual convention of the National Flute Association, held in New York City in 2009.  The convention saw a record breaking attendance of over 4600 flutists.  Convention appearances of her own have included those of Dallas, Washington D.C., Albuquerque, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Anaheim.  She is now active as a board member of the National Flute Association.  Her recordings include many symphonic works with the Atlanta Symphony on the Telarc label and works of many genres with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops.  A graduate of the Mannes College of Music, where she studied with John Wion, Ms. Toote also was a student of Thomas Nyfenger at Yale University.

Jill Felber has performed solo recitals, chamber music, and concertos on four continents and has held residencies in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy and the United States. Also a tireless promoter of new music, Ms. Felber has inspired many composers to write solo and chamber works for her and for her flute duo ZAWA!, and is currently engaged in several commissioning projects. She has premiered over three hundred works for the flute and has released world premiere recordings for Centaur Records, CRI, Neuma Records, and ZAWA!MUSIC. Currently Professor of Flute at University of California, Santa Barbara, Ms. Felber has taught on the faculties of Ohio University, Capital University, and Wright State University.

Jill Felber has held residencies in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy, Canada and the United States. Currently Professor of Flute at University of California, Santa Barbara, she has premiered over three hundred works for the flute and has recorded for Centaur Records, CRI, Neuma Records, and ZAWA!MUSIC.

A regular on concert series throughout North America, Jonathan Keeble is one of the leading performer/pedagogues of his generation. His concerto appearances with orchestras and wind ensembles have taken him to venues in North America, South America and Europe.

Jonathan’s passion for new music led him to commission many new works for the flute from rising young composers. From these efforts come the recently released, critically acclaimed recordings “Voyage,” music for flute and harp, and “Turbulent Winds” with the Prairie Winds. These come in addition to his first solo recording, icarus, and Gale Force, ranked among the top 15 recordings of 2000 by Chicago Tribune critic John von Rhein. In addition to his active solo and chamber career, Jonathan is the Principal Flute of Sinfonia da Camera.

Recently Jonathan was the featured artist at Flutemania in Arvika, Sweden, and as a member of the Prairie Winds, he received a grant from Chamber Music America to perform and teach throughout Alaska. Recent tours have taken Jonathan to Mexico City to perform and teach at the National Conservatory, in addition to concerts and classes in Austria, Holland, Serbia, Canada and the Far-East. This year’s performance calendar includes two separate tours of the west coast, in addition to being a featured artist for the Texas Flute Society, Seattle Flute Society, and Northeast Ohio Flute Association.

He is a regular performer, adjudicator, and presenter at National Flute Association conventions, and is currently the Chair of the Association. Jonathan’s teaching experience includes his present position as the flute professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He spends summers performing and teaching at Aria International, Madeline Island Music Camp, and at the University of Illinois Summer Youth Music Flute Camp.

Known internationally for his refined musicianship and versatility, American flutist Seth Allyn Morris has earned numerous accolades around the country. He has won First Prize at the 25th annual Myrna W. Brown Artist Competition, the 29th annual James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition and both the Kentucky Flute Festival’s Young Artist and Collegiate Artist Competitions. Seth has given solo performances with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and the Bay View Chamber Orchestra and was acknowledged for his outstanding achievement by The House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

As an orchestral flutist, Seth has performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Arbor Opera Theater, the American Institute of Musical Studies Festival Orchestra in Graz, the Callithumpian Consort, the Freisinger Chamber Orchestra, the Discovery Ensemble (of which he was a founding flutist), and is currently the piccoloist of the West Michigan Symphony. The Tamino Duo, which he founded in 2008 with flutist Benjamin Smolen, has given performances throughout the United States and Europe and has been featured in the Boston Globe, on Cambridge Community Television, and on WGBH-Boston with flutist Fenwick Smith.

Currently a student of Amy Porter, Seth is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance at the University of Michigan where he serves as the Graduate Student Instructor for the flute studio and is the recipient of a full Rackham Graduate School Fellowship. Seth holds a Master of Music with Honors from the New England Conservatory and Bachelor of Music degrees in Flute Performance and Music Education from the University of Kentucky. While at UK, Seth was the recipient of the O. Helton Memorial Acres Scholarship and Mildred Lewis Music Education Scholarship. His past teachers include Paula Robison, Fenwick Smith and Gordon Cole.