Julia Barnett: Flute
Praised for her rich tone and fluid technique throughout the instrument’s range, flutist Julia Barnett is quickly emerging as a leading musician of her generation. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Flute at UCLA, attained her Masters of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder with Christina Jennings and received her Bachelor's of Music in flute performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in 2007 as a student of Leone Buyse. Her solo concert appearances include performances with the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, and UCLA Symphony. In 2008 Ms. Barnett was named a Fenstermaker Scholar by the Musical Merit Foundation of San Diego, and most recently in Spring of 2010 named an Elaine Krown Klein Fine Arts Scholar. Her love of new music resulted in the commission and premiere of Jacob Barton’s ¡AY! ¡AY! ¡AY! ¡AY! in 2006, based on Mexican Folk Songs for Flute, Percussion and Kalimba. In Nov. 2010 she will premiere a new work by Panagiotis Theodossiou for flute, Viola, and Piano. Ms. Barnett has won scholarships to attend the Brevard Music Festival, as well as the Pierre Monteux School of Orchestra and Conducting. As of late she has been lucky enough to spend the last three summers working as a Fellow and Lifeguard at the Perlman Music Program. Other hobbies include surfing and all things related to the ocean.
April Cap: Oboe
Originally from a small Chicago suburb, April began playing oboe at a very young age. After winning several musical and academic awards and performing in various ensembles, she received a BM in Oboe Performance from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana studying with Dr. Nancy Ambrose-King. April went on to receive her MM with a full scholarship from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles where she studied with Dr. Joel Timm. April is now an active orchestral and chamber music performer and freelance musician in the Los Angeles area and abroad. Her playing has taken her all over the world and also right at home in the LA recording studios. For the past 8 years, April has worked with internationally acclaimed Greek new age artist Yanni, the sole oboist in his renowned orchestra. She has been featured on several of Yanni’s albums and DVD releases. She has also performed several Broadway shows such as Wicked and Camelot. April has worked with artists/producers such as Josh Groban, Joss Stone, David Steward, Christian Castro, Olga Tanon, Jose Feliciano, Arturo Sandoval, Lucero, Jose Jose, Michael Kamen and John Williams. She also teaches private oboe and reed-making lessons at various schools and at her private south bay studio. When she’s not playing or teaching, April enjoys rollerblading, yoga, cooking, traveling and time with her Maltese dog, Poco.
Amy Gillick: Bassoon
Amy Gillick holds her Doctorate degree in Music from UCLA, claiming the proud distinction of becoming the first Doctor of bassoon to graduate from UCLA. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in music from California State University, Long Beach and her Master’s degree from UCLA.
As an educator, Amy teaches Music History and Music Theory at the Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA). Amy has also taught Music History, Music Appreciation, bassoon, and 20th Century Music at Concordia University in Irvine. At UCLA, she taught in the Cluster Program, designing innovative multi-disciplinary arts courses and well as music appreciation and woodwind methods courses. She has taught bassoon at the Idyllwild Summer Arts program since 2009. Amy also actively teaches reed making master classes and holds a private studio of bassoon and saxophone students in Los Angeles and Orange County.
In addition to playing principal bassoon with the Bakersfield Symphony, Amy is also a member of the Santa Monica Symphony. She performs with many other orchestras in Southern California, having played with the Pasadena Symphony, Long Beach Opera, among others. She performs frequently with the Santa Monica Symphony Wind Quintet.
Amy Gillick has had the inspiring opportunity to perform with some of the most highly acclaimed artists of our time, including Laurendo Almeida, Christopher Parkening, Joseph Kalichstein, Robert Levin, Edo DeWaart, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Steven Hough, Joseph Silverstein, David Zinman, Hugh Wolff, Edgar Meyer, Joshua Bell, Richard Carpenter, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, among others.
Brian Shetland: French Horn
Brian Shetland is a freelance horn player, private instructor, music arranger and french horn repair technician. He has performed throughout southern California in the Torrance Symphony, the Riverside County Philharmonic, Westchester Symphony, Capistrano Valley Symphony, Rio Hondo Orchestra, the Golden State Pops Orchestra, Downey Symphony, Carson Symphony, the L.A. Jewish Symphony and the Peninsula Symphony. Brian is a founding member of the french horn sextet Lessix, the Resonance Brass Quintet, and the Pacific Brass Ensemble. He is also a member of the Long Beach Brassworks. Brian has taught French horn privately for over fourteen years and has taught at the Orange County High School of the Arts for the past seven years. He has studied with Jim Atkinson, Joe Meyer and Lisa Cherry. He attended California State University Long Beach were he received a Bachelor of Music with a concentration in performance.
Virginia Figueiredo: Clarinet
Los Angeles-based clarinetist, Virginia Figueiredo has performed for audiences worldwide. She has been featured as soloist, and as an orchestral and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. Recently, she has performed and administered clarinet workshops in Venezuela’s acclaimed El Systema music educational program. In 2010, Dr. Figueiredo made her first concert appearance in Taiwan at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. Dr. Figueiredo’s performances have been broadcasted throughout many venues including the Portuguese radio, Antena 2, Portugal’s television, RTP 2, and here in the United States at LACMA’s Sundays Live concert series.
As a scholar, she has received awards from the most notable institutions in both the United States and Europe. These include generous endowments from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Dr. Figueiredo has been awarded top prizes in clarinet and chamber music competitions in Portugal and in the US, such as the RDP Competition for chamber music, and the CSUF and UCLA Concerto competitions. She frequently writes music articles for diverse newspapers and magazines, including the Portuguese newspaper Diario de Coimbra. In her MM and DMA dissertations, Dr. Figueiredo examined works by Portuguese composers written before and after the Portuguese revolt against its fascist dictatorship between 1933-1974.
Dr. Figueiredo received her Bachelor of Arts from the Lisbon Superior School of Music, her Master of Music from CSU, Fullerton, and her Doctorate of Musical Arts from UCLA. She studied under Gary Gray, Håkan Rosengren, Nuno Silva, Carlos Alves, and many others. Dr. Figueiredo is adjunct faculty at the Cypress College, California, and a clarinet freelancer throughout the Los Angeles and Orange County areas. She is a member of the Spirati, and of Divan Consort, with whom she performed throughout Portugal and Turkey in 2010.