Instrument & Voice Festivals at Interlochen Arts Academy

Victoria Chiang

Artist-Faculty Member of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Coordinator of Viola Deparment; Distinguished Artist & Concert Violist at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, Mercer University 

Victoria Chiang is an artist-faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory of Music where she serves as coordinator of the viola department. Her most recent recording of the viola concertos of Stamitz and Hoffmeister was released for Naxos to critical acclaim. Other recordings include Pleyel Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola also on Naxos as well as a recording of Shostakovich and Roslavets Viola sonatas. Career highlights include appearances with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, Romanian State Philharmonics of Constantsa and Tirgu Muresh, Duluth Superior Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Acadiana Symphony and the National Gallery Orchestra in Washington DC. Ms. Chiang has appeared as guest artist with the Guarneri, Takács, Tokyo, American, Arianna and Pro Arte string quartets and is a founding member of the Aspen String Trio, an internationally touring string trio. Ms Chiang spends her summers at the Aspen Music Festival as well as other music festivals, and teaches with Becca Albers at the McDuffie Center.

Wesley Baldwin

Professor of Cello, University of Tennessee

Cellist Wesley Baldwin performs throughout the United States and Europe as soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist he has appeared with the Laredo Philharmonic, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Symphony of the Mountains, and the Aberdeen, Bemidji, Bryan, Chattanooga, Florence, Johnson City, Hot Springs, Knoxville, La Porte, Oak Ridge, Manchester, New River Valley, Salisbury, Wintergreen, and Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestras, among others. His passionate and charismatic performances have garnered much critical acclaim.

An advocate for great music from all eras, Mr. Baldwin is one of the only performers of several little known and new concerti for cello, including recently those by Wagenseil, Jacob T.V., Behzad Ranjbaran, and Alan Shulman. His recording of music for cello by Alan Shulman, released by Albany records in 2010, enjoyed widespread critical acclaim. He has also recorded for the Naxos, Zyode, and Innova labels. His most recent CD release, his fourth on the Centaur label, features the chamber music of Arthur Honegger.

Wesley was the founder of the Plymouth String Quartet, with whom he was a top prize-winner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition. He was also cellist of the James Piano Quartet for five years, with residencies at both Sweet Briar College and the Wintergreen Festival. Solo and chamber music performing honors Baldwin has received include the Prix Mercure, Homer Ulrich Awards, and a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Performing Artist Fellowship.

As a member and principal cellist of the New World Symphony, Baldwin performed with many of the world's great conductors and toured Japan, Scotland, England, Argentina, and Brazil. His orchestral colleagues there selected him as the recipient of the New World Symphony's Community Board Award for artistic integrity and leadership.

Dr. Baldwin has performed chamber music at the Aspen, Cazenovia, Hot Springs, Ojai, Sandpoint, Mainly Mozart, May in Miami, Skaneateles, and Sub-tropics Music Festivals, and internationally in Italy, France, Monte Carlo, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom and Costa Rica.

In the summers he performs and teaches at the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival, the ARIA International Academy, the Cincinnati Young Artists Cello Workshop, and at the Wintergreen Festival, where he holds the Leonard Rose Memorial chair as principal cellist of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, and also serves on the faculty and as Associate Director of the Wintergreen Summer Music Academy.

A passionate teacher, Wesley has taught at the University of Maryland and Florida International University, where he was artist-in-residence with the Plymouth Quartet. He currently serves as the youngest Professor of Cello at the University of Tennessee, where he received the Chancellor's Award for Professional Promise. His former students play and teach throughout the United States.

Dr. Baldwin founded and directs the Tennessee Cello Workshop, an annual three-day gathering of more than 170 cellists of all ages from throughout the United States held each February. His interest in education has also led him to serve as Conductor of the Knoxville Youth Chamber Orchestra since 2006.

Wesley lives in Knoxville with his wife (soprano Melisa Barrick Baldwin), and three wonderful children.

Tracy Rowell

Associate Professor of Bass, Oberlin Conservatory

Tracy Rowell is Associate Professor of Bass at Oberlin Conservatory.  She performs and teaches at summer programs such as the Sarasota Music Festival, Domaine Forget, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Boston University Tanglewood Institute.  

Formerly the Assistant Principal Bass of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Tracy currently serves as Principal Bass of the Citymusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra and also performs with Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra.   A passionate chamber musician, Tracy founded the Pantheon Ensemble and has performed with ensembles such as the Cavani, St Lawrence, Jasper, and Parker Quartets.

Tracy has served on the Board of the International Society of Bassists.  Currently a Co-Chair of the ISB Next Generation/Young Bassists Program at the ISB 2025 Convention, Tracy also led ISB Young Bassists Programs in 2023, 2021, and 2019.  She led the fundraising effort in 2019 to create the George Wellington and George Vance Scholarship Fund.  Tracy is a founding member of the Project for All Gender Equality (PAGE) and League of Women Bassists (LOW-B).

Tracy received her BMus from Rice University, studying with Paul Ellison.  She received her MMus from Boston University, studying with Edwin Barker.   In 2022, she received the Performance Diploma and Teaching Certificate from the Institut International Rabbath.  

Shelly Du

Harpist, Interlochen Arts Academy alumna

Inspired by the artwork of her traditional Chinese painter and calligrapher father, harpist Shelly Du explores new colors and shapes through sound. Her drive to understand the harp’s timbre among a bigger texture informs her work as an orchestral performer, as guest with ensembles such as the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Buffalo Philharmonic. Noted on ClevelandClassical.com for her “impressive technique and musicality,” Shelly was a winner of the American Harp Society Anne Adams Award, and was a featured concerto soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra on tour. Summer festival credits include the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, the National Orchestral Institute, and the Texas Music Festival. She performed live on NPR’s From the Top and was a recipient of the program’s distinguished Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award.

Shaped by her bicultural experiences as a young immigrant, Shelly channels her creativity by fusing her classical training with contemporary possibilities. She has premiered several new works through the Cleveland Composers Guild, including Jeffrey Mumford’s caprice, written especially for her. She can be heard on recordings as a member of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, and as part of the world premiere of Dan Visconti’s Roots to Branches for CityMusic Cleveland. An active freelancer, she enjoys participating in local musical happenings, most recently performing live on Laufey’s A Night at the Symphony tour. Committed to helping others in their own musical journey, Shelly maintains an active private teaching studio.

Currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Contemporary Music Performance at Bowling Green State University, Shelly Du holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying under renowned artist Yolanda Kondonassis. She is an alumna of the Interlochen Arts Academy, where she was a student of Joan Raeburn Holland. Shelly is a member of the American Harp Journal editorial board, and is fan of art museums, long drives, and character-driven stories.

Robert Chen

Concertmaster, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Robert Chen celebrates his twenty-fifth season as concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure as the CSO concertmaster, he has been featured as soloist with many world-renowned conductors, including Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez and Bernard Haitink. He gave the CSO premiere of György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, Elliott Carter’s Violin Concerto and Witold Lutoslawski’s Chain Two, as well as the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Astral Canticle. In addition to his duties as concertmaster, Chen enjoys a solo career that takes him around the world. Most recently, he toured Europe as soloist-conductor with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, Chen has been an artistic partner of the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra since 2019.

An avid chamber musician, Chen has partnered with many of the most important musicians of our time. He is a past participant in the Marlboro Music Festival and a member of the Chen Quartet. Prior to joining the CSO, Robert Chen won first prize in the Hannover International Violin Competition. He consequently recorded Tchaikovsky’s complete violin works with NDR Orchestra of Hannover for the Berlin Klassics label.

Robert Chen began his violin studies in Taiwan at age seven. He continued his studies with Robert Lipsett when his family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1979. While in Los Angeles, he participated in Jascha Heifetz’s master classes. Chen received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki.

The Chen Quartet, comprised of the Chen family, is an integral part of his musical activity outside the CSO. They serve many of the Chicago area’s retirement communities as well as casual and formal performance venues. The Chen Quartet is featured regularly on Live from WFMT and at Bargemusic.

Gordon Hawkins

Baritone

Beginning his career singing the bel canto roles of Italian opera, Gordon Hawkins drew early praise from critics like Lon Tuck of the Washington Post, who pronounced him to be “one of the most promising young singers of the decade.”

Since then, Gordon Hawkins has been critically acclaimed throughout the world for his in-depth interpretations and luxuriant baritone voice. A winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the George London Grant recipient, he has been praised for his rich lyricism as well as his dramatic instinct. He is a winner of the Luciano Pavarotti Competition and in 2006 was honored as the Washington National Opera “Artist of the Year.”

Recent engagements include Amonasro in Aida with Houston Grand Opera and Cincinnati Opera; a gala concert for the Supreme Court Justices in Washington, D.C.; the title role in Macbeth with Seattle Opera; Tonio in I Pagliacci with Atlanta Opera; Porgy in Porgy and Bess with Washington National Opera and Michigan Opera Theatre; High Priest in Samson et Dalila with Opera Ontario; Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffman in Tokyo, and Tonio/Alfio in Manitoba Opera’s double bill of I Pagliacci/Cavalleria Rusticana.

He can be heard as George Milton on the first recording of Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men with the Houston Grand Opera on Albany Records, and on the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts recording of Simon Boccanegra in the title role.

Ruby Amanfu

GRAMMY Nominee, Recording Artist, Songwriter, Producer

Ruby Amanfu is a Ghana-born, Nashville-based GRAMMY, Soul Train and BET Award nominated Songwriter and Recording Artist. Having written and recorded music since her teens, Amanfu has released 11 critically acclaimed solo studio albums and her songs have appeared in shows such as “The Morning Show,” “Station 19,” “Little Fires Everywhere,” “Community,” "Nashville," "Pretty Little Liars," and in films such as "The Secret Life of Bees," "Hope Springs" and “The Photograph.”

Her accolades include co-writing two Grammy-nominated Songs of the Year, "Hard Place” for the artist H.E.R. and “A Beautiful Noise” for artists Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile.

Amanfu sings the theme song of the popular series, The Chosen, and her fluid vocals can be heard throughout all seasons. Amanfu’s vocals also appear on Beyoncé's song, “Don’t Hurt Yourself” on the Grammy-winning album, Lemonade, on Norah Jones’ album, Pick Me Up off the Floor, and alongside Jack White on the White Stripes singer-guitarist's solo LPs, Blunderbuss and Lazaretto, highlighted by a performance of their collaboration, "Love Interruption" at the 55th Grammy Awards.

Outside of her vast musical career, Amanfu is a community leader, chef, wife and stepmother.

Jerry Blackstone

Professor of Emeritus of Music, University of Michigan

GRAMMY Award winner Jerry Blackstone is a leading conductor and highly respected conducting pedagogue.  Now emeritus professor of conducting, he served on the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance for thirty years where as director of choirs he led the graduate program in choral conducting and oversaw the University’s eleven choirs.   In February 2006, he received two GRAMMY Awards (“Best Choral Performance” and “Best Classical Album”) as chorusmaster for the critically acclaimed Naxos recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The Naxos recording of Milhaud’s monumental L’Orestie d’Eschyle, on which Blackstone served as chorusmaster, was nominated for a 2015 GRAMMY Award (“Best Opera Recording”). Opera Magazine reviewer Tim Ashley wrote: “the real stars, though, are the University of Michigan’s multiple Choirs, who are faced with what must be some of the most taxing choral writing in the entire operatic repertory. Their singing has tremendous authority and beauty, while the shouts and screams of Choéphores are unnerving in the extreme. Their diction is good too: the occasions when we don’t hear the words are Milhaud’s responsibility, rather than theirs. It’s an extraordinary achievement, and utterly mesmerizing.”

The University of Michigan Chamber Choir, conducted by Blackstone, performed by special invitation at the inaugural conference in San Antonio of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO) and presented three enthusiastically received performances in New York City at the National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).  As conductor of the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club from 1988-2002, Professor Blackstone led the ensemble in performances at ACDA national and division conventions and on extensive concert tours throughout Australia, Eastern and Central Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States.

In 2017, NCCO presented him with its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Membership Award and, in 2006, for “significant contributions to choral music,” he received the ACDA-Michigan chapter’s Maynard Klein Lifetime Achievement Award.  From 2003-2015, Dr. Blackstone served as conductor and music director of the University Musical Society (UMS) Choral Union, a large community/university chorus that frequently appears with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and the Ann Arbor Symphony and presents yearly performances of Handel’s Messiah and other major works for chorus and orchestra. Choirs prepared by Blackstone have appeared under the batons of Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Leonard Slatkin, Hans Graf, Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams, Helmuth Rilling, James Conlon, Nicholas McGegan, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Peter Oundjian, and Yitzak Perlman.

Professor Blackstone is considered one of the country’s leading conducting teachers, and his students have been first place award winners and finalists in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions of ACDA’s biennial National Choral Conducting competition.  His 2016 rehearsal techniques DVD, Did You Hear That? (GIA Publications) deals with the conductor’s decision-making process during rehearsal.  Santa Barbara Music Publishing distributes Blackstone’s acclaimed educational DVD, Working with Male Voices and also publishes the Jerry Blackstone Choral Series.

Blackstone is an active guest conductor and workshop presenter and has appeared in forty-two states as well as New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Sicily. In the summer, he leads the Adult Choir Camp and the Choral Conducting Institute at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Prior to coming to the University of Michigan in 1988, Dr. Blackstone served on the music faculties of Phillips University in Oklahoma, Westmont College in California, and Huntington University in Indiana.

Casey Robards

Music Director, Pianist, Vocal Coach

Korean  adoptee, Casey Robards (SuhJung Ahn) is a music director, pianist and vocal coach known for her sensitive musicality, expert collaborative skill, stylistic versatility and expressive conducting.  Sought after as a collaborative artist, she has given recitals throughout the United States, Europe, Central and South America and Asia.

Robards maintains an active recital schedule, including separate touring programs with Karen Slack, Kenneth Overton, and LaToya Lain promoting justice and healing through art song and spirituals by Black composers. She has been dedicated to the performance, research and promotion of music by Black composers and writers for nearly three decades, with a focus on the Negro spiritual as well as places of intersection between gospel, jazz and classical music. Her latest CD releases include “What Dreams We Have (Lexicon Classics)” a project of art song settings of the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar with baritone Kenneth Overton, which debuted at #10 on Billboard Chart for Top Classical Music Album, and “Contemplations (Navona Records)” with Bernhard Scully, formerly of the Canadian Brass. She has also recorded albums with Fangye Sun (violin) with Blue Griffin and Sara Fraker (oboe) with MSR Classics.

As conductor, in 2024-2025, Robards debuts with Kentucky Opera (All is Calm), Indianapolis Opera (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Opera Columbus (Le Nozze di Figaro), El Paso Opera (Bon Appétit) and Soo Opera (Susannah).She has worked as repetiteur for Santa Fe Opera, New Orleans Opera, and has conducted Three Decembers, The Scarf (South Bend Lyric Opera); Die Zauberflöte, La Bohème, La Traviata, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica (Bay View, Michigan), Carmen (Wichita, Kansas) and Water Riot in Beta: A Cyberpunk Rock Opera (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago). Robards is Music Director of Ensemble Concert 21, a chamber group devoted to the performance of contemporary music and the mentorship of young and emerging composers.

Dr. Robards is the foremost expert on John D. Carter, the subject of her dissertation. Her faculty affiliations include University of Illinois (current), Indiana University, Oberlin Conservatory, and Bay View Music Festival (2008-2023). She has been an invited speaker at the Cincinnati Song Initiative Fellowship of the Song, and served as a panelist for the Dallas Hart Institute for Women Conductors. Alongside Dr. Everett McCorvey, Kenneth Overton and LaToya Lain, she presents workshops and lectures to faculty and students who are interested in learning more about the performance practice and history of Negro Spirituals. Robards received the Henri Kohn Memorial Award for outstanding achievement at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Robards chairs the Sacred in Opera Initiative for the National Opera Association and has been active in IKCAS, NATS, and CMS.  She has twice served on the Advisory Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts (Opera) and is a Voting Member of the Recording Academy. Robards was selected to participate in the 2024 International Gugak Workshop in Seoul, Korea. 

Ashley Hall-Tighe

Soloist and Ensemble Musician, Trumpet

Ashley Hall-Tighe is an internationally renowned musician, educator and certified life coach. With her exuberant and relatable approach and her passion for building authentic and meaningful connections, Ashley enjoys engaging audiences as a soloist and ensemble musician, facilitating coaching courses, working with individuals in her private coaching practice, and leading professional and personal development workshops.

Ashley’s work as a soloist has taken her around the world. From the Sydney Opera House to the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China, she radiates an “energetic joy” (Rochester Post Bulletin) through her “warm tone, stunning technique and expressive artistry” (Cincinnati Enquirer). Performing as a soloist both with ensembles and as a recitalist, 2024 highlights include solo performances with the Roanoke Symphony and Rock Hill Symphony as well as recitals in Hong Kong, Australia, and throughout the United States. From August 2023-May 2024, Ashley was a touring member of Canadian Brass, performing concerts around the world and entertaining audiences in the iconic and light-hearted style for which the group is known.  

In 2019, she was the first trumpeter to perform for the esteemed concert series, Matinee Musicale in Cincinnati, OH.  Of this performance, classical music critic Janelle Gelfand said, “In each piece, she displayed a warm tone, stunning technique and expressive artistry. Best of all was the joy she found in each note, and that communicated to the audience.”

Ashley is releasing her debut solo album with pianist Ana Maria Otamendi, Upcycle, in the fall of 2024. This collection of transcriptions for trumpet and piano was created by Ashley’s husband Nathaniel Tighe, and it honors the artist’s common European classical roots while presenting a vision of what might have been possible if the modern trumpet was a solo instrument at the time these works were conceived.

As an educator, Ashley combines her passion for whole-person development with a methodical approach to trumpet improvement.  Her teaching on respiratory mechanics, strategic practice planning, upper register development, as well as her personal stories of growth make her one of the most sought-after guest clinicians and educators on the trumpet.  She has served on the faculties of the University of Dayton, St. Olaf College, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

Ashley was the founding director of the Longy School of Music’s Career Coaching Program from 2019-2022, which helps students develop careers that align with their values.  She hosted a weekly speaker series at Longy, “The Multifaceted Career”, and interviewed over 60 artist leaders who embody an expansive, integrated narrative of holistic career success. Ashley is an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation and trained with Co-Active Training Institute and Graydin.  In her private coaching practice Ashley offers individual coaching sessions that empower artists to unlock their potential and align their values with their creative lives.  She is a Certified Start with Heart Facilitator through Graydin and leads professional development coaching courses for institutions seeking cultural transformation.  

Ashley co-owns Maple Rise Music, a Cincinnati-based publishing company she founded with Nathaniel Tighe. She is also a Yamaha Performing Artist and endorses GR mouthpieces.

Ashley lives in Cincinnati, OH, with her husband and their two amazing children. 

Denise Tryon

Associate Professor of Horn, Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University 

Denise Tryon is the Associate Professor of Horn at Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music. Since 2019, Tryon has been the 4th horn of the famed American Horn Quartet. Previously, Tryon was fourth horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra as well as holding positions with the Detroit, Baltimore, Columbus, and New World Symphonies. She also served as the Professor of Horn at both the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music from 2018 – 2023 and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore from 2007 – 2019.

“Denise Tryon’s command of the lower register provides the strongest foundation of sound for a horn section, and yet, her sound is supple and flexible.”
—Yannick Nezet-Sequin, music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera

In 1989 Tryon graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy and in 1993 received her Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston. She received the Presidential Scholarship while in the Artist Diploma Program at NEC with the Taiyo Wind Quintet, which won the Coleman Chamber Competition and worked with great composers such as John Harbison, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, and Elliott Carter.

An active and accomplished educator, Tryon is sought after for her masterclasses. She has taught extensively in the United States, Scandinavia, Europe, Asia and South America. Beth Graham of the Baltimore Symphony and founder of the Warsaw Horn Workshops says, “In just a few seconds of listening to a student she can diagnose deep-seated problems and give immediate fixes, often with a healthy dose of humor as well. The transformations she can accomplish in just a short time are truly remarkable.” Tryon has been a featured artist at many International Horn Society (IHS) Symposiums and Regional Workshops. She has been a Featured Artist at the Nordic Hornfest, BIBA (Blekinge International Brass Academy), Warsaw Horn Workshops, CORNO Brass Music Workshop, Orford Winds, and Domaine Forget. Since 2017, she’s been a faculty member at Rafael Mendez Brass Institute in Denver, CO. Frequently she is on faculty at Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra (NYO).

Tryon released her debut solo album, SO•LOW in 2015. As a part of this album, she commissioned 4 new pieces for low horn and piano. Said in a review by Gramophone Magazine “Tryon plays these works with sonorous fluidity and dexterity, ending with a bit of captivating acrobatics.” The American Prize awarded her with the Special Judges Citation for “Important Commitment to the Music of Our Time”.

A Pair of Aces, a duo horn album between Tryon and Karl Pituch, Principal Horn of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was released in 2017. It won a Silver Medal in the Global Music Awards.

Hope Springs Eternal, Tryon’s second solo album, where she commissioned 6 new pieces for low horn, was released in 2020. The American Prize named Tryon and this album as the Winner for Instrumental Performance in 2022.

In 2009, Tryon founded Audition Mode, a yearly horn seminar, with Karl Pituch. The seminar focuses on the skills horn players need to be successful in orchestral auditions.

Ada Brooks

Euphonium, West Point Band

Ada Brooks is an award-winning euphonium player who joined the West Point Band in 2024. Before securing her position with the West Point Band, Brooks served as a member of the Air National Guard Band of the Southwest and the Dallas Brass Band, while also maintaining a studio of more than 30 private lesson students. She has found success in a variety of international competitions, including winning first place in the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium Student Competition, first place in the International Women's Brass Conference Mock Audition, and second place in the International Euphonium Tuba Festival Artist Solo Competition. She was named the hireable runner-up in an audition with the U.S. Air Force Band and won an audition with the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America.

Originally hailing from Montana, her love of the euphonium brought her across the country at the age of 16 to complete her high school education at the Interlochen Arts Academy. She went on to graduate summa cum laude from the University of North Texas, where she earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees in euphonium performance under the tutelage of Dr. Brian Bowman and Dr. David Childs.

In her free time, Brooks enjoys rock climbing, mountain biking with her dog, and camping in her homemade teardrop trailer.

Clara Warnaar

Percussionist, Drummer, Composer

Clara Warnaar is a percussionist, drummer and composer living in New York. A member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Clara tends towards collaborative, devised and interdisciplinary projects. As the drummer for the band Infinity Shred, Clara thrives at the intersection of rock, electronic, improvised, and composed music, and is sought out as a drummer and collaborator for having this particular versatile blend of skills.

Clara has appeared as a guest artist with the groups So Percussion, Yarn/Wire, the Bang on a Can Orchestra, Ensemble Signal, and the American Modern Ensemble. Recent projects include: "Farming" written by Ted Hearne for The Crossing, “The Force of Things” by Ash Fure, “PLACE” by Ted Hearne and Saul Williams (BAM), “Proving Up” by Missy Mazzoli (Opera Omaha), “Reich/Richter” by Steve Reich (The Shed), and “Playground/Run” by Ellen Reid. Clara has played on Broadway, on the show "Into the Woods."

As a drummer, Clara has performed on and written music for the three most recent Infinity Shred albums, and has recorded with antiphonal chamber metal band “Real Loud”. As a percussionist, she has appeared on major film soundtracks, including "White Noise" “The Fate of the Furious” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and on Grammy-nominated albums by some of today's leading new music voices.

In 2019, Clara founded the series “A New Age for New Age”, which aims to reimagine New Age music by commissioning artists to offer fresh interpretations of the confusing genre. The series has released 6 volumes featuring over 60 artists.

Clara’s own music merges field recordings, classical music and electronics, to create sound environments that evoke magic realism. To date, she has put out two solo albums.

Guest Artists to Be Announced