<p>A native Canadian, Dr. Michelle Schumann is a highly sought after solo pianist and collaborative artist both in her hometown of Austin, Texas and throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Her performances have been described as "smart, irresistible, and utterly captivating" and have been included among the years' top ten art events by the Austin American Statesman. In 2009, Schumann won the award for best instrumentalist by the Austin Critics' Table and in 2006, 2007, and 2008 won the award for Best Chamber Music Performance. In 2006, she was the top prize winner in the 2006 Janice K. Hodges Competition for Contemporary Piano Music and most recently, her performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was named the #1 Classical Arts Event of 2008 by the Austin Chronicle.</p><p>Michelle is the Artistic Director of the Austin Chamber Music Center where she leads the season programs, Austin Summer Chamber Music Festival, and all educational programs. Following her ground- breaking first season with the Austin Chamber Music Center, she won multiple awards from the Austin Critics' Table for Best Chamber Music Performance and Best Body of Work/Season. She has performed at international festivals including the Edinburg Fringe Festival, Fayetteville Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood, Round Top, Long Beach Opera Festival, Fou de Basson Festival in Angoulême, France, Bang on a Can Summer Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Modern Art, Banff Festival of Music and Sound, International Institute of Music in Munich, Germany, Victoria Bach Festival, and the Snake River Chamber Music Festival. Michelle has collaborated with leading ensembles throughout the US including the Carpe Diem Quartet, Chiara Quartet, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Austin Lyric Opera, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Austin, and Long Beach Opera. Her solo and chamber music performances have been heard on CBC Radio, KMFA and Austin's NPR affiliate, KUT. A committed teacher, Dr. Schumann serves as Associate Professor of Music and Artist in Residence at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor where she is the founder and Artistic Director of the Hillman Visiting Artists Series. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin where she studied with Anton Nel and Gregory Allen. Additionally she holds a Young Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Performance Diploma from the Vienna Conservatory.</p>
<p>A prize winner in the 1995 New York International Competition for Solo Oboists and in the 1988 Lucarelli International Solo Oboe Competition, Rebecca Henderson has performed as Acting Principal Oboist with the National Symphony and Colorado Symphony orchestras, as Guest Principal Oboist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, and the Rochester Philharmonic, and has been a member of the Colorado Symphony and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestras. She has performed as concerto soloist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony of Ecuador, and the Philharmonia Northwest Chamber Orchestra in Seattle.</p><p>Festival performances include the Aspen, Cabrillo, Bellingham, and Boulder Bach Festivals, and she is currently on the faculty of the International Festival Institute at Round Top in Texas. She has been featured on numerous film scores, including Imax films such as "Everest" and "Olympic Glory," as well as feature films and network television mini-series. As a soloist and chamber musician she has recorded for the Boston Records, Centaur, RCA Masterworks, and RC Winds labels. Her solo CD, "...is but a dream," has been hailed by critics as "exquisite... a CD that you will play over and over" (Gramophone), and "superb… a wonderfully vibrant, almost luscious sound" (American Record Guide). Ms. Henderson holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music, where she was also awarded the distinguished "Performer's Certificate." Her teachers include Richard Henderson, James Caldwell, Richard Killmer, John Mack, John de Lancie, and Grover Schiltz. Ms. Henderson serves on the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, where she has been an Associate Professor since the fall of 2001.</p>
Kristin Wolfe Jensen, world-renowned performer and teacher, has been the bassoon professor at the University of Texas at Austin since 1995, and is on the faculty of the International Festival Institute at Round Top and Principal Bassoonist with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. She has made a number of acclaimed solo and chamber music recordings. The American Record Guide reviewer said of Ms. Jensen’s solo CD Shadings, "...She has simply turned in the finest-played Bassoon recital I have ever heard... She obviously sees tone quality as the foundation for her fluent technique... It is a ravishing sound, siren-like in its attractive flair... Ms. Jensen could teach a lot about musicality to a number of famous violinists..., " Ms. Jensen has toured Europe with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, served as Acting Principal Bassoonist of the Houston Grand Opera, and has been a member of The Dallas Opera Orchestra, the Richardson Symphony, the Las Vegas Symphony, Jupiter Symphony of New York and CONTINUUM. She has performed solo recitals at several International Double Reed Society conferences, and was co-host of the 2005 conference in Austin. An esteemed pedagogue, she has given guest recitals and master classes at many major American music schools and her former UT students hold major orchestral positions and university teaching positions around the country. Her online bassoon method, Music and the Bassoon, provides an innovative, multimedia approach to learning the bassoon. Formerly, Ms. Jensen served on the faculties of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of North Texas. As a student, she won the concerto competitions at the Juilliard School of Music in 1990 where she received her MM, and the Oberlin Conservatory in 1989 as an undergraduate, which led to performances of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto, K. 191. She is co-director of the biennial Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition for young women bassoonists from the Americas, providing the largest prizes of any bassoon competition in the world.
