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Winds Faculty
Matthew Allison, Department Chair
Flute
b. Maryville, Illinois
B.M., University of Louisville
M.M., University of Kansas
D.M.A., University of KansasDr. Matthew Allison is the Flute Instructor and Head of the Wind Department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music. During his Doctorate of Musical Arts and Masters of Music studies at the University of Kansas, he studied with flutist David Fedele. His Bachelors degree is from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, where he studies with Louisville Orchestra principal flutist Kathleen Karr and piccoloist Don Gottlieb. Other significant teachers include Marie Garritson-Jureit, Cheryl Sabo, and Wendy Hymes.
Dr. Allison has performed extensively in a variety of classical and contemporary venues and is regarded as a promoter of new music. These experiences include performing with members of the Louisville Orchestra and the Louisville String Quartet, soloing with the Alton Symphony, giving guest recitals at MacMurray College's Arts Alive Fine Arts Festival and other universities, performing Baroque flute at the Amherst Early Music Festival, jamming with jazz trombonist Delfayo Marsalis, and collaborating with other artists like Art! Art! Barking Dog Dance Company and the KU University Dance Company.
In May and June 2005, he toured China with the KU Wind Ensemble, performing in Shenyang, Chengdu, and Kunming in both chamber and large ensemble settings. His woodwind trio was featured at the Grand Hotel Lijiang Opera House in Kunming. In 2008, Dr. Allison conducted the world premier of Kip Haaheim's Eclipse of the Moon for Flute Choir at the National Flute Association annual convention.
He recently performed and taught at the University of Louisville, The College of New Jersey, Bellarmine University, Washburn University, Luther College, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis. His past teaching positions include the University of Louisville Preparatory Department (flute teacher), the Midwestern Music Camp (woodwind specialist), and the University of Kansas (graduate teaching assistant for Flute and for Bands). Dr. Allison leads clinics for concert and marching band wind sections, and honor festival audition preparations. In addition to teaching music, he is a yoga and fitness instructor, promoting and teaching wellness for musicians.
Rainer Beckmann
Recorder
b. Wuppertal, Germany
Teaching and Performance Diplomas, Utrecht School of the Arts, NetherlandsRainer Beckmann, the director of the new Early Music Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, is a graduate of the Utrecht School of the Arts, Netherlands, where he studied recorder with Heiko ter Schegget, Baldrick Deerenberg, and Marion Verbruggen. Mr. Beckmann is a first-prize winner at the Holland Open Recorder Festival Competition and the Performance Contest of the Dutch Concert Agency. As a founding member of Il Flauto Giocoso and the Landini Consort, he has performed in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy, and Israel. In Brazil, he has taught recorder and music history at the State University of Ceará and collaborated with the ensembles Ad Libitum and Syntagma that specialize in early music, as well as Brazilian popular and traditional music. Recent engagements include performances and recordings with Ensemble La Bernardinia, the Ridotto Ensemble, Tempesta di Mare, the New Amsterdam Recorder Trio, Early Music New York, and Fuma Sacra. Mr. Beckmann is the director of the Greater Philadelphia Area Recorder Academy. At the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, he will be developing the school’s first recorder class as well as providing opportunities for students to learn more about historical performance practice.
Oboist Geoffrey Deemer has been principal oboe of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia since 2002. He has also performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony. From 1997-2001, Mr. Deemer was the principal oboe of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.
"Among the most consummate musical artists" in the region, Mr. Deemer has performed concerti with a number of ensembles and orchestras, including the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Ballet and Schola Nova. He also played solo concerts of Bach cantatas and orchestral suites during his summers at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. A recording of his solo performance of Philadelphia composer Romeo Cascarino's Blades of Grass, under the baton of Joann Falletta, will be released by Naxos in early 2007.
Mr. Deemer received his early training at the Longly School of Music (Cambridge, MA) and the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston). He spent summers studying at Tanglewood. In 2001, he graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where he held the Friends of Curtis Fellowship.
A student of Richard Woodhams, Mr. Deemer has performed with the world's best conductors including James Levine, Christoph Eschenbach, Kurt Mazur, Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Mstislav Rostropovich, André Previn, Sir Neville Marriner, David Zinman, Robert Spano, Hans Vonk, Otto Werner-Muller, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Marin Alsop, Yuri Temirkanov and Jahja Ling.
Mr. Deemer has been teaching oboe performance at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music since 2005 and joined the faculty of Franklin & Marshall College in 2006.
Doris Hall-Gulati
Clarinet
b. Lancaster, Pennsylvania
B.M., The Peabody Conservatory of Music
M.M., The University of Michigan
After being awarded First Prize in the Louise D. McMahon International Music Competition, Doris gave her New York debut, performing the world premiere of John Carbon's Rhapsody For Clarinet and Orchestra, at Avery Fischer Hall, Lincoln Center, with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Symphony. About the performance, Allan Kozinn of The New York Times wrote, "...a demandingly agile clarinet line, played with both virtuosity and nuance by Doris J. Hall-Gulati, wove its way through a variegated orchestra fabric." Ms. Hall-Gulati made her Carnegie (Weill) Hall debut playing with the Alaria Chamber Ensemble, and her Merkin Hall debut, premiering Thea Musgrave's Ring Out Wild Bells, with the Philadelphia Trio. Doris can be heard on the MMC, Naxos and New World record labels. About the recent Naxos recording of Hansen's Nymphs and Satyr Ballet Suite, Paul Cook of classicstoday.com, was moved to say, "I was particularly taken (by) Doris Hall-Gulati on the clarinet."
An advocate for new music, Doris has performed in music festivals and on multiple series as soloist and chamber musician, throughout the US as well as China and Russia. Doris will be returning to China this July touring six cities as performer and teacher. Because if this latest trip, she has been invited as a Visiting Professor at the Lanzhou Multicultural University. In August 2007, she was in Saranac Lake, NY performing on the Bela Bartok Cabin Series to help raise money for the restoration of the home in which Bartok spent the last summer of his life. Most recently, she performed with Beyond Ourselves, a group of chamber musicians who perform to help raise monies for peace keeping efforts in the several parts of the world. Doris finds it very important to raise awareness about the millions of people who are much less fortunate.
Doris earned her Bachelor's degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and she received a Masters in Music studying on a graduate fellowship from the University of Michigan. Doris is a Phi Kappa Lambda. Her principal instructors have been Ignatius Gennusa, Loren Kitt, and Fred Ormand, and she was introduced to chamber music by Karen Tuttle, whom she greatly admired.
Ms. Hall-Gulati is Principal Clarinet in The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia as well as Bass Clarinetist in The Opera Company of Philadelphia. She is on the faculties of Franklin and Marshall College and The Pennsylvania Academy of Music, both located in Lancaster, PA.
Ryan Kauffman
Saxophone
b. Asunción, Paraguay
Ryan Kauffman, saxophone, a native of Lancaster, holds music degrees from Eastern Mennonite University and West Chester University. He currently leads his own jazz trio and quartet, and has performed throughout the Central PA region, including appearances at Bethlehem Musikfest, Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz, Lancaster Jazz Festival, and Rehoboth Beach Jazz Festival. In addition to appearances with noted jazz musicians and ensembles, Mr. Kauffman has also performed with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and the Manhattan Saxophone Ensemble. He has been a music educator at the Westtown School, the Darlington Fine Arts Center, and West Chester University.
Rodney Mack
Trumpet
b. New Orleans, Louisianna
B.M. Curtis Institute of MusicBorn in New Orleans, Rodney Mack studied classical trumpet with his cousin, Wynton Marsalis. Referred to as a "trumpet prodigy," Mr. Mack made his solo debut at the age of 15 with the New Orleans Symphony. After having won various solo competitions, he received national attention at the age of 19 performing as soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra. He has also performed as soloist with the San Diego Symphony, the Tenerife Symphony, the Orquestra Sinfonica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and many orchestras throughout the United States and Europe.
Mr. Mack has made several world premiere recordings. In 1998 he made the premiere, critically acclaimed recording of Franz Waxman's "Carmen Fantasy for Trumpet and Orchestra" with conductor Lawrence Foster on the Koch International record label. Mr. Mack's debut solo trumpet CD, "Spirit of the Trumpeter," (Albany Records) has been dubbed a "best seller." He can be heard as soloist and principal trumpet on more than 30 different recordings with labels such as Decca, Naxos, Koch International Classics and Albany Records.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Mack has been invited to give master classes at the Juilliard School, the North Carolina School for the Arts, the National Trumpet Competition and the International Trumpet Guild Conference. He has also been invited to teach at the Eastern Music Festival and the Interlochen Music Academy.
