Bassoon

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Michael Jones began performing at a young age, singing the lead role in Amahl and the Night Visitors from ages 10-12 for the Cimarron Circuit Opera Company in Norman, OK. He began to study the bassoon in junior high school, and received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University, where he held an Associate Instructorship. Mr. Jones subsequently received a Fulbright Grant to study bassoon performance and pedagogy at the Sydney Conservatorium, where he received a Graduate Diploma in 2006.

His teachers have included Carl Rath, Andrew Barnes, Arthur Weisberg, and Kim Walker. Mr. Jones has played in orchestras in the U.S. and Australia, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, has performed many solo and chamber recitals, and is a founding member of the August Wind Quintet. For their 2010-2011 season, he joined the Arkansas Symphony as Contrabassoonist.

Flute

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Ruth Ann Ritchie studied flute at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Cleveland Music School Settlement before receiving a Bachelor of Music with Distinction in Flute Performance from Indiana University, studying with Thomas Robertello. She continued her studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with Alexa Still, receiving a Graduate Diploma in 2006.

Ms. Ritchie has played in orchestras and chamber groups in the U.S. and Australia, and has been on the faculty at the Indiana University Summer Music Clinic, the Northern Arizona University Summer Music Camp and the Texas A&M Commerce Summer Festival. An active freelancer in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, Ms. Ritchie maintains a large private studio and is the founding flutist of the August Wind Quintet.  This summer she will appear as a guest panelist at the National Flute Association’s annual convention, speaking on creative careers for musicians.  In addition, she has recently joined the Board of the Lewisville Lake Symphony.

At an Astraios concert, we can feel ourselves in the right time and place.  We are surrounded by beautiful architecture, welcomed by a long tradition of hospitality.  The musicians sense the luck of their involvement and radiate happiness and excitement.  They know they’re on hand for the real thing.  The crowd is informal but charged with expectation.  Many have been to an Astraios event before.

So, in gorgeous acoustic space, with a view of the surrounding mountainside, some of the best young musicians in the country bring their best effort—and CAN bring their best effort because their first business it to ease the way for everybody.  With the ability that mastery gives to make a thing simple, they show us some of what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and how.  We are sure to learn something we didn’t know about the music, the musicians, our own ability to enjoy the performance.  As with anything intimidating—and we know that classical music can be intimidating—a little knowledge removes the problem.  One interaction at a time, the understanding dawns on us:  these people are musicians because it’s FUN!  They’ve learned how to enjoy themselves on many levels and with many capacities all at once!  And they’ve come all this way to show us how it works, what all the happiness is about.  They show us, they lead us through it, they perform for us with beauty, grace and meaning, and THEN. . . then we all have cookies and fruit.  We mill around together, prolonging the pleasure of the experience, satisfied with the luck that brought us together.  What, I ask you, could be a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon?

Every once in a while the stars align.  It’s just foolish not to be there when they do.

Carolyn Ritchie serves as Astraios Project Advisor.  An award winning writer, her first book of poems, Holy Order, was published in 2010.

Harp

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Louisa Ellis Woodson has been playing the harp since age nine. She holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Harp Performance from Indiana University, where she studied with Susann McDonald. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2008 at Manhattan School of Music in New York.Ms. Woodson is currently the Principal Harpist with the Waco Symphony Orchestra.
 
She has participated in many types of theater productions, including ballet, opera, and musical theater, most recently appearing in the New York Musical Theater Festival. She enjoys collaborating with other musicians, including flute, violin, cello, voice, organ, and trumpet, to name a few. Her solo work has included recitals and extensive freelancing.

Viola

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Alicia Valoti has recently returned to the United States after studying several years abroad. She completed her Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in 2004. In 2005, she received a Performance Diploma in Orchestral and Chamber Studies from the Scuola di Alto Perfezionamento Musicale (Saluzzo, Italy) and in 2007, her Master of Music degree from the Conservatorio “Luigi Cheubini” de Firenze (Florence, Italy).
 
Her primary teachers have included Augusto Vismara, Diemut Poppen, Neal Gripp and Douglas McNabney.Now residing in Houston, Texas, Ms. Valoti is an adjunct professor of music at Lone Star College and is an active freelancer. She will begin further graduate studies in 2009 at Rice University.

Flute

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Emily Hoppe McKay is Assistant Professor of Flute at Northern Arizona University, principal flutist of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, and a member of the Kokopelli Chamber Winds. Formerly, Ms. McKay served as Associate Instructor of Flute and Chancellor’s Doctoral Fellow at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, where she performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Columbus, IN Symphony Orchestra, and the Indiana University Summer Festival Orchestra.
 
Ms. McKay is an active recitalist and her recent collaborations include concerts with guitarist Espen Jensen at Indiana University and the Waldron Center for the Performing Arts in Bloomington, IN. In addition, Ms. McKay has recorded as the piccoloist of Philharmonia à Vent on the Klavier Records label.Ms. McKay is a graduate of Penn State University, Carnegie Mellon University, and is currently working to complete the Doctor of Music, Flute Performance and Music Literature degree at Indiana University. Her teachers have included Thomas Robertello, Jeanne Baxtresser, Alberto Almarza, Jeffrey Khaner, and Eleanor Duncan Armstrong.

Baritone

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Robert Jones, Associate Professor of Voice at North Dakota State University, has appeared as soloist with varied ensembles in the United States, Canada and Bolivia, including the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir and Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra and the Bolivian Chamber Music Society. He has appeared in leading and supporting roles with the Des Moines Metro Opera Company, Opera Oklahoma and the Fargo Moorhead Opera.

Active as a recitalist, Dr. Jones has performed numerous solo and chamber music recitals throughout North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Indiana. His research interests include 20th Century art song and text music relationships, and he has presented numerous lecture-performances on 20th century vocal literature at both regional and national CMS Conferences.

He is a member of College Music Society, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Lyrica Society and Pi Kappa Lambda. Dr. Jones received his DMA degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1991 and has taught at Hesston, KS College, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, East Central, OK University, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He has been a faculty member at NDSU since 1995.