UA News

The February concerts will include performances from standout music students.

The best talents of the University of Arizona School of Music will perform in this year's President's Concert, held Feb. 6 and 7 at Crowder Hall on the UA campus. The concert will feature the Arizona Symphony Orchestra and student soloists who won the highly competitive President's Concert Competition.

Featured on this 37th annual President's Concert are the competition winners, mezzo-soprano Robyn Rocklein, saxophonist Jonathan Wintringham, pianist Kyung Lee and cellist Garrick Woods. These students were selected from the vocal, wind/brass/percussion, keyboard and string areas of the School of Music. They represent the depth of talent at the school, shining in two performances with the Arizona Symphony Orchestra.

Following past years' tradition, the orchestra's Music Director and Conductor Thomas Cockrell will share the podium with graduate student conductors. In their second year as fellows of the James E. Rogers Institute for Orchestral and Opera Conducting, Keitaro Harada and Jackson Warren will join Maestro Cockrell for this special event.

The Arizona Symphony Orchestra will open the concert with Ravel's "Danse Générale" from "Daphnis et Chloé" under Cockrell's direction. The podium will then be turned over to Warren and mezzo-soprano Robyn Rocklein for Mozart's aria "Parto, parto" from his opera seria, "La Clemenza di Tito," composed to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, as King of Bohemia. Woods will then take the stage, performing the first movement of Édouard Lalo's Cello Concerto in D minor under the direction of Harada.

After the intermission, pianist Kyung Lee will perform the finale from 19th-century composer Edward MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, conducted by Harada. The final student soloist, saxophonist Jonathan Wintringham, will then perform Takashi Yoshimatsu's Concerto for Saxophone, titled "Cyber-Bird," a triple concerto for saxophone, piano and percussion, with Warren conducting.

To conclude the eclectic program, Cockrell will once again take the podium and direct the Arizona Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" Overture-Fantasy.

Kyung Lee

Kyung Lee, born in South Korea, gave her debut concert, "New Great Pianists," in Seoul in 2004. Following that, she came to the United States for her master's degree at the University of Northern Iowa in 2006. As a scholarship student of Sean Botkin, Lee received various assistantship awards. She is currently a graduate teaching assistant for the UA opera program, enrolled in the D.M.A program in piano performance and studies with Professor Tannis Gibson.

Robyn Rocklein

Mezzo-soprano Robyn Rocklein has appeared as a soloist in Germany, Austria and the United States. She has sung with the AIMS Festival Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra and the Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Rocklein, a 2009 Fine Arts Medici scholar and Igor Gorin Memorial Award recipient, placed as a finalist in the 2009 Meistersinger Competition in Graz, Austria, and as a semifinalist in the 2008 Charles A. Lynam International Vocal Competition.

She won the 2009 Marguerite Ough Graduate Womens' Vocal Competition and the 2009 Arizona NATS Auditions Master's Division. Rocklein studied theatre arts at the University of Nebraska and is finishing her master of music degree at the UA, where she is a student of Kristin Dauphinais.

Jonathan Wintringham

Saxophonist Jonathan Wintringham made his professional debut at the age of 17 as a soloist with the New Jersey Greater Shore Symphonic Band. Wintringham has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan.

As a soloist, he has won numerous first-place prizes in competitions including the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition in 2009, and the Tucson Chamber Orchestra's Young Artists Concerto Competition in 2008. He spent six months in Tokyo researching the role of the saxophone in Japan.

An advocate of contemporary music, he is constantly working with composers to commission and premiere new works. Wintringham is currently pursuing a bachelor of music degree in saxophone performance at the UA under the instruction of concert saxophonist Timothy McAllister.

Garrick Woods

Garrick Woods, a native of Tucson, comes from a very musical family. Woods has studied music from his earliest years including the violin at age four and cello at age five.

In addition to his formal study he has participated in workshops and master classes with world-class musicians including Janos Starker, Carter Brey and Yo-Yo Ma.

With his group, the Sonora String Quartet, Woods participated in the 2006 Yehudi Menuhin Chamber Music Seminar in San Francisco. The quartet also performed on the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music concert series.

Woods has performed as a member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the Missouri Symphony Orchestra.

He has also played in the Tucson Pops Orchestra and the Tucson Chamber Orchestra. Wood's interest in music has led to other musical pursuits besides the cello. He studied trombone with UA professor Tom Ervin, and also participated in ensembles on trumpet. Currently Woods is pursuing a Master of Music degree in cello performance and music theory at the UA where he is a student of Prof. Mark Votapek.

More information about the President's Concert and the student performers is available on the UA School of Music Web site.