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Home › News & Events › News › Alumna Omaris Maldonado-Torres – Director of Orchestra & Choirs at Naples High School

Alumna Omaris Maldonado-Torres – Director of Orchestra & Choirs at Naples High School

July 13, 2020

Fred Fox School of Music alumna Omaris Maldonado-Torres (M.M. in Choral Conducting, 2017) has recently accepted the position of Director of Orchestra & Choirs at Naples High School in Naples, Florida. Congratulations, Omaris!

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The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music

1 day ago

Friday Night at Fred Fox is LIVE on YouTube!
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I don't listen to enough percussion music, this was amazing!

Mesmerizing performance! Congratulations to UARIZONA Percussion and Morris Palter!

The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music

1 day ago

River Town Duo releases a debut album featuring original works by six contemporary composers Including pulitzer prize-winning Caroline Shaw.

River Town Duo features Philip Alejo (double bass) and Claire Happel Ashe (harp). Bassist Philip Alejo currently teaches at University of Arizona in Tucson (Associate Professor of Music, Double Bass).

Online Streaming:

Composers: Caroline Shaw (b.1982), Whitney Ashe (b.1971), Derick Evans (b.1991), Hannah Lash (b.1981), Evan Premo (b.1985), Stephen Andrew Taylor (b.1965)

Works: 1. "For Claire & Philip" (2014) by Caroline Shaw, 2. "The Circuitous Six" (2016) by Whitney Ashe, 3. "On Lotusland" (2015) by Derick Evans, 4-5. "Leaves, Space" (2015) by Hannah Lash, 6-7. "Two Meditations on Poems of Mary Oliver" (2017) by Evan Premo, 8-12. "Oxygen" (2017) by Stephen Andrew Taylor

About River Town Duo
Founded in 2012, River Town Duo has presented dozens of recitals at venues including the University of Arizona, University of Illinois, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Mackinac Island Music Festival, University of Notre Dame, and the University of Wisconsin, among others. River Town Duo has also performed recitals as invited artists at the International Society of Bassists Convention and the American Harp Society Summer Institute. Although there are only a handful of double bass and harp duos in the world, over 20 composers have written works for this instrumentation. River Town Duo is committed to commissioning new works from influential composers and adding to the growing repertoire of pieces for double bass and harp. River Town Duo comprises double bassist Philip Alejo and harpist Claire Happel Ashe.

Philip Alejo is the Associate Professor of Music, Double Bass at the University of Arizona and Artist Faculty at the Bay View Music Festival. Previously he served as Associate Principal Bass of the Quad City Symphony and Visiting Professor of Bass at the University of Michigan. A former member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Philip has additionally performed with the Tucson Symphony, Arizona Opera, Ensemble Dal Niente, Flint Symphony, and Ann Arbor Symphony. His numerous music festivals and residencies include Spoleto Festival USA, Lucerne Festival, Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival, Mackinac Island Music Festival, Oaxaca Instrumenta, Aldeburgh Festival, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, and Aspen Music Festival. Philip teaches at the Arizona ASTA Bass Jams and the Richard Davis Bass Conference at the University of Wisconsin. He was recently named Guest Professor at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music and MusAid Teaching Artist at El Sistema, El Salvador. Philip holds degrees from Oberlin College (BA, BM), Yale University (MM), and the University of Michigan (DMA), where his principal teachers included Diana Gannett, Donald Palma, Peter Dominguez, and Thomas Sperl.

Claire Happel Ashe is a versatile performer known for integrating diverse aspects of movement and music. As a harpist, she has appeared with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of the Dominican Republic, and the Newberry Consort among many other ensembles. She regularly collaborates in chamber music performances with oboist Karisa Werdon (Immer Neu), and guitarist James Moore and mandolin player Jeremy Harting (Noble Fowl Trio). An advocate of new music, she has performed with contemporary ensembles such as the Chicago Composers Orchestra, International Ensemble Modern Academy, and the Pulitzer Series of St. Louis, and commissioned new works with grants from the Urbana Public Arts Program, City of Chicago Cultural Affairs, American Harp Society, and the Illinois Arts Council. In the summers, she has performed at the Midwest Harp Festival, American Harp Society Conferences and Institutes in Chicago, Logan (UT), and Tacoma (WA), and presented at the World Harp Congress in Dublin and Alexander Technique Congress in Chicago. In addition to performances on the modern pedal harp, Claire has performed on the Baroque triple harp since 2016 mentored by artists such as Cheryl Ann Fulton, Charlotte Mattax Moersch, and Christa Patton at the Madison Early Music Festival and Queens College Early Opera Workshop. She holds degrees in music performance from Yale University and the University of Illinois, where she also received a BFA in Dance, and was a 2007-08 Fulbright Scholar in Prague. She has served on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, Illinois Summer Youth Music, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, and as a teaching assistant at Yale University, the University of Illinois, and the Music in the Mountains Festival. She currently teaches harp, Alexander Technique, and movement at the Music Institute of Chicago, Valparaiso University, Olivet Nazarene University, and the James Hart Harp Program in the Homewood Public Schools. ... See MoreSee Less

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The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music

4 days ago

Tune in on Friday nights at 7:00 p.m. for livestream performances

Subscribe to the Fred Fox School of Music YouTube Channel

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The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music

5 days ago

Registration is now open for UArizona Virtual Clarinet Day! Mark your calendars for Jan. 17, 2021 and join us for this free event! ... See MoreSee Less

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The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music

1 week ago

Congratulations to DMA candidate Erik Peregrine!

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Congratulations, Erik! We are so proud of you!!

The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music

1 week ago

Tucson Bass Jam
Virtual Event (Zoom)
Sunday, January 17, 2021
1:00-5:00 p.m.
Free Admission

The Tucson Bass Jam is an ASTA and University of Arizona sponsored virtual clinic on Zoom for beginning, intermediate, and advanced double bass students, music educators, and community bass players of any age from Southern Arizona.

Faculty Director:
Philip Alejo, The University of Arizona

Guest Artists:
Issac Trapkus, New York Philharmonic
Juan J. García Jiménez, National Autonomous University of Mexico, CEPROMUSIC

Registration and Fees:
Tucson Bass Jam will be free of charge in 2021.

Registration: Participants should contact Philip Alejo (palejo@email.arizona.edu) to register. A Zoom link and entry code will be sent to every registered participant prior to the event. Registration on the day of the event will be possible, but not recommended. Any high school student interested in playing their regional excerpts for Isaac Trapkus should also contact Philip Alejo.

Schedule of Events:
Sunday, January 17, 2021
1:00-5:00 p.m.

1:00 - 1:15 p.m.
Welcome and introductions

1:20 - 2:00 p.m. Warm-ups with Philip Alejo (beginner/intermediate) and Juan García (advanced)

2:00 - 2:50 p.m.
New and experimental music with Juan García

3:00 - 3:55 p.m.
Masterclass on regional excerpts with Isaac Trapkus

4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Masterclass for UA students with Isaac Trapkus

Guest Artist Biographies

Bassist Isaac Trapkus joined the New York Philharmonic in November 2016. Before joining the Philharmonic he was a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and, before that, principal double bass of the New Haven Symphony while he was studying with Leigh Mesh, associate principal bass of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Mr. Trapkus is a product of Iowa’s public school music program and began his bass studies with Linda Gannett of Davenport, Iowa. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Diana Gannett, and a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with former New York Philharmonic Principal Bass Eugene Levinson. At Michigan, Isaac Trapkus became the first bassist in 30 years to win the school’s concerto competition, for which he performed Tubin’s Bass Concerto. He also won Juilliard’s bass concerto competition, performing Vanhal’s Bass Concerto. During his study he performed with the New York String Orchestra Seminar and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany. Mr. Trapkus volunteers as a designer and administrator with IMSLP, the online sheet music library.

Juan J. García Jiménez is a musician specializing in contemporary music and improvisation, who lives and works in Mexico City. Since 2012, he is a member of the ensemble at the Center for Experimentation and Production of Contemporary Music (CEPROMUSIC) and since 2018 is part of the faculty at the Music School of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and the School of Art of Yucatán (ESAY). He has collaborated with orchestras and chamber ensembles internationally and has also developed a career in improvised and experimental music, collaborating since 2001 with iconic characters in the development of contemporary music. His practice stems from studies and practices within the musical tradition combined with a broad foray into new music, prominently in sonic explorations and experimentations. He has also developed innovative teaching techniques that have led him to mix traditional and experimental musical ideas and practices within the classroom.

García studied double bass at the University of Houston under the tutelage of Dennis Whittaker and earned a master's degree at Arizona State University under Catalin Rotaru in 2008. Since then he has fully devoted himself to teaching, performing, and disseminating new music, premiering hundreds of works by composers from around the world with the CEPROMUSIC Ensemble, Liminar Ensemble, and the Low Frequency Trio. Important performances include concerts at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), The Darmstadt Summer Festival (Germany), No Idea Festival (Austin), the Tate Modern (UK), and the Rothko Chapel (Houston). ... See MoreSee Less

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