Briana Sakamoto
Briana graduated in May 2011 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from SUNY Binghamton, under the direction of Professor Mary Burgess, also studying with Tri Cities Opera founder Peyton Hibbitt. She currently studies with Benita Valente. Briana has been a frequent recitalist at Binghamton and in Westchester. January 2011 she organized and sang in a chamber concert at the Scarborough Presbyterian Church, (Briarcliff, NY) which raised money for Partners in Health’s Haiti relief efforts. She has understudied soubrette roles at the Tri Cities Opera. She has been a member of the Tri Cities Opera chorus, BU’s Harpur Chorale, and the Taconic Opera chorus. Singing in fundraisers and forums at BU, she has lent her voice to such causes as “Voices Against [domestic] Violence,” and the fight against the genocide in Sudan. A member of AEA, SAG and AFTRA, she has a long background in dramatic performance, and continues to study acting at the Larry Singer Studios in Manhattan. www.brianasakamoto.com
Pej Reitz
Pej is a native of the Binghamton Area. She received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance with accompanying emphasis. She attended Boston University, New England Conservatory and Binghamton University. She has studied piano with Jean Casadesus, Victor Rosenbaum, Seymour Fink and Walter Ponce and accompanying with Allen Rogers. She has accompanied throughout the United States, in England, South America, Spain and at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. She was a winner of the Artistic Ambassadors Program by the United States Information Agency in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for the performing arts. She was an official accompanist for the MTNA State and Eastern Division Competition held at Ithaca College and will play for the event again January 2010. She has been a guest chamber music artist in Morges, Switzerland. She also was selected to attend the Accompanying Workshop for Singers and Pianists held at Northwestern University with Chicago Lyric Opera Faculty and Coaches. She was recently invited to the International Clarinet Conference to play a recital in Tokyo, Japan. She was a guest artist on the Cornell Summer Series. She was an official pianist at the International Double Reed Competition and Convention in 2007 at Ithaca College and was invited to play the 2009 Convention in Birmingham, England with the Glickman Ensemble. She performed with the Glickman Ensemble again this fall in Englewood, NJ. She was selected to accompany at the Interpretation of Spanish Music in conjunction with University of Madrid in Grenada, Spain coached by Teresa Berganza and at Mannes School of Music summer 2008. She was a Guest Artist playing two concerts in Granada, Spain this past summer and accompanied the Barcelona Song Festival in July. She will solo with the Catskill Symphony at the Otesaga in Cooperstown this August under the direction of Charles Schneider. She is currently on the faculty at Binghamton University since 1991 and Ithaca College School of Music since 1999. She is President of the local District VII Music Teachers Association and is an active adjudicator for the National Piano Guild Organization.
Devon (Yasamune Toyotomi) Tipp
Devon is pursuing a Bachelor of Music double degree in composition and bassoon performance at Montclair State University. Devon studies bassoon with Harry Searing. Devon has performed as a soloist with the Lehman College Community Band. In 2008 he was principle bassoonist for New York’s All-State Symphony Orchestra, and for the Hoff Barthelson Festival orchestra. He has also performed with the Chappaqua Orchestra and the Kinhaven Symphony Orchestra. He has composed for chamber ensembles at Kinhaven Music Festival, “DaBull Reed Camp” at University of Southern Florida and worked with teachers and musicians at New York Youth Symphony. Devon is also an award-winning designer and jeweler, placing second in “the Saul Bell Design Awards – Emerging Artists” category.
Elyse Knobloch
Elyse has extensive experience performing with a variety of ensembles including the Boston Woodwind Trio, Storm King Woodwind Quintet, Hudson Chamber Music Society, the Ariel Trio, and opera and symphonic orchestras in the greater New York area and Boston, MA. She currently performs with Bas Duo, Northern Westchester Flutes and Aves Musicum. Ms. Knobloch has been heard in chamber settings and as soloist at Trinity Church/Wall Street, Caramoor Center for the Performing Arts, New England Life Hall, SUNY at Purchase, Concordia College, Boston Conservatory, Downtown Music at Grace, and on WCRB, Boston radio. An avid supporter of new music, Ms. Knobloch has performed premières of works by John Bavicchi, Joel Kabakov, John Leslie Adams, Peter Frost, and others. Additional contemporary performances include the music of Ludmila Ulehla, Joan Tower, and Bruce Lazarus. Her most recent Bas Duo recording, Colors, features contemporary classical works for flute and guitar, and includes works by living composer Jose Luis Merlin from Argentina, and Atanas Ourkouzounov from Bulgaria. Ms. Knobloch is an alumni of Boston Conservatory and Lehman College. Her greatest influences areThomas Nyfenger, Paul Fried, and Paige Brook.
Alice Avouris
Alice studied flute with Paige Brook and Alex Murray. She received her Bachelor and Master degrees in music from Michigan State University. For the past ten years she has been organist and choir director at the Reformed Church of Cortlandtown. She teaches flute at her home in Yorktown and performs with the Taconic Opera.
Dianne Spitalny
Dianne is the principal flutist of The Chappaqua Orchestra and a founding member of the Spianato Winds. She has performed with the Norwalk and Stamford Symphony Orchestras, the Metropolitan Wind Symphony of Boston, and the Sherwood Woodwind Quintet. She received her Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College and a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music. She has studied with Paula Robison, Murray Panitz, Samuel Baron, John Heiss, David Berman and James Pappoutsakis. She taught instrumental music in the Chappaqua Central School District until her recent retirement, and continues to teach students privately.
Rebecca Quigley
Rebecca received her Bachelor of Music from Skidmore College and her Master in Music from the University of Illinois. Rebecca has served on the faculty of the Skidmore Summer Flute Institute, teaches privately at her home in Cortlandt Manor, is currently Webmaster for the New York Flute Club, and performs with Collegium Westchester, Senasqua Winds and Tapestry Chamber Music Ensemble.