about the festival
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The Fiati Five Wind Quintet
Alice Jones, flute
Raised in Austin, TX, flutist Alice Jones is known for giving performances that are “lively” (New York Times), “superb” (Carole Farley, soprano), and “delicate and passionate with beautiful articulation and dynamics” (Eleanor Cory, composer). With performances ranging from the Brandenburg Concerti to New York City’s Look and Listen Festival, Alice was praised by Mario Davidovsky as “the flute player who could really play.” She has been a featured soloist and chamber musician at the Composers Now Festival at Symphony Space in New York City (2010 and 2011), the Yale-China Music Exchange in China (2007 and 2008), the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (2010), and Chamber Music Campania in Italy (2013 and 2014). Alice is especially committed to premiering new chamber music repertoire with the flute and soprano duo conText, the woodwind quintet Fiati Five, and the New York-based collective The Curiosity Cabinet, whose interdisciplinary performances feature new music, film, puppeteers, dance, narration, and acting. Among her accolades include winning the baroque concerto competition at SUNY Purchase and being named an invited participant in the 2012 National Flute Association Young Artist Competition. Alice also received the Brookshire award for musicological research and writing at SUNY Purchase and the 2013 Associated Music Teachers League Award at CUNY Queens College. Alice graduated from Yale University and SUNY Purchase and received a doctorate from the CUNY Graduate Center. She maintains a private studio in New York and has served on the music faculties at SUNY Purchase and the Aaron Copland School of Music at CUNY Queens College. 
Zach Pulse, oboe
Zach Pulse is a dynamic and committed performer in the Los Angeles area who strives to engage audiences in unconventional ways. Zach serves as the principal oboist of the American Youth Symphony and performs regularly with the Young Musicians Foundation’s Debut Orchestra. As a Graduate Certificate student at the University of Southern California, Zach has enjoyed recent performances with the Thornton Edge New Music Ensemble, Thornton Wind Ensemble, and the Cardinal Winds, recipients of the 2014-2015 Max H. Gluck Fellowship Program and the Grand Prize winner at the 2015 Plowman Chamber Music Competition in Columbia, Missouri. Before moving to Los Angeles, Zach held positions with the University of Michigan Contemporary Directions Ensemble, Early Music Ensemble, Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, and University Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble in which he played principal oboe on their Grammy-nominated 2013 Naxos World Premiere Recording of Darius Milhaud’s Orestia of Aeschylus. In 2014, he was awarded with the Gottlieb Variations prize for outstanding solo performance on the University of Michigan Collage Concert. Zach holds Master in Music degrees in both Oboe Performance and Chamber Music from the University of Michigan where he studied under Nancy Ambrose King. He studies currently with Allan Vogel. 
David Cook, clarinet
Originally from Troy, Michigan, David Cook currently serves as the E-flat and fourth clarinetist with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. In addition, David has performed with a variety of ensembles throughout the country, including the Texas Music Festival Orchestra, Ann Arbor’s Comic Opera Guild, the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra, and the University of Michigan Symphony Band. An advocate for contemporary music, David is involved in the commissioning process for works from composers such as David Maslanka and Pierre Jalbert. He is the recipient of the Betty J. Hixon Saxophone/Clarinet Award and the Dora Dawson Music Award, in addition to prizes in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition and the White Lake Chamber Music Festival Solo Competition. David holds BM and BME degrees from Central Michigan University, as well as MM degrees in clarinet performance and chamber music from the University of Michigan. He is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance and the Master of Music degree in music theory at the University of Oklahoma, where he acts as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in music theory. David’s principal teachers include Dr. Suzanne Tirk, Chad Burrow, Theodore Oien, and Dr. Kennen White. 
Christina Dioguardi, bassoon
Passionate about new music and working with living composers, bassoonist Christina Dioguardi regularly performs with chamber groups in the US and Europe. Christina plays with Phoenix and Callithumpian Consort and is a substitute with the Boston Philharmonic and Atlantic Symphony. A founding member of the Fiati 5, Christina previously performed with the Eastman Wind Octet and #windquintet (Rochester, NY). Christina has attended numerous summer festivals, such as the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy (2009) and Greenwood Music Camp in Cummington, Massachusetts (2008 – 2014), where she served as a performer, counselor, and educator. In the spring of 2013, she worked closely with Steve Drury to explore the music of Christian Wolff, and she has also worked with composers such as David Maslanka, Rodney Lister, Yehudi Wyner, John Heiss, Christian Wolff, John Zorn, Chaya Czernowin, and Gunther Schuller. Christina holds a BM from the Eastman School of Music and an MM and Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory, where she worked under the tutelage of Richard Svoboda, principal bassoon of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At present, Christina is pursing a PhD in Musicology at Brandeis University. She continually draws inspiration from her teachers past and present, including Charles Bailey, John Hunt, Toni Lipton, Stephen Walt, and Marc Goldberg 
Dr. Michael Walker, horn
Michael Walker is passionate about life, french horn, and all genres of music. He serves as the Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of New Mexico and the hornist with the New Mexico Winds and the University of New Mexico Brass Quintet. Prior to his appointment at UNM, Michael served as the second Horn in the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, the Associate Instructor of Horn at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, and the founder of the Bloomington-based, community-centered organization Studio Forza. Michael feels equally at home in orchestral and chamber ensembles, and he has performed with the New Mexico Philharmonic, Santa Fe Symphony, Utah Festival Opera, Bel Canto Institute, Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, San Jose Wind Symphony, and as a featured soloist with Musica Nova at the Eastman School of Music. Michael also serves as a performing artist with Melos Music, and he regularly collaborates with his wife Katie Dukes, soprano and co-founder of Studio Forza. Michael holds a BM from San José State University, an MM from the University of Northern Colorado, and a Doctor of Music in horn, with a minor in music history, from Indiana University, where he studied horn with Jeff Nelsen and Dale Clevenger, and natural horn with Rick Seraphinoff. |
