Percussion Studies, directs the RU Percussion Ensemble, teaches
studio percussion, percussion methods, jazz history, and hosts the
RU Percussion Symposium. Mr. Wojtera is an active percussionist
in solo recitals, small chamber ensembles, the Roanoke Symphony,
Opera Roanoke, Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, regional jazz
ensembles and touring show productions, and has served as
conductor for RU productions of the
Nutcracker
. He is a frequent
adjudicator and clinician throughout the Tri-State area, and is the
Southwest Regional Representative for the Virginia Chapter of the
Percussive Arts Society. He earned his BME from Central
Connecticut State University and his MM from Northwestern
University.
Peter Marshall, Principal Piano
is one of the more
versatile musicians in the Atlanta area. He performs on piano,
harpsichord and organ in a variety of settings. He has appeared as
a soloist with major orchestras in Atlanta, Washington, D. C.
(National Symphony), Richmond, Norfolk (Virginia Symphony),
Buffalo, and Columbus (Ohio), as well as with the chamber groups
Hesperus and Folger Consort, and has given solo recitals in the
United States and abroad.
Marshall holds the Hugh and Jessie Hogson Keyboard Chair at the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and performs numerous concerts
with the ASO throughout the year. He was featured in Manuel de
Falla’s
Concerto for Harpsichord
with the ASO at the Ojai Festival in
2006, and was the organ soloist in Janacek’s “Glagolitic” Mass at
Carnegie Hall in 2010. He has been a guest in three Wintergreen
Festivals: as a pianist in 2008, accompanying Christopher Pulgram
in recital, and in various chamber and solo works; as a
harpsichordist in 2010, in concerto, chamber, and solo
appearances; and as an organist in 2012, in solo recital, concerto,
and chamber music appearances.
Active as an accompanist and coach in Atlanta since 1993,
Marshall is in frequent demand as a pianist in vocal and
instrumental recitals, and has appeared with Bent Frequency,
Sonic Generator, and the Southeastern Festival of Song.
Dr. Marshall joined the faculty of the Georgia State University in
2001. He had chaired the organ department at the Catholic
University of America from 1984 to 1993, having previously taught
at Duke University and served as its Chapel Organist. He holds
degrees from Oberlin College and Yale University and studied at
the Musikhochschule Lübeck as a Fulbright Scholar.
Jeff Midkiff, Mandolin and Composer
--
“I feel at home
in the Blue Ridge Mountains playing fiddle tunes,” Jeff Midkiff
says, “but then again, I feel at home in a professional orchestra as
well.” A mandolinist and fiddler raised on Bluegrass and a
professional clarinetist, Jeff Midkiff is an outstanding musician who
feels comfortable in more than one setting—musically and
personally.
Jeff grew up where Bluegrass and traditional string band music
thrived. Given his first mandolin at the age of 7 by a neighbor
(Sherman Poff, to whose memory
Partners In Time
is dedicated),
he moved quickly into the world of fiddlers’ conventions and
contests, winning his first mandolin competition before reaching
his teens.
As he grew older, he added the fiddle to his instrumental arsenal
and joined the New Grass Revue—yet at the same time, he took
up the clarinet and began to perform with his high school’s
symphonic band.
Even as he was immersing himself in the classical repertoire, he
continued to gain attention as a mandolin and fiddle player.
By the time he graduated he had his sights firmly set on a musical
career, and in 1981 Midkiff began studies at Virginia Tech,
eventually earning a degree in music education and performance.
Yet even as he was immersing himself in the classical repertoire,
he continued to gain attention as a mandolin and fiddle player
with the McPeak Brothers, a widely respected bluegrass group
with whom he made his first serious recording in 1982 (five
selections from that album are included on Rebel Records’ McPeak
Brothers: Classic Bluegrass CD).
In 1983 he joined the Lonesome River Band, which would
eventually become one of bluegrass’s most acclaimed groups. For
the next five years, as he completed his education and started
working as a music instructor, he performed with the LRB,
recording two albums with the group, including its self-titled Rebel
Records debut in 1987. Shortly after that, he enrolled in graduate
school at Northern Illinois University, earning his Master’s degree
in clarinet at the end of the decade—but though the move meant
leaving the LRB, he continued to perform with an Illinois bluegrass
band, Bluegrass Express.
During the early part of the 1990s, Jeff lived in Florida and
performed clarinet with the Naples Philharmonic and later moved
to northern Virginia area to be an orchestra director in the Fairfax
County schools. “I went a good five years without opening my
mandolin case,” he notes, “and as a full-time teacher in northern
Virginia, I wasn’t playing much clarinet, either.” An appearance
with the Annapolis Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
reawakened his passion for the latter, and in 1995 he moved to
the Chicago area to revive his performance career — on the
clarinet only, he thought, but ultimately on the mandolin and
fiddle, too. Busy as a clarinetist with area ensembles and as a
youth orchestra conductor and educator, he was drafted in 1998
by The Schankman Twins, a California-based bluegrass duo now
signed to Rounder Records.
“All of a sudden I was getting these ideas for tunes, and as soon as
I started getting creative, I thought, I need to start recording.”He
was writing a lot, too. “All of a sudden I was getting these ideas for
tunes, and as soon as I started getting creative, I thought, I need to
start recording.” He has appeared (several times) with the
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on mandolin, and likewise in the
Roanoke Symphony Orchestra's clarinet section since 1980. In
2006, Jeff moved back to his hometown of Roanoke, Virginia. Jeff
is an orchestra director in the Roanoke City Schools.
Jeff Midkiff's concerto for mandolin and orchestra, “From the Blue
Ridge,” was composed in 2011 as a commission from Music
Director David Stewart Wiley and the Roanoke Symphony
Orchestra. The first performance was opening night of the
Roanoke Symphony Orchestra's Fall 2011 season, and was
immediately hailed as an exciting and necessary addition to the
concerto repertoire for mandolin and orchestra, and received
standing ovations. Since its premiere, three major U.S. orchestras
have scheduled performances in the 2012-2013 season, in addition
to the upcoming June 2nd performance at Virginia’s Blue Ridge
Music Festival.
