2023
University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music
Marissa Olegario, host
Demetra Alikakos
Demetra Alikakos is currently pursuing her master’s degree at Rice University Shepherd School of Music studying with Benjamin Kamins. She recently completed her undergraduate degree at Depaul University where she double majored in bassoon performance and mathematics with a concentration in statistics. In her time at DePaul, she studied with Keith Buncke, Miles Maner and William Buchman. In the past summers, Demetra has attended the Chautauqua Institution and Sewanee Music Center. Demetra is originally from the southwest suburbs of Chicago and began studying the bassoon during 8th grade where she primarily studied with Hanna Sterba.
Bridget Bruno
Bridget Bruno is 17 years old. She has played bassoon for six years and pursued music through theatre and choir for several years prior. Bridget has participated in the youth orchestras at the Blair School of Music in Vanderbilt University for five years. She has been selected to perform four times times in the Tennessee Mid-state bands and orchestra, as well as the Tennessee All-state band and orchestra. Additionally, she was selected to perform as one of two Tennessee All-state Honors soloists in 2021.
She attended the Brevard Summer Music Festival in 2022 and was selected to compete in the Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition. She also attended the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in 2019.
Bridget attends Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School. She enjoys all school subjects, her favorite classes being AP English Literature and AP Physics I. She was born in San Diego, California, and has lived in Nashville, Tennessee, for five years. In her free time, she enjoys playing games with friends, drawing, and spending time with her cat.
Brigit Fitzgerald
Brigit Fitzgerald is a DMA student and teaching assistant at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studies with Professor Kristin Wolfe Jensen. She is the Principal Bassoonist of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra in Victoria, TX, under the direction of Maestro Darryl One, and she is a member of Density512, a chamber collective in Austin, TX. She spent the summer of 2022 with the National Repertory Orchestra and was selected to perform as a soloist for Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante. As the result of respective concerto competitions, she won opportunities to solo with the Vanderbilt Orchestra in 2018 and the Phoenix Symphony in 2015.
A creative and engaging performer, Brigit placed first in the 2021 National Bassoon Meet Up Artistry Competition (multisonics.brigitfitzgerald.com), won the gold medal for the winds/brass/percussion/harp/guitar category of the 2022 Young Texas Artist Competition, and was a winner of the First International Tango Bassoon Competition with her humorous entry (tango.brigitfitzgerald.com).
Brigit is a founder and owner of Fermata Reeds Inc., a company producing customizable biocomposite reeds that are both affordable and long-lasting. The mission of this company is to minimize one large financial barrier to learning a woodwind instrument: the recurring expense of reeds. She is using her interdisciplinary background in collaboration with a team of two engineers and a chemist at UT Austin: Zoelle Wong, Lizette Wong, and Lettie Smith.
Brigit attended Vanderbilt University and studied with Dr. Peter Kolkay as a Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholar. She received a Bachelor’s of Music in bassoon performance and mathematics with a minor in scientific computing. Upon her graduation, she was awarded the Vanderbilt Founder’s Medal – the most prestigious merit award presented during the commencement ceremony to one graduating student from each school. Her previous teachers include Dr. Albie Micklich and Dr. Martin VanKlompenberg in her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.
Asha Kline
Asha Kline, from Ellicott City, MD, is a third year undergraduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music and studies bassoon with Daniel Matsukawa, principal bassoon of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She began her musical studies on clarinet at age 9 and switched to bassoon at age 10. She previously studied bassoon with Harrison Miller, Schuyler Jackson, Fei Xie, and Monica Schwartz.
In summer 2022, Kline was a Tanglewood Music Center bassoon fellow, where she worked with members of the Boston Symphony, including Richard Svoboda, Richard Ranti, and Suzanne Nelsen, as well as renowned conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Thomas Ades, JoAnn Faletta, Christian Macelaru, and George Benjamin. She has also participated in summer festivals such as the National Orchestral Institute (2022), Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra (2020, 2021), and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (2018, 2019). Additionally, Kline has performed in masterclasses from esteemed bassoonists including Sophie Dervaux, Carlo Colombo, Benjamin Kamins, William Short, and Judith LeClair.
An active orchestral musician, Kline is a current member of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and has also played with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and Symphony in C. Previously, she was a member of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra.
In 2022, Kline was selected as a finalist for the Matthew Ruggiero International bassoon competition. She has appeared as soloist with orchestra as a two-time winner of the BSYO concerto competition (2020, 2018) and the Columbia Orchestra Young Artist Competition (2017). In 2020, she was a National YoungArts Foundation winner.
When not practicing or making reeds, Kline can be found obsessing over a jigsaw puzzle or walking around discovering new places to eat in Philadelphia.
Jia-Lin Lee
Jialin Lee, born and raised in Taiwan, is currently a first-year master’s student at the Eastman School of Music, where she studies with Professor George Sakakeeny. She began playing bassoon at the age of 9. In past summers, Jia-Lin has attended various music festivals such as Sommercampus Rostock, Meisterkurse Rheinau, International Summer Academy Mozarteum, Stuttgart International Music Week, and the Euro Music Festival and Academy. Jialin has also performed in masterclasses with Frank Morreli, Daniel Matsukawa, Matthias Rácz, Bence Bogányi, Phillip Tutzer, David Peterson, Ulrich Hermann, Hanno Dönneweg, and Stephane Gautier-Cheureux. Jialin gained her Bachelor of Music degree in Bassoon Performance at the Taipei National University of the Arts in 2022 as a scholarship student. During her undergraduate years, she was principal bassoon in the TNUA Symphony Orchestra and TNUA Wind Ensemble. Jialin has had many chamber music experiences and enjoys participating in chamber ensembles. She has received the first prize at Taiwan’s Senior High Woodwind Quintet Competition with her partners. In 2021, she was accepted as an exchange student for the spring semester at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. During the 2021/2022 season, Jialin participated in the Taiwan Philharmonic (also known as the National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan) Internship Program as a bassoonist and performed in many concerts. Her past teachers include Tzong-Heng Kuo, and I-Hsiu Chen, Associate Principal Bassoon of Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra. At school, she now performs with the Eastman Philharmonia and Eastman Wind Ensemble. Outside of music, Jialin enjoys eating snacks and traveling.
Abigail Lopez
Abigail Lopez, a third year bassoonist at the Oberlin Conservatory from the Chicagoland area has been playing bassoon for nines years. Before transferring to Oberlin, where she studies with Drew Pattison, she finished her first year of undergrad at DePaul University where she studied with Miles Manner, Bassoon/Contrabassoonist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and William Buchman, Assistant Principal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Last summer, she was selected as a bassoon fellow at the Music Academy of the West where she studied with Dennis Michel and Benjamin Kamins, worked with conductors such as Hannu Lintu and Stéphane Denève and was a finalist for the Keston MAX program. Previously, she attended the Brevard Music Center Institute and Festival. In addition, Abigail has been affiliated with programs such as the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative which have given her opportunities such as being broadcasted on the WFMT radio station both as a soloist and chamber musician and was invited by Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin to open for the Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra at Symphony Center. Abigail has also been fortunate enough to play in masterclasses for Glenn Einschlag, Daniel Matsukawa, Catherine Cheng, Barrick Stees, Andrew Brady, Kristen Wolfe Jensen and Keith Buncke.
Katia Osorio
Katia Osorio is a Honduran-American bassoonist from Houston, TX. Passionate about advocacy and minority representation within classical music, she uses her platform as a musician as an opportunity to challenge and broaden the standards that systematically exclude marginalized artists through performance, concert curation and other creative projects.
In 2018, Katia organized and directed UT Austin’s first ever Hispanic Heritage Month Concert, an event showcasing student performances of repertoire written exclusively by Hispanic/Latinx composers. She is also the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Exposure, a digital database that focuses on filling the void of available resources for works by minority composers. Katia is a recipient of the 2018-19 Richard E. Rainwater Innovation Grant, and has presented at multiple panels and podcasts, including the 2020 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition Summer Series, New Music Gathering, and “Classically Untrained” podcast.
Katia holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance from The University of Texas at Austin where she studied with Kristin Wolfe Jensen, and has recently earned a Master of Music in Performance from Yale University under the tutelage of Frank Morelli. Katia has made appearances at the Round Top Festival Institute, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and the Blackburn Music Academy at Festival Napa Valley. She has performed with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and currently performs with the Salt Marsh Opera in Stonington, CT.
Molly Smit
Hailing from Southern California, Molly Smit is an up and coming bassoonist full of energy and personality. Always in active pursuit of solo and chamber performances, Molly was a semifinalist in the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition in 2019. A recent graduate of Indiana University, she holds a Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance under the tutelage of Kathleen McLean and William Ludwig. Currently, Molly is pursuing her Masters degree at the University of North Texas, where she studies with Darrel Hale. As an advocate for music education, Molly maintains a full teaching studio across various school districts in the DFW area. Under the baton of Arthur Fagen, Molly has performed various works for chamber orchestra under the NAXOS record label in celebration of great American classics. She can also be heard on the final two albums recorded by the North Texas Wind Symphony under the direction of Eugene Corporon. Smit is an avid supporter of new music, and has performed and premiered various new operas, solo works, and chamber works, including Daniel Catan’s opera Florencia en el Amazonas in 2016 as well as part one of Chiel Meijering’s Concerto for 12 Bassoons and String Orchestra in 2017. In pursuit of an orchestral career, Molly has performed in side-by-side events with both The Cleveland Orchestra and The Minnesota Orchestra. Additionally, she has performed in a multitude of masterclasses for esteemed bassoonists such as Christopher Millard, Fei Xie, Judith LeClair, Elise Wagner, and Bram Van Sambeek. When not practicing, teaching, or slaving over reeds, Molly enjoys cooking, hiking, and spending time with friends and family, including her two cats who serve as her loyal reed making assistants.
Quincey Trojanowski
Quincey Trojanowski, 21, is a fourth-year undergraduate bassoon performance major at the University of Texas at Austin studying with Kristin Wolfe Jensen. Originally from the Chicago area, she studied with Drew Pattison of the Oberlin Conservatory and Miles Maner of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra throughout high school. Quincey is an alumna of the Merit School of Music's Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory of Music, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, the 2018 National Youth Orchestra of the USA, the 2020 Brevard College Summer Music Festival, 2021 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition Finalists, as well as the 2021 and 2022 Round Top Texas Festival Orchestras. Quincey also has an extensive background in chamber music, having won top wind prizes in the 2016 and 2017 junior-division Fischoff Chamber Competitions, as well as the 2016 and 2017 International M-Prize Chamber Competitions. Quincey has played bassoon since she was nine years old, and has always been in love with the instrument's comforting, earthy sound. Quincey also sells her own bassoon reeds on a couple different websites including her own site, qreeds.com. Quincey has a deep passion for traveling and appreciating as much of the world as possible. Outside the United States, she has played at venues in Taiwan, South Korea, China, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, and Russia. In the future, she aspires to travel the world through music, sharing musical experiences with as many people as possible. Aside from music, Quincey enjoys cooking, painting, drawing, meditation, and journaling. She also has a deep love for cats, especially her own two cats at home!
Kahlan Yenney
Kahlan Yenney is a bassoonist originally from Dallas, TX. Starting on the Piano at 5 years old, music was taking an increasingly more prominent role in her life. Although piano was fun, she needed something fresh and different. In 6th grade the perfect storm occurred; the school music program was offering the opportunity to learn about and try each instrument, leading to her discovery and love of the bassoon. She was the winner of the Dallas Double Reed Day Solo Competition bassoon division (2019), and played for the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, Texas All-State Philharmonic Orchestra, and Mesquite Symphony Orchestra. The summer of 2019 Kahlan attended the Interlochen Arts Camp, where she was principal bassoonist of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Kahlan studied with Dr. Jennifer Auerbach through the 11th grade, and chose to continue her studies in music at the Interlochen Arts Academy with Dr. Eric Stomberg for her final year of high school. There she sat principal bassoonist in the Interlochen Academy Orchestra and participated in various chamber groups. She is now studying at the Curtis Institute of Music with Professor Daniel Matsukawa of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The summer of 2021 Kahlan played principal in the Berlin Opera Academy, and spent this most recent summer at the Aspen Music Festival studying with Mrs. Nancy Goeres of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Kahlan has had the opportunity to perform in masterclasses with Gustavo Núñez, William Short, Benjamin Kamins, Frank Morelli, Patricia Rogers, Lenny Hindel, Conrad Cornelison, Harrison Miller, and Judith Leclair.
Preliminary Round Judges
Julia Harguindey
Hana Beloglavec
Gustavo Núñez
Kathleen Reynolds
Bob Williams
Fei Xie