Artists
Masterclass Artists and Performers
Nina Assimakopoulos
“In the hands of Nina Assimakopoulos, the flute is a kite, a nymph, a bolt of lightning.”- Rochester City Paper
Nina Assimakopoulos is credited with over 87 international world-premiere performances and commissions and has recorded 5 solo CDs, the most recent of which, Vayu (2015), was selected in to the first round of the Grammy nominations for Best Classical Solo Instrumental.
Assimakopoulos is active as an international soloist and masterclass presenter and is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Aaron Copland Fund Grant for New Music Recording, two Fulbright Grants, and the National Society of Arts and Letters Career Award. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with the Munich City Opera, Bavarian Radio Symphony Academy Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Toledo Symphony Orchestra.
She is flute professor at West Virginia University where she has the privilege of working with a studio of wonderful undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students. She thanks her teachers Peter Lloyd and Paul Meisen as well as her students for their ongoing influence in her work as an artist and teacher. www.ninaassimakopoulos.info
Nicole EspositoA charismatic and versatile flutist, Nicole Esposito is the flute professor at the University of Iowa. She has achieved a career as a soloist, teacher, chamber and orchestral musician on an international level having been featured across the United States, Europe, Central and South America and Asia.
Esposito has held the Piccolo Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and has also been Principal Flute of the Ohio Light Opera. She has participated in a number of other music festivals including the Brevard Music Center, The Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and the National Orchestral Institute.
Professor Esposito holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan. She has been a finalist or prizewinner in several prestigious competitions including the National Flute Association’s Young Artist, Piccolo Artist, and Orchestral Competitions, the WAMSO Competition sponsored by the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition. Additionally she has published articles on Banddirector.com, The Flutist Quarterly, Flute Focus and Flute Talk Magazines and can be heard on the Albany Records, MSR Classics and Con Brio Recordings labels. Her primary flute teachers include Jeanne Baxtresser, Amy Porter, Marianne Gedigian, Jennifer Steele, and Catherine Payne, with additional study with Mark Sparks, Alberto Almarza, and Doriot Anthony Dwyer.
Since 2008 Márk Fülep has played on a Yamaha 14k gold flute of the Hungarian State.
Clinicians
Dan Parasky is a graduate with music degrees from Boston and Duquesne Universities. His private flute students have successfully auditioned for various honor ensembles, soloist competitions and workshops at the local, regional, national and international level. Mr. Parasky is on the faculty of both the Newlonsburg Music Academy and the P.Y.C.O. School of Music. He was the Temporary Instructor of Applied Flute at Slippery Rock University for the first half of the 2019 Spring Term.
Dan was the guest conductor of both the 2019 and 2014 Mid-Atlantic High School Flute Choir and he is finishing out his five year term as the Coordinator for the National Flute Association National High School Flute Choir in August 2019. He performs regularly as a founding member of the PM Woodwind Project - a flute and clarinet duo.
Dr.
Cassandra Eisenreich is Assistant Professor of Flute and Music Education at Slippery Rock University. She is the principal flutist with the Butler Symphony Orchestra, the chair of the NFA Pedagogy Committee, and a Trevor James Alto Flute Artist. She has had
the opportunity to perform and record with top artists including Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, George Benson, Michael Feinstein, Dave Grusin, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mark O’Connor, Terence Blanchard, Jon Secada, Patti Austin, Arturo Sandoval, Nestor Torres, Sammy
Figueroa, Pharrell Williams, and groups including Evanescence, Take 6, and Tiempo Libre. She has performed and presented locally and internationally and regularly works with composers to premiere new pieces for solo flute and mixed chamber music. She serves
as the director and lead teacher for the Early Childhood Music Community Engagement Initiative in collaboration with the Butler County Children's Center and SGA Preschool. Eisenreich partners with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to provide meaningful musical
experiences for children by directing the Discovery Time Adventures Eurhythmics room as a part of the PSO Fiddlesticks Concert Series. She has extensive training and teaching experience in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Orff Schulwerk, Suzuki Flute, Conversational
Solfege, World Music Drumming, Kindermusik, and Modern Band. www.CassandraEisenreich.com