22nd YSU Dana Flute Festival is Saturday

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The 22nd annual Dana Flute Festival will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in Bliss Hall at Youngstown State University, with registration near the Bliss Recital Hall on the first floor.

The event is designed for flute players of all levels and will include workshops, vendor exhibits, guest artist performances, master classes and a guest artist recital.

“The flute festival is a long-standing Dana event that offers new and experienced flute musicians the opportunity to participate in meaningful and interesting workshops as well as to interact with important guest artists,” said festival coordinator Kathryn Thomas Umble, an assistant professor of flute. “Firsthand involvement with other musicians and the interaction with presenters, plus attending the performances is critical in a performer’s development.”

She noted that participants are welcome at any level, stressing that sessions are planned for all levels of experience. This is the 22nd such flute event at the Dana School of Music.

Guest artist Soo-Kyung Park is an active soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, writer and teacher. She is the founding member and director of the Musicians of Lenox Hill, leading the group to play its eighth annual concert at Temple of Israel. In the summer of 2006, she appeared in a sold-out concert at Cooperstown Chamber Music Series as a member of Magical Flutes.

She has given recitals in Seoul Arts Center in her native South Korea as the winner of the Promising Artist Search and in CAMI Hall in New York as the winner of the New York Flute Club Competition, to name a few.

Her performance of Mozart Flute Concerto was featured on the “Young Artist Showcase” hosted by Bob Sherman.

She has performed and toured with orchestras in United States, Israel and Asia including the Juilliard Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Shira Festival Orchestra.

The New York Concert Review has praised Park’s “attractive tone and well-placed phrasing” of her performances.

Park writes regularly for Flute and Flutist magazine in Korea to share valuable musical views and information with Korean audience.

Currently on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program and New York State Music Festival, she formerly served on the faculty at SUNY Purchase and Hartwick Music Festival.

Upon arriving in the United States in 1984, she was accepted as the youngest flutist at The Juilliard School in the Pre-College Division, where she continued her studies and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

She has been a member of the Manhattan School of Music Precollege faculty since 1999.

Participants should bring their own instruments. The cost to attend the festival is $16 per student if registered before the event; and $20 at the door.

Registration forms may be found at http://web.ysu.edu/fpa/music under the special events tab or by calling Umble at 330-941-1831.

Parents may attend free of charge. Parking will be available in the M1 Wick Avenue deck for a nominal fee.