2025 UTEP FLUTE FESTIVAL

Date: Friday April 4 & Saturday April 5

Location: Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall

University of Texas at El Paso

Registration

*** FREE ADMISSION! ***

Flutists of ALL levels and ages are welcome

Festival Flute Choir, Recitals, Competitions, Prizes, Masterclasses, Workshops, Flute Exhibits, and more!

*** REGISTRATION DEADLINES ***

Masterclass Performer Applicants: March 23rd, 2025
Young Artist Competition Applicants: April 1st, 2025
General Participants: April 1st, 2025

Schedule of Events

FRIDAY, APRIL 4

4:00PM-5:00PM - CHECK-IN

5:00PM-6:30PM - FESTIVAL FLUTE CHOIR REHEARSAL

6:30PM-7:15PM - FREE PIZZA DINNER

7:30PM-8:30PM - OPENING CEREMONY- UTEP FACULTY RECITAL

(Mafer Guglielmina - flute, Joseph Lecher - piano)

SATURDAY, APRIL 5

7:30AM-8:30AM - CHECK-IN

8:00AM-10:00AM - YOUNG ARTIST COMPETITION

8:30AM-9:30AM - FESTIVAL FLUTE CHOIR REHEARSAL

9:30AM-3:00PM - FLUTE EXHIBIT HALL OPEN

10:00AM-10:45AM - HOW TO PRACTICE EFFICIENTLY

(Workshop & Open Masterclass by Rose Bishop)

10:45AM-11:30AM - FREE PIZZA LUNCH

11:30AM-12:45PM - JENNIFER GRIM MASTERCLASS

(Featuring masterclass selected performers)

1:00PM-1:45PM - PICCOLO CLASS

(Workshop & Open Masterclass by Jennifer Gonzalez)

1:45PM-2:30PM - FUNDAMENTALS FOR YOUNG FLUTISTS

(Workshop & Open Masterclass by Janella Saad)

3:00PM-3:30PM - FESTIVAL FLUTE CHOIR SHOWCASE CONCERT

(Javier Renteria - conductor)

4:00PM-6:00PM - CLOSING CEREMONY: FEATURED GUEST ARTIST RECITAL

(Jennifer Grim - flute, Michael Sheppard - piano)

Featured Guest Artist

Jennifer Grim

Hailed as "a deft, smooth flute soloist" by the New York Times, flutist Jennifer Grim has given solo and chamber performances throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. For over twenty years, she was the flutist of the award-winning Zéphyros Winds and the New York Chamber Soloists. She is a frequent guest artist with the Boston Chamber Music Society, Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival, Ensemble Flageolet, and has performed with such renowned ensembles such as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, American String Quartet, and with members of the Takacs Quartet and St. Lawrence Quartet.

Jennifer's recently released album, titled "Through Broken Time" (New Focus Recordings, September 2022), received wide acclaim and featured works by David Sanford, Julia Wolfe, Tania Léon, Alvin Singleton, Allison Loggins-Hull, and Valerie Coleman. Take Effect (February 2023) stated: "A multi-dimensional effort that is quite meticulous and diverse, there just isn't a second here that's not exciting and memorable." The New York Times listed the album in an article titled "5 Albums You Can Listen to Right Now" for its "sharply executed program." (December 2022).

Jennifer has performed as a soloist with the Frost Symphony Orchestra, Frost Wind Ensemble, Lviv Philharmonic, Boca Raton Symphonia, UNLV Symphony Orchestra, Henderson Symphony Orchestra, the Vermont Summer Music Festival, among others. With Zéphyros Winds, Jennifer has been in residence at universities across the country, including the Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Stanford University, Yale School of Music, and many others. She also has performed as Principal Flute of the Mozart Orchestra of New York, Santo Domingo Festival Orchestra, Boca Symphonia, and the Festival Orchestra Napa.

Jennifer is currently Associate Professor at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. She previously served on the faculty of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for twelve years and in 2017 was honored with the Teacher of the Year Award from the UNLV College of Fine Arts. A native of Berkeley, California, Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University. Jennifer is currently the Artistic Administrator for the Frost School at Festival Napa Valley, while also serving as President of the Board of Directors of Chamber Music America and Vice President of the National Flute Association.

Guest Presenters

Rose Bishop

International prize-winning flutist Rose Bishop enjoys a career as an orchestral musician, pedagogue, and teacher in Iowa. A Trevor James Flute Performing Artist, she has performed across the United States, as well as internationally in Canada, Peru, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovakia.

She serves as Principal Flute of the Southeast Iowa Symphony, Quincy Symphony Orchestra (IL), Sinfonia Nolte, and was recently appointed Acting Second Flute with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra. Equally comfortable in front of the orchestra, Rose has been a featured soloist with more than a dozen orchestras and wind ensembles throughout the Midwest and internationally. She recently commissioned and gave the World Premiere of Alan Theisen’s Concerto for flute and wind ensemble (March 2024).

Equally committed to music education, Rose is the Instructor of Flute at St. Ambrose University, Coe College, Cornell College, and Kirkwood Community College. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of the Eastern Iowa Flute Workshop and the Cornell College Summer Flute Camp. She has performed and presented workshops as a guest artist at multiple National Flute Association Conventions, the Kansas Wesleyan International Music Festival, the Mid-Atlantic Flute Festival, among others.

Rose was recently a featured artist on the Radio Nacional de Peru for the 39th Annual Festival Internacional de Flautistas Lima, Perú. She joined the roster as a Trevor James Alto Flute Artist in 2020, recently served on the National Flute Association's Career and Artistic Development Committee, and is the National Flute Association's CREATE Competition Coordinator.

Janella Saad

An El Paso native, Janella Saad holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Texas at El Paso, where she studied flute under Dr. Melissa Colgin-Abeln, and a Master in Flute Performance degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she studied under Dr. Jennifer Clippert. She can be heard in several CD’s recorded by the University of Texas’ Wind Ensemble with music by Julie Giroux and Andrew Boysen, as well as a live performance with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the WASBE Conference in 2015. Since 2010, Janella has subbed and performed with the El Paso Symphony, the Las Cruces Symphony, and the Juarez Symphony. She has been a member of the El Paso Winds since 2018, where she recorded and performed Julie Giroux’s “The Blue Marble” at the 2023 Texas Bandmasters Association Convention.

Janella Saad is currently the band director at Anthony High School and Middle School in Anthony, TX. In 2020 and 2023 she earned the Secondary School’s District Teacher of the Year. Under her direction, the band advanced to finals in the UIL Area A marching contest, the furthest the band has advanced to in district history. Acting as a private instructor to students of all instruments in her program, her students have been selected as ATSSB Region Band members, Area qualifiers, ATSSB All-State Band members, and UIL Texas State Solo and Ensemble participants.

Previous to her teaching in Anthony Independent School District, Janella was the Music Teacher and Technology Integrator at Blair Elementary School in Waukesha, WI, as well as a freelance private instructor in the Muskego and Waukesha areas, from 2015-2018. Her passion for music and education guides her everyday practices in and out of the classroom.

Jennifer Gonzalez

Jennifer Gonzalez performs with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, she performs with the Borderland Arts Foundation, and formerly with the Richardson Symphony Orchestra and the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez Orquestra. She can be heard as Principal flutist with the University of Texas at El Paso Wind Symphony in recordings of the music of David Holsinger, Roger Cichy, Julie Giroux, and Frank Ticheli as distributed by Mark Custom Records.

As an educator, Dr. Gonzalez has presented at several state conferences including the Texas Music Educators Association convention and the Indiana State Music Educators conference. Her students have been selected as Texas All-Region Band members, Texas All-State Band members, and scholarship recipients to Abilene Christian University and University of Texas at El Paso.

Dr. Gonzalez has served as an adjudicator for local and national flute competitions including the Francis Blaisdell Scholarship competition for the National Flute Association (USA) and the Houston Flute Club Young Artist Competition. Dr. Gonzalez is on faculty at Bel Air Middle School in El Paso, TX.

Flute Choir Guest Conductor

Francisco Javier Renteria

Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, Francisco Javier Renteria began his early musical studies on flute. While in college, he studied under the tutelage of Dr. Melissa Colgin-Abeln, flute; Dr. Andrea Shaheen-Espinoza, Janie Sanchez, oboe; and Dr. Bradley Genevro, conducting. Francisco Javier earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education with a concentration in oboe from the University of Texas at El Paso. He received his Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from New Mexico State University.

Francisco Javier holds the current co-principal oboe position with the El Paso Wind Symphony and has performed with various ensembles: UTEP Flautistas – NFA (2013), UTEP Wind Symphony – TMEA (2018), El Paso Ballet Theatre International Orchestra (2020), El Paso Chorale Society and Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Profesional de Universidad Autonóma de Ciudad Juárez – Harp, El Paso Symphony Orchestra, Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, and the Gilbert and Sullivan Company of El Paso.

In 2022 he served as an assistant conductor for the Las Cruces Youth Orchestra and Choirs for one season. Francisco Javier served as Orchestral Director and Conductor for the Gilbert and Sullivan Company of El Paso for five seasons. Additionally, in 2018 he co-founded the Joan P. Quarm Scholarship Concert Series to continue the diverse development of music in the community and visionary musical opportunity for college students.Francisco Javier is a ballet enthusiast; he currently serves as the orchestral director of the El Paso Ballet Theatre International Orchestra, Las Cruces Chamber Ballet Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfónica Binacional de la Compañia de Ballet Clasico Maru Becerra. He is especially fond of ballet orchestral repertoire; he has had the pleasure of conducting productions of ballet music such as Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird 1910 ballet, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets, Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite ballet – after George Bizet's Opera, and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring ballet.

Festival Director

Mafer Guglielmina

Peruvian flutist Mafer Guglielmina is Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Texas at El Paso. A versatile and sought-after performer and educator, she has recently been a featured concerto soloist with ensembles such as the UTEP Wind Ensemble, the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola Big Band in Peru, the Miami Sousa Band, the Frost Wind Ensemble, the Penn State Chamber Orchestra, the Penn State Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and the Western Michigan University Symphony Orchestra. She has earned numerous solo prizes in international competitions, including the Silver Medal in the Berliner International Music Competition, Peru’s Concurso Internacional de Flautistas, the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artist Competition (Pennsylvania), the White Lake Young Artist Competition (Michigan), and the Wisconsin Flute Festival Collegiate and Young Artist competitions.

She holds a doctoral degree from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and master's and bachelor's degrees in music from Pennsylvania State University and Western Michigan University, respectively. During her time in Miami, she served as a mentor to undergraduates and K-12 students through the Shalala MusicReach Program, an outreach program that aims to enrich the education of under-served youth in the Miami-Dade community through innovative music education programs while providing Frost School of Music students with opportunities to develop their teaching and community engagement skills. She also served as Adjunct Flute Instructor at Westminster Christian School and ran her own private flute studio.

She has performed with the El Paso Ballet Theatre International Orchestra, Napa Valley Festival Orchestra, New World Symphony, Palm Beach Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Naples Festival Orchestra, Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, and Penn’s Woods Music Festival. She has recently been a featured guest artist at the Eastern Iowa Flute Workshop, Perú's Festival Internacional de Flautistas, Flautistas del Perú, and the Venezuelan Festival de Flauta Manuel Guadalajara. Following her passion for scholarship in Latin American music, her latest published essay, "Miami Flute Suite" by Miguel del Aguila: A Musical and Cultural Study, features an analysis of Brazilian choro, Latin jazz, tango, and Uruguayan milonga, as well as an interview with the composer himself. She is now serving on the National Flute Association’s Career and Artistic Development Committee. Mafer Guglielmina is proud to be a Wm. S. Haynes Co. Young Artist.

Guest Pianists

Joseph Lecher

Wisconsin native Joseph Lecher is currently a professor of piano and music theory at the University of Texas at El Paso. He holds degrees in Piano Performance from Carroll University, the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris in France. He has been a soloist with the Lake Country Orchestra and has toured with the Carroll University Wind Ensemble. He is a guest performer with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, the El Paso Ballet Theatre International Orchestra, and was a guest pianist for the 2023 MusicMexico Symposium in Houston. He has premiered works by Sigmund Snopek III, Crawford Gates, Jim Colonna, Julie Giroux, and will premier works for cello and piano by Benjamin Robichaux.

He is the artistic director of the Lake Country Chamber Ensemble in Wisconsin and on the founding committee for the Borderland Chopin International Competition. Joseph is twice the winner of the Milwaukee Music Teachers Association Artist and Debut Series Competition, and the Medaille d’argent recipient of the Concours National de Piano de Chatou, France.

His former teachers include Oscar Macchioni, Judit Jaimes, Elena Abend, Cécile Edel-Latos, and Margarita Kontorovskaya. Aside from his university position, he is an active collaborative pianist in the desert southwest and performs regularly with his wife, cellist Alina Vazquez.

Michael Sheppard

An improviser and composer since the single digits of age, he has worked closely with fellow composers John Corigliano, Christopher Theofanidis, Michael Hersch, Robert Sirota and the late Nicholas Maw, demonstrating a deep love of new music; his eclectic tastes also led him recently to musical-direct performances of Jason Robert Brown's Broadway show “The Last Five Years” as well as “Elegies for Angels, Punks, and Raging Queens” at the Brighton (U.K.) Fringe Fest, in which show he also made his stage acting debut as the character Dwight, an ex-dancer, even though Sheppard himself in real life has the physical grace of, approximately, a mailbox. #acting

Anyway, to round this out, he is a native of Philadelphia and resides in Baltimore, where he works at both the Peabody Conservatory and the Baltimore School for the Arts, sharing his love and understanding of music and the artistic process with future generations. His hobbies include avoiding political discussions on Facebook, clumsily attempting to master certain bodyweight exercises so as to be able to eat and drink whatever he wants relatively without consequence (and to ameliorate the aforementioned mailbox situation), and reading. Recently he has also forayed into audiobook narration, because apparently he doesn’t have enough stuff to do.

Known as “a virtuosic soloist possessed of power, sensitivity, earthiness, and humor” (Whitney Smith, Indianapolis Star) with the “power to make an audience sit up and pay attention...thought-provoking for performers and listeners alike” (James Manheim, All Music Guide ), Michael Sheppard studied with the legendary Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory. He was selected by the American Pianists Association as a Classical Fellow, which designation led to the recording of his Harmonia Mundi CD of 2007. In addition to having recorded a hearty cross-section of the cello and piano repertoire with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Principal Cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski, an ongoing project, he has another solo album “in the can” (release date TBA) and has as also recently released an experimental album of all improvisations, “12 Images.”

Young Artist Competition

Rules regarding the 2025 UTEP Flute Festival Young Artist Competition:

Eligible flutists must be in 12th grade or younger
You must apply by April 1st, 2025
Any work is accepted (works for flute alone OR flute & piano are accepted)
No more than 5 minutes of performance time is allowed - feel free to make cuts if needed, otherwise judges reserve the right to stop you mid-performance after the 5 minute mark
- For those performing a piece for flute and piano:
*** It is highly recommended your bring your own pianist (we will NOT provide one) but it is not required
The competition takes place in person on April 5th, 2025
- Competition starts at 8:00AM, UTEP Band Room (FFA Room 140, 1st floor)
- Please check-in outside the Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall before warming-up for competition
- Practice rooms are available in all floors in the UTEP Department of Music for warm-up
Competition judges are Jennifer Grim, Rose Bishop, Janella Saad, and Jennifer Gonzalez
Winners will be announced during the Flute Choir Showcase Concert (3pm)

Competition Prizes

* 1st Prize: a Haynes Silver Custom Headjoint (retail value of $1,700) - sponsored by Wm. S. Haynes Co.
* 2nd Prize: a FREE full COA (Cleaning, Oil and Adjustment) up to $500 value - sponsored by Flutistry.
* 3rd Prize: a $100 gift certificate to Olivas Music store - sponsored by Olivas Music.

Any questions regarding the 2025 UTEP Flute Festival Young Artist Competition, please email Dr. Mafer Guglielmina:

mfguglielmina@utep.edu

Masterclass Performers

Video Application

Rules regarding the 2025 UTEP Masterclass Performer Video Submission:

Flutists of ALL AGES are welcome to apply to be a featured performer in Jennifer Grim's masterclass
When you register, you must know the title and composer of the work you desire to play in the masterclass
You may register beforehand without providing video link, but the video link must be submitted by March 23rd, 2025 (you will receive submission reminders).
If you do not submit a video of you performing your selected piece, you will not be considered for the masterclass
Any work is accepted (works for flute alone OR flute & piano are accepted)
- For those performing a piece for flute and piano:
*** It is highly recommended you bring your own pianist (we will NOT provide one) but it is not required
Chosen Performers will be announced by March 28th, 2025
Please check in the morning and be ready to perform in person in the Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall at 11:30AM

Any questions regarding the 2025 UTEP Flute Festival Masterclass Performer Video Application, please email Dr. Mafer Guglielmina:

mfguglielmina@utep.edu

The Exhibit Hall

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!