Blue Mountain Ensemble
ARTISTS: Michael Burns, Bassoon; Carla Copeland-Burns, Flute; Elizabeth Tomlin, Piano
DATE: July 13 2008, 3 PM
SITE: NC Museum of Art
2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh
PROGRAM in two parts
Europe: 18th, 19th Centuries
Coming To America: 20th Century
INFORMATION & TICKET SALES
- NCMA Box Office (919) 715-5923
- Raleigh Chamber Music Guild (919) 821-2030
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The Blue Mountain Ensemble is based in central North Carolina and brings together very familiar faces to classical music audiences of this region. Its core members Michael Burns, Carla Copeland-Burns, and Elizabeth Tomlin are active artists in numerous venues throughout the state and enjoy nationwide exposure as guest performers and teachers.
The ensemble performs repertoire from many style periods written for this combination of flute, bassoon, and piano, but also seeks existing repertoire that adapts well to the ensemble. Blue Mountain Ensemble actively works to develop and commission new works through the Devienne Commissioning Project for pieces that include the core ensemble plus other instruments or voices.
The name of the ensemble is taken from exceptionally beautiful and diverse natural areas in Florida, Australia, and North Carolina that hold special significance for the members, with each of these places carrying the name Blue Mountain. Programming by the ensemble mirrors the diverse environments of these areas ranging from serene, young, old, laid-back and joyful, to intensely rugged.
The Blue Mountain Ensemble is based in central North Carolina and brings together very familiar faces to classical music audiences of this region. The ensemble performs repertoire from many style periods written for this combination of flute, bassoon, and piano, but also seeks existing repertoire that adapts well to the ensemble as well as newly commissioned works. The name of the ensemble is taken from exceptionally beautiful and diverse natural areas in Florida, Australia, and North Carolina that hold special significance for the members, with each of these places carrying the name Blue Mountain. Programming by the ensemble mirrors the diverse environments of these areas ranging from serene, young, old, laid-back and joyful, to rugged and intense.
Michael Burns, bassoon, is Associate Professor of Bassoon for the UNC-Greensboro School of Music and a Yamaha Performing Artist. He holds the BM degree from the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, the MM from the New England Conservatory, and the DMA from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has performed in numerous professional orchestras including the Cincinnati and New Zealand Symphonies and played Principal in the Midland/Odessa, Richmond and Abilene Symphonies and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Currently Burns plays principal with the Asheville Symphony, North Carolina Ballet and the Opera Company of North Carolina as well as performing frequently with the North Carolina and Greensboro Symphony Orchestras. Prior to UNCG he taught at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, Indiana State University, and Midland College. He remains active as a solo and chamber performer with numerous recitals and master classes throughout North America, Germany and the South Pacific, as a solo bassoonist and in the East Wind Ensemble, the Blue Mountain Ensemble, and the Cascade Quintet. Burns has recorded for the Centaur, CAP, Telarc, EMI, Klavier, and Mark labels. He is also an active composer with many of his pieces being published by TrevCo Music and frequently performed. He is archivist for the International Double Reed Society and was co-host for the IDRS 2003 Conference in Greensboro, NC.
Carla Copeland-Burns, flute, currently enjoys an active freelancing career with several ensembles including the North Carolina Symphony, the Opera Company of North Carolina, and the Carolina Ballet among others. Burns serves as Piccoloist for the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, Principal Flute in the Salisbury Symphony and the Fibonacci Chamber Orchestra, and in the ongoing chamber groups Blue Mountain Ensemble and the Cascade Wind Quintet, a North Carolina Arts Council Touring Roster Ensemble. A dedicated teacher, Burns has served on an adjunct basis at Indiana State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Mars Hill College, and served with the New England Music Camp faculty for six years. She currently teaches flute at Radford University in Virginia and coaches chamber music at the Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop. Prior to moving to North Carolina, Burns maintained an active recital schedule, as a teacher and guest artist on flute and baroque flute, while based in the Boston and Cincinnati areas. Following her time in Cincinnati she became the Principal Flute for the Midland-Odessa Symphony in Texas and then relocated to the Greensboro, NC, area in fall 1994. Burns holds a Bachelor of Music with Honors degree from the Florida State University and the Master of Music in Flute Performance from the New England Conservatory. Her teachers include Charles Delaney, Lois Schaefer, Carol Wincenc, Nadine Asin, Jack Wellbaum and Stephen Preston.
Elizabeth Tomlin, piano, is an active piano soloist, chamber musician and new music advocate. Notable solo performances include the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Dudley Profiles Series at Harvard University, and solos with orchestras in Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina. In demand as a collaborative pianist, she performs regularly throughout the Triangle area with local and visiting artists, including appearances with North Carolina Symphony artists, visiting New York Philharmonic artists, Mallarme Chamber Players, Durham Choral Society, and the Carolina Wind Quintet. She has been a chamber coach at the UNC Chamber Workshop, American String Workshop, and Depauw University, and was the coordinator of the piano accompanying programs at Indiana University and the Harid Conservatory of Music. Elizabeth often premieres works by established and emerging composers such as T.J. Anderson, Derek Bermel, Benjamin Crawford, Jennifer Fitzgerald, and John Bower. She holds a Doctor of Music from Indiana University, a Masters of Music from the University of Michigan and a Bachelors of Music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Principal teachers include Edward Auer, Louis Nagel and Duke Miles, and she has worked in master classes with Murray Perahia, Michael Tilson Thomas, Robert Levin and John Perry. Previously on the music faculties of the Harid Conservatory of Music and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she joined the Duke University music department in 2005.
Artist Website: bluemountainensemble.org