The Texas Flute Society is proud to present our 2016 Guest Artists
Gary Schocker, Nina Perlove, and Isabel Gleicher
Flutist-composer-pianist Gary Schocker is an accomplished musician of outstanding versatility. At age 15, he made his professional debut when he performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has won numerous competitions including the Young Concert Artists, the National Flute Association, the NY Flute Club and the East-West Artists. Often, he concertizes in duo with guitarist Jason Vieaux. Internationally, he has toured and taught in Colombia, Panama, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, France and Italy.
Schocker has composed sonatas and chamber music for most instruments of the orchestra. He also has written several musicals, including Far From the Madding Crowd and The Awakening, which can be heard on Original Cast Recordings. Both shows were winners of the Global Search for New Musicals in the UK and were performed in Cardiff and at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as in New Zealand. In New York, they were winners of the ASCAP music theatre awards.
Schocker has won the International Clarinet Association’s annual composition competition twice and the National Flute Association’s annual Newly Published Music Award numerous times. Among artists who have played his compositions, James Galway gave the American premier of Green Places with the New Jersey Symphony.
In 2008 Schocker was commissioned to write the required piece “Biwako Wind” for the International Flute Competition in Biwako, Japan for which he also served as judge.
Gary has private flute studios in NYC and Easton, PA where he dually resides. He is on the faculty at NYU. He performs on both Haynes and Powell flutes and headjoints of David Williams (platinum) and David Chu (boxwood).
First Prize Winner in the Laurence Beauregard Competition and winner of the 2009 YouTube Symphony Competition, Dr. Nina Perlove is one of the most listened to classical flutists of her generation with over 7 million views to her online video performances and tutorials worldwide. Perlove’s mesmerizing performances, inspiring teaching, and remarkable ability to distribute her art in a meaningful way over the internet are transforming classical music and reinvigorating audiences on every continent. Reviewers have called her “a worldwide phenomenon,” and she has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and other major media. Her groundbreaking website REALFLUTEproject.com has earned a loyal following and combines her dynamic video performances and teaching with musical commentary and research.
A product of the finest French and American training, Perlove began her flute studies at age seven with Nancy Waring in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She continued her studies with Keith Bryan and Leone Buyse at the University of Michigan and later earned a Fulbright to study with Alain Marion and Sophie Cherrier in Paris, France. After two years abroad, she returned to the U.S. to study with Brad Garner and Jack Wellbaum, earning an MM and DMA from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.
Perlove has won prizes in numerous contests, including the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition, the Cincinnati Flute Symposium Performer’s Competition, and the Richardson Young Artist Competition. She has performed throughout the United States and Europe, including appearances in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Austria and has extensive performance experience in both traditionaland contemporary solo and chamber music. In orchestras, Perlove has held positions with the Spoleto USA and Graz Festival Orchestras, the Jackson and Lansing Michigan Symphony Orchestras, and has appeared with the Charleston Symphony. Perlove has given masterclasses in the United States and Italy and previously taught flute at Northern Kentucky University . She has adjudicated competitions including the Concours General de Musique LeopoldBELLAN, the Midsouth Flute Society, the Central Ohio Flute Fair, the Overture Awards, and the National Flute Association Dissertation Prize.
In addition to her flute performing and teaching, Perlove “is a fine writer, music critic, and advocate for modern music” (J. Pritchard, The Flute Network). Her articles have appeared in publications including Perspectives of New Music, American Music, Pan Magazine, Windplayer Magazine, Flute Talk Magazine, CMA Matters, and The Flutist Quarterly. Her doctoral thesis on the flute music of Aaron Copland won the 2004 National Flute Association Dissertation Prize for outstanding contribution to flute scholarship. She is currently on the Editorial Advisory Board of The Flutist Quarterly.
As an expert is using the web and social media, she also works as an arts consultant. She was recently an Artist Development Advisor to the YouTube Symphony 2011, a project in which she promoted, performed in and hosted a week of music events in Sydney, Australia which was broadcast live to over 33 million viewers. As Executive Director of the Starling Project Foundation from 2002–2007, she won a prestigious WebbyAward for the teaching website Violinmasterclass.com; created a summer music school in Beijing, China; commissioned works by diverse composers; and created and performed in chamber music concerts for economically disadvantaged schoolchildren. Currently she serves as Consultant/Executive Director for the American Classical Music Hall of Fame, where she redeveloped the organization’s website, oversees the awarding and presentation of inductee medallions, and is working to build an interactive Virtual Walk of Fame in Cincinnati’s Washington Park.
Perlove was named “One of Twenty Professional Women to Watch in 2012” by the Cincinnati Enquirer and was the 2009 Honoree by Leading Women Cincinnati in Arts and Entertainment and is an Artist for Gemeinhardt Flutes. She plays a custom made, professional Kurt Gemeinhardt Generations Flute using the new RS 2012 scale.
Flutist Isabel Lepanto Gleicher is a compelling, and versatile performer who enjoys a career filled with a variety of music. She has performed internationally in venues such as, but not limited to, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill Recital Hall, and the Galapagos Art Space in the United States, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China, the National Theater and Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, and in the Rolston Recital Hall at the Banff Center in Canada. As an orchestral musician, Isabel is a founding member and principal flutist of New York City’s Uptown Philharmonic. She was a member of the Yale Philharmonia under the baton of Peter Oundjian and Krystoff Penderecki, as well as the Banff Festival Orchestra under the baton of Joel Smirnoff and Lior Shambadal. This summer she joins the New York Symphonic Ensemble for their annual tour in Japan. Isabel is currently a member of Tactus new music ensemble. She has made appearances in ensemble Le Train Bleu as part of the New Haven Arts and Ideas Festival as well as Cantata Profana in Boston and New York City. She is a founding member of woodwind quintet Xylem, and has won quintet fellowship positions at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. Isabel has recorded for San Fermin’s latest album Jackrabbit on Downtown Records, and was part of the premiere recording of Lee Hoiby’s: The Tempest on Albany Records, as principal flute of the Purchase Symphony Orchestra. Isabel is currently working on a Master’s degree in Contemporary Performance at the Manhattan School of Music. She also holds a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor’s degree from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers include Tara Helen O’Connor, Ransom Wilson, and Tanya Dusevic Witek.