2015 UMKC Woodwind Quintet 

The University of Missouri-Kansas City Graduate Fellowship Woodwind Quintet has become one of the Conservatory’s premier performing ensembles. Competition for the Fellowships is extremely strong, and the program continually attracts top graduate students from throughout the United States and abroad.

The current personnel of the award winning UMKC Graduate Fellowship Woodwind Quintet have been performing together since 2014 and have been extremely successful in chamber music competitions throughout the country including advancing to the National Round of the Music Teacher’s National Association Chamber Winds Competition in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Current personnel includes: Flutist Sandra Fernández Vizcaíno, a D.M.A. student of Mary Posses, earned her bachelor’s degrees in Music Education, Performance, and English in her native Ecuador and an M.M. at Western Michigan University. South African-born oboist Gregory Stead, D.M.A. student, a graduate of The Florida State University (B.M.) and the Lynn University Conservatory of Music (M.M.); he studies with Barbara Bishop. Arkansas native Trevor Stewart, clarinet, holds a B.M. degree from the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith is in the M.M. program at UMKC, where his teacher is Jane Carl. Natalie Brooke Higgins, horn, from Elk Grove, CA, an alumna of the University of California, Los Angeles (B.M.) and George Mason University (M.M.), a D.M.A. student at UMKC, where she studies with Martin Hackleman. Joshua Draves-Kellerman, bassoon, a student in UMKC’s M.M. program, and studies with Marita Abner; originally from Minneapolis, he received a B.M. from the University of Iowa.

Since its founding twenty-one years ago, the UMKC Conservatory Graduate Fellowship Woodwind Quintet has become one of the Conservatory’s premier performing ensembles. Competition for these Fellowships is extremely strong, and the program continually attracts top graduate students from throughout the United States and abroad.

In a master class several years ago, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet enthusiastically praised the UMKC group as being the best wind quintet they had coached in their eight U.S. tours. With repertoire ranging from traditional wind quintet works to some of the newest music written for this combination of instruments, the ensemble maintains an active presence not only on the UMKC campus but also throughout the area surrounding Kansas City, reflecting the Conservatory’s commitment to community engagement. Activities in recent years have included full White Hall recitals every semester; leadership positions in the Conservatory’s large ensembles; concerts and workshops in area school systems; performances for UMKC donors and support groups; premieres of works by student composers; performances at UMKC’s annual Midwest Honor Band Festivals and summer Wind Conducting Symposium; recitals on the “Brown Bag” lunchtime concert series at the Westport Center for the Arts; a presentation at the College Music Society Regional Conference; a performance for Arts KC and the Arts Council; and concerts at the Nelson Atkins Museum and the Kansas City Art Institute. The quintet has provided music at Ronald McDonald House for families with critically ill children receiving treatment at area hospitals, brightened the lives of senior citizens through concerts in nursing homes and retirement communities, and contributed music to services and other activities at local houses of worship.

In addition to weekly work with their faculty coach, Mary Posses, the quintet has performed in chamber music master classes in recent years with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, Imani Winds, Borealis Wind Quintet, Prism, and eighth blackbird.