Jack Cozen Harel, oboist, joined the faculty of the University of Akron in 2010. Active as a soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Harel has been recognized with numerous awards including: Best Classical Soloist by Downbeat Magazine, winner of the Baroness Leni Fe Bland Competition, winner of the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition, recipient of the Eckstein Grant and William Banovetz Scholarship. He is the oboist of the world-renowned Solaris Quintet and has been an exclusive Yamaha Performing Artist since 2008.
Mr. Harel also serves on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music and is oboe teaching artist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has taught at the California Institute of Technology, Long Beach College, and Northwestern University. Additionally, he holds the Guinness World Record for "Fastest Oboe Playing." This record was set by performing all 409 notes of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee in a time of 26.1 seconds.
Mr. Harel began his professional career at age 18 as the principal oboist of the San Francisco Sinfonietta. He holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Northwestern University, where he served as teaching assistant to the oboe faculty. Mr. Harel also holds an Artist Diploma from the Colburn School, where he was the first oboist ever accepted into the prestigious conservatory program. His teachers include John de Lancie, James Moore, William Bennett, Grover Schiltz, and Allan Vogel.
Mr. Golovin is a Gold Medal winner of the prestigious Ima Hogg Houston Symphony Young Artist Competition. He has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, Blossom Festival Orchestra, and Britt Festival Orchestra. Mr. Golovin has played under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst, Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Gilbert, Hans Graf, Manfred Honeck, David Robertson, Paavo Järvi, Lionel Bringuier, Giancarlo Guerrero, to name a few.
Mr. Golovin has won numerous awards and competitions, including the Milhaud Performance Prize Competition, the Wagner College Young Artist Competition, the Tuesday Musical Club Competition, National Young Artist Competition of Uzbekistan, International Jewish Young Arts Festival Competition in Moscow, the Fine Arts Award in Clarinet at Interlochen Arts Academy, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition.
An active educator, Mr. Golovin has taught courses at the Cleveland Institute of Music, at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance and at Interlochen Arts Academy. His other engagements included at the University of Iowa, the University of Virginia, University of South Dakota, the University of Missouri in Columbia, Truman State University, Kansas State University, Wichita State University, and others. Stanislav received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in clarinet performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. In addition, Mr. Golovin is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in clarinet performance at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. His primary teachers included Franklin Cohen and Dr. Jane Carl. Mr. Golovin performs exclusively on Buffet clarinets.
Dr. Margaret Tung is the newly appointed Assistant Professor of Horn at The University of Akron. Hailed as “masterly” in the Chicago Classical Review, she has performed with the famed Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Zurich Opera Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In 2011, Dr. Tung had the privilege of collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma in Once Upon a Symphony, a new CSO project. She performed the world premier of Spangled Unicorn by Anna Clyne with the CSO’s new music ensemble, MusicNOW. As an avid chamber musician, Dr. Tung is a member of the Solaris Wind Quintet. She is also the founder of Brass in the City and a founding member of Lincoln Park Brass. Dr. Tung performed Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 3 with the Colorado College Summer Music Festival as the concerto competition winner. Other festivals she attended include Music Academy of the West, National Repertory Orchestra, and Spoleto Festival USA. She can be heard as a featured soloist with Anima on their CD release, An Anima Christmas.
Dr. Tung is an education enthusiast and has been on faculty at Towson University, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Olivet Nazarene University, Wheaton College, Zurich International School in Switzerland and is currently on faculty at the Marrowstone Music Festival in Bellingham, WA. Dr. Tung completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts at The Ohio State University and holds a Master of Music from Rice University and a Bachelor of Music from DePaul University. Her teachers include world renowned Dale Clevenger, William VerMeulen, Oto Carrillo, Jon Boen, David Griffin, and Bruce Henniss. During her free time she enjoys hiking and cooking.
Cynthia Cioffari teaches bassoon at The University of Akron and is a member of the Solaris Wind Quintet. She is also contrabassoonist/section bassoonist of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and bassoonist with the Wintergreen (VA) Summer Music Festival Orchestra. She has performed with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Southwest Virginia Chamber Orchestra, Toledo Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Light Opera, Broadway Across America-Columbus and the Winds of Wintergreen.
Prior to joining the faculty at The University of Akron, Ms. Cioffari held adjunct positions at Capital University, Otterbein College and Denison University. She has also taught at the University of Alabama, Heidelberg College and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Ms. Cioffari has appeared as a soloist or ensemble member at the International Double Reed Society Convention, National Flute Association Convention, International Clarinet Association Conference, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and at the International Horn Symposium in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1983, she was a finalist in the International Double Reed Society's Gillet Young Artist Competition at Tallahassee, Florida.
Cynthia Cioffari can be heard on CD with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (“CSO Showcase” and “Live at Carnegie Hall”), with the Bowling Green State University New Music Festival and with the Bexley Chamber Ensemble. Recent premiere performances for her include “Petite Suite” for oboe and bassoon by James Geiger, “Breve Dúo Latino” for flute and bassoon by Richard Cioffari, “Nocturne #1, Opus 529” for Chamber Ensemble by Stan Smith and “Variations on a Theme of Grieg” for woodwind quintet by Richard Cioffari. She holds a bachelor's degree in music performance from Bowling Green State University and a master's degree in woodwinds from the University of Michigan. Her teachers have included L. Hugh Cooper, Robert J. Moore and Russell Hinkle. Prof. Cioffari is listed in “Who’s Who in America.”
Dr. Daniel Velasco is an award winning flutist whose "standout" and "vibrant" performances (Miami Herald) have taken him around the country and abroad. He is the first prize winner of the National Flute Association's Young Artist Competition, WAMSO Minnesota Orchestra Competition, MTNA Young Artist Competition, Claude Monteux Flute Competition, second prize winner of the William C. Byrd Competition and finalist at the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh International Competition.
He has soloed with the Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador, Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra, Luciano Carrera Chamber Orchestra and has been featured as a guest performer at the Schubert Club Series in Saint Paul, the Indy Flute Festival in Indianapolis, the Middle Tennessee Flute Festival in Nashville, the University or North Florida, the Florida Flute Association Convention, the "Festival Internacional de Flautistas en la Mitad del Mundo," and the National Flute Association Conventions in Kansas City, New Orleans, and Chicago.
Orchestral festivals include the Latin American Youth Orchestra, Chautauqua Music Festival, Orchestra de la Francophonie, Utah Festival Opera, as well as tours through Chile and Central America with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. He has performed under Carlos Prieto, Gustavo Dudamel, Claudio Abbado, Ben Zander, Jean-Philippe Tremblay, Jacomo Bairos, Ramón Tebar, Cristian Macelaru, Carl St. Clair, and others.
An active freelancer, he has performed with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Philharmonic, Amarillo Symphony, Florida Grand Opera Orchestra, Palm Beach Symphony, Boca Sinfonia, and is a founding member of the Miami-based NuDeco Ensemble. His main teachers include Angeleita Floyd, Marianne Gedigian, Amy Porter and Trudy Kane.
Velasco earned a doctoral degree from the University of Miami-Frost School of Music, and holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Northern Iowa. He was recently appointed to the faculty at The University of Akron and is a newly signed Yamaha performing artist.
