Sean Gabriel, Lecturer in Flute. Gabriel earned performance degrees from the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music and the Indiana University School of Music at Bloomington. His main teachers were William J. Hebert and James J. Pellerite. As the current principal flutist of the Cleveland Opera Orchestra, Gabriel has taken part in performances since 1988, including the historic Three Tenors Concert at Cleveland Browns Stadium in 2000. Sean is also the principal flutist of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, our city’s award winning new music ensemble. With the group, Gabriel has taken part in dozens of world premiere performances including one written by former music director Edwin London entitled Scenes for Flute and Orchestra. This work was recorded by Mr. Gabriel and the Chamber Symphony for the Albany label in 2001. Other works that have been written for Mr. Gabriel include Dance Moments 2000 for flute and piano by New York composer Matthew Greenbaum, and a work for flute and percussion entitled Pinions Lie Down in Tin by Cleveland composer and pianist Eric Ziolek. Sean Gabriel has been a member of the flute section of the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra under three music directors, (Eiji Oue, Peter Bay, and Hugh Keelan) performing a wide variety of symphonic repertoire. He has also been an orchestral and chamber musician at the Baldwin-Wallace College Bach Festival, The Bach and Handel Society of Cleveland, The Cleveland Ballet Orchestra, Lyric Opera Cleveland, and the Cleveland Pops Orchestra. Gabriel also serves on the faculty of the music department at the Cleveland State University. Email: sgabriel@bw.edu
George Pope, Lecturer in Flute. Pope is Professor of Flute at the University of Akron and is on the faculty of the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory. His solo and chamber music performances throughout the United States, Europe and South America have been universally acclaimed. Fanfare Magazine calls George Pope's playing "clean, arrestingly vigorous and beautiful". His Ohio premiere of the Christopher Rouse Concerto for Flute and Orchestra was hailed for its "eloquent narrative voice" and "magnificent force". George Pope was Principal and Solo Flute of the Akron Symphony Orchestra from 1978-2002. He has also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Red (an orchestra), the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, the Ohio Ballet Orchestra, the Cleveland Philharmonic, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera Cleveland, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the New Mexico Symphony, the Monteux Festival Orchestra and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra.
A graduate of Northwestern University and The University of Tulsa, George Pope studied with Marion McNally, Maurice Sharp, Walfrid Kujala, Bernard Goldberg, William Bennett and Geoffrey Gilbert. He is a founding member of the SOLARIS Wind Quintet, in residence at The University of Akron. Solaris released its first CD, “American Quintets”, on Capstone Records in August of 2000, which includes his transcription of Bernstein’s “Anniversaries” for woodwind quintet. Solaris’ new Capstone CD, “American Quintets II”, was released in August 2003. George Pope has performed with The Chamber Music Society of Ohio, The Coryton Trio and the Garth Newel Chamber Players in Hot Springs, Virginia, and Furious Band. He has also recorded for Opus One Records, with the Akron Symphony on Telarc, and with the Blossom Festival Band.
His master classes throughout the country, and the Summer Flute Experience held annually in Akron, have firmly established his reputation as a motivational and highly successful teacher. He has appeared as the featured artist in many festivals, including the Upper Midwest Flute Association in Minneapolis, the Florida Flute Association, the Central Ohio Flute Association, the Northeastern Ohio Flute Association, the Greater Cleveland Flute Society, the Oklahoma Flute Society, the Arizona Flute Society, the Pittsburgh Flute Society, the Middle Tennessee Flute Association, the Northwest Flute Collegium in Tacoma, the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm and the German Flute Society in Frankfurt. George Pope has published transcriptions and arrangements through ALRY Publications, etc.
George Pope is active in The National Flute Association, serving in the Presidential cycle (2000-03), Program Chair for the 2000 Convention in Columbus, OH, and as a member of the Board of Directors (1995-97). Email: gpope@bw.edu
Jeffrey Rathbun will begin as Lecturer in Oboe at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory in the fall of 2006. He became assistant principal oboe of The Cleveland Orchestra in 1990, and served as principal oboe from 2001-2003. Rathbun was previously a member of the Atlanta, San Francisco, Oakland, and Honolulu symphony orchestras. In 1988, he won first prize in the Lucarelli International Competition for Solo Oboe Players held at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, where he also gave his New York debut recital in April of 1990. He has taught at Kent State University, Kent-Blossom Chamber Music Festival, and been a visiting oboe professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University, as well as giving master classes at Manhattan School of Music, Mannes, and others. A graduate of the University of North Texas (B.M., 1981) where he studied with Charles Veazey, and the Cleveland Institute of Music (M.M., 1983) where he studied with John Mack, Mr. Rathbun is an active composer of chamber and orchestral works. His compositions are published by Theodore Presser Co., Jeanne, Inc., and Amoris International. In 1995, The Cleveland Orchestra presented the world premiere of Rathbun’s Daredevil, his Three Psalms of Jerusalem in August of 1998, and in January 2000 his Motions for Cellos was premiered by the Orchestra’s cello section. Mr. Rathbun’s compositions have been conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi, Leonard Slatkin, Jahja Ling, and Franz Welser-Moest. His solo oboe CD Color Factory is available at www.dNote.com.
Daniel McKelway, Professor in Clarinet. Clarinetist Daniel McKelway was born in Hanover, New Hampshire and was raised i n Davidson, North Carolina where he began playing the clarinet at the age of eight. His early teachers were Alan Ware and Thomas Cameron, principal clarinetists of the Charlotte Symphony. While a student of his principal teacher, Robert Listokin, at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Daniel won the Arts Recognition and Talent Search sponsored by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the NCSA Concerto Competition, and his biggest prize, the Young Concert Artists Audition in 1984.
Daniel received both a Bachelor of Music Degree and an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory where he studied with the late Harold Wright, principal clarinetist of the Boston SYmphony. While in Boston, Daniel won prizes at the Naumberg and Affiliate Artists Competitions, and in 1989, was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Over the years, Daniel has become one of the most sought after soloists and chamber musicians of his generation, giving highly acclaimed debuts in Washington D.C., New York, Boston, Los Angeles and performing in over forty states and twelve foreign countries. He has also participated in numerous festivals including Angelfire, Blossom, Bowdoin, Bravo! Colorado, Brevard, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Foothills, Kapalua, Marlboro, New College, Newport, Prussia Cove, Taipei, Tanglewood, Vancouver and toured and recorded with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Recent appearances include performances with the Kandinsky Trio and the Miami String Quartet, as soloist with the New Brunswick Symphony at the University of Oklahoma. Daniel will begin performing with a new woodwind quintet, the C.O. 5, this coming year.
In 1994, Daniel began his orchestral career spending one year as principal clarinetist with the Grand Rapids Symphony before being appointed, in May 1995, by Christoph von Dohnanyi as Assistant Principal an Eb clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Daniel has served on the faculties of the Longy School in Boston, the Bowdoin Festival, Hope College (MI), the NCSA, and the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. While not playing clarinet, Daniel enjoys running marathons, climbing mountains, working on his 1976 Toyota Celica and sailing, and in July of 2006, Daniel and his wife, violist Lembi Veskimets, welcomed their first child, Rein Erik McKelway. Email: dmckelwa@bw.edu
Jonathan Sherwin, Lecturer in Bassoon. M.M., Northwestern University; B.M., Eastman School of Music. Jonathan Sherwin joined the Cleveland Orchestra in 1997 after ten years as Bassoon/Contra Bassoon of the Colorado Symphony. He is currently principal bassoon in the Aspen Chamber Symphony and has been a regular participant at summer music festivals such as the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Spoleto Music Festival. Other orchestral experience includes performances with the American Chamber Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New Orleans Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Colorado Philharmonic. Mr. Sherwin has studied with K. David Hoesen, Willard Elliot, David Carroll, Ryohei Nakagawa, and Luis Skinner. Contra Bassoon studies were with Burl Lane, Bradford Buckley and Norbert Nielubowski. Actively involved as an educator, Mr. Sherwin serves on the faculties of the Aspen Music School, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Cleveland State University. Email: JSSherwin@aol.com
Greg Banaszak, Lecturer in Saxophone; Director of B-W Jazz Studies and the B-W Jazz Ensemble. Greg Banaszak, one of today's leading saxophonists, has performed with orchestras and at concert halls throughout the world. He has appeared as concerto soloist and recitalist throughout the United States, also the countries of France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Egypt, South Korea, The Dominican Republic and Japan.
Mr. Banaszak is one of the most sought after orchestral saxophone soloists of his generation. His upcoming concerto engagements are scheduled well into the twenty-first century worldwide. As one of the few saxophonists active in both the classical and jazz mediums, Mr. Banaszak includes a combination of concerto performances, solo and chamber music recitals, and jazz festival appearances. He has presented recitals in such prestigious concert halls as Vienna's Bosendorfer Concert Hall, the Royal Palace in Warsaw, Poland, and New York's Lincoln Center's Bruno Walter Hall. He has presented master classes at Austria's Musik Hochschule, the Cairo Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Tanglewood Institute. Mr. Banaszak was the first saxophone concerto soloist to appear with orchestras in both the Middle East and Korea, including performances with the Cairo Symphony and the Taegu City Symphony. Mr. Banaszak's most recent critically acclaimed CD, featuring Romantic saxophone concerto with the Polish National Chamber Orchestra, is available on the Centaur Records label. He has also recorded on Chanson and Open Loop labels.
Mr. Banaszak was recently appointed to the National Academy of Arts and Sciences as a voting member for the annual Grammy Awards ceremony. He is on the faculty of the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music/Case Western Reserve University, and Kent State University. He serves as a Vandoren Performing Artist, Selmer saxophone clinician and Rovner Products consultant, and endorses Lawton mouthpieces and Oleg products. He has performed as saxophonist for The Cleveland Orchestra.
Mr. Banaszak is a B.M. Cum Laude graduate of the Hartt School of Music. He holds an M.M. degree from the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and an Artist Diploma from the Centre Musical d'Annecy in France. He sights his successful career on having studied with such prominent masters as Vincent Abato, Daniel Deffayet and jazz legend Jackie McLean, as well as David Pituch, and David Schiavone. Email: gbanasza@bw.edu
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