Awea Duo is excited to host the second biannual International Duo Symposium at University of Montana in collaboration with Chamber Music Montana. This conference will provide performance, networking, and educational opportunities to professional duos, composers, and students while offering unique concert experience to the local residents. Recitals, lectures, masterclasses, panel discussions, and duo competition will be scheduled between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. We are accepting proposals from duos of any combination that require minimum setup time (5 minutes or less).
Our Mission: The International Duo Symposium is dedicated to promoting portable chamber music and artistic excellence through the duo medium.
Featured Artists
Violist Orquídea Guandique and bassoonist and pianist Fernando Zúñigastarted working together in 2007. They started as a viola and piano duet, but have been increasingly performing music for viola and bassoon. Since music for this particular ensemble is very scattered, they have been engaging in the pursuit of music for this combination by commissioning new works from composers and by working in adapting music for them. It is their aim to promote music by nontraditional chamber groups, especially for instruments that throughout history did not have the same recognition than others. They have performed as a viola-bassoon duet in many recital halls in Costa Rica and the United States. Orquídea and Fernando are both professor at School of Musical Arts of the University of Costa Rica.
Duo Nyans,with Christopher Kirkpatrick on clarinet and Johan Eriksson on saxophone, is a duo based at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. Formed in 2010, the duo strives to expand and present the current clarinet and saxophone repertoire. Recent commissions and premieres include works by Emilie LeBel, Simon Hutchinson and Charles Nichols. The duo has performed at numerous conferences including the International Clarinet Association’s Clarinetfest, North American Saxophone Alliance regional and national conferences, Montana/Idaho Clarinet Festival and the Oklahoma State Single Reed Symposium. Their first album, Debut,was recently released. The album includes seven compositions for various combinations of sax and clarinet, with works primarily by living American composers, including the premiere recording of four works. It can be found on duonyans.bandcamp.com. For more information on the performers, please visit christopherkirkpatrickclarinet.com and johaneriksson.net.
RotoЯ Brass is a new brass duo created to promote new commissions and elevate the trumpet and horn chamber music setting. They are giving their inaugural performance, but Joe and Zach, university professors, brass clinicians, and most noticeably, identical twins, have been collaborating since birth. Dr. Zachary Cooper is Assistant Professor of Horn and Music Theory at the University of Montana where he is also chair of the music theory and brass/percussion departments. Cooper has presented masterclasses at leading national and international universities and conservatories. He has performed with more than a dozen orchestras across the United States and Mexico and will make debut chamber and solo performances in Europe this Spring. He is a strong proponent of educational outreach. Learn more at www.zcooperhorn.com. Dr. Joseph Cooper is the Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Oklahoma State University. Prior to OSU, he taught at The University of Texas at San Antonio and Texas Lutheran University, while maintaining a successful private studio. His students have consistently achieved positions both locally and nationally. Cooper enjoys performing in a wide array of musical styles including performance with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera, the Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio and Austin City Limits Music Festival, among others.