SERIES: FACULTY SHOWCASE
“May I Have This Dance?”
featuring
Celso Cano, guitar
Geoffrey Deibel, saxophone
Read Gainsford, piano
Ilana Goldman, choreographer
Rachel S. Hunter, choreographer
Qing Jiang, piano
Evan T. Jones, baritone
Deloise Lima, piano
Mary Matthews, flute
Stephen Mattingly, guitar
Tiffany Rhynard, choreographer
Greg Sauer, cello
Natalie Sherer, piano
Valerie M. Trujillo, piano
William Whitener, choreographer
Heidi Louise Williams, piano
Tuesday, October 9, 2025
Seven-thirty in the Evening Opperman Music Hall
PROGRAM
Le Grand Tango Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992)
Greg Sauer, cello
Natalie Sherer, piano
Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 42, No. 5
Heidi Louise Williams, piano
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849)
Junto al Generalife
Joaquín Rodrigo (Dance Title: Junto al Generalife) (1901–1999)
Stephen Mattingly, guitar
Rachel S. Hunter, choreographer | Elloise Bethea, rehearsal assistant
Dancers: Stephanie Acosta, Zahara Cooper, Elizabeth Heatherington, Leila Katz
Kyra Lewis, Evelyn Mountcastle, Ashton Paige, Brendan Roop, Allyson Shulman
Allison Wheelock, Hanna Williams, Julianna Wood, Josie Kamman (understudy)
Waltz Vaidosa, No. 1
Radamés Gnattali (Dance Title: Vaidosa) (1906–1988)
Heidi Louise Williams, piano
Tiffany Rhynard, choreographer (in collaboration with dancers)
Dancers: Ava Elpedes, Stella Epedes, Berkeley Smith, Savannah Smith
Dances in the Madhouse
David Leisner
3. Ballad for the Lonely (b. 1953)
4. Samba!
Celso Cano, guitar
Mary Matthews, flute
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting while performers are playing. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Please turn off cell phones and all other electronic devices. Please refrain from putting feet on seats and seat backs. Children who become disruptive should be taken out of the performance hall so they do not disturb the musicians and other audience members.
Raqs (“Dance”)
Liliya Ugay (Dance Title: Slideshow*) (b. 1990)
Read Gainsford, piano
William Whitener, choreographer | Madeline Aldana-Gray, rehearsal assistant
Dancers: Ella Eaton, Natalie Martinez, Marissa Uhler, Annaliis Wisdom
*Note: This piece is a reconstructed reimagining of a solo Whitener created in silence for New York Theatre Ballet in 2021
Dunbar Songs
H. Leslie Adams
3. The Valse (1932–2024) Nightsongs
6. Creole Girl
Evan T. Jones, baritone
Valerie M. Trujillo, piano
Danse macabre, Op. 40, for Two Pianos Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Natalie Sherer, piano Qing Jiang, piano
Paquito for alto sax and piano
Andy Scott (Dance Title: Paquito) (b. 1966)
Geoffrey Deibel, saxophone
Deloise Lima, piano
Ilana Goldman, choreographer
Dancers: Izzabella Reina Bauman, Shea Boeker, Julia Boykins, Amya Conerly Natasha DuToit, Amarisa Ewubare, Amira Geter, Alyssa Haisman, Isabella Hemelberg Bianca March, Emma Grace Markham, Paris Moore, Nika Nosova, Alexandria Orengo Adelaide Rodrigue, Natalia Swylka, Mia Toribio, Madeline Wellman, Hanna Williams Paige Worsham, Elizabeth Heatherington (understudy)
Program curated by Natalie Sherer
Thank you to everyone involved in this production and to Daniel Smith, School of Dance Liaison, and the FSU School of Dance for collaborating.
TEXTS
The Valse
By Paul Laurence Dunbar
When to sweet music my lady is dancing
My heart to mild frenzy her beauty inspires. Into my face are her brown eyes a-glancing, And swift my whole frame thrills with tremulous fires. Dance, lady, dance, for the moments are fleeting
Pause not to place yon refractory curl; Life is for love and the night is for sweeting; Dreamily, joyously circle and whirl.
Oh, how those viols are throbbing and pleading; A prayer is scarce needed in sound of their strain. Surely and lightly as round you are speeding, You turn to confusion my heart and my brain.
Dance, lady, dance to the viol’s soft calling, Skip it and trip it as light as the air;
Dance, for the moments like rose leaves are falling, Strikes now the clock from its place on the stair. Now sinks the melody lower and lower
The weary musicians scarce seeming to play.
Ah, love your steps are now slower and slower, The smile on your face is more sad and less gay. Dance, lady, dance to the brink of our parting, My heart and your step must not fail to be light. Dance! Just a turn tho’ the teardrop be starting.
Ah- now, `tis done
So my lady, goodnight!
Creole Girl
By Leslie M. Collins
When you dance, do you think of Spain, Purple skirts and clipping castanets, Creole Girl?
When you laugh, do you think of France, Golden wine and mincing minuets, Creole Girl?
When you sing, do you think of young America, Grey guns and battling bayonets?
When you cry, do you think of Africa, Blue nights and casual canzonets?
When you dance, do you think of Spain, Purple skirts and clipping castanets, Creole Girl?
“May I Have This Dance?” is a vibrant concert celebrating collaboration through danceinspired music from around the world. In partnership with the FSU School of Dance, four pieces have been choreographed, creating a dynamic blend of music and movement.
Tonight, the passion and drama of the Argentine tango is celebrated in Astor Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango for cello and piano (published in France, hence the title). Sharp tangorhythms and accents mark the opening, followed by a freer, sensual, more lyrical middle. After a giocoso (“humorous”) section, the bold ending is full of syncopation and doublestop octaves.
A pair of distinct waltzes for piano by Frédéric Chopin and Radamés Gnattali showcase European and Brazilian perspectives. A prominent Brazilian and Latin American composer, Gnattali wrote over 300 classical concert pieces and also served as pianist, soloist, conductor, composer, and arranger of popular music at The National Radio Station of Brazil for three decades. His Waltz Vaidosa (“Vain” Waltz) incorporates a relaxed yet sophisticated jazz influence into the waltz idiom. Chopin’s dazzling “Grande Valse” is exuberant and considered to be one of his finest waltzes. Admiring its refinement, Robert Schumann once wrote that, if danced to, “half the ladies should be countesses at least.”
Spanish melodies for classical guitar and fiery flamenco-influenced passages weave together in Joaquín Rodrigo’s piece inspired by the Generalife gardens of Granada, a place historically enjoyed by kings. Rodrigo beautifully described the atmosphere that he wanted to convey: “Everyone knows of the magical gardens of the Generalife connected to the Alhambra; there can be found the gentle rustle of perfumed breezes, a distant tinkle of bells, and flowers which shelter behind the myrtle bushes. And there, also, the guitar reposes and dreams.”
The 1917 lithograph Dance in a Madhouse by American artist George Bellows comes to life through David Leisner’s music for guitar and flute. The artwork was based on Bellows’ drawings of patients dancing and socializing in an Ohio mental hospital. The “Ballad for the Lonely” depicts the two women seated next to each other on the bench - one appearing withdrawn into her own thoughts while the other woman holds her head in her hands. In stark contrast, “Samba!” conveys the dizzying motion of the striking couple dancing with abandon.
FSU’s own Liliya Ugay offers a captivating take on traditional dance from Uzbekistan in Raqs, which translates to “dance” in Arabic. Dancers traditionally wear distinct, colorfullypatterned fabrics and often headpieces including veils. This piece for piano moves from mysteriously abstract to a slow dance, followed by a faster dance and an enigmatic, “veiled” ending.
In “The Valse,” H. Leslie Adams paints an intimate portrait of a passionate man absolutely entranced by his beautiful lady as she dances to the music of viols. As the clock chimes and the dancing ends, the moment slips into sadness and a farewell. The piano writing is lush with romantic harmonic shifts. Boisterous and rhythmically charged, four questions are directed to the “Creole Girl” that reference vivid connections to Spain, France, America, and Africa.
In 1872, Camille Saint-Saëns wrote an art song version of Danse macabre using text by Henri Cazalis and then turned it into a tone poem for orchestra two years later. This “Dance of Death” takes an eerie turn as it depicts Death playing the fiddle and skeletons dancing on their graves. Saint-Saëns included the following song text excerpt on the manuscript of his tone poem:
“Zig, zig, zig, Death in a cadence
Striking with his heel a tomb, Death at midnight plays a dance-tune, Zig, zig, zag, on his violin.
The winter wind blows, and the night is dark; Moans are heard in the linden-trees.
Through the gloom white skeletons pass, Running and leaping in their shrouds. Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking; The bones of the dancers are heard to clatter –
But Sst! of a sudden they quit the round, They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed!”
George Bellows, Dance in a Madhouse, 1917, lithograph in black on wove paper. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
This two-piano arrangement by the composer successfully captures the textures and colors of the orchestral version and is haunting, grotesque, playful, and full of rattling bones.
A short, fast, irresistible salsa, Paquito is Andy Scott’s tribute to Paquito D’Rivera, a renowned composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. The saxophone and piano groove with a 2-3 clave pulse, and 20 dancers bring the program to a festive finale.
– Natalie Sherer
ABOUT THE FACULTY ARTISTS
Prior to his appointment at FSU, Celso Cano served as faculty at Nova Southeastern University, Bronx Conservatory of Music, and Bloomingdale School of Music in New York City. His interests include performing both early and contemporary music, and expanding the repertoire through transcription and composition for guitar. As a performer, he has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards including the Andrés Segovia Competition in Spain and the D’Addario Foundation Fellowship. His Eclipse for guitar, cello, and percussion was composed and performed while in residence at the Baryshnikov Art Center in New York City. His solo guitar piece, Souvenirs, received the Ignacio Cervantes Prize at the 2019 Leo Brouwer International Composition Competition.
Cano was born in Lima, Peru and moved to the United States at the age of eleven. He began his classical guitar studies with Lou Mowad in South Florida in 1987. In high school he attended the Stetson International Guitar Workshop, where he performed in masterclasses with Stephen Robinson and Adam Holzman. He earned the B.M. in guitar performance at the University of Arizona, where he studied with Thomas Patterson, and the M.M. from Florida International University, where he studied under Rafael Padrón and Mesut Özgen. At FIU, he also learned to play lute while studying with lutenist and musicologist David Dolata. He became the first guitarist to win the School of Music’s annual concerto competition, performing Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with the FIU Symphony Orchestra under the direction of James Judd. Cano earned the D.M. in guitar performance from Florida State University, where he studied under worldrenowned guitar professor, Bruce Holzman.
A Washington, D.C. native, Geoffrey Deibel is a leading, innovative voice for the teaching and performance of the saxophone and contemporary music. He maintains a multifaceted career as performer, teacher, and researcher. New projects for 2024-2025 include commissions from Tyshawn Sorey, Amadeus Regucera, and Ingrid Laubrock, performed by Trio Nebbia and a new ensemble with Duo Cortona. His most recent recordings include Iannis Xenakis’ Dmaathen with percussionist Ji Hye Jung, and his debut solo recording, Ex Uno Plures. He has performed with contemporary music ensembles such as the Wet Ink Ensemble (Missing Scenes recording now available) and the International Contemporary Ensemble at the Park Avenue Armory (NYC) in the full North American Premiere of Louis Andriessen’s De Materie. He has also given recitals throughout the U.S. and in Europe, and been an invited guest lecturer at several conservatories in Europe and
many Universities in the US. He has appeared at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt, the International Iannis Xenakis Festival in Athens, Greece, and World Saxophone Congresses in the UK, Europe, and Thailand.
Deibel has commissioned new works by a wide range of composers, including Drew Baker, Caleb Burhans, Viet Cuong, Nathan Davis, Claudio Gabriele, Martin Iddon, Ingrid Laubrock, Robert Lemay, Marc Mellits, Joseph Michaels, Forrest Pierce, David Rakowski, Amadeus Regucera, David Reminick, Jesse Ronneau, Tyshawn Sorey, and Eric Wubbels. He has also premiered the music of Louis Andriessen, Georges Aperghis, Jason Eckardt, Hiroyki Itoh, Pierre Jodlowski, Marc Mellits, Elliott Sharp, Jagoda Szmytka, Mari Takano, Hans Thomalla, and Amy Williams.
Deibel is a member of the critically acclaimed h2 quartet, first prize winners at the Fischoff Competition and NASA Quartet Competitions, finalists at the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and recipients of multiple Aaron Copland Fund Grants. The American Record Guide has hailed h2 as a group of “artistic commitment…boasting superb blend, solid technique, [and] tight rhythm.” h2 has seven recordings available, and maintains a non-profit organization to promote the creation of new works for the saxophone quartet. Deibel is also a seasoned orchestral performer, and serves as principal saxophonist with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. He previously served in the same capacity with the Wichita Symphony, and has also performed with the New World Symphony and Grant Park Symphony.
Deibel holds degrees in history and music from Northwestern University, and a doctoral degree from Michigan State University. His principal teachers have included Joseph Lulloff, Frederick Hemke, Leo Saguiguit, and Reginald Jackson. Deibel has held teaching positions at the University of Florida and Wichita State University, where he was the recipient of the 2015 College of Fine Arts Award for Scholarly and Creative Activity, and the 2016 WSU Faculty Award for Excellence in Creative Activity. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Saxophone at Florida State University, where he was awarded a SEED Grant to fund projects from 2024-2027. He also serves on the faculty of the Cortona Sessions for New Music, and the Great Plains Saxophone Workshop. Deibel is a Yamaha, Vandoren, and LefreQue performing artist, and performs on Yamaha Saxophones, and Vandoren reeds, ligatures, and mouthpieces exclusively.
A native of New Zealand, Read Gainsford began full-time music study with top piano teachers, Janetta MacStay and Bryan Sayer, before receiving a grant from the Woolf Fisher Trust and the top prize in the Television New Zealand Young Musician of the Year. Gainsford then relocated to London, where he studied privately with Brigitte Wild, a protégée of Claudio Arrau, before winning a place in the Advanced Solo Studies course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied with Joan Havill, graduating with the prestigious Concert Recital Diploma (premier prix).
Gainsford has performed widely in the USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. He has made successful solo debuts at the Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and has performed in many other venues, including the John F. Kennedy Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Centre, Fairfield Halls, Birmingham Town Hall and St-Martin-in-theFields. He has recorded for the Amoris label, BBC Radio Three, Radio New Zealand’s Concert Programme, and has broadcast on national television in New Zealand, the UK and Yugoslavia.
Gainsford moved to the United States in 1992 to enter the doctoral program at Indiana University, where he worked with Karen Shaw and Leonard Hokanson. Since that time he has been guest artist for the American Music Teachers Association and has also given numerous recitals, concerto performances and master-classes. He has appeared at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival and the Music Festival of the Hamptons, spent several summers at the Heifetz International Music Institute, is a member of the contemporary music group Ensemble X, and the Garth Newel Chamber Players. Gainsford has also enjoyed working with such musicians as Jacques Zoon, William Vermuelen, Roberto Diaz, Eddie vanOosthuyse and Luis Rossi. Formerly on the faculty of Ithaca College, where he received the college-wide Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004, Gainsford joined the piano faculty at Florida State University in 2005.
Ilana Goldman is a dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and educator. She served as Choreographer in Residence of Metro D.C.’s Bowen McCauley Dance (2018–2019) and Artist-in-Residence at Glacier National Park (2022). She has choreographed works for Sacramento Ballet first and second companies, New York Theatre Ballet, ARC Dance Seattle, Tallahassee Ballet, Black Rock City Ballet, Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre, PerryMansfield, Shenandoah University, Missouri State University, Florida State University, and University of Washington, among others. Her work was selected for performances at Brooklyn’s Dumbo Dance Festival and the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival.
She performed professionally as a principal dancer with Oakland Ballet and Sacramento Ballet, as a member of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Trey McIntyre Project, and as a guest artist with Alonzo King LINES Ballet. She performed in works by George Balanchine, Marius Petipa, Agnes de Mille, Eugene Loring, Bronislava Nijinska, Ruth St. Denis, Martha Graham, José Limón, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Donald McKayle, David Parsons, George Faison, Robert Garland, Ron Cunningham, Bebe Miller, Susan Marshall, Margaret Jenkins, Dwight Rhoden, Igal Perry, Helen Pickett, Julia, Gleich, Francesca Harper, John Clifford, Septime Webre, Sidra Bell, and Amy Seiwert, among others.
Her award-winning short dance films, Convergence, Fledgling, InterState, Threshold, Discarded, and Metaxu screened at numerous international film festivals in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, India, Malaysia, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, France, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Great Britain, Ireland, and Slovakia.
She has presented papers on community engagement and ballet pedagogy at national and international conferences of the World Dance Alliance, National Dance Education Organization, and CORPS de Ballet International. She has taught for schools, universities, festivals, and companies across the nation.
Rachel S. Hunter, a native of Cookeville, TN, currently works as Specialized Faculty and Production Manager for the FSU School of Dance. She has experience teaching contemporary technique, ballet, jazz and musical theatre styles, as well as production and composition. In her free time, she directs and performs in her own project-based company, Hunter Dance Project. Rachel has the honor of restaging works by Dan Wagoner and working with his family on the archival of his repertoire. The majority of her own research and creative work is in the contemporary and dance-theatre genres finding a space of embodied storytelling while using humor as a process to connect with audiences.
Praised for “spirited” (Boston Globe) playing and “vigorous and passionate” (New York Times) performances, Chinese-born pianist Qing Jiang enjoys a diverse career in solo, chamber, and contemporary music.
As a concerto soloist, Jiang has appeared with the Britten-Pears Orchestra under maestro Oliver Knussen, and the Lanzhou Symphony under revered Chinese conductor Zushan Bian, as well as with the Chattanooga Symphony, Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, and Arizona State University Orchestra. Passionate about chamber music, Jiang has performed with many leading artists, including Itzhak Perlman, Joel Krosnick, Joel Smirnoff, David Shifrin, Natalie Clein, and the Juilliard, Shanghai, Jasper, and Parker string quartets. She has held longstanding collaborations with cellist Michael Kannen, and violinist Ying Xue with whom she has performed at Yellow Barn and in Carnegie Hall at the invitation of celebrated violinist Christian Tetzlaff. Jiang has also performed extensively with Roger Tapping, Natasha Brofsky, and Laurie Smukler, including a multi-city China tour.
Jiang is artist faculty at the Kneisel Hall Festival in Maine, as well as recurring faculty at Yellow Barn, Yellow Barn’s Young Artist Program, and the Interlochen Chamber Music Camp. Other festival appearances include Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Aldeburgh, Perlman Music Program, and the Garth Newel Music Center. Curious and invigorated by collaboration, Jiang has appeared with fortepianists and Jazz improvisers, as well as with noted singers Susan Narucki, Ariadne Greif, and Lucy Fitz Gibbon. She has also worked with composers Jennifer Higdon, Jörg Widmann, Brett Dean, and Colin Matthews, and commissioned works by Zhou Tian, Juri Seo, Eric Nathan, and Daniel Temkin.
A recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Award, Jiang trained at Arizona State University, Juilliard, and New England Conservatory, under Caio Pagano, Robert McDonald, Whakyung Byun and Patricia Zander. She has previously taught at New England Conservatory, the Curtis Institute, and Bucknell University.
Baritone Evan Thomas Jones enjoys a diverse performing career in concert, opera, and musical theatre. He has performed with the Tanglewood Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Opera Memphis, Opera Naples, Berkshire Opera Company, Compañía Lírica Nacional de Costa Rica, the Rochester and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Memphis and Helena Symphonies. An active performer of new works, he was the soloist on the premiere recording of Randol Bass’s Passage Into Spirit, and for the premiere performance and Naxos label recording of Dohnányi’s Orchesterlieder with the FSU Symphony Orchestra.
In 2014, Jones won an “Emerging Leader” award from the National Association of Teachers of Singing as one of the nation’s most promising young teachers. His current and former students have won awards at competitions such as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and have performed in major opera houses, on national equity tours and Broadway, and in television and film.
A proud FSU alum, Jones previously served on the voice faculty of the University of Memphis. He received his Doctorate from the Eastman School of Music, where he was rewarded for excellence in both performing and teaching by winning first place in the Friends of Eastman Opera Competition and as the first recipient of the William McIver Memorial Award in teaching. He previously served as a district director for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and is a member of NATS, NAfME, and ACDA.
Collaborative pianist Deloise Chagas Lima is a native of Curitiba, Brazil. She joined the College of Music keyboard faculty at Florida State University in the fall of 2005. During the summer months she has been a member of the artist faculty at the Brevard Music Center since the summer of 2008, and in 2013 she implemented a new collaborative piano program at this festival. Prior to teaching in the United States, Lima was on the faculty of the School of Music and Fine Arts of Parana for over twenty years, teaching collaborative piano and chamber music.
As a sought-after collaborative pianist and orchestral keyboardist, she has performed extensively throughout the US, Europe, and South America with many distinguished artists, including Frank Almond, Sydney Outlaw, David Pittsinger, Paul Edmund Davis, Ian Clarke, Steve Cohen, Bill Ludwig, Joe Luloff, Marianne Gedigian, Amy Porter, Bill Preucil, and Alex Klein, among others. She also performs regularly with her husband, oboist Eric Ohlsson. In Brazil, she was the pianist of the Minas Gerais Symphony for two seasons and was a soloist with that orchestra and the Curitiba Chamber Orchestra. She was appointed principal keyboardist of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra in 2015 and she is also an official accompanist for the Florida Flute Association. She is the music director for the Evening of Music and Dance, a yearly collaboration with the Tallahassee Ballet and the College of Music at Florida State University.
Lima received the Bachelor of Piano Performance from the School of Music and Fine Arts of Parana, Brazil, a Performance Certificate in piano from Trinity College of Music, London, and is an Associate of the Royal College of Music in organ performance. Following her early studies, Lima received the Master of Music in Piano Performance and Literature from University of Notre Dame du Lac and the Doctor of Musical Arts from Florida State University.
Flutist Mary Matthews enjoys an active career as an international soloist, chamber musician, orchestral flutist, and pedagogue, and has performed on four continents in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Fundação Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Festival Goethe Institut Música Nueva, and Cité Internationale des Arts. Matthews is an Assistant Professor of Flute at Florida State University’s College of Music; prior to her appointment at FSU, she served as Associate Professor of Flute at Tennessee Tech’s School of Music. She currently serves as second flute of the Tallahassee Symphony, and she performs regularly with orchestras such as the Nashville Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, and Chattanooga Symphony, among others.
An active studio musician and recording artist, Matthews can be heard on soundtracks for film, TV, and video games on Netflix, HBO, and Disney. She has released four albums including Intersections on the Ravello Records label, Three-Nine Line on the MSR Classics label, Charuhas on the Naxos Label, and Preludes & Recitations on the Tonsehen Records label.
An avid performer of new music, Matthews has premiered over 50 new works. She is known for her command of extended techniques and her adventurous programming. She is half of Duo Rossignol with soprano Hillary LaBonte, and the two have been featured at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the New Music Gathering, the Dairy Arts Center’s Soundscape series, and the National Flute Association convention. She also performs as a member of Khemia Ensemble, a 12-member ensemble dedicated to the programming of diverse and innovative repertoire. Khemia Ensemble is 2023 winner of the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant with composer Anuj Bhutani. They have been featured at venues and festivals including National Sawdust, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Strange Beautiful Music, New Music Gathering, Latin IS America, the Missouri Summer Composition Institute, and the Biennial New Music Festival in Córdoba, Argentina. Passionate artist educators, Khemia has also held residencies at more than a dozen universities in North and South America.
In June of 2021 Matthews released her first method book, co-authored by Nicole Chamberlain, titled Beatboxing and Beyond. The book is published by Spotted Rocket and was reviewed as “a revelation – it’s a worthy addition to all our libraries” (Flutist Quarterly). She was awarded the 2022 Scholastic Research Award from Tennessee Tech University for the book, and the National Flute Association named Beatboxing & Beyond a finalist in the 2022 Newly Published Music awards. The second volume will be released in 2023.
A native of Rochester, NY, Matthews began her formal flute studies at the Eastman School of Music’s Preparatory Program. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from The Hartt School, the Master of Music Degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and the Bachelor of Music Degree from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. Her primary teachers include Jan Angus, George Pope, and Janet Arms.
Guitarist Stephen Mattingly has been warmly received by audiences in Europe, Africa, and the Americas as soloist and founding member of the Tantalus Quartet. Mattingly’s solo performances have taken him from venues such as Weill Hall to major festivals across the US and abroad. An avid chamber music collaborator, he received the prestigious Theodore Presser Award for his work on the complete guitar chamber works by Franz Schubert.
Mattingly enjoys a vibrant career as Associate Professor of Guitar at the Florida State University where he nurtures the guitar legacy established by Bruce Holzman. During his 17-year tenure as Professor of Guitar at the University of Louisville, Mattingly was recognized as a distinguished professor for creative activity. He has adjudicated, taught, and performed at the Silesian Guitar Autumn Competition in Poland, the Guitar Foundation of America Convention, the Iserlohn Guitar Symposium in Germany, and the Acadia Guitar Festival in Canada. Additionally, Stephen is chair of the Guitar Foundation of America Board of Trustees.
His students have won top-prizes in competitions and graduate awards at revered programs. Graduates hold high school and collegiate teaching positions, and serve the GFA, the Sphinx organization, Louisville Guitar Society, and Cleveland Guitar Society.
Mattingly earned the Doctorate of Music and Theory Pedagogy certificate from FSU as a teaching assistant to renowned pedagogue Bruce Holzman. He received an Artist Diploma with Dale Kavanagh at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Germany and studied with Oscar Ghiglia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. Prior studies with Nicholas Goluses at the Eastman School of Music led to Master’s and Bachelor Degrees, a Certificate in Arts Leadership, and a Performer’s Certificate.
Mattingly is a D’Addario artist and his recordings are available on all streaming platforms.
Tiffany Rhynard is an artist, dancer, and filmmaker compelled to make work that examines the complexity of human behavior and addresses current social issues. Having created numerous works for stage and screen, Rhynard’s choreography, dance films, and documentaries have been presented nationwide and internationally. Her dance films have screened at festivals including Dancing for the Camera at the American Dance Festival and ScreenDance Miami 2015 where she won First Prize for her short Invisible Queens. Rhynard’s award winning documentary, Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural
America, was honored with the Social Justice Film Award from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Freedom Award from Outfest Film Festival. Forbidden is currently airing on LogoTV and is sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Her recent dance documentary short, Black Stains, created in collaboration with Trent D. Williams, Jr. about black male identity in the United States, is currently screening at film festivals. Now in the pre-production phrase, A Right to Kill, is a feature-length documentary questioning the ethics of capital punishment. A cross-disciplinary artist, Rhynard has worked with esteemed collaborators including choreographer Christal Brown, internationally renowned composer Lei Liang, real-time digital media artist Marlon Barrios Solano, and mezzo-soprano Sahoko Sato Timpone. As a performer, Rhynard has danced for choreographers including Gerri Houlihan, Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians, and Chavasse Dance and Performance Group. She has taught at colleges and universities throughout the country and currently teaches dance and technology in the School of Dance.
Professor of Cello Gregory Sauer joined the College of Music in 2006. A native of Davenport, Iowa, Gregory Sauer attended the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory. His principal teachers included Ada Marie Snyder, Charles Wendt, Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser, Bonnie Hampton and Colin Carr. For eleven years prior to his arrival at FSU Sauer taught at the University of Oklahoma, where he was named Presidential Professor (2005).
Praised for his versatility, Sauer performs in many different musical arenas. He has appeared in recital at the Old First Concert Series in San Francisco, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, the Brightmusic Concert Series in Oklahoma City, at universities and schools of music such as the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt, the Shepherd School at Rice University, the University of Iowa and the University of Tennessee, among many others. Sauer was a prizewinner in the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and Ima Hogg National competitions and has performed concertos with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, the New American Chamber Orchestra, the Quad City Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Columbus (GA) Symphony, the Tallahassee Symphony, and the Missoula Symphony, among others.
Sauer joined the Carpe Diem String Quartet in 2019, playing concerts in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Siena, Italy, and in the group’s first China tour. Along with his brother, Thomas Sauer, he serves as co-Artistic Director of Chamber Music Quad Cities in their hometown of Davenport, Iowa. Other chamber music ventures have resulted in appearances at the Austin Chamber Music Center, the Snake River Music Festival, the Victoria Bach Festival, the Texas Music Festival, the Colorado Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Music Center. As a member of the Fidelio Quartet, a prizewinning group in the London International String Quartet Competition, he performed concerts in the UK, Germany, Italy, and the Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals.
In 2006, Sauer was appointed to the music faculty at Florida State University. Prior to that he taught eleven years at the University of Oklahoma, where he was named Presidential Professor. Other teaching/performing positions have been a visiting professorship at the University of California at Los Angeles, summer programs such as the Texas Music Festival, the Duxbury Music Festival, the Foulger International Music Festival, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Red Lodge Music Festival, and the Hot Springs Music Festival.
Sauer has recorded for MSR Classics, Harmonia Mundi, Albany, and Mark Records.
Sauer attended the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory. His teachers included Ada Marie Snyder, Charles Wendt, Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser, Bonnie Hampton, and Colin Carr.
Dynamic pianist Natalie Sherer thrives in collaboration with singers and instrumentalists alike. She began her role as Assistant Professor of Vocal Coaching & Collaborative Artist at Florida State University in 2022. In January 2024, Sherer made her Carnegie Hall as a performer in SongStudio 2024. Sherer was a performer for CollabFest 2023, the annual conference for the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society (IKCAS), and in 2022, Sherer was a Brown Loranger Fellow at SongFest and an emerging artist in Sparks & Wiry Cries’ NYC SongSLAM Festival. After joining the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) 2020 Intern Program, she performed in multiple presentations at the NATS 2022 National Conference. She recently premiered Sorrow & Ecstasy: The Complete Songs of Henri Duparc, a semi-staged musical narrative following four characters’ journeys of love and lament. Sherer hosts the CollabPiano Podcast which celebrates art song and the collaboration between pianists and singers. Season two was supported by FSU’s First Year Assistant Professor Grant. A frequent recitalist, she has recently performed in events and master classes taught by Graham Johnson, Jake Heggie, Nicholas Phan, and Thomas Hampson. In 2019, Sherer performed at the Prague Summer Nights Festival and was a Vocal Chamber Music Fellow for the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC). Sherer earned a DMA in Collaborative Piano, studying with renowned pianist Martin Katz, from the University of Michigan, and completed BM and MM degrees in Piano Performance through studies at Manhattan School of Music, Wheaton College, and Roosevelt University.
Valerie M. Trujillo’s experiences in song literature and opera make her a much soughtafter accompanist, coach, and teacher of masterclasses. Formerly Co-Director of the Young American Artists Program at Glimmerglass Opera, she has been associated with many opera companies including Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Wexford Festival Opera (Ireland), Connecticut Opera, Shreveport Opera, Mississippi Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Theatre at Wildwood, Augusta Opera, Ohio Light Opera and Opera in the Ozarks. Ms. Trujillo has served as artist faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center, Ars Vocalis México (Zamora, México), the Taos Opera Institute, Si parla, si canta
(Urbania, Italy), and La Musica Lirica (Novafeltria, Italy) as well as the academic faculty at the Hartt School, Middle Tennessee State University, Yale University, and Central Connecticut State University. She made her Weill Recital Hall debut in 2006 and can be heard on the Grammy-nominated Chandos release of Bennett’s The Mines of Sulphur, as well as on the Mark Records, Albany, and Azica labels. Trujillo is proud to have served as the NATS Master Collaborative Teacher for the 2020 and 2021 NATS Intern Programs. A native of Santa Fe, NM, she received her musical training from Eastern New Mexico University and the University of Illinois. She taught at Florida State University from 1990-1996 and rejoined the faculty in 2002 where she is now Professor of Vocal Coaching and Accompanying.
Praised by New York critic Harris Goldsmith for her ‘impeccable soloistic authority’ and ‘dazzling performances’, American pianist Heidi Louise Williams has appeared in solo and collaborative performances across North America and internationally. Her engagements have included recitals at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Taiwan National Recital Hall in Taipei, the Kennedy Center, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Brevard Music Festival, the French Embassy in Washington D.C., and festivals in France and Italy. She has given multiple guest artist residencies in leading conservatories and universities in Taiwan and China and has presented lecture-recitals and performances at national and international conferences held by the Society of American Music, the College Music Society, and the International Clarinet Association. Her playing has been featured on WFMT Chicago, Classic 99 St. Louis, WQLN Pennsylvania, and KUAT Tucson radio stations, on WWFM Trenton, New Jersey for David Dubal’s ‘The Piano Matters’, and on classical stations throughout Taiwan and Canada.
Williams is actively involved in the promotion of new music and has worked with many distinguished composers. Her 2011 Albany Records solo album, Drive American, was named among the top ten classical albums of 2011 in the Philadelphia City Paper, featured in Fanfare Magazine’s 2012 Critics’ Want Lists, and has been described as ‘veritably operatic’, ‘bold yet thoughtful’, ‘unflappable’, ‘provocative and stimulating’ (Fanfare), possessing ‘…the muscularity and poetic power to bring this demanding repertory to life’ (American Record Guide). Her 2019 Albany Records solo release Beyond the Sound, featuring sonatas by Griffes, Walker, Floyd, and Barber, was selected twice for inclusion in the 2020 Fanfare Critics’ Want Lists, garnering the headline by British music critic Colin Clarke: “Brilliant programming meets performances of fire meets excellent recording meets superb documentation: this is a significant release from all angles.” An avid chamber musician, Williams has collaborated with numerous outstanding American and international artists. Other recording projects for Albany Records include her awardwinning 2018 release with soprano Mary Mackenzie, Vocalisms, a 2-disc album devoted to premiere recordings of American Art Songs by Crozier, Harbison, Primosch and Rorem; and Conversa, an album of North and South American cello-piano duos including a World Premiere by André Mehmari, released in December 2021 with cellist Gregory Sauer. Her playing has been published in the Modern Classical American Songbook Volume I. She has also recorded for the Naxos, Centaur and Neos labels.
Recipient of both a 2020 Undergraduate Teaching Award and a 2020 Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor Award from Florida State University, Williams joined the FSU College of Music in 2007. Her growing roster of graduate and undergraduate students have won prizes regionally, nationally, and internationally in both solo and collaborative contexts. They have earned awards to pursue graduate and artist diploma degrees at prestigious institutions including the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Michigan among others, and they are actively gaining employment in recognized teaching and performing roles both in the U.S. and abroad. Williams completed her BM, MM, and DMA degrees at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, where she studied with Ann Schein and coached chamber music with Earl Carlyss, Samuel Sanders, Stephen Kates, and Robert McDonald. Prior to this, she studied with William Phemister at Wheaton College, where she later taught as his sabbatical replacement. She is artist-faculty for the MasterWorks Music Festival, has served as festival pianist for the Sunriver Music Festival, and has also taught and performed at the Interharmony International Music Festival and Csehy Chamberfest in Philadelphia.
William Whitener performed worldwide and on Broadway with The Joffrey Ballet, Twyla Tharp Dance, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, New York City Opera and Martha Clarke’s Garden of Earthly Delights. He choreographed over sixty dances for Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Ballet Hispanico, Seattle Repertory Theater, Seattle Opera and John Curry’s Ice Theatre. He has also created dances for stage and television for Ann Reinking, Tommy Tune, Bill Irwin and Faith Prince and staged the debut of American Ballroom Theater at The Kennedy Center and BAM. Whitener has set Twyla Tharp’s ballets in the U.S and France and assisted Mr. Robbins with pre-production for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway. He served as Artistic Director for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal and Kansas City Ballet. He was an evaluator for the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, a jury member of Benois de la Danse and has served on a variety of panels including the NEA and Pew Charitable Trust Fund. He has taught ballet, modern dance and composition at Harvard University Summer Dance, Cornish College of the Arts, University of Washington, Pacific Northwest Ballet and was the Director of Dance at Concord Academy.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL ASSOCIATES
2025-2026
Dean’s Circle
Les and Ruth Ruggles Akers
Dr. Pamela T. Brannon
Richard Dusenbury and Kathi Jaschke
CarolAline Flaumenhaft
Joyce Andrews
Louie and Avon Doll
Patrick and Kathy Dunnigan
Kevin and Suzanne Fenton
Andrew and Karen Hoyt
Alexander and Dawn Jiménez
Jim Lee
Paula and Bill Smith
Margaret Van Every
Gold Circle
Albert and Darlene Oosterhof
Bob Parker
Todd and Kelin Queen
Karen and Francis C. Skilling
David and Jane Watson
Bret Whissel
Sustainer
Stan and Tenley Barnes
Kathryn M. Beggs
Karen Bradley
Steve and Pat Brock
Suzi and Scott Brock
Brian Causseaux and David Young
James Clendinen
Mary and Glenn Cole
Carol J. Cooper
Sandy and Jim Dafoe
F. Marshall Deterding and Dr. Kelley Lang
Diane and Jack Dowling
Aaron and Caroline Ellis
John S. and Linda H. Fleming
Joy and James Frank
William Fredrickson and Suzanne Rita Byrnes
Ruth Godfrey-Sigler
Michael and Marsha Hartline
Ken Hays
Melanie Hines and Dudley Witney
Dottie and Jon Hinkle
Todd S. Hinkle
The Jelks Family Foundation, Inc.
Emory and Dorothy Johnson
Gregory and Margo Jones
Anne van Meter and Howard Kessler
Dennis G. King, Esq.
William and Susan Leseman
Annelise Leysieffer
Linda and Bob Lovins
William and Gayle Manley
Robert and Patty McDonald
Marian and Walter Moore
Ann W. Parramore
Almena and Brooks Pettit
David and Joanne Rasmussen
Edward Reid
Mark and Carrie Renwick
Stephen and Elizabeth Richardson
Lawrence and Lisa Rubin
Patrick J. Sheehan
Dr. James and Ruth Anne Stevens
Richard Stevens and Ron Smith
Sustainer cont’d
Marshall and Nell Stranburg
William and Ma’Su Sweeney
Martin Kavka and Tip Tomberlin
Steve Moore Watkins and Karen Sue Brown
Stan Whaley and Brenda McCarthy
Kathy D. Wright
Mary S. Bert
Joe and Susan Berube
Marcia and Carl Bjerregaard
Greg and Karen Boebinger
Larry and Sara Bourdeau
David and Carol Brittain
Dean and Lyndsey Caulkins
Bonnie and Pete Chamlis
Malcolm A. Craig
Linda Davey
Rochelle Davis
Judith Flanigan
Bonnie Fowler, Armor Realty
L. Kathryn Funchess
Harvey and Judy Goldman
Jerry and Bobbi Hill
Sally and Dr. Link Jarrett
Judith H. Jolly
Arline Kern
Jonathan Klepper and Jimmy Cole
Elna Kuhlmann
Keith Ledford
Patron
Donna Legare
Joan Macmillan
Patrick Malone
Victoria Martinez
Stephen Mattingly
Ann and Don Morrow
Joel and Diana Padgett
Karalee Poschman
Mary Anne J. Price
Magda Sanchez
Jill Sandler
Paula S. Saunders
Jeanette Sickel
Susan Sokoll
George Sweat
Ed Valla
Scott and LaDonna Wagers
Sylvia B. Walford
Diana Wang
Geoffrey and Simone Watts
Natalie Zierden
Patricia C. Applegate
Sarah and John Bender
The Boyett Family
Judy and Brian Buckner
Kasia Bugaj and J. Renato Pinto
Robby Bukovic
Darren and Peyton Cassels
Marian Christ
Katie and Daniel Elliott
Sarah Eyerly
Cynthia Foster
Gene and Deborah Glotzbach
Sue Graham
Laura Gayle Green
Miriam Gurniak
Donna H. Heald
Carla Connors and Timothy Hoekman
Jane A. Hudson
Jayme and Tom Ice
Stephanie Iliff
William and DeLaura Jones
Jane Kazmer
Paige McKay Kubik
Joe Lama
Jane LeGette
Eric Lewis
Dr. Lynne Y. Lummel
Cindy Malaway
Lealand and Kathleen McCharen
Dr. Linda Miles
Drs. Linda O’Neil and Sebastian Alston
Becky Parsons
Michelle Peaceman
William and Rebecca Peterson
Adrian and Rachel Puente
Sanford A. Safron
Lori and Charles Smith
Sudarat Songsiridej and Mary Schaad
Susan Stephens
Allison Taylor
C. Richard and Phrieda L. Tuten
Steve Urse
Janie W. Weis
Karen Wensing
Lifetime Members
Willa Almlof
Florence Helen Ashby
Mrs. Reubin Askew
Tom and Cathy Bishop
Nancy Bivins
Ramona D. Bowman
André and Eleanor Connan
Russell and Janis Courson
J.W. Richard Davis
Ginny Densmore
Carole Fiore
Patricia J. Flowers
Hilda Hunter
Julio Jiménez
Kirby W. and Margaret-Ray Kemper
Patsy Kickliter
Anthony M. Komlyn
Fred Kreimer
Beverly Locke-Ewald
Cliff and Mary Madsen
Ralph and Sue Mancuso
Meredith and Elsa L. McKinney
Ermine M. Owenby
Mike and Judy Pate
Laura and Sam Rogers
Dr. Louis St. Petery
Sharon Stone
Donna C. Tharpe
Brig. Gen. and Mrs. William B. Webb
Rick and Joan West
John L. and Linda M. Williams
Sallie and Duby Ausley
Beethoven & Company
Corporate Sponsors
Ron Erichson/Beth Frederick
Business Sponsors
WFSU Public Broadcast Center
The University Musical Associates is the community support organization for the FSU College of Music. The primary purposes of the group are to develop audiences for College of Music performances, to assist outstanding students in enriching their musical education and careers, and to support quality education and cultural activities for the Tallahassee community. If you would like information about joining the University Musical Associates, please contact Kim Shively, Director of Special Programs, at kshively@fsu.edu or 850-645-5453.
The Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at 850-644-3424 at least five business days prior to a musical event if accommodation for disability or publication in alternative format is needed.