(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The last event in the 2018-19 season of Westminster Conservatory at Nassau will take place on Thursday, May 16 at 12:15pm and will feature the Volanti Flute Quartet. The performers; flutists Jill Crawford, Ellen Fisher Deerberg, Katherine McClure, and Barbara Williams; are members of the Westminster Conservatory faculty. The recital will take place in the Niles Chapel of Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau Street in Princeton and is open to the public free of charge.
The program on May 16 comprises Eric Ewazen's La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine; Gary Schocker's CelestialBodies, Eugène Bozza's Jour d'été à la montagne and arrangements for flute quartet of the Pavane by Gabriel Fauré and Pastoraleby Igor Stravinsky.
Jill Crawford has been a member of the Westminster Conservatory faculty for more than 30 years. In addition to classical flute she is skilled in improvisatory styles of jazz and folk traditions. She is a graduate of New England Conservatory and received a Master of Music degree from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Ms. Crawford performs with several ensembles, including Trillium and the Volanti Flute Quartet, and she has been a soloist with the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra. She also teaches elementary music classes at Albrook Montessori School and is the music director/organist at Union Village United Methodist Church in Berkeley Heights, NJ.
Ellen Fisher Deerberg received a Bachelor of Music degree in performance from Temple University, where she studied with the late Murray Panitz, principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ms. Deerberg has performed as principal flutist with the Kennett Symphony Orchestra, Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra and Delaware Children's Opera, and she has performed in numerous solo recitals and concerts in the Delaware Valley. She is on the faculties of Westminster Conservatory and the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music, and she is a former faculty member of the Wilmington Music School and the Darlington Fine Arts Center. She is also principal flutist of the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra.
Katherine McClure is the principal flutist of the Strauss Symphony of America, the Lyons Chamber Players and the Savoy Opera Company. In addition she plays flute and piccolo with the Capital Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey, the American Repertory Ballet Orchestra, the Riverside Symphonia, and other regional groups. Ms. McClure teaches flute at Westminster Conservatory and the Lawrenceville School, and she maintains a private studio in Kingston, N.J. Ms. McClure has been awarded a bachelor’s degree in music from Skidmore College, and a master’s degree in flute performance from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.
Barbara Highton Williams received a Bachelor of Arts in Music, with honors, from Principia College. She has concertized on both coasts of the United States, as well as in France. A former member of the San Jose Wind Symphony, she now enjoys free-lance work throughout New Jersey. Ms. Williams can be heard frequently in chamber music programs in the Princeton area. She is a member of the Volanti Flute Quartet and has collaborated in recital with pianists Alfred Clark, James Goldsworthy and Marianne Lauffer. A member of the flute faculty at Westminster Conservatory since 1998, she also maintains a private teaching studio in Princeton..
Westminster Conservatory at Nassau recitals will resume on September 19.
This program is made possible in part by the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through funding from the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.