The program also will feature a new composition by UNCSA School of Music student composer Ted Oliver, titled “Frost and Wind,” and a piece for two trumpets and organ featuring School of Music Dean Wade Weast.

Immediately following the recital, a reception will be held in the Crawford Hall lobby.

The concert is sponsored by Thomas S. Kenan III of Chapel Hill. Kenan is a founder and long-time supporter of UNCSA and has contributed substantially to the organ program within the School of Music.  He was instrumental in the building and installation of Crawford Hall’s organ, the Sarah Graham Kenan Memorial Organ, named for his great-aunt and built by C.B. Fisk as their Opus 75. Kenan served on the UNCSA Board of Trustees from 1969-85 and is now an Emeritus Trustee, and the UNCSA Foundation Board from 1974-90. He has been on the UNCSA Board of Visitors since 1985.

TIMOTHY OLSEN

Timothy Olsen is the Kenan Professor of Organ at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He also teaches at Salem College, and is organist at First Baptist Church of Winston-Salem. Prior to his appointment to UNCSA in 2009, he was the Wanda L. Bass Chair of Organ and University Organist at Oklahoma City University for four years.

A native of Frost, Minn., Dr. Olsen began his study of the organ at the age of 13 with Sandra Krumholz of Fairmont, Minn., and went on to further study with Peter Nygaard at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., where he received a Bachelor of Music in 1997. He continued his study as a student of David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Organ Performance and Literature as well as a Master of Arts in Music Theory Pedagogy. During his tenure at the Eastman School of Music, Dr. Olsen served as Professor Higgs’ teaching assistant, a teaching assistant in the theory department, and as a faculty member of the Eastman Community Education Division. Prior to his position at Oklahoma City University, Dr. Olsen served on the faculty of Ithaca College, and as sabbatical replacement at Binghamton University and Cornell University.

Dr. Olsen is the first prize-winner of the 2002 National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance sponsored by the American Guild of Organists. He has recorded a compact disc on the NAXOS label, and has been featured multiple times on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Pipedreams.”

Dr. Olsen has performed solo organ recitals in 23 states including venues such as Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (Portland, Ore.), Christ Church Cathedral (Lexington, Ky.), Broadway Baptist Church (Fort Worth, Texas), Pasadena Presbyterian Church, and St. Thomas Church (New York, N.Y.). He frequently presents master classes and workshops for universities, churches, and chapters of the American Guild of Organists, including being a featured recitalist and workshop presenter at the 2009 Region VII AGO Convention in Albuquerque, N.M. In June of 2011, Dr. Olsen will be a featured recitalist and presenter at the Region IV AGO Convention in Greensboro, N.C., as well as the Region VII AGO Convention in Oklahoma City. Dr. Olsen has been featured as soloist with orchestras, and performs collaboratively in organ/trumpet recitals, organ duo recitals, and as organist for major choral works including Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and Messe “Cum Jubilo.”

JUDITH SAXTON

Judith Saxton, trumpet artist-faculty and brass coordinator at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, enjoys an international career as a versatile and sought-after orchestral, solo and chamber performer throughout Asia, Russia, Europe, South America and the United States. In the 2010 season, she performed principal with the St. Louis Symphony on a set of subscription concerts. Her most recent recording Contest and Concert Pieces for Trumpet will be issued free to the 5,500 International Trumpet Guild  (ITG) members in March 2011. 

In the summers, Ms. Saxton is on trumpet faculty with the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina and principal and soloist with the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival in Virginia. She performs regularly with the North Carolina, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Roanoke symphonies and an array of chamber organizations on the Eastern seaboard. For several seasons, she was principal and soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Chicago Chamber Orchestra and with Wichita and Key West/South Florida symphonies concurrently. She performed frequently with the Chicago and Grant Park symphonies and the CSO brass quintet and held full-time spots in seven Chicago orchestras and numerous brass quintets. She was also in demand for shows, commercials, recording sessions, big bands and combos.

A dynamic chamber musician, Ms. Saxton has performed and toured with the newly formed UNCSA Brass Quintet and Jazz Septet, Tromba Mundi, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Wichita Brass Quintet, and Sierra Brass (Japan tours); in addition, she has performed on the Plymouth and Chamber Music at the Barn series in Kansas, and was artist-faculty for Lieksa Brass Week, Finland. 

Ms. Saxton is a Conn Selmer clinician and active both as a recitalist and as soloist with bands and orchestras across the globe.  She has recorded for the Millar and Monarch brass ensembles and for Crystal Koss, Proto, Novitas, MSR and Moravian Music Foundation labels. She holds board memberships with ITG, National Trumpet Competition and served several terms for the International Women's Brass Conference. She has written articles for the Brass Herald and ITG Journal.

Her degrees include the Bachelor of Music Education from Mansfield University, and Master of Music from Northwestern University. Ms. Saxton’s most influential teachers were Vincent Cichowicz, Arnold Jacobs, William Scarlett, Susan Slaughter and Michael Galloway. 

She has taught previously at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Illinois Wesleyan, Northeastern Illinois and Wichita State University, where she was associate professor of trumpet prior to coming to UNCSA. Her students can be found performing and teaching across the United States and in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Norway.

WADE WEAST

Bringing a wide range of experience in various areas of the music industry, Dr. Wade Weast became the Dean of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in July 2010. He holds a doctorate from Stony Brook University and a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, with additional study at the Tanglewood Institute and Columbia University.

While living in New York City, he performed regularly with the New Haven Symphony, New York City Opera, American Symphony Orchestra, and on Broadway. Upon accepting the professor of trumpet position at the State University of New York at Fredonia, where he taught for 10 years, he performed regularly with the Chautauqua Symphony and Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Brass Quintet.

As a collaborative musician, he has performed with a diverse group of artists including the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, New York City Ballet, Natalie Cole, and the rock group YES.  Having grown up with the tradition of the wind band, he was a member of the cornet section of the Goldman Memorial Band in New York City and Keith Brion's New Sousa Band.

Prior to becoming Music Dean at UNCSA, Dr. Weast was Director of the School of Music at the University of South Florida (USF), where he had first-hand involvement in the design, planning, and construction of a $46 million music building project, which opened in January 2011 as an All-Steinway School. As a fund raiser, he doubled the endowment for scholarships in six years at USF and has raised funds to support various initiatives including the Robert Helps Composition Competition and Festival and the Rutenberg Chamber Music Competition and Festival.

He is a senior evaluator of music programs for the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) and was recently named a fellow in the International Council of Fine Arts Deans (ICFAD) Rising Leadership program.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from high school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. UNCSA is located at 1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

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