Meet the Flute Studio

Dr. Tadeu Coelho

Tadeu Coelho teaches flute at UNCSA. Prior to teaching at UNCSA, he served as associate professor of flute at the University of Iowa (1997-2002), as assistant professor of flute at the University of New Mexico (1992-97) and as visiting professor at the Ino Mirkovich Music Academy in Croatia. He frequently appears as soloist, chamber musician and master clinician throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. He has performed as first solo flutist of the Santa Fe Symphony, Hofer Symphoniker in Germany and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy, among others.

Boroka Boisen

Boroka is a native of Harrisonburg Virginia and is currently a second-year master's student at UNCSA. She earned her B.M. in 2022 from James Madison University where she studied with Dr. Beth Chandler Cahill. During her studies at James Madison University, Boroka was a member of various ensembles such as the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Symphony, and several chamber ensembles. She also enjoyed playing in pit orchestras for Gounod's "Faust," Bill Russels "Sideshow,” UNCSA’s stage adaptation of “Amadeus,” and Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker.”

Boroka has had the pleasure of playing in masterclasses for several well-known flutists including Jennifer Grim, Alison Brown-Sincoff, Bonita Boyd, and Christopher Chaffee. In the future, Boroka hopes to teach flute at the collegiate level while maintaining an active private studio.

Ariel Collins

Ariel Collins is a first-year graduate student studying with Dr. Tadeu Coelho at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She was awarded the Flute Studio Teaching Assistantship and the Artistic and Academic Services Graduate Assistantship. Previously, she graduated with a B.M. in Flute Performance and Music Industry at James Madison University studying with Dr. Beth Chandler Cahill.

While studying at James Madison University, Ariel was the first flutist of the JMU Symphony Orchestra and the JMU Wind Symphony. She also was selected to perform a chamber work by the guest composer, Ingrid Stötzel, on the 41st Contemporary Music Festival concert. During her time at JMU, Ariel was a member of numerous chamber ensembles as well as the JMU Chamber Orchestra.

Ariel was selected for the Frances Blaisdell Scholarship hosted by the National Flute Association in 2022 for the Chicago, IL convention through audition and essay competition. She has auditioned and been selected to perform in the National Flute Association Collegiate Flute Choir and the Flute Society of Washington High School Flute Choir. Ariel is an active member of the National Flute Association, the Midsouth Flute Society, and the Flute Society of Washington. Nationally, she was awarded the Semper Fidelis Award for musical excellence by the U.S. Marine Band

Ariel was selected to attend the Aria International Music Academy for the Summer of 2022. Furthermore, she has performed in masterclasses for Bonita Boyd, Alexa Still, Molly Barth, Jennifer Grim, Rachel Ordaz, Debra Wendells Cross, Sooyun Kim, and Christinia Jennings. Ariel is furthering her education at UNCSA with Dr. Tadeu Coelho to pursue a professional music career after graduation and hold a private flute studio.

Ivan Felipe Muñoz Vargas

Ivan Felipe Muñoz Vargas was born and raised in Neiva, Huila (in the South of Colombia). He began his musical studies at eight years old in the music school National Music Foundation BATUTA (2002). His first teachers during his childhood and teenage years were Pedro Dussan Salazar (flute teacher, chamber music and wind symphonic band) and Rafael Serrano Barceló (symphonic orchestra and accompaniment piano). He was a teacher and first flute in the Chia Symphonic Band under the baton of Jesus Orielso Jacome.

Ivan is the former teacher of the Regional Huila Conservatory of Music & Chant, a position he held from 2019 – July 2021. After completing his studies in Bogota, he returned to Neiva, Huila, where he continued to teach. His students are successful and have been accepted to continue their studies at several prominent music schools in Colombia. In 2019, he assumed the Musical Direction of the Hands of Piece musical social band school program. In 2020, he continued being faculty of the same program, though the program name changed to Artistic Education Schools.

Since May 2021, he is the Musical Coordinator of Artistic Education Schools of his home state. Ivan gave recitals and concerts to stay in shape and work with his colleague and friend Guitar Nicolas Guerrero, in a Flute-Guitar Duet named Magenta-Duo, playing Latin-American music and folklore music. Magenta-Duo was part of the Anselmo Duran Colombian Andean Music competition in 2019 and 2021 and won 5th place in 2022. In 2021, the best year of the ensemble, they won a competition in Ibague-Tolima (2nd Place) and were selected as one of the best musical ensembles in Huila State. Ivan graduated with his bachelor's degree from El Bosque University, and have studied with Javier Olave and Rafael Aponte. Ivan is a graduate student in Dr. Tadeu Coelho’s flute studio at UNCSA.

Victoria King

Victoria King is a first-year undergrad studying music composition. Although she isn't a flute major, she is grateful to be playing in the flute ensemble to continue learning about her instrument, her peers, and music itself.

Ell Poole

Ell Poole, born in Savannah, Georgia, fell in love with the flute at the age of 10. Throughout their middle school career living in Alma, Georgia, Ell participated in Georgia honor bands. After moving to North Carolina to begin high school, Ell played in various UNC college honor bands and North Carolina honor bands, including a tour of Europe with the NC Ambassadors of Music and piccoloist with the Eastern Youth Orchestra.

Ell began senior year of highschool at UNCSA under instruction of Tadeu Coelho, and decided to go to college at UNCSA as well. They will graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Flute Performance in 2025.

Ell has attended 2023 CCM International Summer Winds Festival with the President's Own Marine Band, 2023 Brevard Flute Seminar and works as a flute counselor at UNCG Summer Music Camp.

When they aren't in the practice room, you can find them behind the register at Hanes in Thruway in Winston Salem, playing video games, or watching anime.

Eden Ligon

Eden Ligon is a flutist from Hillsborough, NC, and a high school senior UNCSA. They have played in the Triangle Youth Symphony, as well as various wind ensembles and jazz groups. They have studied with Katherine Woodrum, Pauline Gray, and studied at the Governor’s School of North Carolina and Interlochen Summer Arts Camp. Additionally, they have played in numerous district and state-level honors bands, the Carolina Band Festival, and are a current member of the Raleigh Area Flute Association. Eden loves playing a wide variety of genres, dabbles in jazz saxophone, and hopes to grow immensely as a musician under the guidance of Tadeu Coelho at UNCSA.

Daniel Peña Cruz

Daniel is a Colombian flutist who earned his B.M. in 2022 at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, where he studied with Rafael Rodriguez. He is currently in his first year of pursuing a master's degree in flute performance at UNCSA with Dr. Tadeu Coelho. Throughout his musical career, he has participated in international tours, having been chosen to join the Colombia-France Binational Symphony Orchestra and the Javeriana Symphony Orchestra. He recently worked as a flutist in the Bogotá Youth Philharmonic Band and has achieved outstanding results in competitions within his country, including second place in the International Flute Workshop in the Colombian Southwest, third place in the 1st International Flute Festival in Sopó, and winning the convocation for “Artistic Residency and Participation in The Binational Orchestra Concert- Cross Seasons 2017” as the first flutist.

Phoebe Pylant

Phoebe Pylant is a flutist, harpist, pianist, soprano, and composer from the metro Atlanta area. She has played piano since 3rd grade, flute since 4th, and harp since 7th. She has participated in more than two dozen youth chamber groups as well as the Georgia Music Educators Association All-State Band, All-State Chorus, Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Atlanta Junior Wind Ensemble. She has attended and performed in masterclasses given by Valerie Coleman, Katherine Borst Jones, Robert Dick, and Jennifer Grim, and has been commissioned by flutist Tadeu Coelho for his concert featuring underrepresented composers.

The Music Teachers National Association named her the 2020-2021 Georgia alternate for the woodwind competition (junior division), the 2019-2020 Georgia winner for the woodwind competition (junior division), as well as the 2021-2022 and 2020-2021 Georgia winner and Southeast regional alternate for its music composition competition (junior division). Juan Ramirez of The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra named her the 2021 Georgia winner of the inaugural statewide music composition competition hosted by Ztunes Music. In 2023 Phoebe won the National Flute Association's Flute Choir Call for Scores. She is the youngest person to do so.

Phoebe's creative compositions have been played at many concerts, university degree recitals, and even masterclasses and her works have been recorded by a wide selection of performers.

Phoebe currently studies flute at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts as a junior in high school and composes regularly.

Madelyn Sealey

Madelyn Sealey grew up in southeastern North Carolina where she began her flute studies at age 11. After excelling in her middle school band and craving more a more intensive program, she began studying privately with French flutist Nicolas Duchamp who helped her earn seats in several county, district, and state-wide competitions. She is now in her final year in the undergraduate program at UNCSA where she studies under Dr. Tadeu Coelho. During her time there, she performed in duos, trios, quintets, Chamber Winds, Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, and the Flute Ensemble.

Madelyn spent the last two summers at the Trentino Music Festival in Northern Italy with Maestro David Jackson of the Metropolitan Opera where she collaborated with talented musicians from across the world. Outside of school hours, she works as the flute instructor at Separk Music Company.

Margaret Sechrest

Margaret is a native of McLean, Virginia and is currently a first-year undergraduate student at UNCSA studying Flute Performance with Dr. Tadeu Coelho. She began her more formal musical studies at age 11 but has always had a love for music and the flute. Maggie has been a member of numerous ensembles including the Flute Society of Washington’s Junior Flute Choir at the Mid Atlantic Flute Convention in 2018, the George Mason University Combined High School Flute Choir, Interlochen’s Intermediate Wind Symphony program, as well as performing with the award-winning Cooper Middle School Symphonic Band and the Langley High School Wind Symphony. She has also been a member of the prestigious American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra programs playing in their flute ensemble, concert orchestra, and philharmonic orchestra. Some highlights of her musical career include studying with flutist Dr. Laura Kaufman, during which time she attended master classes including performing at the Eastman School of Music for The Artistic Flutist: Bonita Boyd International Flute Masterclass, participating in Juilliard’s Music Theory and Ear Training college program for high school students, and has participated in music performance workshops at the Music for All festival in Indianapolis and the Virginia Music Educators Association’s conference.

Gabrielle Small

Flutist Gabrielle Small is a south Florida native and a first-year graduate student at UNCSA. She previously attended the University of South Florida where she earned degrees in Music and Environmental Science and Policy. Her principal flute teacher is Dr. Marie Jureit-Beamish. During her undergraduate studies, Gabrielle maintained an active teaching career coaching the flute section of the Treasure Coast Youth Symphony and working as an assistant educator at the Florida Oceanographic Society. She now works as a graduate assistant in the UNCSA library.

Gabrielle has been performing in musical organizations throughout the state of Florida, including the Treasure Coast Academy Orchestra, the University of South Florida Flute Ensemble, the Treasure Coast Flute Choir, the Florida Flute Association annual convention, and has been featured in concert series with the Martin County Arts Council. She has also been featured performing in masterclasses for renowned flutists such as Marina Piccinini and Paul Edmund-Davies. In 2021, she won second prize in the Bellegrande International Music Competition and was named runner-up for the Florida Music Teacher’s National Competition state round division in 2018, 2020, 2021.

Recently, in March 2022, Gabrielle was one of several flutists who performed the premiere of Samuel Zyman’s duet for two flutes titled “Intuition.” In addition to performance, Gabrielle continues to search for new ways to connect both her passion for the arts and sciences.