Quvee Mock Masterclass Series
The QuVee Mock Masterclass Series was inaugurated in Fall 2024 as an exceptional opportunity for Kansas State University students to engage with world-class artists, made possible through the generous support of Jerry A. Hall.
Through this series, the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at the K-State School of Music, Theatre, and Dance brings acclaimed artists from around the globe to share their gifts with students in intimate and exclusive settings. Additionally, the series offers public learning opportunities, enriching the broader community and making K-State a destination for world-class performing arts education.
Fall 2025 QuVee Mock Masterclass Series Artists
Akropolis Reed Quintet
Celebrating their 16th season as “a sonically daring ensemble who specializes in performing new works with charisma and integrity” (BBC Music Magazine), the GRAMMY® Award-winning Akropolis Reed Quintet comprises five reed players and entrepreneurs unbounded by limits or categorization. Described by The Wire as a “collective voice driven by real excitement and a sense of adventure,” Akropolis has graced the Classical Billboard Charts with each of their last three albums, including #2 in April, 2024. Winner of seven national chamber music prizes including the 2014 Fischoff Gold Medal, Akropolis is known for performing “works that brilliantly exploit their unique instrumentation” (Gramophone). Composed of the same five members that brought about its founding in 2009, Akropolis delivers 120 concerts and educational events worldwide each year and has premiered and commissioned more than 150 works by living artists and composers.
Experimenters and creators at their core, the five artists of Akropolis are routinely lauded for their boldness and innovative spirit. As The Wire commented: “There’s nothing tentative in their approach, and that extends to their programming of multifariously challenging and imaginative new works.” Akropolis has collaborated with poets, a metal fabricator, dancers, small business owners, string quartets, pop vocalists, and others from all walks of life. The ensemble’s 6th album, Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?, with two-time GRAMMY-nominated composer/pianist Pascal Le Boeuf and drummer Christian Euman, was released in April 2024 on Bright Shiny Things.
The quintet is also known for powerful collaborations with youth and others within its Detroit community. Certified as a 510(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Akropolis is the recipient of the 2015 Fischoff Educator Award, as well as seven consecutive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. The ensemble runs a Detroit-based summer festival called Together We Sound and holds annual, school year-long music composition residencies at Cass Tech, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Detroit School of Arts high schools. Akropolis also produces the Akropolis Chamber Music Institute, a 10-day artist training and mentorship program in Petoskey, MI.
Described as “pure gold” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Akropolis Reed Quintet performs worldwide and is represented exclusively by Ariel Artists.
The Bang Group
THE BANG GROUP is a contemporary theatrical dance troupe which is devoted to choreographer David Parker’s fascination with the rhythmic potential of the dancing body. At the center of his work is an abiding love of rhythmic form and the intensity of communication it allows between audiences and performers. Among his best known works are the 21st century neo-vaudeville Nutcracker entitled Nut/Cracked as well as ShowDown, a choreographic reinvention of Annie Get Your Gun for cabaret and concert stages, and a series of male duets ranging from Slapstuck for two velcro-clad gentlemen, to Bang and Suck, Friends of Dorothy, The Missing Reel and Old Fashioned Wedding. These dances were created for Jeffrey Kazin and David Parker who now direct the company together building a choreographic dialogue between show business, classical and contemporary dance traditions. Their most recent work, the evening-length Misters and Sisters is an unadulterated song-and-dance cabaret which achieved instant critical acclaim at its premier run at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater.
TBG has been presented in New York City eight times by Dance Theater Workshop in their own evening-length programs, twice by Danspace Project at Saint Mark’s Church and several times by DanceNow/NYC at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater. TBG also appears regularly on DTW’s Family Matters series and at Lincoln-Center-Out-of-Doors, Symphony Space, The Joyce Soho, World Financial Center’s Arts and Events, Town Hall, the 92nd Street Y and at numerous other venues throughout New York City.
The Bang Group has appeared in many European festivals including The Holland Dance Festival (The Hague), International Biennale de Charleroi Danses (Belgium), Konfrontace Festival (Prague), Tanzsprache Festival (Vienna), Dance Week (Zagreb), Divadelna Nitra (Slovakia), Belluard Bollwerk (Switzerland), Nervi Estate (Italy), Ballett Umbria, Invito Alla Danza (Rome), Tanzmesse NRW (Germany), Dutch Touch (Paris), OT301 (Amsterdam), Monaco Danse Forum, Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2005 and 2009) and others. TBG has also appeared regularly in Montreal at Studio 303, Divers Cité Festival, Tangente and CINARS as well as in 22 of the United States.
The company has developed a second home base in the Boston area where it appears each summer through Summer Stages Dance Festival in Concord Massachusetts. The Bang Group celebrated its 10th anniversary season as company in residence at Summer Stages Dance in 2009. It also appears regularly in First Night Boston and has performed Nut/Cracked at the Out On the Edge Festival at the Theater Offensive in Boston for three consecutive seasons. TBG has been on Best-of-the-Year lists in Antwerp, Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, London and Montreal.
The Bang Group has received generous support from the Jerome Robbins Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York Foundation for the Arts (Build Grant), Pentacle’s ARC (Advancement, Reinvention and Creativity) Grant, The Mid Atlantic Arts Fund, The Fund for Mutual Understanding, Arts International, The 2wice Foundation, The Netherland-America Foundation, The Heathcote Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, The Hale Matthews Foundation, The Amy Sue Rosen Foundation, various commissioning initiatives through Dance Theater Workshop, DanceNow/NYC and Danspace Project and many individual donors.
TBG has been company-in-residence at New York’s West End Theater since 2003 where Jeffrey Kazin and David Parker present thrice-yearly mini-festivals of dance from New York City and beyond.
Seraph Brass
In its 11th season, Seraph Brass was founded by trumpet soloist Mary Elizabeth Bowden with a mission to showcase the excellence of women brass players and highlight musicians from marginalized groups, both in personnel and in programming. Winners of the American Prize in Chamber Music, the group has been praised for its “beautiful sounds” (American Record Guide), “fine playing” (Gramophone), and “staggeringly high caliber of performance” (Textura). In addition to performances and residencies, Seraph performs as a 10-piece ensemble, as soloists with symphony orchestras and wind bands, and in collaboration with other chamber artists.
The 2024-2025 season highlights include a residency at the Festival International De Vientos that includes a performance of Anthony DiLorenzo’s Chimera with the Cusco Symphony Orchestra in Peru, a performance at the 78th Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, and performances at the Jeju Festival in South Korea, Guanajuato’s Pro Musica Classica Series in Mexico, Foo Foo Festival in Pensacola (FL), Pro Music Joplin (MO), Trinity Concert Series in Watertown (NY), and Celebrity Concert Series in Huntsville (AL). Seraph’s residency highlights of the season include Yale School of Music, University of Miami, University of Memphis, University of Missouri, Mary Baldwin University, and the Pear Arts Residency in Fort Wayne. Seraph will be releasing a new album in March of 2025 through Tower Grove Records, showcasing new works for brass quintet and featuring compositions by Jeff Scott, Reena Esmail, Kevin Day, and Kevin McKee.
Seraph Brass performs a diverse body of repertoire, ranging from original transcriptions to newly commissioned works and core classics. The group has commissioned pieces by Grammy award winner Jeff Scott, as well as Jennifer Jolley, Joseph Hallman, Catherine McMichael, Marcus Grant, and Rene Orth. The pieces by Orth and McMichael are featured on Seraph’s Silver Medal Global Music Award-winning debut album Asteria. The group regularly participates in commissioning consortiums, recently supporting works by Kevin Day, Mischa Zupko, Sara Jacovino, and Lillian Yee. Seraph recently commissioned and premiered Jennifer Jolley’s Dust for brass quintet and wind ensemble, which was performed with various ensembles across the US. Other concerto performances have included Rick DeJonge’s Prelude and Fantasy, James Stephenson’s Dodecafecta, Suite from Mass by Leonard Bernstein and Anthony DiLorenzo’s Chimera.
Members of Seraph Brass are passionate about music education, and hold teaching positions at the University of North Texas, Shenandoah Conservatory, Texas State University, and Texas Lutheran University. In each of their tours, the group works to provide educational outreach to local schools, and they also offer a variety of entrepreneurship and career development workshops, in addition to traditional brass pedagogy and technique classes.
The ensemble has toured around the world, including performances at the Tafalla Brass Week in Spain, Lieksa Brass Week in Finland, the Busan Maru International Music Festival in South Korea, University of Toronto in Canada, the Forum Cultural Guanajuato in Mexico, International Women’s Brass Conference, the International Trumpet Guild Conference, and a two-week tour across China. Recent touring highlights have included shows and residencies at Oberlin College, Brevard Music Center, Chautauqua Institution, Swarthmore College, the Lyric Chamber Music Society in NYC, Interlochen Arts Academy, University of Michigan, Chamber Music Raleigh, National Gallery of Art in D.C., Asheville Chamber Music Series, Virginia Arts Festival, Boise Chamber Music Series, University of North Carolina School for the Arts, Michigan State University, Sarasota’s Artist Series Concerts, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, and Del Valle Fine Arts Presents in California, as well as concerto appearances with the Florence Symphony, the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” Texas Tech University Wind Ensemble, University of North Texas Wind Orchestra, Shenandoah Conservatory Wind Ensemble, University of Nebraska-Omaha Wind Ensemble, and Swarthmore College Wind Ensemble. The group has also toured extensively as Allied Concert Services and Live On Stage artists, and was formerly in residency alongside the Dover Quartet at the Artosphere Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Members of Seraph Brass have performed with such esteemed ensembles as the London Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The Phoenix Symphony, Marlboro Music Festival, Lucerne Music Festival in Switzerland, Britt Festival Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, and the Daejeon Philharmonic. Many members of Seraph Brass performed with Adele on her North American tour.
Seraph Brass is a Yamaha Performing Group.
Carolina Calvache
Carolina Calvache, a Pan-American composer, seamlessly blends sounds influenced by jazz, classical, and Latin American folk music. Carolina has been engaging in and evolving a global music exchange that spans from her native Cali, Colombia, to New York City, and more recently, to the vibrant Caribbean sounds of Miami. An award-winning composer, celebrated jazz pianist, inspiring educator, and New World Symphony ambassador, she is deeply committed to fostering collaboration within the global music community.
Winner of the 16th Independent Music Awards for her song, “La Última Vez” featuring Camila Meza, Carolina has been making waves since her selection for the 2011 Mary Lou Williams Woman in Jazz Festival, where her talent garnered attention at The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Legendary pianist and composer, Toshiko Akiyoshi, has hailed her music as “Extraordinary and Marvelous.”
Drawing from diverse influences, Carolina’s music encompasses a wide range of genres. Her repertoire includes solo pieces, duets, chamber music, studio orchestra, and jazz big band compositions. Carolina is well-known for her trombone pieces, ranging from classical commissions to jazz pieces, including chamber works for brass that premiered at the Trombone and Trumpet International Festival. One notable commission include “Trombonsillo,” which was recorded in the album, Ethereal by Canadian Brass Trombonist, Achilles Liarmakopoulos . The piece experienced worldwide success, became a standard in the trombone repertoire, and it is currently one of the required pieces for the Associate Board of Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). Other noteworthy commissions include “Uncertainty,” commissioned by Jennifer Wharton and her group Bonegasm, “Encuentros,” commissioned by Qatar Philharmonic member Sebastian Cifuentes; “Caminos,” written for Cleveland Orchestra musician Shachar Israel; “Latin American Street Scenes,” commissioned by Boston University Professor Don Lucas; and her latest piece, “Comienzos,” commissioned by “Slides in Harmony” and a cohort of twenty university professors as co-commissioners. Her upcoming orchestral work for trombone is set to premiere with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra and Denis Jiron in March 2025.
Moreover, Carolina has written art songs for piano and lyric soprano commissioned by Anima Mundi Productions and a piece for baritone and violin for the Gabriela Lena Frank Academy. Her piano solo works are also included in the book Antologia de compositoress Vallecaucanos, Obras para piano, published by the University of Valle in Cali, Colombia. Her chamber works have been premiered worldwide at prestigious institutions such as the Juilliard School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, the New World Symphony, the Newport Music Festival, and Gravissimo Festival, among others.
In addition to her compositional work, Carolina’s expertise as an arranger has led to collaborations with renowned musicians and institutions. This includes a collaboration with the New York Philharmonic string quartet, flute arrangements for Grammy Award-winning flutist Nestor Torres, as part of the University of Miami Fellowship Carolina wrote Big Band arrangements for the Brubeck Brothers, Grammy Award-winning drummer and composer Terri Lyne Carrington, and multiple arrangements for studio orchestra for the Henry Mancini Institute.
As a recording artist, Carolina has released two albums and multiple singles. Following her critically acclaimed album, Sotareño (Sunnyside, 2014), which earned a spot among the Best 10 Albums of 2014 by Latin Jazz Net, Carolina unleashed the resonating extent of her versatility as a composer, orchestrator, and formidable songwriter on her sophomore chamber album Vida Profunda (Sunnyside, 2020). Both albums engage a range of guest artist including legendary singer Ruben Blades, Grammy award-wining Antonio Sanchez, Jaleel Shaw, Michael Rodriguez, Claudia Acuña, Sara Serpa, Marta Gomez, Jonathan Blake, Gregoire Maret, among others. In addition, Carolina’s compositions have been featured on various albums, including “Grit and Grace” by Jennifer Wharton, “Stranger at Home” by Shachar Israel, “Latin American Portraits” by Jaime Morales, “Day Break” by Vicenzo Paratore, and “Tendencias e Influencias Volumen 3: Compositoras Colombianas,” published by University Eafit in Medellin, Colombia.
As a performer, Carolina has shared the stage with pioneering voices in the jazz music industry including , Thana Alexa, Jaleel Shaw, Michael Rodriguez, Endea Owens, Claudia Acuña, David Binney, Hans Glawischnig, Chembo Corniel, Samuel Torres, among others. She has performed with her jazz quartet and as a guest artist at the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland Jazz Club, Joes’ Pub, and the Jazz Gallery in NYC to name a few. In addition, Carolina has performed at Walt Disney Hall with the LA Philharmonic Orchestra and the group People of Earth, promoting Pan-American initiatives and family concerts.
Beyond her artistic endeavors, Carolina is dedicated to music education. Her teaching engagements started as a teaching assistant at the University of North Texas where Calvache directed the Zebras ensemble, one of the laboratory jazz big bands, and taught a piano jazz fundamental class. She has delivered lectures and masterclasses both locally and internationally – in Colombia at Universidad del Bosque, Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Fundación el Colectivo, and Universidad de las Artes, among others. Calvache directed the first Summer Jazz Camp at Fundación Canto por la Vida in Ginebra, and San Pedro, Colombia. In 2015, Carolina held an international faculty appointment at the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in Tamil, India. In New York city, Carolina taught at Laguardia College and Jazz Power Initiative promoting jazz education. Calvache has participated as a presenter at conferences such as the Jazz Education Network (2023), and the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers. As an adjudicator, Carolina has worked with Chamber Music of America selecting the 2022 New Jazz Works grantees, and with Banco de la República in Bogotá, Colombia in the 2021 national composition contest.
Carolina holds a bachelor’s degree from Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, a master’s degree in jazz performance from the University of North Texas and a DMA in Jazz Composition from the University of Miami.
Spring 2025
Since 1986 Boston Brass has set out to establish a one-of-a-kind musical experience, featuring colorful classical arrangements, burning jazz standards, and the best of original brass repertoire. Boston Brass treats audiences to a unique brand of musical entertainment that bridges the ocean of classical formality to delight regular concertgoers and newcomers alike with great music and boisterous fun. The quintet has played to audiences in all 50 U.S. states, and over 30 countries. Though the band regularly concertizes as a quintet, Boston Brass also performs with orchestras, concert and marching bands, organists, and jazz bands, and regularly collaborates with composers to create new works for the brass canon.
The Gesualdo Six is an award-winning British vocal ensemble comprising some of the UK’s finest consort singers, directed by Owain Park. Praised for their imaginative programming and impeccable blend, the group formed in 2014 for a performance of Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories in Cambridge and has gone on to perform at numerous major festivals around the world.
The Gesualdo Six is committed to music education, regularly hosting workshops for young musicians and composers. The ensemble have curated two Composition Competitions, with the most recent edition drawing entries from over three hundred composers worldwide. The group recently commissioned new works from Shruthi Rajasekar and Joanna Marsh, alongside coronasolfège for 6 by Héloïse Werner.
A Marine Corps Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom disabled, combat war veteran, Yvonne traded in her combat boots for a career in theatre/opera/film/television after graduating with an M.F.A. in Stage Design from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and a B.F.A. in Fashion Design with a minor in Fashion Merchandising from the University of North Texas.
A Texan who now resides in the Chicago, IL area, she has been featured in The Great Stage of Texas exhibit at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX, published in Scene Shift U.S. Set Designers in Conversation with accompanying exhibit at USC Fisher Museum, as well as American Theatre Magazine: Role Call - 6 Theatre Workers You Should Know and 2023's Helen Hayes Outstanding Costume Design Award nomination for her work on Woolly Mammoth and Baltimore Center Stage Theatre's co-production of Ain't No Mo'.
Fall 2024
Renee Fleming
Renowned for her radiant voice and captivating presence, Renee Fleming is one of the most celebrated sopranos of our time. With a distinguished career that spans opera, broadway, recordings, television, and film, Fleming has earned numerous accolades, including multiple Grammy Awards and the National Medal of Arts. Her artistry and emotional depth have made her a beloved figure in both classical and popular music.
Bobby Watson
A legendary figure in the world of jazz, saxophonist Bobby Watson is known for his innovative compositions and dynamic performances. A multi-Grammy-nominated saxophonist, composer, bandleader, educator and producer, Watson sits among the pantheon of present-day jazz greats.
Chanticleer
This Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble is praised for its lush, rich sound and masterful interpretations of music spanning centuries. Chanticleer is recognized for its diverse repertoire, ranging from Renaissance polyphony to contemporary choral masterpieces, and has captivated audiences worldwide with its extraordinary musicality.
Amit Peled
Internationally renowned cellist Amit Peled is celebrated for his passionate musicianship and technical brilliance. Peled’s performances combine profound artistry with a deep connection to his audience, and his masterclasses offer invaluable insights into the art of cello performance.