Wind Faculty Concert
The wind faculty of Madeline Island Chamber Music present a concert as a part of the 2025 season on scenic Madeline Island in Wisconsin.
Featuring
Tara Helen O’Connor, flue
Keisuke Ikuma, oboe
Gina Cuffari, basoon
David Byrd-Marrow, horn
Tara Helen O’Connor, who Art Mag has said “so embodies perfection on the flute that you’ll forget she is human,” is an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a two-time Grammy Award nominee, and, as a member of the New Millennium Ensemble, a recipient of the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award. A Wm.S. Haynes artist, she was the first flutist selected to participate in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program and is currently a season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a member of the Windscape woodwind quintet.
O’Connor serves as Visiting Associate Professor, Adjunct, of Flute at the Yale School of Music, and is Artistic Director of the Music from Angel Fire Festival. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. O’Connor has premiered hundreds of works and has appeared on numerous recordings and film and television soundtracks including Barbie, Respect, The Joker, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Only Murder in the Building and Schmigadoon! to name only a few.
An avid chamber musician, O’Connor regularly appears include the Bravo! Vail festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music@Menlo, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Spoleto Festival USA, the Banff Centre, Rockport Music, Bay Chamber Concerts, Manchester Music Festival, the Great Mountains Music Festival, Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival and Music From Angel Fire.
O’Connor has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts and PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Bridge Records. She also serves on the faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music, and the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music.
She lives with her husband, violinist Daniel Phillips and their two miniature dachshunds, Chloé and Ava on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Ikuma is a highly sought-after oboe and English horn player in the New York metropolitan area. He is a member of Orchestra Lumos in Stamford and the woodwind quintet Windscape. He has played with many of the world’s top orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Mariinsky Theatre 7 Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and New Japan Philharmonic. He held the oboe/English horn chair and assistant conductor positions in the Tony Award-winning musicals The King and I (2015) and My Fair Lady (2018) at Lincoln Center Theater. He currently holds the oboe/English horn chair and assistant conductor position in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd (2023). Ikuma performed in many summer festivals including Colorado Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Banff Centre, and Pacific Music Festival. Having previously served on the faculties of Chinese University of Hong Kong and Manhattan School of Music, he is currently Director of Chamber Music of the graduate program of the Orchestra Now (TŌN) and is a woodwind faculty member at Bard Conservatory. Ikuma received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music where he was a full-scholarship student of Joseph Robinson, former principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic. He also holds a law degree from Keio University of Tokyo, Japan.
Praised by the New York Times for his “spellbinding” performances and “infectious enthusiasm and panache,” Alan R. Kay is principal clarinetist and a former artistic director of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as principal clarinet of New York’s Riverside Symphony and the Little Orchestra Society. He also appears as principal with the American Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Mr. Kay’s honors include the 2015 Classical Recording Foundation Samuel Sanders Chamber Music Award, the C.D. Jackson Award at Tanglewood, a Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award, Juilliard’s 1980 Competition, and the 1989 Young Concert Artists Award with the sextet Hexagon later featured in the prizewinning documentary film Debut. Mr. Kay is a founding member of Windscape and of Hexagon. Summer festivals include Yellow Barn, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, the Bowdoin Festival, and the Netherlands’ Orlando Festival. His innovative programming for the New York Chamber Ensemble was a regular feature of the Cape May Music Festival for 26 years. Mr. Kay has recorded with Hexagon, Windscape, the Sylvan Winds, Orpheus, and numerous other ensembles. His recent solo CD, Max Reger: Music for Clarinet and Piano, on Bridge Records, was released to critical acclaim and featured in the November/December 2016 issue of Fanfare magazine. His arrangements for wind quintet are available from Trevco Music Publishing and International Opus.
Also a conductor, Mr. Kay studied conducting at the Juilliard School with the late Otto-Werner Mueller and has conducted orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the New York City area. Mr. Kay taught at the Summer Music Academy in Leipzig, Germany in 2004 and currently teaches at Manhattan School of Music, Juilliard, and Stony Brook University, where he serves as Executive Director of the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. He has served on the juries of the Orlando Festival Piano Trio and Mixed Ensemble International Competitions in Rolduc, Holland; the International Chamber Music Competition in Trapani, Italy; Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Concert Artist Guild Auditions, and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
Bassoonist Gina Cuffari is a dynamic and versatile musician who performs a variety of roles in the New York City area as orchestral musician, chamber musician, soloist, new music advocate, and educator. Praised for having a “sound that is by turns sensuous, lyric and fast moving” (Palm Beach Daily News), Gina is the Bassoonist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. For eighteen years, she has performed and recorded throughout the USA, Europe and Asia with this prestigious ensemble, and recently finished her tenure as an Artistic Director. Gina is also the Principal Bassoonist of the American Symphony Orchestra, Principal Bassoonist of the Riverside Symphony, and a guest performer with Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Knights, American Composers Orchestra, and many more. An avid musical theater fan, Gina has performed in Broadway productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Sunset Boulevard, My Fair Lady, Into the Woods and Camelot as a substitute bassoonist.
Gina’s passion for chamber music has led her to collaborate with many outstanding musicians and ensembles over the years. She is a regular guest performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a member of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and Sylvan Winds, and founding member of Trio Cabrini, a clarinet, bassoon/voice, piano ensemble. Favorite guest appearances include making music with the Boston Chamber Music Society, Palm Beach Chamber Music Society, playing in various NYC restaurants with Tertulia, performing with Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara, California and making music at the Portland Chamber Music Festival in Maine.
Gina has always had a keen interest in new music, and has endeavored to support composers throughout her career. She has been a longtime collaborator with Alarm Will Sound- performing as bassoonist, vocalist and keyboardist- and has worked with many composers over the years, premiering a plethora of new works with the group. In NYC she has performed with Argento New Music Project, American Modern Ensemble and ACME, and has commissioned and premiered countless works with Sylvan Winds, Quintet of the Americas and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In an ongoing personal project, Gina has commissioned solo works that combine her two passions- singing and playing the bassoon- into one performing experience. Composers who have written for her include Jenni Brandon, Gregg August, Sunny Knable and Allison Loggins-Hull.
A passionate educator, Gina joined the faculty of Stony Brook University in Fall 2023 as the Bassoon Professor (Artist-in-Residence) and is an Adjunct Professor of Bassoon at New York University. She is also a frequent guest clinician at Bard College for The Orchestra Now, has taught masterclasses at universities such as Yale and Manhattan School of Music, and has coached chamber orchestras at the National Orchestral Institute + Festival. In a desire to share her unique perspective as a singing woodwind player, Gina presents “Singing Through Your Instrument” workshops/masterclasses at schools throughout the country. During the summers, she teaches and performs at the Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs, NY and the Bard Summer Festival.
Hailed as “stunning and assured” by the New York Times, Atlanta native David Byrd-Marrow is the Solo hornist of the International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as a member of The Knights. Working with a uniquely wide range of performers, he has premiered works by Anna Webber, Arthur Kampela, George Lewis, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Du Yun, Marcos Balter, Eric Wubbels, Jörg Widmann, Miguel Zenón, and Chick Corea.
David has performed at festivals including the Ojai Music Festival, the Spoleto Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, Summerfest! at the La Jolla Music Society and as faculty at the Festival Napa Valley. Formerly a member of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, he has also made appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta, Seattle and Tokyo symphony orchestras, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has recorded on many labels including Tundra, More Is More, Nonesuch, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, and Naxos.
Mr. Byrd-Marrow received his Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School and Master of Music from Stony Brook University. He is the Associate Professor of Horn at the Oberlin Conservatory.