Principal Players
Advanced Woodwinds:
Dr. Dawn McConkie Courtney teaches applied clarinet and saxophone, directs the Emporia State University Chamber Winds, Student Woodwind Quintet, clarinet choir, and saxophone ensembles, and is a member of the Mid-America Woodwind Quintet, Kanza Tronada, and MiamiClarinet. She holds Master’s and Doctoral Degrees from the University of Miami, FL, where she studied with clarinetist Dr. Margaret Donaghue Flavin. Other past teachers include John Nichol (saxophone, Central Michigan University) and Linda Bartley (clarinet, Central Michigan University). She has performed with various professional groups, including the Florida Philharmonic, Miami City Ballet, Florida Grand Opera and the Boca Pops Orchestra. She has held previous teaching positions at the University of Miami as lecturer of clarinet and principal clarinet with the Miami-based Jubilate Orchestra. Dr. McConkie Courtney is a member and faculty advisor for the Emporia State University collegiate chapter of the National Association for Music Education and a patroness of the women’s music fraternity Sigma Alpha Iota. She is also a member of International Clarinet Association, the Pi Kappa Lambda national music society, and College Music Society. Her chamber ensemble, MiamiClarinet, was a selected performancer at the 35th Annual Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, premiering pieces written for the ensemble by Scott Stinson and Derek Sherron. She has also been featured with MiamiClarinet during its Festival Miami series. Other compositions that have been written for Dr. McConkie Courtney include Barbara York’s Clarinet Sonata, and Andrew Houchins’ Garden Scenes and Duel for Clarinet and Percussion. Dr. McConkie Courtney’s future concert engagements include MiamiClarinet at the International Clarinet Symposium (July 2011, California State University) and with Kanza Tronada at the Rocky Mountain Regional College Music Society (Denver, Colorado). Learn more.
Advanced Brass:
Dr. Gary D. Ziek has served as the Director of Bands and Professor of Trumpet at Emporia State University since 1995. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Wind Conducting from Michigan State University in May of 1994, graduating as a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. While attending Michigan State, he served as Principal Trumpet in the Wind Symphony. He received his Master of Arts in Trumpet Performance in 1986 and his Bachelor of Science in Music Education from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1981.
Dr. Ziek served from 1982 to 1985 in the United States Army and was a member of the Continental Army Band at Fort Monroe, Virginia. He taught in the Greater Latrobe School District in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, from 1987 to 1992. He was the Associate Director of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Marching Band in 1994. Dr. Ziek enjoys performing and conducting a wide variety of music, from classical to jazz, and is active as both an arranger and composer. His compositions and arrangements have been performed throughout the United States, and in Europe and Asia. His music is published by C. Alan Publications. Dr. Ziek has performed and conducted in twenty five states, as well as in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Canada. Learn more.
Advanced Percussion:
Dr. Tracy Freeze, Marimbist and Percussionist, specializes in contemporary and avant-garde marimba and multi-percussion repertoire, including works of composers Meyer Kupferman, Andrew Thomas, Steven Mackey, Eric Ewazen, Barney Childs, Reginald Brindle-Smith, Stewart Saunders Smith and Julie Spencer. Freeze is currently Principal Timpanist with the Wichita Grand Opera Orchestra. Recent orchestral experience includes work with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Opera, Oregon Festival of American Music, Oregon Bach Festival, Oregon Mozart Players, Nevada Festival Ballet, Nevada Opera, Reno Chamber Orchestra, and the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra. He has appeared as a guest soloist with the Reno Chamber Orchestra, Reno Pops Orchestra, the Reno Percussion Ensemble, the Oregon Percussion Ensemble and various university orchestras.
Recently, Freeze was a featured multiple percussion soloist for the Oregon Bach Festival on their children’s concert series playing Gail Kubik’s Gerald McBoing-Boing and collaborated with contemporary piano duo Quattro Mani for the Music Today Festival in a new work by composer David Crumb. Last Spring Freeze premiered a prominent new Concerto for Wind Ensemble and Percussion Soloist titled, The Big Bang in Eugene Oregon. Freeze can be heard on Art of the States playing percussion on George Crumb’s An Idyll for the Misbegotten and as the marimba soloist with the Oregon Percussion Ensemble on the Soundspells Productions recording of Meyer Kupferman’s Percussion Symphony on the Orchestral Music of Meyer Kupferman Vol. 16, CD135.
Freeze is one of the founding members of the contemporary groups SchlagBlasse and the New Day Ensemble and is the artistic director of the 100th Monkey Ensemble in Eugene, Oregon. Dr. Freeze is an active clinician, giving master-classes, clinics and recitals in Mexico and the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Education from the University of Nevada at Reno, two Master Degrees from the University of Oregon in the areas of Percussion Performance and Instrumental Conducting, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Oregon under the tutelage of Charles Dowd and Robert Ponto. Dr. Freeze is currently the Professor of Percussion Studies at Emporia State University. Learn more.
Guitar:
Steve Knight
Singing:
Dr. Penelope Speedie
Children/Kindermusik
Sara Coltrane is an Emporia State University graduate with a degree in Music Education and two years teaching experience in a K-6 elementary music classroom. She is the mother of two preschoolers, Clara and Noah. Her Kindermusik certification was completed in the fall of 2008. Learn more.
