The
Blue Mountain Ensemble is based in central North Carolina
and brings together very familiar faces to classical music
audiences of this region and beyond. The ensemble performs
engaging repertoire from many style periods written for
this combination of flute, bassoon, and piano, but also
seeks existing repertoire that adapts well to the ensemble
along with newly commissioned works. The name of the
ensemble is taken from exceptionally beautiful and diverse
natural areas in Florida, Australia, and North Carolina
that hold special significance for the members, with each
of these places carrying the name Blue Mountain.
Programming by the group mirrors the diverse environments
of these areas ranging from serene, young, old, laid-back
and joyful, to rugged and intense.
Michael
Burns, bassoon, is Associate Professor of
Bassoon for the UNC-Greensboro School of Music and a Yamaha
Performing Artist. He holds the BM degree from the Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand, the MM from the New
England Conservatory, and the DMA from the University of
Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has performed
in numerous professional orchestras including the
Cincinnati and New Zealand Symphonies and played Principal
in the Midland/Odessa, Richmond and Abilene Symphonies and
the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Currently Burns plays
principal with the Asheville Symphony, North Carolina
Ballet and the Opera Company of North Carolina as well as
performing frequently with the North Carolina and
Greensboro Symphony Orchestras. Prior to UNCG he taught at
the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, Indiana State
University, and Midland College. He remains active as a
solo and chamber performer with numerous recitals and
master classes throughout North America, Germany and the
South Pacific, as a solo bassoonist and in the EastWind
Ensemble, the Blue Mountain Ensemble, and the Cascade
Quintet. Burns has recorded for the Centaur, CAP, Telarc,
EMI, Klavier, and Mark labels and is a Yamaha Performing
Artist. He is also an active composer with many of his
pieces being published by TrevCo Music and frequently
performed throughout the US. www.michaelburnsbasson.com
Carla
Copeland-Burns, flute, currently enjoys an active
freelancing career with several ensembles including the
North Carolina Symphony, the Opera Company of North
Carolina, and the Carolina Ballet among others. Burns
serves as Piccoloist for the Greensboro Symphony
Orchestra, Principal Flute in the Salisbury Symphony,
and in the ongoing chamber groups Blue Mountain
Ensemble, Radford University Faculty Chamber Players,
and the Cascade Wind Quintet, a North Carolina Arts
Council Touring Roster Ensemble. A dedicated teacher,
Burns has served on an adjunct basis at Indiana State
University, the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro, Mars Hill College, and served with the New
England Music Camp faculty for six years. She currently
teaches flute at Radford University in Virginia and
coaches chamber music at the Chapel Hill Chamber Music
Workshop. Prior to moving to North Carolina, Burns
maintained an active recital schedule, as a teacher and
guest artist on flute and baroque flute, while based in
the Boston and Cincinnati areas. Following her time in
Cincinnati she became the Principal Flute for the
Midland-Odessa Symphony in Texas and then relocated to
the Greensboro, NC, area in fall 1994. Burns holds a
Bachelor of Music with Honors degree from the Florida
State University and the Master of Music in Flute
Performance from the New England Conservatory. Her
teachers include Charles Delaney, Lois Schaefer, Carol
Wincenc, Nadine Asin, Jack Wellbaum and Stephen
Preston. www.carlacopelandburns.com
Elizabeth
Tomlin, piano, is an active piano soloist,
chamber musician and new music advocate. Notable solo
performances include the Irving S. Gilmore International
Keyboard Festival, the Dudley Profiles Series at Harvard
University, and solos with orchestras in Illinois, Indiana
and North Carolina. In demand as a collaborative pianist,
she performs regularly throughout the Triangle area with
local and visiting artists, including appearances with
North Carolina Symphony artists, visiting New York
Philharmonic artists, Mallarme Chamber Players, Durham
Choral Society, and the Carolina Wind Quintet. She has been
a chamber coach at the UNC Chamber Workshop, American
String Workshop, and Depauw University, and was the
coordinator of the piano accompanying programs at Indiana
University and the Harid Conservatory of Music. Elizabeth
often premieres works by established and emerging composers
such as T.J. Anderson, Derek Bermel, Benjamin Crawford,
Jennifer Fitzgerald, and John Bower. She holds a Doctor of
Music from Indiana University, a Masters of Music from the
University of Michigan and a Bachelors of Music from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Principal
teachers include Edward Auer, Louis Nagel and Duke Miles,
and she has worked in master classes with Murray Perahia,
Michael Tilson Thomas, Robert Levin and John Perry.
Previously on the music faculties of the Harid Conservatory
of Music and the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, she joined the Duke University music department in
2005 and the Blue Mountain Ensemble in 2008.