Faculty Chamber Recital: Blaney, Cassin, Munce, Goforth, Garcia

Faculty artists Michael Blaney, violin; Jennifer Cassin, viola; Molly Goforth, cello; Lucas Munce, clarinet; and Susanna Garcia, piano perform a recital of trios.

The program includes Mozart’s Trio in E-flat, ‘Kegelstatt,’ for clarinet, viola and piano; Chick Corea’s ‘Addendum’ for violin, cello and piano; and Bartók’s ‘Contrasts’ for violin, clarinet and piano.

Performer Bios

Michael Blaney is the current Director of Orchestral Activities, Conductor of the UL Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, and Instructor of Violin at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Peabody Conservatory and two Master of Music degrees from the University of Michigan. Mr. Blaney has given solo violin recitals throughout the U.S. and soloed with several orchestras including the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Acadiana Symphony Orchestra. His summer activities include teaching at Blue Lake Fine Art’s Camp in Michigan and performing violin with the Britt Music Festival in Oregon and Colorado Music Festival. He was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra from 1993–96 and has performed with the Acadiana Symphony since 1996.

This year marks his 22nd year conducting the UL Symphony. Annual concert highlights include a Halloween Concert, Students Soloists Concert, and "String Day Performance” where high school students from around the state perform with the ensemble. The UL Symphony also performs for many collaborative projects including opera, dance, and with guest artists. Recent guest soloists include Project Trio, The Turtle Island Quartet, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, and Beau Soleil.

Jennifer Cassin, has performed and recorded numerous chamber works on the Centaur label. A graduate of Louisiana State University, where she studied with Jerzy Kosmala, Ms. Cassin has also studied with Kathie Jarrett, John Di Janni, Wayne Crouse and Phil Rose. Ms. Cassin has enjoyed an extensive career performing with chamber groups and orchestras, including the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Louisiana Sinfonietta, the Acadiana Symphony, the Valcour String Quartet and the Capital Chamber Players. While maintaining a large private studio, including many students who have received national recognition through competitions and music festivals, she has taught viola at ULL since 2000, is the director of the string orchestra program at the Runnels School in Baton Rouge and conducts the Louisiana Junior Youth Orchestra. Ms. Cassin is the co-founder of the Campanile Chamber Music Festival - a music camp for dedicated young musicians.

Molly Goforth is a cellist and music educator based in Lafayette, Louisiana. She is the principal cellist of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra and the Lake Charles Symphony. She also a member of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra and Magnolia Strings. In addition to performing in these ensembles, Molly regularly appears in solo and chamber music recitals. She maintains a studio of private cello students and teaches string orchestra at Lafayette High. Before coming to Louisiana, she taught for several years through the nationally-recognized Scrollworks program in Birmingham, AL as well as at the Birch Creek Fine Arts Center in Door County, WI. Recent professional engagements include a performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the City Club in Baton Rouge, a Louisiana premier of Bradley Ellingboe’s Requiem in New Orleans, and a performance on the premier recording of Kurt Westerburg’s Vision and Prayer. Molly received her Master’s degree in cello performance from DePaul University in Chicago and her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville. Her teachers have included Stephen Balderston, Alan Harris, Darrett Adkins, Craig Hultgren, and Paul York.

Susanna Garcia is a professor of piano at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where she teaches piano, piano pedagogy and lectures in the interdisciplinary humanities program. Garcia has performed concerts across the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Italy, and Ghana. Concert reviews praise her “impressive technical skills and musical communication in performance” and her “remarkable critical insights into music.” In 1998, Garcia, along with pianist William Chapman Nyaho, released the first complete recording of Aaron Copland’s two-piano works on Centaur Records. Their recording has been called “the standard against which any future performances of these dances will be measured.” Dr. Garcia holds the Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and the Bachelor of Music from Texas A&M at Corpus Christi, Texas. She is Professor of Music at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she has taught since 1990. Dr. Garcia holds the Ruth Stodghill Girard Endowed Professorship in Music and in 2001 was named a University of Louisiana Distinguished Professor. In 2012, she was honored as a Foundation Fellow by the Music Teachers National Association, and in 2013 received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the Louisiana Music Teachers Association. In 2015, she was recognized by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, receiving the “Research Excellence Award” for the College of the Arts.

Lucas Munce is a native of Manhattan, Kansas, and is currently Assistant Professor of Clarinet and Jazz Saxophone at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. As a prior member of the United States Air Force, he has given nearly a decade to military service as lead alto saxophonist in both the USAF Academy Falconaires, and the prestigious Airmen of Note in Washington D.C. He has toured extensively in the United States and Europe, both performing and conducting master classes. In 2011, he received the DownBeat Magazine Award for Graduate College Outstanding Performance by a Jazz Soloist. Lucas has studied clarinet with Professor Daniel Silver at the University of Colorado, and the late Ed Cabarga of the National Symphony. He holds Masters Degrees in Clarinet Performance and Jazz Performance & Pedagogy from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2016 he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Woodwind Performance and Pedagogy from CU Boulder.