Department of Music presents flutist Tabatha Easley
Virginia Tech Department of Music presents Tabatha Easley in a guest artist recital Sunday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. in the Squires Recital Salon located in the Squires Student Center on the Virginia Tech campus adjacent to downtown Blacksburg on College Avenue.
Easley will perform with Virginia Tech pianist Tracy Cowden. The program will include C.P.E. Bach’s Sonata’ in G Major, Paul Hindemith’s Sonata, Béla Bartok’s Hungarian Peasant Suite, and Joseph Schwantner’s Black Anemones.
Easley is the newly appointed Instructor of Flute at Virginia Commonwealth University and was previously on the faculties of Franklin & Marshall, the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, Nazareth College and the University of Virginia. Easley currently substitutes with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra and freelances in the greater Richmond area.
She has also served as principal flutist of the Charlottesville Symphony, substituted regularly with the Buffalo Philharmonic and Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, and was also a member of the Fairbanks Symphony and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra in Alaska.
Active in the National Flute Association, Easley was a 2006 winner in the Convention Performers Competition and has performed with the Professional Flute Choir at multiple conferences. Her summer activities have included the Skaneateles Chamber Festival, principal flutist of the Ash Lawn Opera Festival Orchestra, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, and four summers at the Aspen Music Festival, two of which were as a Fellowship recipient in David Zinman’s American Academy of Conducting Orchestra.
Easley holds a degree from the Eastman School of Music (D.M.A.), where she was the first Alaskan to graduate with the Eastman doctoral degree.
Other degrees include a master’s from California State University at Long Beach and a bachelor’s from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her former teachers include Bonita Boyd, Michael Parloff, John Barcellona, and Dorli McWayne.
Tracy Cowden joined the Department of Music faculty at Virginia Tech as assistant professor of piano and vocal coach in 2004. She received doctorate and master’s degrees in piano accompanying and chamber music from the Eastman School of Music, and a bachelor’s in piano performance from Western Michigan University.
As a collaborative pianist, Cowden has performed with the Cavani Quartet, the Audubon Quartet, the Carpe Diem String Quartet, and the Marble Cliff Chamber Players, and in recitals with principal musicians from the Montreal, Vancouver, Boston, and Columbus symphony orchestras.
She has been featured as a concerto soloist with the Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Southwest Virginia, the Ohio Wesleyan University Chamber Orchestra, and the Virginia Tech Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
Tickets are $5 for general admission and $3 for seniors and students and will be available at the door one hour prior to performance time. Convenient, free parking is available in nearby Squires and Shultz Dining Hall parking lots.
