Guest Flutist and Oboist to Perform Feb. 24

Two guest musicians from Oklahoma State University will present a free recital at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, in Kemp Recital Hall at Illinois State University, followed by master classes with each guest artist.

Flutist Conor Nelson and oboist Celeste Johnson will perform several pieces of music for about 45 minutes.  Then Nelson will lead a flute master class from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m. in the Center for the Performing Arts and Johnson will lead an oboe master class during the same time in Kemp Recital Hall.

Admission to the recital and master classes is free and open to the public.

Nelson, who just joined the Oklahoma State faculty, this year was the first wind player to win the grand prize at the WAMSO Young Artist Competition.  As part of his winning, Nelson will perform as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra in 2009.  His debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall followed in 2002 and was praised as “nothing short of spectacular” by the New York Concert Review. He has appeared as soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, the Yale and Manhattan Philharmonias, the Stony Brook Symphony, the Oshawa-Durham Symphony Orchestra, the Brevard Repertory Orchestra, the Festival Wind Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra and at the Banff Centre.

Nelson earned his master of music degree from the Yale School of Music, where he was recipient of the Thomas Nyfenger prize and winner of the Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition. He recently received the doctor of musical arts degree from Stony Brook University, where he was winner of the concerto competition and instructed the undergraduate flute studio.

           

Celeste Johnson is a bachelor’s degree graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and holds a master of music degree in performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music.  In Oklahoma, Ms. Johnson regularly performs with ensembles such as the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Tulsa Opera and the Signature Symphony.  Other orchestra engagements have included the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony, the Quad Cities Symphony and Sinfonia da Camera. She has also performed as guest principal oboist with the Russian String Orchestra and served as Principal Oboe for the New York String Orchestra with performances in Carnegie Hall.

           

Johnson has been a finalist for numerous national and international competitions, and was a semi-finalist in the prestigious Concert Artists Guild International Competition in 2005.  Twice she was a finalist in the Fernand Gillet/Hugo Fox International Oboe Competition.  She also won the University of Illinois Concerto Competition in 2002.