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Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble
2007/2008 Musicians

Rachael Elliott - bassoon

Rachael Elliott started on the bassoon in high school studying with Janet Polk and playing in the Vermont Youth Orchestra. She then studied with Frank Morelli at Manhattan School of Music (B.M.) and Yale University (M.M.). After a stint in New York, she is now happily back in Vermont, where she performs with Heliand Trio and VCME. Rachael also performs with Clogs, a contemporary & rock-influenced group that has toured throughout the US, Europe and Australia and released four albums. In 2006 she founded the Burlington Bassoon Project, an annual project of performances and masterclasses geared for bassoonists of all ages. She currently teaches at the University of Vermont, Middlebury College and Kinhaven Music School.

Paula Ennis - piano

Paula Ennis, pianist, holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University where she was a graduate teaching assistant to Menahem Pressler. A very active performer in Vermont, she has performed solo and chamber music throughout Europe and the U.S. After study in Koln, Germany, on a Fulbright Grant, she taught on the music faculties of SUNY at Albany, NY; Williams College, MA; Lawrenceville School, NJ; and Johnson State College, VT. Her recordings of solo and chamber music appear on Grand Prix, Musical Heritage Society, and Coronet Recording labels. The New York Times has characterized her playing as "versatile and highly communicative."

Berta Frank - flutes

Berta Frank is a native of New York City who holds a degree from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA from Columbia University. Ms. Frank has been a soloist in both Alice Tully and Carnegie Recital Halls. She moved to Vermont in 1992, where she has played with the Bach Wind Philharmonia, The Champlain Flute Quartet, and the Celtic music ensemble, Sheefra. A faculty member of Johnson State College, she runs an active music studio and is the director and founder of The Vermont Flute Camp.

Bonnie Thurber Klimowski - cello

Bonnie Thurber Klimowski, cellist, is a graduate of the University of Vermont and also holds a Master of Music degree in Cello Performance from Kent State University in Ohio. She performed with the Mexican State Orchestra for three years and is presently a member of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Polacca String Trio, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Klimowski Chamber Music Ensemble. Bonnie enjoys folk music and is featured on three of Jon Gailmor's albums. She also tours with the VSO string trio, "Fiddlesticks", presenting programs for children.

Steven Klimowski - clarinetist/founder and artistic director

Steven Klimowski played for three years with the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra and continues to concertize in a solo and chamber music capacity, premiering several works for solo clarinet. In addition to his solo career, he is a member of Raising Cane, the woodwind trio of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. He is founder and director of the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble and teaches clarinet and saxophone at the University of Vermont and St. Michael's College. In 1987 and again in 1990 Mr. Klimowski was honored with an individual artist's fellowship and in 2002 he was awarded a citation of merit from the Vermont Arts Council.

Thomas L. Read – Composer & Violinist

Thomas L. Read, composer and violinist, was born in 1938 in Erie, Pennsylvania. He studied violin and conducting at the Oberlin, New England, Marzarteum and Peabody Conservatories with such noted musicians as Andor Toth, Richard Burgin, Daniel Majeske, Leon Fleisher, Benjamin Lees, F. Judd Cooke and Bernhard Paumgartner. As a violinist he has been a member of the Erie Philharmonic, The Baltimore Symphony, the Boston Symphony and the Saratoga Festival of Baroque Music. He is Professor of Music at the University of Vermont and continues to appear as violin soloist, conductor and clinician. Dr. Read has composed music for small ensembles, full orchestra, solo voice, chorus and musical theater. His work is published by C.F. Peters Corp., Tunbridge Music and the American Composers Alliance. Recently, Alcyone, and hour-long melodrama for narrator, chorus, accordion, marimbas, steel drums and synthesizer, written in collaboration with the noted author F. D. Reeve, enjoyed a successful premiere in London at the Barbican Centre as bart of that organization's "Inventing America" Festival. The American premiere of this very dramatic work was given in November, using abridged instrumentation, in 1998, at Harvard's Yenching Library. A full-scale performance is set for October, 2001, at Wesleyan University. http://thomaslread.com/

Annemieke Spoelstra - piano

Annemieke Spoelstra earned her Master degrees in piano performance in the Netherlands, where she studied with Rudy de Heus and Tan Crone, as soloist as well as in chamber music and in Art song accompaniment. Other teachers have included Benjamin Rawitz, Peter Serkin, Roger Vignoles.

She has won competitions where she was praised for her 'coloring touch and outstanding programming'.

Ms. Spoesltra moved to Burlington Vermont in 2004. She teaches at St. Michael's College and is staff accompanist at the Boston conservatory. She performs as a soloist and with several chamber music groups.
www.annemiekespoelstra.com