Smoky Mountain Flute Invitational

Described as "ferociously talented" (The Oregonian) and "an exemplary performer" (Steve Smith, the Log Journal), Grammy-Award winning flutist Molly Alicia Barth specializes in the music of today. In demand as a soloist, Molly has recently performed in Australia, Korea, and Mexico and has played solo recitals and led clinics at esteemed institutions including the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Cincinnati Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory, and Northwestern University Bienen School of Music.

Contemporary chamber music is Molly’s primary musical interest, and she is currently involved with three ensembles. Formed by Molly Barth and guitarist Dieter Hennings, Duo Damiana is focused on broadening the cutting-edge body of repertoire for flute and guitar. As co-founder of the Beta Collide New Music Project, Molly has collaborated with individuals from a broad spectrum of disciplines such as dance, art, sound sculpture, and theoretical physics. With Beta Collide, she has recorded two CDs and one DVD with Innova Records. Molly is the associate professor of flute at the University of Oregon, where she is a member of the Oregon Wind Quintet. The Oregon Wind Quintet, which regularly tours throughout the Pacific Northwest, performs a large body of contemporary music along with standard wind quintet repertoire.

As a founding member of the new music sextet eighth blackbird from 1996-2006, Molly won the 2007 “Best Chamber Music Performance” Grammy Award, recorded four CDs with Cedille Records, and was granted the 2000 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and first prize at the 1998 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

Before assuming her teaching position at the University of Oregon, Molly taught at Willamette University and held residencies at the University of Chicago and at the University of Richmond. She is a graduate of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and Northwestern University School of Music. Molly’s principal teachers include Michel Debost, Kathleen Chastain, Randolph Bowman, Bradley Garner, and Walfrid Kujala. In addition to frequent solo and master class appearances worldwide, Molly’s adjudication experience includes work with the National Endowment for the Arts, Australian Flute Festival, National Flute Association (USA), and the Alpert Award in the Arts (Los Angeles). She has commissioned scores of solo and chamber works, and has appeared on television and radio shows nationwide. Molly plays a Burkart flute and piccolo, and a 1953 Haynes alto flute.

Shelley Binder joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee in 1994 and is currently Professor of Flute. Known for her “rich, colorful voice” and teaching excellence, Shelley is highly sought-after as a guest performer and clinician. She has appeared in recital, performed as an orchestral soloist, and presented classes throughout the United States. Shelley’s recently-developed workshop on “Romancing the Tone” has drawn much attention and praise at numerous flute festivals.

Dr. Binder attended North Carolina School of the Arts, the Cincinnati Conservatory, Virginia Commonwealth and Florida State University, where she earned her Doctor of Music degree. A student of Louis Moyse, She is working to complete his biography.

Dr. Binder is a Miyazawa Performing Artist.

Elizabeth Goode is professor of flute at Georgia’s Valdosta State University, where she also is music director for the VSU Flute Choir and Flute Quartet. A highly sought-after performer and teacher, her students have gone on to further music studies at the Boston Conservatory, Harid Conservatory, Boston University and the Florida State University, among others. Goode has also served on the faculties of Maryville College and the University of Tennessee.

In the summer of 2011, she joined the artist faculty of the prestigious Orfeo International Music Festival (formerly Schlern International Music Festival) in Vipiteno, Italy, as a performer and teacher.

A native of Sweetwater, Tennessee, Elizabeth Goode holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Tennessee, where she studied with John Meacham and Tyra Gilb. She also holds the Master of Music, Master of Musical Arts, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University, where she was a student of Thomas Nyfenger. She has also been a student of Samuel Baron and Judith Mendenhall, and has participated in master classes with Peter Lloyd, Keith Underwood, and Jeanne Baxstresser. Goode is proud to carry on the great teaching legacy of her primary teacher, Thomas Nyfenger, whose emphasis was on training great musicians, not merely great flutists.

She is currently Principal Flutist with the Valdosta (GA) Symphony Orchestra and the Albany (GA) Symphony. She was previously Principal Flutist with the Oak Ridge (TN) Symphony, and has also been a member of the Central Florida Symphony, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, Wallingford (CT) Symphony, and Orchestra New England.

She has appeared as a concerto soloist many times, including on Nielsen’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra with the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra (John Welsh, conductor) and the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra.  She has also been a concerto soloist on Charles Griffes’ Poem, Robert Beaser’s Song of the Bells, Hamilton Harty’s In Ireland, Howard Hanson’s Serenade for Flute and Orchestra, and, most recently, the complete Brandenburg Concertos with the Albany Symphony Orchestra.

An avid proponent of chamber music, Goode currently serves as flutist in the Scirocco Quartet, Exit 18 (a new music chamber group), and the Blazerquintet. She has participated in the Norfolk and the Tamworth Chamber Music Festivals, and was formerly a member of the Tennessee Woodwind Quintet, the Cypress Chamber Players, and the Yale Bach Aria Group.

Goode is a frequent adjudicator at various state and national competitions. She has also served as a clinician and performed at many state and national conventions, including those of the National Flute Association, Florida Flute Association, College Music Society, American Society of Composers, Music Educator’s National Conference, Atlanta Flute Club, and Raleigh Area Flute Association. She is also a frequent invited guest for master classes at colleges and universities throughout the United States. Her article, “Good Vibrations: A Practical Approach to Intonation,” was published in Flute Talk magazine, a division of The Instrumentalist.

In addition to her flute-related duties, Goode is also chair of the Music Theory area at Valdosta State University. She has taught Freshman and Sophomore Music Theory and Ear Training, and Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis (she studied Schenkerian analysis for two semesters with Allen Forte at Yale).

Hannah Hammel is the newly appointed principal flute of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. Hannah holds degrees from Rice University (MM 2017) and Oberlin Conservatory (BM 2015). An active solo flutist, she has won several competitions including the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition and Orchestral Excerpt Competition, and competitions of the Atlanta, Houston, Mid-South, and Ohio Flute Associations. As an orchestral flutist, Hannah has been a guest with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, and New World Symphony. She has attended summer festivals including Music Academy of the West, Pacific Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and Round Top Festival Institute. Hannah has extensive performance experience with contemporary music and historical performance on the one-keyed Baroque flute. She is also an avid teacher. Her major teachers include Leone Buyse and Alexa Still.

Originally from Maui, Hawaii, Micah Layne spent much of his musical life exploring various styles of performance. Micah has extensive experience as a freelance orchestral flutist including the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville Wind Symphony, Oak Ridge Symphony and Symphony of the Mountains. Respected as a leader in advocating alternative teaching methods, Micah Layne is regarded as one of the talented young educators of his generation. He specializes in practice methods and training young flutists utilizing new technologies.

As an artist who fervently believes in the value of music education, Micah has devoted much of his time to teaching as a flute instructor with Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. Through Gustavo Dudamel's Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program – inspired by Venezuela's revolutionary El Sistema – the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its community partners provide free instruments, intensive music training, and academic support to students from underserved neighborhoods, enabling every child to contribute using their full potential.

In 2013, Micah joined the Boyle Heights Community Youth Orchestra as conductor and teacher to foster a true musical outlet for the community. Micah is honored to be teaching children in the Boyle Heights Community Youth Orchestra who would not otherwise be able to afford music lessons. As someone who also grew up without much money, his determination and hard work in music has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the students he reaches. He not only teaches all of the wind instrument students, but he arranges the music and conducts the orchestra with infectious enthusiasm.

Micah was recipient of the graduate teaching assistantship at the University of Tennessee. He won the 2009-10 University of Tennessee Concerto Competition and second place in the 2010 Hampton Roads Flute Competition in Norfolk, Virginia.

Micah has participated in master classes with some of the world’s leading flutists including Eva Amsler, Jeanne Baxtresser, William Bennett, Tadeu Coelho, Marco Granados, Amy Porter, Thomas Robertello, Jim Walker, and Laurel Zucker.

Micah Layne has studied with Shelley Binder at the University of Tennessee School of Music, with John Barcellona at California State University Long Beach Cole Conservatory of Music in Long Beach, California, and privately with Susan Stockhammer formerly of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Flutist Ethan Lin-Schwartz has performed and toured throughout Taiwan, China, and the United States. Raised in Southern California, Lin is one of the most visible musicians in the Los Angeles arts community. Ethan has performed with the prestigious Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Palm Springs Opera Guild, American Youth Symphony, and many other orchestras. He received his Bachelor of Arts from UCLA and Masters in Music from USC, both with an emphasis on flute performances. His primary teachers were Jim Walker, Sheridan Stokes, and Cathy Ransom Karoly.

In addition to performing, Ethan teaches privately and works full time as the flute and piccolo specialist and direct sales representative at the world-renowned Burkart Flutes and Piccolos. He currently lives in Bolton, Massachusetts, with his husband Mark and pup Teddy.

Leonard Eli Lopatin, a native of New York City, studied flute performance with Harold Bennett at the Manhattan School of Music and then with Arthur Lora at the Juilliard School. After earning his Bachelor of Music from Juilliard in 1976, he was appointed to the position of third flute and piccolo in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, which he held for three years. Because of his growing interest in flute making, he left the opera in 1979 to work for Brannen Brothers, Flute makers. He established himself as a fully independent flute maker in 1994. As a freelance flutist in the Boston area, he performed with the Boston Symphony and Pops Orchestras, the Opera Company of Boston, the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, as well as in solo and chamber settings. After moving to Asheville, North Carolina, he performed with the Asheville Lyric Opera, Asheville Choral Society, Knoxville Symphony, and the Spartanburg Philharmonic, among others. Lopatin is currently second flute with the Asheville Symphony and principal flute with the Land o' the Sky Symphonic Band.

Alex Xeros is a native of Oregon and graduate of Willamette University. He was principal flute of the Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra in La Grande, OR during their 2013-14 season. He has been concerto soloist with the Salem Chamber Orchestra in Salem, OR, principal flute of the Willamette University Chamber Orchestra and assistant principal flute of the Salem Chamber Orchestra. Alex now resides in Charlotte, NC and works at J.L. Smith & Co. where he enjoys pairing fellow musicians with exceptional instruments. He also teaches privately and freelances in the Charlotte area.