JONATHAN HELTON www.jonathanhelton.com
Jonathan Helton is Professor of Saxophone at the School of Music of
the University of Florida. As a concert saxophonist he has been heard in
performance throughout the United States, Canada, in Europe and the Far
East, appearing with orchestras and wind ensembles, in recital, and in
numerous chamber concerts. He has performed in Chicago, Montreal, Paris,
Bordeaux, Marseille, London, Bogota, Mendoza, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Brasilia, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Tokyo,
Singapore, Bangkok, Taipei, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Washington,
D.C., Chicago, Miami, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and New York City's
Lincoln Center. His performance credits include concerto appearances
with the New Philharmonia of Riverside in New York City, Winston-Salem
(NC) Symphony, the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the
Iowa Center for New Music Ensemble, the United States Navy Band, and the
Twelfth and Fifteenth World Saxophone Congress Wind Orchestras.
In recent years, Helton has been selected to present concertos and
featured lectures at many of the most prestigious international
conferences and festivals. He has performed concertos at the World
Saxophone Congresses in Bangkok and Montreal, the World Association of
Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) conference in Singapore, the North
American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conferences in Iowa City and
Athens, and at the 33rd US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium
in Washington, DC. He appeared as a featured lecturer/clinician at the
Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago and for the National
Conference of the College Music Society in Miami.
Dr. Helton has performed at the New Music Chicago Spring Festival and
has been a resident artist at the Music for the Inner City festival in
Washington, DC. He has appeared in concerts sponsored by the Chicago
Composers' Consortium, the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber
Players, the Wisconsin Alliance of Composers, and the Society of
Composers Incorporated. In addition, his performances have been heard on
North Carolina Public Radio, on WFMT in Chicago, in Israel, and in
national syndication. He is featured in solo and chamber music
performances on compact discs from Centaur, Navona, Elf, Innova, and Mark
Records. His recording of the Dahl Concerto was a "Top 100"
Grammy-nominated album.
His orchestral experience includes performances with the Lyric Opera of
Chicago, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony
Orchestra, the Grant Park Symphony, the Lake Forest Symphony, the
Charleston Symphony, the Savannah Symphony Orchestra, the Northwest
Indiana Symphony Orchestra, the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Civic
Orchestra of Chicago, and the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.
Helton is a past President of the North American Saxophone Alliance. He
served on the Editorial Board for The Saxophone Symposium for over 20 years. He has served
as Membership Director, Director of Scholarly Publications, and
Listserv Manager for the North American Saxophone Alliance and as
Illinois State Chair for the Music Teachers' National Association
Collegiate Artists Performance Competitions and the MTNA Collegiate
Chamber Music Performance Competition. He has also served as a member of
the Governing Board of the Illinois State Music Teachers' Association.
His analytical articles and music and book reviews have appeared in The
Saxophone Symposium, Saxophone Journal, and the National Association of
College Wind and Percussion Instructors Journal.
Dr. Helton received his Bachelor of Music degree from the North Carolina
School of the Arts and earned the Master of Music and Doctor of Music
degrees from Northwestern University. Helton's principal teachers
included Frederick Hemke and James Houlik. As a two-time recipient of
the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, he spent two years in France where
he studied with Daniel Deffayet, professor at the Conservatoire
National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, and with Jean-Marie Londeix,
professor at the Conservatoire National de Région de Bordeaux.
He developed and presented over 300 performances, demonstrations, master
classes and lectures to diverse audiences during a two-year residency
with the North Carolina Arts Council's Visiting Artist Program. From
1992 to 1999, he served on the faculty at Northwestern University
teaching saxophone and chamber music, and held an administrative
appointment as Coordinator of the Wind and Percussion Program. Dr.
Helton joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 1999.
Dr. Helton is an Artist/Clinician for Conn-Selmer, Inc. and for Henri Selmer, Paris, France.
STEVEN THOMAS
Steven Thomas was appointed to the University of Florida's School of
Music in 2007, following a 13-year tenure at the Hartt School, where he
had chaired both the String and Chamber Music departments.
Dr. Thomas brings to the University of Florida an unusually vast wealth
of performing experience, having appeared as soloist and recitalist,
orchestral and chamber musician and conductor on four continents. His
repertoire includes classical and non-classical music from Baroque to
newly-commissioned works, as well as Broadway shows and popular music.
Whether playing a Bach suite, conducting a Beethoven symphony, or
narrating his own version of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale, his
performances are consistently described as having "...everything to do
with art." (The Birmingham News)
A top prize-winner in the Villa-Lobos (Rio) and Bach (Washington)
International Cello Competitions, as well as the Hudson Valley and
Charleston Competitions, Dr. Thomas has appeared as soloist with
orchestras in North and South America and throughout Europe. As a member
of the Cantilena Piano Quartet, he toured and performed in most of the
major concert halls of Europe and the U.S. He has performed as
recitalist and chamber musician at festivals such as Windsor (England),
Gstaad (Switzerland), the Israel Festival (Jerusalem), Prague, Tivoli
(Denmark), Itu and Fortaleza (Brazil). As a chamber musician, he has
collaborated with such renowned artists as Yehudi Menuhin, Erick
Friedman, Donald MacInnes, Jesse Levine, Joseph Robinson, David Shifrin,
Peter Frankl, Boris Berman and the Miami String Quartet.
Steven Thomas has served as the Principal Cellist of several symphony
and chamber orchestras, including the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and
Orchestra New England, and has given over 1,500 concerts in that role in
the last 25 years. He is also the Music Director and conductor of the
Saybrook Orchestra at Yale University.
Having received his early training at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin
School in England, Dr. Thomas was a student of Maurice Gendron and
William Pleeth. He holds degrees from Cambridge and Yale Universities,
including a Doctorate from the latter, where he studied with Aldo
Parisot. He also earned a Performer's Diploma from the Royal College of
Music (London) at the age of 17.
As a result of his extensive solo, chamber music and orchestral
background, Steven Thomas is widely regarded as one of the foremost
teacher-pedagogues and chamber music coaches of his generation, and is
regularly sought-after for classes in orchestral audition preparation.
He has also enjoyed a long relationship with underpriviledged students
in many parts of Brazil.
He has recorded for the MVL, Point, Delos, Koch International and MMO labels.
"Steven Thomas' [...] command of the score was admirable in every way
[...] painting sound-pictures in delicious detail..." (New Haven
Advocate)
"...sensational..." (Jornal do Brasil)
DOWNlOAD
Download a pdf document with short and long biographies: Helton-Thomas Bios