Vlog

Brenton F. Alston
Visiting Instructor of Symphonic Conducting- Conductor of the FIU Wind Ensemble
At FIU, Dr. Alston conducts the FIU Wind Ensemble and Chamber Winds in addition to teaching Private Graduate Conducting Lessons, Basic Undergraduate Conducting and Symphonic Literature courses.
Prior to coming to FIU Alston served as Director of Instrumental Music and Conductor of the Wind Ensemble at the famed New World School of the Arts High School (Miami, Florida) as well as Visiting Director of Bands at Radford University (Radford, Virginia).
Dr. Alston has been conferred with the Doctorate of Musical Arts and Advanced Artist Diploma in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Miami- Frost School of Music (Coral Gables, Florida), Master of Arts in Music with a concentration in Conducting from Radford University (Radford, Virginia) and Bachelor of Arts in Music with concentrations in Music Education and Performance from Catawba College (Salisbury, North Carolina).
Dr. Alston retains memberships in the Conductors’ Guild, College Band Directors National Association and Pi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Award winning musician Nick Finzer is a jazz trombonist and composer whose musical prowess is firmly planted with one foot in the past and another leading to the future. In January of 2013 Nick released his recording debut as a bandleader “Exposition” on his new label Outside in Music. “Exposition” presents Finzer’s unique musical lens, featuring ten original compositions that draw on the multifaceted influences that have shaped his musical development.

The onset of Nick’s love for jazz came through an exploration of Duke Ellington’s music during his high school years. Tunes like “Harlem Airshaft” and “In a Sentimental Mood” started him on an irreversible musical journey. These experiences culminated in a performance of Elllington’s music as part of the Essentially Ellington Festival hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center, which ignited Nick’s ambition to move to New York City to play music.

During this time Finzer also came under the tutelage of former Jazz at Lincoln Center Trombonist, Wycliffe Gordon. This relationship developed into a four year commission project in which Gordon wrote four pieces to feature Nick during his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music. While studying at Eastman, Nick was able to play with many musicians who came through Rochester, New York including engagements with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Walt Weiskopf, John Clayton and Slide Hampton.

Since moving to New York City in 2010, Finzer has completed a Masters Degree from The Juilliard School, shared the stage with the likes of Frank Wess at Dizzy’s Club, Lew Tabackin and Terrell Stafford at The Blue Note, and continues to lead his own bands both around the city and across the country. While at Juilliard Nick had the opportunity to work with many mentors including Frank Kimbrough, Carl Allen, Ray Drummond, and studied under jazz trombone innovator, Steve Turre.

Nick was selected as a finalist in the 2010 International Trombone Association’s Carl Fontana Jazz Trombone Competition and in 2011 was the winner of the Eastern Trombone Workshop National Jazz Trombone Competition, where he performed alongside Jim Pugh, Bill Reichenbach, and Steve Wiest.

Finzer is also a committed educator. In 2012 Nick’s new Non Profit, the Institute for Creative Music won a “Great Classrooms” grant award from the Plum Creek Foundation. Nick currently serves as Co-Artistic Director for the Institute for Creative Music, which is dedicated to the education and dissemination of jazz and creative music across the nation. Since IfCM’s founding in 2011 Nick has lead workshops, masterclasses, and residencies spanning from coast to coast.

Independently, Nick has worked with students from the Eastman School of Music, Penn State, Ithaca College, Gonzaga University, and Eastern Washington University, to name a few. He has also served on the faculty of the Eastman Summer Jazz Camp, and Juilliard Jazz Summer Camps in West Palm Beach, Florida and Ephraim, Utah.

Nick continues to perform, compose, and teach around New York City while maintaining an active touring schedule, and formulating new projects. Finzer is determined to continually develop his artistry from the lineage of the music, while being honest to his musical voice and personality.

"Yet another wonderful example of the tremendous versatility of the cello in the right hands, which Natalie Spehar’s clearly are." - Susan Scheid, Prufrock's Dilemma 

An accomplished classical, rock, and folk cellist, Natalie has performed as a member of several ensembles, including most recently the Great Noise Ensemble, Écouter, the Low End String Quartet and the Washington, D.C. based cello rock ensemble, Primitivity. With a strong interest in contemporary music, Natalie has enjoyed mastering and premiering new and experimental works for cello, including several recent projects with live electronics and tape. 

Natalie has performed as a soloist with Graham Reynolds in The Kennedy Center’s presentation of The Difference Engine, with the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and University of Maryland Percussion Ensembles, and with the Canton Symphony Orchestra, and has presented world premiere performances in venues including Ravinia, Severance Hall, and the National Gallery of Art. She has also been awarded several scholarships, among them a USA Projects grant, the Canton MacDowell Club Scholarship and the Howard Hanson Scholarship toward her studies at the Eastman School of Music. In the summer of 2009, Natalie was one of five American performers selected to participate in Northeastern University’s Fusion Arts Exchange, a program and concert tour funded by the U.S. Department of State that featured young musicians from six countries, and in 2011-12 she participated in the inaugural New Music on the Point contemporary music festival as well as the inaugural Fresh Inc. Festival led by Chicago’s esteemed Fifth House Ensemble. An enthusiastic presenter of new music, Natalie has premiered new cello works by composers Tomek Regulski, Finola Merivale, Orie Sato, Keane Southard, Andrew Watts, famed Syrian recording artist Malek Jandali, and her 2011-12 season featured her in premieres of works by renowned composers Zoe Keating, Sarah Lipstate, Cornelius Dufallo and Hannah Lash. Natalie also recorded an original soundtrack for the television documentary Through the Eye of the Needle, as well as composed and recorded the solo cello original soundtrack for the award-winning animated film Test Anxiety.
 
Natalie holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance as well as a Certificate in Arts Leadership from Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Alan Harris. An avid supporter of music outreach, Natalie has recently served as an Arts & Learning Intern for Young Audiences, Inc., an educator with Music For Life, and a performing member of the MacDowell Music Club, all national organizations dedicated to encouraging and providing community music education. She currently resides in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and looks forward to the upcoming season, in which she will present several solo cello premieres in the Washington, D.C., Ohio, and New York City areas, as well as record her solo debut CD.

Mr. Huyge is an accomplished musician as a violist, violinist, and singer. He holds a bachelors degree in music performance from the University of Michigan where he studied viola with Yizhak Schotten, and voice with Carmen Pelton and Stephen West. Further studies ensued at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied viola with George Taylor and Peter Slowik, and voice with David O’Donnell, and received a masters degree in performance and literature in the spring of 2011.

Mr. Huyge holds position with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Glens Falls Symphony, Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, and the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, where he is the Principal Violist. He is constantly engaged in chamber and solo recitals, including his one year appointment as violist of the Rochester based string quintet Gibbs & Main. He has sung with the University of Rochester YellowJackets, and small ensembles at various venues, and has played in masterclasses and coachings with such artists as Simon Carrington, Susan Dubois, Edward Parmentier, Carol Rodland, Andrew Jennings, the Takacs Quartet, members of the Ying Quartet, 8th Blackbird, and Time for Three.

An enthusiast of education, Mr. Huyge maintained a private teaching studio since 2008. Additionally, he has been involved with the Eastman Community School, and Eastman’s Public School #17 after-school lesson program. He has received his Suzuki certification for violin and viola through Book One from the Ithaca College Teacher Training Institute, and is currently employed as an Artist-in-Residence at Hartwick College.