Zephyr Winds will perform at the Gabriola United Church on Saturday July 11th at 7:30 pm.

Zephyr Winds is a woodwind trio consisting of Lisa McCarthy (flute), Jennifer Weeks (oboe) and Pat Nelson (bassoon). They play music ranging form classical to contemporary. Here’s what they say about the Gabriola concert: This year, we’ll be doing serious trio sonatas mixed with some lighter tunes in an audience participation game. (With prizes of course!)

This event is a benefit concert for Parkinson’s Research. Tickets are 15.00, and are available at the door and at Gabriola Artworks.

Here’s the concert program, and information about the musicians:

Concert Program

Allegro molto — Antonio Vivaldi

Commedia — Peter Schickele

Pantalone and Dr. Graziano
The Lovers
Arlecchino
The Lover’s Lament
A Stranger
Finale

Sonate — Johann Pepusch

Adagio
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro

Classical Mystery Tour Part 1

Maruntel — Bela Bartok

INTERMISSION

Trio No. 1 — Joseph Haydn

Allegro moderato
Andante
Vivace

Sonata Op. II/4 — Jean Baptiste Loeillet

Largo
Allegro
Allegro

Classical Mystery Tour Part 2

Scherzola — Gordon Lewin

Zephyr Wind Bios

Lisa McCarthy

Lisa McCarthy currently teaches flute, flute choir, pedagogy and performance classes at Western Washington University. She has also been on the faculties at the Maritime Conservatory of Music in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Delta Institute of the Arts in Ladner, B.C. She is principal of the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, the Whatcom Symphony Chamber Orchestra and plays in two chamber ensembles, Impromptu and Zephyr Winds. Her flute and bassoon duo, Impromptu, received national recognition and was invited to perform at the National Flute Association Convention in Nashville and the International Double Reed Society Conference in Indiana.

Lisa also maintains a private studio, coaches in the new Whatcom Symphony Orchestra NOW! chamber music program and adjudicates in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, including multiple state solo contests and the Seattle Flute Society Horsfall Competition.

She has performed in master classes with renowned flutists Francis Blaisdell, Julius Baker, Jeanne Baxtresser and Walfrid Kujala. Her teachers include Rae Terpenning, Karla Flygare, and Zart Dombourian-Eby.

Any spare time is spent reading, party planning and cooking (especially with chocolate!!).

Jennifer Weeks

Jennifer Weeks grew up in Montreal, Canada. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University in Montreal, where she studied under Theodore Baskin of the Montreal Symphony. She went on to complete graduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music under John Mack of the Cleveland Orchestra. Additional training involved participation in several summer festivals in Canada and the United States, including the Domaine Forget in Quebec and the Tanglewood Fellowship Orchestra at the Tanglewood Summer Festival in Massachusetts.

In 1995 she won a job as principal oboist with the Kingston Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, Canada. During her five year tenure in Kingston she was a member of the adjunct faculty at Queen’s University.

Throughout her professional career, Jennifer has performed with many orchestral and chamber music groups including the Orchestre Symphonique du Quebec, Les Violons du Roi, l’Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal, the Canadian Opera Company, The National Ballet of Canada, the Canadian National Arts Center Orchestra, the Sarasota Opera Company, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Seattle Symphony.

After returning to school in 2002 to try a life that did not involve making oboe reeds……she completed a degree in Environmental Studies and is currently employed with the Samish Indian Nation’s Natural Resource Department in Anacortes, WA.

Apparently unable to resist a love of making music and the stubborn determination required to make reeds…..Jennifer returned to playing music and is a member of the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra and a woodwind quartet (Zephyr Winds) in Bellingham, WA.

Pat Nelson

Pat Nelson grew up in Rhode Island and was introduced to the bundle of sticks (bassoon) when she was 11 years old. Her parents were kind enough to drive her 40 minutes regularly into the big city for lessons. This led to pursuing music as a way of making money, which turned out to be both idealistic, and a novel interpretation of the term career. She moved to North Carolina and studied bassoon at UNC-Chapel Hill with John Pederson of the NC Symphony. Upon graduation, she acquired a better bundle of sticks and decided to seek more torture and moved to Evanston to study with Robert Barris at Northwestern University. A Master’s Degree doesn’t get you anywhere, so she moved to Tucson to study with William Dietz at the University of Arizona. After three years in the doctoral program, Pat decided that there was more to life than a bundle of sticks, so she and her husband packed up their belongings and headed to Bellingham, WA. Since the big move, Pat has taught music classes at the local community college, has performed with the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, Skagit Opera, Impromptu, and Zephyr Winds. She is also the bassoonist with the Westwood Wind Quintet and appears on the Crystal Records label with them in a Cd collection of the complete wind quintets of Anton Reicha. Pat currently works as Orchestra Manager for the Whatcom Symphony and maintains a private bassoon studio in Bellingham.

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