Musician Biographies
VANESSA HOLROYD (flute) has studied with Robert Willoughby, Timothy Hutchins, Michael Parloff and Ransom Wilson. She received her undergraduate degree in Literature from Yale University in 1995, where she played principal flute with the Yale Symphony Orchestra and was the only flutist to win a prize at the 1992 Eastern Connecticut Symphony Young Artist Competition. While completing a Master’s degree in Flute Performance at McGill University in Montreal, she performed extensively with the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble. Vanessa received an Artist Diploma from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA in 2001, where she was a featured soloist in the Ibert Flute Concerto with the Longy Chamber Orchestra as winner of the 2000 Longy Concerto Competition. In August 2002, Vanessa was a top prize winner in the Young Artist Competition sponsored by the National Flute Association. Her awards included the prize for the “Best Performance” of Dan Welcher’s “Florestan’s Falcon,” a piece commissioned specifically for the competition. She has and continues to perform extensively throughout Boston and New England, frequently collaborating with pianist, Joy Cline Phinney. As a duo, Vanessa and Joy have presented concerts for the Westford Chamber Music Society and the Steinert & Son Concert Series, among others. Vanessa and Joy were featured artists in the 2002 Tillett Gardens “Arts Alive” festival in St. Thomas, U.S. V.I., and have been invited to perform on the 2005 Whim Historic House concert series in St. Croix, U.S. V.I. Vanessa has also performed frequently as a solo artist with the Rochester Chamber Music Society, in Rochester, VT. Vanessa is currently on the chamber music faculty for the Greater Boston Youth Symphony in addition to teaching her private studio. She is the founder and music coordinator for Anima, a collection of professional musicians created to provide entertainment for social and corporate events.
JANE HARRISON (oboe) earned a Bachelor of Music degree at Ohio Wesleyan University. She attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with John Mack, and later received her Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Elaine Douvas. Before coming to the Boston area, Ms. Harrison played professionally with orchestras and chamber groups in Virginia and New York City. A member of Arcadian Winds since 1989, she is also a member of Emmanuel Music, performing with Music Director Craig Smith as well as guest conductors Seiji Ozawa and Christopher Hogwood. Her other recent appearances include the Boston Academy of Music, Prism Opera, Opera Aperta, The Cantata Singers, Portland Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra with Keith Lockhart. She has participated in several commercial recordings and radio broadcasts. Ms. Harrison is on the faculty of Wellesley College, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, and All-Newton Music School.
MARK MILLER (clarinet) is an active conductor, clarinetist, and composer in the greater Boston area. He conducts the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras’ Repertory Orchestra, the Boston University All-Campus Orchestra and the chamber orchestra at the Community Music Center of Boston. He serves as principal clarinetist of the Cape Cod Symphony and is a member of the wind quintet Arcadian Winds. He has appeared as clarinet soloist with the Simon Sinfonietta, the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, Harvard’s Mozart Society Orchestra, and the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. As a conductor, he has led many concerts by the various BYSO orchestras, has conducted at all-state and district festivals, and has worked with other college, community and youth orchestras. Mr. Miller currently teaches clarinet privately and at Foxborough High School, where he also conducts the clarinet choir.
Mr. Miller’s original compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions have been performed by Foxborough’s nationally-acclaimed ensembles, the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, and Arcadian Winds, as well as other performers and ensembles. His many wind quintet arrangements are quite popular and are played by quintets throughout North America and Europe.
A native of Pensacola, Florida, Mr. Miller attended the Florida State University, where he earned degrees in composition and clarinet performance. He holds a master's degree in composition from Boston University. He has studied clarinet with Eugene Gonzalez, Fred Ormand, and Michael Webster, and composition with Harold Schiffman, Theodore Antoniou, Joyce Mekeel, and Robert Sirota.
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LAURA CARTER (horn) received her BM from East Carolina University in horn performance. She completed her MM at Boston University and is currently working towards her DMA under the tutelage of Eric Ruske. When not performing in school ensembles, Ms. Carter has performed with groups such as Arcadian Winds, ALEA III, the New Bedford Symphony and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Ms. Carter is especially interested in performing new music and takes advantage of working with composition students at Boston University and other universities in the area.
JANET UNDERHILL (bassoon), a native of British Columbia, Canada, is a bassoonist, teacher and arts administrator in the Boston area. For her ten years of managing and developing the chamber music program for Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (GBYSO), Janet was the recipient of the 2001 Kay Logan Award, a national award for excellence in chamber music teaching, Currently she is the Director of Chamber Music and Private Lessons for St. MarkÕs School of Southborough, Massachusetts as well as serving as a bassoon instructor at the South Shore Conservatory, Community Music Center and New England Conservatory, Prep Division. Janet is a founding member of Arcadian Winds, a woodwind quintet specializing in contemporary music, that has commissioned and premiered more than 40 works. Solo performances include concertos with The Pittsburgh Symphony, Harvard University Mozart Society Orchestra, Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras and the Little Orchestra of Victoria, as well as solo performances at the International Double Reed Conference in Minneapolis, the Gaudeamus Competition in Rotterdam, Holland, The WomenÕs Avant Festival in Chicago, The Outoftowners series in New York City and Soundwaves in St. Petersburg, Russia. She is a member of Alea III, with whom she has been on four Greek tours and most recently St. Petersburg, Russia. Solo works written for Ms. Underhill are included on CDs of composers John Holland, Timothy Melbinger and Neil Leonard. Also interested in archival projects, she has developed a cataloguing system for ethnic recordings with composer Martin Bartlett, and has organized Gunther SchullerÕs personal collection.