Flutist Elise Blatchford and pianist Jacob Coleman present a program of Darius Milhaud, William Grant Still, and Sergei Prokofiev for this Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Broadcast.
Praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer for her “superb command of color and nuance,” Elise Blatchford is the Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Memphis Scheidt School of Music. A chamber musician, soloist, orchestral musician, and teacher, Ms. Blatchford is a flutist who embraces the independent, the experimental, and the DIY. As a founding member of the new music woodwind quintet The City of Tomorrow, Ms. Blatchford won first prize at the 2011 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and received a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning grant in 2014. The quintet tours nationally and was in residence at Tufts University in Boston in February 2019. Ms. Blatchford has appeared with the International Contemporary Ensemble in New York and at the Banff Centre for Creativity in Alberta, Canada.
As a recitalist, Ms. Blatchford frequently programs music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and has been an invited guest at venues across the U.S., including Yale, Indiana University, University of Oregon, and Virginia Tech. Also at home in the traditional orchestra world, Ms. Blatchford served as Principal Flute for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-19 season. She has performed with the Phoenix Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, IRIS Orchestra, and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas. Ms. Blatchford holds degrees in flute performance from the Oberlin and the San Francisco Conservatory. A Powell Artist, she performs on a 14K gold handmade Powell flute.
A native of Athens, Georgia, pianist Jacob Coleman is the Assistant Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano at the University of Kentucky School of Music. As a collaborator, Dr. Coleman has performed with artists such as Franklin Cohen, Elmar Oliveira, Jens Lindemann, Leone Busye, David Kim, Frederick Burchinal as well as the Kenari Quartet. As a vocal coach he has held staff positions with the University of Georgia Opera Theater and the Astoria Music Festival. Since 2016, he has served as the official pianist for the Mid-South Flute Fest. Other collaborative engagements include appearances at the North American Saxophone Alliance, National Trumpet Competition and International Double Reed Society, and Muestra Internacional de Clarinete de Panamá.
He also held a faculty position at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he directed the Collaborative Piano Program and created a new doctoral degree. From 2014-2016, he served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. For six summers Coleman was a member of the piano staff at the Meadowmount School of Music founded by Ivan Galamian where he coordinated the piano staff. Dr. Coleman holds degrees from The University of Texas at Austin (DMA, Collaborative Piano), University of Oregon (MM, Collaborative Piano), and University of Georgia (BM, Piano Performance). His primary teachers were Richard Zimdars, David Riley, and Anne Epperson.
Biography courtesy of IMF Chicago.
