ABBA

Flautist and teacher from Alberta who attended the Indiana University School of Music and studied with Julius Baker, James Galway, and Jean-Pierre Rampal. In 1978, she became Assistant Principal Flute with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and has held that post ever since. Other groups with whom she has worked include the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, the Banff Ballet Orchestra, for whom she served as Principal Flute, the Edmonton Wind Ensemble, and the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. In 1984, she appeared on Pro Coro Canada’s Christmas album, A Ceremony of Carols.

She has also been active with St. Crispin’s Chamber Ensemble. On 7^th February 2001, they performed a concert at The Winspear Centre for the Arts entitled “Glimpses of Grace” which included music of Pierre Boulez, Gavin Bryars, and Kostas Varotsis. Returning to the same venue on 23^rd April 2008 as a member of The University of Alberta Symphonic Wind Ensemble, she performed in a program featuring 20^th century composers such as Leonard Bernstein, John Estacio, Gordon Jacob, and David Maslanka. It may not come as a surprise that she is something of a specialist when it comes to “new classical” music and cites George Crumb’s “Vox Balaenae” as her personal favourite.

In the field of musical education, she has taught at the Banff International Music School, MusiCamrose, and the University of Alberta. Her students have included Darcie Bentley, Aura Giles, Dorothy Speers, and Aysha Wills, who was the youngest student she ever took on at the age of eight. It was Aysha’s idea to organize, with Shelley’s help, a concert to benefit victims of the tsunami in Asia and it was held on 4^th February 2005 at the Francis Winspear Centre for Music.

In 2009, she reunited with St. Crispin’s Chamber Ensemble on a CD of—what else—new music, entitled Brief Confessions Breves. Other recordings on which she appears include the Greenwood Singers’ Joy to the World: Music for Advent and Christmas, the Edmonton Wind Ensemble’s Snake Fence Country, and Soundland Alberta: Le Pays Sonore, on which she and Sylvia Shadick-Taylor perform Ron Hannah’s “Concert Piece for Flute & Piano”. It is not uncommon to find her performing in duos as part of the University of Alberta’s Monday Noon Music series, championing composers such as Harrison Birtwistle, Francois Morel, Toru Takemitsu, and others.

Edmonton Wind Ensemble recordings

Snake Fence Country (Howard Cable)

CBC Records SMCD 5165 (Snake Fence Country)

Conductor – Harry Pinchin

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