Flutist Meerenai Shim is a founding member of the Blithe Duo (flute duo) and the New Arts Alliance, where she is also a co-artistic director. A passionate advocate of contemporary composition, Ms. Shim has independently commissioned three pieces from three different composers in 2010. The first work, Entrometido for flute and cello, a new composition commissioned from San Jose composer Noah Luna, will be on Ms. Shim’s debut album titled, Sometimes the City is Silent, scheduled for release in May 2011. The second and third commissions engage Brooklyn composer Daniel Felsenfeld and Chicago composer Janice Misurell-Mitchell, respectively.
Ms. Shim’s book, Scale Studies for Beginner and Intermediate Flutists, published in 2007, has received praise from flute pedagogues and publications worldwide. Her teaching philosophy is influenced by studies in Body Mapping, Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais. As an Andover Educator trainee, she also incorporates the Body Mapping course, What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body, into her private flute teaching.
Ms. Shim’s most influential flute teachers are Linda Lukas, Mary Stolper, Liisa Ruoho and Alexa Still. She studied orchestral conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and Eastern Music Festival, with teachers such as Paul Vermel, Murry Sidlin, and Sheldon Morgenstern. Ms. Shim received a Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance from DePaul University in Chicago and a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from San Francisco State University. She was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in Novato, California.
Ms. Shim’s performances in 2011 and 2012 will include: the 2011 Areon Summer Flute Institute as Guest Artist, collaboration with dancer and choreographer Bianca Brzezinski for New Arts Alliance, premiering the newly commissioned piece for flute, cello and piano written by Daniel Felsenfeld, and premiering a new flute and percussion composition commissioned from Janice Misurell-Mitchell.
For more information, please visit http://meerenai.com.
Pianist Lori Lack
Lori Lack, Piano, has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe and the United States. She has a piano trio with Christina Mok and Joanne Lin, was a member of the Laurel Ensemble, and has performed with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and Gold Coast Chamber Players. As a collaborative pianist, she has performed in recital with many artists including the Alexander String Quartet, the Stamic Quartet, Robin Sharp, Jassen Todorov, Gary Gray, Stephen Paulson, and Matt Haimovitz. She received her degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, and San Francisco State University. In addition to serving on the faculty of CSU Summer Arts and California Summer Music, she has worked as an instrumental accompanist at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and San Francisco State University.
Rachel Turner Houk
Rachel Turner Houk is the cellist of Quartet Rouge, an alternative rock string quartet, with whom she featured on the Grammy winning CD “American Idiot: The Cast Recording”. She is the founder of Synchronicity Strings and actively freelances in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has performed throughout Europe with Northern Sinfonia, Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, Wiener Maskentheater, Essen Folkwang Chamber Orchestra, and Rilke Project Live. She was a member of Helix! New Music Ensemble in New Jersey. Rachel earned her Master of Music degree from Rutgers University where she studied with Zara Nelsova, and her Bachelor of Music from Trinity College of Music, London.
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