Felix Skowronek Memorial Series
In past seasons, the Felix Skowronek Memorial Event has been an annual event sponsored by the Seattle Flute Society in honor the organization's founder, Felix Skowronek. The event traditionally features local artists and/or wooden flute specialists. Past events have featured performances by Demarre McGill, Jeffrey Barker, Janet See, and Cathy Ransom Karoly, among others.
For the 2020-2021 Season, the Seattle Flute Society is instead presenting a series of online events (accessible through our new Members-Only platform, SFS Online) featuring presentations, workshops, and performances by local flutists, teachers, and artisans. Events will be held bimonthly from November to February. Find out more about our lineup of presenters below!
Felix Skowronek (1935-2006) earned a B.M. from the Curtis Institute, where he was a student of William Kincaid. Skowronek was a founding member of the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet and played as principal flute of the U.S. Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle, St. Louis, and Puerto Rico Symphonies. He also played principal for the Seattle Opera's summer series of Wagner's Ring cycle. He served as professor of flute at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and the University of Washington. He was the founding president of the Seattle Flute Society and served as president of the National Flute Association from 1985-86. He was twice the music director of Belle Arte Concerts, from 1983-1992 and 1999-2004.
Skowronek acted as a consultant to the Verne Q. Powell Company. An authority on the use of foreign and domestic hardwood species for flute and woodwind instrument manufactures, he documented the tonal qualities of numerous hardwood species carved into wood flutes and wood flute head joints. His research, performances and lectures throughout the 1980s and 1990s contributed significantly to the return of the wood flute and the option of using a wood head joint to create specific tonal effects relevant to the specific genre of music to be performed.
Highlights from the 2019 event
featuring Leonard Garrison
Highlights from the 2018 event
featuring Janet See
20/21 Series Overview
Evan Pengra Sult, Pacific Northwest Ballet
November 1, 2020, 2:00 PM
Erik Nugent, FluteWorks Seattle
November 15, 2020, 2:00 PM
SFS Holiday Party (All Members Concert)
December 6, 2020, 2:00 PM
Flute Health and Wellness with Melissa Thomas
January 10, 2021, 2:00 PM
Jacqueline Cordova-Arrington, Professor of Flute at the University of Oregon
January 24, 2021, 2:00 PM
Flutes of the World: Brazilian Choro with Kristine Rominski
February 7, 2021, 2:00 PM
Artists & Presenters
Evan Pengra Sult
Recently appointed principal flutist of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, Evan Pengra Sult has been praised for his “standout” performances and “elegant solos” (The Gazette, Colorado Springs). He holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (M.M. ’19) and the Eastman School of Music (B.M./P.C. ’17); his principal teachers are Tim Day, Bonita Boyd, Anne Harrow, Zart Dombourian-Eby, and Bonnie Blanchard. A regular presence at summer festivals, he has been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Colorado College Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, and Texas Music Festival, among others.
Evan was a prizewinner at the Seattle Flute Society’s 2016 Young Artist Competition, has performed with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, the Auburn and Lake Washington Symphony Orchestras, and was an associate member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He has also been a featured guest on 98.1 Classical KING FM’s popular program “Northwest Focus Live!” and has performed live on television in Houston, TX. He serves on the board of the Seattle Flute Society.
Also a writer, Evan contributes regularly to The Flutist Quarterly and was a fellow at the 2018 Rubin Institute for Music Criticism. In his spare time, he is an omnivorous reader, crossword puzzler, politics junkie, and Anglophile.
Erik Nugent
Erik Nugent is a Boston-tradition flute maker who has owned and managed Fluteworks Seattle since June, 2019, taking over the business from the beloved Courtney Westcott. Repairs are performed onsite in Lynnwood, WA, and FluteWorks offers the Pacific Northwest’s largest selection of flutes for sale.
Erik grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in a family of creative thinkers including Visual Artists, Doctors, Musicians and Dancers. He started playing music at age 10 and never looked back. In 1996 he received his Bachelors degree in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 1999 he moved to Boston to begin making handmade flutes as a finisher for Verne Q. Powell and later for David Williams. Erik became the Repair Manager for William S. Haynes and then the Quality Control Manager for Nagahara Flutes for 9 years.
In 2016 he moved to Arkansas and opened Nugent Flutes. He holds Repair Technician Certifications from Verne Q. Powell, Muramatsu, Straubinger Flutes, and Brannen Brothers Flutemakers.
His son is a budding Piano and Viola player interested in composition, and his wife sells her cute and inventive crocheted items on Etsy. Erik enjoys hiking in western Washington with his family and dog, Curi.
Melissa Thomas
Melissa Thomas is a Personal Trainer and Pilates Instructor and long-time flute enthusiast! She studied flute with Bonnie Blanchard during high school and participated in a myriad of competitions and orchestras as a young musician in the greater Seattle area.
Melissa earned a degree in Flute Performance at Central Washington University, studying under Dr. Hal Ott, while also pursuing a double major in Mathematics. While working as a software developer in Maryland, Melissa played with the Flutes on the Brink Flute Choir.
Now that she has returned to Seattle, Melissa is excited to give back to the local flute community; she currently serves as the Treasurer for the Seattle Flute Society.
Jacqueline Cordova-Arrington
Building a versatile career as a professional flutist and educator, Dr. Jacqueline Cordova-Arrington is committed to collaborating with distinguished artists, citizens, and thinkers to create inspiring and culturally unifying experiences for communities and artists alike. As a fellow of Carnegie Hall's Ensemble Connect —formerly known as Ensemble ACJW—Jacqueline had innumerable opportunities to accomplish this mission, creating tangible impact as a performer, educator and community advocate. Ensemble Connect is a two-year artistic residency professional classical musicians in the United States combining musical excellence with teaching artistry, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Jacqueline recently completed her doctorate at the Eastman School of Music studying with Bonita Boyd with an additional certificate in World Music. Her former teachers include: Bradley Garner, David Cramer, and Amy Porter.
Equally at home on the orchestral stage, and as a recipient of the William D. Ford Fulbright Grant, Jacqueline was the first American to study extensively with principal flutists of the Berlin Philharmonic Andreas Blau and Emmanuel Pahud. Her training in Berlin initiated her success as an orchestral flutist, leading to performances with major orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic and Louisiana Philharmonic.
Kristine Rominski
Flutist Kristine Rominski performs as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. She is flutist with the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra and Seattle Collaborative Orchestra for the 2019-2020 concert season. She can also be found moonlighting with the Fremont Philharmonic Orchestra, Choroloco, the Tango Tigers, and Um Mundo Choro (Bainbridge Island). She was co-founder and flutist with the Incidental Chamber Players, a chamber ensemble that features woodwinds. Freelance performances include OvreArts Ensemble, Westmoreland Symphony, the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, Alia Musica, Musicians with a Mission, and the Brazilian group Choro no Vinho.
An active music educator, Kristine currently teaches group woodwinds with Seattle Music Partners, is flute and piano teacher at Illumination Learning Studio and Flute Teacher at Meter Music School. She visits local elementary schools to assist their woodwind programs through the Micheal J Owens Music Education Fund. and is a Teaching Artist through the Seattle Chamber Music Society's "Chamber Music in the Classroom" program, coaching middle and high school flute ensembles.
An active music educator, Kristine currently teaches group woodwinds with Seattle Music Partners, is flute and piano teacher at Illumination Learning Studio. and Flute Teacher at Meter Music School. She visits local elementary schools to assist their woodwind programs through the Micheal J Owens Music Education Fund. and is a Teaching Artist through the Seattle Chamber Music Society's "Chamber Music in the Classroom" program, coaching middle and high school flute ensembles. Kristine maintained vibrant studios at Hope Academy for Music and the Arts and and coached the woodwind section of the East Liberty Community Engagement Orchestra. She taught at the UW-Madison Summer Music Clinic from 2014-2017, and the first iteration of the Hip Hop Orchestra Summer Music Camp in Pittsburgh. Kristine also coached high school flutists at the Cascade Youth Symphony Summer Camp in 2018.
Kristine has won awards in competitions held by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Public Radio, the United States Air Force Band, and the Upper Midwest Flute Association. Through commissions and music festival participation, Kristine has premiered new works by Andrzej Tereszkowski, Thomas Lang, and Kristapor Najarian. She enjoyed playing principal flute with the Carnegie Mellon University Philharmonic and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. Kristine can be heard on the Grammy nominated CD "3 Works for Solo Instruments and Orchestra" with cellist Matt Haimovitz, featuring works by Laura Schwendinger, and on the Naxos label CD "Works for Clarinet by Leonardo Balada".
The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council awarded her the Artist Opportunities Grant in 2015, which enabled her to attend the Centrum Choro Workshop in Port Townsend, WA to study choro music with Brazilian masters including Dudu Maia, Eduardo Neves, Douglas and Alexandre Lora, and Anat Cohen. Kristine received her Master of Music from Carnegie Mellon University studying with International flute soloist Alberto Almarza and former New York Philharmonic Principal Flutist Jeanne Baxtresser. She earned her Bachelor of Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying with the versatile Madison Symphony Principal flutist Stephanie Jutt.