Felix Skowronek Memorial Event
Friday, October 4, 2024 | 6:30pm
Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church
2400 NW 85th St, Seattle, WA 98117
​
THIS IS A TICKETED EVENT
$10 Members | $15 Non-Members
​​​
~ ~ ~
​The Felix Skowronek Memorial Event is an annual event to in honor the Seattle Flute Society'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, Evan Pengra Sult, and Janet See, among others. In the online 2020-2021 Season, the Felix Skowronek Memorial Event was expanded into a series of presentations, workshops, and performances by local flutists, teachers, and artisans. The event in its original design returned for the 2021-2022 Season onwards.
​​
Kicking off our 45th Season, the 2024 Felix Skowronek Memorial Event features the newly appointed 2nd flutist of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Bridget Pei. ​​
~ ~ ~
​
Event Schedule
6:30pm: Bridget Pei and Lisa Bergman in Recital
​​
7:30pm: Masterclass with Bridget Pei
​
About the Artists...
From Los Angeles, California, Bridget Pei is the Seattle Symphony flute section’s newest member. Bridget most recently finished her graduate studies at the Rice University Shepherd School of Music with Leone Buyse in 2023, after receiving her BM at Northwestern University with John Thorne. During her undergraduate studies, Pei was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and performed as Principal Flute with the Dubuque Symphony. Since then, Bridget has performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, and was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts.
An avid chamber musician, Bridget has collaborated and performed with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and North Carolina Symphony as part of the Hidden Valley Festival of Winds II in 2022. When not playing flute, Bridget spends her time cooking or planning her next multi-day backpacking trip.
~ ~ ~
​
Pianist Lisa Bergman has collaborated in performances with many of today's most esteemed artists such as Julius Baker, Marni Nixon, Rolf Björling and Ransom Wilson. She made her highly successful joint recital debut in Carnegie Recital Hall. With more than 60 engagements per season, she has appeared in concerts, festivals and conventions throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. As 1996 American Artistic Ambassadors, Bergman and violinist Ann Christensen were selected by the United States Information Agency to represent the U.S. on a seven-week tour of New Zealand, Nepal, Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia and China.
Bergman is a graduate of the Juilliard School, the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of Washington, cum laude, where she served as an Artist in Residence and member of the University of Washington Music Faculty (1989-1999), teaching in the fields of accompanying and opera coaching. As a recording artist, her discography includes six chamber music CDs and one solo CD featuring piano works of Kenneth Benshoof.
A passionate promoter of classical music, she is a national Gracie Award-winning radio announcer on Classic KING-FM, appearing daily, streaming worldwide on the internet. Bergman is founder and Artistic Director of the Mostly Nordic Chamber Music Series presented at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle as well as Executive Director of NOISE (Northwest Opera in Schools, Etcetera). She is the Adult Piano Retreat Director at the Icicle Creek Center for the Arts in Leavenworth, Washington where she served for seven years as the Executive Director. She was Artistic Director of the Methow Chamber Music Festival from 2003-2006.
Bergman has served as official studio accompanist for organizations such as the Metropolitan Regional Opera Auditions, the International Clarinet Society and for cellists Leonard Rose and Bernard Greenhouse. Much in demand as a lecturer and adjudicator, she frequently presents workshops on the art of accompanying for universities and teachers' organizations. Bergman was recently selected as a member of the Hall of Fame for the Washington State Music Teachers Association for “extraordinary service, outstanding musicianship, dedication and leadership which have significantly contributed to the development and growth of music education in the State of Washington.”
​
~ ~ ~
​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.