Woodwind Mentors
Dr. Osiris J. Molina is Professor of Clarinet and Woodwind Area Coordinator at the University of Alabama. A native of Elizabeth, New Jersey, he has extensive experience as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. His professional accomplishments have taken him overseas and across the country. Dr. Molina is currently Principal Clarinet of the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, Second Clarinet with the Huntsville Symphony and performs regularly with the Alabama, Mobile and Chattanooga symphony clarinet sections, in addition to work with the Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Greater Lansing, and Bridgeport (CT) symphony orchestras.
Dr. Molina’s chamber work includes his membership in the Cavell Trio, a reed trio dedicated to established and emerging works for this unique combination. Cavell has performed a multiple international conferences, including the 2011-2013 and the 2016 International Double Reed Society Conferences and the 2012-2016 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest. Cavell’s third recording project, New Discoveries, featuring music of Rueff, Vachey, Gross, Zaheri, and Greg Simon, was released in 2017. His most recent chamber music experience is with the Vuorovesi Trio, a UA faculty trio consisting of the flute, oboe, and clarinet combination. Vuorovesi was accepted to perform at the IDRS, ICA, and NFA conferences in 2019, and will recording their first album of American music for this combination in 2021.
He is also clarinetist in the Capstone Woodwind Quintet, the faculty quintet at the University of Alabama. They are committed to outreach efforts in the Alabama schools, evidenced by tours in the Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Huntsville and greater-Atlanta regions. Dr. Molina has made five trips to Havana, Cuba under the auspices of the College of Arts and Science’s Alabama in Cuba Initiative. He has given masterclasses at the Instituto Superior de Arte, the Cuban national conservatory. As an extension of this work, Dr. Molina will be releasing his first solo album in 2021. Entitled Cuba, Alabama, this album will be works that Molina found in Cuba during his many visits, including works by Ernesto Lecuona, Andres Alén, Javier Zalba, Paquito D’Rivera, and Leo Brouwer. In addition to his Alabama teaching duties, Dr. Molina will enter his seventh season as Clarinet Mentor at the Hot Springs Music Festival, Hot Springs, Arkansas in 2021.
Dr. Molina holds degrees from Michigan State University (DMA), Yale School of Music (MM), and Rutgers University (BM), where he studied with Dr. Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, David Shifrin, Charles Neidich, Ayako Oshima and Dr. William Berz. Osiris has been active in music education at all levels. He teaches applied clarinet, chamber music and clarinet methods in the Music Education curriculum. Dr. Molina is a Gonzalez Reeds Artist and a Selmer-Paris Artist/Clinician. He performs on the Recital clarinet and the Privilege Bass Clarinet.
Osiris Molina, Clarinet
2022 Festival Musician
Virginia Broffitt Kunzer, Flute
Dr. Virginia Broffitt Kunzer is Associate Professor of Flute at Auburn University, Principal Flute of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, Flute Mentor for the Hot Springs Music Festival, and a founding member of the Pangaea Chamber Players. Before her appointment at Auburn, she served as faculty at Oklahoma State University and Western Illinois University and was the flutist in the Camerata Woodwind Quintet. She has also held orchestral positions in the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and is a past winner of the National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition.
She has established a successful and diverse career as a teacher, soloist, orchestral musician, and chamber musician. Appearing as a concerto soloist with numerous ensembles, she has also performed concerts and given performance masterclasses throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is an active presence in the National Flute Association through performances and service: performing regularly at conventions and previously serving as a Board Member and Coordinator of the Young Artist Competition.
A native of Iowa City, Iowa, Dr. Broffitt She holds degrees from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (BM), and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (MM and DMA). Her past teachers include Randy Bowman, Dr. Tadeu Coelho, Jack Wellbaum, and Dr. Irna Priore. www.virginiabroffitt.com
Virginia is a Miyazawa Performing Artist.
Dr. Nathan Koch is the Assistant Professor of Bassoon and Music Theory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the newest member of the resident faculty woodwind quintet, the Moran Quintet. Previously he served as the Associate Professor of Bassoon on the faculty of Sam Houston State University while maintaining an active freelancing career in Houston and around the state of Texas, including regular performances with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, the Austin Symphony, the Austin Lyric Opera, the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Victoria Bach Festival.
In demand as a clinician and soloist, Dr. Koch has presented and performed at the conferences of the Texas Music Educators Association, the Texas Bandmasters Association, and the International Double Reed Society, most recently in Granada, Spain and Tampa, Florida. He has served as a recurring adjudicator for the Texas State Solo and Ensemble Competition, as a regional audition proctor for the prestigious National Repertory Orchestra summer festival, and as a section coach for the Omaha Area Youth Orchestra.
Also an avid arranger and transcriber, Dr. Koch has several solo and chamber works published by TrevCo Music, the leading publisher of double reed literature in the country. His projects have been performed at the Vianden International Chamber Music Festival in Luxembourg by Christin Schillinger and recorded on the Longhorn Music Label by Kristin Wolfe Jensen. A recent solo IDRS conference recital featured Dr. Koch performing his own transcription of Franck’s Violin Sonata in its entirety, and the work is currently being prepared for publication.
Dr. Koch earned his DMA and MM degrees from The University of Texas at Austin under the guidance of Kristin Wolfe Jensen, and a BM from Wichita State University with Nicolasa Kuster.
Nathan Koch, Bassoon
