Belmont University School of Music
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2026 7:30 P.M.
MCAFEE CONCERT HALL
Belmont University School of Music presents
Faculty Woodwind Quintet
Quintet No. 1 in E minor, Op. 88
Five Easy Dances for Woodwind Quintet
Personnel
Carolyn Totaro, flute
Rebecca Van de Ven, trumpet
Daniel Lochrie, clarinet
Dong Yun Shankle, bassoon
Tara Johnson, horn
About the Performers
Dr. Carolyn Totaro is an Assistant Professor (Flute) in the Belmont University School of Music. Before moving to Nashville in 2005, Totaro taught applied flute, music history, and music appreciation at Southeastern Louisiana University and then served as the Graduate Coordinator for the School of Music at the University of Southern Mississippi, where she also served as an adjunct flute instructor. She has performed with symphony orchestras in Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. Totaro has been the director of the Nashville Philharmonic Flute Ensemble and currently teaches flute and coaches chamber ensembles at the Tennessee Valley Music Festival each summer. Dr. Totaro received the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Texas (at Austin), the Master of Music (Flute) and Master of Music (History) from the University of Akron and the Bachelor of Music Education and Bachelor of Music from Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music. Totaro’s primary instructors have included William Hebert (Cleveland Orchestra), Jaqueline Hofto (Interlochen Arts Academy), Peter Lloyd (London Symphony, London Virtuosi), and George Pope (Akron Symphony, Solaris Wind Quintet).
Rebecca Van de Ven joined the faculty at Belmont University and Tennessee State University in 2018 and the faculty of the University of the South in 2011. Prior to that Ms. Van de Ven taught at Middle Tennessee State University, Albion College and Spring Arbor University. In addition, she is on faculty at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival where she coaches and organizes the wind chamber music program. Ms. Van de Ven frequently records music in Nashville and can be heard playing English Horn on season three of the Emmy winning hit TV series Fargo as well as the 2016 Evanescence Album. She currently plays second oboe in the Nashville Opera. Her orchestral engagements have included orchestras such as Nashville Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Grand Rapids Symphony. She can also be found playing regionally in Chattanooga and Huntsville Symphonies and in staged works at Tennessee Performing Arts Center. On a full tuition scholarship, Ms. Van de Ven received the Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory in oboe performance where she was a student of Eugene Izotov, current Principal Oboe of the San Francisco Symphony. She attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison on tuition scholarship where she earned the Bachelor of Arts degree and the Bachelor of Science degree. She was a student of Professor Marc Fink. Ms. Van de Ven attended the Pierre Monteux Music Festival in Maine and was awarded a full scholarship to the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. She currently resides in Sewanee Tennessee with her husband and 2 children.
Dr. Daniel Lochrie is an adjunct instructor in the School of Music, teaching applied clarinet, classical woodwind seminar, and woodwind techniques. Dr. Lochrie received degrees from The University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and The Ohio State University, where he studied with James Pyne. Other teachers included Paul Schaller, Brian Schweickhardt, John Mohler, Franklin Cohen, and bass clarinetist, Oliver Green. Before entering graduate school, he joined the National Orchestra of New York, studying with Leon Russianoff and performing regularly with the orchestra in Carnegie Hall. In addition to teaching experience at Lipscomb University, Middle Tennessee State University, The Ohio State University, and the Corsi Internazionale di Musica, Dr. Lochrie has been a member of the Nashville Symphony (with recent recordings on the Naxos and Decca labels) since 1992. His chamber music activities include regular appearances on clarinet and bass clarinet at several area universities, recital appearances throughout the US, and performances at summer festivals in Ohio, Colorado, and Italy. With further experience as a Nashville studio musician, managerial experience in the Nashville Symphony, and with success as a composer and arranger (performances by ensembles such as the Tennessee Tech faculty woodwind quintet and the Pacific and Nashville Symphonies) Dr. Lochrie maintains a multifaceted musical career.
Dong-Yun K. Shankle is an adjunct bassoon professor at Belmont and Trevecca Universities. She is a member of Belmont’s faculty woodwind quintet. She has also taught at Western Kentucky and Campbellsville Universities. She is the principal bassoonist in the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, and Parthenon Chamber Orchestra. She has also been principal in Orchestra Kentucky, Jackson Symphony, Owensboro Symphony and Western Kentucky. Shankle has had a distinguished career as a symphony bassoonist, recording artist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestras in Asia, Europe, Russia and America. During her 20-year career in Korea, she has worked in the Seoul KBS Symphony Orchestra. She was the principal bassoonist in the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra and the Asian Six Nations Orchestra in Fukuoka, Japan. She has appeared as a soloist with the Russia St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra, Sofia Orchestra both in Bulgaria, Seoul KBS Chamber Orchestra, Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra, Paducah Symphony Orchestra and many other orchestras all over Asia, Europe and America. Shankle had the honor of playing principal bassoon in some of the world's greatest concert halls such as: Carnegie Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur Hall in Malaysian. Also, she performed recitals with internationally known performers such as Emmanuel Abbuel (Principal Oboist/London Philharmonic), Kirill Sokolov (Principal bassoon/St.Petersburg Philharmonic), Valeri Popov (Principal bassoon/ Moscow Symphony), Otto Eifert (Principal Bassoonn/Cincinnati Symphony), and many more. Dong-Yun graduated from Daegu Catholic University, where she received the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Bassoon Performance and Music Education. After that, she studied in Holland for the Performance Soloist Degree from the Rotterdam Conservatorium. While in school she won the prestigious Seoul Dong-A International Music Competition. Dong-Yun has 3 solo CDs on the Sung-Eum label. Her CD’s have received favorable reviews from Ron Klimko of the IDRS.
Tara Johnson is an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Belmont University, teaching Aural Skills courses. Originally from Hudsonville, Michigan, Johnson began her studies in French horn at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. From there she moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University, where she received the Bachelor of Music degree in Horn Performance, with a minor in Music Business. She worked in Nashville as a freelance music transcriber and copyist. Johnson earned the Master of Arts in Music degree in Horn Performance from Middle Tennessee State University in 2012, where she studied with Angela DeBoer, and worked as a teaching assistant in the brass department and in general music and music theory courses. Tara currently plays as 3rd Horn of the Evansville Philharmonic in Evansville, Indiana, and 2nd Horn of the Owensboro Symphony in Owensboro, Kentucky. Additionally, she has performed with the Nashville Symphony, the Huntsville Symphony, the Chattanooga Symphony, and the Jackson Symphony. She has taken her horn playing to China with the Hollywood Film Orchestra, and to other parts of the world such as Israel, Romania, and Hungary. As an active freelance horn player, she can also be heard on several soundtrack recordings for movies, video games, and television shows, recorded in Nashville at Ocean Way Studios. She maintains aprivate studio of horn students across the Nashville area and enjoys playing as a member of the Music City Horn Quartet
Program Notes
Anton (Antoine) Reicha was born in Prague in 1770. His father died when he was 10 months old, and he ran away from home when he was 10 years old. He fled to his uncle Josef who was a cellist, composer, and conductor. From his uncle, Anton learned violin and piano and from his aunt, he learned French and German. He eventually learned the flute and entered the University of Bonn in 1789. In the 1790s he met Haydn and Beethoven, performing with the latter in an orchestra led by Anton’s uncle Josef. Reicha began to pursue composition fervently, trying to make his name as an operatic composer in Paris but met with little success. He moved to Vienna, renewed his relationships with Haydn and Beethoven, and composed approximately 50 works before he returned to Paris due to Napoleon’s growing influence in Vienna. In 1818 Reicha was appointed Professor of Counterpoint and Fugue at the Paris Conservatory. His students included Louise Farrenc, Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Charles Gounod, and Pauline Viardot. Besides his varied and prolific compositions, Reicha wrote several didactic treatises including Treatise on advanced musical composition 2 volumes (1824-1826) and Art of dramatic composition 4 volumes (1833). In Practical examples: a contribution to the intellectual culture of the composer…accompanied by philosophical-practical comments from 1803, Reicha included exercises for polyrhythm and polytonality.
It was in Paris between 1817 and 1820 that Reicha composed his 24 Wind Quintets for which he is best known: Opus 88, 91, 99, and 100. Incidentally, there is one lone work in four movements for Wind Quintet in F minor considered to be the twenty-fifth woodwind quintet although its date of composition cannot be confirmed. Although his contemporaries Franz Danzi and Giuseppe Cambini also composed works for the early woodwind quintet, Reicha’s works are on par with the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Reicha’s quintets, like much of classical instrumental music of the time, were miniature symphonies in chamber music form. He utilized the typical four-movement design found in symphonies: the first movement was in sonata form; the second movement was either ternary or theme with variations; the third movement was a form of Minuet and Trio; and the final movement was typically in a rondo form. Quintet No.1 in E minor is no exception although his affiliation with Beethoven is apparent in the vacillation between E minor and E major throughout the first movement and the entire work. It is important to remember that at this time, the flute was made of wood and in the key of D major and the horn was just beginning to utilize crooks to play in more than one harmonic series at a time. Its timbre was also on the softer side and was suitable as the “tenor” voice of the woodwind quintet.
English composer, Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, enjoyed a highly acclaimed and prolific career, writing nine symphonies, several concertos, chamber music, choral music, brass band music, wind band music, five ballets, two operas, a musical, and more than a hundred film scores. Besides his many awards for music and composition, fellowships and honorary doctorates, Arnold won an Oscar in 1957 for his score to The Bridge on the River Kwai. His personal life was often chaotic. Arnold filed as a conscientious objectorin 1941 but volunteered for service after his brother’s death in the Royal Air Force. The army placed him in a military band and Arnold shot himself in the foot in order to return to civilian life. He was known to be unpleasant, promiscuous, and an alcoholic. He was married and divorced twice and made two suicidal attempts. He was treated for depression and alcoholism in 1979 and given twelve months to live. Arnold recovered and lived for another 22 years.
Previously a member of the trumpet section of the London Philharmonic, Arnold composed his shanties for his fellow musicians in the philharmonic. The premier took place in an aircraft hangar at the Filton Aerodrome, Bristol in August of 1943 by the London Philharmonic Orchestra Wind Quintet. A shanty was a work song sung to accompany labor on a sailing vessel. Their function
was to synchronize the labor and adhere to strict schedules. They were not performed in an entertainment context. For his Three Shanties for Wind Quintet from 1943, Arnold chose “What shall we do with a drunken sailor?” “Boney was a warrior,” and “Johnny come down to Hilo.”
What should we do with a drunken sailor
What should we do with a drunken sailor
What should we do with a drunken sailor
Early in the morning
Boney was a warrior, Way, hay, yah, Oh Boney was a warrior, John Francois
Never seen the like since I been born
A great big sailor with his sea boots on Johnny come down to Hilo, poor old man
Wake her, shake her
Wake that gal with the blue dress on Johnny come down to Hilo, poor old man
Born and raised in a small village near Budapest, Hungary, Denes Agay was a prodigy who began playing the piano at age three. He earned a doctorate in piano performance and composition from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest in 1934. Agay composed and orchestrated music for the Hungarian film industry before the rise of the Nazis caused his immigration to New York in 1939. Sadly, his parents who were Jewish, died at Auschwitz. Once in New York, Agay visited as many music publishers as possible and was encouraged to compose popular songs instead of serious music. In 1942, Agay obtained U.S. citizenship and enlisted in the Army, being assigned to a hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He wrote: “I was in charge of entertainment and had a piano rolling through the wards entertaining my buddies, the patients.” After the war, he had great success in teaching, composing, and publishing. He authored 96 books and is best known for his piano studies, “Easy Classics to Moderns” and “An Anthology of Piano Music.” Agay also published the “Best Loved Songs of the American People”, a work including arrangements of Colonial and revolutionary ballads, spirituals, burlesque and vaudeville tunes, jazz and blues in 1975. “Five Easy Dances” for Woodwind Quintet dates from 1956 and has been a staple in the repertoire ever since.
Program Notes compiled by Dr. Carolyn Totaro, flute
Upcoming Concerts and Events
Curtain Call Award Jordan Reynolds
Wednesday, February 4, 7:30 p.m.
Massey Concert Hall
Classical Performers with Belmont University Symphony Orchestra
Friday, February 6, 7:30 p.m.
McAfee Concert Hall
Rock Ensemble & Commercial Guitar Ensemble I with Special Guests
Friday, February 6, 7:30 p.m.
Massey Concert Hall
Join Belmont University’s College of Music and Performing Arts for Sounds of Belmont: The 36th Annual President’s Concert & Reception on Saturday, April 25th in the Fisher Center at Belmont University. Experience an evening of stories and songs to support our talented students. The concert will begin at 6:30 p.m. followed by a festive dessert reception for all guests and performers. The purchase of a ticket to this concert and reception will benefit endowed music and theatre scholarship funds for students in the college. Premier works from the College of Music and Performing Arts Fall 2025-Spring 2026 performance season will be showcased. This concert and reception is celebrating its thirty-sixth year (formerly the President’s Concert and Reception).
For more information on upcoming concerts and events, please visit www.belmont.edu/cmpa or “like” Belmont University School of Music on Facebook.
