AQUILA SUMMER CONCERT SERIES
Kristen Dye
Kristen Dye is a freelance flutist based in Boston. A native of New York, she has been an active performer in New England and Colorado. She is a co-founder of the Aquila Summer Concert Series in Greeley, CO which ties contemporary music in with local businesses. Currently, she teaches elementary band in North Reading, MA.
A strong advocate for contemporary music, Kristen has been a fellow with both the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) in 2014 and the Cortona Sessions for New Music in 2011 and 2015. She was a founding member of the By the Numbers Soundpainting Ensemble, which has performed throughout the Front Range of Colorado.
Kristen also presented her paper, "The Greek Influences in Andre Jolivet's Chant de Linos," at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Musicological Society in 2013.
As a performer, Kristen was a finalist and winner of the Angie Southard Competition in 2011 and 2012, respectively. She earned her BM in Music Education and Performance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a MM in Performance and an MM in Musicology from the University of Northern Colorado. Kristen has participated in master classes with Brooke Schoenwald, Carol Wincenc, and Roger Reynolds. Her principal teachers include Christopher Krueger, James Hall, and Jonathan Bellman.
Eric Pashia
Mike Gersten
Mike Gersten is a clarinetist and educator based out of Greeley, CO currently teaching clarinet at Laramie County Community College and orchestra at Union Colony Elementary School. A native to the Chicago area, he has degrees in music education and clarinet performance from the University of Kansas and is currently working towards a doctorate in clarinet, with a secondary emphasis in music history, from the University of Northern Colorado.
Mr. Gersten was recently a featured lecturer at the City of Greeley Holocaust Memorial Observances where he presented on the Holocaust's effect on klezmer music. His klezmer ensemble, A Bisl Klezmer, performs regularly in Colorado and Wyoming.
As a member of the DIG Trio he has had the privilege of performing three world premieres, working with composers from Friends University in Wichita, the University of Northern Colorado, and the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
For the past two years Mr. Gersten has been the director of the By the Numbers Soundpainting Ensemble. The ensemble practices a form of controlled improvisation in which the director (painter) sets parameters for the ensemble through the use of physical gestures. The ensemble was featured during the 2013 Open Space Festival of Contemporary Music at the University of Northern Colorado and the New Frontiers Festival at the University of Wyoming and presented workshops at the University of Denver.
Eric Pashia is a freelance musician working in the Northern Colorado area who spends his musical talents composing original music and performing on trombone and bass trombone. As a composer, Eric has written for jazz and classical ensembles, including combos, chamber groups and large ensembles such as orchestras and wind bands. He has particular interest in program-type music such as music for film and musical theater. Past works include Le Voyage Dans la Lune (The Voyagae to the Moon), in which Eric scored a soundtrack for the 1902 silent film of the same name by George Melies. Most recently, Eric co-wrote an original musical that was staged in May 2014. Eric has been privileged to study composition with Dr. Paul Elwood and Dr. Eric Alexander.
As a trombonist, Eric has played in University of Nothern Colorado’s (UNC) Lab Band I, University Orchestra, and Wind Ensemble as well as the By the Numbers Soundpainting Ensemble and other groups in Northern Colorado and Denver. His recent endeavors include A Bisl Klezmer and By the Numbers Soundpainting Ensemble. In 2011, Eric was a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Concerto Competition. He also enjoys teaching private and group trombone lessons as well as composition and theory lessons.
Eric is available for commissions from interested parties and superhero-type-team-up collaborations with other aspiring creative professionals.