The UTC Music Department proudly presents three of the UTC faculty, Nikolasa Tejero, Dr. Sin-Hsing Tsai with guest Dr. Monte Coulter in a performance of music for clarinet with piano and with percussion on Friday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall of the UTC Fine Arts Center.
Tsai has concertized in Taiwan, China, Korea, Argentina, Germany, and the United States, and has collaborated with many prominent musicians on both sides of the Atlantic. She has participated in several music festivals in the States and abroad, and has premiered numerous contemporary compositions in different settings. Her performing experience extends beyond the concert hall, with broadcasts in Buenos Aires and Chattanooga, and source music recordings for film and theater productions in Los Angeles. Actively involved in the community, she has presented several outreach concerts and workshops. Tsai teaches piano, piano pedagogy and piano literature. She is the recipient of the 2003 UTC Outstanding Creative Scholarship Award and was named UC Foundation Assistant Professor of Music in 2004.
Tejero was born in Mérida, México, and moved to the United States with her family in 1983. From an early age, she was influenced by the music of her native Yucatán and began her formal music training at the age of twelve. She distinguished herself as a promising clarinetist. While still in school, she received the Outstanding Performer Award at the 1991 International Music Festival in Sydney, Australia. She received her undergraduate degree at UTC and now holds a Master of Music degree in clarinet performance from Baylor University in Texas. An active performer, Tejero is a frequent recitalist and soloist. She has been the concerto soloist with the Cadek Chamber Orchestra, The Southern Adventist University Orchestra and the UTC Orchestra. In the spring of 2005 she appeared in concert in Chicago with the trio Tresillo and performed again the fall of 2005. She performed in concert with pianist Sin-Hsing Tsai in September 2005 at UTC. In the spring of 2006 she took part in UTC’s presentation of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. In addition she plays E-flat clarinet with the Chattanooga symphony Orchestra and the Clarinet Choir of the Chattanooga Clarinet Society, of which she is a founding member and serves as current president; that ensemble was featured in the Vandoren Centennial Clarinet choir Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Tejero is the coordinator of clarinet studies, teaches Introduction to Music, Music theory and directs the UTC Clarinet Ensemble.
Tejero will be joined by Coulter for one piece on the program for percussion and clarinet. Coulter is the director of percussion studies at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Coordinator of the Graduate School of Music. He received his B.S. degree in Music Education, and his M.M. degree from The University of Tennessee- Knoxville, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Memphis in 1994. He is currently Principal Percussionist/ Assistant Timpanist of the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, and has performed as a principal player in three of the four largest professional orchestras in Tennessee, as well as with the touring companies of Man of La Mancha (with Robert Goulet), Rich Little, The Electric Light Orchestra, The Moody Blues, Bernadette Peters, Shari Lewis, Al Jarreau, Art Garfunkel, Randy Newman, and others.
