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Keep an eye out for new class and division information.Early registration November 1, 2024.    
 Connect, create, and celebrate with musicians and dancers of all ages through education, competition, and community partnerships. 2024 festival divisions include: Ballet, Brass, Flute, Piano, Reed, String, and Voice!
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MusicFest Northwest
Born in Sweden, Anna Lantz started her ballet training at a young age at the Storan in Goteborg. She attended The Royal Ballet School (RBS) in London, England and graduated from the RBS Teacher Training Course. As Head Student with the highest honor, she was one of only five instructors in the United States to possess the following ballet pedagogy qualifications: The RBS Three-Year Teachers Diploma, Imperial Society for Teachers of Dance (ISTD) Cecchetti Associate Teaching Diploma and the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) Teaching Diploma. Upon graduating from RBS, Lantz was immediately offered a full-time position at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart, Germany, where she taught for five years.

In 2004, Lantz became a full-time faculty member at Boston Ballet School, the largest school of its kind in North America. As the Ballet Mistress for the School, Lantz rehearsed children’s roles for several full-length ballets including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Sylphide and The Nutcracker. Following that, she was promoted to Head of Elementary Programs where she developed the syllabus and curriculum. In 2007, Lantz was appointed Assistant Choreographer for Disney’s number one box office hit, the movie The Game Plan with “The Rock” featuring students from Boston Ballet School.

As School Director for the Academy of Nevada Ballet Theatre 2009-2021, Lantz managed the artistic and operational activities for the Academy’s Pre-Professional Ballet Program and Children’s Program including overseeing the student body and faculty, established policies and procedures, and developed curriculum. In addition, she produced the annual spring concerts, where she was responsible for choreographing and staging full-length ballets for both the Pre-Professional Ballet Program and the Children’s Ballet Program.

Lantz has taught at the University level as well; she was an Adjunct Professor at Dean College, Emerson College and has taught at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Lantz is also a certified yoga instructor and has been lauded for her unique ability to instruct students of all ages and levels.

Iranian American flutist, Mehrdad Gholami, received presidential award and Iran’s National Elites Foundation scholarship to continue his training at the University of Tehran.

As an orchestral player, he started with Tehran’s ensembles such as Tehran Contemporary Ensemble, Tehran City Hall Orchestra and Tehran Symphony. Later, he came back to work with TSO as their principal flute. Other orchestral appearances include Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra (Los Angeles), Fort Worth symphony and McKinney Philharmonic.

A recipient of Susan and Ford Schumann fellowship in 2017, Mehrdad attended Aspen Music Festival, where he served as Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (ACE) flute fellow and studied with Nadine Asin, Mark Sparks and Demarre McGill for three consecutive summers (2017-19).

Mehrdad’s first solo album was published by his alma mater, University of Tehran, in a joint project with Iran Flute Society. Mehrdad’s efforts in presenting, performing, and publishing new Iranian music has led to a growth of compositions for flute by Iranian composers and similar projects inspired by his “Iran Flute Project”. In August 2023, Mehrdad’s dissertation was named the winner of National Flute Association’s Graduate Research Competition.

Dr. Mehrdad Gholami is the Assistant Professor of Flute at Western Washington University and coordinator of the woodwinds area. For more information please visit: www.MehrdadGholami.com

Jeffrey Savage is active internationally as both soloist and chamber musician and has been praised as “fearless” (Straits Times, Singapore), “joyful and inspiring” (American Record Guide), and “breathtaking” (Navona/PARMA). Recent performances include China’s Wuhan Conservatory (Liszt’s Totentanz), premieres of Daniel Ott’s Fantasy on a Falling Line in New York and Vietnam, and broadcasts on national NPR stations.

His piano duo 88SQUARED recorded the complete two-piano works of Daniel Ott (Navona/PARMA) and Lowell Liebermann (Albany Records), produced by the composers. Jeffrey has also worked with Tania León, Laura Schwendinger, John Corigliano, Charles Argersinger, Eric Ewazen, and Alex Shapiro, among others.

Savage has performed in Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, at festivals across the United States, and with orchestras in New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and in the Pacific Northwest. He has given performances and master classes nationally and at major conservatories throughout Asia, including China, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, and India. Jeffrey has won top prizes and been recognized in national and international competitions, including the Missouri Southern International, Fort Collins, Wideman Competitions, Ellis Piano Duo Competition, the Abild Prize in American Music, and second prize and a Special Mention Prize at Concours Grieg International Piano Competition (Oslo).

Students of Jeffrey Savage have been accepted at prestigious festivals and programs across North America and Europe, awarded Fulbright fellowships, and presented at national MTNA and Collegiate Piano Pedagogy Symposium conferences. Previously, Dr. Savage was professor and keyboard area coordinator at Washington State University and in both the college and pre-college divisions at Juilliard. He holds master’s and doctorate degrees from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Colorado. His major teachers include Angela Cheng, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Robert Spillman, Martin Canin, and Rudolph Barta. He frequently presents workshops, and adjudicates at regional and national festivals and competitions.

Praised as a “tour de force” (Santa Barbara News-Press), for “breathtaking beauty and pure lyricism” (Le Soleil, Vancouver), and for “fearless performance” (The Straits Times, Singapore), Karen Hsiao Savage is Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano and Coordinator of Chamber Music at UMKC Conservatory. She holds a doctoral and two master’s degrees (in solo and collaborative piano) from Juilliard, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Victoria (Canada).

Karen has performed internationally in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Shanghai Grand Theatre, and Perlman Music Program, with broadcasts on internationally syndicated NPR programs and on Vietnamese and Chinese national television. Recent activities include performances with members of the Kansas City Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Chiara quartet’s Hyeyung Yoon and Gregory Beaver, an album of works by women composers with oboist Celeste Johnson, recordings with euphonium/tuba player Chris Dickey, and the recording premiere of Jim Stephenson’s Sonata for Oboe and Piano (Fall 2023).

Upcoming projects include a staged version of Rome Prize winner Paul Rudy’s A Time of Ma’at for two pianos with choreography by Guggenheim Fellow Gary Abbott, highlighting the experience of mass incarceration.

Working closely and frequently with living composers, 88SQUARED, Karen’s piano duo with husband Jeffrey, has received critical praise from American Record Guide and Fanfare for recording premieres of two-piano works by Lowell Liebermann (Albany Records) and by Daniel Ott (Navonna/PARMA Records), albums that were led and produced by the composer. 88SQUARED has also commissioned and premiered works by Yotam Haber, Paul Rudy, and Heather Schmidt. The duo won the Ellis Duo Piano Competition, the Abild Prize in American Music, and second prize and special mention at Concours Grieg International Competition (Norway).

Karen leads UMKC Conservatory’s Kauffman Community Outreach Project, sending student fellows to perform chamber music in hospitals, hospice, senior homes, and other venues in Kansas City. She created the Conservatory’s new Collaborative Piano MM degree program, which welcomed its first class in Fall 2022.

Dr. Savage is in demand as a presenter, adjudicator, and guest teacher. Her students are active in the field as performers and teachers. Karen previously served on the faculty of Washington State University. Her performances, master classes, and presentations include those at Indiana University, Eastman School of Music, Musi-Quest National Piano Festival (India), Ho Chi Minh Conservatory (Vietnam), and Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore). Karen’s major teachers include Jonathan Feldman, Veda Kaplinsky, Margo Garrett, Sam Sanders, Robin and Winifred Wood and Edward Parker; additional studies were with Anne Epperson and Robert McDonald.

Maxine Ramey has been a Professor of Clarinet for 36 years in universities and colleges in Montana and New Mexico. She is Professor Emeritus Director of the School of Music at the University of Montana. In 2008 she was named a Distinguished Professor of Music and in 2013 she was awarded the Outstanding Administrator for the University of Montana.

Ramey has been clarinetist with the Sapphire Trio for 26 years (Sapphire3.org). She has performed at numerous International Clarinet Association (ICA) Clarinetfests in the U.S. and internationally, giving concerts in 45 of the US states and 6 continents. She premiered works by iconic American composers Vincent Persichetti and David Maslanka. As Solo/Principal Clarinet with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, she premiered new works by important 20th century composers Jean Francaix, Jacques Casterede and William Bolcom. As an expert/leader for Smithsonian Journeys, she provided lectures and walking tours for The Smithsonian Institution in Austria, Hungary and Poland.

From 2010-2015 Ramey served on the board of directors of the ICA and was elected by the international membership as president in 2014. She received her Bachelor of Music from Arizona State University, her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from Michigan State University.

Stephen Miahky is the Joseph Joachim Chair of Violin and First Violin of the Blair String Quartet at Vanderbilt University. He is a rotating concertmaster of the IRIS Collective in Memphis and has been guest concertmaster of the Kansas City Symphony, Illinois Symphony, Orchestra Kentucky, Columbus ProMusica Orchestra in Ohio, and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston. He has collaborated with many of the great artists of our time, including Lynn Harrell, Joseph Silverstein, Martin Beaver, Jinjoo Cho, Glenn Dicterow, Norman Fischer, Martin Katz, and Steven Doane. As a sought-after interpreter of contemporary music, He can be heard in recordings on the Naxos, Albany, AMP, New Dynamic, and Edition Modern record labels. He received his B.M. and M.M. degrees from the University of Michigan and his D.M.A. from Rutgers University. His teachers were Alan Bodman, Paul Kantor, and Arnold Steinhardt. He spends his summers as a resident artist at the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival in eastern Washington, and as a faculty member at Encore Chamber Music and the Brevard Music Center.

Canadian Cellist Valdine Ritchie Mishkin is a diverse musician, recognized as a gifted cello teacher and an avid solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. Valdine champions contemporary music with Third Angle, Fear No Music, and March Modern, as featured live on All-Classical FM Portland’s Club Mod and Thursdays at Three. A chamber music enthusiast, she performs Latin-American music as Duo Apaixionado with Peruvian guitarist Alfredo Muro, performs “the classics” with the passionate Crescendo Project, and collaborates in faculty recitals at Willamette University and with pianists Maria Garcia and Steve Lewis. She recently launched the Valley View Chamber Concerts series that hosts soloists and chamber ensembles in intimate salon-style house recitals paired with themed food and wine. Valdine is a regular extra cellist with the Oregon Symphony, sectional coach with the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and formerly performed with the Houston Grand Opera and Mercury Baroque Ensemble. Debuting at age 10 as a soloist with the Winnipeg Symphony, Valdine has since performed concerti with the Mercury Ensemble, Chehalem Symphony, Chamber Camp of Portland, McGill Symphony, the Winnipeg Youth Symphony, and with the Sunnyside Symphony.

Equally dedicated to teaching the youngest students in early education as well as training advanced cellists, Valdine serves on the faculty at Reed College (previously at Willamette University and George Fox University), teaches a bustling studio of cellists in West Linn, and as faculty at the Walla Walla Suzuki Institute. Her students are frequent solo competition winners and scholarship recipients, earn distinction awards in ABRSM exams, sit principal in area youth orchestras, and attend nationally-recognized summer programs such as BUTI at Tanglewood and Center Stage. Committed to reaching the next generation of musicians, she presents at conferences, adjudicates regional and national festivals, and serves on the boards of Third Angle New Music and the Portland Boychoir.

Valdine holds a Doctorate and Masters in Music from Rice University as a student of Lynn Harrell and Norman Fischer, a Bachelor of Music from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) as a student of Antonio Lysy, and holds both performance diplomas (A.R.C.T.) and teaching certificates in cello and piano from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto as a student of Julie Banton and Ann Lugsdin (Winnipeg). Performing across Canada, U.S.A. and Europe, Valdine’s development was shaped by such festivals as Tanglewood, Orford, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada’s National Music Competition Festival (3rd prize winner), and Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra Academy, by masterclasses with Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Zara Nelsova, David Finckel, the Juilliard Quartet, and Arnold Steinhardt, and under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Larry Rachleff and Timothy Vernon.

Garik Pedersen, a Steinway Artist, is enjoying a rewarding post-academic career as a teacher, performer, and researcher in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2023 he recorded a CD of solo and chamber works for piano by British composer Sasha Johnson Manning. In May, 2024, he is featured on TV in season three of Secret History of WWII (Fox Nation) for The Victory Vertical Project, his touring lecture-performance that tells the musical story of small pianos built for the military during World War II.

His performance career has taken him throughout the US and to Europe, Asia, Canada, Central America, and the Philippines. He has presented programs for the State Department, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and professional music teacher associations in the US, Europe, Canada, and Taiwan. His recordings can be found on the Albany, Regents, and Hornblower labels and he has performed on numerous public television and radio broadcasts.

Pedersen taught for over 30 years at Eastern Michigan University, which granted him emeritus status in 2021. At EMU his piano studio included prizewinners in national, international, regional and state competitions.

A scholarship student of Wesley True at the University of Central Missouri, which named him Distinguished Alumnus in Music, he was a DMA piano student of John Simms at the University of Iowa. Other major influences have been Gyorgy Sebok, Eugene Bossart, and Edwin E. Gordon.

Garik is a past president of Michigan Music Teachers Association, which honored him with its Distinguished Service Award in 2016. He received the Michigan Touchstone Award in 2017 in recognition of his “commitment to Michigan’s artistic excellence and his advocacy for the arts.”

Kenneth Christensen, nationally certified teacher of music and pianist, has appeared as a soloist and collaborative artist throughout his home state of Montana as well as the United States, Europe and Asia. His international performances include collaboration with composers and conductors John Rutter and the late Sir Richard Wilcox in performances at Kings College Chapel Cambridge, England and London’s Royal Albert Hall. Other international appearances include performances at the First American Invitational Music Festival in China and the Philippines and the Montana State University 2012 Alumni Chorale Tour of Italy, Switzerland and France. His academic achievements include receiving the prestigious “Award in Excellence in Teaching” while serving on the faculty at the School of Music at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.

Mr. Christensen served as President for the Music Teachers National Association from 2013 to 2015 and received a Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fellow in the spring of 2017. Currently Mr. Christensen continues to remain active as a performer and serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor of Piano at Montana State University where his students continue to win state and regional competitions. In 2014

Mr. Christensen was awarded the Montana State Music Teachers Association “Teacher of the Year.” As a member of Music Teachers National Association Mr. Christensen travels the Pacific Northwest judging piano competitions as well as presenting workshops and master classes for students and teachers. In the fall of 1997 Mr. Christensen collaborated with pianist Liza Hella to form their piano duo “2 Pianos 4 Hands.” Together they concertized throughout the United States and performed their New York recital debut in April of 2006 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. In early 2008 “2 Pianos 4 Hands” appeared on the Emmy Award winning Montana PBS television program “11th and Grant” with Eric Funk. Mr. Christensen earned a Bachelor of Music Degree from Montana State University and completed the Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Montana.

California-born soprano Mary Ellen Callahan appears frequently as soloist in a variety of repertoires. In a recent performance of Carmina Burana at the Metropolitan Opera house with American Ballet Theatre, the New York Times said she was “first-rate”. She performed Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Utah Symphony and conductor Keith Lockhart and was called “stunning” by the Salt Lake Tribune. In a performance of the Mozart Great Mass in C Minor, the Washington Post hailed her as “radiant and wondrously agile”. She has been invited to sing the Messiah by conductor Richard Westerfield with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Harrisburg Symphony. She sang performances of Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra where critics said “she radiated a purity and warmth which pierced the heart”, and was invited to return to the NMSO to sing Mozart concert arias and Requiem, as well as the Handel Messiah in subsequent seasons.

She is a frequent soloist with the American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, and has performed a program of Bach cantatas and the B Minor Mass with them. In a performance of Handel’s Messiah with the San Antonio Symphony, she was praised for her “liquid silver fluency”. Collaborating repeatedly with the Washington Bach Consort, she has been a soloist in Bach’s Missae Breves and B Minor Mass, the CPE Bach Magnificat and many cantatas, and she was also engaged by that group for their tour of Germany. She has performed Bach’s B minor Mass in Washington DC’s Kennedy Center with Norman Scribner and Bach’s St. John Passion in New York’s Lincoln Center with Kent Tritle.

In Carnegie Hall, she has performed the Bach Christmas Oratorio, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Handel’s Messiah and a solo recital in Weill Hall to a sold-out house. She recently sang the Bach Christmas Oratorio with the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. She was a soloist in several performances of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Hartford Symphony and previously with conductor Bill McGlaughlin in his farewell performance with the Kansas City Symphony. In New York City’s Town Hall she has sung Handel’s Alexander’s Feast with the Dessoff Choirs. Ms. Callahan sang Bach’s Wedding Cantata in an enthusiastically received performance with Musica Sacra conducted by Richard Westenburg. Familiar to New York City audiences as soloist with the Collegiate Chorale, the Riverside Choral Society, the Dessoff Choirs and the Central City Chorus, she has performed works including Mahler’s Second Symphony, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, the Fauré Requiem, Handel’s Judas Maccabeus, the Haydn Lord Nelson Mass and Mass in Time of War, Mozart’s Solemn Vespers, Purcell’s Dioclesian, the Poulenc Gloria, and Schubert’s Mass in G.

Ms. Callahan won first prize in the Musica Sacra Bach Competition and third prize in the New York Oratorio Society Competition. She has won fellowships to both the Stonybrook Bach Aria Festival and the Carmel Bach Festival. Invited to return to the Carmel Bach Festival as soloist in subsequent seasons, she received reviews which spoke of her “exceptionally pure tone” and “compellingly lovely voice”.

Ms. Callahan’s recently recorded Gluck’s operas La Corona and Il Parnaso Confuso with the Queen’s Chamber Band for Albany Records. She can also be heard in the world premiere recording of Handel’s opera Faramondo, a Vox Classics CD. With the Washington Bach Consort and conductor J. Reilly Lewis she has recorded the J.S. and C.P.E. Bach Magnificats, available from Newport Classics, as well as The Bach Masses, available on Loft Recordings. She is featured on a Helicon Classics CD called A European Christmas, and she is the guest soloist with the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York in a CD of contemporary Russian music by Yuri Yukechev entitled My Heart Is Ready, released by Helicon Classics. Ms. Callahan also sings songs by Amy Beach on the Newport classics CD entitled Distant Playing Fields.