Town of Lewisville recently issued the following announcement.
Join us for an afternoon of superb music with the Clarinets in Rhapsody concert featuring the UNSCA Clarinet Quintet. The concert will be held from 3 until 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 20, 2022 at the Mary Alice Warren Community Center in Lewisville. The Quintet features Oskar Espina Ruiz, Clara Ruiz Medina, Mya Gibson, Manuela Miranda Puerta, B flat Clarinet; and Casey McGuire, Bass Clarinet. Admission is free; however, seating is LIMITED. The sponsorship for the concert was made possible by the Shallowford Foundation.
Oskar Espina-Ruiz
Oskar Espina-Ruiz is associate professor of clarinet at UNCSA. Described by the press as a "masterful soloist" (La Nacion, Costa Rica) and a "highly expressive clarinetist" (Nevskoye Vremia, Russia), he has performed at major concert halls and festivals to high critical acclaim, including concerto performances at the Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, and recitals in New York City, Washington DC, Moscow, Madrid, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Espina-Ruiz has appeared as soloist with the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony (Russia), St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic (Russia), Orquesta Sinfonica de la Ciudad de Asuncion (Paraguay) and Bilbao Symphony (Spain). His chamber music collaborations include the American, Argus, Ariel, Cassatt, Daedalus, Escher, Shanghai and Verona quartets, the Quintet of the Americas, pianists Benjamin Hochman, Ursula Oppens and Anthony Newman, and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra artists. He has recorded for the Bridge, Kobaltone and Prion labels, receiving high critical acclaim by fellow clarinetists Richard Stoltzman and Charles Neidich for his solo recording "Julian Menendez Rediscovered." He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University.
Clara Ruiz Medina
Clara Ruiz Medina began studying the clarinet at the Conservatory of Music "Oreste Camarca" (Soria, Spain) with Prof. Vicente Ferrer Cabaleiro. She continue studying at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico with Prof. Kathleen Jones. Right now, she is studying her master's degree at UNCSA with Dr. Oskar Espina Ruiz, currently being his teaching assistant. Clara has been part of different ensembles and chamber groups as Odon Alonso Ensemble, Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de Puerto Rico, Alea 21 contemporary ensemble, and the Woodwind Ensamble and Orchestra of the CMPR. In 2018, Clara was named concertmaster of the woodwind ensemble of the CMPR until her graduation. She has participated in two Clarinet Fest as member of the CMPR Clarinet Choir and has taken master classes with Rafael Climent Rineda, José Franch Ballester, Mark Nuccio, Michel Lutiec and Jonathan Gunn. Clara, in addition to her musical development she is very interested in history and research.
Mya Gibson
Mya Gibson is a current third-year undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studies Clarinet Performance under the guidance of Dr. Oskar Espina-Ruiz. She has always had a passion for performing, teaching, and arts administration. During her education at UNCSA, Mya has performed with the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra, A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, UNCSA Wind Ensemble, and multiple chamber groups.
Manuela Miranda Puerta
Manuela Miranda Puerta began her musical studies at the age of 16 in Red de escuelas de musica de Medellin, where she was part of the youth symphonic band, a group with which she toured Europe in 2013 and participated in several band conferences. She has taken master classes with well-known clarinetists such as José Franch Ballester, Gabriele Mirabassi, Paquito D'Rivera, among others. For this same year (2013), she entered the music program at the University of Antioquia where she was part of the main band and the orchestra. As of 2019, she began his studies in clarinet under the tutorship of the Dr. Oskar Espina Ruiz at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she has had the opportunity to play with the woodwind ensemble, the student orchestra, and different chamber music groups and the opportunity to receive master classes with renowned clarinetists such as Charles Neidich.
Casey McGuire
Casey McGuire is the bass clarinetist in the UNCSA Clarinet Quintet. He is from Charlotte, North Carolina and is a senior in UNCSA’s High School program. Casey plays clarinet and bass clarinet for the UNCSA Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble. He plans to further his studies in clarinet performance after high school.
Town of Lewisville, NC
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up