Many thanks to Fanfare Magazine for reviewing “Moxie“ by the Chamber Winds of South Dakota!

This article originally appeared in Issue 49:3 (Jan/Feb 2026) of Fanfare Magazine.

Moxie is the debut release for the newly formed Chamber Winds of South Dakota. The ensemble is comprised of talented musicians, professors, conductors, producers, and arts administrators. It seems to be a Who’s Who ensemble for many high-achieving wind players from throughout the Midwest with a strong focus on South Dakota. The ensemble consists of Elizabeth Robinson and Stephanie Kocher on flute; Jennifer Wohlenhaus Bloomberg and Robin Michelle Sweeden on oboe; Michael Walsh and Beverly Gibson on clarinet; James Compton and Martin J. Van Klompenberg on bassoon; Sam Gowen and Amy Laursen on horn; and Mark Stevens on piano.

I wish that there were more chamber wind groups that performed this type of repertoire around the U.S. I often feel that we are limited as musicians to either having to gravitate to playing in smaller chamber groups like a quartet, trio, or duo or are pushed toward the larger ensembles like the full-orchestra setting. In most areas of the U.S., universities are one of the primary places where this type of chamber music receives regular attention. Having more ensembles that encompass players from multiple institutions can help keep the art form strong and communities collaborating.

I appreciate the ensemble creating a link through the theme even if each piece wasn’t dedicated to the exact same topic. My favorite piece included is Jonathan Newman’s Concertino for Flute Solo, Chamber Winds, and Piano. Personally, I always gravitate to Newman’s works as they never disappoint.

The recording was completed and produced by founder Meerenai Shim with her studio Aerocade Music. Shim has a deep personal understanding of how to record for winds unique to someone who has played a wind instrument for much of her life. The balance and clarity are stellar from beginning to end. I look forward to hearing the next release from the Chamber Winds of South Dakota. Natalie Szabo

Many thanks to Take Effect for reviewing “Moxie” by the Chamber Winds of South Dakota!

A highly eloquent affair that thematically surrounds the landscape of Utah, the aftermath of Trayvon Martin’s death, and hardship of musicians following Covid, every selection here is flawlessly executed and appreciated.

Read the rest!

“This disc presents music that is clever, delightful, and sometimes thought-provoking, all in excellent performances. Not just for flutists.”

— Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine

This article originally appeared in Issue 49:3 (Jan/Feb 2026) of Fanfare Magazine.

Mostly bird-themed works provide the material for this delightful celebration of things avian via the medium of flute(s) and piccolo.

The disc begins with Gay Kahkonen’s Missouri Adventure for four flutes, the opening “Forest and Sky” seeming to owe a debt to Copland’s famous Fanfare. The second movement, “The River is Wide,” is full of crosscurrents, as it were, between flutes, with the cheekiest of closes. Energy pervades “Missouri Adventure” with a sense of abandon that seems to invoke childhood shapes. Listen carefully, though, and one hears spot-on ensemble. The players have managed to combine this with a palpable sense of vitality in the recording studio: no mean feat. This piece was commissioned as a celebration of Missouri’s statehood bicentennial; the inspiration is that state’s many national parks.

Ensemble trills, so neat and buzzing here, launch Kimberly R. Osberg’s Fowl Play. The first movement has the intriguing tile “Discopeckque.” The music of the whole piece explores exotic chickens (who knew?), four types, one per movement, each capturing the specific type of chicken’s characteristics. “Discopeckque” is expertly written, its complexities minimized through expert performance here to reveal a piece that just puts a smile on one’s face. “Chasing Tail” is more circumspect (or is that “Cicums-peck-t”?), with a nicely varied timbal surface (no missing the “whistling” piccolo). “Featherbrained” is almost a chorale for flutes with a hint of an American folk song about it. Nicely lyrical, this is a most enjoyable 2.5 minutes (including some interesting, gentle, chicken-y effects). “Cock Flight” is a varied finale and is certainly not throw-away. Again the flutists negotiate the territory with expertise. It is with a piece by Osberg that the disc ends, Hoppy Feet for solo flute, a delightful portrait of the Rockhopper penguin, described in the notes as “the world’s smallest—and arguably, most ridiculous—penguin” which is “known as much for its unusual antics as its distinctive plumage.” Osberg honors both the unusual elements but also accords the penguin respect by not overly making fun of it. Effects are done with pomp and ease by Robinson.

I do think more space between tracks would be good: “Cock Flight” goes pretty much straight into Nicole Chamberlain’s Death Whistle. Interestingly, works by Osberg and Chamberlain also featured on the Merian Ensemble’s Navona release Book of Spells (which I reviewed in Fanfare 48:2). Here, we have Chamberlain’s Death Whistle for solo piccolo (Elizabeth Robinson getting a chance to shine alone). Written for the present performer, it is apparently full of inside jokes. Even without being privy to these, it works, full of clever effects in “Ear Knife” before the slower “Ballistophobia” pits blowed notes with more percussive effects. The final “#PiccolOhMyGod” continues the effects but in a more frenzied, yet somehow cheeky fashion. The other Chamberlain piece occurs toward the end of the disc: the flighty Spooklight, which celebrates an urban legend from Joplin, Missouri. It “flirts with the supernatural” according to the notes. It’s basically Halloween fun, and all the better for it. It is also expertly written and perfectly delivered here.

That sudden move from track to track does mean that the sudden arrival of a couple of flutes for Lisa Bost-Sandberg’s Starling after the solo piccolo Death Whistle is a bit sudden. Slowly additive chords change color intriguingly: this is expert writing. The piece celebrates “the beautiful murmurations flocks create.” At just a touch over seven minutes, this is the disc’s space for reflection. There appears to be a bass flute in the equation, nice and throaty.

Ann McKennon’s Flamingo! paints a ground-based ballet of flamingoes with great wit, again for flute ensemble. Another expert, light touch at work from the composer here, and the influence of ballet (Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker to the fore, it seems) is clear.

This disc presents music that is clever, delightful, and sometimes thought-provoking, all in excellent performances. Not just for flutists. Colin Clarke

Celebrate with us on Sunday, March 23, 2025 at the Center for New Music in San Francisco.

Sunday, March 23, 2025
7PM
Tickets: $25 general/$20 for members
Center for New Music
55 Taylor St. San Francisco, CA

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Center for New Music Event page

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2025 is the 10th year of Aerocade Music and the first year as a non-profit record label. Celebrate with us at our Birthday Concert featuring performances by Aerocade Artists Isaac Io Schankler, Nick Norton, Elizabeth Robinson, Alchymie & Gregg Skloff, and Chelsea Hollow & Taylor Chan. Arrive on time for a pre-concert reception catered by local musician and vegan chef, Philip Gelb!

Nick Norton will provide a live spatial mix of his new piece for four harps, recorded by Elizabeth Huston. Soprano Chelsea Hollow and pianist Taylor Chan will perform selections from "Cycles of Resistance," a cathartic and resilient journey through international resistance movements from the last 120 years. Flutist Elizabeth Robinson will perform "Death Whistle" for solo piccolo by Nicole Chamberlain. Isaac Io Schankler will premiere some nascent works for accordion + electronics. Alchymie & Gregg Skloff will present "TRITION: Echoes from the Ice Moon," an improvisational performance weaving deep drone, ambient textures, and ethereal soundscapes to evoke the mysterious beauty of Neptune's largest moon. Through shifting sonic currents, the keyboard and contrabass duo explores Triton's icy geysers, retrograde orbit, and haunting solitude in the vastness of space.

Performers:

ALCHYMIE

Alchymie /aka Jennifer Theuer Růžička/, was created in 2013. Through electronic and acoustic instruments, sound loops, improvisation and field recordings Alchymie spans ambient soundscapes, electronica, new age and drone; painting textural atmospheres of sound for recordings or performances with a conceptual focus. Alchymie explores sound as a way to provide multidimensional well-being, create community, and open discussions about the power of sound in our world today.

Jennifer has been composing and performing professionally for over 30 years. Classically trained in piano performance with an eclectic background in R&B, funk, fusion, rock, jazz, pop, new age, and experimental. Diving into esoteric electronica as a member of the Beta Lyra project, exploring the cosmos by collaborating with experimental drone artist Gregg Skloff, and performing & recording internationally— having toured with Alexander O’Neal, former Paisley Park artist David “T.C.” Ellis, Mallia “The Queen of Funk” Franklin from Parliament-Funkadelic and Parlet; and performances with Czech legends Pavel Bobek, and Karel Šůcha and Laura A Její Tygří(Laura and Her Tigers). Collaborations with Fred Johnson- acclaimed jazz vocalist/author/arts educator and artist-in-residence at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Fl; The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Fl for the exhibition Dalí’s Floral Fantasies.

She has taught piano throughout her career both in the USA and Czech Republic to young and old, helping them to discover the joy within music and in learning an instrument.

Jennifer continues to follow Alchymie in music, searching for the beauty that is transformation.

GREGG SKLOFF

Noticing contrabassist Gregg Skloff [he/his] carrying his instrument on a city sidewalk, a passing stranger once asked him, “Classical or jazz?”

Gregg’s reply: “All of the above AND BEYOND!”

This remark, while glib, is quite apt; as his album The Glacial Enclosure (Eiderdown Records, 2016) – along with his other work – can demonstrate, Gregg Skloff manages to combine and transcend many lineages and languages of composition and improvisation.

Gregg’s scope has encompassed various forms and hybrids of rock, folk, jazz, chamber music, noise, sound-object installation, and non-idiomatic improvisation. His solo efforts have largely inhabited the realm of minimal electro-acoustic ambient drone, heard to profound effect on albums such as This Time The Ride Belongs To Us (2014), Mamua Baso Suite (2019), and River Cat Cenotaph (2021).

Based in the Pacific Northwest since 1997, Gregg Skloff has played in ensembles led by Bhob Rainey, John Gruntfest, Urs Leimgruber, Moe! Staiano, Matana Roberts, and Gino Robair, among others. He has been a member of The Naked Future (also featuring bass clarinetist Arrington de Dionyso, pianist Thollem McDonas, and drummer John Niekrasz), whose album Gigantomachia was released by ESP-Disk’ in 2009, and more recently of Humming Amps Trio (led by Kevin Doria of GROWING). From 2011 to 2019, Gregg hosted the “And Otherness” program on Coast Community Radio, where his affinity for innovative, ethereal, and/or outré sounds led writer Robert Ham to describe him as “one of the Oregon coast’s finest supporters of experimental music.”

CHELSEA HOLLOW

Dazzling audiences with her easy coloratura, storytelling, and passionate performances, Chelsea Hollow loves finding new ways of connecting her art to the world around her. She “shows how it’s done” with her “fun and effortless” performances curated to welcome audiences into the intimacy of recital seamlessly weaving together music from all eras and genres. Recent operatic performances include Birds and Balls with Opera Parallèle, Dolores with West Edge Opera, and Albert Herring with Pocket Opera. Known for her “soaring high range” and “stage panache,” favorite traditional roles include Die Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte/Mozart), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos/Strauss), Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail/Mozart), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann/Offenbach), Lakmé (Lakmé/Delibes), and Marie (La Fille du régiment/Donizetti). Concert appearances include Concerto for Two Orchestras (Gubaidulina) with the Berkeley Symphony, Carmina Burana (Orff) and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra and Judas Maccabaeus by Handel with the San Francisco City Chorus.

Chelsea Hollow “has rewritten the book on the potential of musical activism” creating art that invites her audiences to think collectively and gain perspective. In 2023, she released her debut album, Cycles of Resistance, including 22 commissions in 8 languages chronicling international stories of human resilience. In recognition of this project, Chelsea presented on a panel hosted by the United Nations’ Office of Human Rights to discuss Art and Activism. Hollow cherishes her mission as an artist to build capacity for empathy, harness a venue for community healing, and amplify marginalized voices.

In addition to her solo work, Hollow createdAllowed to be Loud (2021) for the students of San Francisco Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (RASOTA) Vocal Department, commissioning song repertoire for young voices using texts by Bay Area high school students, The Kids and Art Foundation, and other anonymous community members. Highlights from the 21 commissioned songs include, “Being a Student in 2020” (Emily Shisko), “The Future Holds Water in a Wicker Basket” (Joel Chapman), and “I am Growing” (JooWan Kim). For more information on Chelsea’s work, please visit chelseahollow.com.

TAYLOR CHAN

Taylor Chan learned the art of collaboration—in music and in life—while completing her M.M. in Collaborative Piano at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. There, she is currently a staff accompanist and coach to students in Voice / Opera Studies, and has the pleasure of regularly performing alongside them in musical theater and opera productions. She has also held various administrative positions at SFCM in production-adjacent roles, enjoying projects that involve technical writing, data management, creating efficient systems, and identifying ways to optimize collaborative workflow.

Most recently, her relationship with music has expanded in the direction of pedagogy, as she actualizes her general life-calling of knowledge transmission. She would like to pass on her methodologies of self-led skill acquisition to younger artists’, in order to enable them to transcend the limitations of their personal challenges, to raise their ceilings of self-expression and self-actualization.

In addition, she enjoys analyzing piano technique and articulating principles of its physics and physiology, approaching it as a simultaneously scientific and spiritual study. She wishes to change the culture in which chronic repetitive-stress injuries are a given, yet rarely openly discussed.

Her favorite past performances include: the full-length version premiere of Mortal Lessons (2018), a medical oratorio by Ryan Brown (b. 1979); Meredith Monk’s Ellis Island, with pianist Kate Campbell, in a side-by-side concert between SFCM and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (2018); Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians at the 2019 Hot Air Music Festival, and Philip Glass’ La Belle et la Bête with Opera Parallelè.

Outside of music, her interests include interpersonal psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, writing, design, visual art, and cats.

NICK NORTON

Nick Norton makes things out of sound. His debut album Music For Sunsets caused electronica.org.uk to proclaim him a composer and sound artist to be reckoned with, and Foxy Digitalis called the album an expensive sonic treat.

Born in Los Angeles, Nick grew up going to shows in the Ventura County punk scene, playing sax in his school’s jazz band, and spending summers on Catalina Island. He went to college at UC San Diego, where he discovered minimalism, noise rock, and avant garde classical music, and graduate school for composition at King’s College, London, and UC Santa Barbara. While earning his PhD Nick assisted electronic music pioneers Clarence Barlow and Curtis Roads with their work and got hooked on using audio technology to make art. During this time he founded and ran the experimental concert series Equal Sound, completing his doctorate with a dissertation titled “Concert Production As Composition.”

After a couple years as an adjunct professor Nick bailed on academia to pay the rent. While picking up recording and live sound gigs to support himself he started learning the ropes of post production. He now hops back and forth between cutting music and sound for film and TV, producing and engineering albums and concerts, and making music with his friends.

Nick has lately been interested in AI tools and ethics, live spatial audio, and field recording. He is very active in his community—he serves on the Emerging Technology Committee of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, regularly produces projects in support of charitable causes, and teaches music production at Santa Monica College. Nick enjoys good company, fantastic meals, political philosophy, travel, sci-fi, nature, board games, Zen Buddhism, and dogs.

ELIZABETH ROBINSON

Flutist and educator Dr. Elizabeth Robinson is an active soloist, orchestral, and chamber performer. Known for her infectious energy and boundless enthusiasm, Dr. Robinson has shared the stage with orchestras and wind ensembles across the country. In addition to her current position as Marvin Maydew piccolo chair of the Topeka Symphony, she has performed regularly with the Colorado MahlerFest orchestra, Heartland Opera, and dozens of other groups.

Her debut album, Aviary, can be found on Aerocade Music. Described as “…worth a listen, and these performers and composers are worth watching” (Flutist Quarterly), Aviary features a collection of Robinson’s audience-friendly commissions for solo flute, piccolo, and flute quartet. Among them is Kim Osberg’s Fowl Play, a piece inspired by the coffee table book Extraordinary Chickens. The album was honored by the American Prize in the chamber music category, as well as the Ernst Bacon American Music category.

Aviary has blossomed what is now Aviary Quartet, a group of professional flutists dedicated to exploring the whimsical side of chamber music. The 2024-25 season will feature choral transcriptions by Dale Trumbore, as well as a whimsical ode to the American hippo bill, Lake Bacon, by Lisa Neher.

Robinson’s most recent project was the creation of the Chamber Winds of South Dakota, a modern-day ode to 18th and 19th century Harmoniemusik which brought musicians from around the Midwest to South Dakota for a weekend of chamber music. The Chamber Winds debut album is anticipated in early 2025.

In an effort to expand the flute repertoire, Robinson co-founded the Flute New Music Consortium (FNMC), and currently serves the organization as Vice President. Since its start in 2013, FNMC has commissioned new works from composers including Zhou Long, Carter Pann, Valerie Coleman, Samuel Zyman, and Reena Esmail.

Robinson coordinates FNMC’s annual composition competition and is proud of collaborations with several of its winning composers. In addition to organizing performances of the works commissioned by FNMC, Dr. Robinson often promotes works from the competition. For her efforts in growing FNMC, Dr. Robinson has been recognized in the National Flute Association’s Flutists’ Quarterly Magazine and by the Atlanta Flute Club Newsletter.

Dr. Robinson was appointed to the faculty at South Dakota State University in 2022.

ISAAC IO SCHANKLER

Isaac Io Schankler (they/them) is a composer, accordionist, and electronic musician interested in how technology complicates the ways we create and consume music. Their music has been described as "beautiful, algorithmic, organic, dystopian" (I Care If You Listen) and “remarkable listening” (Sequenza21). They have collaborated with a variety of musicians and ensembles, including the Ray-Kallay Duo, Friction Quartet, the SPLICE Ensemble, Autoduplicity, Nouveau Classical Project, gnarwhallaby, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Lorelei Ensemble, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Nadia Shpachenko, Scott Worthington, and Meerenai Shim. Additionally, Schankler has written music for acclaimed video games like Ladykiller in a Bind and Analogue: A Hate Story.

Schankler is the artistic director of the concert series People Inside Electronics, and Associate Professor of Music at Cal Poly Pomona.

Textura Reviews “Aviary” by Elizabeth Robinson

One imagines Takemitsu would be captivated by Aviary, and were he still with us Messiaen would no doubt have the collection on repeat too. Credit Robinson for crafting an album filled with one delightful moment after another, but credit also her flute-playing partners for helping to generate its harmonic sound world and the composers for giving them wonderful material to perform. For flute lovers especially, the album's a must-have, but its appeal is hardly exclusive to a single group.

Read the rest of the thoughtful review on Textura.org!

Aviary is reviewed in the current issue of The Flutist Quarterly:

“Robinson is joined by Emlyn Johnson, Carmen A. Lemoine, Erin K. Murphy, and Nicole Riner for the ensemble tracks, and the group’s playing is magnificent, with gorgeous blend, impeccable intonation, and complementary vibrato between the players. They seem to be uniformly comfortable with the many extended techniques required, and their sensitive and enthusiastic interpretation brings this music to life in a satisfying, exciting way. Particularly notable is Robinson’s piccolo playing, which is lively and virtuosic with a flexible delicacy. The low flutes in the “Featherbrained” movement of Osberg’s Fowl Play” have no trouble taking the spotlight with their melodies, building a rich, harmonic sound world that is even more exciting in the section of pizzicato tonguing about halfway through the movement.

Aviary is worth a listen, and these composers and performers are definitely worth watching.”

- Jessica Dunnavant, The Flutist Quarterly

Thank you Jessica Dunnavant and The Flutist Quarterly! If you’re a member of the National Flute Association, read the rest of the review here.

Listen to the album here.

Kimberly R. Osberg (photo: Mauricio Herrera)

In Kimberly R. Osberg’s recent blog post about her pieces recorded by Elizabeth Robinson and company, the composer writes about the inspiration for each movement with photos and score samples.

Here’s an excerpt:

The last movement, Cock Flight, was inspired by the powerful and aggressive Sumatra chickens. While modern day Sumatras are more docile, they use to be bred as fighting birds and—what really sparked my imagination—could fly for short distances.

When it comes to a flute fight, there’s nothing more fun than pitting piccolos against each other. While I was tempted to score the movement for four piccolos, a few things kept me from doing so. One important factor being that I was trying to keep each part such that they only had to double one other instrument (so the first and second players double piccolo, the third player doubles alto, and the fourth doubles bass), the other being that—due to the limited range of the piccolo—I wanted to make sure I could really capture the raw power of the chicken, and felt I needed a lower octave to do so. While I didn’t initially anticipate it, having two piccolos and two flutes also opened a lot more possibilities for trading lines back and forth; this helped to really make the punches land harder and keep them coming faster.

Read the rest of the post on Osberg’s website.

Listen to the album, Aviary by Elizabeth Robinson.