studio class in Kulas Recital Hall 2013
students &
ex-students
being updated as Alexa gathers materials
Hannah Hammel is the Principal Flute of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. A native of Richmond, VA, Hannah holds degrees from Rice University (MM 2017) and Oberlin Conservatory (BM 2015). An active solo flutist, she has won several competitions including the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition and Orchestral Excerpt Competition, and competitions of the Atlanta, Houston, Mid-South, and Ohio Flute Associations. As an orchestral flutist, prior to winning her position with Detroit, Hannah was principal of the Knoxville Symphony. She has also been a guest with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, and New World Symphony. She has attended summer festivals including Pacific Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Round Top Festival Institute, and Music Academy of the West where she was awarded a Global Academy Fellowship allowing her to perform with the New York Philharmonic. Hannah also has extensive performance experience with contemporary music and historical performance on the one-keyed Baroque flute, and is an avid teacher. After graduating from Oberlin, she studied at Rice with Leone Buyse.
Candy Chang is a flutist and piccoloist with the United States Air Force Band of the Golden West, where she performs with the concert band and woodwind quintet. She graduated from Oberlin in 2016 with a dual major in Arts Administration and a minor in Historical Performance (Baroque flute) studying with Michael Lynn and Kathie Stewart.
As a military musician, Candy performed at the 2017 U.S. Presidential Inauguration for President Trump and his family where she was featured as a soloist. She has also shared the stage with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and American a cappella group, Pentatonix. Candy has appeared on Classical King FM’s Northwest Focus Live, Spokane Public Radio’s From the Studio, ABC, ESPN, and FOX news.
Passionate about new music, Candy has premiered over 75 works by living composers. She performed regularly with Oberlin's Contemporary Music Ensemble through which she collaborated with four-time Grammy winner, eighth blackbird, and toured to the University of Richmond to perform at Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival.
Putting her arts administrative training to use, Candy interned with the Auburn Symphony Orchestra, Maple Valley Youth Symphony, and Academy of Music Northwest. She currently serves as the woodwind quintet’s tour manager, booking over 50 concerts a year throughout the west coast.
Amanda Dame graduated in 2016, with a double degree in flute and biology. She recently completed a Master of Music at the Peabody Conservatory, under the guidance of Marina Piccinini, and released her first CD in 2021. Amongst her numerous awards are first-place in the National Society of Arts and Letters Woodwind Competition in Washington, DC, first-place awards in the Best Mozart Performance category of the global Great Composer Competition Series, the Central Ohio Flute Association Young Artist Competition, Rochester Flute Association Emerging Artist Competition, Donald E. Webster Scholarship Competition, and the Stefan Scholarship Competition. She is also a substitute flutist with the Canton and Firelands Symphonies. During her studies at Oberlin, Dame performed with the Oberlin Orchestra at Chicago Symphony Center as a part of their 150th-Anniversary tour. She also appeared frequently as an ensemble-member for faculty concerto recordings. She has appeared in the Schikele Bassoon Concerto and the Augusta Reed Thomas Bassoon Concerto released on the Oberlin and Naxos labels on the album Full Moon in the City. She has also appeared in recordings of the Carter Flute Concerto and the Trigos Guitar Concerto No. 1.
Erica Zheng graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory in 2017 with a double degree in Biochemistry and Flute Performance. In 2014 and 2015, Erica was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, touring cities nationwide including Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver. Erica has performed in masterclasses for renowned artists such as Bonita Boyd, Paula Robison, Gary Schocker, and Susan Hoeppner. She was a finalist in the 2013 National Arts Centre Bursary Competition, and a national finalist at the Canadian Music Competition in 2011. Erica graduated with a PhD in Chemical Biology from Harvard University where she was also member of the Collins Lab at MIT, and played in the Harvard Graduate School Dudley Orchestra.
Ellyn Butler graduated in 2018 with a double degree in flute and psychology. Ellyn then joined U Penn's Brain Behavior Laboratory as a data analyst in June 2018. Ellyn performed a number of data-related tasks for Dr. Ruben Gur’s projects, including pre-processing MRI data for studies with NASA, writing validation rules for the Computerized Neurocognitive Battery (CNB), and running statistical analyses for publication on the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC). Ellyn is now studying for her a PhD in Clinical Psychology and MS in statistics at Northwestern. AND was just awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship!!! Woohoo, Ellyn!
Katie Kim, graduated in 2018 and graduated with an MA in chamber music from the Royal Conservatory of Scotland in 2019.
Moises Lopez Ruiz, graduated 2017, completed his MM at Cleveland Institute of Music with Mary Kay Fink , graduated from Peabody's artist diploma program studying with Marina Piccinnini and is currently teaching in Spain, his home country.
Heeyoung (Helen) Lim, graduated in 2019 and recently completed graduate work in education administration in Korea.
Tasi and Aram Mun. Aram graduated in 2017 and again in 2019 from Oberlin's artist diploma program. Aram recently graduated from with a Masters degree from Rice -studying with Leone Buyse. Aram in currently enrolled in an artist diploma program in Montreal. Tasi Hiner graduated in 2016 and recently graduated from UCLA where he did a masters with Erin and Denis Bouriakov. He won the Young Artist competition of the Las Vegas Flute Club in 2023.
Yuanfei Chen, graduated in 2019 and is studying arts administration at Indiana University
HeeJeong Yoon, graduated in 2019 and is continuing flute studies in Korea
Julia Pyke, was appointed principal flute of the Spokane Symphony in July 2022. Julia graduated in 2019, and then got her masters degree and a professional studies certificate at San Francisco Conservatory studying with Tim Day, where she also won the concerto competition. Her performance of the Leibermann concerto took place in Fall of 2021. She has been one of the most visible students featured on SFCM’s social media channels, with her videos on SFCM's TikTok page totaling a staggering 2.7 million views. She has attended Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, and Texas Music Festival, and started subbing with the New World Symphony while a sophomore. While at Music Academy of the West, she was a finalist for both the Duo Competition and the Keston MAX audition in partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Dylan Masariego graduated in December 23. Awarded second place in the 2023 Walfird Kujala International Piccolo Young Artist Competition. He was one of only 6 semi finalists for the NFA's Young Piccolo Artist Competition of 2022, and was chosen as the alternate for the finals. He is also the recipient of the NFA's First Generation Scholarship for 2022. Dylan is the piccolo player for the Lima Symphony in Ohio and has an internship with the Cleveland Orchestra.
Daphne to Boekhorst, Dylan Masariago and Daniel Jordan post-UN gala concert at Carnegie Hall December 2022, an event replicating a Boston Symphony concert 50 years prior. Daniel was principal flute in Beethoven. Dylan played principal in Rachmaninov 2nd piano concerto and picc in Beethoven. Daphne played second on everything.
LEFT: Daphne te Boekhorst, Ben Smith and Yishan Li, post-concert at Oberlin's return trip to Carnegie Hall, January 2023. Daphne played principal in Dett's Oratorio The Ordering of Moses. Yishan played principal in Brahms' Tragic Overture and Rodriguez' A Metaphor for Power. Ben played picc on everything.
Daphne graduated in December with a double degree in environmental science and is pursuing an internship in Europe before doing graduate studies on flute in Europe in the fall.
BELOW: Dylan Masariego, Sophia Keil, Daniel Jordan. Sophia graduated in December. Sophia is studying for her Phd in Cognitive Science at John Hopkins beginning in fall of 2023.
Daniel graduated in May 2023 and is based in the Columbus area.
Yishan Li (left), now studying for her Masters at The University of Illinois at Champaign- Urbana, easily wins the award for longest continuous residence at Oberlin as she was unable to return home due to COVID-related travel and quarantine restrictions
Isaiah Shaw, Daphne te Boekhorst and Dylan after an ensemble concert. Isaiah graduated in 23. Isaiah has been an intern with National Flute Association, 2019, an Intern with the Diversity in Arts Leadership 2020, and was in the NFA's Young Artist mentorship program for 2021.
Choyi Lee is a third-year student from South Korea. Choyi won the South Carolina Flute Society's Young Artist Competition of 2023
Jonah Ordower is a third year double degree student from New York City studying flute performance and astrophysics.
Nat Kim is from Denver, Colorado. Nat is a second year student majoring in Flute Performance and Biochemistry.
Benjamin (Ben) Smith, senior, is studying Flute Performance and minoring in Korean Studies. Ben is a substitute player with New World Symphony. He spent Fall of 22 studying in a semester abroad program abroad at Hanyang University, South Korea, with Minji Kim and Seonah Jang.
JY graduated in December 23. JY has many interests in non-performing fields, including flute repairs and arts administration. JY has worked extensively with Flute Center of New York and National Flute Association, as well as his hometown youth orchestra, Santa Monica Youth Orchestra, through the Los Angeles County Arts Intern Program.
Sophia Keil graduated in Dec 2022, and is studying for her Phd in Cognitive Science at John Hopkins beginning in fall of 2023. Her seeing-eye dog, and honorary flute studio member, is Brea.
Yuyuan Yang (left) graduated in 2022 and is half way through her masters on a full scholarship at the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana studying with Jonathan Keeble. Josephine Lee (right) graduated in 2021 and came back to Oberlin for a year to work as the interim ensembles librarian. She is currently doing her Masters degree at Carnegie Mellon.
Gabriel Cruz-Ruiz graduated in 23. Gaby has won many, many scholarships, masterclass opportunities, competitions and mentorship opportunities. He was recently a finalist for the Chicago Flute Club's Young Artist Competition and in March for athe Young Artists Competition in the Dominican Republic.
Zishu (Lily) Xie, graduated from Oberlin in 2019, and then graduated with a Masters degree from The Frost School of Music, University of Miami, where she was a teaching assistant to Prof Jennifer Grimm. Lily was principal flute of the China National Youth Orchestra which toured the US in 2017. She is currently in the performance diploma program at Peabody with Marina Piccinnini.
Will Adams graduated in 2020. Will graduated from UCLA after completing a masters with Dennis and Erin Bouriakov and is currently freelancing in the LA area.
Sara Hedberg, graduated in 2020, has recently graduated from Boston University where she studied with Linda Toote, with an emphasis on piccolo.
Karisma Palmore, graduated in 2020, has been studying in France on a fulbright fellowship and is about to begin a masters degree in France.
Hexin Zhang, graduated in 2019, and recently graduated from the Master Specialized Music Performance Solistin program in Zürich Hochschule der Kunst, studying with Maria Goldschmidt-Pahn
Noah Hoffer, is a senior after taking a year off to work in Chicago.
Sungkyung Lee, graduated in 2021 and is studying with Jeffrey Khaner in the masters program at Lynn Conservatory.
Kelsey Burnham (left) with guest artist Greg Patillo, and Ellyn Butler (right). You can read about Ellyn above. Kelsey began at Oberlin on modern flute and computer science but found her passion on baroque flute and graduated with a B Mus in Baroque flute studying with Michael Lynn and went on to a MM ('21) on Baroque flute at Juilliard on a full scholarship.