Jen Townsley

Amy Guffey serves as Instructor of Clarinet at Kansas State University. She holds degrees from Shenandoah University, Ball State University, and Florida State University, where her doctoral treatise explored clarinet concerti composed between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2013. Her career as a clarinetist has taken her to South Korea, Europe, and throughout the United States. Her principal teachers include Deborah Bish, Caroline Hartig, Frank Kowalsky, Kathleen Mulcahy, and Charlene Zimmerman. In addition to her studies with the aforementioned teachers, she has worked with esteemed clarinetists such as Mark Nuccio, Pascual Martinez-Forteza, Lawrie Bloom, Victoria Luperi, and Michael Lowenstern.

Dr. Guffey is a clarinetist with the Chamber Orchestra of the Smoky Valley and currently serves on the International Clarinet Association (ICA) Youth Involvement Committee. She is also a Backun Musical Services Artist and faculty member at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Prior to receiving her doctorate, she taught elementary instrumental music in the Washington, D.C. area, woodwinds at Yongsan International School (South Korea), blockflöte at Otfried-Preußler-Grundschule (Germany), and early childhood music at Cornerstone Center for the Arts (IN). While working in these various learning environments, she gained experience differentiating learning experiences for non-typical learners, ages pre-K-12.

Amanda Arrington has served as Kansas State University’s faculty collaborative pianist since 2010. She maintains an active performing career, working with faculty, guest artists, and students in performances across the country and abroad. An advocate of new music, you can find her premiering works with colleagues and friends at conferences and recording sessions. Her studio albums include “Ruminations” with oboist Alyssa Morris, “Wanderlust: The Flute Music of David Amram” and "String to Silver: Flute Transcriptions of Works in the Romantic Tradition” with flutist Karen Large, and “Anna Marie Wytko, Saxophonist” with saxophonist Anna Marie Wytko.

Meredith Casey currently teaches 5th-12th grade band at Washburn Rural Schools in Topeka, KS. She graduated from K-State with a bachelors in music education in 2021. There, she played in the wind ensemble, clarinet choir, symphony orchestra, pit orchestra, marching band, cat band (playing clarinet and baritone), and jazz bands. Additionally, she served as a drum major for the marching band for two years. Now, she plays in the Crossroads Wind Symphony, Manhattan Municipal Band, Washburn University Band, and USD 437 faculty jazz combo in addition to teaching.

Ryan Nelson has been teaching at Republic County Schools in Belleville, KS for the past two years. He teaches 5th-12th grade band as well as 7th-8th grade choir. Ryan graduated from K-State with a bachelors in music education in 2021. During his time at K-State, he was active in wind ensemble, clarinet choir, symphony orchestra, marching band, cat band (playing clarinet, tuba, and mellophone), and the Manhattan Municipal Band. He was an assistant drum major for the marching band in 2020, alongside Meredith. He continues to play and sing with local community groups in the north central Kansas area.

Soprano Amy Rosine, professor of music, teaches Applied Voice, Vocal Techniques, Women in Music, and Survey of Vocal Music for the Adolescent Singer. She also serves as vocal coach for the School of Music, Theatre and Dance Broadway musical productions. She holds degrees from University of Kansas (DMA), University of Missouri-Kansas City (MM), and Truman State University (BME). Voice teachers include Inci Bashar, Norman Paige, Tom Hueber and Kathleen Dawson.

She collaborates with Dr. Sandra Mosteller as the Sorores Duo, and together they present varied programs of music for soprano and clarinet. During the pandemic they commissioned American composer Gwyneth Walker, who adapted two existing cycles, Emily! and No Ordinary Woman! for soprano, clarinet and piano. They recorded and then premiered the cycles in 2022 at Kansas State University and the International Clarinet Association’s Clarinetfest. They will be released in June 2023 on the CD No Ordinary Woman! music by Gwyneth Walker. Their first recording project, Sorores Duo: Memories of Hope, is available on streaming and CD. The duo has also performed for the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Vienna, Austria, regional conferences of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and College Music Society, and national conferences of Sigma Alpha Iota music fraternity, the organization from which their collaboration began.

An active recitalist, performing has taken her to the Čzech Republic, where she performed vocal recitals in Dobřichovice and Český Krumlov with pianist Jaroslav Šaroun, from the Music Academy of Prague and Czech Philharmonic and Italy, where she performed in Mercatello sul Metauro, Italy, as a faculty member of International Opera Performing Experience. In the US Rosine performed with Civic Opera of Kansas City, Kansas City Lyric Opera Express, Kansas Concert Opera, Regal Opera (TX), Lyric Theatre of Dallas, Ft. Worth Opera, and Brownwood Regional Theatre. Select opera roles include Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, the title role in The Merry Widow, Ann Putnam in The Crucible, Goodwife and Mary in The Wise Women, and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. She has been a program member of Opera in the Ozarks, St. Charles Music and Arts Festival and Lake Placid Institute Vocal Seminar. She is a past recipient of the Alpha Corrine Mayfield Award in Opera Performance from the National Federation of Music Clubs.

Dr. Rosine has given masterclasses and clinics throughout the United States and in Italy. She has served on the faculties of Texas Woman’s University, Howard Payne University, Rockhurst College, St. Mary University (KS), and also taught K-12 music in the Adair Co R-II school system in Missouri. Summer programs she has taught at include International Opera Performing Experience (Italy), Riverside Lyric Opera Adult Opera Program (CA) and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. She is the founder and co-director of the Flint Hills Vocal Academy in Manhattan, KS. Professional memberships include the National Association of Teachers of Singing, College Music Society, Pi Kappa Lambda, Sigma Alpha Iota Dr. Rosine also directs the Adult Choir at College Avenue United Methodist Church in Manhattan, Kansas.

You are welcome to visit her professional website www.amyrosine.com.

Description gCraig B. Parker teaches music history at Kansas State University and plays trumpet in the KSU Faculty Brass Quintet. He earned his B.M. in trumpet performance (summa cum laude) at the University of Georgia and his M.A. and Ph.D. in historical musicology at UCLA. He has also held post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Michigan and Harvard, and has studied Hindustani music with composer/pianist Michael Harrison. Prior to joining the KSU faculty, Dr. Parker was a member of the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, the Spoleto (Italy) Festival Orchestra, the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, and the Composers Brass Quintet. His current research and performing interests center primarily on Asian and Asian American composers.oes here