SRCP touring member bios:
Deanna Little, Flute
Deanna R. Little, associate professor of flute at Middle Tennessee State University, holds a Bachelor of Music degree in education from the University of Northern Iowa, a Master of Music degree in flute performance and the Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University. Her primary instructors include James Scott, Kate Lukas, Peter Lloyd, Trevor Wye, and Angeleita Floyd.
As an active performer, Little is a member of the Stones River Chamber Players and a frequent guest on Nashville's WPLN "Live from Studio C" radio broadcasts. She has performed with the Nashville Symphony, the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Huntsville Symphony ( AL), and Evansville Philharmonic (IN). Little has won numerous awards for her flute playing. She was a two time winner in the National Flute Association's Young Artist Competition (1998, 1996) as well as the recipient of an award for best performance of a newly commissioned work at the 1996 convention. She was a winner in the 2007 Myrna Brown Competition in Texas and a 1998 semi-finalist in the New York Concert Artists Guild Competition. She has performed as a soloist, master class clinician, and flute ensemble director throughout the mid-west and mid-south. She was also the 2004 local arrangements coordinator for the NFA Convention in Nashville, TN and is the past-president of the Mid-South Flute Society. In addition to her teaching duties at MTSU, Little teaches on the faculty of the Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts and has also taught on the faculty at Drake University.
William Yelverton, Guitar
William Yelverton holds a Doctorate in Guitar Performance from the Florida State University and has won prizes in the Guitar Foundation of America International Competition and the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition. His debut CD, "Harpsichord Music on Guitar" was cited as "first-rate" by Guitar Review. Since his 1988 European debut in Glasgow, Dr. Yelverton has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean. His concert schedule has included performances at the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals, the Guitar Foundation of America Festival, National Flute Association Festival, Appalachian State Guitar Festival, Hartt Guitar Festival, live radio and television appearances, and guest artist recitals at prominent universities and music societies. As a founding member of the Stones River Chamber Players, he has performed with the group throughout the US and on their '03 and ’05 European tours of Switzerland, Germany and France. In June '03, William Yelverton performed as concerto soloist with the Black Sea Philharmonic Orchestra in Constanta, Romania. He recently performed concertos with the TN Philharmonic, Nashville Chamber Orchestra and the MTSU Symphony. In February 2000, he was selected to accompany legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti in concert with the Nashville Symphony before an audience of 16,000. As an instructor, Dr. Yelverton has given masterclasses throughout the US and has been invited to teach at the National Guitar Workshop's "Classical Summit" in Connecticut. He is currently director of the nationally recognized guitar program at Middle Tennessee State University, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee where he is Professor of Music. For more information, please visit the website: www.WilliamYelverton.com.
Todd Waldecker, Clarinet
Todd Waldecker has been Associate Professor of Clarinet in the MTSU School of Music at Middle Tennessee State University since 1998 and also serves on the faculty of the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts. He holds the Doctor of Music from Indiana University, Master of Music from Yale University, and a music education degree from the University of Missouri. Active as a chamber musician, he performs with TRIGA, The Crescent Trio, and The Stones River Chamber Players. As principal clarinetist with The Nashville Chamber Orchestra he has worked with such diverse artists as Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Sharon Isbin, Alison Krauss, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, and Phish’s Trey Anastasio. Waldecker also frequently performs as a guest with The Nashville Symphony Orchestra and The Huntsville Symphony Orchestra.
Andrea Dawson, Violin
Andrea Dawson joins the MTSU Music Faculty as Assistant Professor of Violin in the Fall of 2007. A recent addition to the Stones River Chamber Players, she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Mexico. Before moving to Tennessee in 2007, she was Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Texas – Pan American and Associate Concertmaster of the Valley Symphony Orchestra in south Texas. Dawson received her Masters in Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded the coveted Performer’s Certificate. She also received a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology, with a minor in French, and a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Oberlin College. Her principal teachers include Lynn Blakeslee, Camilla Wicks, Taras Gabora, Kathleen Winkler, and Robert Koff.
Leopoldo Erice, piano
Leopoldo Erice was born in Madrid (Spain) in May, 1977. He started his piano studies at the age of six with José Ramón Martínez Reyero. In 1998, he graduated with Honors in both Piano and Chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, where he studied with Joaquín Soriano, Beata Monstavicius, and Luis Rego. In 1999, he studied in The Hague (Holland) with Rian de Wall, and obtained the Higher Vocational Diploma in Piano from the Koninklijk Conservatorium. In 2002, he obtained his Artist Diploma in Piano at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington (USA), in the studio of the late Leonard Hokanson. From 2002, and until 2004, Erice held the position of Associate Instructor of Piano at Indiana University, where he got the degree of Master of Music in Piano under the direction of Menahem Pressler and Emile Naoumoff. In October 2003, the piano faculty unanimously awarded him a Performer Certificate in recognition of outstanding performance. From 2004 until 2006, Erice held the position of Teacher Assistant of Piano at Stony Brook University, NY (USA), where he is currently a candidate for the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Piano under the direction of Christina Dahl. He has been recently appointed Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at Middle Tennessee State University. He has participated in festivals and master classes with artists such as Alicia de Larrocha, Joaquín Achúcarro, Jeff Cohen, Håkan Hagegård, Janos Starker, Miriam Fried, Edward Auer, John Wustman, Roger Vignoles and Norman Shetler.
Erice has won several prizes in various prestigious national competitions such as: Royale (1989), Gregorio Baudot (1994), Infanta Cristina (1994, 1996, and 1998), and Ciudad de Albacete (2006). From the beginning of his career, Erice has given great importance to instrumental and vocal chamber music. In the Jacinto Guerrero International Singing Competition (2000), he was awarded the prize for the best collaborative pianist by unanimous jury. In 2004, he was a semifinalist in the prestigious Hugo Wolf Internationaler Wettbewerb für Liedkunst in Stuttgart (Germany). In summer 2006 and 2007, he was invited by the German School at Middlebury College (VT) as a vocal coach for the program “German for Singers and Pianists”. Erice has recorded three CDs under the direction of Ignacio Yepes, and a fourth CD of Spanish and Latin-American art songs, sponsored by the Ministerio de Educación y Cultura of Spain. His performances have been recorded and broadcasted for the radio programs “Producción Propia” and “Jóvenes Intérpretes” (Radio Nacional de España), and for the TV programs “Otros Músicos” and “Los Conciertos de La2” (Televisión Española). Erice has performed extensively in Spain, making his debut as a soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of the Royal Conservatory of Madrid in 1999, and he has also given recitals in the USA, Canada, Colombia, Panama, Lithuania, Germany, Luxembourg, Nepal and Italy. He is the founder and the director of the Festival Internacional de Música Clásica de Ribadeo (Spain).