Flutist Viola Chan is a graduate of The Juilliard School’s Bachelor of Music and Master of Music programs, under the tutelage of Carol Wincenc. She is currently a freelance musician based in New York City, as well as a substitute player for the Albany and Princeton Symphony Orchestras. A passionate advocate for new music, Ms. Chan had the opportunity to work with Steve Reich at his 2014 concert in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, performing “Drumming” with Colin Currie and the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble. This past summer, she was invited as a fellow to the Tanglewood Music Center. In the summer of 2019, Ms. Chan was the principal flutist under Maestro Edward Gardner in The Juilliard School’s tour with the Royal Academy of Music, during which the orchestra performed in Royal Albert Hall of the BBC Proms in London. In previous years, she has participated in the Spoleto Festival USA (2018, 2019), Orpheus@Mannes (2019), Aspen Music Festival and School (2018), National Orchestral Institute+Festival (2015), and New York Symphonic Ensemble (2015).
Ms. Chan also runs two small businesses- Portraits by Viola, photographing headshots and portraits, and Art of Music Engraving, crafting elegant hand-copied engravings of timeless musical scores as well as modern works.
Darleen Mitchell, composer, has written over 140 compositions for instrumental and vocal combinations, from solo flute to orchestra and chorus. Her compositions have been performed throughout the United States and in Europe, including at regional and national College Music Society Conferences and the New Music Festival of the American Composers Alliance in New York.
Dr. Mitchell has been the recipient of many grants, from the Nebraska Arts Council in 2005 and 2011, as well as from the Illinois, Chicago and Florida Arts Councils. Awards include first prize in the National League of American Pen Women Composition Competition for her tuba concerto Visions; Watery Moon for alto/bass flute and vibraphone, Royal College of Music, London, England; Images for violin and guitar, Duo 46 Composition Competition, Hermoupolis, Greece; O Felix Anima, Chicago Ensemble Discover America III Composition Competition; O Vos Angeli, Hildegard Festival of Women, University of California-Stanislaus.
She received a Ph.D. in Music Composition, University of Chicago, where her teachers included Ralph Shapey and Shulamit Ran. She retired as a Professor Emerita in 2014 from the University of Nebraska at Kearney where she coordinated the music theory and composition programs, directed the New Music Ensemble and the annual New Music Festival.
Whirling Wings - Darleen Mitchell
Recorded at home in New York, NY October 2020
Viola Chan, flute
Mastered by Robert Scott Thompson, Aucourant Records.
Property of Shelter Recording Project, American Composers Alliance.
