Meet our Double Reed Fest Clinicians

Pamela Ajango is the Instructor of Oboe at Butler University. She has been a member of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and the Circle City Wind Quintet for over 20 years. As a full-time freelance oboist, she regularly performs for national tours of Broadway shows, with legendary singer Johnny Mathis, as principal with the Indianapolis Opera and Ballet orchestras, and as the top call for recording work with music publishers Alfred and Hal Leonard, among many others.

From 1996-2002, prior to moving back to her hometown of Indianapolis, Professor Ajango was a freelancer in New York City. While there, she played with many of the area’s renowned orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; for the Broadway shows Ragtime, Cats, and Les Miserables, and on numerous commercial recordings. She taught as the assistant to the oboe studio at her alma mater, the Manhattan School of Music, during the 2001-2002 school year.

Professor Ajango has taught at many summer festivals, including the Butler University Woodwind and Double Reed Camps, the IU Summer Music Clinic, the Saarburg International Chamber Music Festival in Germany, and the InterHarmony Music Festival in Italy. Former oboe faculty positions include the University of Virginia, Earlham College, Anderson University, and the University of Indianapolis. In June of 2025, Ajango and her bassoon colleague, Doug Spaniol, will host the International Double Reed Society’s annual conference at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Professor Ajango studied with Malcom Smith, Ralph Gomberg, Joseph Robinson, and Stephen Taylor. Her performance degrees were earned at Boston University and the Manhattan School of Music.

Keith Buncke began his tenure as Principal Bassoon of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in July of 2015, having been appointed to the position by Music Director Riccardo Muti. He previously served as Principal Bassoon of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a post he was appointed to in 2014 while still attending the Curtis Institute of Music.

At the age of eleven, Keith heard a recording of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, with prominent parts for the oboe and bassoon, and was immediately struck by the sound of bassoon, inspiring him to start playing it. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, he went on to study at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Curtis Institute. He has also studied at the Pacific, Tanglewood, and Aspen music festivals, as well as Music Academy of the West. His principal teachers include Daniel Matsukawa, Dr. Eric Stomberg, and Mark Eubanks.

Working with Acclaimed artists like Mitsuko Uchida and Vadim Gluzman, Keith has performed chamber music both in Chicago and around the country at festivals like Marlboro Music Festival and La Jolla Music Society. He has been a frequent guest artists and teacher at Aspen Music Festival and the Interlochen Academy and Camp, and has given masterclasses at universities across the country. He is an adjunct faculty at DePaul University.

John Dee has performed and taught throughout the world and worked with such orchestras as the Chicago, Saint Louis, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras with such conductors as; Claudio Abbado, Sir George Solti, and James Levine. He has collaborated with nearly every major performing artist in the world including Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, James Galway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Frank Sinatra. He has performed with the Alexander, Miami, Lark, Ying, Jupiter, Vega, Pacifica String Quartets and Serafin Ensemble. He has performed as soloist with I Solisti Aquilani, in Italy, performed in Beijing and Shanghai, China, frequently teaches in Spain and Korea and has performed for the Pope.

He is featured on Grammy Award-winning recordings, hundreds of commercial recordings, and seven oboe solo CD recordings. Critically acclaimed for numerous performances and recordings, his latest recording Music from America and Abroad, was reviewed by the International Double Reed Society (IDRS) Journal: “Hearing John Dee’s Mastery of the single musical line is an education in how to phrase using every element of sound to its fullest tasteful measure… Dee phrases exactly as one would speak about congenial matters to a good friend.”

He was Principal Oboe of the Florida Philharmonic and Florida Grand Opera, the Florida Orchestra in Tampa, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and taught at the University and DePaul University in Chicago.

Mr. Dee currently serves as the Bill A. Nugent Endowed Professor of Music Performance and Professor of Oboe Studies as the University of Illinois, UIUC. He has been awarded the Outstanding Teacher Award by the National Endowment for the Arts multiple times and his oboe students have earned prestigious performance and teaching positions throughout the world.

An active performer and award-winning soloist, Brigit Fitzgerald is an artist determined to positively impact students, audiences, and collaborators with her art. She is delighted to carry out this mission as the Instructor of Bassoon at Lawrence University and Conservatory. Brigit Fitzgerald advocates for new music as a member of two contemporary chamber groups: Desnity512 and the SoundMap Ensemble. Additionally, she has been the principal bassoonist of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra (TX) since 2021. She has won the opportunity to be featured as a soloist with the Phoenix Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, and Vanderbilt University Orchestra. As well as being a semifinalist in the Meg Quigely Vivaldi Competition (2023), she has recently placed first in the National Bassoon Meetup Artistry Competition (2021), the Young Texas Artist Music Competition (2022), and the First International Bassoon Tango Competition (2022).

Using her degree in mathematics, minor in scientific computing, and graduate studies in acoustics, Birgit Fitzgerald is working with two engineers and a chemist to develop a partially synthetic reed that is both affordable and long-lasting. This interdisciplinary team co-founded Fermata Reeds Inc., a company focused on increasing accessibility to music by minimizing economic barriers to learning reed instruments. She is an advocate for bringing technology into the music industry and for the benefits of collaborative innovation.

Brigit Fitzgerald is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (BM) and the University of Texas at Austin (DMA and MM), where she worked as the bassoon teaching assistant for four years. She enriches her musical life with two-stepping, painting, and woodworking. She is from Phoenix, Arizona, and she hopes to one day own a herd of alpaca.

Dr. Lindsay Flowers is the Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music where she is a member of the Wingra Wind Quintet and guides student-generated community engagement projects. She received a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Linda Strommen and Roger Roe. Her background in athletics distinguishes her pedagogical approach in her emphasis on performance visualization, disciplined commitment, and supportive teamwork.

Lindsay is an Oboist and English Hornist with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. She previously was a member of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, New Mexico Philharmonic, Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, and Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Lindsay was a founding member of the Arundo Donax Reed Quintet, Bronze Medal Winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and recorded a duo album with Dr. Andrew Parker to be released in 2023. She has performed with the Milwaukee, Chicago, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Utah, and Nashville Symphony Orchestras and during recent summers with the Santa Fe Opera, Grant Park, Midsummer’s, Lakes Area, Apollo, Bach Dancing and Dynamite, Lake George, Castleton, Aspen, and Banff Music Festivals.

In addition to performing and teaching, Lindsay is recognized for her maintenance and repair of oboe and English horn gouging machines, particularly those designed by Ferrillo, Graf, Kunibert, and Gilbert. Lindsay hosts gouger clinics for students and professionals to share her knowledge in this specialty.

Originally from San Antonio, TX, Jillian Kouzel serves as Assistant Professor of Oboe at Illinois State University. With an active freelancing career, Jillian has performed professionally with the Ann Arbor Symphony, Jackson Symphony, Lansing Symphony, Heartland Festival Orchestra, Peoria Symphony, Ballet Theatre of Toledo, and more. As a regular soloist and chamber musician, she has performed across the United States and abroad with a number of ensembles and her chamber group, the Continuum Chamber Collective. Her most recent solo appearance in October 2023 included Roger Zare’s oboe concerto entitled Oceans of Undiscovered Truth with the Illinois State University Wind Symphony. Additionally, Jillian has auditioned and participated in numerous summer music festivals including: The National Repertory Orchestra, The New York String Orchestra Seminar, Sarasota Chamber Music Festival, Roundtop Festival Institute, Talis Festival and Academy in Saas-Fe, Switzerland, Yale School of Music Chamber Festival at Norfolk, and Eastern Music Festival. Previously, Jillian served as Adjunct Professor of Oboe and Woodwind Methods at Saginaw Valley State University and Interim Professor of Oboe at Bowling Green State University and Heidelberg University.

As a former pre-med student, she has always had an interest in the health field. In 2017, she professionally recorded biomedical music for patients with neurological conditions including Parkinson's Disease and Cerebral Palsy as part of the Movement Tracks Project with the Austin-based Center for Music Therapy. Jillian is an active ambassador and member of the Performing Arts in Medicine Association and a member of the International Double Reed Society. She earned her Doctorate in Musical Arts as well as a double Master's Degree in Music and Chamber Music from the University of Michigan, under the guidance of Nancy Ambrose King. Jillian also earned her Bachelor’s of Music degree from the University of Texas in Austin, where she studied with Andrew Parker and Rebecca Henderson. In her free time, Jillian enjoys staying active through weightlifting, running, and traveling. 

Critically acclaimed American oboist Dr. Lisa Kozenko has performed worldwide as a concerto soloist, chamber artist, and orchestral musician. She has 18 solo oboe and chamber music commissions to her credit. Her solo recording of Doubles by Judith Zaimont was named to Chamber Music America’s Century List of recordings.

Ms. Kozenko was the principal oboist of the New York City Opera National Company and has performed with the New York Philharmonic and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She has served on the Bowdoin International Music Festival faculty and as an adjudicator for the 2017 Carnegie Hall New York China Orchestra and the 70th & 72nd Hong Kong Music Festival.

As a member of the Manhattan Wind Quintet, she was a finalist in the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Chamber Music Competition and prizewinner of the Coleman, Fischoff, Monterey, Yellow Springs, and Chamber Music Chicago competitions. She was a solo prize winner of the 15th Lousie D. McMahon International Music Competition and presented her New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall under the auspices of Artist International.

Dr. Kozenko is Associate Professor of Performance Practice (Oboe) at Ball State University and Assistant Professor of Oboe and Chamber Music at Mannes School of Music at the New School Collee of the Performing Arts. Dr. Kozenko is a Loreé performing artist.

Originally from Naperville, Illinois, oboist Nora Anderson Lewis is Associate Professor of Music and Associate Dean of the Faculty at Lawrence University and Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. She enjoys a varied performance career and has played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series, with Alarm Will Sound, Boston Lyric Opera, and International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). She was a founding member of Chicago-based Ensemble Dal Niente and held orchestral positions with the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra and the Plymouth Philharmonic. She has performed in recital at St. Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, London, on the Cranbrook Music Guild artist series, Hale Library concert series, and in live recital broadcasts on Blue Lake Public Radio, WMUK Kalamazoo’s “In Concert,” and “Live from Studio B” at WFMT in Chicago.

Nora has presented workshops, performances, and papers at national and international conferences including the Midwest Clinic, International Double Reed Society, College Music Society, ClarinetFest, and National Flute Association in locations such as Finland, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and throughout the United States. With clarinetist Philip O. Pagialonga and bassoonist Eric Van der Veer Varner, Nora was a founding member of the PEN Trio, a chamber ensemble passionate about performance, education, and scholarship. For ten years the ensemble commissioned, premiered, published, and promoted numerous new works and gave concerts and master classes throughout the world. Their album Found Objects: New Music for Reed Trio was released on Summit Records and features music expressly written for the ensemble. Nora is currently under contract with Oxford University Press to write the book, Notes for Oboists: A Guide to the Repertoire, part of the Notes for Performers series.
Nora is a graduate of Lawrence’s acclaimed double-degree program in oboe performance and philosophy and received her Master of Music degree from the Yale University School of Music and Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. She lives in Appleton, Wisconsin with her husband Keith and enjoys spending time with their two standard poodles Cleo and Ziggy and Siberian forest cat, Alexey. Nora loves to spend time outdoors and recently walked more than 500 miles along the Camino de Santiago from Lisbon, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Susan Nelson is the Associate Professor of Bassoon and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Ohio, and enjoys an active career as a performer, teacher, and clinician. Dr. Nelson is an advocate for new music as well as chamber music for the bassoon, and is the Director of the non-profit organization Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition (BCMCC). She has also taught bassoon and theory at Stephen F. Austin State University and played with the Stone Fort Wind Quintet in Nacogdoches, Texas. In the summer, Dr. Nelson teaches at various camps, including BGSU’s Double Reed Camp and The Renova Festival. She has performed with the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria, Michigan Opera Theatre, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra. Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Adrian Symphony Orchestra, and Helena Symphony, among others. She has also given solo performances at the International Double Reed Society Conferences in Redlands (CA), Oxford (OH), New York, Appleton (WI), Japan, and Thailand. Dr. Nelson taught at both Adrian (MI) and Heidelberg (OH) Colleges and was a member of the Heidelberg faculty wind quintet. She also held the position of principal bassoon in the Great Falls Symphony and was a member of the Chinook Winds quintet in Great Falls, Montana. She can be heard on Elements, a CD release from the BCMCC through the MSR Classics label, which features the winning works from the 2012 and 2014 BCMCC competitions. Dr. Nelson is a graduate of the University of Kansas, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Michigan. Her primary teachers include Jeffery Lyman, Carl Rath, and Alan Hawkins, and she is a Fox Artist.

Longtime Chicago area freelance bassoonist Dianne Ryan is currently principal bassoon of New Philharmonic, Elmhurst Symphony, Whiting Park Festival Orchestra, and Bach Cantata Vespers. She has performed with many midwestern orchestras, such as the Symphonies of Peoria, Southwest Michigan, South Bend, Northwest Indiana, Rockford, Illinois Symphony, and many more. In addition, Ryan has performing in pop gigs such as The Beach Boys, Moody Blues, Ray Charles, Celtic Woman, Final Fantasy, and Mel Torme. She has toured Europe and Asia with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra and Chicago Symphonic Pops, and has been a featured soloist with New Philharmonic and Elmhurst Symphony. She also enjoys playing in chamber ensembles, especially the Chicago Bassoon Quartet.

An avid bassoon instructor, Ms. Ryan is on the faculties of Elmhurst University, Harper College, Vandercook College of Music, and Concordia University Chicago and formerly the Merit School of Music. She frequently adjudicates concerto competitions, solo contests, and ILMEA auditions and has given many clinics and master classes for hosts, including Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, Chicago Youth Orchestra, Butler Bassoon Dat, Roanoke (VA) Youth Orchestra, and Bands of America.

Ms. Ryan earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in bassoon performance from Virginia Tech and Roosevelt University, followed by orchestral training with the Chicago Civic Orchestra.

Keith Sweger is Professor of Bassoon at Ball State University. Active in the International Double Reed Society (IDRS), he has served as President, Chair of the Gillet-Fox International Bassoon Competition and as host of the 2006 conference of the IDRS. Sweger is principal bassoon with Orchestra Indiana and the Indianapolis Ballet Orchestra and is contrabassoon/bassoon of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. He has performed regularly with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and, most recently, with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He has been a recitalist at professional conferences and at colleges and universities around the US and abroad. He has recorded on the Arsis, Capstone, Albany, and Alicia labels. Strongly committed to teaching, Dr. Sweger is in demand as a clinician and guest teacher at colleges, universities, summer festivals and camps. His students have received many honors and are playing in orchestras and teaching in universities, colleges, and public school around the United States. Sweger was named the recipient of the 2007 College of Fine Arts Dean’s Teaching award, the 2008 Indiana Music Educators Association Outstanding University Educator Award, the 2008 Indiana Music Educators Association Outstanding University Educator Award, the 2013 Dean’s Creative Endeavor Award, and a 2010 American Masterworks grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He was a guest artist/teacher at the 2011 and 2013 Asian Double Reed Association (ADRA) conferences, the 2012 Beijing International Bassoon Festival, the 2014 Spanish Double Reed (AFOES) conference and the 2017 Brazilian Double Reed Society (ABPD) conference. Dr. Sweger is a Fox Artist, performing on a Fox model 201.

Ian Wisekal, a native of Dallas, TX and Stony Brook, NY, joined the faculty of the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music in 2013. He serves as Principal Oboe of the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra and Crested Butte Music Festival, and previously held the position of Associate Principal Oboe with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. He can be heard playing principal oboe on that orchestra’s recording of confresi, which was nominated for a Latin Grammy.

Prof. Wisekal is an active performer throughout Colorado and beyond. Engagements have taken him throughout North America, Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and most recently, as a featured performer at the International Double Reed Society conference in Bangkok, Thailand. Besides his album with the PRSO, Wisekal has made recordings with the Colorado Symphony, the Greeley Philharmonic, the Boise Philharmonic, and the Colorado Chamber Orchestra, among others; as soloist with the Lamont Symphony Orchestra; and in the performance studios of Colorado Public Radio.

Wisekal received his bachelor’s degree with high distinction form the Eastman School of Music and his master’s degree from Southern Methodist University, earning full scholarships at both institutions. In 2012, he traveled to study with David Walter at the Paris Conservatory, thanks to a grant from the Pro-Symphony Association of Puerto Rico. His major teachers include Richard Killmer, Erin Hannigan, Terry Keevil, and Ceci Lagarenné.

Ian has given masterclasses throughout the U.S. and abroad, appearing most recently as a guest artist at Baylor University, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Louisiana State University. His students have earned scholarships to top music schools such as Eastman and NEC and enjoy teaching and performing careers of their own.

In his spare time, Wisekal enjoys traveling, hiking, and photography. You can hear his recordings of the 40 Barret Melodies, Ferling 48 Studies and more on his YouTube channel.