Album Notes

With her down-to-earth nature and energetic stage presence, Stephanie Rea has become sought-after as both a performer and pedagogue. Top prize winner of the Mid South Flute Society’s Young Artist Competition and Flute Society of Kentucky Young Artist Competition, she has been a featured performer at the National Flute Association, the Rome Festival, and the International Suzuki Conference in Matsumoto, Japan. She appeared as a concerto soloist twice at the International Bach Festival in Trujillo, Peru and regularly performs and teaches master classes throughout the United States and abroad.

A long-time lover of chamber music, Stephanie has performed a vast and varied repertoire of wind quintet literature in the Southwind Quintet, Tallahassee Wind Quintet, and the Murray State University Faculty Wind Quintet. She was also a member of the Atlantic Chamber Players and Camerata Musica. Her orchestral experiences have included performing with the Symphony Orchestras of Johnson City (TN), Jackson (TN), Columbus (GA), Paducah (KY), Owensboro (KY), Brevard Music Center, Rome Festival, and the International Bach Festival.

In the scholarly arena, she has presented at the College Music Society, National Flute Association, and many regional and state music organizations. She has published articles in Bluegrass Music News, Flute Keys, Flute Talk, and the Florida Flute Association Newsletter. In 2004, Stephanie was awarded a Presidential Fellowship at Murray State University for her creative and scholarly endeavors. She is also the recipient of numerous grants from the Kentucky Arts Council and Tennessee Arts Commission.

As a master teacher, Stephanie Rea has given lectures and masterclasses the nation's top music schools including University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Florida State University, and Arizona State University, as well as at the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts, Murray State University’s Wind Workshop, and the East Tennessee Suzuki Program.

Trained first on piano, then as a flutist in both traditional methods and Suzuki Method, Stephanie Rea brings a unique perspective to teaching and performing. Her degrees in flute performance are from East Tennessee State University (Rebecca Paluzzi) and The Florida State University (Charles DeLaney) with additional flute study at the Talent Education Institut in Matsumoto, Japan (Toshio Takahashi and Shinichi Suzuki) and the Brevard Music Center (Eric Hoover and Trygve Peterson).

Stephanie Rea is Associate Professor of Music at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky where she maintains an active flute studio and teaches in the Honors Program. She recently returned from sabbatical teaching and conducting pedagogical research at the Hochschule fuer Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on a Fulbright grant.

Rea enjoys life in western Kentucky and wherever she goes with her husband, trumpeter Kurt Gorman, three-year-old Gavin and one-year-old Zoe.