premiered in Austin, Texas, Jan. 2017
Winner of the Golden Hornet String Quartet Smackdown III 
performed by the Mother Falcon String Quartet

THANK YOU GOLDEN HORNET, ATX, MOTHER FALCON, AND ALL THE AUDIENCE THAT VOTED FOR MY PIECE!

"all I'm feeling right now" for string quartet (2017)

Conor is the bassoon instructor at Auburn University where he teaches applied bassoon lessons as well as written and aural theory.  
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Dr. Bell also performs as part of the Elicio Winds, a woodwind trio formed with the flute and oboe faculty at Auburn, as well as the Aether Reed Quintet, formed with friends made while pursuing doctoral studies at Indiana University.  Conor has been the principal bassoonist of the Owensboro Symphony in Kentucky since 2016.

Conor holds degrees in bassoon performance from Indiana University (Master's and Doctorate) as well as West Texas A&M University (Bachelor's).  His recently completed dissertation analyzes the bassoon works of David Maslanka.

Kyle Simpson, composer, trumpet player, and bandleader, is a graduate from Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI and The University of Montana in Missoula, MT.  His main composition teachers were Fred Sturm at Lawrence and Charles Nichols at The University of Montana.  Simpson has written many works for large jazz groups, chamber jazz groups, solo trumpet, synthesized electronic music, Orchestra, and Wind Ensemble.  Recent compositions were featured at the Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival in Missoula, where he also performed with Lew Soloff and Paquito D'Rivera. Other compositions have been featured at the Fête de la Musique Ile d'Yeu (2011) and Ostrava Days (2011).  Simpson’s music has been described as, “lively with rhythmic vitality” and also, “lyrical with a brooding elegance.” 

In 2005, he studied with Dave Douglas and other great contemporary jazz artists in Banff, Canada at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In 2006, Simpson was awarded an ASCAP Scholarship to study at the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles, CA, where he worked with Maria Schneider, Vince Mendoza, Jack Smalley, and Bruce Broughton.  Simpson’s work Autumn Fields was scored for chamber orchestra and was premiered in Schoenberg Hall at UCLA and conducted by Vince Mendoza. Kyle Simpson has also worked with the Universal Studio orchestra in creating new library music.

In 2007, Simpson went on tour with the World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra as a split soloist and arranger under the direction of Larry O’Brien. Simpson also produced and arranged The Very Thought of You, album by the male vocalist, Ryan Garfi, of the same band.

Recently, Simpson was awarded the Michael Iovenko Fellowship to study composition at the Ecole Normale De Musique in Paris, France.  In June 2011, he was also awarded the Film Music Foundation Scholarship for the NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop in New York. Simpson just finished a recording project with the Czech Radio Symphony Brass Quintet and String Quartet, in recording new pieces written for those ensembles. In August 2011, Simpson conducted his own composition Journey Into Wissameking with the Janaček Philharmonic, in Ostrava, CZ.

Jonathan Thompson is a Mexican-American oboist, recitalist, and college lecturer in Dallas. He completed is DMA at the University of North Texas. He is formerly a lecturer at Northwestern University, teaching the Double Reeds Techniques Class for Bienen's Music Education Department. He has performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, and the Wisconsin Philharmonic.

He is the oboist for Fonema Consort, a contemporary chamber music group based in Chicago, Illinois. 

Jonathan attended Northwestern University, where he graduated in 2011 with department honors. He studied with Michael Henoch and Scott Hostetler. He stayed at Northwestern to complete his masters degree where he was awarded the School of Music Eckestein Scholarship. Upon graduation in 2013, he became the first recipient of the Ray Still Award.

DFW-based clarinetist, composer, electronic music , educator , new art collaborator.

"all I'm feeling right now" for string quartet (2017)

LE