More Performer Bios I

Ai Goldsmith

Ai Goldsmith has appeared as a soloist with the Palo Alto Philharmonic and the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony, and has performed chamber music throughout California and the Czech Republic. Ai has also served as principal flute with the Palo Alto Philharmonic, the Stanford Summer Orchestra, and the Silicon Valley Symphony. Recently, she was chosen as a semi-finalist in the Haynes 2006 International Flute Competition. Ms. Goldsmith received her undergraduate and master's degrees in flute performance from UCLA and San Jose State University. Her teachers have included Sheridon Stokes, David Shostac, and Isabelle Chapuis-Starr. She has also studied with internationally renowned artists Ransom Wilson, Robert Stallman, and Vieri Bottazzini. In addition to her performance schedule, she maintains a private studio in the Bay Area.

Ms. Goldsmith will be joined at Flute Fest by Tim Koop, a student in flute performance at San Jose State University, where he studies with Isabelle Chapuis Starr. In the spring of 2006, Tim won the San Jose State University Concerto Competition and was a featured soloist with the San Jose State Symphony Orchestra.

Irene Gregorio:

Pianist Irene Gregorio will perform with Ai Goldsmith and Tim Koop at Flute Fest. A native of Guelph, Canada, Ms. Gregorio graduated from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada in 1999, earning the University Gold Medal in Piano Performance, and was awarded her M. Mus. degree in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music by the University of Michigan in 2002. She also holds an Associate Diploma in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. She has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and the Mendocino Summer Festival Orchestra, and has premiered new music for Composers Inc.,a San Francisco new music concert series. As an adjudicator, she has worked for the Hayward Arts Council competitions in Hayward, California, and for the national competition of the American Guild of Music in Troy, Michigan in 2000 and 2001. She was also a faculty member of the 2005 Northern California Flute Camp in Carmel Valley. As a free-lancer in the Bay Area, her wide range of musical collaboration and experience includes vocal and instrumental accompanying, chamber and orchestral ensembles, opera coaching, dance, and contemporary music. An active member of the university community, she also serves as the current artistic director of Musica delle Donne, a concert series held annually in March to commemorate women composers, and is the Director of the California State University East Bay Centre for Filipino Studies. Ms. Gregorio joined the CSUEB music department as staff accompanist in September, 2002.