NATCHITOCHES – Harpsichordist Kyle Collins will present a concert with Northwestern State University music faculty Dennette McDermott and Douglas Bakenhus on Sunday, Oct. 17 at 4 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. Those attending are asked to follow university regulations and to wear a mask at all times in the building. A livestream will be available at capa.nsula.edu/livestream.
Collins will play two solo works for harpsichord, “Variations on Within a Mile of Edinburgh” by Jan Dussek and “Dance” by Asako Hirabayashi. He will also accompany McDermott on the performance of three 18th century Czech flute sonatas by Jiri Czart. Collins will accompany Bakenhus on a sonata by Schaffrath.
McDermott will record the Czart flute sonatas in Chicago in November. The project is funded by the Magale Endowed Professorship.
Collins began his harpsichord studies when he studied for his MM at the University of North Texas in 2015, where he also earned his graduate artist certificate in harpsichord. Collins is now at Stony Brook University in New York, where he is studying for a DMA in harpsichord performance with Arthur Haas.
Collins was formerly the harpsichord professor at Baylor University. At Baylor, he created programs that establish connections between music and literature including a series of clavichord concerts based on each of Jane Austen’s main novels, focusing on the novelist’s relatively unknown life as a musician. His current research involves finding and performing early 18th and 19th-century American music from local historical societies.
McDermott is professor of flute and coordinator of graduate studies at Northwestern State, where she has taught since 1990. McDermott has performed in the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, England, Canada, Honduras, Russia, Spain and throughout the United States, including numerous performances at National Flute Association Conventions. After playing flute and piccolo professionally for many years her interest in baroque flute led to the opportunity
to participate in the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2021, an intensive training program on historical instruments, where she studied flute with Claire Guimond and Jed Wentz. She participated in the Twin Cities Baroque Music program in 2016 and 2017. In 2019, McDermott was selected from an audition to participate with The American Bach Soloists Academy in San Francisco where she studied with Sandra Miller. She has also participated in the Seattle Baroque Flute Course (2019, 20,21) taught by Janet See and Kathy Stewart.
McDermott plays baroque flute with the Austin Baroque Orchestra, a period music ensemble that specializes in music of the renaissance, baroque and classical periods. She recently performed with the Ritornello Baroque Collective of San Diego. She holds degrees from Michigan State University (BM), The University of Michigan (MM) and The University of North Texas (DMA).
Bakenhus is the music director and conductor of the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony at Northwestern State, where he also teaches bassoon, aural skills, string methods and conducting. His music degrees are from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University-Commerce, and he has completed additional graduate courses in conducting and bassoon performance at the University of Michigan. Bakenhus has been the music director of the Northeast Texas Symphony since 2002, and he has held teachings positions at Texas Lutheran University and the University of Mississippi. He has taught public school orchestras in Austin ISD and Cy-Fair ISD and has made several recent guest conducting appearances throughout the region and abroad, including the Sinfonietta Bratislava in Slovakia and the San Pedro Sula City Chamber Orchestra in Honduras.
He has also performed abroad with the NSU Faculty Woodwind Trio in Canada, Slovakia, England, and the Czech Republic. He regularly performs in orchestras throughout the Ark-La-Tex region, including the Shreveport, Longview, South Arkansas, and Texarkana symphony orchestras. He has participated in the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute (2010, 2017) on baroque bassoon, and has made recent appearances with the Baroque Artists of Shreveport, the Austin Baroque Orchestra, Ars Lyrica of Houston, the Houston Bach Society and the Mercury: The Orchestra Redefined (Houston). He participated in the Twin Cities Baroque Institute in Minneapolis, where he studied with Jaap Linden and Marc Destrube and Harpsichord builder Ton Amil.
