About the Conductors

Emily Smith is principal flute with the Olathe Community Orchestra and a Teaching Artistwith Kansas City Young Audiences. She holds degrees in music from Kansas State University(B.M.E.) and the University of Kansas (M.M.E). A freelance flutist and flute instructor, Ms. Smithis accomplished on a variety of flutes, including C flute, piccolo, alto and bass flutes, and fife. Sheperforms regularly with the Sunflower Ragtime Orchestra, Sunflower Flute Ensemble, and theSilverwood Quartet; she has also performed with the St. Joseph Symphony, the Liberty Symphony,the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, and the Overland Park Community Orchestra. Ms. Smith is afounder and co-conductor of the Kansas City Flute Choir.

As a flute educator, Ms. Smith has served as an adjudicator for district and state band auditionsas well as regional and state solo/ensemble festivals on both sides of the state line. She was invitedto give a presentation for a pedagogy workshop at the National Flute Association’s AnnualConvention in 2003. Ms. Smith is a member of the American Federation of Musicians, the NationalFlute Association, and the Kansas City Flute Association, for which she coordinates the KCFAEmail Calendar. In addition, she serves on the Teaching Artist Advisory Board for Kansas CityYoung Audiences. Her teachers include Dr. John Boulton, Drs. Al and Mary Lee Cochran, Dr. JudyJohnson, and Betty Strand. She maintains an active private flute studio in Olathe, KS, where sheresides with her husband, musician Steven Smith, and their son, Greg.

Townes Osborn Miller, flutist/teacher, earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees under Eldred Spell at Western Carolina University where she held a graduate assistantship, and will begin doctoral studies at the University of Kansas this fall. The founder of the Panapolli Trio, she freelances in the greater Kansas City music community, is an adjunct instructor of flute, music fundamentals, and music appreciation at Kansas City Kansas Community College, co-conductor/founder of the Kansas City Flute Choir, plays with the Overland Park Orchestra and teaches at the Toon Shop School of Music. Ms. Miller has performed with the St. Joseph Symphony, St. Joseph Symphony Municipal Band, Kansas City Puccini Arts Festival, Kansas City Civic Orchestra, New Theater Restaurant, Psalmfest for the Historic Northeast Cultural Arts Commission, and the Asheville (NC) Choral Society. She has also been the f! eatured soloist with the St. Matthias Chamber Orchestra (NC), the Oak Ridge (TN) Civic Music Association Guild, and with Midland Adventist Academy (KS). She has performed in master classes, both in the United States and England, with William Bennett, Clare Southworth, Goran Marcusson, Alexa Still, George Pope and Jim Walker. She is a member of the National Flute Association, Kansas City Federation of Musicians and Kansas City Flute Association.