Here are some members of the City Ballet Orchestra for A Carolina Nutcracker.
What's your favorite instrument?
What's your favorite instrument?
AMANDA HOKE is a professional flutist with over 15 years of experience. She has played professionally in over a dozen symphony orchestras including the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, Panama City POPS, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, and the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra (TN). She moved to Wilmington in 2014, and currently plays with the Wilmington Symphony alongside many chamber groups including the flute & guitar duo, The Cypress Duo. She is a faculty member at Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville, NC and teaches students of all ages in the Wilmington area. Amanda also teaches gentle yoga at the Wildacres flute masterclass every summer in Little Switzerland, NC. She is passionate about technology, specifically graphic design and coding. In her spare time she likes to spend time at home with Zoe, the spunky husky.
Harpist CHRISTINA BRIER performs locally with the Wilmington Symphony and the Tallis Chamber Orchestra. She frequently appears as achamber musician with Manhattan harpist Kathryn Sloat in venues across the United States. Their harp duo Lilac 94 specializes in premiering innovative new works for harp duo. Christina currently operates a private teaching studio in Wilmington and serves as president of the Coastal Carolina Chapter of the American Harp Society. Most recently, she performed Bollywood music on the harp for six months all over India. When not performing or practicing, Christina can be found reading at the beach, playing with her nieces, or planning her next big adventure.
Violinist and concertmaster BEVERLY ANDREWS comes from a musical family. She attributes her career as a professional musician to a deathbed request made by her grandmother back in 1930. Her dying wish was to make sure that her daughter, only 5 years old at the time, received piano lessons. So, Beverly’s mother grew up playing the piano, and passed along the family trade. When asked why she likes playing in the orchestra, Beverly says, “The sound of all those orchestral instruments is like the swelling of a huge wave in the ocean. We ride the wave like surfers or like dolphins leaping with musical joy in that wave of sound. It's exhilarating. It's satisfying. It fills holes in your soul.” I Beverly began playing violin in childhood and has played professionally since graduating from college. She is concertmaster of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra and a founding member of the Cape Fear Chamber Players, a professional chamber ensemble. She studied Violin with excellent professors in Switzerland and in Michigan, receiving top honors.
JERALD SHYNETT (Trombone) has been on the faculty at University of North Carolina Wilmington for 8 years where he teaches trombone, improvisation, jazz theory, jazz arranging, jazz history, and jazz combo. He is an active performer and clinician throughout North Carolina and is currently performing with the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra and The Jazz Surge, a professional jazz orchestra based out of Florida. Before coming to UNCW in 1998, Mr. Shynett maintained an active career as a freelance trombonist, composer and arranger in Florida. Throughout his career he has performed with Chick Corea, Bob Brookmeyer, Slide Hampton, Nneena Freelon, Gerald Wilson, Ira Sullivan, Vincent Herring, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, The O’Jays, Ray Charles, and Liza Minelli among others. His compositions and arrangements have been performed throughout the country, most recently with the Jazz Ensembles of UNCW, University of South Florida, University of Miami and Northwestern University.
JIM CANDIDO (Bass) began his career as bassist with the Don Shirley Trio in 1963. He toured the US & Canada for two years, performing almost 200 concerts each year for Columbia Artist Management Co. He spent two years in New York doing freelance shows, club dates, and symphonic groups, touring with the Longine Symphonette and Michel Piastro. During an off-Broadway show, "Leonard Bernstein's Theater Music" in 1965, Jim met Leonard Bernstein. He auditioned for the New York Philharmonic in 1966 and was appointed to bass section by Bernstein himself. Jim performed with the New York Philharmonic for 37 years, doing extensive touring and performing under George Szell, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, and many other conductors. Jim performed with various chamber groups in US, South America and Europe. He retired from the New York Philharmonic in 2003 and moved to North Carolina, where he freelances in Wilmington and the surrounding areas, teaching bass and violin at Duplin Music Academy and at home.