Sigma Alpha Iota

S i g m a A l p h a I o t a A n n u a l F r at e r n i t y Awa r d s FALL 2022 52 FALL 2022 52 S i g m a A l p h a I o t a Annual Philanthropies Awards R ebecca Needham is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at James Madison University in Flute Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature. As an avid performer, Rebecca was the winner of the 2022 Colorado State University Concerto Competition aer performing the Avner Dorman Piccolo Concerto with the University Symphony Orchestra in February 2022. She was also the 2021 Colorado State Representative for the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition and the first prize recipient of the 2022 Sigma Alpha Iota Triennial Graduate Performance Mary Ann Starring Memorial Award. Rebecca is on the Board of Directors for the Space Coast Music Project nonprofit organization and served as a Convention Intern for the 2021 and 2022 National Flute Association Conventions. As an educator, Rebecca Needham is a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the James Madison University School of Music. Previously, she served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Colorado State University School of Music, eatre, and Dance and worked as a substitute instructor for Brevard Public Schools and El Sistema Colorado. Rebecca is a Florida Certified Teacher in Music K-12 and is Level One Orff-Schulwerk certified. Rebecca's primary teachers include Dr. Beth Chandler Cahill, Dr. Michelle Stanley, Dr. Karen Large, and Eva Amsler. At the SAI National Convention, she performed Henri Dutilleux's Sonatine and Avner Dorman's Piccolo Concerto. "e Sonatine by Dutilleux is one of the Paris Conservatory competition pieces, used as the test piece for students in 1943. Henri Dutilleux famously disliked the piece as his compositional language changed significantly aer early works such as this one. It is a standard for the flute," said Rebecca, "and I personally love its interesting harmonic language and virtuosic fun! Avner Dorman's Piccolo Concerto was commissioned by Lior Eitan, former principal flutist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 2001. In the work, Dorman combines ideas of classical music, popular music, and Middle-Eastern music, creating a fusion of sounds like no other. is piece has quickly become a staple for the piccolo, which up until recently, didn't have a lot of solo repertoire. I personally love all the interesting timbres used in the work, the exploration of the entire range of the instrument, and the wild technical passages — they're so fun to play!" M A RY A N N STA R R I N G M E M O R I A L AWA R D FO R W O O DW I N D S & B R A SS FIRST PLACE REBECCA NEEDHAM A l u m n a G R A D UATE P ERFO R M A N C E AWA RDS SECOND PLACE JENNA MOORE M u T a u , C o l o r a d o S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y , X i C , R e g i o n I TRI EN N I A L AWA RDS

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