STONY BROOK WOODWIND DAY
Sunday, November 9, 2025

Calling all flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone players!

Join us for an exciting day of classical and jazz woodwind festivities at Stony Brook University on Sunday, November 9th! Activities will include: classes and workshops with renowned SBU woodwind faculty, SBU student/faculty performances, shopping for instruments/accessories from local vendors, a Q&A student panel, and a Final performance featuring all participants in SBU’s beautiful Recital Hall.

All HS and College students, and woodwind amateurs, enthusiasts, and professionals of all levels are invited! Families are welcome to attend!

Attend the Q&A panel to learn about Stony Brook’s undergraduate and graduate programs  

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

$25 participation fee includes all Woodwind Day events, lunch and swag
$15 guest fee includes lunch and access to all events

Registration closes on November 6th

Please register at the link below 
https://cvent.me/22EbyG

PARKING: Free parking in the Administration garage and metered lot on Sundays

MAP FROM GARAGE TO THE MUSIC BUILDING

Any questions? Email Gina Cuffari at gina.cuffari@stonybrook.edu

Schedule

9:00 - 9:30 am: Check - in
9:30 - 10:15 am: Welcome and Opening performance
10:15 - 11:15 am: Ensemble Rehearsals -
Flute Choir, Double Reed Choir, Clarinet Choir, Saxophone Ensemble
11:30 am - 12:30 pm: Faculty Classes/Lectures/Workshops (Instrument-specific)
12:30 - 2:00 pm: Lunch, Vendors/Exhibits open
2:00 - 3:15 pm: Faculty Classes (Instrument Specific)
3:20 - 3:50 pm: Student Q&A Session
4:00 - 5:00 pm: Final Concert featuring all participants

Vendors

David Samperi of Flute Perfection

Kristin Bertand's Woodwind Workshop

Bebop Sax Shop

Sabrina Walch Woodwind Repair 

Faculty

 

Bassoonist Gina Cuffari is a dynamic and versatile musician who performs a variety of roles in the New York City area as an orchestral musician, chamber musician, new music advocate, artistic director and educator. Gina is the Bassoonist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Principal Bassoonist of the American Symphony Orchestra and Riverside Symphony. As a member of Orpheus, Gina has performed and recorded throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia for almost 20 years, and recently completed her tenure as one of the ensemble’s Artistic Directors. She also performs with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Composers Orchestra, the Knights, and has played on many recent Broadway productions.

Gina is a frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is a member of Sylvan Winds and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. A new music advocate, Gina enjoys commissioning and premiering works that combine her two passions – singing and playing the bassoon – into one performing experience. New works have been composed for her by Jenni Brandon, Sunny Knable, Gregg August, and Allison Loggins-Hull. 

As an educator, Gina currently holds positions at Stony Brook University and New York University. She teaches masterclasses and “Singing Through Your Instrument” workshops throughout the country, and  spends her summers teaching and performing at the Mostly Modern Festival at Skidmore College and the Bard Music Festival.

 

GRAMMY Award-winning Saxophonist Roxy Coss has been a celebrated figure on the New York scene for over fifteen years. She is the recipient of a Downbeat Critics’ Poll "Rising Star" Award, an ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, Local 802’s Emerging Artist Project, Jazziz Magazine’s “Artist to Watch", and Hothouse Magazine’s “Tenor Saxophone” Award. Coss is a prolific composer and established bandleader, having released six albums, including her latest, Disparate Parts (OiM 2022), to critical acclaim. Her newest release, a digital and vinyl-exclusive EP, Never Meet Your Heroes, will release on November 14th (OiM).

Roxy is also an in-demand side musician, and has performed with Clark Terry, Louis Hayes, Rufus Reid, Billy Kaye, Houston Person, Bill Charlap, Claudio Roditi, Jeremy Pelt, Willie Jones III, Geoffrey Keezer, Maurice Hines, Darcy James Argue, the Mingus Big Band, the Diva Jazz Orchestra, and the Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra.

As of September 2025, Coss is the newly-appointed Director of Jazz Studies at Stony Brook University. She is also the Founder and President of Women In Jazz Organization (WIJO), and Co-Artistic Director of the Brubeck Jazz Summit. 

 

Alan R. Kay is Principal Clarinetist and a former Artistic Director of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and serves as Principal Clarinet with New York’s Riverside Symphony and Little Orchestra Society.  Mr. Kay is the recipient of the Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders Award, the C.D. Jackson Award at Tanglewood, a Presidential Scholars Teacher Award, and the 1989 Young Concert Artists Award with the sextet Hexagon, featured in the prizewinning film, “Debut.”  A founding member of the Windscape Quintet, he is a regular guest in chamber music venues throughout the world, including the Yellow Barn, Colorado College, Orlando (Holland), Bowdoin, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society Festivals, and the Cape May Music Festival, where he curated a concert series for 25 years. Mr. Kay taught at the Summer Music Academy in Leipzig, Germany in 2004 and currently teaches at Stony Brook University and The Juilliard School, where an anonymous donor established the “Alan R. Kay Music Scholarship” in perpetuity. He has served on the juries of international chamber music competitions in Trapani, Italy and Rolduc, Holland, and for Young Concert Artists, Concert Artist Guild, and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

 

Emily Mendez (DMA Student, Oboe TA) is a Cuban-American oboist and educator, born and raised in the Miami area. She graduated from University of Miami's Frost School of Music with a Bachelor's in Performance. While there, she was a part of the Stamps Woodwind Quintet, a four-year chamber music fellowship program. As part of the Stamps program, they commissioned and premiered a work by Grammy award-winning composer, Kenneth Fuchs. At Frost, she studied with Robert Weiner. Recently, she earned her master's degree at DePaul University, where she studied with William Welter. While in Chicago, she maintained an active career as a freelance performer and educator. Emily has attended many festivals such as the Eastern Music Festival and Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. Most recently, she attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she performed with both faculty orchestras. Emily is currently pursuing her DMA (doctorate of musical arts) degree at Stony Brook, where she is studying with James Austin Smith.

 

 

Ji Young Kim (DMA Candidate, Flute TA) (Seoul, South Korea), has worked as an orchestral player, soloist, and chamber musician across the United States, Asia, and United Kingdom. She is currently a scholar at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance. She holds a Master of Music from The Juilliard School, having studied with Carol Wincenc and Robert Langevin, as well as a Bachelor of Music from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied under William Bennett and Kate Hill. As a soloist, she was recently named winner of the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Her competition successes include first prize in the New York Flute Club Competition and the Royal Academy of Music Flute Competition. She has also participated in various music festivals including the British Flute Society “Future Flute Fest”, Oxford Flute Summer School, and Orford Musique. Ji Young was invited as a Teaching Assistant for the 35th William Bennett International Flute Summer School. A keen chamber musician, Ji Young had the opportunity to perform Vijay Iyer’s ‘Five Empty Chambers’ as a part of Juilliard Creative Associate Claire Chase’s ongoing Density 2036 project: part iv (2016). Her flute trio, Image Trio, was awarded “Very Highly Commended” in the Nicholas Blake Woodwind Ensemble Prize, and they were Semi-Finalists in the 18th International Friedrich Kuhlau Flute Competition.