Today we’d like to introduce you to Danna Sundet. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Danna Sundet serves as Full Professor of Oboe at Kent State University. She is Artistic Coordinator of the Kent Blossom Music Festival. Her artistry, broad range, and versatility has its roots in her exotic upbringing. She grew up in Brazil, the Canary Islands, and Texas, speaking three languages fluently from early childhood. Danna moved to Cleveland in 1982 to study with John Mack and stayed. She received her B.M. from the Cleveland Institute of Music and her M.M. from Kent State University. Since 1987, Danna has been the principal oboist and regular featured soloist with The Erie Philharmonic. She is a founding member of Panoramico’s, a Cleveland chamber ensemble, and serves as co-principal with the Trinity Chamber Orchestra and the Akron Baroque Orchestra. As a soloist and chamber musician, she regularly collaborates with world renowned musicians. She has recorded three CDs with Panorámicos, four CDs with WorldView International (now known as Ancient Path). She records regularly for Ludwig Publishing Company and can be heard on numerous educational CDs. In 2012 she created the KBM recording label and recorded a chamber music CD with KBM faculty using Five/Four Productions.
Danna specializes in performing in Bach Festivals, where she is a featured soloist on the oboe, oboe d’amore, and the English Horn. These festivals include the prestigious Carmel Bach Festival and the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival. Sundet has performed as extra with the Cleveland Orchestra as well as the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and the symphonies of Akron, Canton, and Charleston, WV. She served as oboist with the former Cleveland Opera and Cleveland Ballet and has served as principal oboe for touring ballet companies which include the National Ballet of Canada, the Houston Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and the Miami City Ballet. In 2008 by invitation of the conductor, she was one of several performers from the US at the Cayman Islands Arts Festival. Mrs. Sundet performs regularly each summer with the prestigious Bellingham Festival of Music in Bellingham, Washington.
Danna Sundet is the musical Director of the John Mack Legacy Oboe Camp in Little Switzerland, NC, having had the honor of being chosen for that role by her oboist colleagues from all over the United States. Additionally, she is administering the archives and musical library of the late John Mack. In November 2006 she organized an unprecedented concert of over 100 world-renowned musicians who performed in Severance Hall as tribute and memorial for the late John Mack. She produced and performed on the John Mack Memorial CD.
Mrs. Sundet’s enthusiastic and motivational style of teaching and her clear and logical approach to musical instruction heralds her as one of the most prolific and influential teachers of oboe students in the United States. Her students are dynamic soloists, chamber musicians, and section players. She models to her students a high level of mastery, musical integrity, and a hard work ethic that encourages them to become successful artists, teachers, arts managers, and instrument repair technicians throughout the United States.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Life is rarely a “smooth road.” Balancing family life, professional performances, University teaching, and administrative duties for running a music festival and music camp is a steady balancing act. The hardest part is follow through for completing tasks and looking at short-term and long-term goals.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a classical musician, specializing in oboe and English horn performance. I teach music performance, pedagogy, the art of reed-making, instrument repair, and I am a role model to my students in the area arts entrepreneurial skills. I am a professor at Kent State University in the Hugh A Glauser School of Music. I play oboe in orchestras across the US. I am most proud of the wonderful family that I have as well as the
CDs that I have recorded, the educational videos that I have made for High School aged students, and the annual John Mack Oboe Camp that I direct which regularly attracts up to 75-95 young artists.
I very much enjoy my work with the Kent Blossom Music Festival as artistic director and I adore performing with the Bellingham Festival of Music each summer in Bellingham, Washington.
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I was raised in Bahia, Brazil, and on the Canary Islands. I speak some Portuguese. I adore road cycling and hiking and eating great food.
I love playing music in my local church “garage band” each Sunday morning.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.johnmackoboecamp.org/
- Instagram: KSU Oboe Studio
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1T155hkSzc
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1lRsshe3Kw&t=46s
