Students of Gina Funes present their end-of-quarter recital. With accompaniment by the Studio Jazz Ensemble, Fred Radke, director, and Hans Lehmann, piano.
DIRECTOR BIOS
Vocalist Gina Funes joined the School of Music faculty in Fall 2010 as a part-time artist-in-residence. Her professional singing career has included roles in Mimi, La Boheme, The Magic Flute, and The Marriage of Figaro with the Seattle Little Opera Company and the University of Washington Festival Opera Company as well as engagements with the Seattle and Portland Symphony Orchestras.
As a nightclub performer, she has appeared with such artists as Glenn Yarborough, Miriam Makeba, George Burns, Connie Stevens, Tony Bennett, the Modernaires, Pete Barbutti, Johnnie Ray, and Mel Torme. She has appeared as a featured singing artist at Seattle's Fairmont Olympic Hotel and frequently appears in performances around the world as guest singing artist for the Harry James Orchestra, directed by her husband, Fred Radke.
Fred Radke joins the School of Music faculty in Fall 2011 as a part-time lecturer in the Jazz Studies program. A well-known big-band conductor and authority on big-band history, Radke directs the University of Washington's big band, the UW Studio Jazz Ensemble.
A professional musician since the age of fifteen, Radke has toured extensively around the world as leader and member of the Harry James Orchestra. He has also performed as lead trumpeter with many other well-known ensembles and performers, including the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Dick Jergens Orchestra, the Modernaires, Johnny Ray, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme and numerous others.
In addition to his professional career as a trumpeter, conductor, recording artist, compose/arranger, and producer, Radke is a musical clinician and educator who most recently has served as the resident instructor of Jazz Studies at North Seattle Community College.