Jim Skinger Duo – Guitar & Flute

About Jim Skinger

Jim is a guitar a teacher, performer, recording artist and composer. He taught guitar at Clark University, Worcester MA, Marywood College in Scranton,PA and at the State University of NY in both Binghamton and Oneonta.

Jim’s solo concerts and performances with classical and jazz ensembles have insured a continually busy performance schedule. His compositional output is diverse and includes his flute and  guitar piece “Just For Friends” and “Suite Ibiza” for solo guitar, both published by Columbia Music Co. Editions Daminus of Germany  published “When the Birds Goodbye To The Day”, as well as guitar duo, quartets and chamber music.

He has also performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Royal Festival  Hall, London as well as in numerous countries including Austria, Germany, Russia, Czech Republic, and Belarus.

About LeeAnn McKenna

Music has always been a part of my life. My mother was an accomplished coloratura soprano, giving recitals that I attended when I was a child. Later, she broadened her singing to include night club performances, sinking her teeth in some light jazz and show tunes. I am the youngest of six and the only one to pursue music as a career. And like my mother, I am not locked in to any one style of playing.

I’ve had the great privilege to work with some of the greatest classical flute players of the 20th and 21st centuries: Jean Pierre Rampal, Julius Baker (New York Philharmonic), Mindy Kaufmann (New York Philharmonic), Carol Wincenc, Lois Schaeffer (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Michael Hasel (Berlin Philharmonic), and Donald Peck (Chicago Symphony). My performing has taken me throughout Europe and much of the east and west coasts on the United States, as well as two tours to Puerto Rico.

My orchestral and chamber work includes the New Bedford Symphony (MA); the Augusta Symphony and Augusta Opera orchestras, and Musica Antiqua (GA); the Eugene Symphony and Opera orchestras, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Oregon Festival of American Music Orchestra, the University Orchestra, and the Oregon Chamber Players; and Spencer Beauties flute duo with continuo (Eugene, OR).

My trips outside the classical world include the Augusta Symphony Bluegrass Band, Carl and LeeAnn Folk Duo (GA); and Kendálin, a world folk fusion ensemble (OR) (cd available on iTunes or at www.kendalin.com).

Presently I am performing with the Red Lantern Ensemble a small chamber group presenting a wide variety of music and ensemble types;  and Thousand Waves, an ensemble presenting a variety of styles of music from jazz to tangos, renaissance to modern, Japanese to Irish, and much more. The group consists of various combinations of flute, classical guitar (Peter Zisa), Japanese koto (Yukiko), and percussion.