Paradise Winds

Stefanie Harger Gardner (bass clarinet) teaches clarinet, chamber music, and music theory at Glendale Community College and Ottawa University. Previously she served on the faculty at Northern Arizona University and Mesa Community College. Gardner maintains an active performance career, performing with Arizona Opera, the Phoenix Symphony, Red Rocks Chamber Music Festival, Seventh Roadrunner, the internationally recognized Paradise Winds, and grant-winning Égide Duo, whose mission is to commission, record, and perform music inspiring social change. She has performed in conferences for the International Clarinet Association, the International Double Reed Society, the North American Saxophone Alliance, and the International Viola Congress. Gardner’s chamber music albums are recorded on the Soundset label and can be heard on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube. In addition to performing and teaching, Gardner has a strong interest in woodwind pedagogy. In 2012, Gardner won first prize at the International Clarinet Association Research Competition with her study, “An Investigation of Finger Motion and Hand Posture during Clarinet Performance,” where she collaborated with the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing at ASU to study hand posture and finger motion during clarinet performance using CyberGloves®. Recently, she was awarded “Outstanding Contributions in Private Teaching” by Arizona State University, and has been hired by Norton Publishing Company to review theory and aural skills textbooks. Dr. Gardner received Bachelor, Master, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Clarinet Performance from Arizona State University studying with Robert Spring. Gardner is a Henri Selmer Paris/Conn-Selmer Performing Artist playing Privilege clarinets, a Silverstein Pro Team Artist, and uses Selmer mouthpieces.

Tiffany Pan (oboe) performs with many groups in Arizona including the Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony, West Valley Symphony, Musica Nova Orchestra, Phoenix Theater, Phoenix Boys Choir, and Cactus Chamber Musicians. She has performed in conferences for the International Double Reed Society, International Clarinet Association, and North American Saxophone Alliance. An enthusiastic teacher, Pan maintains a studio of private students and coaches youth ensembles in the valley.

Pan is oboe specialist at Hannah’s Oboes where she helps manage the business. She and Hannah bring inventory to International Double Reed Society conferences and discuss instrument developments with manufacturers from around the world.

A Native of Taiwan, Tiffany Pan received her Master’s degree from Arizona State University and Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has studied with Martin Schuring, John Dee, Ting-Hung Liu, and Peggy Lee.

Patrick Murphy (saxophone) is currently the Director of Concert Operations at Arizona Musicfest. Previously, he served as Theater Manager at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix and on the faculty of the Crane School of Music, State University of New York, College at Potsdam. He completed his doctorate from Arizona State University in 2013, and holds degrees from The University of Michigan, and the Crane School of Music. He has studied saxophone with Timothy McAllister, Donald Sinta, and Eric Lau and composition with David Heinick. He has performed throughout North and South America with tours spanning Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee, Arizona, Ecuador and Peru. He was the last saxophonist to perform with the New World Symphony in The Lincoln Theater, and the first saxophonist to perform in the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center. Most recently, he performed with the Chicago Symphony in their presentation of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights.

Joshua Gardner is associate professor of clarinet and director of the Performance Physiology Research Laboratory at Arizona State University, where he has taught since 2011. He maintains an active performance career, performing with several ensembles, including the internationally recognized Paradise Winds and Égide Duo, and is a frequent soloist with high school and college bands. He has performed and lectured at conferences for the International Clarinet Association, European Clarinet Association, International Double Reed Society, and North American Saxophone Alliance and has been featured on American Public Radio’s Performance Today. In addition to performing and teaching, Gardner has a strong interest in woodwind pedagogy and research. He won first prize at the International Clarinet Association Research Competition in 2008 and has presented lectures on tongue motion during clarinet performance throughout the US, often accompanied by live tongue imaging. He is currently exploring the use of ultrasound for quantified research and performance diagnostics. As part of the PPR Lab, Gardner often mentors student research initiatives ranging from examining embouchure force dynamics using thin-film force transducers to exploring non-articulatory tongue motion during saxophone performance using ultrasound imaging.

Gardner’s performance interests lie primarily in chamber music. He is the soprano clarinetist for the Paradise Winds Reed Quintet based in Phoenix, AZ. Recently, they released Live Beneath Stained Glass (2016), a Blues/Funk collaboration with the Jackie Myers Band. Journey on a Comet’s Tail, an album of entirely original commissioned works for reed quintet, will be released in late 2017. Advocates of original repertoire, the Paradise Winds have commissioned works by James Cohn, Deborah Kavasch, John Marvin, Robbie McCarthy, Kurt Mehlenbacher, Alyssa Morris, Tom Peterson, Kincaid Rabb, and premiered the first North American concerto grosso for reed quintet and orchestra by Graham Cohen. Paradise Winds actively tours, records, and holds residencies across the globe.

Joseph Kluesener, bassoon/contrabassoon (February & March), is founder and bassoonist of the Paradise Winds Reed Quintet. A US Air Force Qualified Musician at age twenty-two, he earned degrees cum laude from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music prior receiving his master’s and doctorate from Arizona State University. From 2013-2019, he served as Second Bassoon and Faculty with Wintergreen Summer Music Festival (Va.). Kluesener has performed abroad and nationally, and taught in Portugal, Germany, Spain, and Japan. Since 2008, he has been Adjunct Faculty at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, and also maintains a private bassoon studio. He has appeared in numerous conferences celebrating woodwinds with NASA, ICA, and IDRS. His primary mentors include Cynthia Cioffari, Martin James, William Winstead, Jeffrey Lyman, and Albie Micklich. Kluesener is a serious cook, baker, and pickleball player, who resides in Chandler with his wife and two French bulldogs. This is his first year at Arizona Musicfest.