2026 Judges

Dr. Nicole Molumby is a Professor of Flute and Faculty Fellow within the School of the Arts at Boise State University. An accomplished performer, Dr. Molumby has showcased her artistry internationally, with performances in Slovenia, England, Norway, Austria, Estonia, Poland, and Croatia. She has received multiple grants from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the Alexa Rose Foundation in recognition of her contributions to flute music, particularly her collaborations with Slovenian composers Blaž Pucihar and Črt Sojar Voglar. Her critically acclaimed CD, Awakening: 21st Century Slovenian Flute Music, was released on MSR Classical Records in 2013. Reviewers praised her work, describing her tone as "gorgeous and honeyed" (Music & Vision, 2014) and her performances as full of personality and engagement (American Record Guide, 2015).

Dr. Molumby is a respected leader in the music community, holding prominent roles in the National Flute Association and the College Music Society, where she has spearheaded strategic planning initiatives and facilitated creative sessions for redesigning 21st-century music curricula. She currently serves as the 2025 College Music Society Conference Program Chair in Spokane, WA, and is a 2025 National Association of Music Merchants Faculty Fellow.

At Boise State University, Dr. Molumby collaborates with the Center for Research and Creative Activity on Think Big!: an innovative program that equips graduate students and faculty with human-centered research skills. Through this initiative, she fosters cross-disciplinary collaborations, enabling researchers to apply evidence-based, user-focused methodologies to tackle contemporary global challenges.

Karlin Coolidge has been a resident of Boise since December 1996. She returned with her husband after growing up in Boise and moving to Washington, Pennsylvania, Oregon, California and Kansas. Part of those residencies were for school.

She has a BA in Music Education from the University of Washington and a Master of Music from the University of Oregon where she was the flute instructor. Private flute study was with Frank Horsfall and Felix Skowronek from the Seattle Symphony and William Kincaid of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Teaching experience was with many universities mostly in California as well as a flute studio. After moving to Boise she became the piccolo player in the Boise Philharmonic for 19 years. During that time she also played with the Boise Baroque Orchestra, Treasure Valley Concert Band and the Table Rock Trio. Now retired from all but the Treasure Valley Concert Band, and cutting back to one student, she spends her time quilting, book club, Mahjong playing and keeping in touch with 14 grandchildren and their parents.

Jennifer Rhees is an Idaho native and began her musical career with piano and flute. She has a Bachelor of Music from Boise State University, where she studied with Sara Williams, and a Master of Music from Baylor University, where she studied with Helen Ann Shanley. Jennifer has appeared as soloist with the Boise State Symphonic Winds, Treasure Valley Concert Band and the Meridian Symphony. She is currently principal flute of the Meridian Symphony.​

Pianist Mark Neiwirth, a Steinway Artist, received the 2018 Idaho Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. He has gained an international reputation as a soloist, chamber musician, teacher, adjudicator, composer and arranger. Concert tours have taken him to Europe, South Africa and India, as well as dozens of venues in the US.  He was chairman of the piano department at the Sun Valley School of Music and now celebrates his twentieth year as an adjunct professor of piano at Idaho State University.

He has performed a repertoire of more than 30 piano concerti with orchestras throughout the country. For sixteen years he was the featured concerto soloist with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. He was a founding member of Davidsbund (New York City), the California Trio (Los Angeles), the Vista Trio (Salt Lake City), the Edgar M. Bronfman Chamber Series in Sun Valley, the Amadeus Trio of Idaho, and currently the Claviano Trio and the Neiwirth-Sherman Piano Duo.  In 1997 he was declared the "Best Collaborative Pianist of the Year" by the Salt Lake Tribune.

After growing up in southern Idaho as a student of Fawn King, Olive Boren Stirland and Teala Bellini, he pursued his advanced studies with Raymond Hanson (The Hartt School), and Constance Keene and Dora Zaslavsky (Manhattan School of Music), where he served as Mme. Zaslavsky’s teaching assistant. Other major teachers were Aube Tzerko (UCLA) and Thomas Schumacher (Eastman School of Music).

He is the founder and Executive Director of Musicians West, Inc., a non-profit corporation that sponsors musical events and provides scholarships and composer commissions in the state of Idaho. For 25 years, the Musicians West Piano Festival & Competition in Pocatello presented Idaho’s finest students and has become one of the most prestigious musical events in the region.

Barton Moreau made his solo debut in a New York City performance with the New England Youth Ensemble at the age of 15. He has since performed as a featured soloist with orchestras across the United States, including the Northwest Florida Symphony, New Orleans Symphony, Port City Symphony (Mobile, AL), Mesa Symphony (Arizona), Gulf Coast Symphony, and the Boise Baroque Orchestra.

Moreau’s honors include a top prize at the Debose National Piano Competition and a collegiate artist award from the Alabama Music Teachers Association. In 2007, he was a finalist at the World Piano Pedagogy Conference’s PIANOvision Most Wanted Piano Competition, an international online competition created by Benjamin Saver.

As a collaborative artist, Moreau has performed with a diverse array of distinguished international players, including clarinetists Robert Spring and Jorge Montilla, oboists Andrea Ridilla and Gonzalo Ruiz, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, and composer-violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR). He has appeared at national and international conferences, including those of the College Music Society, International Double Reed Society (IDRS), and the International Clarinet Association (ICA), most recently at ClarinetFest 2018. Other performances include appearances with the Boise Philharmonic Orchestra, and at the McCall Second Sunday Sounds Concert Series (Idaho). Moreau joined the Boise Baroque Orchestra as principal keyboardist in 2012 and regularly appears on their subscription series.

Moreau holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University, and a Master of Music degree in piano performance from Indiana University. His collegiate career began at the University of South Alabama, where he was a recipient of the Theodore Presser Award. Moreau’s major teachers were Robert Hamilton, Karen Shaw, and Jerry Bush. He has also coached with Lee Luvisi, Fabio Bidini, Mykola Suk, and Leonard Hokanson.

Moreau serves as a Lecturer of Music at Boise State, teaching courses in piano, music theory, and music history. In addition to his collegiate teaching and performance activities, he is also an active studio teacher and adjudicator and an Associate Member of the American Matthay Association for Piano.

Dr. Svetlana Maddox is a classical pianist who represents the third generation of professional musicians in her family. Winner of the First Prize in the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition in New York, Svetlana had the honor to perform in Carnegie Hall in 2009. She was privileged to perform in Carnegie Hall again as the recipient of the Grand Prizes in the Princeton Music-Fests in 2012 and 2013. Svetlana’s performances and solo recitals in NYC also include venues, such as Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center and Steinway Hall.

Svetlana’s numerous concerts across the US resulted in articles, interviews, and concert reviews that appeared in magazines and newspapers in New York, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, and Idaho. Svetlana’s European concert tour that included a lecture-recital and a Master class at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Budapest, Hungary; performance at the International Pushkin Festival at the Chekhov Theater; a solo recital at the National Organ Hall in Chisinau, Moldova, also resulted in articles that appeared in several Moldavian newspapers. Svetlana’s interview and performance for the musical program was broadcast on Radio Moldova.

In 2016 Svetlana was invited to perform at the Liszt & Russia Festival of the “American Liszt Society” at California State University Northridge, Los Angeles. Previously, Svetlana gave a solo recital at The 15th Anniversary Chopin Festival in El Paso, Texas. In 2015 and 2014 Svetlana was one of the featured artists in the Stars of Steinway concert series in Boise, Idaho. In 2014 Dr. Mark Hansen and Dr. Svetlana Maddox formed a duo-piano Tesoro. This collaboration resulted in a number of successful concerts and master-classes presented at the colleges and universities throughout Idaho.

Svetlana’s Lecture-Recital at Idaho Music Teacher’s Association conference in September 2017 marked an important landmark in her concert carrier: performing at Idaho’s major institutions, including, BSU, ISU, BYU, NNU, U of I, C of I, CSI, and CWI. In 2018 Svetlana’s bibliography article on Modest Mussorgsky was published on Oxford Bibliographies in Music and is available at www.oxfordbibliographies.com.

Svetlana earned her Doctorate degree in Piano Performance from the University of Arizona (with Professor Nicholas Zumbro and Dr. Rex Woods). The subject of her dissertation was the famous masterpiece by Modest Mussorgsky, “Pictures at an Exhibition.” While living in New York in 2004-2009, Svetlana studied privately with the renowned international concert pianist, Professor Bella Davidovich of Juilliard School. Svetlana also holds two Masters Degrees in Piano Performance: from The Gnesins Academy of Music in Moscow, Russia, and from Boise State University (with Dr. Del Parkinson).

Currently, Dr. Svetlana Maddox combines her active performance career with teaching at Boise State University and the College of Western Idaho.

Wendy Bachman holds Performance and Pedagogy ARCT diplomas from The Royal Conservatory of Music, a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of British Columbia and a Master’s Degree in Piano Pedagogy and Performance from Westminster Choir College. Her teachers include Edward Parker, Harold Zabrack, Frances Clark, and Louise Goss.  Over the past forty three years, Wendy has taught in conservatories in Princeton,  Minneapolis, Vancouver, and Seattle.  In 1990 she was selected to teach and perform at the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy in Chicago.  Most recently, Mrs. Bachman taught at The Pennsylvania State University and recently relocated to Star, Idaho, where she is building her in person studio.  As a specialist examiner with thirty years of experience, Mrs. Bachman has adjudicated thousands of candidates for the Royal Conservatory of Music and prepared hundreds of her own students for RCM piano exams, some scoring the highest marks in their State. Wendy also serves as a US Ambassador for the RCM Certificate Program and is currently President of the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association. Wendy has judged numerous music festivals including the Kiwanis International and the Burnaby Clef.  In her spare time she loves to bake.