Nikolas Caoile is Director of Orchestras at Central Washington University. Caoile has received degrees from the University of Michigan, the University of Washington and Willamette University. He has appeared with several professional, youth, and university orchestras. In 2002, he was invited to conduct the Olympia Symphony Orchestra. Caoile has also appeared with the Portland Youth Philharmonic, Seattle Youth Philharmonic, Salem Chamber Orchestra, Capital Area Youth Philharmonic, Willamette Falls Symphony Orchestra, and Portland State University Orchestra. Caoile has also conducted internationally at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Institut Musical de Provence Aubagne in France, and at the Vahktang Jordania Competition in Kharkov, Ukraine where he was one of 24 competitors invited to conduct the Kharkov Philharmonic. Caoile has also furthered his professional training as an active participant at many conducting workshops including the MITSO Conductor Workshop, Conductors Retreat at Medamak, Oregon Bach Festival, ASOL Donald Thulean Workshop, and the Conductors Institute at Bard. This summer, Caoile will participate in the 9th Cadaques Conducting Competition in Spain. His principal teachers include: Kenneth Kiesler, Gustav Meier, Peter Erös, Larry Rachleff and Daniel Lewis. Caoile also thrives in the opera repertoire. He has served on the music staff of the Aspen Opera Theater Center as a Coach Accompanist Fellow since 2003 preparing many operas such as: Rigoletto, The Cunning Little Vixen, Die Entführung auf dem Serail, The Turn of the Screw, and Giasone. He has served as an accompanist with the Seattle Opera assisting in productions of Eugene Onegin and Norma. He was a coach pianist and chorus master for the Bel Canto Vocal Institute in Portland, Oregon. And he was Music Director of the Willamette Opera Theater. Caoile was the harpsichordist in performances of L’incoronazione di Poppea, Giasone, and Calisto. Caoile has also served as conductor many main-stage productions. At the University of Washington, he led performances of Così fan Tutte, Il Matrimonio Segretto, Gianni Schicchi, The Bartered Bride, and Dido and Aeneas. In 2004, he assisted Martin Katz in the University of Michigan production of Hänsel and Gretel. In 2006, Caoile will assist Kenneth Kiesler in the 125th School of Music Anniversary Opera Production of Michael Daugherty’s Jackie O. In 2006 Nikolas was chosen to be Assistant Conductor with the Florida Grand Opera. His teachers include Martin Katz, Phil Kelsey, David McDade, and Kenneth Merrill.

Kara Hunnicutt
Academy Orchestra

Kara Hunnicutt, cellist and teacher in central Washington, has been principal cellist of the Yakima Symphony since 1990. She has been a featured soloist with seven orchestras in the Northwest, performing concertos by Dvorak, Schumann, Bloch, Saint-Saëns and Haydn, and most recently a cello concerto written for her by Dr. Gwyneth Walker, performed with the Mid Columbia Symphony in 2007. Recent chamber music performances have been at Cascadia Sounds of Summer in Twisp, the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival in Leavenworth and the Methow Music Festival in Mazama. With fellow chamber musicians Duane Funderburk and Alex Russell, Kara founded The Cascades Trio, performing annually on the west coast. A founding member of the Education Outreach program in Yakima, Kara and other Yakima Symphony members provide chamber music concerts and ‘informances’ to schools in the Yakima area. Awarded the Outstanding Performing Artist Award by NCW Allied Arts, she has played with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, Spokane Symphony, and as principal cellist of the Federal Way, Everett, Tacoma, Omak, Orchestra Seattle, Wenatchee, and Seattle Bach Choir orchestras. She has toured with the Pacific Northwest Ballet and soloed with Seattle Repertory Theatre. Kara founded a summer camp for young string players and served on the faculty of the Woods House Conservatory of Music. A native of Wenatchee, she attended Oberlin Conservatory, summers at Music Academy of the West and Aspen Music Festival, studying with Fred Zlotkin and Juilliard String Quartet cellist Claus Adam, and received her bachelors and masters degrees in cello performance from the University of Southern California where she studied with Gabor Rejto and Ronald Leonard. She earned a second masters degree in education from Central Washington University in 2000 and moved to Ellensburg in 2007 to start a new orchestra program in the public schools. Kara conducts Icicle Creek Music Center’s Academy Orchestra at Wenatchee’s Performing Arts Center.