History
SHE began in 2019 as a celebration of the contributions and artistry of women in music. The festival is presented in March each year in conjunction with Women’s History Month.
SHE includes performances, lectures, and masterclasses featuring the music of people who identify as non-cis-male. The festival has brought hundreds from across the world to campus and featured artists of all genres and professions.
SHE Committee Members
Cristina Ballatori has performed across the United States, Europe, England, and Latin America as a recitalist, soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. Performance highlights include concerts in such venues as the Festivales Internacionales de Flautistas in Lima, Peru, World Flutes Festival in Mendoza, Argentina, Atelier Concert Series in Paris, France, and artist residencies in Spain, Costa Rica, and Mexico.
An active chamber musician, Ballatori is a member of the Semplice Duo with pianist Kevin Chance, and the Lyrique Quintette. Described by critics as “delightful performers” whose “music making was effortless and sparkling,” the Semplice Duo was formed with the goal of exposing a wide variety of audiences to the less frequently performed chamber music for flute and piano. Winners of the Notes at 9,000 Emerging Artist Series Competition in Colorado, the Semplice Duo has performed recitals and educational outreach concerts throughout the United States and abroad. Their debut album, Night Surrendering to Dawn, scheduled for release on the Centaur label in 2025, features, a program of works for flute and piano by 21st Century composers Valerie Coleman, Amanda Harberg, and Samuel Zyman, along with two world-premiere recordings of works by Christian Ellenwood. Passionate about the performance of new music and music by women, Ballatori is a member of the Flute New Music Consortium and has commissioned and premiered works by Valerie Coleman, Reena Esmail, Cherise Liter, and Alexandra Molnar-Suhajda.
Ballatori regularly appears as a guest artist and has been a featured performer, clinician, and adjudicator at many festivals and conferences including those of the National Flute Association, Music Teachers National Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Band Directors Association, and Florida Flute Association among many others. Recent guest artist engagements include appearances for the Rochester Flute Association, Wisconsin Flute Festival, and the Southwestern Oklahoma State Flute Day. A passionate advocate for music education, Dr. Ballatori has presented workshops for the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation’s “Live! Music Now” program, and given master classes at universities and public schools throughout the United States and in Latin America.
A sought-after and dedicated teacher, Ballatori joined the faculty at the University of Arkansas in Fall 2024 as Assistant Professor of Flute and flutist with the Lyrique Quintette. She previously served as Associate Professor of Flute at both the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). At UTRGV, Ballatori was one of fifteen tenure track professors within the sixteen University of Texas System schools to receive the Regents’ Outstanding Award, a $25,000 award recognizing extraordinary classroom performance and innovation in instruction. Her students have been named prize winners and finalists in local, state, regional, and national competitions, including those sponsored by the National Flute Association and Music Teachers National Association, and have been accepted into top summer festivals and graduate programs. Under Ballatori’s direction, the UTRGV Flute Choir and Flautarra Ensemble enjoyed the university’s first invitations to appear as featured performers at the National Flute Association Convention, Texas Music Educators Association Convention, and Texas Flute Festival. In 2022, the UW-W Flute Ensemble received the university’s first invitation to perform at the National Flute Association Convention in over thirty years.
?A winner of the National Flute Association’s Graduate Research Competition, Ballatori’s doctoral thesis, “Suite Paysanne Hongroise for Flute and Piano by Béla Bartók/Arr. Paul Arma: A Performer’s Guide,” was recognized for its outstanding contribution to flute research. Her articles have been published in American Music Teacher, Flute Talk, and Flutist Quarterly. Ballatori has served as co-director of the Frontera Chamber Music Society, a non-profit organization she co-founded, and as co-director and co-founder of the South Texas Flute & Clarinet Festival. An active member of the National Flute Association, she currently serves as Assistant Program Chair of the organization’s 2025 Convention in Atlanta. She previously served as a member of the NFA’s Board of Directors, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, Pedagogy Committee, Youth Engagement Committee, and as coordinator of the High School Soloist Competition.
Ballatori completed the Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The recipient of a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship, she received a postgraduate diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England where she studied with Peter Lloyd, retired principal flutist of the London Symphony Orchestra. She earned performance degrees at Louisiana State University (M.M.) and George Mason University (B.M.). Her major teachers include Alexa Still, Katherine Kemler, Judith Lapple, and Diane Smith. Ballatori is a Burkart Artist.
Dr. Amy Nicole Cooper is an Instructor of Musicology in the Department of Music at the University of Arkansas. Her area of research is nineteenth-century British music making, where she concentrates on domestic music-making practices. Her other research interests include historiography, orientalism, and reception history.
Dr. Cooper received her B.M. in Music Performance from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, NC, where her area of concentration was Piano Performance. She followed this with her Master of Music in Musicology at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, where she continued her studies and earned her Ph.D. in Musicology. Her dissertation is entitled “Borrowing Culture: British Music Circulating Libraries and Domestic Musical Practice, 1853-1910.”
Theresa Delaplain is an esteemed oboist and pedagogue, actively performing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. She has commissioned, performed, and recorded several new works for oboe and has been a champion of contemporary music. Delaplain is a founding organizer of the SHE Festival of Women in Music, a yearly international festival to promote music written by women. She is the First Place winner in the 2025 American Prize Instrumental Soloist division, and she is a Lorée Artist.
Her solo album, Souvenirs, with pianist Tomoko Kashiwagi, has earned glowing reviews in several publications. It was described in Fanfare as “…a fascinating mix of repertoire, performed to the highest of standards. This is a fabulously thought-out excursion into the oboe repertoire, beautifully recorded.” A description in The Double Reed proclaimed that “Delaplain’s mellow tone is beautifully suited to the melismatic phrases.” In 2025 Delaplain released Her Voice with pianist Miroslava Panayotova, an album of music by women for oboe and piano, which garnered this praise in a Fanfare review: “Delaplain and Panayotova deliver top-notch performances across the board. They are clearly in sync at all times. Delaplain’s tone is full and focused.”
Delaplain is also featured on a recent album of chamber music by Robert Mueller, Dream Gardens. Her album with the Lyrique Quintette has also been favorably received and reviewed, with reference to Delaplain’s “dark, chocolately oboe playing.”
Delaplain has been a panelist and presenter at several festivals and conferences, and she has also recently resumed composing and performing her own works. She won a grant to perform in Creative Arkansas Community Hub and Exchange’s “Mixtape” series in a social justice program of works for oboe and multimedia, and her composition Monet Suite for oboe/English horn and piano was published by Trevco Music Publishing.
Delaplain has performed as concerto soloist with the Fort Smith Symphony, the North Arkansas Symphony, the Arkansas Philharmonic, the Thai National Orchestra, the LOU Orchestra, the Tulsa Youth Symphony, and the University of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Wind Symphony, and Chamber Orchestra. She currently serves as Principal Oboist for the Fort Smith Symphony, and the Arkansas Philharmonic, and is the past (retired) Principal Oboist of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas and the Music Festival of Arkansas.
Delaplain is on the Arkansas Arts Council’s “Arts on Tour roster” as oboist with the Lyrique Quintette. The quintet has toured Panama, Spain, Germany, Thailand, Canada, and throughout the United States, giving formal concerts, school concerts, master classes, clinics, and workshops. They recently released Arrivals and Departures: Music of the Americas on the Mark Classic label, and they previously released Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue. Delaplain has appeared at many International Double Reed Society Conventions, and she was a guest recitalist at the Southwest Contemporary Music Festival and Conference, in addition to performing at the College Music Society National and Regional Conventions.
A dedicated educator, Delaplain is an Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas, where she teaches oboe and music theory and is Woodwind Area Coordinator. She has taught at the Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Arts Camp, the Midwest Double Reed Camp, and the Saarburg International Music Festival and School in Germany. She has been active as a clinician and adjudicator, including appearances at the Mid-South Double Reed Society Festival, Valdosta State University Double Reed Day, University of Central Oklahoma Oboe Day, KState Oboe Day, East Carolina Oboe Day, and the Arkansas All-State Music Convention.
Delaplain has also written a popular oboe reed-making book, My Kingdom for a Reed!, and is the co-host of Something to Crow About!, a YouTube channel devoted to oboe reed-making. She also served as Treasurer of the Midwest Double Reed Society for many years.
Delaplain’s formal education included attending Macalester College for two years, where she studied with Rachel Brudnoy and Richard Killmer; earning a Bachelor of Music in Oboe Performance degree from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Arno Mariotti; earning a Master of Music in Oboe Performance from Bowling Green State University, where she studied with John Bentley; and earning a Doctor of Musical Arts in Oboe Performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where she studied with Sara Bloom and had master classes with Robert Bloom.
Dr. Sarah Hetrick(she/her) is a saxophonist and educator based in Northwest Arkansas. A fierce advocate for her students and their interests, Hetrick serves as Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the University of Arkansas where she engages with the Saxophone Studio in applied instruction, saxophone pedagogy, chamber music, and more. Hetrick is frequently invited to teach and perform at schools and workshops throughout the United States, including the University of Iowa, the University of Minnesota, Baylor University, the Great Plains Saxophone Workshop, and others.
In her collaborations and programming, Hetrick often curates narratives that focus on the work and lives of women at the intersection of music and art. Hetrick maintains an active schedule as a solo and chamber musician, performing as a member of the sjel duo, Duo Oenomel, the Lyrique Quintette, and more. Hetrick is an avid performer of new music and has commissioned over 30 new works by composers Alexandra Gardner, Katahj Copley, Viet Cuong, and others. Hetrick has performed as a soloist with the University of Central Arkansas Wind Ensemble and The University of Texas Wind Ensemble and has performed with the Symphony of North West Arkansas and the Forth Smith Symphony.
Ever curious about the ubiquity and sexualization of the saxophone, Hetrick’s research explores gender, iconography of the saxophone, and the effects of both on practicing saxophonists. Hetrick’s research is published in Contemporary Perspectives on the Legacy of Elise Hall (1853-1924) by Cornell University Press (US) and Leuven University Press (Belgium). She has lectured throughout the United States on her paper, “He puts the pep in the party”: Gender and the Saxophone in Early-Twentieth-Century American Advertisements. Hetrick enjoys engaging with the innovative work of saxophonists as a reviewer for the Saxophone Symposium Journal.
Hetrick has been awarded a Presser Grant, PEO Scholar Award, and a Rainwater Grant for Innovation. Hetrick previously served as Assistant Professor of Music at Texas A&M International University and holds both a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and a Master of Music degree in Saxophone Performance from The University of Texas at Austin. She has completed additional study at Université Européene de Saxophone in Gap, France.?
Hetrick performs exclusively on Yamaha Custom EX soprano and alto saxophones, D’Addario Reserve Reeds, and a Rousseau NC4 mouthpiece. Hetrick is a proud Rousseau Artist.
Katey Jahnke is a dynamic hornist whose passion for music shines both as a performer and educator. Based in Northwest Arkansas, she serves as Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where she leads a thriving horn studio, coaches chamber music, and performs with the faculty wind quintet, Lyrique Quintette, and the faculty brass quintet, Arkansas Brassworks.
Dr. Jahnke’s teaching career spans several institutions, including Grand View University, Central College, Muskingum University, Marietta College, and Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Since 2009, she has cultivated a successful private studio, guiding students to prestigious achievements such as acceptance into elite youth symphonies, all-state ensembles, and summer programs like the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Ohio and Iowa All-State Ensembles, Columbus Youth Symphony, and Quad Cities Youth Symphony. She continues to inspire young musicians as a summer faculty member at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan.
An accomplished performer, Dr. Jahnke has graced stages worldwide as a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician. Highlights of her recent performances include appearances in Thailand and Panama with the Lyrique Quintette, principal horn engagements with the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas and Arkansas Philharmonic, and solo performances at the International Women’s Brass Conference, International Horn Symposium, and festivals dedicated to celebrating women in music. Her orchestral experience includes performances with ensembles such as the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Quad Cities Symphony, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Philharmonic, and numerous others.
As a dedicated chamber musician, Dr. Jahnke is the horn player and Executive Director of the nonprofit organization Wild Prairie Winds, which earned international acclaim as the 2020 first-prize winner of the Gates of Hope Chamber Competition and first-prize in the 2024 King’s Peak International Competition. She is also a member of the newly formed brass quintet, Magnolia Brass, which features female-identifying performers and teachers from Southern states; and a high brass trio, Sapphire Brass, who recently performed at the 2024 International Trumpet Guild Conference in California and will be a featured ensemble at the 2026 WindsWork Festival in Svalbarðseyri, Iceland.
Dr. Jahnke is a sought-after clinician and guest artist, having presented at institutions such as University of Oregon, University of Kentucky, University of Texas, among others. Her outreach extends to high school music programs and honor bands, including the CorDallas All-Region Clinic, Hawkeye Honor Band, and St. Ambrose University Honor Band. Internationally, she has served as a clinician and adjudicator for the Music and Marching Arts International Association in Bangkok, as well as for the ASEAN Youth Winds, Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music, and the Alfredo De Saint Malo Music Festival in Panama City, Panama.
A passionate advocate for female representation in music, Dr. Jahnke serves as Treasurer of the International Alliance for Women in Music and mentors through the International Women in Brass. She collaborated with composer Catherine McMichael on Borealis: An Essay in Three Movements for Horn and Piano, premiering it at the 2019 International Women’s Brass Conference and recording it in 2020. Her presentations of women-centered programs have been featured at events such as the College Music Society’s Central Regional Conference, Women Composers Festival of Hartford, and the Music by Women Conference.
Dr. Jahnke earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa under Jeffrey Agrell. Her previous studies also include Ohio State University, Bowling Green State University, and the University of Michigan.
Lenora Green-Turner joins the department’s faculty as teaching assistant professor of music. An American Soprano, Green-Turner, a native of Macon, Georgia has been hailed by Opera News as an impressive vocalist and the New York Times as a most expressive singer.
She has sung such roles as Mimi (La Boheme); Mary (Highway 1, U. S. A.); Countess Susanna (Il Segreto di Susanna); First Lady (The Magic Flute), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), title role Suor Angelica, Berta (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), High Priestess (Aida), Antonia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann). Green-Turner also holds many awards, namely the Jane Willson Emerging Artist award, Leo Rogers Scholarship/Sarasota Opera Guild; MONC Encouragement Award, regional NATS, William Knight Competition, MTNA Young Artist Program, Former Artist-In-Residence for Stax Music Academy, LeMoyne-Owen College, and Opera Memphis (2013-2017). Green-Turner earned her D.M.A. and M.M. from University of Michigan and her Performance Diploma from Indiana University.
Green-Turner is a member of Exigence under the baton of Eugene Rogers partnering with Sphinx Organization, a non-profit building diversity in classical music. She is also the founder and CEO of Green Room Studios LLC; a private vocal studio that helps singers find their authentic creativity. She is excited to be joining the distinguished music faculty at the University of Arkansas and giving the students a new perspective on finding their place in the music industry. She and her husband, Anthony J. Turner, Jr. are excited to embark on this new adventure.
A native of Colombia, Catalina Ortega is a Flute instructor at the University of Arkansas, the Suzuki Music School of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas Community Music School. She plays with the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, Ozark Family Opera Company and Fayetteville Opera. In addition to teaching, Ms. Ortega has performed in some of the major auditoriums in Colombia as a soloist and touring with chamber music ensembles. She has served Flute/ Piccolo player for the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Flute player of the Medellin Philharmonic Orchestra (Colombia) for several years. She has appeared as a soloist with the University of Arkansas Campus Band. The University of Arkansas Provost’s office and the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards recognized Ms. Ortega during the 2017 Annual State and National Awards as an Outstanding Mentor. She holds a Master Degree in Music Performance and a Certificate in Advanced Instrumental Performance in Flute from the University of Arkansas, as well as a B.A in Flute Music Performance from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia. She is also a member of the Society of Pi Kappa Lambda by the Epsilon Sigma Chapter.
Dr. Moon-Sook Park, soprano, is an internationally recognized performer, scholar, and educator. A native of Korea, she launched her professional career in Europe, where she performed extensively as a soloist across Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Korea, and the United States.
Her distinguished repertoire includes masterworks such as Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Requiem, C-Minor Mass, and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore; Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat, and B-Minor Mass; Brahms’ German Requiem; Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Paulus, and Lobgesang; Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Creation, and Stabat Mater; Handel’s Messiah; Poulenc’s Gloria; Rossini’s Stabat Mater; Fauré’s Requiem; Lloyd-Webber’s Requiem; and Dubois’ Stabat Mater. She has also performed operatic works and avant-garde compositions, premiering new works at renowned festivals, including the Darmstadt Neu-Musik-Festival, the Hindemith Festival, the Webern Festival, the Wagner Festival, and the Mozart Festival. Dr. Park’s performances have been preserved in historical recordings, including live premieres at the Rossini Festival in 1992, where she contributed to two newly uncovered Rossini works. These recordings are available on CD and archived for historical preservation. She has also been featured on German radio broadcasts through WDR, SWF, and HR.
Dr. Park holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Voice Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as well as graduate diplomas in art song, opera, and concert vocal music from Freiburg, Saarbrücken, and Stuttgart music conservatories in Germany. Additionally, she earned a Privata Diploma in opera and bel canto technique from the Accademia di Canto F. Cavalli in Milan, Italy, and a Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University. Her vocal training includes mentorship with renowned artists such as Eva Brink-Hillemann, Luisa Bosabalian, Siegmund Nimsgern, Philipp Huttenloch, Floriana Cavalli, and Barbara Honn. She has further honed her artistry through master classes with legendary figures, including Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Ingrid Bjoner.
As a dedicated educator, Dr. Park’s former students have established themselves as professional singers, educators, and competition winners across Europe, Korea, and the United States. Notable achievements include successes at prestigious competitions such as the Internationaler Wettbewerb für Liedkunst in Stuttgart, the Concours Chimay Chant Baroque in Belgium, the International Singing Competition in Cologne, the Corbett Opera Scholarship Award in Cincinnati, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Her students also excel at NATS state and regional auditions, showcasing her profound influence as a mentor.
Since her U.S. debut solo recital at Carnegie Hall in 2001, Dr. Park has established herself as a respected artist and scholar. Her career has spanned solo and chamber music performances, operatic productions, lecture recitals, master classes, and research presentations internationally. Her scholarly contributions center on vocal pedagogy, vocology, and repertoire studies. Dr. Park is a proud member of Pi Kappa Lambda and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). She has served on the voice faculty of the Saarburg Music Festival in Germany and, since 2017, as an artist-faculty member at the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Piobbico, Italy.
In recognition of her exceptional contributions to music and academia, Dr. Park was recently honored as a recipient of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award for Germany (2024-2025). During the fall 2024 semester, she will teach and conduct research at the Institute of Korean Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, focusing on the interdisciplinary integration of singing and foreign language acquisition.