Nicole Granroth - Flute
Nicole Granroth is a Fort Lauderdale-based flutist who has over a decade of international performing and teaching experience. Originally from Milford, Michigan, she received a Bachelor degree in music from Grand Valley State University and a Masters degree in flute performance from the Hartt School of Music (University of Hartford). During her last year of school, she won a job playing second flute/piccolo with the Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa de las Artes in Culiacan, Mexico and moved abroad for the adventure of a lifetime. While there, she toured the country with the orchestra, playing in venues such as the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and in festivals like the International Cervantino Festival in Guanjuato and the International Ricardo Castro Music Festival in Durango. Additionally, she had the opportunity to share the stage with guest artists such as Il Divo, and to perform with other orchestras such as the Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco. She was a member of a variety of chamber music ensembles and a teacher of flute and chamber music at the Superior Music School of Sinaloa, where she assisted her students in winning competitions, scholarships, and degrees in music. After leaving Mexico, Nicole moved to Connecticut for a short time and then just recently to Fort Lauderdale. She is currently a flutist with the South Florida Symphony and plays substitute flute/piccolo with the Punta Gorda Symphony, the Symphony of the Americas, and the Space Coast Symphony. She is also currently a flute judge for the International Music and Stars Awards and is the Adjunct Flute Teacher at the North Broward Preparatory School.
Lauren Washburn - Clarinet
Lauren Washburn is a clarinetist with over 20 years of classical and contemporary performance experience, currently based in the South Florida area. She is a former member of Toccare Winds, the North Texas Wind Symphony, the Four Corners Clarinet Quartet, and the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra (UCBSO). She is now studying with Jon Manasse at the Lynn Conservatory of Music, and is a recent graduate of the master’s program for performance at the University of North Texas (UNT) College of Music, where she studied with Dr. Phillip Paglialonga and Dallas Symphony principal clarinetist Gregory Raden.
Originally from the San Francisco-Bay Area, Lauren received her Bachelor of Arts in Music at the University of California, Berkeley. During the years between her studies at Berkeley and UNT, she worked full-time as a medical school administrator by day and orchestra musician by night with the UCBSO, and she pursued study with clarinetists of the San Francisco and Oakland East Bay Symphonies including Steve Sánchez, Jerome Simas, and Bill Kalinkos. She was promoted to principal clarinetist of the UCBSO in 2016, and afterwards went on to begin her master’s degree at North Texas during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020.
Despite the impact of the pandemic on performance opportunities in the music world, Lauren persevered and gained numerous accolades while pursuing her master’s, winning a regular position with the Toccare Winds, performing solo with the North Texas Wind Symphony as well as her first full-length recital, featuring with the Four Corners Quartet during the guest residency of the Barcelona Clarinet Players and Paquito D’Rivera, and winning first place in the UNT George Papich Chamber Music Competition in spring 2022. She also served as clarinet instructor for both middle and high school levels at Krum Independent School District during this time.
Throughout her career Lauren has competed and placed in numerous soloist competitions and was the 2017 winner of the UC Berkeley Concerto Competition with Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie, as well as being a featured soloist during the 2019 Fundación Princesa de Asturias Summer Music Courses in Oviedo, Spain. Her most recent engagement was for the 2022 UCBSO tour of Central Europe, in which she reprised her role as principal clarinetist for performances of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony in major concert halls such as Smetana Hall, the Slovak Radio Symphony Hall, and the Musikverein.
Dr. Steven Eckert - Trombone
A native of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, Steven Eckert has served the South Florida area as a trombonist and music educator for nearly nine years. He maintains a private studio of low brass instrumentalists at The North Broward Preparatory School and has prepared students for successful graduate entrance to Boston Conservatory; University of California, Los Angeles; and the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.
Dr. Eckert is currently a lecturer at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in the Department of Music Theory & Composition. He performs with New World Symphony, Miami Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Miami, and Boca Symphonia and has collaborated with leaders in the industry such as Ben Folds, Arturo Sandoval, Willy Chirino, Nicole Henry, Jon Secada, and Cyrille Aimee.
Dr. Eckert attained a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Virginia Tech before completing a Master of Music at the University of Miami. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Trombone Performance with a Cognate in Music Theory from the Frost School of Music.