Caen Thomason-Redus, flute
Caen Thomason-Redus is the Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and enjoys traveling the world performing and teaching. Solo appearances in recent years include the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the National Flute Association Convention, and UWM's major ensembles. Recital programs vary greatly and include everything from virtuosic baroque sonatas to contemporary African American music for solo flute. At UWM, Caen is particularly active in chamber music through the faculty artist series Chamber Music Milwaukee and his own series of recitals. You can hear Caen on The Flute Collection, three recordings and annotated anthologies of graded flute solos published by Schirmer. Prior to arriving in Milwaukee, Caen spent two years performing with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as their Minority Fellow and now performs often with professional orchestras such as the St. Louis, Milwaukee and Kansas City symphonies. Caen began playing Muramatsu flutes in 2003 and is a Muramatsu Artist.
Caen received performance degrees from Rice University (MM) and the University of Redlands (BM), and did additional studies at the University of Michigan and the Mozarteum Akademie in Salzburg, Austria. His primary instructors were Leone Buyse, Candice Palmberg and Yaada Weber. Through his participation in festivals and masterclasses such as the Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto USA, Tanglewood Flute Seminar, SionAcademy (Switzerland), Domaine Forget (Canada) and the San Francisco Early Music Society Baroque Workshop, Caen also worked with Mark Sparks, Martha Aarons, Trevor Wye and Doriot Anthony Dwyer. As the Detroit Symphony fellow, Caen studied with Jeff Zook and the other members of the DSO flute section.
Active musically from an early age, Caen began playing the flute in public school, studied privately at the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory, sang in San Francisco Opera production with the San Francisco Boys Chorus, andstudied saxophone with former Duke Ellington band member, Ben Miller. His activities later expanded to include a bit of performance on Baroque and Renaissance flutes and the performance of African American classical music. Caen has worked with many contemporary composers including Philip Glass, Gunther Schuller, Chinary Ung, Mario Davidovsky, Barbara Kolb, David Maslanka and Robert Beaser, and always makes it a point to perform the works of younger composers.
Caen's previous teaching activities include faculty positions at Wayne State University and the Sphinx Preparatory Academy, both located in downtown Detroit. He is professionally active with the National Flute Association, Early Music Now, the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, and several other arts organizations. Caen and his wife, hornist Kristi Crago, served as principals in the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and as faculty at the University of Evansville in Indiana. Dedicated to education and musical outreach, Caen andKristi spend much of their personal time creating and taking part in programs that bring music closer to people of all backgrounds and ages. They are the proud parents of two young boys and love living in Milwaukee.
