She is a flautist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who studied at the New School of Music, the Blossom Festival School and the Cleveland Institute of Music with teacher that include three Principal Flautists from the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In 1987 she became performed under the conductorship of Leonard Bernstein at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and was the only American to have played the flute there. She relocated to Edmonton, Alberta, and since 1987 has been Principal Flute of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Around the very early 1990s she was a founding member of Take 3 which was a woodwind trio that found a niche for themselves from 1992 when they were regularly broadcast on CBC Radio over the next 6 years or so.
She has also performed with The Alberta Baroque Ensemble, the Alberta College Percussion Ensemble, the Arden Ensemble, the Edmonton Chamber Orchestra and the Edmonton Wind Ensemble. Her husband, Murray Vaasjo, is a violinist and co-member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and they both play for The Alberta Baroque Ensemble.
She has performed on many recordings with the ESO as well as Joy to the World: Music for Advent & Christmas by The Greenwood Singers and Snake Fence Country by the Edmonton Wind Ensemble.
In the field of musical education she has her own studio and is also a faculty member of King’s University College as a flute teacher in the Winds and Percussion section of the Music Department. In 2017, recognition of her oustanding teaching and mentoring of colleagues, she was awarded the Higher Education Academy (UK) Senior Fellowship.
Edmonton Wind Ensemble recordings
Snake Fence Country (Howard Cable)
CBC Records SMCD 5165
Conductor – Harry Pinchin
Here’s the ESO performing the finale from “1812 Overture” by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky…
Sources:
- http://www.edmontonsymphony.com/about/meet-the-musicians/elizabeth-koch/
- http://www.albertabaroque.com/ElizKochBio05.htm
- http://www.kingsu.ca/academic-departments/music/sessional-teachers.html
- http://www.greenwoodsingers.org/cdrelease.html
- CD Liner Notes: Snake Fence Country