Rachelle Jenkins, a 2011 UCF graduate with a BM in Horn Performance, is featured at the 2012 Aspen Music Festival on a Student Spotlight Banner. Rachelle is in her third season at the Aspen Music Festival and holds a New Horizon Fellowship, the most prestigious student award given at the festival. Rachelle is currently a graduate student in music at McGill University in Montreal, where she studies with John Zirbel, principal horn of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Also at the 2012 Aspen Music festival is UCF music student and hornist Matthew Ropa. Matt is a senior at UCF majoring in music performance. Hornist Juan Berrios, another recent UCF graduate (2010), attended the Aspen Music Festival in 2009 and 2011. Juan is currently hornist in the Dallas Brass Quintet. All three students studied horn at UCF with Dr. Johnny Pherigo.
The Aspen Music Festival is one of the most prestigious summer music festivals in the country. More than 600 advanced students and young professional musicians from 40 states and 40 countries attend for eight weeks to study and perform with the 130 artist-faculty in five orchestras. Between 16 and 20 horn students are accepted at Aspen each year. For the last four years UCF has been represented at the Aspen Music Festival by at least one and sometimes two UCF horn students or recent graduates, an accomplishment usually seen only in the top conservatories and music schools in North America.