Nicole Barnes is the current Affiliate Saxophone Professor at Western Washington University. Nicole obtained her masters degree in saxophone performance at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in 2007. In 2005, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Bachelor of Music in Orchestral Instruments degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. Ms. Barnes was the first undergraduate in the United States to premiere David Kechley’s “Restless Birds Before the Dark Moon” in 2004. In 2003, Nicole won first place in the 12th Annual Concerto Competition at the University of Washington. As an international performer, Ms. Barnes has toured the Netherlands with the Boston-based Thump Saxophone Quartet and in 2004, performed for large audiences with the University of Washington Saxophone Quartet in Japan. Nicole has been teaching since she was in high school; she would coach the Keithley Middle School Jazz saxophone section after school. She has been a woodwind instructor for the Music Teacher's Collaborative Northeast and for the Milton School District Music Program in Massachusetts, teaching students from grade 4 to grade 12. Besides teaching at WWU, Nicole also is the woodwind teacher at Moore Brothers Music in Sammamish, WA. Nicole has also been a guest performer for many well-known groups, such as the Boston Civic Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and the 2006 Tanglewood Contemporary Orchestra. To further her musical career, Nicole has attended master classes with Harvey Pittel, Eugene Rousseau, Ken Radnofsky, Jean-Marie Londeix and the Rascher Saxophone Quartet. Her previous instructors include Tracy Knoop, Michael Brockman and Ken Radnofsky.