“The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
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Judy Cole is considered by local area colleagues to be one of the most versatile pianists and accompanists in the Atlanta commercial music scene. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying with Marvin Blickenstaff. After taking a year off from school, during which she toured the United States playing in a show band, she was invited to attend the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she earned her Master of Music degree in Accompanying, with a concentration in Musical Theatre and Chamber Music. Her teachers included Olga Radosavlovich at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Dr. Robert Evans, Babbette Effron and Dr. Kelly Hale at CCM.
Here at KSU, Mrs. Cole teaches academic classes in music theory, coaches Opera and Musical Theatre, musically directs for the Theatre and Performance Studies division of COTA, and accompanies both faculty and student recitals. As often as scheduling allows, she plays in the pit orchestra for Broadway touring shows playing at the Fox Theatre. She has also been selected by the Educational Testing Service to serve as an Aural Skills Reader for the national Advanced Placement Music Theory exams for several years.
Mrs. Cole has worked professionally and made a successful career over the last 30 years as a free-lance pianist and commercial musician playing in a variety of settings. To quote J. Lynn Thompson, founding Artistic Director of the Atlanta Lyric Opera, “Judy Cole is one of those rare artists who can move effortlessly between styles ranging from opera to Broadway, jazz to rock and roll. She is a conductor’s and singer’s dream of a pianist.” Mrs. Cole has been featured on numerous recordings both as an accompanist and as a soloist, including her own CD “By Request”, and has several solo recordings in process at this time.
In addition to local performances, Mrs. Cole travels routinely to accompany classical, instrumental, vocal, and religious Jewish music concerts throughout the US where she is known for her ability to arrive, rehearse and perform demanding concert material all within a span of several hours. She has collaborated with many of the top Cantors and musicians in the Jewish music world, including Hazzan Naftali Herstik, Cantor Asher Hainovitz, Simon Sargon, Bonia Shur, Michael Isaacson, and Debbie Friedman. Recently Judy became a member of the Board of Directors for the Guild of Temple Musicians, the national organization of Jewish musicians and composers. She is the staff accompanist for both The Temple in Atlanta and Temple Beth Tikvah in Roswell, and is still an active commercial musician, playing both as a soloist and as a keyboardist/vocalist with the Alan Knieter Entertainment Group. She is a mom to daughters Katy and Rebekah, and now son-in-law Richard, and is very happily married to Cantor Herb Cole.
Dr. Douglas Lindsey joined the faculty at Kennesaw State University in the fall of 2012, and is very active in the Atlanta area. Recently as a soloist, he has been a featured artist with the Kennesaw State Orchestra, the Kennesaw State Wind Ensemble, the Georgia Brass Band, at the International Trumpet Guild conference, at the Atlanta Trumpet Festival, and at theTrumpet Festival of the Southeast. An advocate of new music, over the course of the last year he has premiered 3 new works for trumpet. Alongside pianist, Judy Cole, he has performed solo recitals all over the Southeast as a founding member of Duo Trompiano. In addition to solo work, Dr. Lindsey enjoys an active chamber music career as first trumpet with the Premiere Brass, as founding member of the Atlanta Trumpet League, and as a member of the Isthmus Brass. As an orchestral musician, he regularly performs as the principal trumpet of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra, the Macon Symphony Orchestra, and spent two summers at the Aspen Music Festival where he played under the baton of some of the world’s finest conductors. Recently, Dr. Lindsey performed as soloist and principal trumpet with the Memphis Symphony in a run of performances of Handel's Messiah.
As an educator, he maintains a vibrant studio of young trumpeters at KSU and at various high schools in the area. Most recently, the KSU trumpet ensemble garnered praise at the 2015 International Trumpet Guild conference where they performed Erik Morale’s Infinite Ascent. Other studio accomplishments include multiple winners from the International Trumpet Guild scholarship contest and successful graduate school placements at many prestigious institutions. Dr. Lindsey’s past duties as music history lecturer at KSU as well as his many experiences on the cornetto and the baroque trumpet reflect his keen interest in the fields of early music and musicology. As an avid composer and arranger, he enjoys creating work for trumpet ensemble, brass quintet, and brass ensembles. His published dissertation, “Beyond the Galant,” is an arrangement of four Haydn symphonies for trumpet with historical information about Haydn, performance practice, and the history behind many of the works. This work is distributed by Hickey’s music and available at www.hickeys.com. His many other arrangements and compositions are available on his website www.dougtrumpeter.com.
Previous to his time at KSU, Dr. Lindsey played concerts all over Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois with the acclaimed Wisconsin Brass Quintet. Prior to his tenure with WBQ, Dr. Lindsey performed with the Yale Faculty Brass trio in a series of concerts ending in Carnegie Hall in New York City. In addition to the faculty brass, Dr. Lindsey also pursued a busy schedule with the Atticus Brass Quintet –winner of the 2009 Aspen Music Festival Quintet Fellowship. With Atticus, Dr. Lindsey had the opportunity to play outreach concerts all over Connecticut, perform alongside the American Brass Quintet, and play an exclusive concert on the Millennium Stage of the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
Previous to earning his DMA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Lindsey studied with Allan Dean at Yale, earning his Master of Music with the distinction of winning the John Swallow excellence in brass prize. Prior to Yale he studied with Ray Mase, Louis Ranger, Kevin Cobb, Scott Moore and Richard Rulli. Dr. Lindsey received his music performance and music education degrees magna cum laude from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville.
Dr. Lindsey is a Schilke performing artist and performs on Facet Mutes.