- Date Of Birth: June 2, 1955
- Date Of Death: September 27, 2022
- State: Arizona
Jill Whitcomb Marderness, 67, passed away on Sept. 27 in her Scottsdale, Arizona home with husband Fred and daughter Emily at her side.
Jill was born in Osage, Iowa on June 2, 1955, daughter of Virginia and Donald Whitcomb. Jill graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master’s Degree in Woodwind Performance.
Her accomplishments as a performer and teacher are far too numerous to mention. Appointments included Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Interlochen National Music Camp, Grand Canyon University, and more than 40 years as Artist-in-Residence at the Bay View Summer Music Festival.
For three years, she served as Instructor of Bassoon and Saxophone at Saint Cloud State University. Upon moving to Arizona with husband Fred in 1980, Jill co-founded Quintessence Chamber Ensemble, recognized for its long and distinguished history of innovative programming in musical performance and education. With Quintessence, Jill toured from Alaska to the Panama Canal and California to the Caribbean, performing as artist and educator for nearly half a million people. She spoke on panels addressing “The Performer as Educator” at the Chamber Music America (CMA) National Conference, the Music Educators National Conference, and the CMA Institute of the 2002 Western Alliance of Arts Administrators Conference. As a promoter of the arts in the community, Jill served as President for Valley Chamber Musicians, a consortium of nine professional chamber music ensembles in the Phoenix area, and as Director of Central Community School for the Arts in Phoenix.
As Co-Director and Founder of Scottsdale Neighborhood Arts Place, Jill has helped countless artists from various fields follow their own dreams.
Her extensive performance career includes Silver Medalist of the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, concerto soloist with orchestras in Arizona, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa and Michigan, chamber musician with the Sedona Chamber Music Festival, and orchestral playing on bassoon/contrabassoon with the Flint Symphony, Duluth Symphony, Colorado Philharmonic and West Valley Symphony. Jill was also a contracted Second Bassoon of the Arizona Opera Orchestra and the first-call extra bassoonist with the Phoenix Symphony for 40 years.
Jill was also a proud member of the Whitcomb Family Woodwind Quintet. The quintet includes her four sisters, Andrea Whitcomb (Oboe), Rome. Italy; Patrice Chandler (Horn), Reading Pennsylvania, Francea Lundstrom (Flute), Palo Alto, California, and Marla Tebben (Clarinet), Osage, Iowa.
.
