Group Bio.
Debuting in Spring 2020, Hint of Lime Brass is a brass trio featuring Sarah Ford (Second Horn, Colorado Springs Philharmonic and Horn Professor, Colorado College, UCCS), Nicole Gillotti (Assistant Professor of Trumpet, Western Illinois University), and Morgan Fite (Doctoral student at University of Nevada-Reno; former NYC low brass specialist). The group is a result of successful collaboration at the 2019 Atlantic Music Festival, where Fite and Gillotti performed in chamber ensembles and orchestra together as resident artist fellows. Feeling inspired to keep playing together and form a brass trio, they decided to search for a horn player, paving the way for previous colleague Sarah Ford to join the group. In March 2020, Fite and Gillotti were featured at the Music By Women Festival in Columbus, MS. Leading up to the festival, the trio made their debut tour performing at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts in Memphis, TN and, a recital/masterclass at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS. Since that time, the group has participated in the Avaloch Music Festival, 2022 IWBC, presented at several colleges including the University of Connecticut, and performed at several local venues across the country.
Hint of Lime Brass aims to create experiences of vast musical variety for diverse audiences while additionally advocating for the creation and performance of new music. During their first tour, they performed programs prominently featuring works written by female composers such as Libby Larsen, Orianna Webb, Lauren Bernofsky, and Adriana Mañas in celebration of National Women’s History Month. To further their mission of stimulating the creation of new music, the group commissioned composers Annie Nikunen and Gillian Orwoll to write original pieces "future histories / / in real time" and "From Tripoli to Morocco" respectively. These were premiered at the May 2022 International Women's Brass Conference.
Our Members.
Sarah Ford, horn.
In September 2016, Sarah Ford joined the Colorado Springs Philharmonic as part of the horn section. Subsequently, Sarah began teaching horn at CSU-Pueblo (2016-2021), UC-Colorado Springs, and Colorado College. She performs regularly with local groups such as the Boulder Philharmonic, the Colorado Ballet Orchestra, the Wyoming Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of the Springs, Nexus Brass, Denver Brass, and the Classical Brass Quintet in Littleton, CO. Before moving cross-country to Colorado, Sarah earned her Master of Music from the Yale School of Music and her Bachelor of Music degree from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. She has studied with some of the great horn pedagogues; Denise Tryon, Eric Reed, Bill Purvis, and Radek Baborák in the Czech Republic are a few. During her summers, Sarah teaches at Colorado Springs’ Summer Brass program and has participated in the National Repertory Orchestra, Crested Butte Music Festival, the Pierre Monteux School, the National Music Festival, the Kennedy Center Summer Music Institute, and other programs. Sarah's most recent projects are coaching for the Alpenglow Music Program, joining the Hint of Lime Brass Trio, and presenting fun, low-pressure studio recitals.
Nicole Gillotti, trumpet.
Nicole Gillotti will be joining the faculty of Western Illinois University’s School of Music as Assistant Professor of Trumpet in 2023. Previously, she was Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU), beginning in 2019, where she taught courses in Applied Trumpet, Brass Ensemble, Brass Methods, and Music Appreciation. She hopes to guide her students on their musical journey to attain their goals. She currently performs with the Laredo Philharmonic, Valley Symphony, Groove Knight (party band), and TAMIU Faculty Jazz Combo. Gillotti was previously the Trumpet Studio Teaching Assistant at Illinois State University and the University of Illinois, where she was a Faculty Sabbatical Replacement in which she taught music majors, minors, and non-majors, presented masterclasses to the trumpet studio on pedagogical topics and orchestral excerpts, and coached student chamber groups. In addition to teaching, Gillotti is an active freelance musician. She has performed with many professional ensembles including the University of Illinois Graduate Brass Quintet, Illinois State University Faculty Brass Quintet, Transit Brass Octet, Illinois Consortium Quintet, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Millikin-Decatur Symphony, University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and Berks Sinfonietta. Gillotti has performed at conferences, festivals, and competitions throughout the United States and Europe. She competed as a semi-finalist in the undergraduate and graduate solo divisions for the National Trumpet Competition in 2014, 2015, and 2016; as well as the Ensemble Division in 2018. Gillotti received a B.S. in Music Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, M.M. in Trumpet Performance from Illinois State University, and D.M.A. in Trumpet Performance and Literature from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Morgan Fite, trombone.
Morgan Fite is currently a DMA candidate at University of Nevada at Reno. Previously, he was a low brass specialist in New York City, where he could be heard performing on bass trombone, tenor trombone, tuba, and euphonium. Morgan is primarily a chamber musician who is equally comfortable in the realm of orchestral, big band, and contemporary music.
As a chamber musician, he was a founding member of the brass quintet, subtle cheetah, who were a part of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Mentorship program from 2018 - 2019.
As an orchestral musician, Morgan has performed with the Chelsea Symphony, String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Westchester Oratorio Society, and the MSM Chamber Sinfonia, to name a few. He has also performed in most of the major concert halls in New York including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.
Morgan is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music’s orchestral performance program, where he was the recipient of the Charles Grossman Memorial Scholarship. He also holds degrees from the Mannes School of Music and Rutgers University. In the summers Morgan has attended the Atlantic Music Festival as their tenor trombone fellow, the Miami Summer Music Festival, the Southeast Trombone Symposium, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. His primary teachers were John Rojak, Nick Schwartz, George Curran, and Paul Pollard.