Applied Music Faculty Biographies

The Music Department provides students the opportunity for private study of instrumental and vocal performance with the outstanding faculty in our Applied Music Program. See below for biographies of our applied faculty members. These faculty members do not have offices at Tufts University, but can be reached via Edith Auner, coordinator of applied music.

Classical Piano

Katherine Chi has performed throughout Europe and North America to great acclaim, including her 2003 New York recital debut, about which The New York Times raved, "Ms Chi displayed a keen musical intelligence and a powerful arsenal of technique." She has established herself as one of Canada's fastest rising stars of classical music. "…the most sensational but, better, the most unfailingly cogent and compelling Prokofiev's Third I have heard in years," said The Globe and Mail. She has appeared with the CBC Radio Orchestra in Vancouver, Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Toronto Sinfonia, and the Alabama, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Philadelphia, Quebec, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Victoria Symphony Orchestras and at festivals including Aldeburgh, Banff, Canada's Festival of the Sound, Domaine Forget, Launadière, Marlboro, Osnabrück Kammermusik, Germany's Ruhr, Santander Summer Music, and Festival Vancouver. Bolzano Orchestra Recitals Milan, Rome, Salzburg, tour of Italy and Germany, Hannover. Ms. Chi gave her debut recital at age nine. A year later she was accepted to The Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Seymour Lipkin. She continued studies with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she received her Master's degree and Graduate and Artist Diplomas. She later studied for two years at the International Piano Foundation in Como, Italy, and at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Ms. Chi was a prizewinner at the 1998 Busoni International Piano Competition and was the first Canadian and first woman to win Canada's Honens International Piano Competition. Her debut recording, of works by Beethoven and Rachmaninov, was released in 2003 on Canada's Arktos label.

Hisako Hiratsuka is a graduate of the Tokyo University of Arts and Music. She was a very active piano teacher in Japan prior to coming to the United States in 1989. She enjoys a fine reputation as a chamber music player and accompanist. Recently, she has been performing in recitals with her colleagues in the Baltimore, Washington, Maine, and Boston areas as well as in Tokyo, Yokohama, and Kamakura, Japan. Her teachers include Victor Rosenbaum and Yasuko Tani, a former professor at the Tokyo University of Arts and Music.

Michael McLaughlin Klezmer Ensemble Director...Pianist, accordionist, arranger, and composer for the Klezmer ensemble Shirim and the experimental Klezmer group Naftule's Dream. Performances on such stages as the Berlin Jazz Festival ('99), the Texaco Jazz Festival ('97, '98) as well as the Ashkenaz New Jewish Music Festival ('96, '98). Michael holds an MM in Composition from Tufts University ('99) where he studied with John McDonald, and a BM in composition from Berklee College of Music in 1993. He is the recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grand Award in composition for 2001.

Greg Pauley has been praised by critics for having "perfect dynamic nuances," being "at all times technically brilliant," (The Newark Star Ledger) and for "playing with a maturity that belied his age." (The Portland Press Herald) A native of Southern California, Mr. Pauley earned his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Southern California. He also holds a Master's Degree from Mason Gross School for the Arts at Rutgers University where he studied with Ilana Vered. Mr. Pauley has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall among many others, and has performed live on radio and television in Vermont, New York, Maine and Alberta Canada. In addition to performances in New Hampshire, concerts have taken Mr. Pauley to Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Vermont, New York, Michigan, Maine, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California. In February of 2000 Mr. Pauley released his first recording, "What the West Wind Saw," a CD of solo piano music inspired by elements of nature (earth, wind, fire and water) which features works by Ravel, Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy and Scriabin. In addition to his busy performance schedule, Mr. Pauley maintains a full teaching schedule and is in demand as an adjudicator and Master Class teacher. Mr. Pauley lives with his family in Concord, New Hampshire where is on the piano faculty at St. Paul's School and the Concord Community Music School.

Andrew Rangell is a graduate of the Julliard School, earning a doctoral degree in piano under Beveridge Webster. He made his New York debut as winner of the Malraux Award concert Artists Guild and has since performed throughout the United States, with subsequent New York recitals at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 92nd Street Y and Columbia's Miller Theater. From 1977 to 1985 he was resident artist and principal piano instructor at Dartmouth College, and a frequent guest with some of New England's foremost performing groups and festivals.

Thomas Stumpf received his degrees in piano performance from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He won concerto competitions at both institutions, and was awarded the Bösendorfer Prize (Vienna, 1970) and the Lilli Lehmann Medal (Salzburg, 1972). His performing career has taken him across four continents and he is featured on six CD's. Stumpf's repertoire ranges from Bach to the avant-garde; he has conducted several Mozart concerti from the keyboard, and performed the complete solo piano works of Mozart at Boston University during the 1991-92 season and at UMassLowell in 2006-7. He has premiered many compositions by contemporary American composers and has performed with such luminaries as Rita Streich, Edith Mathis, D'Anna Fortunato, Richard Stoltzman, Jack Brymer, Walter Trampler and Leslie Parnas. He has also appeared with the HongKong Philharmonic, the Boston Pops Orchestra (under Arthur Fiedler), Alea III (under Theodore Antoniou), and numerous other ensembles. Stumpf's compositions have appeared on concert programs in Boston, throughout the U.S. as well as in Germany and the U.S.S.R.; in 1992 he won the Kahn Award for his music theater project "Dark Lady," one section of which was recorded on the Neuma label by soprano Joan Heller. Most recently his choral work "Though I walk" was premiered at St. Bartholomew's in New York City by the Pharos Music Project. He is Director of Music at Follen Church in Lexington MA, where he has conducted many major choral works. His experience at Follen has led to his first book: a collection of essays entitled "A Sounding Mirror: Courage and Music in our Time," published in 2005 by Higganum Hill Books. He is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of Prism Opera, and has conducted and directed Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" (in his own translation), as well as operas by Britten, Vaughan-Williams and Holst. Stumpf has taught piano at the New England Conservatory, UMassLowell (where he was head of the keyboard department), and Boston University (where he was Chair of the Collaborative Piano Department). He regularly gives master-classes at the Musikschule in Mannheim, Germany.

Classical Voice

Charles Blandy has been critically praised for his performances in Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream and Berio's Sinfonia at Tanglewood. He was in the premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's opera Ainadamar at Tanglewood and Los Angeles. The year 2005 included two appearances with Opera Boston, in Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne and Glück's Alceste. In 2006 he will sing Tamino in Mozart's /The Magic Flute/ with Emmanuel Music in Boston. Mr. Blandy has sung Handel's /Messiah /with the Charlotte Symphony, premiered Jorge Liderman's Song of Songs with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and performed Britten's St. Nicolas, conducted by Raymond Leppard. He frequently performs works of Bach with Emmanuel Music in Boston, and he has sung several works with the Cantata Singers under David Hoose and John Harbison. He studied at Indiana University (Masters), Oberlin College, the Britten-Pears School in England, and Tanglewood, where he was the recipient of the Grace B. Jackson prize. He is a native of Troy, NY.

Andrea Ehrenreich, Soprano
Andrea Ehrenreich has appeared in recital throughout the United States, as well as in Germany, Austria, France, Ireland, Poland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand and India. She has appeared as a guest soloist with such highly acclaimed organizations as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Sinfonieorchester Leonberg, the Miami Symphony, the St. Cecilia Orchestra of Dublin, the Boston Chamber Orchestra, the Stuttgarter Bach Collegium, the Back Bay Chorale of Boston, the MIT Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and Summer Pops Orchestra.

As an advocate of American music, Ms. Ehrenreich has toured the South Pacific and the Far East under the auspices of the United States Information Agency's Artistic Ambassador Program. The recital tour included highlights from American opera, art song, and musical theatre. Ms. Ehrenreich gave concerts in New Zealand, Indonesia and India to enthusiastic critical acclaim.

Her extensive oratorio credits include performances of Orff's Carmina Burana with the Back Bay Chorale of Boston, Handel's Messiah with the Stuttgarter Bach Collegium and the Miami Symphony, Haydn's Creation and Brahms' Requiem with the St. Cecilia Orchestra of Dublin, Haydn's Theresienmesse with members of the New World Symphony, Goodman's Kaddish at Marsh Chapel at Boston University, the Mozart Requiem with the Cleveland Orchestra's PAND Festival, Haydn's The Seasons with Assabet Valley Mastersingers, as well as the Bach's Magnificat and the Vivaldi Gloria. Recently, Ms. Ehrenreich performed Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Op. 24 with the Tufts University Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Ehrenreich has been featured on live radio broadcasts of National Public Radio, Art of the States, RTHK-Hong Kong, and the internationally syndicated ‘Voice of America'.

As a promoter of new music, Ms. Ehrenreich has premiered works composed expressly for her by Andrew Vores, Donald Hagar, Marusya Nainggolan, David Gallagher, Uli Süsse, and Mathias Schneider. In addition to numerous performances of contemporary music, she has also premiered works by John McDonald, Marti Epstein, Persis Vehar, John Yukashi and Julian Wachner.

Ms. Ehrenreich has enjoyed success in the operatic field as well. Her most recent performances include the roles of "Marie" in The Bartered Bride by Smetana, "the First Lady" in Mozart's The Magic Flute, "Norina" in Donizetti's Don Pasquale, and "Susanna" in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

Thomas Gregg, Applied Music Instructor. Voice. DMA in Vocal Performance, The Ohio State University, 1989.
Performance experience: Handel & Haydn Society and King's Chapel choirs in Boston, numerous recitals, solos in opera and oratorio nationwide, Schubert-Institute in Austria, historical music ensembles, new songs by Boston composers.
Commercial recordings: Bach's "Christmas Oratorio" (1999), modern works with the Trinity Choir of Boston (1999), German Lieder with single-action harp, duo DoubleAction (2005), Mozart "Mass in c minor" and "Requiem" with the Handel & Haydn chorus (2010/11), and song cycle "Autumnal Raptures" by composer Larry Bell (2012). Teaching experience: vocal repertoire and pedagogy courses and workshops, musical theater and classical studio voice
Fellowships and Grants: Aston Magna Academy, Bach Aria Institutes, NATS Intern Program. Appointed 2002.

Carol Mastrodomenico -Opera Ensemble Director, M.M. in Vocal Performance, M.M. in Vocal Pedagogy, New England Conservatory. Ms. Mastrodomenico is an active performe and teacher in the Boston area. Her recital credits include: Tanglewood Music Center, Jordan Hall in a program of works by composer David Leisner, Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival, 1794 Meeting House Concert Series in New Salem, and the Music at Noon Concert Series at the Swedenborg Chapel. She was heard as Adele in Die Fledermaus, and Clorinda in Cenerentola at Longwood Opera, Pamina in Die Zauberflote with Hillman Opera, and Princess Toto and Columbine with Royal Victorian Opera Company. In addition to Tufts University, she is presently on the faculties of Boston College, and the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Wind Instruments

Bassoon
Ronald Haroutunian, B.M., New England Conservatory. Studied with Sherman Walt and Matthew Ruggiero. Performs regularly with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Ballet, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, New Hampshire Symphony, and numerous other organizations throughout New England. He has appeared with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras. He has recorded with Philips, Opus One, Golden Crest, CRI and Albany records. Mr. Haroutunian has served on the faculty of Hartt School of Music and also has served as principal bassoon with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Clarinet
Diane Heffner is an active freelance clarinetist and teacher on both modern and historical instruments. She plays period clarinets with Boston Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society, Arcadia Players, and Philharmonia Baroque (San Francisco).
As a modern clarinetist Ms. Heffner performs regularly with Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, Alea III, Solar Winds, Alcyon Chamber Ensemble. In addition to Tufts University Ms. Heffner is on the applied faculty at the Cambridge School of Weston and the All-Newton Music School and has been a chamber music coach at both the Chamber Music Center of the East and the Wellesley Composers Confrernce. She received both BM and MM degrees with honors from the New England Conservatory where she studied clarinet with Joseph Allard and chamber music with Rudolph Kolisch and Leonard Shure.

Flute
Nina Barwell, B.M., New England Conservatory of Music: Fulbright-Paris, France. M.M., S.U.N.Y., Stony Brook. The New York Times wrote of Nina Barwell's debut recital in Carnegie Recital Hall that "her playing reflected the skill and assurance of a seasoned performer", and "she played beautifully." She plays in the Symphony New Hampshire, teaches at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory, Preparatory School and actively free lances in Boston. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, Ohio University School of Music, and Boston University School of Music. She performed as a soloist with the Boston Pops, played at Tanglewood and performed for two summers at the Bach Aria Festival. She has played numerous solo recitals on WGBH Radio and at Jordan Hall. Nina Barwell is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and received a M.M. from SUNY, Stony Brook. She received a Fulbright Grant to Paris, France. Her teachers include James Pappoutsakis, Jean Pierre Rampal, and Samuel Baron. In 2012 she completed her book, The Artistry and Inspired Teaching of James Pappoutsakis, Transcribed, Edited, and Annotated by Nina Barwell.

Oboe
Lynn Jacquin, B.M., New England Conservatory of Music, where she is now Woodwind Chamber Music Chair of the Extension Division. She is also on the faculty of the Longy School of Music. Ms. Jacquin was a founding member of Oboe International and E.L.M. (Everybody Loves Music), and has appeared as soloist and chamber music player in North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East. She is an active free-lance and chamber music player in the Boston area, and has performed with the Cantilena Quintet, Alea III, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet, Opera New England, and Bank Boston Celebrity Soloists Youth Concerts with Bassoon Chamber Players. Ms. Jacquin has also coached music at the Wellesley Composers Conference and was guest lecturer in Brizal under the Auspices of the Fulbright Commission.

Saxophone
Philipp A. Stäudlin has performed hundreds of concerts in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Austria, Sweden, France, Italy, South Korea, Mongolia, Japan, and in the U.S. As the youngest competitor in 1997, Stäudlin won First Prize and the Audience Prizein the Gustav Bumcke International Saxophone Competition. As a member of the New Art Saxophone Quartet he has received First Prize in the Chamber Music Competition of the German Music Foundation. Graduated from Basel Musikhochschule in 1999, Stäudlin received a Soloist Diploma, having studied with Marcus Weiss and Iwan Roth.He also receivedan Artist Diploma in 2002from Longy School of Music, having studied with Kenneth Radnofsky. Current CD releases on the Ars Musici, Enja, Newport Classics, Albany, Innova, Navona labels.

Brass

French Horn
Anne Howarth is a founding member of the chamber group Radius Ensemble, and performs often in the greater Boston area. She holds the position of principal horn with the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra and freelances with other orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Portland Symphony Orchestra. She maintains a private teaching studio in Somerville, MA, teaches horn at U Mass Boston, and has taught horn and brass methods at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Anne holds degrees from Oberlin College and New England Conservatory.

Trombone
Robert Couture
Bio forthcoming

Trumpet
Dana Russian, B.A., Colby College, Waterville, Maine. He has performed with the Boston Pops, Boston Ballet, the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, and Rhode Island Philharmonic, and is currently a member of the Springfield Symphony and the Beacon Brass Quintet.

Tuba/Euphonium
Michael S. Milnarik is a member of the Innovata Brass, Brass Sect, Keys & Brass, Cosmopolitan Tuba Quartet, Dr. Fidgety Dixieland Jazz Band, Toobis Groovis and Brass Planet. He has performed with most of the orchestras in northern New England, the Albany Symphony, the Key West Symphony, as well as with ensembles rnaging from new music to Dixieland and jazz, and also as a soloist. He has a Master of Music degree from Boston University and a Bachelor of Music degree from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. Michael is the founder and director of the Cosmopolitan Tuba Euphonium Workshop - a summer camp for high school, college and adult age participants, and he runs an online store called TubaStudio.com that carries tubas, euphoniums and related items.

Michael is the tuba and euphonium instructor at Tufts University, Salem State University and Brandeis University. Formerly he taught at the University of Southern Maine for eight years and the University of Massachusetts Lowell for five years.

Strings & Early Music

Bass
Pascale Delache-Feldman, double bassist, was a prizewinner at the Prague International Chamber Music Competition, received first prize at the Paris Conservatory with honors and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. Called by the NewMusic Connoisseur as having "technical certainty and musical imagination" and by the Phoenix as "a gifted colorist... who produced an entire range of orchestral effects", she has soloed with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic, North Shore Philharmonic, Greensboro Festival Orchestra, among others. She has collaborated with Midori, Joel Smirnoff, Virginia Eskin, Victor Rosenbaum, Dawn Upshaw, the St. Petersburg, Borromeo and Lark String Quartets. As co-founder of Cello e Basso with cellist Emmanuel Feldman, they have concertized in the US and in Europe and have released a new CD on Synergy Classics. She has recorded chamber works with the Albany, Archetype, Arsis, AFKA and CRI labels. Since2001, she has been the artistic director of the Boston Bass Bash, an international festival dedicated to the double bass. She teaches at the Longy School of Music, Tufts and Brown Universities and Rivers School of Music.

Cello
Hailed by John Williams, Grammy award winning composer as "an outstanding cellist and truly dedicated artist", Emmanuel Feldman has emerged as one of the most innovative cellists of his generation. Known for his intense soulful playing and a broad range of repertoire, he enjoys an active career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, champion of new music and educator. He has soloed with the Boston Pops, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, BMOP, New England String Ensemble and many others. An avid chamber musician, he was invited to participate in the Marlboro Music Festival, has collaborated with fellow artists Gilbert Kalish, Richard Stoltzman, Joy Cline Phinney, Jennifer Frautschi, the Borromeo String Quartet, and soloed with pop and jazz artist Bobby McFerrin. Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote "Feldman was superb" in his recent Celebrity Series debut. His solo CD on Albany Records "Rider on The Plains" featuring Virgil Thomson's Cello Concerto was nominated for a 2008 Grammy award for producer Blanton Alspaugh (producer of the year) and was called an "excellent recording…the concerto sounds exhilarating in this bracing and confident performance" by Anthony Tommasini (N.Y. Times). He has also recorded for Naxos, Arsis Zimbel and Navona. A consummate advocate of new music, Mr.Feldman has premiered cello works by composers Aaron Kernis, Richard Danielpour, Gunther Schuller, and many others. Co-founder of Cello e Basso with bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman, they were called "a musical Lewis and Clark" by NPR's Ron Schacter. He has performed at the Pablo Casals, Schlesswig Holstein, Yellow Barn, Killington, and Summit Music Festivals. A Curtis Institute graduate with studies at the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Feldman is also on the cello faculty at New England Conservatory.

Classical Guitar
David Patterson has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world. He is also known as an ace arranger and producer across a wide spectrum of styles and genres.  He founded the critically acclaimed group, The New World Guitar Trio.  The group performed and recorded internationally between 1990 and 2002 and was dedicated to commissioning and performing new music as well as creating original arrangements of standard repertoire. As the group's director, Mr. Patterson earned exceptional praise for his innovative programming and arranging. Additionally, Mr. Patterson has collaborated with such composers as Osvaldo Golijov, Claudio Ragazzi, Chiel Meijering, David Leisner, and Dana Brayton and has performed with numerous orchestras and ensembles including Musica Viva, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Opera Boston. He has been a guest artist at the Tanglewood Music Festival and Bowdoin International Music Festival and has been involved in collaborations with such artists as Dawn Upshaw, Robert Spano and director, Peter Sellars. David Patterson can be heard on various recordings: New World Guitar Trio, Exiled and Esordio. Mr. Patterson's work extends beyond the classical repertoire. He has played on and produced recordings in various genres including his recording of Jimmy Page's "White Summer/Black Mountainside", featured in a compilation CD Guitar Harvest alongside guitarists Andy Summers, Bill Frisell, and Ralph Towner, among others. David Patterson is a highly sought after teacher and clinician. He has conducted master classes and workshops worldwide and currently divides his time between the United States and Asia. He is on the faculty of Longy School of Music of Bard College, Tufts University and Gordon College. He recently completed a book of scale studies, "Czerny for Guitar" which is published by Hal Leonard.

Harp
Mary Jane Rupert. B.M., Oberlin College. M.M., in Harp and Piano, Indiana University. D.M., in Piano Performance, Indiana University. Private harp study with Marcel Grandjany. Ms. Rupert is currently a faculty member of Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts. Free-lance harpist and recitalist in the Boston area. Other performances in Carnegie Recital Hall and the Beijing Concert Hall, China. She has published an arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite for flute and harp (or piano) with New Boston Editions.

Viola
Scott Woolweaver, B.M., graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan School of Music before moving to Boston for graduate work with Walter Trampler. He was founding member of the Boston Composers String Quartet, which won the silver medal at the 1993 String Quartet and Chamber Music Festa in Osaka, Japan, and with the Quartet, performed across the United States and Europe. He is violist of the award-winning New England Piano Quartette, Boston's Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and he spends his summers at the Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park (CO) Chamber Music Festival, and the Adult Chamber Music Seminar at the Interlochen (MI) Arts Camp. A champion of twentieth century music, Mr. Woolweaver has premiered numerous works for the viola, many of which were written for him. He is also a faculty member of the All Newton Music School, the University of Massachusetts and has recorded for Orion, Koch International, TelDec, Audiofon, Albany Records, Decca and Northeastern Records.

Viola da Gamba/Recorder
Jane Hershey, Director of the Early Music Ensemble, studied at The Hague conservatory with Sigiswald and Wieland Kuijken, and Frans Bruggen. As a member of the Boston Camerata from 1982 to 1987, she toured in the US and Europe, and recorded with Erato, Harmonia Mundi and Nonesuch; as a viol and violin player she has performed with the Aston Magna Festival, New England Bach Festival, Handel and Haydn Society, Hesperus, LiveOak, Emmanuel Music and the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra. She performs regularly with New Quartet, Arcadia Players, and with Laura Jeppesen at the MFA in Boston; as a duo with Ms. Jeppesen, she can be heard on the new CD Music for Viola da Gamba on Titanic. Active as a workshop director for the Viola da Gamba Society-New England, Ms. Hershey is on the faculties of the Longy School of Music and the Powers Music School.

Violin
Joanna Kurkowicz. A prize winner in numerous competitions and praised in the magazine Gramophone for her ‘disciplined virtuosity', the Polish-born violinist Joanna Kurkowicz enjoys an active and versatile career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and concertmistress. She has performed worldwide in such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, and the Große Saal, Salzburg, and has appeared as a soloist with, among others, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Jefferson Symphony Orchestra, San Luis Obispo Symphony, Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, and Polish National Radio Orchestra in Katowice, as well as with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra in which she currently serves as concertmistress. She holds the position of Artist in Residence at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and serves on the faculty at Tufts University. She is also a frequent coach at the New England Conservatory of Music. Joanna Kurkowicz is a strong advocate of contemporary music and has premiered many works by living composers and made many recordings on such labels as Chandos, Bridge, Centaur, CRI, Albany, New World , Neuma, Capstone and Archetype. Her Chandos recording of Violin Concertos Nos 1, 3, and 7 by Bacewicz was awarded a ‘Golden Tuning Fork' by the magazine Diapason d'or and reached No. 6 on Amazon's chart of Best Classical Albums in 2009. A founding member and artistic advisor for the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, she has been a guest artist at the Mozarteum Festival in Salzburg, Ravinia Festival, Bargemusic in New York, Asia Pacific Festival in Wellington, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and Marthas's Vineyard Chamber Music Society, among others. Joanna Kurkowicz plays a violin made by Pietro Giovanni Guarneri in 1699. www.joannakurkowicz.com

Sarita Uranovsky, a native of Cape Town, South Africa enjoys a varied career as soloist, chamber musician, teacher and orchestral musician. Since her debut at the age of 15, she has appeared as soloist and in recital with, among others, Boston University, Cape Town, Richmondshire and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Symphony Orchestras. Sarita has been Concertmaster of Orchestra Geminiani de Fallonica (Italy), the RSAMD Symphony Orchestras and Assistant Concertmaster of the Cape Symphony Orchestra. She can be seen performing regularly in groups around Boston including Boston Musica Viva, the Cantata Singers, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Boston Pops. Ms. Uranovsky is a founding member and violinist of Boston based group, MONTAGE Music Society. She has recorded and broadcast for both the BBC and SABC. Sarita has performed in concert for HRH Prince Charles, HRH Princess Anne and at the church of St-Martin-in-the-Fields. Ms. Uranovsky teaches at Tufts University, is teaching Assistant to Bayla Keyes at Boston University and serves on the faculty of MIT's Emerson program.

Percussion

Joe Galeota, Jr. (focusing on African/Brazilian percussion) - B.M., Berklee College of Music, studied Ethnomusicology at the University of Ghana (West Africa); M.A., Wesleyan University, 1985. Assistant Professor of Music, Berklee College of Music. Percussionist for Spirit of Africa and the Radicals World Tour 1994-1996. Consultatn and recording artist for movie soundtrack for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Lucas Films). Owner of West African Drum company Jag Drums.

Originally from Brazil, Renato Malavasi has been performing and studying the drum set since 1988. Recipient of Berklee College of Music Best Scholarship, where he graduated from in 2000, Renato currently resides in Boston, and shares the stages of the New England area with some of the most unique musicians. His performances range widely from instrumental Jazz Trios, Quartets, Quintets, and Big Bands to accompanying Jazz Singers. Other performances, recordings, and experiences include projects with Brazilian and Afro Cuban groups as well. He has also toured and given clinics in Japan. Before coming to Boston in 1997, Renato performed extensively throughout Brazil accompanying folk singers, and was also involved in other instrumental projects as a performer and student of Brazilian music and culture. And since November of 2008, he has been part of the Education Outreach City Music Boston Program teaching staff. This a program directly related to and sponsored by Berklee College of Music, with the main goal of reviving musical education in public schools.

Robert Schulz, serves as principal percussionist for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, and the Opera Boston Orchestra. He works as well with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Boston Ballet Orchestra, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston and the Boston Chamber Music Society. As a timpanist, mallet specialist and solo percussionist, he has been featured with the Celebrity Series of Boston on numerous occasions. In 2004, Mr. Schulz received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Small Ensemble Performance on Yehudi Wyner's The Mirror (Naxos).That year he also gave the Boston premiere of Tan Dun's Water Concerto with BMOP. He has led his own group, the BeatCity Art Ensemble, in performances for the Celebrity Series, Lincoln Center, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. He has toured nationally and internationally with pipa virtuoso Wu Man and was the featured recitalist for the 2006 CrossSound Festival in Juneau, Alaska. In 2010 he recorded Kick and Ride, a concerto for drumset and orchestra written for him by Eric Moe, scheduled to be released by BMOP Sound in 2011.

Also a virtuoso drumset artist in both solo and ensemble settings, he teaches all the styles: jazz, big band, pop, funk, afro-latin, theatrical, etc. Schulz has performed with Dave Brubeck on several occasions, at the Newport Jazz Festival, with jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins, guitar legend Jim Hall, the San Antonio Symphony, the Boston Pops, and countless jazz combos, cover bands, and original music groups over the last 30 years. In his teaching, Bob's focus is on helping his students develop the fundamental skills and techniques required of any successful drummer/percussionist working today. The breadth of his performance experience is matched by few and it is this wealth of experience that makes him a uniquely gifted educator.

World, Ethnic, Folk, and Traditional Instruments, Voice, Music

Arabic clarinet + hand drums
Mal Barsamian represents the third generation of oud (lute) players in his family. Having obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in classical guitar performance under Robert Paul Sullivan at the New England Conservatory of Music, he went on to become a sought-after player of the oud and dumbeg (hand drum). He has played within Armenian, Greek, and Middle Eastern musical communities throughout the country for over thirty years, and also performs on guitar, clarinet and saxophone. He performed with the late Esber Korporcu, an important figure in Boston's Middle-Eastern music community, and has also appeared with Mehmet Sanlikol's Dunya organization. Mal is a specialist in music written by Armenian composers active in Istanbul during the later years of the Ottoman Empire.

Banjo
Rich Stillman has taught literally hundreds of students to play banjo, both face-to-face and worldwide through Internet lessons. He studied with Tony Trischka, and is a six-time winner of the Lowell Bluegrass Banjo contest and a two-time New England banjo champion. Rich is a longtimemember of the perennial New England bluegrass band Southern Rail, with whom he has recorded four CDs. In the 1990s, Rich founded WayStation, a band that combined folk and blues material with bluegrass instrumentation. WayStationtoured for eight years and recorded one successful CD. Along the way, Rich found time to fill the banjo chair with local favorites Adam Dewey and Crazy Creek and The Bogus Family, recording two CDs with each, and played memorable sets with Peter Rowan, James Monroe and the Arlington High School orchestra. As a teacher, Rich has been on the faculty of Banjo Camp North for nine of its ten years. The book "Banjo Camp" includes one of Rich's workshops as well as articles by Pete Seeger, Tony Trischka, Bill Keith and Pete Wernick, and his book "Bluegrass Banjo from All Sides" was released in September 2012 by Mel Bay Publishing. Rich has given banjo workshops at many local bluegrass festivals. He is a student of classic era 5-string banjo and has compiled a CD of fingerstyle banjo music from the turn of the 20th century. Rich has taught banjo as an adjunct faculty member at Phillips Andover Academy, and is associated with local teaching studios at The Music Emporium and The Real School of Music.

Hindustani Music, Voice (Indian Music)
Warren Senders. The artistic traditions of Hindustani music have been at the core of Warren Senders' life and work since 1977, when he began his study of Hindustani music with Smt. Kalpana Mazumder. After living for five years in India and learning from master teacher Pt. S.G. Devasthali, he is recognized as the foremost non-Indian performer of Hindustani singing; his concerts in India, Europe and North America have been widely acclaimed. Warren has received grants and fellowships including the Indo-American Fellowship, the Jon B. Higgins Memorial Scholarship for Indian Music, a Senior Research Fellowship and a Performing Arts Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies, support for music composition from Meet the Composer, and travel awards from the Fund for U.S. Artists. His writing on music has been published by Rhythm Magazine, Bansuri, the New England Conservatory Journal for Learning Through Music, and World Rhythm. Mr. Senders is on faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University.

Koto
Cathleen Read, B.A., Mount Holyoke College; Ph.D., Wesleyan University. Studied sokyoku (koto music) of the Yamada School for twenty years. In 1974 she became the first foreigner to join a professional Yamada School musicians' guild, when she was admitted into the shachu of Nakanoshima Kin'ichi-Sensei, one of Japan's renowned artists, and given the performing name Ayakano. Ms. Read has concertized widely in the United States, Japan and West Africa.

Mandolin
Geoff Brown is an eclectic musician, multi-instrumentalist, teacher, author, and composer. Gaining most of his training on mandolin and guitar, he has played in many groups ranging from funk and rock to bluegrass, Celtic, klezmer, folk, jazz, and classical. With a broad musical background, he has carved a unique place for himself as an independent artist. He has released nine independent records and has performed extensively throughout New England. He holds a Performance Certificate from the Guitar Institute of Technology (Hollywood, CA), a B.A. in Music from Tufts University (Medford, MA), where he graduated summa cum laude, and a M.M. from Longy School of Music (Cambridge, MA), where he graduated with distinction. Geoff has also authored and published instructional books for both mandolin and guitar. In addition to teaching mandolin at Tufts, he is part of the faculty at Longy School of Music and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. He currently resides in the Boston area where he teaches, composes, performs, and records with his group Hickory Strings. More information about the artist is available at www.GeoffBrownMusic.com.

Oud
Kareem Roustom is an award-winning composer who has composed music for film, television, the concert hall and album projects. Steeped in the musical traditions of the Arab Near East and trained in Western music, Roustom is a musically bi-lingual composer who has collaborated with a wide variety of artists ranging from the Philadelphia Orchestra to Shakira. An active composer of film music, he has scored a number of short and feature-length films, and his score for the award-winning documentary Encounter Point earned him the Best Musical Score Award at the 2006 Bend International Film Festival. Of his recent score for Amreeka, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, the Hollywood Reporter wrote "Kareem Roustom's Middle Eastern-flavored score contributes greatly." Amreeka recently won the Internation Critic's Award at the Director's Fortnight during the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and will be released in the USA in September of 2009.

Shakuhachi
Elizabeth Reian Bennett is the first woman to play professionally as a Grand Master of the shakuhachi, the Japanese bamboo flute, and stands out as one of only a handful of western players trained in traditional Japanese music. She has studied and performed with Living National Treasure Aoki Reibo, recognized as Japan's foremost shakuhachi instrumentalist, for over 30 years.

Since her debut recital in Tokyo in 1984, Reian Bennett has performed frequently in Japan and worldwide, from Australia and Europe to Mexico, Afghanistan and the United States. Tokyo performances are planned every two years. Notable venues have included Tokyo National Theater and NHK (Japan National TV); her next recital will be in March, 2012. She as been interviewed on radio by Faith Middleton of Fresh Air, Robert J. Lurtsema of Morning Pro Musica and Richard Knisley of Classical Performances.

Her CD entitled Song of the True Hand, released in 2006, was nominated 'Instrumental Album of the Year' by Jon Sobel at Blogcritics Magazine. In describing it, Sobel wrote, "(it exemplifies)… the way a single individual with a musical instrument can wordlessly conjure the human spirit out of thin air." Hartford Advocate critic Dan Barry compares her musical vocabulary to "…Coltrane in his prime". Jay Keister, critic for The Journal of the Society for Asian Music, praises "Bennett's impressive technique…Her skill with the instrument is clearly world-class." Reian Bennett teaches the shakuhachi through the world music program at Tufts University, and in the Boston area.

Violin traditions of the World
Beth Bahia Cohen has spent a large part of her career exploring how the violin is played in various cultures. She was trained as a classical violinist and violist in NY, getting her Master's Degree from Manhattan School of Music, and spent several years performing with numerous symphony, ballet, opera and chamber orchestras in New York and Europe, as well as in Broadway shows and commercial recording studios.

Beth then traveled, studied and performed with masters of the violin and other bowed instruments from Hungary, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, and Norway. She plays several Greek lyras, the Turkish bowed tanbur and kabak kemane, the Egyptian rababa, the Norwegian hardanger fiddle, and more. She plays village music from Hungary, Greek music from various regions of Greece, Turkish classical and folk music, and Arabic and Klezmer music. She has been the recipient of many travel and research grants, including the NEA/Artists International grant and the Radcliffe Bunting fellowship. She performs regularly with several groups and as a soloist in The Art of the Bow, which brings together the various bowed instrument traditons as well as her original music, and she teaches workshops and ensembles in universities throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. As an Applied Music faculty member in the Tufts WEFT program, Beth teaches the violin traditions mentioned above, as well as European classical violin and Celtic music.

Jazz and Rock

Jazz/Rock - Electric Bass
Fernando Huergo born in Cordoba, Argentina in 1968. He has recording over 60 albums, including three as leader and four as co-leader. Fernando has toured in North, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. He has given clinics in Argentia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Portugal, England, France, Germany, Sweden, Finalnd, Turkey, Japan and many American cities. Fenando graduated from Berklee Collge of Music in 1992, where he has been Assistant Professors in the Bass Department since 1996.

Jazz and Rock Guitar
Jerry Bussiere has jazz guitar, composition and improvisation privately with Ross Adams, Jerry Bergonzi and Charlie Banacos. In addition to extensive performing in many styles of western popular music as a guitarist and vocalist, he has been a mainstay in the Boston Modern Dance Community as a composer and accompanist. On May 7, 1994 he was presented the "Dance Belt Award" by Cambridge's Kenneth Reeves. Mr. Bussiere continues to perform with jazz saxophonist Stan Strickland, vocalist Wannetta Jackson, and the Terry Anthony Dance Band.

Jazz Piano
Fernando Michelin was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and came to Boston in 1989 to study at Berklee College of Music. He has since remained in the Boston area and has undoubtedly made his impact on the jazz scene. His past bands have included such up and coming artists as bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding and drummer Richie Barshay. His discography includes Art, an album featuring songs dedicated to modern visual artists, and Duende, an album described in the Boston Globe as a "fluid and literate" collaboration between the three featured artists. Entre Amigos will be his ninth studio album. In addition to being a band leader, Michelin has worked as a producer and as a sideman. He helped create the awarded "Amores Torcidos" with Katie Viqueira and as a sideman he has performed with icons like Jair Rodriguez and Maucha Adnet. He is also an educator, working as a member of the applied faculty at Tufts University.

Jazz Saxophone
Stan Strickland, a singer, saxophonist, and flutist, has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Scandinavia and the former Soviet Union performing in clubs and concert halls including Jordan and Symphony Halls in Boston, Carnegie Recital Hall and Town Hall in NY and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He has been featured on recordings by Bob Moses, Morty Ehrlich, Mama Tongue, Webster Lewis and Brute Force, and with his own band, Legacy. He has composed many original scores for television, video and dance productions. Mr. Strickland is Adjunct Professor of Music and Movement at Lesley College and teaches woodwinds at Longy School of Music, Boston College and is Visiting Professor at Institutes in Finland, Holland and Israel.

Paul Ahlstrand, saxophonist, holds a degree in Music Education from Syracuse University. He has studied privately with Nick Brignola, Bill Pierce, Jerry Bergonzi, and Charlie Banacos. He has performed at night clubs and festivals throughout the US, Canada, and Europe with a variety of artists, including The Four Tops, The Temptations, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Toni Lynn Washington, Mighty Sam McClain, Son Seals, Luther "Guitar Junior"Johnson, Susan Tedeschi and many others. He is an active performer, studio musician, arranger, and composer. A discography and current performance schedule are available at www.paulahlstrand.com.

Jazz Trumpet
Scott Aruda
Bio forthcoming

Patrice Williamson
Jazz Times magazine states that "Patrice Williamson isn't a singer, she's a one-woman jazz sampler. –She is a woman of many voices, each distinctly intriguing all distinctly her own." A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Patrice Williamson is a soulful singer who swings hard and is a scintillating performer. She can scat with the best of them, and has rightly been compared to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan in publications such as the Los Angeles Times and The All-Music Guide to Jazz. A favorite of both Boston and Singapore's music scene, her sensitive ballad work and fluent scat style earned her a coveted Best of Boston award. She's also been heard at the Tanglewood and Marblehead Jazz Festivals, and both of her independent recordings, My Shining Hour and Free to Dream, have received high praise from jazz critics around the country. Patrice received both her Master's degree and an Artist Diploma from the famed New England Conservatory of Music.  In addition to performing, Patrice is actively passing on her knowledge and love of the jazz tradition through teaching at Berklee College of Music, Tufts University and at The New School of Music in Cambridge, MA, ensuring that many young people will have contact with this great American music.

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