Faculty
Go to alphabetical listing of faculty
Julia Adams (chamber music studies)
B.A., Oberlin College; M.A., San Francisco State College. Honorary Ph.D, Colby College. Artist-in-Residence, Colby College; founding member, Portland String Quartet; touring internationally since 1969 and recording a wide range of literature from Baroque to Contemporary. Long-time principal violinist with the Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra and the Portland Symphony. Studied with Kim Harriman, William Berman, David Schneider, Ferenc Molnar, Ralph Hersh, and Lillian Fuchs. Applied Music Faculty: Bates College, Bowdoin College.
Susanna Adams (violin)
Susanna Adams came back to the violin after many years of other careers, including teaching history, medical editing, and landscape architecture. A music minor at Smith College, she earned another bachelor's degree in music education at USM in 1997. As part of her course (in choral conducting) she joined the USM orchestra as a violinist and then a violist. After graduation, she taught general music to very young children at several area private schools and began a career as a Suzuki music teacher at the Portland Conservatory.
She retired in 2007 but continues to teach adult beginning violin at Osher Lifelong Learning and at the Conservatory. She is Secretary to the Conservatory's Board and Chair of the Scholarship Committee.
Michael Albert (voice, violin, oboe,
trumpet, recorder/early music)
Michael Albert studied voice and oboe performance at the University of Southern Maine's School of Music, and has also attended the Interlochen and Blockhaven Arts Schools. His awards include the Lillian Nordica award, the Louise Meyer Chamber Music Awards, and the Maine Governor's Award for musical excellence. He studied privately with Neil Boyer and Lawrence Golan of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and Bruce Fithian, head of the Voice Faculty at U.S.M. Michael has appeared as an oboist with the Maine Music Society, Portland and Bangor Symphony Orchestras, and the Harvard (University) Baroque Orchestra. As a countertenor he has performed throughout New England as a soloist in Bach's Mass in B Minor, Handel's Messiah, Carissimi's Jepthe, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, as well as in various Bach Cantatas, and performs regularly with the Schola Cantorum of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Maine. Michael can also be heard as a baroque violinist and recordist and has performed with Blue Lobster, the SoHIP chamber orchestra, Portland Pro Musica, Ensemble Galant, Pastorello, Ecclesia, Saltarello, Ensemble Suave, and the Southern Maine String Quartet. Michael also enjoys playing whistle and fiddle at various Irish pubs and performs professionally with the Celtic band, The Beggar Boys. Michael can also be heard on the C.D. labels Initial Ascent, Sentences from the Womb, Jan Carter's Packages, and in the soundtracks for the P.B.S. documentaries Haiti's Small Miracles and Sweet Ambition, both of which received a nomination for an Emmy and a pre-nomination for a Grammy award.
Christina Astrachan (voice)
Teacher Diploma, Oberseminar Zurich; Voice Major, Zurich Conservatory; Voice Diploma Swiss Pedagogic Music Association and Music Conservatory. Studies with Bruce Fithian, Bonnie Scarpelli, Jayne West, Helen Keller, Gloriana Cavalli. Co-founder of Maine Baroque Ensemble and the Portland Early Music Consort with whom she performed at the Boston Early Music Festival. Guest artist with the Maine Music Society, the Androscoggin Chorale, the Oratorio Chorale, the First Parish Choir in Brunswick, the DaPonte String Quartet, the Surrey Opera Company, and the Portland Symphony Orchestra.
Naydene Bowder (piano)
A teacher of many award-winning students, Naydene is a graduate of the Julliard School of Music and has done graduate studies at Hartt College, Manhattan School, and Columbia. Studied piano with Adele Marcus, Jacob Lateiner, and Ocy Downs, theory with Vincent Persichetti, harpsichord with Joseph Payne, chamber music with Ivan Galamian, Leonard Rose, Louis Persinger, and Bernard Greenhouse. Ms. Bowder has had appeared as both soloist and chamber musician throughout New England. She is currently on the faculty at Bowdoin College and the Portland Conservatory of Music.
Timothy Burris (lute/early music, theorbo, baroque guitar)
Performance diploma in lute from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague; Ph.D. from Duke (lute and theorbo practice in 18th century Dresden); Fulbright fellowship in musicology. Lute instructor at the Royal Flemish Conservatory from 1990-96. Has appeared in concert with Robert Hill, Julianne Baird, Paul Elliott, Derek Ragin and Jennifer Lane, as well as playing under the baton of Peter Schreier and Rene Clemencic, et al. Several recordings of late German and early Italian Baroque repertoire, including modern premieres of works by G.A. Ristori and J.D. Heinichen. Heading up a series of the solo lute works of S.L. Weiss for the Dutch Northwest Classics label.
Dale Churchill (classical and improvisational/jazz piano, children's music)
A.B., University of Massachusetts - Boston. Piano studies with Laurence Berman and Ran Blake. Music Director at Dean Junior College and Massasoit Community College. Director of Music at Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church. Mr. Churchill has thirty years' experience as a private piano teacher, conductor, and childrens music teacher.
Christina Chute (violin, viola, cello, children's music)
B. Mus. (violin), Oberlin; Performers Certificate (cello), Peabody Conservatory; M.M. (cello), San Francisco Conservatory. Studies with Irene Sharp, Bonnie Hampton, Yehuda Hannani, Paul Ross, Marilyn McDonald, and Earl Carlyss. Current Faculty of Bates College, Bowdoin College, and Portland Conservatory. Former Faculty of the San Francisco Community Music Center and the Sequoia Chamber Music Festival. Cellist with the Maine Music Society, Atlantic Piano Trio, Santa Rosa Symphony, Rohnert Park Chamber Orchestra, Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and others. Violin/Viola, Canton Symphony Orchestra, Club Foot Orchestra, and others. Studio recording artist, and translator of I Begin the Cello.
Ray Cornils (organ)
Ray Cornils is the Municipal Organist for the City of Portland and Minister of Music at First Parish Church, UCC in Brunswick where for the past 22 years he has led an extensive music program of five vocal and two handbell choirs. He is also a member of the music faculties of Bowdoin College, USM, and the Portland Conservatory of Music.
A graduate of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, Mr. Cornils has studied organ with Robert Reeves, Fenner Douglas, William Porter, Yuko Hayashi and Dame Gillian Weir.
Ray has concertized throughout the United States and in Germany, France, Spain, Russia, New Zealand and Ecuador. This past year he has played concerts on the Wanamaker Organ in Macy’s Department Store in Philadelphia, the Spreckles Organ in San Diego and in the International Festival of Sacred Music during Holy Week in Quito and Portoviejo, Ecuador. He has been a featured recitalist for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. He also performs regularly with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and Musica Tricinia, a group of two trumpets and organ.
Keith Crook (classical guitar)
Keith Crook has taught classical guitar at the University of Maine and/or the University of Southern Maine for the past 25 years. During that time he has also had the opportunity of teaching most theory and ear-training courses offered at the undergraduate level. He studied guitar in Spain for seven years with Jose Luis Lopategui, Eduardo Sainz de la Maza, Luis Gasser and others. Keith holds a B.M. and Masters Degree in guitar performance. Besides periodic faculty recitals, he has been active as a soloist and chamber musician on the roster of both the New England and the Maine Touring Artists Program. Recently two of his guitar compositions and an article have been published in Guitar Reveiw.
Joshua DeScherer
Joshua DeScherer, originally from Tenafly, NJ, has earned degrees from Colby College (BA, Music, 1999), Tufts University (MA, Music Composition, 2001), and The University at Buffalo (Ph.D., Music Composition, 2010). Josh’s formal bass studies began at age 9 with Linda McKnight, and were supplemented by his studies in the Manhattan School of Music’s preparatory division. His additional teachers on contrabass have included Lou Kosma, Lynn Hannings, and Pascale Delache-Feldman. Josh has also studied composition with Jonathan Hallstrom, John McDonald, and Cort Lippe. Josh performs frequently, appearing most frequently as a soloist and as a member of contemporary and avant-garde music ensembles. His compositions have been performed by numerous groups including the Tufts University New Music Ensemble and the Sage City Symphony. Joshua has served on the faculty of Bennington College, and currently teaches contrabass at the University of New England.
Carol Elowe (Director of Music, piano)
Carol Eaton Elowe, born in Portland, Maine, holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the New England Conservatory and a Master of Music from Syracuse University, where she was awarded membership in the honor society Pi Kappa Lambda. Her piano studies began in Portland under Ocy Downs and continued at the Manhattan School of Music with Dora Zazlavsky. Her teachers also include Jean Alderman, Frederick Marvin and Frank Glazer. She has appeared as guest soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Syracuse Symphony, and as part of numerous recital series throughout the Northeast. She was a piano faculty member and recitalist at Phillips Andover Academy for many years. Carol Elowe is a Founder and the first Director of the Portland Conservatory of Music. Presently she serves the Conservatory as Director of Music and Artistic Director of the Noonday Concert Series.
Julia Frothingham (clarinet, flutophone)
M.Mus., University of Massachusetts at Amherst, B.Mus/B.Mus. Ed., Julius Hartt School of Music. Studied with Leon Russianoff, Charles Niedich (Soloist), Charles Russo (New York City Opera), and Michael Sussman (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra). She played Principal Clarinet with the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra, Maine Pro Musica and the Northshore Philharmonic. She has also appeared with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, Maine State Ballet, Maine Chamber Ensemble, Maine Pro Musica, Lyric Theater, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Massachusetts Wind Orchestra and the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival. Founder and member of the Port City Winds, Ms. Frothingham is currently on the faculty of Portland Conservatory, and has been faculty at the Encore/Coda Music Camp and on staff at the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Camp as clarinet instructor and chamber music coach. She has maintained a private studio since 1994.
Vinny Fuerst (flute, piano, music theory and chamber music studies)
Vinny Fuerst grew up in a large family where his mother, a pianist and singer, fostered his love of music. He received a BA in Music at the State University of New York at Buffalo studying Flute (Robert Moles and Robert Dick), Piano (Carlo Pinto), Music History and Music Theory. Continuing at SUNY Buffalo, he also received an MA in Music Theory. A founding member of the SUNY Buffalo Flute Ensemble, his repertoire has included works by Martinu, Piston, Debussy and Faure, among others. He studied viola with Michael Moody and Julia Adams (of the Portland String Quartet), and violin with Steven Kecskemethy (of the Portland String Quartet). As a violist Vinny performed with the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra from 1995 through 2001. In the Fall of 2001 he joined the faculty of the Pineland Suzuki School as chamber music coach and conductor of the middle and upper level ensembles. He also maintains a studio of flute, piano, violin and viola students, is the founder and director of the Curtis Strings (an adult string ensemble in Brunswick), owns a musical instrument repair business (specializing in woodwind and brass repair), is founder and owner of Birchwood Music (a publishing company specializing in music for strings), and is Executive Director of the Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music.
Rachel Herzer (piano)
Margaret Hopkins (Suzuki, violin)
Born in Poland and began violin studies at age 7, adding piano at age 12 once she moved to the U.S.A. Ms. Hopkins received a B.M. in Performance from UMass at Lowell where she also pursued Music Education. Ms. Hopkins received Suzuki training at Ithaca College in N.Y., Hartt College at the University of CT, State University of New York in Buffalo, and Capital University in Ohio. She has performed in her native Poland, Switzerland, Israel, England, Scotland, Wales, Canada, and the United States. She is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and former board member of the Maine Suzuki Association. Ms. Hopkins is the secretary of MSTPA, the Maine String Teachers and Players Association (former Maine ASTA). Ms. Hopkins also teaches Suzuki violin at Old Orchard Beach public schools and at her home-based studio.
Robin Jellis (cello, Suzuki cello, children's music)
Performed cello in Maine for more than 10 years. She received a Music Talent Scholarship (4 years) to attend the University of Southern Maine where she graduated cum lade with a Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance. She played with the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra and was principal cellist with the U.S.M. Jazz Philharmonic. She also substitute taught the music education cello class. Since graduation, she has performed with the Bangor Symphony and at the summer Bach festival in North Conway, NH. Robin started Suzuki Cello with Richard Noyes (Portland Symphony Orchestra) and continued her studies with William Rounds (P.S.O. and Boston Pops) and Paul Ross (Portland String Quartet). She studied chamber music with the P.S.Q., at Colby College, with Laura Kargul and Laurence Golan at U.S.M., and at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire, among others. She studied jazz improvisation with Gary Pack and has been learning about Medieval and Renaissance music from a very young age with Pamela Blake. She received her teacher training at the Suzuki Institutes of Ithaca College and Hartt School of Music. She teaches theory and Suzuki cello at the Pineland Suzuki School. At the Portland Conservatory, she teaches Suzuki and traditional studies, as well as the Suzuki viola/cello class. She was coordinator of the Conservatory's string camp. Robin performs as Principal Cellist with the Portland Conservatory Festival Orchestra.
John Johnstone (classical and jazz guitar/composition)
B.M. Classical Guitar Performance, University of Southern Maine; Assoc. Degree in Jazz, University of Maine, Augusta. He has studied with David Leisner, Neil Anderson, George Sakellariou, and Bob Sullivan. Master classes with Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, Nicholas Goluses, Adam and Bruce Holzman, Norbert Kraft and many others.
He performed with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, and the Choral Art Society. Other performances include an all Bach solo guitar concert at the Maine Festival, a Renaissance solo guitar concert at St. Joseph's College, solo and chamber recitals at Olin Arts Center, Corthell Hall, Bowdoin Chapel, and his classical, jazz, and electronic compositions at PCM. Guitar faculty at Bowdoin College.
Heather Kahill (Suzuki and traditional violin/viola)
Heather Kahill began playing violin at age 4. She holds a B.A. in Violin Performance from the University of Vermont, an M.M. In violin from the University of Southern Maine, and she spent a summer studying at the Brevard Music Center. She is a member of the Bangor Symphony, and has also performed with Ray LaMontagne, Rustic Overtones, and the ensemble Hewale Sounds while she was living abroad in Ghana, West Africa. Her musical interests lie in both the classical and popular music fields, and she has an active local career performing with rock bands, musical theater, and classical ensembles, in addition to recording with Rustic Overtones, Gypsy Tailwind, and Sean Morin and Dan Capaldi of Cambiata. Heather has a thriving teaching studio at the Portland Conservatory of Music, and also enjoys hiking, running, and learning about other cultures around the world.
Stephen Kecskemethy (chamber music studies)
Member of the Portland String Quartet. He began his violin studies in Pittsburgh with Marcus Klein, subsequently continuing with George Steiner, Sidney Harth, Louis Krasner, and Millard Taylor. A cum laude graduate of the Eastman School of Music, he went on to study chamber music with the Curtis and Hungarian Quartets, and has been performing and teaching internationally for four decades. Mr. Kecskemethy holds an honorary Doctorate in Music from Colby College. He has served on the faculties of Queens University in Ontario, Canada; and on the applied music faculties of Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby Colleges. He and his colleagues continue to maintain an extensive international performance and teaching schedule and are visiting artists at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.
Nathan Kolosko (guitar, Suzuki)
B.M., University of Buffalo; M.M., University of Denver. Studies with Joanne Castollani, Ricardo Iznaola, Jonathan Leathwood, Masakazu Ito. Master classes with Oscar Ghiglia, Marco Socias, Ignacio Rodes, Stanley Yates, John Holmquist, Sharon Isbin, and Christopher Parkening. 2003 premier of Ricardo Iznaola's "Blood Wedding" score. Grants from Allied Arts Foundation, D'Addario Strings. Winner in the MTNA national guitar competition. Faculty, Bowdoin Music Festival.
Ronald Lantz (chamber music studies)
Ronald Lantz is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Music. He has studied with Janos Starker, The Berkshire Quartet, the Beaux Arts Trio, and at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and Paul Makanowitszky. His summer studies at Meadowmount School included work with Josef Gingold, Sally Thomas, and Ivan Galamian. He has performed with numerous symphony orchestras, both as soloist and as principal player, and has served on the faculties of the University of New Hampshire, Bates College, the University of Southern Maine, Bowdoin College, and Colby College. He has coached young string quartets of high caliber through his teaching at Wayneflete School and the Portland Conservatory of Music. Ronald Lantz holds and honorary Doctorate in Music from Colby College.
Eleanor Lehmann (violin, viola)
Eleanor Lehmann began her musical studies on the violin at
the age of five at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in California.
As a teenager, she began teaching violin at the same Conservatory.
Years later, receiving a degree in music education and performance from
the California State University in San Francisco, she began her career
as a music teacher in the public schools of that city. Within the space
of a year, she had the opportunity to move to Mexico and work as
violinist/violist with many of the professionally orchestras of the
region. For twenty years, she performed as soloist and chamber musician
with many smaller ensembles while living in this country.
In 1986, Eleanor returned to California accepting positions in the Modesto
and Stockton Symphonies and again entered into the teaching profession with
the Merced City School District. After fifteen years of service, she
retired and moved to Maine in the summer of 2003. She now has a private
studio for young violinists and violists and maintains an active performance
schedule as member of the Portland Rossini and Marston-Kotzschmar Music
Clubs in Maine. In 2007, she started a Beginning Violin Class for the Osher
Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine teaching
students 55 years and older. She is a relative newcomer to the faculty of
the Portland Conservatory.
Chiharu Naruse (piano, children's music, Suzuki)
Chiharu Naruse began studying piano at age 4 and continued her studies in Japan until 1996 at Nishinomiya High School for Music. During this time, she performed numerous solo and trio recitals at the Itami City Concert House. In 1977, Chiharu moved to Germany after being accepted to the Hans Eisler Hochschule Fur Musik in Berlin and began study under Klaus Bassler. In Berlin, Chiharu performed recitals on a regular basis including a Piano concert to benefit Amnesty International. Chiharu also attended numerous Piano competitions throughout Europe including the Clara Haskin in Switzerland, Peccary Academia Piano Competition in Italy, and the International Mozart Wettbewerb in Salzburg, Austria. She also obtained an M.D. in Music Performance and an M.D. in Music Instruction. In the spring of 2002, Chiharu moved to the United States to study under Frank Glazer, who is the Artist-in-Residence at Bates College. Chiharu has given several concerts at Bates College, played with the Portland String Quartet, and regularly performed Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto and the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto with the Augusta Symphony.
Deirdre Oehrtmann (violin, Suzuki, children's music)
Deirdre C. Oehrtmann will be starting her thirty-eighth season as a violinist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. A Maine native, “Dee Dee” was born in Presque Isle, started her musical journeys in the string program of the South Portland schools. Mrs. Oehrtmann graduated magna cum laude in seven semesters from the University of Southern Maine with a BS degree in Music Education and where she was named to the “Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges”. Her private teachers have included Stephen Kecskemethy of the Portland String Quartet, Eric Rosenblith of New England Conservatory, and Arturo Delmoni of NYC.
Besides her duties in the PSO, Deirdre is the principal second violinist of the Maine Music Society and performs with orchestras of PORT Opera, the Maine State Ballet, and the Oratorio Chorale. Mrs. Oehrtmann was founder and for ten years conductor of the Portland Young Peoples String Consort, the string training orchestra for the Portland Youth Symphony as well as the cofounder of the Portland Wind Ensemble. She served for twenty-seven years on the staff of the Maine ASTA (American String Teachers Association) Summer Conference in many capacities – as chamber music coach, sectional leader, conductor of the Junior and Intermediate Orchestras as well as its director for her last six years on staff.
Mrs. Oehrtmann is past president of the Maine Unit of ASTA and has also served as vice-president of Orchestra for the Maine Music Educators Association. She has extensive training in the Suzuki method and has units registered with the Suzuki Association of the Americas covering books 1 through 6. Her Suzuki trainers have included John Kendall (USA), Ronda Cole (USA), Judith Bossuat (France/USA), Helen Brunner (England), Linda Case (USA), and Edward Kreitman (USA).
Edward Pearlman (violin/fiddle)
Edward Pearlman has specialized in nonclassical violin music, i.e. fiddle music, for 30 years, particularly Scottish fiddling (which Yehudi Menuhin described as a "distinct and inimitable style"), but has also enjoyed playing other styles such as Cape Breton, Irish, French Canadian, contra dance, klezmer, jazz, bluegrass, Hungarian, classical and musical theater.
His original classical training was with members of the Chicago Symphony and the Boston Symphony, and he performed with the Yale Symphony and many chamber ensembles. He has a family band, Highland Soles, which performs Scottish and Cape Breton music and dance, and has performed, taught and judged fiddling throughout the US and in Canada and Scotland. He is the music columnist for Scottish Life magazine.
Julia Popov (voice)
Originally from Kazakhstan, Julia Popov now resides in Cumberland, ME. She holds an AS degree in Liberal Arts, BA degree in Sociology & BM degree in Voice Performance for Classical concentration from the University of Southern Maine. Her background includes proper vocal technique, sight reading, foreign language preparation, performance, and acting basics. Julia studied voice with Margaret Yauger and has been seen in several opera scenes at USM and in the Portland area. She sang in Portland Opera Repertory Theater's production of Carmen in the summer of 2006. Currently, Julia directs a worship team at a local church in Portland. She enjoys teaching at the Fiddlehead Center for the Arts in Gray (since Sept. 2006) and also at the Portland Conservatory of Music in Portland (since Sept. 2008). Julia has more than fifteen years of volunteered teaching experience in voice, small-group singing and choir directing, as well as five professional years in teaching voice, piano, music theory, sight singing and ear training, and coaching Russian diction.
Gay Pearson (piano)
B.M., Lawrence Conservatory; B.S. in Meteorology, Purdue University. Jazz theory/improv. studies with Gerald Price, Laurie Altman, Eric Shaw, and Jim Ridl. Performed in various venues (coffeehouses, clubs, bookstores, museums, libraries) in the Trenton area through 2002. Taught piano and violin at Trenton Community Music School and Trenton Conservatory, 2002-2004. House pianist (jazz and traditional) of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Trenton, NJ, 1991-2002. Gay currently performs locally and has released 4 self-produced CDs to local and national acclaim: "Pearson gives her audience a double barrel of swinging excitement that's married with a love for the lyrical melody." (Jim Santella, Cadence)
Betty Barber Rines (trumpet)
Betty Barber Rines is a member of the Portland Symphony, Portland Brass and the ever popular Kotzschmar Festival Brass. She is a graduate of the Crane School of Music (SUNY) and earned her Masters degree in Trumpet Performance at Boston University. Currently Ms. Rines is the Artist Faculty in Trumpet at the University of Southern Maine. She has performed throughout New England with various organizations including the Vermont Symphony, New Hampshire Symphony, PORT Opera and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra.
Andy Robbins (percussion)
Bachelor of Music: Music Education, University of New Hampshire, 2005. While at UNH, Andy studied with Les Harris, Jr. (jazz drum kit), Nancy Smith (classical percussion), David Seiler (jazz ensemble), and Mark Shilansky (jazz combo). During clinics and festivals, he had the privilege of collaborating with Clark Terry, David Baker, Jimmy Heath, Jeff Ballard, Branford Marsalis, Ari Hoenig, Ray Brown, Paquito D’Rivera, Frank Wess, and Byron Stripling. Andy has been teaching private lessons since 2003. He has also taught at the elementary and high school levels. In 2004, Andy was a member of the "Proverbial Tiger Jazz Trio" aboard Carnival Cruise Lines' Spirit. He has shared the stage with Noel Paul Stookey, Jodi Benson, Tim Janis, Mark Shilansky, and Fred Haas, among others. Andy is the drummer for To the Point, a rock/pop show band at Point Sebago Resort in Casco, Maine. He also performs every Summer at Maine State Music Theatre in Brunswick, Maine. Andy's musical experiences have allowed him to travel throughout the Northern hemisphere, and he is thrilled to share his knowledge with students of all ages.
Paul Ross (chamber music)
Wren Saunders (bassoon)
Bassoonist Wren Saunders received a B.M. from the University of Southern Maine and a M.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music in bassoon performance. While at New England Conservatory she studied with Richard Svoboda, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s principal bassoonist. Ms. Saunders is currently a member of the Knoxville Symphony (TN), Orchestra of Indian Hill (MA), and is principal bassoon of the Bangor Symphony. In 2007 she was a concerto soloist with the Bangor Symphony.
An active freelancer she has played with such orchestras as the Portland Symphony, PORT orchestra, Boston Philharmonic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New Hampshire Music Festival, Vermont Symphony, and the ProArte Chamber Orchestra of Boston among others. Ms. Saunders can be heard playing principal bassoon with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra performing Violin Concerto No. 6 “Old Brass” on Mark O’Connor’s recently released CD “Americana Symphony” on the OMAC label.
Ms. Saunders has a vibrant and successful bassoon studio where her students are regularly accepted into the Maine All-State and District festivals, the Portland Youth Ensembles as well as New England Conservatory’s Youth Orchestras and the Boston Youth Orchestras in Massachusetts.
Harold Stover (organ, music theory, composition, music history)
Harold Stover is a native of Latrobe, PA, and a graduate of the Juilliard School in New York. He serves as Organist and Director of Music of Woodfords Congregational Church and Director of the Portland-based chamber chorus Renaissance Voices. His performing career spans 40 years and includes organ recitals at the Riverside Church in New York, the National Cathedral in Washington, Westminster Abbey in London, and many other distinguished venues, and concerts in a wide variety of ensembles including the New York Philharmonic and the Portland Symphony Orchestra. His compositions include concert music, liturgical music, and film scores, and are published by Augsburg-Fortress, Boosey & Hawkes, E. C. Schirmer, H. W. Gray, MorningStar, and Paraclete presses. He has made eight appearances as both composer and organist on the nationally-syndicated radio program Pipedreams.
Mark Tipton (trumpet)
Trumpeter/Composer Mark Tipton is very active in the Portland, Maine, music scene, leading ensembles such as "Les Sorciers Perdus," The Fogcutters Big Band, and the Mark Tipton Jazz Trio. He is a dedicated teacher, as well, holding positions at Colby College, U. Maine Augusta, and the Portland Conservatory of Music. He earned his Bachelor's from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and his Master's from Mannes College of Music (NYC) - both degrees in Classical Trumpet Performance. He has performed with such artists as Doc Severinson, Bobby McFerrin, Vassar Clements, and Quincy Jones. His website can be found at www.marktiptonmusic.com.
Krysia Tripp (flute)
Brian Whiton (saxophone, flute, clarinet)
Saxophonist Brian Whiton, a senior at the University of Southern Maine, is studying music performance under the direction of Bill Street. Brian began studying music, first on piano, at the age of 9. It wasn't until joining his school band program two years later, that he developed a love for the saxophone.
Brian, a native of Portland, showed early promise on the saxophone. Once in middle school he began to audition for elite ensembles, including the District II Middle School Band and the Portland Youth Wind Ensemble, both of which accepted him.
In high school Brian excelled on the saxophone, playing principle chair with the District II Honors Band, Portland Youth Wind Ensemble and the Maine All-State Band. In addition, Brian began taking classes at USM and playing principle saxophone in the USM concert band.
In the summer of 2006, Brian was accepted to the prestigious Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, where he studied with Timothy McAllister. Brian also played in the Bay Chamber Next Generation Music Camp. Brian is also the winner of the 2007 Bay Chamber Concerts Summer Woodwind Prize, and for the past two years he has been nominated for the USM Honors Recital. After graduation, Brian plans to continue his education in performance.