Thurnauer Faculty

Michael Cochrane – Jazz Piano

Pianist, composer, arranger, and instructor, Michael Cochrane, has performed and/or recorded with many well-known jazz artists, including Sonny Fortune, Eddie Gomez, Tom Harrell, Valery Ponomorev, John Clark, Clark Terry, Michael Brecker, Chico Freeman, The Spirit of Life Ensemble, Oliver Lake, Bradford Hayes and many more. He has performed in clubs, colleges and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and The Philippines. Mr. Cochrane has been a part-time instructor at NYU for over twenty years and is currently a part-time instructor at Princeton University, Rutgers State University, and Bloomingdale School of Music. He was formerly the musical director of the Paterson Avenue Methodist Church and has over ten recordings as a leader. Mr. Cochrane is the author/composer of a solo piano book and combo arrangements and a book of original compositions published by SteepleChase. He has also written two instructional music books and has written an instructional jazz piano exercise book published by his own publishing company, Inner Search Music. He endorses Superscope Technologies recorders and software. In 1985 Mr. Cochrane received a Master of Arts Degree with honors from New York University. www.michaelcochrane.com.

Yulia Dusman

A native of Russia, Yulia Dusman received a Bachelor’s Degree from the Moscow College of Music and Masters Degree from Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory. She continued her education at the Mannes College of Music in New York City where she studied piano with Arkady Aronov and Irina Morozova and received a second Masters Degree and Professional Studies Diploma. Ms. Dusman was a winner of the New Triad Foundation Competition in 2002. In Russia, Ms. Dusman was a featured soloist and staff harpsichordist with The Sophia Chamber Orchestra and appeared in Russia’s major concert halls such as the Rachmaninoff Concert Hall and the Concert Hall of Moscow Conservatory. In New York, she has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Steinway Hall, the Jewish Museum, and Trinity Church, among others. She has also been featured frequently on 96.3 FM, WQXR. Ms. Dusman has performed as soloist in many concerts and festivals at the Mannes College of Music, including performances with the “Chopin at Mannes” Festival Orchestra, “The Schumanns and Their Circle” Festival Orchestra and “Mannes Bach 2000” chamber ensemble. As a collaborative pianist she has appeared in concerts with Colorado String Quartet, Duo A Corda, and David Jolley, among others. Ms. Dusman served on the piano faculties of the Piano School of New York City (1999-2001) and Mannes College of Music (2001-2016).

Elias Guzman

Elias Guzman is a pianist, composer, theorist, and educator with extensive international performance experience in Central and South America, Spain, Ukraine, and the United States. Local solo and chamber instrumental performances include The Juilliard Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and performances at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center’s “Out of Doors” series, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Madison Square Garden, among many others. The French Fédération “Des Anciens Combattants Français” awarded him a medal of honor for his musical contribution to The Cadets Lafayette. A personal assistant to the late American composer David Diamond, Elias Guzman studied composition and orchestration with Rebecca Scott, Lawrence Widdoes, Samuel Zyman, and Michael White at The Juilliard School. Elias Guzman is the director of The New York Music and Arts Center, a faculty member at The Lycee Français in New York City and the JCC Thurnauer School of Music.

Po-Wei Ger

Pianist Po-Wei Ger is a pianist currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Manhattan School of Music with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky. Po-Wei began studying piano with Ms. Jia-li Shu at the age of seven. At the age of ten, he further continued his studies with Dr. Ming-Hui Lin, a piano faculty member at the National Taiwan Normal University. He performed in the prizewinner concert of the Mozarteum University Summer Academy in 2012, as part of the program of Salzburg Festival. During his Bachelor of Music degree study with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music, Po-Wei collaborated with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra in both 2015 and 2016. He won the 2nd Prize, the Chamber Music Prize, and the Audience Award in the Premio Jaén International Piano Competition, in 2021. An avid chamber musician, Po-Wei has performed in festivals such as the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, in 2019, 2022 and the Taos School of Music.

Dena Levine

Pianist Dena Levine is associate professor of music at Seton Hall University and the director of the Classical Concert Series there. As the pianist of the award-winning Laurel Trio for four years, Ms. Levine was also a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and ProPiano Debut Series. In addition to a two-year residency on WQXR, her performances with the group included Weill Recital Hall and the Alexander Schneider Series at the New School, the Gardner Museum in Boston, the National Concert Association of Panama, the La Jolla Discovery Series, and the Sacramento Festival of New American Music. Ms. Levine has also been a guest on the People’s Symphony Series at Town Hall in New York, the Premiere Performances Series in St. Louis, and was a participant at the Tanglewood and Marlboro Music Festivals for several years. She is co-founder of the Portland Chamber Music Festival in Maineand was co-artistic director from 1994 through 2010. The festival is regularly presented on WGBH and Performance Today and was featured in both a Maine Public Television documentary and Chamber Music, the magazine for Chamber Music America. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Indiana University and an M.M. and D.M.A. from SUNY Stony Brook.

Diana Mase

Pianist Diana Mase is Piano Department Chair of the JCC Thurnauer School of Music where in addition to her private teaching, she directs the school’s Group Piano Program. A Colorado native, she received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Colorado and Master of Music degree from Denver University. Post graduate studies include with Edith Oppens at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and jazz piano in NYC with Hal Galper. An active accompanist and chamber musician, Ms. Mase has collaborated in lecture recitals with MET Opera soprano Harolyn Blackwell, in recital with flutist Michael Parloff, at the Aspen Music Festival’s Salida-Aspen Concert Series with flutist Bärli Nugent, and with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Juilliard School faculty and the Orchestra of St. Lukes. She has been a collaborative pianist at the Mannes College of Music and with the Dance Department at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. Reviews in the American Record Guide and International Trumpet Guild Journal refer to Ms. Mase’s playing as “flawless” and “superbly synchronized with the soloist in both technique and emotion”, in the recording Trumpet Vocalise, with her husband, Raymond Mase.

Steven Masi

Acclaimed as an artist of unusual sensitivity and virtuosity, pianist Steven Masi has performed extensively throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and India. His recent performances and recordings of the complete Beethoven sonatas have been praised in the press. Fanfare Magazine has written, “It is not exaggerating to suggest that Masi belongs with the elite in the late sonatas, providing as satisfying an experience as the likes of Solomon, Kempff, and Pollini. Each texture, the place of every note, is carefully considered, yet the sense of exploratory, transcendent journey is profound indeed. Masi hardly seems to feel technical hurdles. It is as if everything is in the service of Beethoven.” He has appeared at the Casals Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Chautauqua Festival, Park City International Festival, Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival, and Music Festival of the Hamptons and has been a guest soloist with many orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony, American Symphony, and New Symphony Orchestra of London. In Germany, he was an artist member of the Bonn Chamber Music Society. He has been heard on radio stations throughout the world, including Radio Filharmonia in Lima, Peru, Radio Cultura in Sao Paulo, Brazil, German Radio, RAI in Italy, and South Africa. A graduate of the Juilliard School, his teachers included Sasha Gorodnitzki, Claude Frank, Irma Volpe and Claudio Arrau.

Yumi Suehiro

Born in Osaka, Japan, pianist Yumi Suehiro began studying piano at age 6, and marimba a year later. In Japan, Ms. Suehiro won numerous national and international competitions, including the top prize at the Kobe International Competition as the youngest winner. In 2008, she performed Copland’s Piano Variations at Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie) as an AMTL Audition Winner, at Steinway Hall, presented by the Amati Music Festival, and premiered Fifteen Minutes of Fame at Symphony Space presented by Vox Novus. She also was the featured marimba player in Latin percussionist Victor Rendon’s recording of “Fiesta Percussiva.” Ms. Suehiro regularly performs as a core member with the ensemble, Mise-En, with whom she performed Ligeti’s Piano Concerto in Sarasota, Florida in 2017 at New College of Florida. Ms. Suehiro has taught at Lehman College (CUNY) and is a member of the faculty at Lehman College Continuing Education.

Education: B.M., Lehman College. M.M., piano performance, Manhattan School of Music
Primary Teachers: Zenon Fishbein and Peter Vinograde (piano), Morris Lang (percussion), John Corigliano (composition).
Awards: Featured soloist on piano and marimba, Lehman College, performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Rosauro’s Marimba Concerto.

Anna Faynberg

Anna Faynberg has a B.A. in Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, a Masters in Music in Education from Hunter College, and Dalcroze teaching training from the Kaufman Music Center. She has taught private and ensemble violin students, from preschool to late teens at the Lucy Moses School and the Special Music School in New York for 12 years and also has experience teaching music theory and ear training. Ms. Faynberg has also taught at the Garden State Academy of Music, Long Island Conservatory, and Queens Music School.

Yoon Be Kim

A native of South Korea, Yoon Be Kim began violin studies at the age of five and moved to the United States when she was 15. Ms. Kim has appeared as a soloist with Busan Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Korean Philharmonic, Kyoto Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Waterbury Symphony Orchestra and Czech Virtuosi Orchestra where she made her international debut at the age of 13. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Kim has performed at numerous music festivals including the New York String Orchestra Seminar, Sarasota Music Festival, Lake George Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival and Aspen Music Festival. She has served as concertmaster of Colburn Chamber Orchestra, NEC Philharmonia, NEC Chamber Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia and MSM Sinfonia Nova. Ms. Kim found her passion for teaching through a community outreach program at The Colburn School, providing one-on-one lessons to students from a local charter school while she was a pre-college student, and she has also taught at Yale University as a secondary violin instructor.

Education: B.M., New England Conservatory. M.M., M.M.A., Yale School of Music. P.S., Manhattan School of Music

Primary Teachers: Koichiro Harada, Frank Huang, Hyo Kang, Malcolm Lowe

Awards: First Prize, NEC Bales Violin Competition; Winner, Waterbury Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition

Kyungha Ko  (leave of absence, 2022-2024)

Born in Korea, Kyungha Ko moved to New York at age 16 to study with Patinka Kopec and Grigory Kalinovsky at the Manhattan School of Music, where she received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees.  Ms. Ko has performed as soloist and in recital in the United States and Korea including with the Seoul National Symphony, Moscow Arco Chamber Orchestra, Seoul Royal Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan Symphonie and Carnegie Hall and The Players Club in New York.  She served as an assistant concertmaster of MSM’s Opera Orchestra and Jazz Philharmonia, won the Lillian Fuchs Memorial Chamber Music competition and the New York String Teachers’ Association competition and participated in a masterclass with the Rafael Piano Trio.  

In addition to teaching at Thurnauer, Ms. Ko is on the faculty of the New School’s Mannes Prep Pre-College program and eConnect123. She is also an assistant teacher to New York Philharmonic’s Assistant Concertmaster, Michelle Kim, at the Mannes School of Music and has been guest faculty at Mahanaim College in Huntington, NY, the Luzerne Music Center, and Center Stage Strings. Her students have won numerous competitions and have been accepted to many prestigious schools including Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music, Rice University, and La Guardia High School of Music and Art. 

Krzysztof Kuznik

Polish-born violinist Krzysztof Kuznik is a graduate of Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he was a recipient of the Whittaker Scholar Career Grant.  His teachers include Krzysztof Jakowicz, Glenn Dicterow, Sheryl Staples, Yoko Takebe, and Lisa E. Kim.  As a founding member of the Elsner String Quartet, he has performed at MerkinHall, the Kosciuszko Foundation, the 92nd Street Y, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, among other venues. Mr. Kuznik made his US solo debut at Symphony Space in November 2002 and has been praised by Strad magazine for his “…honest and musical account of the Bruch Concerto in G minor…”  Among his numerous awards are Tadeusz Wronski Solo Violin Competition, the Young Concert Artists European and the Coleman competitions. In August 1998 he was invited by members of the Amadeus Quartet to perform at the Quartet’s fiftieth-anniversary gala concert in London. Mr. Kuznik has appeared in television and radio broadcasts in both Europe and the United States, including regular live broadcasts on WQXR in New York City.  He has participated in New York Philharmonic’s Latin American, Asian and East Coast tours since 2001.  Mr. Kuznik was the violinist of the Paderewski Trio, which won the 32nd Artists International’s New York Debut Award Auditions and, as a result, performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall on November 7, 2004.  In the fall 2017 Mr. Kuznik started his collaboration with Russian-born pianist Yulia Dusman. Shortly after, they formed Duo Trouvaille and have been praised by Kurier Plus for its “uncompromising virtuosity, sense of style, artistic unity and magnetic personality of performers” Mr. Kuznik has been the concertmaster of the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra since Fall 2019 and serves on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division and the JCC Thurnauer School of Music.

Jinah Lee

A faculty member of the JCC Thurnauer School of Music since 2005, Jinah Lee received her early musical training in her native Korea, with both graduate studies and a B.M in violin performance from Ewha University. Since she came to the United States in 1998, she has focused on developing her knowledge of violin pedagogy and performance. Ms. Lee received her diploma in violin pedagogy from the School for Strings in New York. She has studied the violin methods of Ivan Galamian, Leopold Auer and Paul Rolland, and Kato Havas and has participated in teaching workshops throughout United States, Canada, and Austria including workshops and symposiums at The Juilliard School, Vienna Conservatory, Southwestern Ontario music Institute, and Ithaca College, and the Hartt School of Music. She has studied violin pedagogy with Louise Behrend, Mimi Zweig, Carrie Renuing, Linda Fiore, Stevie Sandven, Judy Weigert Bossuat, and violin performance with Lisa Kim. She also attended masterclasses and lessons of Boris Kushnir and Paul Roczek in Vienna. Her passion for teaching young children has led her to become a Suzuki Association of America Certified Teacher for Suzuki Books 1 to 10 and she is currently training to become a Suzuki Teacher Trainer. Ms. Lee’s students have been recognized for their beautiful tone and poise and have been accepted into the Pre-College divisions of Julliard and Manhattan School of Music. Many of her students have been selected to participate in select ensembles such as the New York Youth Orchestra, New York and New Jersey regional and state orchestras, masterclasses and various competitions. From 2005 to 2011, Ms. Lee led the violin program of Thurnauer’s Music Discovery Program partnership with the Englewood Public School District.

Yimain Amy Liu

Yimain Amy Liu, winner of the 1989 V. Bellini International Competition has performed as soloist with orchestras in the United States and Taiwan and given recitals in Italy. She earned a Bachelors and Masters in Music from Manhattan School. She studied with Albert Markov and participated in masterclasses with Josef Gingold and Aaron Rosand.

Dorothy Kaplan Roffman

With over sixty years of teaching expertise specializing in the youngest violinists, Dorothy Roffman has a passionate commitment to each student as an individual and a strong sense of the positive influence an outstanding music school can have on the entire community. Having studied violin with Christine Dethier, Raphael Bronstein and Ivan Galamian, she holds a BA from the University of Rochester and the Eastman School of Music and an MA in Musicology from Columbia. She was a member of the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, a member of the Music Department faculty at SUNY Stony Brook, and faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division for 32 years. Mrs. Roffman studied Suzuki pedagogy with Shinichi Suzuki in the United States and Japan and developed Suzuki programs at the Harlem School of the Arts, the Lighthouse School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music, where she was a faculty member for over thirty years.

Her students have performed at Merkin Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, on Sesame Street and in Itzhak Perlman’s Fiddling for the Future, as seen on PBS. Mrs. Roffman received an award for Distinguished Service from the New Jersey chapter of the American String Teachers Association. In 2013, she was a recipient of a Milestone Certificate of Appreciation from the National Guild for Community Arts Education. Mrs. Roffman has been the director of the Thurnauer School of Music since it began in 1984. In 2016, Mrs. Roffman was honored by the Thurnauer School of Music with the Gift of Music Visionary Award in appreciation of her years of service and dedication to the music school. Mrs. Roffman’s former students and graduates from throughout the Thurnauer School are teaching and performing as soloists and in orchestras worldwide, spreading their love of music to people around the globe. Throughout her many years at Thurnauer, her commitment has remained consistent: To provide quality music education for all.

Misako Sato

Violinist Misako Sato earned her bachelors and masters in music degrees from the Mannes College of Music. She studied with Ann Setzer, Yang Jun Lee, and received Suzuki training at the Hartt School of Music and at Ithaca College and is a certified Kindermusik instructor. Ms. Sato has performed on Saturday Night Live, at the United Nations, in Korea, and with various chamber orchestras in the New York area. She has also participated in music festivals including the Meadowmount School of Music, the Killington Music Festival, and the NYU String Quartet Seminar. Ms. Sato has taught at the Calderone School of Music, Jina Child Care, Zadies Nurturing Den, and Seoul Academy and is currently on the violin faculty at the Elisabeth Morrow School. She is devoted to giving personalized lessons for students to play to the best of their ability while teaching life skills and nurturing character.

Laura-Lindsay Sewell, Violin Department Co-Chair

Violinist Laura-Lindsay Sewell attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music where she studied with Kurt Sassmannshaus in the Starling Program. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree, graduating cum laude, at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, studying with Connie Heard and The Blair String Quartet. Ms. Sewell then went on to earn a double Masters degree in Violin Performance and Violin Pedagogy from the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with Violaine Melancon. She received Suzuki training in New York and at the Stanford University Advanced Suzuki Institute. Ms. Sewell has received various awards and honors, performed in many chamber ensembles and orchestras, and appeared as a soloist with the Sewanee Festival Orchestra after winning the concerto competition at the music festival there. She went on to teach and perform as a member of the Sewanee Music Festival faculty for eight summers. Currently, Ms. Sewell enjoys teaching and playing violin at the Diller-Quaile School of Music in Manhattan, and the true joy of her life is listening to and playing music with her husband, double-bassist, Kingsley, and their two sons, Zachary and Kingsley.

Ellie Sturrock 

Ellie Sturrock earned a Bachelors in Music in Violin Performance from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and a Masters in Music in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan, School of Music. She has more than 20 years of experience teaching students of all ages in her private studio and various music schools and academies in the tri-state area. She has also participated in music festivals at Encore, National Music Academy at Interlochen, Aspen Music Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, Schloss Pommersfelden, Germany, to name a few. Ms. Sturrock has performed and collaborated with organizations and artists, including, but not limited to, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; members of the New York Philharmonic; Alan Gilbert (former Music Director of the New York Philharmonic); Leonard Slatkin, conductor; John Williams, composer; the late John Denver; Roger Daltry (The Who); pianist Joyce Yang; and Victor Goines and members of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Ms. Sturrock is the Founder and Director of Zion Entertainment and has produced concerts at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Bergen PAC, Merkin Concert Hall, and Miller Theater at Columbia University.

Carey White – Head of Violin Groups 

Carey White has a B.A. from Barnard College and trained at Manhattan School of Music’s Pre-College Division. She studied violin with Dorothy Kaplan Roffman, Rimma Sushanskaya, Vladimir Zyskind and Patinka Kopec. For many summers, she participated in the Interlochen Arts Camp and Festival La Stâge Musicale, France. She also played in the New York Youth Symphony and the Hebrew University Orchestra in Israel. She has Suzuki certification from The School for Strings under Louise Behrend and interned with Roberta Guaspari in the Opus 118 Violin program in East Harlem. She has Dalcroze certification teacher-training from Joy Kane at The Lucy Moses School and is currently instructor of Middle School Music at The Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County. She has been a conductor and faculty member at The EMS Summer String Festival for 25 years. Carey is also a choral conductor for the HaZamir Preparatory Choir of Bergen County and String Society at The Dwight-Englewood School. Carey was the lead singer/violinist in The FunkeyMonkeys for 10 years and recorded 5 albums with them. Currently, she plays violin and sings in Silvertone and the MO, a rock/pop/bluegrass band. Since 2019, she has been singing as an alto in Mastervoices, led by artistic director, Ted Sperling. Under her direction, The Thurnauer Violin Camerata has performed at many events in northern New Jersey and the tri-state area, including assisted living residences, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Waldorf Astoria and the NY Hilton, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has also led two violin performance trips to DisneyWorld. Carey loves bringing performing opportunities to Thurnauer students and she is proud to have her 4 children as Thurnauer students.

Francesca Martin Silos

Francesca Martin Silos, a former member of the award-winning Colorado Quartet from 1982 to 2000, has performed extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In 1983, within 10 days, the quartet won both the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award and First Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Ms. Martin Silos has also appeared at numerous music festivals including the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, SoundFest Summer Quartet Festival, Round Top Festival Institute, and Orford Music Festival in Canada. She has recorded works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and several contemporary composers on CD’s from Nonesuch, Delos, Fidelio, and Parnassus Records. Originally from Los Angeles, she has been a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as well as the principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. She teaches privately and has been the featured writer of a pedagogy article in the Journal of the American Viola Society. She resides in Bergen County where she performs with a variety of ensembles, including principal violist of the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra and the Bergen Sinfonia.

Sam Bae

Sam Bae is a Korean cellist whose dedications include performing and cultivating a new generation of artists as a pedagogue. Making his solo debut at Zipper Hall in Los Angeles, Mr. Bae has since performed in distinguished venues throughout the United States such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. He has appeared in the Masterwork Series at Bargemusic, Contemporaneous, and Core Ensemble, presenting a variety of genres and promoting cultural understanding through performances.

Mr. Bae has served as a faculty member at Great Neck Conservatory, Opportunity Music Project, and Union City Music Project, providing quality musical instruction in diverse communities. His students have been accepted into the Pre-College divisions at the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and Mannes School of Music, won prestigious accolades throughout the United States, and performed with the Boston Philharmonic and New York Youth Symphony, among others.

Education: B.M, M.M., Juilliard School of Music
Teachers include: Darrett Adkins
Performances: Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Bargemusic, Zipper Hall

Sarah Bish, Chair, Cello Department 

Dr. Sarah Bish earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Cello Performance from Rutgers University, a Masters in Music in Cello Performance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She made her solo debut in 2008, performing with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic after winning first prize in the Virtuoso-in-Progress Concerto Competition. Interested in performing a variety of musical genres, Sarah has made appearances at festivals such as the June in Buffalo Performance Institute for new music, the Chautauqua Institute, the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, and is an alumna of the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop. An avid cello teacher, Sarah is certified in the complete Suzuki Cello Method by the Suzuki Association of the Americas and was the teaching assistant to Astrid Schween at UMass Amherst. She is currently the Chair of the Cello Department at the Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly, New Jersey, on faculty at Silver Music in New York City, and on cello and chamber music faculties of the Luzerne Music Center, an intensive and widely respected summer music program. Passionate about pedagogy, Sarah focused on historical pedagogy for her doctoral project: a dissertation and lecture-recital on the French cellist and pedagogue, Jean-Baptiste Bréval, a member of the French cello school of the late-eighteenth century. Sarah is an alum of the Thurnauer School of Music, where she studied with Madeleine Golz from 2006-2010, participated in four Handler Master Classes at Thurnauer, with Steven Isserlis, Peter Wiley, Jonathan Spitz, and Fred Sherry, and was selected as the winner of Thurnauer Symphony Orchestra’s first-ever concerto competition, in 2007.  

Madeleine Golz 

Madeleine Golz received her M.M. and B.M. from the Manhattan School of Music and completed cello studies with Peter Rejto, Gabor Rejto, Ardyth Alton, and Scott Ballantyne. She is an active chamber musician and recitalist and studied chamber music with Raphael Bronstein, Joseph Seiger, and Artur Balsam. Madeleine has frequently appeared with the “Golz Duo” along with her sister, pianist Evelyn Golz. She has participated in many music festivals in the US and abroad and has been a member of the Artist Faculty of the Brevard Music Center, Hartwick College Summer Music Festival and Institute, Amati MusicFestival, and the Kent- Silver Bay Music Festival. Madeleine is the former director of the East Harlem Public School Cello Program, sponsored by the Opus118 Music Center and has taught at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege since 1985. In demand as a masterclass teacher, Madeleine is also a teacher trainer and CelloKids instructor through Paul Katz’s CelloBello website  Her students have won many prizes in national and international competitions and have gone on to study at some of the country’s most prestigious music schools  including the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the New England Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University as well as in the music departments of Princeton, Yale, MIT and Harvard Universities. Her former students now perform in professional orchestras and as soloists, chamber musicians and, as teachers in many music schools, they are helping to train the next generation of young cellists. 

Rebekah Griffin Greene – Theory Department Co-Chair, Double-Bass

Dr. Rebekah Griffin Greene is an award-winning performer, educator, and composer. She received her DMA (Doctorate in Musical Arts) in double bass performance from SUNY Stony Brook in 2011, and also holds degrees in performance, composition, and music education from the University of Southern California. An active performer, Rebekah plays for Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, the Westchester Symphony (principal bass), and many other freelance jazz, orchestral, and chamber music ensembles. Rebekah’s compositions have been performed in the United States and abroad, as well as at Kinhaven Music School and on National Public Radio. Rebekah discovered a passion for teaching the joyous and rigorous hands-on approach to musicianship offered at the Walden School Young Musicians Program, where she has taught since 1999. In 2015, Rebekah received the Patricia Plude Chair for Excellence in Musicianship teaching award.

Jon Boudrot

B.S., Keene State College. Guitar studies with Reed Desrosiers, Jim Edmunds, Jimmy Ponder, and Tal Farlow. Director of Electric-Acoustic Ensemble and Aloha! Ukulele at JCC. Has 3 original compositions in the independent film “Calling It Quits”, released in 2010 by City Squirrel Films. Recipient, 2000 Fellowship Award, Music Composition, New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. Tours with The Cover Girls. Recordings with The Disciples of Truth, Loose Ends, Joe Montini, Bouncing Off Bob, Arlyn Gale Band. Musical Director for Salt & Pepper Mime in association with Arts Horizons and Hospital Audiences. Also teaches bass guitar, piano, mandolin, banjo & ukulele.

Seth Himmelhoch – Founder and Director, Suzuki Guitar Program

A prominent member of the Suzuki Guitar Community, Seth Himmelhoch serves as a chair of the Guitar Development Committee of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, is a Teacher Trainer of the Suzuki Guitar School, and has published articles on the Suzuki method in Guitar International Magazine. Mr. Himmelhoch has made solo appearances at the 92nd St. Y, Alice Tully Hall, Wagner College in Staten Island, and St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City, among others. He has performed as a member of the flute and guitar duo, Duo Cavatina, which was selected as a winner of the Artists International Auditions, leading to a debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Himmelhoch can be heard as a soloist in the recording, Seth Himmelhoch Guitar Recital, and on Duo Cavatina’s recording, Songs and Dances of the Americas. Mr. Himmelhoch earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, studied guitar with Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Jeffrey Meyeriecks, and participated in masterclasses with Manuel Barnueco and David Leisner. Mr. Himmelhoch is director of classical guitar studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ.

Stuart Klinger

Stuart Klinger attended Sarah Lawrence College and the Mannes College of Music and recently completed training in Book One of the Suzuki Guitar Method. His guitar teachers include Albert Valdes Blaine, Frederic Hand, Oscar Ghilia and Elliot Fisk. Stuart began teaching guitar in 1982 while at Mannes, teaching on the weekends at The Florentine School of Music and, since then, has taught and coached hundreds of young artists to not only master their instrument but also find their artistic voice. Some of Stuart’s students have gone on to professional careers.

Jonathan Trotta

B.F.A, Purchase College of Music. Classical guitar studies with Benjamin Verdery; Flamenco guitar studies with Dennis Koster, and Basilio Georges; master class performances with Manuel Barrueco, Sharon Isbin, and Christopher Parkening. Suzuki Pedagogy with Seth Himmelhoch, Andrea Cannon, MaryLou Roberts, and Frank Longay. Head of the guitar faculty at The Rockland Conservatory of Music and the Hudson River School of Music. A former faculty member of The Guitar Study Center at The New School for Social Research, The American Institute of Guitar, and Dwight-Englewood School. A current adjunct music faculty member of St. Thomas Aquinas College. Performances throughout the United States and extensively in the New York Metropolitan area as a soloist, as well as with the chamber music ensemble, “Musicora” and “Ida y Vuelta Flamenco Ensemble”. His EP, “Cuatro Baladas”, music by Ponce, Llobet, and Brouwer will be released on Spotify and Apple music early this year.

Barbara Allen

Harpist Barbara Allen has been the Principal Harpist of the American Ballet Theater since 1990 and is also the principal harp with the Greenwich Symphony. Barbara holds degrees from The Juilliard School and SUNY Purchase and also studied at the Paris American Academy’s summer program. Barbara is a two-time prize-winner at the International Solo Harp Competition in Israel and is former principal harpist of the San Francisco Symphony. In addition to teaching at Thurnuaer, Barbara is on the faculty of The Mannes College of Music at The New School, at Nyack College, the Master’s School, and the Hoff-Barthelson School of Music.

Samei Lim

Ms. Samei Lim has won numerous competitions including the Yook Young Competition, Chautauqua Youth Symphony Concerto Competition, Seoul Philharmonic Young Artists Competition, and Special Presentation Series of Artists International Competition at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Lim received her Bachelor and Master of Music degree from Juilliard School as a student of John Ferrillo and Elaine Douvas and also received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook as a student of Stephan Taylor. She has performed throughout the United States and South Korea as a soloist, with Chautauqua Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, and Korean Symphony. She gave numerous solo recitals and chamber music concerts, including those at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Concert Hall. She also performed with great maestros, including Kurt Masur, Andre Previn, and Sir Colin Davis as a principal oboist of Prometheus Chamber Orchestra and New York Youth Symphony. She was invited to play as a guest musician at the American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Camarata Virtuosi, and New York Chamber Music Society. Currently, Ms. Lim is teaching students privately at Samei Lim Oboe Studio and faculty at Simon’s Pond Music Festival and School. She has presented a monthly faculty concert series at Simon’s Pond Music Festival, and School.

Noelle Perrin – Head of Flute Program; Director, FluteStars® Summer Intensive

Noelle Perrin is head of the Suzuki Flute Program at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music and founder of the FluteStars® Summer Camp now in its 20th year of success. She has been guest flute clinician for the Cedros International Music Festival in Mexico City, Colorado Suzuki Institute, Boston Flute Institute, and McMaster University in Hamilton, ON Ms. Perrin was also the 2008 Flute Coordinator for the Suzuki Association of the Americas National Teachers Conference in Minneapolis, MN and was accepted into the Professional Flute Choir which performed during the National Flute Convention in New York City, August of 2009. Ms. Perrin has extensive formal teaching experience as well as Dalcroze, Suzuki, and Montessori training. Noelle is a certified Teacher Trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Her students perform widely and have won competitions across the country such as MTNA, NJMTA, Mid-Atlantic Music Teachers Guild and NYFC Young Musicians Competition. Noelle’s many flute choir arrangements have been performed globally. She holds a master’s degree in flute performance from Manhattan School of Music, diploma certificate from the Nice Conservatoire Summer Program, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Noelle made her New York City Solo Debut at Weill Recital Hall in 1994 sponsored by Artists International. She presently enjoys performing and teaching throughout the United States and abroad.

Wendy Stern

Wendy Stern has performed with many orchestras in the tri-state area, including the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Little Orchestra Society, and as a member of the Flute Force chamber ensemble. Ms. Stern received her masters in music from The Juilliard School of Music, where she studied with Julius Baker, Samuel Baron, Thomas Nyfenger, and Keith Underwood. She has had additional studies with Toshio Takahashi, Pandora Bryce, and Rebecca Paluzzi and has taken Suzuki Teacher-Training Institutes and led Suzuki Training Institutes since 1997.

Donald Mokrynski

Donald Mokrynski is a native of metropolitan New York and has played with many of the area’s finest ensembles. He was principal clarinetist with the national tour of “Phantom of the Opera” and with “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” starring Michael Crawford. Mr. Mokrynski has performed as soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic and has played with the New Jersey Symphony, Albany Symphony, the New Haven Symphony, Solisti New York, and Orchestra New England, as well as the Jersey Lyric, New Haven and Connecticut Grand Opera Companies. An avid chamber musician, he has performed with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and is a founding member of the Palisades Virtuosi. Graduating with honors from the Eastman School of Music and completing a master’s degree from the Juilliard School, Mr. Mokrynski has also attended the music festivals of Aspen, Waterloo and Heidelberg and has recorded for Albany, Koch International, Soundstream and Elektra records.

Zach Herchen

Based in New York City, saxophonist Zach Herchen performs contemporary, jazz, classical, and rock music. He has performed as a soloist in Italy, Sweden, Germany, and at various American institutions. Zach is a performing member of New Thread Quartet, Con Vivo Music, Rhymes With Opera, and Man Down. Zach has worked on staff at NEC’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice and was a 2013 Bang on a Can Summer Festival fellow. He has performed at various festivals including the SEAMUS National Conference, Third Practice Electroacoustic Festival, the 4th International Master-Class for Classical Saxophone, and the Look & Listen Festival. He is the artistic director of Con Vivo Music, a non-profit organization in Jersey City, NJ. Zach holds a MM and BM in Saxophone Performance (and BM in Recording Arts Engineering) from The Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he received the Richard Franko Goldman Prize for performance. He has studied with Gary Louie, Gary Thomas, Timothy McAllister, Arno Bornkamp, Vincent David, Jan Schulte-Bunert, and Ties Mellema.

Lisa Alexander

Ms. Alexander is a freelance bassoonist and chamber musician in the New York metropolitan area and currently holds positions with the, The Ridgefield Symphony, The Little Orchestra Society, and has performed with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, The American Symphony, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, The NY Choral Society and many others. Ms. Alexander is also Adjunct Professor of Bassoon at Hofstra University and also teaches at the JCC- Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly, NJ. She holds a Master of Musical Arts degree from Queens College, and Bachelor of Performance and Music Education degree from The Peabody Conservatory.

Andrea Herr

Andrea Herr has enjoyed a varied career as a bassoonist and contrabassoonist. Her orchestral engagements include the Little Orchestra Society, American Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony and New York City Opera. On Broadway, she has played in the orchestras for the New York productions of Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast, Fiddler on the Roof, Nine, Into the Woods, and West Side Story among others. She has recorded for PBS, Radio Espana, Pantheon Records as well as TV/Radio jingles for Disney, Visa, Highmark and Pepsi-Cola. Andrea held Principal Bassoon positions in Spain with the Orquesta Sinfonica Galicia and Opera Teatro Galicia. Noted performances include the American Premiere of Prima Donna by Rufus Wainwright with New York City Opera, the New York Premiere of Disney’s Fantasia Live in Concert and Premieres of new chamber music works by Lalo Schifrin, Joan Tower and Keith Jarrett with the Dakota Wind Quintet. An Adjunct Professor at Kean University and New Jersey City University, Andrea has also taught and given masterclasses at Drew University, the Tainan Cultural Center in Taiwan, Juilliard Pre-College and the New Jersey Youth Symphony.

Olivia Pidi

Trumpet player Olivia Pidi earned a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin Conservatory, a Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music (expected 2019), and a diploma from the Juilliard PreCollege Division. She has performed with the Montclair Orchestra, Tanglewood Institute Young Artists’ Orchestra, and other ensembles.

Michael Reingold

Michael Reingold has played a vital role in the administration and development of Thurnauer since 1993. In addition to his role as Associate Director, Michael teaches musicianship, French horn, and music appreciation and was the recipient of the JCC’s 2010 Staff Recognition award. Michael has a Masters in Music from SUNY Stony Brook, a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, and was a visiting student at Indiana University School of Music. He studied horn with Betty Levine, Forrest Standley, and William Purvis. Michael is also active as a producer, performer, and consultant. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of NYC House Concerts, which has presented more than 500 intimate concerts in New York and New Jersey since 2005, featuring New York’s leading ensembles and recitalists. Michael has performed with orchestras in the US, England, Israel, and Asia and is a long-time member of the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra. He was on the staff of the Kinhaven Music School for 17 summers and is a former member of its Board. He has been an advisor to several chamber music series in Manhattan, including Musicians from Marlboro, Fabbri Chamber Concerts, and Music Mondays.

Gilles Bernard

Gilles Bernard is Assistant Professor of Music at New Jersey City University (NJCU) in Jersey City, N.J., and faculty at Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division. In addition, he holds the position of principal trombone with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra and was second trombone with the Lancaster Festival Orchestra (OH) for 18 consecutive summers. An active freelance artist in the New York metropolitan area, current and past performances include among others: the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the Connecticut Opera; Radio City Christmas Spectacular; the revival of The King and I; the Metropolitan Opera off-stage bands, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic; the Albany Symphony Orchestra; the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra; the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic; and the Orchestre National de France, under Lorin Maazel; Pierre Boulez, Vaclav Neumann, and George Pretre. Solo recitals have included the Faculty Concert Series of Manhattan School of Music Pre-college Division, and theMusic@One Concert Series and Women Composers Showcase at NJCU. He has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon with the Orchestre National de France under Seiji Ozawa, the League of Composers/ISCM, and with The Choir of Saint Thomas Church in New York City. BM and MM, The Juilliard School; DMA, Manhattan School of Music.

Jeffrey Kraus

Jeffrey Kraus has been an active musician since his teenage years. He has performed for an eclectic array of artists including Lucas Foss, John Cage, Milton Babbitt, Tony Bennett, Max Roach and Aretha Franklin. Mr. Kraus worked with Frank Zappa for a tribute to Edgard Varese, performing and assembling the percussionists for a performance of “Ionization” and other works. Perhaps his most rewarding musical tenure was a twenty-year relationship with Dave Brubeck as timpanist, drummer-percussionist and contractor. Recording credits include an award-winning recording of Virgil Thompson’s “Four Saints in Three Acts” with the Orchestra of Our Time. Mr. Kraus holds a M.M. from Manhattan School of Music and studied with Jim Preiss, Paul Price, Fred Hinger, Frank Malabe and Charles Perry. He is on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music Pre-College, the United Nations School and the Thurnauer School of Music.

Chris Nappi

Chris Nappi has performed and/or recorded with Steve Reich and Musicians, the SEM Ensemble, Newband, the North Carolina Symphony, and Ben E. King. As a composer he has created music for the dance, theater, and multimedia installations and has recorded for the Asphodel, BIS, Dog w/a Bone, Ear-Rational, EMI, Mode, New Tone, New World Records, René Block Editions, Tzadìk, and Wergo labels. As Music Director for the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, he has conducted at major dance venues in the U.S., including the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina. He serves on the percussion faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Precollege and the Ostrava Center for New Music, Czech Republic, where, since 2001, he has been guest soloist playing European as well as world premieres of percussion solo and chamber music by such composers as John Cage, Morton Feldman, Alvin Lucier, and Christian Wolff. Manhattan School of Music Precollege faculty since 1999.

Emma Brondolo – Chair, Voice Department

Emma Brondolo is the artistic director of the Young People’s Chorus at Thurnauer, director of the early childhood music program, and a voice teacher at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music, as well as a satellite conductor with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. Ms. Brondolo has participated with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City for the past 20 years, where she studied with artistic director and founder Francisco Núñez. As a member of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, Ms. Brondolo traveled and competed in multiple choral competitions and festivals throughout the world. Ms. Brondolo received her bachelor’s degree in music education (vocal emphasis) from the Hartt School of Music, The University of Hartford, where she studied with the late Fritz Moses. After completing her degree, Ms. Brondolo taught music at Sage Park Middle School and Intensive Education Academy, a school for students with special needs. In the summers, Ms. Brondolo has worked as a music teacher at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City. Ms. Brondolo graduated from St. John’s University with a dual master’s degree in special education and general education. She is completing her four-year Kodály certification at Westminster Choir College.

Nadja Brown Ramsay

Soprano Nadja Brown Ramsay is an active performer and educator. An experienced teacher, she has been Director of Music and Theater Arts at The French American Academy campuses of New Milford and Jersey City where she has also taught voice and beginning piano since the fall of 2010. She was an adjunct member of the voice faculty of Ithaca College for seven years, teaching students who have since performed at Carnegie Hall, on Broadway, and in Europe. As a performer, Ms. Ramsay has performed in opera, with orchestra, and in chamber music recitals. She has performed operas in New York City with the Amato Opera and the Regina Opera, and with the Ithaca Opera, State Repertory Opera of New Jersey, and the Light Opera Works of Evanston, Illinois. She performed as soloist with the National Chorale in Lincoln Center, the Syracuse Symphony, the Waukegan Symphony, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and Music of the Baroque, and, as a member of the New York Choral Artists, with conductors Marin Alsop, Dino Anagnost, and with Kurt Masur and Zubin Mehta in the ensemble’s collaboration with the New York Philharmonic. Ms. Ramsay holds two degrees in vocal performance: a Masters of Music from Northwestern University and a Bachelors in Music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She was a finalist in the Opera Company of Philadelphia/Luciano Pavarotti International Opera Competition and a winner in the Metropolitan Opera Southeastern Regional Auditions.

Michael Phillips

Bass Michael Phillips is conductor of Thurnauer’s Amani Choir, a member of the Voice faculty, and Vocal Music teacher at the Englewood on the Palisades Charter School. He is a graduate of Westminster Choir College and holds a BA degree in Music Education. Michale has performed around the country and the world, including the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, and in venues throughout Beijing, China. As a singer with the contemporary choral ensemble, Cantori New York, conducted by Mark Shapiro, Michael’s recent performances have included multiple world-premiere works and a solo in the New York premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Hombre Errante. In April 2023, Michael performed Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles with the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Choir conducted by Joe Miller.

Michael Cochrane – Piano

Michael Cochrane, pianist, composer, arranger, and instructor has performed and/or recorded with many well-known jazz artists, including Sonny Fortune, Eddie Gomez, Tom Harrell, Valery Ponomorev, John Clark, Clark Terry, Michael Brecker, Chico Freeman, The Spirit of Life Ensemble, Oliver Lake, Bradford Hayes and many more. Mr. Cochrane has performed in clubs,colleges, and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, & The Philippines. Mr. Cochrane was a part-time instructor at NYU for over twenty years and, in addition to teaching at Thurnauer, currently teaches at the Bloomingdale School of Music, Yamaha Conservatory and privately. Mr. Cochrane was formerly the musical director of the Paterson Avenue Methodist Church. Mr. Cochrane has over ten recordings as a leader. Mr. Cochrane is the author/composer of a solo piano book and combo arrangements and a book of original compositions published by SteepleChase. He has also written two instructional music books and has written an instructional jazz piano exercise book published by his own publishing company, Inner Search Music. Mr. Cochrane endorses Superscope Technologies recorders and software. In 1985, Mr. Cochrane received a Master of Arts Degree with honors from New York University. www.michaelcochrane.com.

Emma Brondolo, Department Chair

Emma Brondolo is the artistic director of the Young People’s Chorus at Thurnauer, director of the early childhood music program, and a voice teacher at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music, as well as a satellite conductor with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. Ms. Brondolo has participated with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City for the past 20 years, where she studied with artistic director and founder Francisco Núñez. As a member of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, Ms. Brondolo traveled and competed in multiple choral competitions and festivals throughout the world. Ms. Brondolo received her bachelor’s degree in music education (vocal emphasis) from the Hartt School of Music, The University of Hartford, where she studied with the late Fritz Moses. After completing her degree, Ms. Brondolo taught music at Sage Park Middle School and Intensive Education Academy, a school for students with special needs. In the summers, Ms. Brondolo has worked as a music teacher at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City. Ms. Brondolo graduated from St. John’s University with a dual master’s degree in special education and general education. She is completing her four-year Kodály certification at Westminster Choir College.

Anna Faynberg

Anna Faynberg has a B.A. in Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, a Masters in Music Education from Hunter College, and has Dalcroze teaching training from the Kaufman Music Center. She has taught private and ensemble violin students, from preschool to late teens, at the Lucy Moses School and the Special Music School in New York, for 12 years, and also has experience teaching music theory and ear training. Ms. Faynberg has also taught at the Garden State Academy of Music, Long Island Conservatory, and Queens Music School.

Jiyoung Kim, Instrument Exploration/Piano

Jiyoung Kim is a composer of musicals and a piano instructor and accompanist at Thurnauer School of Music. Her work Grandma Kim vs. America was produced at the HERE Theatre Off-Broadway in Manhattan and performed at 54 Below. She had a twenty-nine-hour Equity reading of her full-length musical, My Island at NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program’s Black Box Theatre. Songs from My Island were performed at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT. She composed music for the Choreographers’, Composers’ and Designers’ Workshop, a collaborative performance project of NYU Tisch Dance School culminating in the What It Is Showcase. She received a Master in Music Education at Kyung-Hee University and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing at NYU Tisch.

Sharon Kinstlinger

Having previously taught music for 15 years in the JCC’s Early Childhood Program and the Thurnauer School of Music, Ms. Kinstlinger is happily re-joining both faculties as a music teacher for children from toddler age through Kindergarten as of the fall of 2016. Ms. Kinstlinger received her Bachelors in Music from Oberlin Conservatory with majors in Music Education and Music Therapy and has taught music in many Jewish schools in the Bergen County area, including Lubavitch on the Palisades in Tenafly and the Moriah School in Englewood. Her teaching background has been enriched by studies in Dalcroze Eurythmics with Robert Abramson at the Juilliard School and Columbia University, as well as with master Dalcroze teacher, Joy Yelin. More recently, she has studied and received certification as an instructor of John Feierabend’s “First Steps in Music Curriculum,” both for “Infants and Toddlers” and “Pre-school and Beyond.” In addition, she is currently studying John Feierabend’s “Conversational Solfege” curriculum for elementary and middle school students.

Emma Brondolo – Artistic Director, Young People’s Chorus @ Thurnauer

Emma Brondolo is the artistic director of the Young People’s Chorus at Thurnauer, director of the early childhood music program, and a voice teacher at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music, as well as a satellite conductor with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. Ms. Brondolo has participated with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City for the past 20 years, where she studied with artistic director and founder Francisco Núñez. As a member of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, Ms. Brondolo traveled and competed in multiple choral competitions and festivals throughout the world. Ms. Brondolo received her bachelor’s degree in music education (vocal emphasis) from the Hartt School of Music, The University of Hartford, where she studied with the late Fritz Moses. After completing her degree, Ms. Brondolo taught music at Sage Park Middle School and Intensive Education Academy, a school for students with special needs. In the summers, Ms. Brondolo has worked as a music teacher at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City. Ms. Brondolo graduated from St. John’s University with a dual master’s degree in special education and general education. She is completing her four-year Kodály certification at Westminster Choir College.

Marsha Bryan Edelman – Conductor, SHIRAH Community Chorus on the Palisades

Dr. Marsha Bryan Edelman, Conductor of SHIRAH, has earned degrees in general music, Jewish music, and Jewish studies from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary, and has taught Jewish music to students of all ages for more than fifty years. She has been affiliated with the Zamir Choral Foundation in various capacities since 1971, and currently serves as the Foundation’s Director of Education, as well as Administrator. Dr. Edelman has been named Professor Emerita of Music and Education by Gratz College, where she served on the faculty for twenty-five years, and she currently is an adjunct faculty member at the Jewish Theological Seminary’s H.L. Miller Cantorial School. She is also a sought-after speaker on a wide range of topics relating to the nature and history of Jewish music and has been acclaimed for both the breadth of her knowledge and for the popular appeal of her presentations to audiences across the United States and in Israel. Beyond her teaching and administrative work, Dr. Edelman has had an active career as a musician. She has produced and arranged the vocal and instrumental scores for several recordings, as well as a number of selections for HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir and other choral ensembles; her arrangement of Josh Nelson’s “L’Dor VaDor” is available through Transcontinental Music Publications. Dr. Edelman is the author of numerous articles on Jewish music for a wide range of national and international publications, as well as program notes for concerts and recorded performances of Jewish music. Her book, Discovering Jewish Music, was published by the Jewish Publication Society in June 2003.

Diego Garcia – Music Director, Thurnauer Symphony Orchestra

Now in his second season as Conductor and Resident Composer at the Dwight-Englewood School, Diego A. Garcia’s previous appointments include Music Director of the Eastman Youth Chamber Soloists, Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra, and New Horizons Orchestra. He quickly established these ensembles’ prestigious reputations for virtuosic playing, artistic excellence, and exciting and engaging performances. Hailing from Cali, Colombia, Mr. Garcia began his musical career at the age of five, studying piano, cello performance, and later conducting, at the Antonio Maria Valencia Conservatory in Cali. At age fifteen, he won a cello position with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Valle, becoming the youngest member of one of Colombia’s premier orchestras. During this time, he was the conducting assistant to his teacher, Alexander Korjenko, who routinely conducted the String Chamber Orchestra at the conservatory. In 1993 Mr. Garcia moved to the United States to study cello performance with Alan Stepansky at the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Garcia received a conducting fellowship to the Conductor’s Institute at Bard College, where his mentors included Harold Farberman, Leon Bolstein, Marin Alsop, and Raymond Harvey. Diego has guest conducted the Hampton Roads Chamber Players Parnu Symphony Orchestra in Estonia and Flanders Music Festival Orchestra in Belgium. The 2014-2015 season marks his first year as Orchestra Director of the Thurnauer School of Music Symphony Orchestra. Diego is also Co-Director of the music festival, String Society, at the Dwight-Englewood School. Please visit www.diegospulse.com for more information.

Steve Johns – Director, TeenTown Jazz Big Band

Drummer Steve Johns is from Boston, Mass. and attended the New England Conservatory of Music. A long-time resident of Englewood, he has toured and recorded with The Sonny Fortune Quartet, The Gil Evans Orchestra, Count Basie Orchestra, and Duke Ellington Orchestra, as well as with Nat Adderley, Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer, Ronnie Cuber, Jessye Norman, Larry Coryell, Benny Golson, and many others. Steve has recorded 75 National Public Radio shows with The Billy Taylor Trio, with guests including Nancy Wilson, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Harry Sweets Edison, and Milt Jackson. He is on the teaching staff at Montclair State University’s Jazz House Kids, in Montclair; the Litchfield Jazz Camp (CT.), NJPAC’s Jazz for Teens in Newark, and Jazz in July, in Amherst, MA.

Michael Phillips – Conductor, Amani Choir Bass

Michael Phillips is conductor of Thurnauer’s Amani Choir, a member of the Voice faculty, and Vocal Music teacher at the Englewood on the Palisades Charter School. He is a graduate of Westminster Choir College and holds a BA degree in Music Education. Michale has performed around the country and the world, including the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, and in venues throughout Beijing, China. As a singer with the contemporary choral ensemble, Cantori New York, conducted by Mark Shapiro, Michael’s recent performances have included multiple world-premiere works and a solo in the New York premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Hombre Errante. In April 2023, Michael performed Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles with the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Choir conducted by Joe Miller.

Francesca Martin Silos

Violist Francesca Martin Silos, a former member of the award-winning Colorado Quartet from 1982 to 2000, has performed extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In 1983, within 10 days, the quartet won both the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award and First Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Ms. Martin Silos has also appeared at numerous music festivals including the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival, SoundFest Summer Quartet Festival, Round Top Festival Institute, and Orford Music Festival in Canada. She has recorded works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and several contemporary composers on CDs from Nonesuch, Delos, Fidelio, and Parnassus Records. Originally from Los Angeles, she has been a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as well as the principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute.Her teachers include Louis Kievman, Alan DeVeritch, Heichiro Ohyama and masterclasses with William Primrose. She has been the featured writer of a pedagogy article in the Journal of the American Viola Society. Ms Silos resides in Bergen County where she is principal violist of the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra and Bergen Sinfonia. She often performs as a guest artist with a variety of ensembles.

Sharon Roffman, Artistic Director

Sharon Roffman, prizewinner in the 2003 Naumburg Foundation International Competition, has forged a unique career distinguished by her versatility as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader and music educator. Ms. Roffman has performed all over the world as guest leader of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony and Orchestre d’Auvergne, principal 2nd of Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, as well as a guest member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Roffman was a member of Orchestre National de France from 2009-2011. As a chamber musician, Ms. Roffman has collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Brentano, and Shanghai quartets, among others, and spent several summers performing at the Marlboro Music Festival. Passionate about combining performance and education, Ms. Roffman is the founder and artistic director of ClassNotes, a chamber music ensemble and non-profit organization dedicated to introducing public school students to classical music through interdisciplinary school residencies and performances. In 2015, Ms. Roffman premiered a concerto by Bruce Adolphe (I Will Not Remain Silent) with the IRIS Orchestra and Michael Stern conducting and created an online interdisciplinary curriculum and outreach initiative to accompany the concerto. Ms. Roffman is the Principal Curriculum Developer for the Australian Chamber Orchestra and regularly teaches in elementary schools across Australia both live and via video conferencing. Ms. Roffman is a graduate of the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music; her former teachers include Itzhak Perlman, Donald Weilerstein, Peter Winograd, Robert Lipsett, Patinka Kopec and Nicole DiCecco. www.sharonroffman.com

Joe Ravo

A multi-faceted guitarist and composer, Joe Ravo has performed with jazz greats Dave Brubeck, Stanley Turrentine, and Gerry Mulligan and recorded alongside Liza Minelli, Randy Brecker, Anne Hampton Callaway, Michael Feinstein, and Tom Harrell. For many years, he worked in the orchestras of hit Broadway shows including A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, Secret Garden, City of Angels, and Dancin’. Recently he recorded with the Johnny Rodgers Band (Box of Photographs, PS Classics, Richard Barrone, producer), Lee Lessack (In Good Company, LML Music), and Brain Lane Green (Waiting for the Glaciers to Melt, LML Music). He also appears on the PS Classics releases Maury Yeston Songbook and Jule Styne in Hollywood. Mr. Ravo has taught guitar privately at New York University and Columbia University and is currently on the faculties of the Preparatory and Extension Divisions of Mannes College of Music at The New School. In addition to lending his artistry to commercial jingles and film scores, Joe performs regularly with the Johnny Rodgers Band, which is in production for a forthcoming album, and with Danny Mallon in their ensemble Mariner’s Gate.

Anastasia Baker

Anastasia Baker is a vocalist, clarinetist and creative musicianship instructor. She is currently attending Montclair State University to receive her bachelor’s degree in music education. Through her program she has performed with vocal jazz group Vocamotion, the Symphonic Band, and the Montclair State University Singers who frequently collaborate and perform with a capella group Voces8. Anastasia has a background in musical theater, having performed in productions of The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast, and Hairspray among other shows. She has been a part of the staff at the Walden School Young Musicians Program since 2021, and recently had the pleasure of working at the Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat as a staff member in 2022.

Dr. Rebekah Griffin Greene, Double-Bass

Dr. Rebekah Griffin Greene is an award-winning performer, educator, and composer. She received her DMA (Doctorate in Musical Arts) in double bass performance from SUNY Stony Brook in 2011, and holds degrees in performance, composition, and music education from the University of Southern California. An active performer, Rebekah plays for Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, and also subbed in Oklahoma. She was principal bassist for the Westchester Symphony, and has played for many other freelance jazz, orchestral and chamber music ensembles since moving to New York in 2000. Rebekah’s compositions have been performed in the United States and abroad, as well as at Kinhaven Music School and on National Public Radio. She is currently an orchestrator for the film scores of Christopher Wong and has written and recorded her own music for bass and voice. Rebekah discovered a new passion teaching the joyous and rigorous hands-on approach to musicianship offered at the Walden School Young Musicians Program, where she has taught or performed for 11 summers since 1999. In 2015, Rebekah received the Patricia Plude Chair for Excellence in Musicianship teaching award. A believer in the efficacy and fun of the Walden approach, she is proud to have authored and adapted the Walden School curriculum for specific use at the Thurnauer School and hopes that students will enjoy learning theory at Thurnauer for decades to come.

Jiyoung Kim, Theory, Instrument Exploration/Piano

Jiyoung Kim is a composer of musicals and a piano instructor and accompanist at Thurnauer School of Music. Her work Grandma Kim vs. America was produced at the HERE Theatre Off-Broadway in Manhattan and performed at 54 Below. She had a twenty-nine hour Equity reading of her full-length musical, My Island at NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program’s Black Box Theatre. Songs from My Island were performed at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT. She composed music for the Choreographers’, Composers’ and Designers’ Workshop, a collaborative performance project of NYU Tisch Dance School culminating in the What It Is Showcase. She received a Master in Music Education at Kyung-Hee University and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing at NYU Tisch.

Emi Ostrom, Chair, Creative Musicianship and Composition

Emi Ostrom is an oboist, singer, composer and educator. Passionate about working with young artists, Emi has held a multi-year teaching fellowship at Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program, tutored music theory for Juilliard Extension, and currently serves as faculty at the Walden School where she teaches musicianship and composition, performs new works alongside members of International Contemporary Ensemble and Walden School Players and conducts a choir. Emi’s own compositions have been premiered by ensembles such as Juilliard Double Vision, Warp Trio, and Hub New Music. As a performer, Emi plays modern and historical oboes and recorders with orchestras around the world. Her 2022-23 season included appearances with Les Arts Florissants, Juilliard415, Garden State Philharmonic, American Classical Orchestra, Kollective366, Upper Valley Baroque, La Rosa Barocca, Harvard Baroque, Holy Trinity Bach Vespers and Yale Camerata among others. She was also a winner of the 2022 English Concert in America fellowship prize. As a mezzo-soprano she sings with several professional choirs including the Compostela Choir at St. James Church and the Lux Choir at Princeton University. Emi holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, University of York, and Juilliard. 

Michael Reingold

Michael Reingold has played a vital role in the administration and development of Thurnauer for more than 26 years. In addition to his role as Associate Director, Michael teaches musicianship, French horn, and music appreciation and was the recipient of the JCC’s 2010 Staff Recognition award. Michael has a Masters in Music from SUNY Stony Brook, a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, and was a visiting student at Indiana University School of Music. He studied horn with Betty Levine, Forrest Standley, and William Purvis. Michael is also active as a producer, performer, and consultant. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of NYC House Concerts, which has presented close to 500 intimate concerts in New York and New Jersey since 2005, featuring New York’s leading ensembles and recitalists. Michael has performed with orchestras in the US, England, Israel, and Asia and is a long-time member of the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra. He was on the staff of the Kinhaven Music School for 17 summers and is a former member of its Board. He has been an advisor to several chamber music series in Manhattan, including Musicians from Marlboro, Fabbri Chamber Concerts, and Music Mondays.

Jan Deats

Jan Deats has earned a B.M and M.M. from Southern Methodist University. She pursued her studies at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She is also the Head of Sacred Music Dept. at the Union Theological Seminary (Philippines). Ms. Deats has also accompanied cellist Alvin McCall and has performed at the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow and in Europe, Southeast Asia and the US. Faculty, Rockland Conservatory of Music, Elisabeth Morrow School, Summertrios, and Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division.

Duk-kyu Kim

Pianist Duk-kyu Kim has performed in Korea, Germany, Italy, England, Ireland, and the United States as recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and as a chamber musician. Mr. Kim graduated from the Ye-won School, Seoul Arts High School in South Korea, received a Bachelor of Music Degree and a Postgraduate Diploma in piano performance from London’s Royal Academy of Music where he was a Royal Family Scholar, and received Professional Studies Diploma and Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Kim is on the piano staff at Manhattan School of Music.

Jiyoung Kim

Jiyoung Kim is a composer of musicals and a piano instructor and accompanist at Thurnauer School of Music. Her work, Grandma Kim vs. America, was produced at the HERE Theatre Off-Broadway in Manhattan and performed at 54 Below. She had a twenty-nine-hour Equity reading of her full-length musical, My Island, at NYU Tisch’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program’s Black Box Theatre. Songs from My Island were performed at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT. She composed music for the Choreographers’, Composers’ and Designers’ Workshop, a collaborative performance project of NYU Tisch Dance School culminating in the What It Is Showcase. She received a Master’s in Music Education at Kyung-Hee University and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing at NYU Tisch.

Hyanghyun Lee

Pianist Hyanghyun Lee has a wide range of experiences including piano solo, art songs, chamber music, opera and musical theater. She has performed across the world, including St. Petersburg in Russia, Seoul in South Korea, and New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles in the United States. Ms. Lee’s accolades include winner of the Estonia Academy of Music and Theatre-Music Competition, winner of the International Joseph Haydn Competition, finalist of the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra Piano Concerto Competition, and art song duo semi-finalist of the International Vocal Competition in the Netherlands. As a collaborative pianist, she also participated in the Songfest Festival in Los Angeles and in the Toronto Summer Music Festival. Ms. Lee earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, South Korea and her Master of Music degree at the University of Cincinnati. She completed the post graduate collaborative piano fellowship at Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, New York. She has been working as an accompanist at Thurnauer School of Music since 2019.

Sung Ho Yang

Dr. Sung Ho Yang is an active concert pianist who has a deep passion for teaching young artists. He has appeared in concert halls around the world, including solo recitals in Barcelona, Boston, Madison, Palm Springs, California; Italy; and Seoul, South Korea. In 2018, he made his New Jersey debut in the JCC’s Eric Brown Theater. Dr. Yang currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at New Jersey City University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Piano Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music studying with Wha Kyung Byun. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance (minoring in Music Theory) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, advised by Christopher Taylor. Dr. Yang is a strong advocate of twentieth-century music. During his training, he performed works of contemporary composers including Stockhausen, Messiaen, Boulez, Rzewski, and Kevin Puts.