Festival Bios

ANNIE BARLEY
New York City, NY

Annie began playing the cello at the age of two. She attended the Eastman School of Music and the University of South Florida, earning both bachelors and masters degrees. A versatile musician, Annie is in high demand as a Suzuki cello clinician, she has frequently been invited to teach all over the world and has been directly involved in the creation of three separate Suzuki Education programs.

Annie spent the past year teaching general music as well as Suzuki cello and piano in Tanzania, East Africa and is looking forward to her new position as the music teacher and director of gospel choirs at St. Aloysius School in Harlem, New York City.
www.anniebarley.com as well as www.tarabcello.com.
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Dr. STANLEY CHEPAITIS
Indiana, PA

Stanley Chepaitis holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree as well as the coveted Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. He has studied violin with John Celentano, Renato Bonacini, Carroll Glenn, and Raphael Bronstien. He has studied jazz composition and improvisation with John Blake, Bill Dobbins and Rayburn Wright. He is currently on the string faculty of Indiana University of PA.

He performs on a regular basis with “Blues On First” a jazz string quartet, as well as with the lentano Quartet and the Gorell Trio. His recent performances include recitals at the Eastman School’s Kilbourne Hall and at the Academy of Music in Zagreb, Croatia. He has recently performed concerti with orchestra by Prokofiev, Dvorak, Beethoven, Bach, Saint-Saens, as well as his own Stellar Serenade for Solo Violin with String Orchestra and  Harp and his Concerto for Two Jazz Violins which was premiered with John Blake as the other soloist.

Dr. Chepaitis has recorded three CDs of original works. His compositions include Child’s Play for String Quartet which won second prize in MTNA’s national Distinguished Composer Competition, Chaos For Two, for two violinists, Paganini in the Vernacular, for violin and piano, The Four Seasons, for violin and orchestra.

He has created an innovative, holistic approach for teaching improvisation to string players of all ages.  His recent clinics have taken him to Hannover, Germany, Michigan State University, Washington State University, Baldwin Wallace College in Cleveland, University of Ohio, University of Oregon, University of New Mexico, the Pittsburgh Music Academy, and the Buffalo Suzuki Strings. He was a master clinician for the American String Teacher’s Association’s first Alternative Styles Conference, and has since presented at ASTA conferences in Reno, Nevada, Kansas City, and Detroit.
stanleychep.com
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MICHELE HIGA GEORGE
West Hartford, CT  

Michele Higa George is a violinist and educator.  She serves the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA) as a teacher trainer, and has been a member of the SAA board and teacher development committee.  She is executive producer of the award-winning documentary Nurtured By Love – the life and work of Shinichi Suzuki.

Ms. George was appointed to the faculty of The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), in 1986 where she designed and implemented the Master of Music degree program in violin performance and Suzuki pedagogy.  She served as Director of Suzuki Studies at CIM
for sixteen years.

Recently, Michele has devoted her energies to furthering the Suzuki method in an inner city public school in East Cleveland, Ohio.  She is founder and co-director of Rainbow Suzuki Strings, whose members were invited to perform at the Suzuki Association Conference opening ceremonies in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Her most recent pursuit is the development of two Suzuki programs in Africa. The Suzuki program in Tanzania, East Africa, was begun in 2001 and employs four teachers, offering violin, cello, and guitar to over fifty families. In 2005, Ms. George spent a month in Zimbabwe training two teachers and prospective new Suzuki families at the International School of Harare, where there are currently forty families participating in Suzuki education.

This past summer, Ms. George moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, with husband, Mark, and daughter, Emiko.  She is currently the outreach coordinator of The Hartt School Suzuki program.
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Dr. DORIS HARREL
Austin, TX 

Doris Leland Harrel earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Piano from the Juilliard School of Music and the DMA Degree in Piano from the University of Texas at Austin. She has taught at several Universities in Texas. Dr. Harrel chaired the Piano Division of the 1994 SAA Conference and has been a frequent presenter at other SAA Conferences. She conducted Teacher Training and master classes at the Pan Pacific Conference in Australia in 1997. Doris is an active Teacher Trainer, having conducted training classes and master classes in 23 states, Canada, Chile, and Peru.
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GINNY LATTS
Belmont, MA

Ginny R. Latts is a well known, experienced teacher of both children and adults and a Certified, Licensed Dalcroze Eurhythmics Instructor. She trains teachers and has been teaching Eurhythmics, piano and composition for more than 20 years in both private and public schools. She has been on the faculty of The New England Conservatory of Music, The Longy School of Music, The University of Massachusetts and The Tanglewood Institute. She has given workshops nationally and maintains a private teaching studio in Belmont, MA.
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DAVID MADSEN
Connecticut

David founded what is now the Hartt Suzuki Guitar Program in '90, and it presently includes 70 students and 2 faculty members.  He is the Chair of the Guitar and Harp Dept. of the Community Division at the Hartt School of Music.  David graduated with a BM in Performance from the Univ. of CT  studying with David McLellan and Ed Flower. He has since studied with David Leisner and Pepe Romero.  His Suzuki studies have been with Bill Kossler and Frank Longay.

A registered Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas beginning in 2000, David has conducted training courses throughout North America and in Peru and Argentina. Mr. Madsen currently serves on the board of directors for the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and is also a member of the SAA Guitar Committee. Beginning in the Fall of ’08, David will be teaching the Suzuki Pedagogy courses for the first long term training program in the country for Suzuki guitar at the University of Hartford.
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LAURA NERENBERG
Ottawa, Canada

A native of Montreal, violinist Laura Nerenberg began her violin studies at the age of 3. She obtained a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Ottawa (Canada) and a Master of Music degree from the Hartt School in Connecticut. Her principal teachers were John Gomez, Mitchell Stern and Katie Lansdale. Laura completed her Suzuki. Pedagogy courses with Teri Einfeldt at the Hartt School

Now based in Ottawa, Laura is active in the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau (Quebec) as a freelance musician. In 2000, Laura became the Assistant Concertmaster of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and has been since 2006 that group's Principal Second Violin. Since 2003, Laura has been delving into the world of Early Music period performance. Along with three colleagues, Laura formed theOttawa Baroque Consort. The Consort gave an impre sive debut performance to
an enthusiastic audience in November, 2005. The Consort's program is up on its website: ottawabaroque.ca

Laura performs with other chamber ensembles in the Ottawa/Gatineau area, notable the Mumuki duo (violin and guitar) and the Prism Ensemble. Laura is also active on the Ottawa jazz scene, and has been a frequent contributor to monthly jam sessions in Ottawa. She has been featured in the Jam Session host band on three occasions. She is the sole violinist in a new, groundbreaking ensemble: "Impressions in Jazz Orchestra." Their concert of large-scale jazz masterpieces was enthusiastically received by a sold-out crowd at the 2006 Ottawa international Jazz Festival.

In addition to her performing projects, Laura teaches Suzuki violin and maintains a studio of about 30 students. She aims to help each student discover his or her own voice through music by incorporating improvisation into the structure of the Suzuki Method. She passionately believes that "Every Child Can Learn." Laura spends her summers teaching at Suzuki institutes in Montreal,
New Hampshire and Alberta.
lauranerenberg.com
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BARBARA SCHNEIDERMAN 
Del Mar, CA 

Barbara Schneiderman is a pianist who has taught, lectured and performed throughout North America. She is author of the book Confident Music Performance: The Art of Preparing. Having studied with Walter Piston, Sidney Foster, Horazio Frugoni and Aube Tzerko, she has degrees from Harvard University, the Royal Academy and University of California-San Diego.  Barbara is an SAA Teacher Trainer and has presented at national and international conferences, both Suzuki and traditional, served on the SAA Piano Committee and is piano columnist for the American Suzuki Journal.
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KELLY WILLIAMSON
London, Ontario

Kelly holds a Bachelor’s degree in performance with Distinction from McGill University, and a Master’s degree in performance from l’Université de Montreal. Her past teachers include Timothy Hutchins and Denis Bluteau, currently principal flute and associate principal of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. She played in master classes many times for Geoffrey Gilbert and Peter Lloyd, as well as for Robert Aitken and Michel Debost, and other eminent flutists and musicians.

Following her graduation from McGill, Kelly was the recipient of an Arts Study Grant from the government of Alberta, and was the winner of the East York Symphony's Young Artists' competition.  Her freelance work has included several solo performances with orchestra, pit orchestra work for various stage productions, and participation on several CDs, including opera, chamber music, and a Greek version of the Oscar Wilde children's story "The Selfish Giant". She was until recently a member of Trio Ambiance, which plays regularly in the Montreal area, and was a frequent clinician in local schools as well as an occasional adjudicator at music festivals.  She relocated to London, ON in June 2006.

Kelly Williamson teaches using the Suzuki approach, and was appointed a Registered Suzuki Teacher Trainer in flute in May 2006. She has regularly contributed to the Suzuki community both at the local and international levels.  In May 2004, she was the assistant flute coordinator at the SAA conference in Minnesota, as well as a demonstration teacher, and gave a presentation entitled Learning Together, which discussed creating more opportunities for students of different Suzuki instruments to work together.

She was the flute area coordinator for the 2006 SAA conference, and co-presented two sessions on supplementary repertoire. She has been invited to teach at Suzuki workshops and institutes in Canada, the US, Peru, Argentina, and Tanzania, and is currently flute columnist for the American Suzuki Journal.  Kelly was also president of the teachers' group Suzuki Musique Montreal for a number of years.  She is now flute representative for the Suzuki Association of Ontario.