July 6-13
July 13-20 and
July 20-27,
2008
at Lyndonville, Vermont 05851



 

Take a Musical Vacation
20 08

The Staff

 

 We send our very best wishes to Anita Gordon, who has resigned her position as VMAC's premier staff pianist.

Welcome!

Pianists for 2008

More complete biographies are available here.

Each of the three pianists for the coming season comes to us recommended by other members of the coaching staff. For additional information, check out their more colorful biographies.

Elizabeth Acker (week 1) holds a BFA from York University and is a performer, accompanist, teacher and coach. In Toronto her engagements span classical and contemporary orchestral and chamber music, musical theatre, contemporary music and jazz.

Peggy DeArmond (week 2) is an active accompanist, chamber and orchestral musician and teacher in the NY/NJ metropolitan area. She has performed as a keyboardist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for the past 21 years, and on broadcasts of chamber and orchestral music throughout the country.

James Kidd (week 3) is Barger Professor of Music at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He has extensive chamber music experience, especially with winds, and is also a flutist. He was co-founder of the Hampden-Sydney Music Festival in 1982 and has served the festival as executive director and pianist since that time.

Louisa Marks, Music Director, cello. BFA and BMEd, Carnegie-Mellon U. Further study with Luigi Silva and George Neikrug. Member of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and Opera Delaware; DSO Principal 'cellist 1971-97. Delaware Trio cellist 1972-85. Former principal cellist of the Austin Symphony, and former member of the Florida and Louisville Orchestras. Private teacher, Newark, DE. Member of VMAC staff since 1981.
Gael Abbasi, cello. Studied at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. Teachers include Orlando Cole and Janos Starker. Studied chamber music with the Borodin Trio. Founding member of Strings for Schools, Inc., String Variations, the Independence Duo and the Trio International. Performs in chamber groups throughout the Philadelphia area. She also plays the viola.
Nicole Aldrich, voice, piano. MM in conducting, Northwestern University. Doctoral fellow in conducting at the University of Maryland. Prior to coming to UMD, she was a member of the faculty at the University of Delaware, where she directed two choirs and taught conducting. She appears regularly in song recital and as soloist with area choirs and orchestras. Her passion for singing, teaching and conducting has led to a developing specialty in voice building in the choral rehearsal.
Carl Anderson, clarinet. Graduate of Louisiana State University. Studied with Domenic DeCaprio, Paul Dirksmeyer, George Waln and Robert Marcellus. Prof. Emeritus at Jacksonville (AL) State University. Principal of Gadsden Symphony Orchestra, Cheaha Chamber Players and the Chamber Players of the South.
Alan Carriero, violin. Studied both music and the sciences at Indiana University. He has played with ensembles throughout the New York area, including the New Jersey Symphony, Broadway show orchestras, and various chamber music groups. Having received a master's degree in social work from Adelphi University, Alan divides his time between musical performance and a private practice in psychotherapy.

Daniel Gladstone, violin and viola. Studied at Mannes College and with William Kroll, Kim Kashkashian and Eriko Sato. Coaches chamber ensembles and teaches in New York City and on Eastern Long Island. In the bucolic hinterlands, he has served as music critic (for the East Hampton Star), impresario (founding the NorthForkestra), recitalist, orchestral musician and member of a professional string quartet.
Kelly Glentz Brush, visual art. MFA U. of Kansas.  Chair of Digital and Graphic Arts, Lyndon State College.  She has done many workshops in media including bookmaking, textile design, papermaking, paper animation (flip books), inflatable sculpture (plastic sheeting blown up with air), drawings reproduced so that participants put them together as books - simple hole-punched style, or elegant Japanese-style bindings. Imagine the possibilities!
Gerall Hieser, cello. Graduate of Temple University and the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Member of chamber ensembles in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
June G. Infantino, woodwinds & early music. Graduate of Oberlin. Studied at the Baroque Performance Institute. Formerly flutist with the New Jersey State Opera Orchestra. Records and performs with classical guitarist Danny Infantino. Teaches flute at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
Barbara Jaffe, violin & viola. Obtained Masters from the Eastman School of Music under Donald Weilerstein. Formerly with the Shelbourne Quartet in Great Falls, MT and Bradley University Quartet in Peoria, IL. Currently with the Opera Delaware Orchestra, the Elysian Camerata, Arioso and Fairmount String Quartets. Teaches at her home studio and at Haverford/Bryn Mawr Colleges. .
Agnes Maurer, viola. Began studies in France. Studied in US with Karen Tuttle, Kim Kashkashian, Emanuel Vardi, and Geoffrey Michaels. Member, founder and executive director of the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble. Acting -Principal Violist with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, Principal Violist with the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra and with Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra and a  member of the Moravian String Quartet . She has toured internationally with the Ensemble Instrumental Andre Colson, with the Maurer Trio and nationally with the New York City National Opera Company. She teaches at her home studio, the Woodhaven String Academy.
Simon Maurer, violin. Studied at the Conservatory in Biel Switzerland . Teachers in the US include Joyce Robbins and Geoffrey Michaels. Concertmaster of the Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra, Assistant Concertmaster of the Pennsylvania Sinfonia, plays on the Valley Vivaldi concerts in Allentown , Founder and Artistic Director of the piano quartet in Residence at VMAC: the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble, www.gabrielensemble.org . Violinist of the Ravel Trio, www.raveltrio.com . His jazz and free style improvisation are popular contributions at VMAC. He conducts the Sinfonia Orchestra and teaches violin, viola and Chamber Music at the Pennsylvania Music Academy , www.paacademymusic.com .
Rosemary Waltzer, horn. Has been soloist, principal horn and member of orchestras and chamber groups throughout  the US including the American Wind Symphony, Florida Symphony and concert in Weill Recital Hall in New York where affiliations include the Einstein, Hawthorne, and Riverside Symphonies, Broadway Bach Ensemble, Manor House Woodwind Quintet, Butterfield Brass and others. Was on the staff of Merrimack Valley Music and Art Center.  Composes and teaches horn, piano and violin in New City, New York .