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| Oswego, Illinois | Phone 630-551-4321 |
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Teacher
Information
Please click on the teacher's link for their information
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| Frances Finstrom
- Piano Instructor
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Karen L. Kulzer - Piano/Keyboard Instructor
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Performance History:
Karen Kulzer has performed in many different venues in the Chicago area and elsewhere, such as: DePaul University, Naperville Christian Church, St. Margaret Mary Parish, St. Raphael's Parish, The Nature Studio, The Paramount Arts Center, and NAMM Conferences in both Anaheim, CA and Nashville, TN. In addition to performing acoustic piano, Karen also worked as an electric keyboard player and composer/arranger with various musicians and groups. Karen is featured on the following pop recordings: Sink ( The Secret Behind Caterpillar Walls, 1999), T. D. Clark (Perspectives, 2000), and Gloria Taylor (2003). Karen has participated in numerous music recitals, as well as working as an active accompanist, and providing music for weddings and other social events.
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| Ellen Kuzmenko - Piano Instructor
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| Carla Schanstra -
Piano Instructor
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| Joshua Vogel -
Piano Instructor
Education/Experience:
In 2002 and 2003, Joshua received the Harold McGilvra Piano Scholarship towards his college education at Northwestern College in Orange City, IA. Joshua completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Music in 2005. In addition to his piano performance degree, Joshua has participated in several musical groups, organized several music recitals, a capella choirs, Symphonette groups and chamber ensembles. |
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| Erin Landshaft -
Piano Instructor
Education/Experience:
Erin is currently a junior studying Music Education at North Central College in Naperville. She has been involved with music for as long as she can remember. Erin has been studying and performing piano for ten years and has studied voice extensively as well. She is comfortable teaching a wide variety of piano repertoire. Some of Erins’ musical involvements include: Choral singing, Madrigals Singers, Jazz singers, Musical Theater, piano recitals, many years of private study, as well as being a current member of the North Central College Women’s Chorale. Erin strives to make lessons both fun and structured by creating a teaching environment where her students are classically trained but also have the freedom to explore other types of repertoire including, but not limited to, Broadway, pop, and jazz. |
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| Dr. Shiho Saito -
Piano Instructor
Teaching Philosophy: My teaching philosophy emphasizes the individuality of each student. I believe in providing students with the tools and skills that they can use to teach themselves. Through each learning process, I want students to gain a better understanding of self, learn work-efficiency, and expand their artistic personae. Piano learning should be a rewarding, interesting, fulfilling, and exciting process. I am an enthusiastic teacher who believes in creating an environment in which students can learn. Throughout twelve years of extensive teaching experience, I have helped students across a wide spectrum of levels, ages, nationalities, and backgrounds, and I enjoy sharing my experience and musical ideas with students and colleagues.
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| Scott Williams -
Piano Instructor
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Scott Williams was raised in Naperville, Illinois, and developed an interest in music at an early age. He began studying the piano at age 6 and violin at age 9, and thanks to the influence of artists such as Oscar Peterson and Dave Brubeck he began directing his studies toward Jazz. |
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Mr. Williams began studying jazz piano with Chicago-based pianist Larry Novak when he started attending DePaul University in 2004; he also received classical instruction from Jupiter Trio pianoist Aglika
Angelova. While playing for DePaul’s Jazz ensemble in 2007 under the direction of Bob Lark, Scott has also been fortunate enough to receive instruction from Tim
Coffmann, Bob Rummage, Mark Colby, Bobby Broom, and Bob Palmeri. Mr. Williams completed his Jazz Studies degree at DePaul University in 2008.
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| Lucas Gillan -
Percussion Instructor
Education/Experience:
Lucas Gillan started playing drums when he was nine years old in his hometown on Tucson, Arizona, and quickly found himself performing frequently in settings as varied as churches, punk clubs and jazz concerts before entering high school. While in high school, Lucas played in Tucson's top student jazz and classical ensembles and decided that music was destined to be more than a hobby for him. This led him to the elite Jazz Studies program at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, where he completed all the requirements for a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies. |
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| Lucas has also maintained a freelance career in the Chicago area, gigging with jazz and rock musicians like Fareed Haque, Gary Tu and Dave Miller. Besides being a busy performer, Lucas is a dedicated educator, having taught privately for over six years. He loves sharing his passion for music and drums with beginners and experienced drummers alike. Besides being a drummer and percussionist, Lucas is also a singer-songwriter. He plays his original songs for audiences throughout the Chicago area and has released an EP of his material entitled On Your Knees and Kiss the Earth You Holy Fool!
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| Kathy Palmer - Electric Guitar Instructor
Education/Experience:
Kathryn Palmer began playing professionally at the age of thirteen and started teaching when she was fifteen. She has studied music extensively both formally and in the classroom "of the street". At the age of sixteen Kathryn began her formal education at the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University studying classical guitar, music theory, ear training and other subjects in music. After having two children she resumed her studies; still focusing on classical guitar but branching out into jazz guitar, composition and film enhancement. Always taking a wider view of the place of music in the world, Kathryn also focused on the liberal arts and received a BGS/MUS from Roosevelt in 1993. Kathryn continued studying music at Northern Illinois University working on a Masters in Musical Composition and is close to finishing this degree. |
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Knowing that no school can fully teach performance, Kathryn has taken advantage of the wealth of musical talent that passes through the Chicago area and has been mentored by many of the greats of jazz and composition through master classes and direct communication including the late Sir George Solti, the great conductor of the Chicago Symphony, and with the late Joe Pass, one of the finest jazz guitarists of the 20th century.
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Ronald P. Stark - Classical Guitar/Electric Guitar Instructor
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Performance History:
Ron Stark performs professionally throughout the Chicagoland area at many different events and special venues. In the past, Ron has performed as a soloist for concerts hosted by: The Fox Valley Arts Council, The City of Naperville, Southern Methodist University (Taos, New Mexico), Loop Dreams of the Art Institute, Kulzer/Stark Musical Services, The Oakbrook Academy of Music and Art, and many other private organizations. In addition to the formal concert setting, Ron has provided music for many special ceremonies and social functions, some of which includes: Archbishop Francis George (welcoming reception), Jessie Jackson (honorary doctoral ceremony for DePaul University), Fox Valley Arts Council, Arts Exhibition for Trish Evers (O'Hare Plaza), Solo Demonstrations - Music and Art the Wayne Atkinson and wedding ceremonies. Ron currently performs at various recitals and venues in the Chicagoland area. Ron also is involved with the Music Therapy Division at Edwards Hospital, in Naperville.
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| Bryan
Albert - Classical Guitar Instructor
Education/Experience:
Bryan has enjoyed a multifaceted freelance career as a teacher, performer, studio artist, and composer. He holds a bachelor's degree from Northeastern Illinois University, and a Master's from Northwestern University, both in music performance. He has studied with Denis Azabagic, Brian Torosian, and Anne Waller and performed in master classes with Sergio Assad, Oscar Ghiglia, and Robert Guthrie. |
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| Ben
Westfall - Classical Guitar/Electric Guitar Instructor
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Joel Moore - Saxophone/Clarinet Instructor
Education/Experience:
Chicago native Joel Moore (b.1973), a highly talented and versatile tenor saxophonist specializing in both jazz and rhythm & blues, received an M.M. in Jazz Pedagogy from the Berklee College of Music and The Boston Conservatory in 2000. While living in Boston, he studied with Jeff Harrington, Bill Pierce and Ed Tomassi and interacted with renowned saxophonists Rick Margitza and Bob Berg during their respective clinics and performances. Joel also performed at the House of Blues and Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge, MA. and toured throughout New England with a variety of ensembles.
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| Kristin Paxinos -
Flute Instructor
Education/Experience:
Kristin Paxinos began her musical education in Chicago where she studied at the Sherwood Conservatory of Music. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University and a Master of Music degree from DePaul University. Her teachers have included Donald Peck, Kathryn Lukas, Jaques Zoon, and Peter Lloyd.
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In addition to teaching, Kristin has extensive performing experience. She has held flute and piccolo positions with the Evansville Philharmonic, the Terre Haute Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Bloomington Pops Orchestra; and substitute positions with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. She most recently filled in as second flute with the London Symphony Orchestra, and performed with them on their tours through Germany and France, and well as performances in London.
Kristin’s solo performances include recitals at the Chicago Cultural Center, Lincoln Center, and Symphony Center. She has played solo recitals at the Syrinx Flute Festival in Ontario, the National Flute Association’s Annual Convention, the Chicago Cultural Center’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, the Viggiano Flute Festival in Italy, and was recently awarded a grant from the City of New York to perform a flute and percussion recital. Kristin has also appeared as concerto soloist with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Toronto, the Orchestre Nationale D’Italia, the Evansville Philharmonic, and the Indiana University Orchestra.
Kristin is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including performance awards from Indiana University, DePaul University, the Musician’s Club for Women, the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation, and the Greek Women’s University Club. She has also participated in several international competitions, most recently winning a recording grant in the Contemporary Record Society’s National Performing Artist Competition, and First Prize in the Leonardo de Lorenzo International Flute Competition. |
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| Magi Hernandez -
Art Instructor
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Magi has been an artist all her life. Her mother reports that she was born with a paintbrush in one hand and a chocolate bar in the other. She is a multi-disciplinary artist and makes her art using a wide variety of mediums, including oils, pencil, batik, watercolor, photography, and sewing. Most of the time she paints on silk. She received her BA from BYU in 1986. Since then she has been painting and teaching art wherever life takes her: Utah, Hawaii, Ecuador, New Jersey, Nevada, California, England, and now Illinois. Magi has been teaching art for 20 years. She specializes in teaching Silk Painting; and her curriculum has a class for all ages and interest levels from 2 to 102; from a simple passing curiosity to the developing professional. Magi lives in Oswego, IL with her husband, Gary, and her three marvelous and precocious teenaged children, Dominene, Steven, and Justin. |
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| Kirsten Fyr
- Vocal Instructor
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Kirsten Fyr, Mezzo-Soprano, is best known for her baroque singing. Kirsten has sung the solo's in Handel's Messiah, Bach's Christmas Oratorio Mass in B Minor, Cantata No. 80, and Jesu Meine Freude, Mozart's Coronation Mass and Mass in C Major, and Vivaldi's Gloria. Kirsten is a professional chorister throughout the Chicagoland area. She is also an active church musician, performing at many church recitals and services.
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| Shelly
Bhuyan - Vocal Instructor
Education/Experience:
Shelley has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Luther College and a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Yale University. Her professional roles with the Dorian Opera Theatre include Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Louisa Giovanni (The Song of Norway) and Cornelia (Julio Cesare). Shelley was the Soprano Section Leader and soloist for the Lutheran Choir of Chicago. She has also sung professionally with the Chicago Symphony Chorus as second-soprano, and has been featured as a soloist on several occasions with The Naperville Chorus. Shelley has taught private and group voice lessons for thirteen years and is a trained and licensed Kindermusik educator.
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| Bob Ferraris - Bass
Guitar Instructor
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With over 40 years of experience on acoustic and electric bass | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||