Private lessons on many instruments, taught by talented local musicians specializing in a particular instrument, are available for an additional fee. Interested students should contact Director of Instrumental Music Fred Geiersbach at fgeiersbach@standrews-de.org.
Solo cellist of international acclaim and founding member of George Enescu Piano Trio, George Atanasiu has performed chamber music in groups from duo to dixtuor alongside internationally acclaimed musicians in important venues and festivals of both early and modern music throughout the world. Dr. Atanasiu has served as Principal Cellist for Garden State Philharmonic, South Jersey Symphony, and Sibiu Philharmonic (Romania), and Associate Principal Cellist of Romanian National Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra. He performs with the PhillyPops, Opera Company of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra.
Dr. Atanasiu received a Master’s Degree in Cello Performance-Instrumental Pedagogy and a PhD in Musicology from the National University of Music in Bucharest, Romania. He teaches cello, chamber music, and string pedagogy, and gives concerts and master classes in conservatories and universities throughout the world. He has served on the faculty of Rowan University (NJ), University of the Arts (Philadelphia), Arcadia University, Haverford College (PA), Eastern Nazarene College (Mass.), and Germantown Friends School (Philadelphia). Many of his former students have been awarded prizes in international competitions in Italy, Spain, Germany, and the US, and have gone on to further study at leading music programs, ultimately performing as soloists with orchestras.
Lotus Cheng, piano, received her Master of Music degree in accompanying/chamber music and piano pedagogy from Temple University, where she studied with Alexander Fiorillo and Lambert Orkis. Ms. Cheng has performed in the master classes of Augustin Anievas, Leon Fleisher, Natalie Hinderas and Russell Sherman. She has given numerous solo and ensemble recitals in the Philadelphia area and Salt Lake City, Paris and Straubing (Germany) has appeared as soloist with the Wilmington Community Orchestra. She also performs as a chamber musician with members of the Delaware Symphony. Ms. Cheng was a prize winner in the JCC Young Musicians Competition, the Temple University Concerto Competition and first prize winner in the National Bart-Kabalevsky Piano Competition. A former faculty member of the University of Delaware and Settlement Music School-Jenkintown Branch, Ms. Cheng currently serves as piano instructor at St. Andrew's School, Artist Faculty at The Music School of Delaware and as studio accompanist at West Chester University.
Romanian born and raised in Israel, Eliezer Guytman has been a member of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra since 1994 and is currently concertmaster with the Kennett Symphony of Chester County, the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Delaware. He also performs with various local orchestras, including the Reading Symphony Orchestra. Eliezer has performed solo recitals in France, England, Spain, Israel and the USA. He was concertmaster of the Israel Technion-Institute Symphony Orchestra, Kibbutzim Symphony Orchestra, the Haifa Israel Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble-Carmel-Israel Chamber Orchestra.
Eliezer earned a Bachelor of Industry and Management from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and a Master of Music from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He studied under David Arben, Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster, and Avigdor Zamir, Associate Concertmaster of the Dutch Orchestra The Concertgebouw. Elizer finds his greatest joy spending time with his two children, Elad and Ayelet.
Greta Myers earned her B.A. in music education from West Virginia University in 2002, where she studied cello with Nancy Baum and William Skidmore. After graduating she went on to direct string programs for nine years at schools in Maryland and Delaware. Her students performed in county and state events, competed at solo and chamber ensemble festivals, and performed at local venues. Now a full-time private lesson teacher in Delaware, Greta teaches cello students of all levels as well as beginning violinists and violists. In addition to performing with the Newark Symphony, Greta composes, records, and performs with local folk duo Blue Grey Serenade.
Ed Ryan is a long-time music teacher who for most of his life performed and recorded as part of the New York City music scene. He is a rock, blues and country musician with classical and jazz training. While performing in New York City, Mr. Ryan attended Hunter College where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in music and an MA in music composition and theory. At St. Andrew's, Mr. Ryan teaches private lessons in guitar, bass, drums, banjo, mandolin, composition and theory. He also co-teaches jazz improvisation. Additionally Mr. Ryan teaches Music History at Wesley College and private instruction at Premier Center for the Arts. He continues to compose, record and perform his original material.
Elizabeth Stevens received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in oboe performance from Michigan State University, where she studied with Jan Eberle. Her DMA document, Taking a Seat in Telemann’s Classroom: Pedagogical Approaches to the Music of Telemann, provides effective analytical strategies and historical perspectives for teaching the solo instrumental fantasies of Telemann and the Baroque compositional style in general. Dr. Stevens’s other research interests include performance issues in twentieth-century oboe music. Previously, Dr. Stevens received a Masters of Music degree in oboe performance from Northwestern University, where she studied with Chicago Symphony oboists Ray Still and Michael Hennoch. She received a Bachelors degree in Music from the University of South Florida. Dr. Stevens has served on faculty at the University of Delaware, University of Windsor, Ontario; and the University of Michigan-Flint. She has given masterclasses and performances both nationally and internationally and is active as a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician.
Hiroko Yamazaki has performed in the United States and abroad in Rome (Italy), Helsinki and Imatra (Finland) and Lausanne (Switzerland). She has collaborated with instrumentalists and vocalists that include members of Tonhalle Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Delaware Symphony in performances at venues including the Smithsonian Institution, Kennedy Center, Swarthmore College, Aspen Music Festival, Marcella Sembrich Opera Museum (Bolton Landing, New York) and venues in New York City and Puerto Rico. Ms. Yamazaki has been featured as the soloist in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini and Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A Major (K.488) with the Wilmington Community Orchestra.
As one of the founding members of Pyxis Piano Quartet, she has performed in venues along the East Coast from Virginia to Pennsylvania. The ensemble has been in residence at the Delaware Art Museum for the past eight seasons.
As a pedagogue, Ms. Yamazaki has extensive teaching experience in private lessons, class piano and chamber music coaching. She has taught at the Darlington Fine Arts Center, Luzerne Music Center and as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Delaware. Currently, she is Associate Head of the Piano Department and Master Piano Faculty with Distinction at The Music School of Delaware, where she served as chair of the piano department from 1996-2000.
Ms. Yamazaki was the winner of the Austrian-American Society Musical Scholarship Competition, which sponsored her studies at the Mozarteum Hochschule für Music und Darstellende Kunst in Salzburg, Austria. She holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in piano performance from the University of Maryland. Ms. Yamazaki received the University’s Collaborative Piano Award and completed her Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano there as a student of Rita Sloan.
Kate Young is a freelance clarinetist and educator in Philadelphia, PA. For the past seven years she lived in Louisiana, serving as the Professor of Clarinet and Saxophone at the Louisiana College in Pineville, LA. She also performed regularly as a Bass, Eb, and soprano clarinetist with the Baton Rouge Symphony, Acadiana Symphony, and Opera Louisiane company.
Dr. Young is active as an international clinician and recitalist (recent appearances include: Universidad de Panamá, the Instituto Nacional de Música de Panamá, the Casa de Cultura de Panamá, a Guest Residency in Chile, University of Maryland, University of Montana, Louisiana State University, Northwestern State, Southeastern University, University of Southern Mississippi, and Southern University). A passionate educator, Dr. Young maintained a large private studio of students from beginners to successful high school students. Young's research interests combine her experience in Cognitive Science, Kinesiology, and Music. She used electromyography (EMG) to record changes in muscle activation as the clarinet thumb-rest position was changed. This unique research has won an award for contributions to the clarinet-field and has been presented at the Performing Arts Medical Association and Society for Neuroscience conferences.
She earned her Masters of Music (2011) and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees (December, 2014) from the Louisiana State University. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in Music and Brain and Cognitive Science from the University of Rochester (2009). Her teachers include Robert DiLutis and Deborah Chodacki.
To learn more about Kate, visit kateyoungclarinet.com.
