Cellospeak, Inc.
Expanding Circles Through the Language of Cello

8th Annual Cello Workshop  For Adults
July 27th to August 2nd 2008
Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA
Dorothy Amarandos, Artistic Director
 

Dorothy Amarandos, Artistic Director, is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, a student of Luigi Silva, with Bachelor’s/Master’s degrees and Performer’s Certificate. She played in the Rochester Philharmonic under Erich Leinsdorf for many years while teaching privately, and was lecturer at the University of Rochester. Also in Rochester, as Founder/ Director/Producer of Ars Antiqua (a national touring group of actors, dancers, singers, and players of original instruments), Dorothy created and performed her 22 original concert-productions based on material from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque. Later in Columbus, Ohio, she was professor of cello at Ohio State University as well as Denison University, Ohio Wesleyan University, and Otterbein College, and was principal cellist of the Columbus Symphony. Currently she teaches a large class of private cello students of all ages in her studio in Reston, VA.
 
Dan Allcott maintains a busy career as a conductor, cellist and teacher.  He received a Master of Music in Cello Performance from Indiana University where he continued his Doctoral Studies in both the Conducting and Cello programs.  He left IU to become Music Director of Atlanta Ballet, a position which he held for 6 years, conducting over 250 performances.  He currently teaches at Tennessee Tech University where he is Director of Orchestras and Instructor of Cello.  He is Music Director of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra and his recent guest conducting includes Omaha Area Youth Orchestras, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and various clinics throughout the country.  He continues to perform as a soloist and chamber musician and is cello instructor at the Southeast Chamber Music Institute. 

Allcott studied cello with John Ehrlich, Ann Martindale-Williams, Janos Starker, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and Helga Winold.  He studied chamber music with Michel Block, James Campbell, Rostislav Dubinsky, Josef Gingold, Franco Gulli, and Menahem Pressler. For the past three years, he has directed the cello ensemble at the Tennessee Cello Workshop in addition to teaching master classes. 
 
Marion Baker studied cello with Orlando Cole at the Curtis Institute of Music and has had master classes with Janos Starker, Claus Adam, and David Soyer. Marion has performed as principal cellist with the Washington Bach Consort, Washington Chamber Symphony, Washington Concert Opera, National Gallery Orchestra, and the National Philharmonic. He is principal cellist of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Marion most recently performed the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Landon Symphonette. He has also performed the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations with the Fairfax Symphony and the Haydn Symphony Concertante under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. Marion has also performed solo works with the Nashville Symphony, the Knoxville Symphony and the Prince William Symphony.
 
Robert Battey is a freelance cellist and teacher living in Arlington, VA. He studied locally with Robert Newkirk and John Martin, and then with Bernard Greenhouse and Janos Starker. He has served on the faculties of S.U.N.Y.-Stony Brook, the University of Missouri, the Levine School, the Gettysburg Chamber Music Workshop, and the Virginia School of the Arts in Lynchburg. He has appeared as principal cellist of the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, the Kansas City Lyric Opera, the Joeffrey Ballet, the Florida West Coast Symphony, and the Alexandria Symphony.




 
Nancy Baun A student of Orlando Cole in Philadelphia, Nancy studied chamber music with Menahem Pressler, Timothy Eddy, and Jasha Brodsky.  As the founding cellist in the critically acclaimed Eaken Piano Trio, she performed over 1,000 events and appears on nine Eaken Trio recordings.  She is currently a member of the Ravel Trio. She is an active soloist, having performed with over a dozen orchestras in her home state of Pennsylvania.  She was selected as an Artist Fellow at the Bach Aria Institute in New York and the Aspen Music Festival.

As an educator, Nancy served as Director of the Dickinson College Artists-In-Residence program for eleven years. She has a special commitment to adult musicians. Now living in Buffalo, Nancy continues her teaching and concertizing by performing with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, the Roycroft Chamber Music Festival, Friends of Vienna, and Classics on Elmwood. She is also a record producer, frequent panelist at conferences, past director of a national interdisciplinary arts conference, and an arts consultant with clients nationwide.  
 
Erin Eyles Espinoza is a professional cellist performing with orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra in concerts, tours to the West Coast and North Carolina, and a televised performance. She freelances in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. and Baltimore areas, and has worked with conductors and artists including Leonard Slatkin, Lorin Maazel, Kent Nagano, Mstislav Rostropovich, Itzahk Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Gil Shaham, Pamela Frank, Hillary Hahn, Yo-Yo Ma, Truls Mork, and Alicia Weilerstein. Erin has been a regular guest cellist with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, in performances and recordings. She has also performed in six recordings with the Air Force Strings. As a soloist, she has appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute performing Brahms’ Double Concerto in the Kennedy Center and with the Air Force Strings as a featured soloist on tour performing C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A Major. Chamber music coaches include Leon Fleisher, the Tokyo String Quartet, and Andrés Cardenes. She was invited to perform in the Great Falls Symphony Chamber Series and she was sponsored by the Maryland Council of the Arts to perform chamber music in Atlanta. She has performed in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, England, France, Germany, Japan, Scotland, and Singapore. Erin has received degrees in cello performance from Carnegie Mellon (Bachelor in Fine Arts), studying primarily with Anne Martindale Williams, and Peabody Conservatory (Master in Music), studying with Stephen Kates, Andrés Diaz, and David Hardy. She maintains a private teaching studio in Maryland and Virginia.
 
Jorge Espinoza studied cello and taught the undergraduate and graduate cello studio as an assistant teacher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he was awarded the Gregor Piatigorsky Full Scholarship to study with Stephen Kates, David Hardy, and Andrés Díaz. He graduated with honors from Universidad Católica de Chile and received his Master's Degree in Music Performance on full scholarship from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, studying with David Premo and Anne Martindale Williams.

Jorge has performed as principal cellist under conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Leon Fleisher, Gustav Meier, and Maxim Shostakovich and has toured as principal cellist with the Manchester Music Festival Orchestra.  Jorge freelances in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area, including with various chamber music ensembles and performing as soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Southern Maryland and the Londontowne Symphony Orchestra. Jorge has concertized in his native land, Chile, and throughout South America and the United States, Mexico, and France and is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions and awards. In addition to teaching privately in Ellicott City, Maryland, he coaches string sectionals, and presents masterclasses and workshops throughout the United States and abroad.
 
Gary Fitzgerald has had a wide-ranging career in Montreal, New York City, Washington DC, and Perth (Western Australia) as a cellist, pianist, conductor, arranger, clinician. He was trained at the Juilliard School where his teachers included Leonard Rose, hanning Robbins, and Lynn Harrell. He was Assistant Principal Cellist with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Principal Cellist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Perth, and a member of several prestigious orchestras and chamber ensembles in the U.S. He left New York to become a full-time church musician, holding directorships in Virginia and in South Carolina. Currently, as Director of Worship Arts for the Church of the Apostles in Fairfax, VA, he is responsible for a full program of offerings in music, drama, dance, and the visual arts.


 
Stephen Framil is distinguished as the first American cellist to perform in Hanoi since the Vietnam War. He has performed as concert soloist around the world including in Weill & Avery Fisher Halls in New York, and with international orchestras in Hong Kong, Hungary, Russia, Latvia, Philippines, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Viet Nam, India, and with many orchestras throughout the United States. 

Dr. Framil (DM, Indiana University) has been an Assistant Professor of Music at Andrews University in Michigan, visiting Professor at the University of Delaware, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and Towson University in Maryland.  As an advocate of inner-city music education, Dr. Framil is the Music Director and Conductor of the Musicopia Youth Orchestra and Founder/Director of the West Catholic Conservatory of Philadelphia, providing scholarship lessons for underserved youth.  Dr. Framil has given master classes at conservatories and universities throughout the U.S. as well as abroad including in Shanghai, Singapore, Russia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Hanoi.   

Dr. Framil has recorded the complete J.S. Bach Suites for Solo Cello, works for solo cello by Zoltán Kodály and Gaspar Cassadó as well as the two Haydn Cello Concertos.
 
Kristin Gilbert, cellist and pianist, graduated from Mills College and received her MA degree in music performance from Catholic University. She also studied as a graduate student at the University of Southern California and at the Aspen Music Festival. She is a founding member of the Coventry Quartet which was formed in 1988 at the Shenandoah Music Festival in Orkney Springs, VA. She has performed extensively with local groups, is a member of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, and teaches both cello and piano in her private studio in Falls Church, VA.




 
David Howard grew up on a dairy farm in upstate New York. He started piano at an early age and took up the cello in seventh grade in order to play in the school orchestra. At Ithaca College he majored in Music Education, graduating with honors in 1969, then taught high school music for two years before joining the National Symphony Orchestra in 1971. Since then he has lived in the Washington DC area, performing, teaching, and raising a family.

His primary teachers have been Einar Holm, Jonathan Abramowitz, and Robert Newkirk; his professional credits include membership in the Foggy Bottom Chamber Ensemble, the Cameron String Quartet, and the Howard-Breth Duo. For twelve years he was a musician/actor with DC Playback Theater, an improv acting company. Currently, in addition to his position in the NSO, he is a member of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra.

In 1983 he was awarded a Masters of Music Performance from Catholic University and in 1998 a Masters of Education from George Washington University. Also, he has been on the faculty of Howard University. Today, he maintains a teaching studio in his home and enjoys gardening, cooking, and spending time with his seven grandchildren.
 
Laurien Laufman is an artist of international stature, having performed throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, India, and The People’s Republic of China. She studied with many eminent cellists, including Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Andre Navarra, and Paul Tortelier. Miss Laufman won numerous competitions, including the 1975 Concert Artist Guild Competition in New York, and was awarded the Silver Medal in the 1976 Villa-Lobos Competition in Rio de Janeiro. She is Professor Emeritus at the University of the Illinois School of Music, and now resides in the Washington, DC area. She has performed many chamber music concerts throughout her career, was a member of Musica Camerata Montreal, founded Chamber Music Chicago, and has performed at the Corcoran Gallery Chamber Music Series, Dumbarton Oaks, several embassies in Washington, and at the Phillips Collection. Miss Laufman has performed as a solo artist for radio and television in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Poland, and Switzerland. She has recorded for Classica Records and Medici Music Press. Musical America/High Fidelity Magazine called her “An altogether outstanding instrumentalist and a true artist.”
 
Irina Tikhonova began playing the cello at the age of six. Her mother, Lydia, loved to sing and selected the instrument for Irina originally because the range of the cello is essentially the same as the range of the singing voice. The choice was obviously a good one as Irina went on to study at the Tchaikovsky Music Conservatory under Vladimir Panteleev. She graduated with her Bachelor of Music degree from the Music College in Kiev, USSR in 1981 and a Master of Music degree from the State Conservatory of Music in Kiev, USSR in 1986. Before coming to this country, Irina performed with the Harmony Philharmonic Ensemble of Soloists in Kiev, the Renaissance Chamber Orchestra, and was the assistant principal cellist in the State Symphony Orchestra. Since immigrating to the United States from the Ukraine in 1991, she has been Principal Cellist of the Saginaw Bay Symphony, the Saginaw Bay Symphony, the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, and the Flint Symphony Orchestra. Irina also plays on occasion with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and has a private cello studio in Royal Oak, Michigan. She loves bicycling.
 
Kerry Van Laanen began playing professionally at the age of 16 with the Oklahoma Symphony. The following year she was invited to solo with the orchestra. Ms. Van Laanen was subsequently offered a full scholarship to Catholic University of America, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree studying with Robert Newkirk. Further studies at the University of Maryland followed where she worked with Evelyn Elsing, David Soyer and Kenneth Slowik. Ms. Van Laanen has performed extensively throughout the Washington DC/Baltimore area with such groups as the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, Baltimore Opera, Post-Classical Ensemble, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Wolf Trap Opera Company, Concert Artists of Baltimore and various chamber music groups. She maintains a busy private teaching studio at her home in Rockville, MD and has also served on the faculty of the National Philharmonic Summer Institute.
 
Douglas Wolters performs in the Washington, DC area on modern and baroque cello as well as on the related stringed instrument, the viola da gamba. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, he studied cello with Mihaly Virizlay and the viola da gamba with Gian Lyman Silbiger. Currently he is principal cellist of the Bach Sinfonia and the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra and is a member of the baroque ensemble L’Arabesque. Doug teaches stringed instruments for Fairfax County, VA.

 
Copyright © 2003-2007 Annual Cello Workshop For Adults
Last modified: February 27, 2007