Faculty

Betsy Ko, flutist, has been an active performer and teacher in Chicago since moving to the area in 1991. She joined the faculty at Merit School of Music in 1994, where she teaches individuals and groups of all levels. During the 2008-09 school year, she coached the Lewis Weinberg Honors Flute Quartet which was one of the winning ensembles in Midwest Young Artists’ 2009 Chamber Music Competition. She was also a member of Merit's administrative staff, serving as Director of Bridges: Partners in Music from 2006 to 2009. As a performer, Ms. Ko freelances in a wide variety of settings. Performance resume highlights include being a soloist on “Live from Studio One” on WFMT and at the National Flute Association’s annual convention. She can also be heard performing on the compact disc “Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano”, a collection of Jewish cabaret music released in 2002 by Cedille Records. Ms. Ko received her M.M. in Flute Performance from DePaul University, where she studied with Mary Stolper, and she holds an undergraduate degree in Pure Mathematics from Brown University. She is currently completing her Illinois Type 10 certification in music at DePaul University.

A 2008 graduate of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Mr. Beach is principal violin for Chicago Folk Operetta. He began studying the violin at the age of 12 and holds a B.M. in violin performance from the University of Memphis. Mr. Beach is currently completing his thesis requirements for a M.M.E. with a concentration in Violin Pedagogy from Indiana University. He is on faculty at the Merit School of Music in Chicago and performs with a variety of orchestras and ensembles throughout Illinois and Indiana. He has performed in orchestras and chamber groups throughout United States and Europe. In Chicago he has performed with a diverse set of ensembles which include the Millennium Chamber Players, the Anaphoria Quartet, New Philharmonic, Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony, and duo recital with pianist Toshiko Suzuki for the Peace Concert series. Mr. Beach has worked with distinguished conductors Cliff Colnot, David Effron, Sir Mark Elder, Alan Gilbert, Bernard Haitink, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Stern, and Leonard Slatkin. His major teachers have included Susanna Perry-Gilmore, Susan Waterbury, and Mimi Zweig.

Flutist Alicia Poot is an active performer in orchestral and chamber music in and around Chicago. She is a core member of the "Palomar Ensemble" of Accessible Contemporary Music (ACM), and the Chicago Composers' Orchestra. She has also performed with the Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Southwest Michigan, and Northwest Indiana Symphonies, as well as the Pine Mountain Music Festival, the Lira Ensemble, The Irish Tenors, and Chicago-based chamber groups Anaphora and International Chamber Artists. Ms. Poot is also a faculty member at Merit School of Music and has worked with student composers through the Young Composers' Program at Cleveland Institute of Music and ACM's High School Composers' Workshop. She has been a winner or finalist in several competitions and has performed in festivals in Canada and Italy: Orford Arts Centre, Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific, Rome Festival, and the Julius Baker Masterclasses. She has studied at DePaul University, The University of Akron (MM), Western Michigan University (BM), and The Catholic University of America.

Anthony Bruno is woodwind player in Chicago specializing in jazz saxophone as well as clarinet and flute. He performs at the Green Mill in Chicago every Thursday with the Alan Gresik Swing Shift Orchestra and has also played the Jazz Showcase, Andy's, and nearly every other jazz club in Chicago with various ensembles. He has shared the stage with the likes of R. Kelly and Wynton Marsalis and can be caught on screen in two Universal movies, "The Express" and "Public Enemies". Mr. Bruno is currently adjunct faculty at DePaul University School of Music and DePaul University Community Music Division, as well as teaching privately at area schools and out of his home studio. Mr. Bruno received a B.M. in Music Education from DePaul University.

Originally from Costa Rica, Mr. Campos was a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. He also performs for the Joffrey Ballet and the Chicago Sinfonietta. He has performed with a variety of orchestras in the area including the Milwaukee Symphony and the Elgin Symphony, as well as the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica and the World Youth Symphony. Mr. Campos received a Master of Music Degree from Roosevelt University and his Bachelors Degree from Conservatoire de Musique de Quebec. His trumpet teachers include Adolph Herseth of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Marc Ridenour of the CSO, Channing Philbrick of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Jean Louis Chatel of the Montreal Symphony and Robert Platt from the Berlin Philharmonic. The Cliff Dwellers Arts Foundation awarded him with a second prize in National Competition in Cadada and third prize in the International Brass Quintet Competition in Narbon France.

A recent graduate from Northwestern University, Natalie Chami holds a Bachelors in Music for Music Education with a choral and voice concentration. She has studied with renowned professors such as choral conductor Robert A. Harris, soprano Pamela Hinchman, and music educators and researchers Bennett Reimer and Maud Hickey. With her degree progress, she is also Illinois Teacher Certified for grades K-12 music. During her time at Northwestern, she volunteered and coordinated groups such as the Music Learning Community (MLC) and UpBeat!, organizing free music lessons for the Evanston and Chicago community with collaboration from Northwestern students. Along with studying and performing classical voice and opera, Ms. Chami enjoys composing in experimental and electronic medium. The aspect of music that she loves the most is in its social context—music brings people together. It is an outlet for emotion, creativity and tradition, it is a constant in all cultures, and the music classroom is an opportunity to fulfill these human needs and expressions during the school day. She hopes for ChiArts students to leave the classroom with a connection to how music exists with all people, and the tools to pass the passion and joy of music on to others.

Thomas Clippert indulges the wide variety of music available for the guitar, from the early Renaissance to the present day. He frequently performs as both soloist and chamber musician throughout the Chicago area. He has appeared with a variety of ensembles including L’Opera Piccola, Heartland Voices, CUBE, The University Of Chicago New Music Ensemble, the Yale Guitar Orchestra, and the Northwest Chicago String Quartet. Mr. Clippert is a graduate of the Yale School of Music where he studied with Benjamin Verdery and was awarded the Eliot Fisk Guitar Prize. Additional studies include Phillip de Fremery at the the Mount Holyoke Guitar Master Class and Patrick Roux at the Domaine Forget Music and Dance Academy in Quebec. Mr. Clippert currently teaches guitar, jazz guitar, and chamber music, at The Merit School of Music, Oakton Community College, Wilbur Wright College, and The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.

Racheli Galay is an international strings education specialist. She has performed and conducted worldwide and has presented clinics and workshops at universities, colleges and school-orchestras. Dr. Galay has taught at VanderCook College of Music, the Music Institute of Chicago and at New-Trier High School.  She is also co-author of an Improvisation Method for String Orchestra and has arranged and composed works for the cello. Dr. Galay completed her Doctorate in Music at Northwestern University, an M.M. at Indiana University and a B.A. in Musicology, magna cum laude, at the University of Tel-Aviv. Dr. Galay is a member of the American Strings Teachers Association (ATSA), Music Education National Convention (MENC) and the Suzuki Society of the Americas (SSA). She is an adjudicator for the Society of American Musicians (S.A.M.) Competition and director of the Chicago Improvisation Institute at the Music Institute of Chicago. http://www.rachelgalay.com.

Jeff Kelly has played and studied drums and percussion for more than two decades. He received a large part of his training from the late Alan Dawson, who mentored such drum set luminaries as Tony Williams and Vinnie Colaiuta. He studied Music at Boston University, and went on to earn his Masters Degree in Jazz from The Berklee College of Music / Boston Conservatory. There he continued his drum set work under the tutelage of Ron Savage, and Jon Hazilla. Mr. Kelly studied Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music with Ed Uribe, Sa Davis, and Bobby Sanabria and West African drumming with Joe Galeota (maker of JAG drums). He traveled to Ghana for additional study with Emanuel and Rueben Agbeli, the sons of Master Drummer Godwin Agbeli. Mr. Kelly is an experienced and dedicated drum teacher and an active performer in jazz, funk, folk, rock, pop, and other genres. In addition to his work as a professional musician, he is also a producer, a recording engineer and a songwriter.

Thomas Kociela is currently the Winds and Brass Coach for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra's Debut Orchestra and serves as an instructor for the CYSO's Music Pathways program, which provides comprehensive music instruction to students in Chicago Public Schools. Mr. Kociela also works individually with brass students at Riverside Brookfield High School and Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. He has taught rhythm classes to beginning and intermediate instrumental students at the Triton College Preparatory Music School and was the acting band director at Rhodes Elementary School (K-8) in River Grove for winter 2007. Mr. Kociela is a frequent substitute trombonist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has been featured on the Euphonium and Bass Trumpet within the orchestra. He has twice gone on tour with the CSO to Carnegie Hall, performing under Pierre Boulez on both occasions. Mr. Kociela has also performed with the Ars Viva Symphony of Skokie, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Kenosha Symphony, Racine Symphony and the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra. He graduated with a Bachelors degree in Music Education from Roosevelt University (CCPA) in Chicago and studied music education with Charles Groeling and trombone with Jay Friedman.

Kevin Korschgen, jazz drummer and music educator, first moved to Chicago in 1980 to join a band called "Rush Hour". He began teaching jazz in 1983 as band director at Notre Dame High School for Boys, where he led the school's award-winning jazz ensemble. He later developed a dynamic multi-cultural Latin Jazz Ensemble at Lake View High School in Chicago, and has instructed jazz combos at Shell Lake Arts Center, Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association, and New Mexico School of Music. Mr. Korschgen recently served as the Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association and Director of Bands at Santa Fe High School in New Mexico. He returned to Chicago in 2007 and is presently the Principal Conductor of the Chicago Public Schools All-City High School Jazz Ensemble and teaches music at Harlan Community Academy High School. He is an Illinois certified teacher (Fine Arts K-12) with degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (BME) and VanderCook College of Music (MME). As a musician, Mr. Korschgen has performed with many of Chicago's finest jazz artists, toured with trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, and worked with pianists Lyle Mays and Dave Grusin. In collaboration with The Jazz Institute of Chicago, he has presented workshops in jazz arranging for CPS band and choral instructors. His compositions and arranging skills are also displayed on the recording First Session by The Kevin Korschgen Jazz Quartet.

Tina Laughlin was born in Elgin, Illinois and attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She received both her B.M. and M.M. in Percussion Performance with a minor in Art History from DePaul University. Her training also included eight years with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, where she performed under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez and Sir Georg Solti. As a freelance artist, Ms. Laughlin performs with many orchestras and theaters in the Chicagoland area including the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Grant Park Orchestra, The Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Sinfonietta and the Elgin Symphony. In 2000, Ms. Laughlin became a core member of the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, dedicated to presenting thematically inspired programs that reinvigorate the concert experience through the presentation of works influenced by jazz, latin, rock, literature, film and theater. In 2003, Ms. Laughlin performed in the Midwest Premiere of the Philip Glass operas "The Sound of a Voice" and "Hotel of Dreams" at the Court Theatre in Chicago. In 2009, she recorded Michael Abels' "Aquadia", currently playing at the Shedd Aquarium as accompaniment to the live show "Fantasea". Ms. Laughlin is also seen in the film "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" as the cymbal player in Carnegie Hall.

Canadian Choral Director and Pianist, Mary Martell received her Masters Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Calgary where she studied with Charles Foreman, Martin Isepp, Donald Bell and Talmon Hertz and participated in intensive Master Classes with various performers including Christopher Hogwood. She has studied choral conducting with Wayne Riddell, George Evelyn, Carleton Elliott and Sir David Willcocks. From 1988 -1990 she was the Choir Director at Universite Canadienne en France, in Nice, France. Mary came to Chicago in 1991. She recently conducting performances include: Faure Requiem, Missa Criolla, Randall Thompson's Testament of Freedom and has worked extensively in recital with singers in the Chicago Land area. In addition to performing Ms. Martell has a long standing interest in teaching music. She is Choral Conductor for ChiArts, Columbia College and Merit School of Music. She teaches piano, has written a group piano method - "Keyboard Connection"-and many of her former students have pursued careers in music.

"A compelling improviser of wit, determination, positivity, and tremendous talent..." (*Chicago Reader*), Nicole Mitchell is a creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator. Founder of the critically acclaimed *Black Earth Ensemble* and *Black Earth Strings*, Ms. Mitchell has been called "the most important jazz flutist of her generation," and was awarded "Jazz Flutist of the Year" (2010) by the Jazz Journalist Association, Top Flutist (2010) by Downbeat Magazine and "Chicagoan of the Year" (2006) by the Chicago Tribune. Ms. Mitchell is the first woman president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and her work has been a highlight in festivals throughout Europe, the U.S. and Canada. As a composer, she has won fellowships from Chamber Music America and the Illinois Arts Council and has been commissioned by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Ravinia, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and the Jazz Institute of Chicago. She enjoys working with talented jazz students at Chicago High School for the Arts and is also a Visiting Lecturer at University of Illinois, Chicago. Ms. Mitchell performs with the Chicago Sinfonietta, Orbert Davis' Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Anthony Braxton's 12+1-tet, Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra, David Boykin Expanse, and the Joffrey Ballet Orchestra. She has seven recordings as leader and composer and is honored to be the Artist in Residence at the 2010 Chicago Jazz Festival.

Devvora Papatheodorou has an M.M. in Piano Performance from DePaul University, a B.M. in Piano Performance from Nikos Skalkotas Conservatory and a Degree in Harmony from Model Conservatory. In addition, she studied piano technique and chamber music for five years with Deborah Sobol of the Chicago Chamber Musicians. She has had master classes with Mary Stolper, Yehuda Hanani, Jerry Grossman, William Cernota, and Christopher Costanza, among others. Ms. Papatheodorou has extensive experience in teaching piano, piano ensemble and theory. She has had training and certification in YAMAHA's Clavinova lab and trained piano faculty in group class repertoire, class management and methodologies. Ms. Papatheodorou has coached one‐piano four‐hand and two‐piano ensembles, as well as mixed chamber groups for several years and currently teaches at Dominican University. She has had several years of solo, chamber music and one-piano found-hands performing experience, as well as accompanying other instrumentalists and vocalists.

A native of Chicago, Jeffrey Gabriel Silva began studying classical guitar at the Merit School of Music and received a BM degree from DePaul University, majoring in classical guitar and composition with Mark Maxwell and Juan Campoverde. He is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where he studied composition with Mara Helmuth, Michael Fiday, and Joel Hoffman. Mr. Silva has also participated in numerous summer festivals as a classical guitarist and/or composer including the Domaine Forget Summer Academy, Mount Orford Summer Electronic Music Workshop, and June in Buffalo. Mr. Silva is currently a faculty member at Wilbur Wright College, the Chicago High School for the Arts, and the Merit School of Music, as well as a founding member of the Avanti Guitar Trio. http://www.jeffreysilva.com

Ms. Wester was the Stage Director/Vocal Coach for Chicago Opera Theater's ‘Chicago Opera Theater for Teens' - a paid apprenticeship program sponsored by the City of Chicago with Chicago Opera Theater and has just completed her fourth season as the Director of the Summer Musical Theater Workshop with Light Opera Works. She has been an Asssistant Director for Chicago Opera Theater, Utah Opera, Indianapolis Opera and San Diego Opera. As a classical singer, Ms. Wester was a Studio Artist with Utah Opera and has also appeared as a featured soloist in the *Welcome Yule* Christmas concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dabeeb in the North American Premiere of *Marriages between Zones 3, 4 and 5* by Phillip Glass, as well as productions with Chicago Opera Theater, Court Theater, DePaul Opera Theater, Intermezzo Opera in Hartford, CT, American Opera Group, Elgin Opera and multiple productions with Light Opera Works in Evanston, IL. Ms. Wester holds a B.Mus. from Roosevelt University and an M.Mus from DePaul University. http://ajwester.com