ASTA

About the American String Teachers Association:

The American String Teachers Association, founded more than 60 years ago, is a membership organization for string and orchestra teachers and players, helping them to develop and refine their careers. ASTA's members range from budding student teachers to artist-status performers. The organization provides a vast array of services, including instrument insurance, an award-winning scholarly journal, discounts on publications and resources, annual professional development opportunities, and access to a collegial network of colleagues throughout the string profession. ASTA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
ASTA is a national organization with state chapters. State chapters share the overall mission of ASTA National while addressing the needs and interests of ASTA members on a local level.

ASTA National Mission Statement:
The American String Teachers Association promotes excellence in string and orchestra teaching and playing. ASTA pursues its mission through:

• an open sharing of ideas
• benefits, services, and activities responsive to the needs of all members
• development of strong state leadership and chapters
• enhancing the image and visibility of string teaching and study
• advocacy for string education
• an inclusive community of string teachers and players

ASTA/NJ Mission Statement
The objectives of ASTA/NJ shall be to:

• support and encourage the teaching of string instruments at all educational levels
• to promote and improve orchestras at all educational levels
• to establish the highest artistic and pedagogical standards

ASTA/NJ Board, 2008-10

OFFICERS

President
Frances Rowell
310 Murray Ave.
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-541-8037

A versatile and enterprising cellist dedicated to musical outreach, Frances Rowell received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School. Ms. Rowell has been a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra since 1995. She is on the adjunct faculty of New Jersey City State University and William Patterson University and will serve as President of the New Jersey Chapter of the American String Teachers Association in 2008-2009. An inventor as well as a cellist, Ms. Rowell received a United States Patent for a portable endpin resonating platform for the cello.

 

Past President
Mary Ann Mumm
155 Washington St. Apt. 2513
Jersey City, NJ 07302
201-333-7420

Mary Ann Mumm began playing the violin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, studying with Gerald Stanick of the Fine Arts Quartet. At age 15, she made her debut with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as the first prize recipient of their Young Artists Competition. Ms. Mumm earned both Bachelor and Master of Music Performance degrees from Indiana University as a performance scholarship student and graduate teaching assistant of Josef Gingold. Additional violin teachers include Ivan Galamian, Tadeusz Wronski and Henri Temianka.

Ms. Mumm was appointed to the faculty of Northwestern University where she taught for four years as Assistant Professor of Violin/Viola and Chamber Music. Her orchestral engagements include the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and most recently, 17 years with the MET Orchestra. As an orchestral musician, Ms. Mumm has performed in major concert halls throughout the USA, Europe, Asia, Central and South Americas, resulting in countless radio and television broadcasts as well as numerous CD recordings on the Sony and Deutsche Gramophon labels. Her recent chamber music collaborations include performances with Sarah Chang, Ida Kavafian and Peter Wiley as well as principal musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and MET Orchestra.

Ms. Mumm is sought after for her enthusiastic teaching and dedication to music education. She is a frequent clinician and competition adjudicator for the American String Teachers Association and NJMEA. As a guest artist, Ms. Mumm performs and teaches violin, chamber music and orchestral master classes at music institutions nationwide. She has served as Chair of the String and Chamber Music Departments at the Hartwick College Summer Music Festival from 2001-04 and is currently Director of Chamber Music for the Youth Orchestras of Essex County and Assistant Director of the ASTA/NJ Chamber Music Institute at Kean University.

Ms. Mummwas the 2006-08 President of the American String Teachers Association, New Jersey Chapter. She is an active performing chamber musician and soloist in addition to maintaining a private violin studio at her home in Jersey City. Students of Ms. Mumm have won positions in major symphony orchestras and music institutions worldwide.

Secretary
Lisa Miller
609-217-2215

Lisa Miller graduated from The College of New Jersey in 2002 with a Bachelor of Music degree.  There she served as orchestra librarian for two years and updated the orchestra music catalogue database.  She has worked as a string specialist/orchestra director at Hopewell Elementary School and orchestra director for Winslow Township Middle and High Schools.  She currently teaches orchestra at Bunker Hill Middle School in the Washington Township School District in Sewell, New Jersey. From 1998 to 2004, she worked as a counselor and music coach at the ASTA Summer Conference for String Education and Chamber Music at Rowan University.  She worked for two years as a counselor at the New Jersey Governor’s School of the Arts.  For the past three summers, she has worked as counselor at the Chamber Music Institute at Kean University. As an ASTA member, Lisa has attended the String Symposium at Jersey City University, and attended the National Conferences in Ohio, Nevada, Missouri, and Georgia.  She has assisted the ASTA Certificate Programs for Strings examinations at The College of New Jersey.

CoDirector Chamber Music Institute, Director of Sponsorship
Margaret Zufall Roberts
Box 417
39 Trinity Park
Mount Tabor, NJ 07878
973-625-9552

Margaret Zufall Roberts, viola, is the Orchestra Director at the Randolph Middle School in Randolph, NJ. She has been conducting middle school and high school orchestras since 1987. Ms. Roberts grew up in a musical family in Mountain Lakes, NJ. She and her sisters performed for many years as a string quartet. They performed often in their schools and at church, and were featured twice on television. As a Viola Performance Major, Ms. Roberts was the principal violist in the Ohio University Orchestra. After receiving her Bachelor's in Music Degree from Ohio University, she completed a degree in Music Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and later did graduate work at California Institute of the Arts, where she was awarded a full scholarship to be in a graduate string quartet. Her teachers include Charles Ponall, Eugenie Dengel, Howard Beebe, Paul Doktor, Alan DeVeritch, and Jesse Levine. She was the principal violist of the Duluth Symphony Orchestra, and has performed at the Mozarteum in Salzberg, Austria, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Besides being the principal violist in the Montclair Chamber Orchestra, Ms. Roberts is a frequently heard performer of chamber music in the New York/New Jersey area. She has been featured during Music Week at the historic Mohonk Mountain House with members of the New York Philharmonic, and has performed with members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Weill Recital Hall.

Ms. Roberts coaches chamber music and sectional rehearsals for the New Jersey Youth Symphony, and the Youth Orchestras of Essex County. She was president of the New Jersey Chapter of the American String Teachers Association from 2004-2006, where she developed the renowned Chamber Music Institute with Chris Kenniff and Mary Ann Mumm. Currently, Ms. Roberts is serving on the executive board of the North Jersey School Music Association as co-chairman of the Orchestra Division, and co-chairs the Orchestra Procedures Committee for the NJ All State Orchestra. Ms. Roberts is currently the Chamber Music Director at the Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly

Certificate Program Co-Chair
Rona Landrigan
52 Undercliff Terrace South
West Orange, NJ 07052
973-243-2365

Rona Landrigan was born and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England and followed this up with post-graduate study in violin performance at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. From there she was invited to join the Camerata Orchestra, a 22-piece String Orchestra based at the Concert Hall in Athens, Greece where she played for four years. Rona moved to New Jersey in 1996 with her husband. Since then she has been actively involved in teaching – she is in her tenth year as a string specialist in Chatham Schools, directing the elementary orchestras and the Chatham High School Orchestras. Her ASTA/NJ involvement includes collaborating with Leslie Webster for several years on the Certificate Program and acting as advisor for the Chatham Schools Student Chapter. Rona is currently Secretary and Chairperson of the Sharon Holmes ASTA/NJ Scholarship Committee.

Treasurer
Naomi Youngstein
973-202-1525

A native of Westchester County, New York, NAOMI YOUNGSTEIN attended the Manhattan School of Music’s pre-college division and later received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in violin performance from the School. As a student of Burton Kaplan, Ms. Youngstein won the school’s concerto competition and the Ravel Academie competition, for which she was awarded a trip to France to attend master classes at the Ravel Academie. While a student at the Manhattan School, she performed with the school’s orchestra (as concertmaster) and the Manhattan Contemporary Ensemble. Ms. Youngstein attended the National Repertory Orchestra festival for two seasons; in her second season at NRO, she was assistant concertmaster and performed a concerto with the orchestra.

Ms. Youngstein has been a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra first violin section since fall of 1987. Also, as assistant personnel manager of the NJSO, Ms. Youngstein is the keeper and distributor of all printed materials. She currently has a private teaching studio with students from throughout northern NJ. She has taught at the Thurnauer School of Music, at the Jewish Community Center in Tenafly, and Rutgers Prep School. She is a member of the Amaryllis Ensemble .
 
Ms. Youngstein is the leader of the Greater Newark Violin Ensemble, the newest Ensemble of the Great Newark Youth Orchestra program, sponsored by the NJSO. She also is a mentor/coach of the Newark Early Strings Program, working twice monthly at Quitman Community School and Rafael Hernandez Elementary School.


Past Editor of New Jersey Strings
Nick Rzonsa

Mr. Nick Rzonsa has been teaching and playing stringed instruments from a very young age. He gave private lessons as early as high school and then continued along that path to build a teaching career in the public schools. He started in the Chatham, NJ public schools, and now teaches at Tenafly Middle School, where he has been for four years. At TMS, he teaches small group string lessons, extra-curricular ensembles, and general music. He is credited with the formation and direction of the Tenafly Middle School “Fiddle Club,” a group of advanced string players who play alternative style music, such as Irish and American fiddle, as well as jazz and bluegrass. He also conducts the TMS Philharmonic Orchestra, and has coached several chamber ensembles that have been accepted to the prestigious Lincoln Center Young Ensembles Program. Outside of TMS, Mr. Rzonsa is very active in the string teaching community. He was the manager of the North Jersey School Music Association’s Region Orchestra in 2005. In addition, he is active in the American String Teachers Association. He is the Editor of the New Jersey chapter newsletter, New Jersey Strings, which goes out to 500+ ASTA members across the state and country. He was also the chapter’s website creator and webmaster. Mr. Rzonsa enjoys teaching at his private violin and viola studios in Chatham and Ridgewood, NJ.

Mr. Rzonsa received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied violin with Constantine Kiradjieff, and his Master’s degree in Music Education at New York University.
Directors

Certificate Program
Leslie Webster
973-966-1101

Leslie Webster received her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and Master’s degree from Harvard University. She has performed as concertmaster, lecture-recitalist, chamber player, and as a soloist in the tri-state area and abroad. She currently specializes in pedagogy, having studied in particular the methods of Paul Rolland, Kato Havas, Mimi Zweig, Louise Behrend, and Margaret Pressley. Mrs. Webster is a past-president of ASTA/NJ she also edited New Jersey Strings, chaired the ASTA/NJ Solo Competition, co-founded 4 Strings! A Summer Chamber Music Academy and is currently a co-chair of the ASTA/NJ Certificate Program. She has served on a variety of national ASTA committees as well, earning the ASTA Citation for Leadership and Merit in 2003 and 2004. She was awarded the ASTA/NJ Distinguished Service Award for her outstanding contributions to string music education. She offers a summer Cadet Teacher course for pre-college students who want to teach and teaches violin to private award-winning students in regular and accelerated pre-college programs in Madison, NJ.

National High School Honors Orchestra Chair
Barbara Vierschilling
908-322-9586

Barbara Vierschilling, violin, has been teaching strings in Summit for fifteen years. She conducts the High School String Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and several quartets and quintets. The Hilltop String Quartet ,coached by Mrs. Vierschilling will be performing at Alice Tully Hall this spring as winners of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Young Musicians Program (they were also selected in 2005). Mrs. Vierschilling was selected as Teacher of the Year last year in Summit. Mrs. Vierschilling earned her Bachelor’s Degree in performance from The University of Maryland and did graduate work in Music Education at Kean. She is a frequent orchestral clinician and adjudicator in New Jersey and maintains a leadership role in many state Orchestra committees and panels. She is Past President of the New Jersey Chapter of the American String Teacher’s Association and currently serves as National Honors Orchestra Chairman. Previous positions in ASTA include Composer Competition and Quartet Competition Chairman. Barbara is currently an Honorary Chair on the Board of Trustees of The Summit Symphony and is on the Education Committee of the New Jersey Youth Symphony. In addition, she teaches private violin and viola lessons. Her private students have won many competitions including The ASTA Solo Competition , The Suburban Community Concerto Competition and The MTA Solo Competition. They have performed at Steinway Hall and Carnegie Hall.

Young Composers Competition
Matthew Halper
(908) 737-4337

Matthew Halper received a Whitaker Reading Prize from the American Composers Orchestra for his orchestral work Stalin's Wake: Homage to Shostakovich, Paul Lustig Dunkel, conductor. His String Quartet was awarded the Walsum Prize and premiered by principal members of the National Symphony Orchestra. His music has received performances in many leading venues such as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Moores Opera House in Houston, and live on Chicago Radio and Public Television. He has lectured on contemporary music and has had his works performed at conferences of the College Music Society, College Band Directors National Association, National Association of Composers USA, the Society of Composers, the National Flute Association, and at various institutions including the Juilliard School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Recent recordings include the release of his Concerto for Flute and Wind Ensemble on Albany Records (TROY821) which the American Record Guide lauded as “ambitious, ... lyrically dramatic, majestic and broadly American in flavor.” The St. Louis Post Dispatch characterized his Transfiguration as “a most satisfying piece, …and an ultimately mysterious work.” Recent performances include the premiere of The Tempest by the Westfield Symphony Orchestra in New Jersey. Dr. Halper is professor of music at Kean University and is Artistic Director of Ars Vitalis: The New Jersey New Music Forum. He received the D.M.A. degree in music composition from the University of Maryland; the M.S. degree in applied mathematics from New Jersey Institute of Technology; an M.A. degree in composition and theory; and a B.S. degree in electrical engineering. He has received several awards from ASCAP and is a 2000 and 2006 recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship.

Membership Directory
Sarah Bruce
973-900-9348

Sarah Bruce, violist, is an orchestra teacher in the South Plainfield Schools for elementary and middle school. She received her BA degree in Music Education at Montclair State University. There she studied viola with Peter Kenote of the New York Philharmonic and Hongong Li of the Shanghai Quartet. Sarah has been involved in ASTA/NJ since high school. She has managed region orchestras in both region I and II for NJMEA in 2007 and 2008. Outside of teaching Miss Bruce has performed with several local ensembles along with recording for independent artists. She is also involved in the worship team at City of Hope International Church in Kearny, there she uses her electric violin to play various styles as well as written and improvised music.

String Symposium
Mimi Butler
856-795-4285

Mimi Butler teaches violin and viola privately to 25 to 30 students weekly in her Haddonfield, NJ home. Once a month, all of the students play in a chamber music class. Weekly, Mimi teaches string classes at Camden Catholic High in Pennsauken, NJ. With Pam Fay, violist in the Philadelphia Orchestra, Butler runs the "Summer String Festival," a two week day camp every July in Cherry Hill, NJ. Mimi is the author/publisher of "The Complete Guide to Running a Private Music Studio", "The Complete Guide to Making More Money in the Private Music Studio" and "The Complete Guide to Raising Parents in the Private Music Studio". Butler has been conducting workshops on the books throughout the country and in Canada and is a contributing writer for "Strad" magazine.

Solo and Ensemble Festivals
Marilyn Lupchinsky
856-629-0511

Elementary Teacher at Large, Grants
Betsy Maliszewski
973-701-0385


Nominating Committee, Private Teacher Lists
Sheila Mendel
973-839-8852

Mrs. Sheila Mendel, Director/Conductor of the All-Wayne String Ensemble and Orchestra for the past ten years, is a graduate of The Manhattan School of Music.
She toured Europe with the American Festival Orchestra, and has performed with the Radio City Symphony Orchestra, the Wayne Symphony and The Orchestra of St. Peter By The Sea. Playing in "the pit" on Broadway in "West Side Story", "Pippin", "King And I" as well as numerous recordings are but a few of Mrs. Mendel's accomplishments. She currently teaches strings in the Florham Park School District and is an adjunct instructor of strings and conductor/director of the Abbey Symphonette String Ensemble at the Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey.

Director Chamber Music Institute & Website Development
Christopher Kenniff
www.ChristopherKenniff.com
908-656-1548

Christopher Kenniff, classical guitarist, is a critically acclaimed soloist & chamber musician who is frequently heard as a member of the acclaimed ensemble Duo Fresco: New Directions for Viola & Guitar and with acclaimed soprano Katherine Harris in Duo Cantiga. Christopher has won First Prizes in several competitions (most notably Concour de Guitarre, Domaine Forget, Quebec, Canada; Music Teachers’ National Association Wurlitzer Collegiate Artists’ Competition ). Mr. Kenniff has performed at the Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival (Juneau, Alaska), the Chautauqua Festival (Chautauqua, NY), the Bowdoin Festival (New Brunswick, ME), The Crossroads of Tradition Festival (Bloomington, IN) and the Access to Art Chamber Music Festival (Cape May, NJ). He is a member of Kean University’s Concert Artist Faculty and is the co-founder and director of the American String Teacher’s Association of New Jersey’s annual Chamber Music Institute. He has been recognized for contributions as a music educator by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and his students are frequent award winners in local and national competitions. Mr. Kenniff has presented workshops & master classes for ASTA/NJ, MENC, NJ State Council on the Arts, Music for All Seasons, the St. Louis Guitar Society and various collegiate/university music programs. He has recorded two compact discs: Duo Fresco Transfiguration (works by Halper, DeFalla, Purcell, Kioulaphides and Adler) and Solo: Christopher Kenniff plays works by Turina, Ponce, Roussell, Tedesco, Dowland, Scarlatti and Mertz.

Student Chapters
Kimberly Syvertsen
973-534-3128

Kimberly Syvertsen received her B.M. in Violin Performance from the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Shirley Givens. She is currently an Artist Diploma candidate at Montclair State University, where she is a scholarship student of Yi-Wen Jiang. Miss Syvertsen is on the faculty of Montclair State University and the JCC Thurnhauer School of Music. She is in her second year as Director of Youth Symphonies at MSU, as well as the Overture Strings (Youth Orchestras of Essex County).

President-Elect & Mentoring
Erika Boras Tesi

Erika Boras Tesi , cellist and conductor is currently the orchestra director at the Tenafly Middle School in Tenafly, New Jersey Summers are spent at Chautauqua Institution and most recently as faculty at ASTA's Chamber Music Institute held at Kean University. Erika has conducted orchestras in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. She has guest conducted The New Jersey Region I Orchestra, The Cape and Island High School Festival Orchestra, and The Rockland County, NY Intermediate Orchestra Festival. As orchestra director for the Tenafly Middle School, she led her orchestra in the 2006 ASTA National Orchestra Festival where they were chosen for first place in their division and the only group with a Superior rating. She has also been chosen as recipient of the 2000 Tenafly Middle School's Governor's Award as Teacher of the Year, was a featured teacher on television's NJN Classroom Close-up Program and has for several consecutive years had many chamber groups accepted to perform at Lincoln Center in the Young People's Ensembles Concerts.

Highlights of Erika’s career as a cellist include principal cellist for the Bolshoi Ballets' American Tour in 1979 performing in Lincoln Center's State Theatre, Chicago and Los Angeles. She was principal cellist at the State Theatre for D'Oyle Carte; Berlin Opera Ballet; and principal cellist for Rudolph Nureyev and the Boston Ballet company at the Uris Theatre in New York. Mrs. Tesi also performed at Lincoln Center with the Joffrey Ballet, The Canadian National Ballet, Radio City Music Hall, Rolland Petite, The National Ballet of Marseilles, Makarova and Company and was a founding member of The All Seasons Chamber Players.

Historian
Edwin Black
973-731-5532

Ed Black played violin for 4 years in All-State Orchestra and horn for 2 years in All-State Band. He continued in the U.S. Navy playing horn in the NATO band, the Norfolk Symphony, and violin in the NATO cocktail trio. He has a BA from Montclair State and an MA from the Teacher’s College of Columbia University.  He also holds a state supervisor’s certificate.  Ed played 10 years with the New Jersey Symphony and 25 years at the Paper Mill Playhouse. He has taught 40 years in the schools and colleges of New Jersey, and has conducted Region Band and Orchestra.  He plays horn with the Orchestra of Saint Peter by the Sea, The Festival of the Atlantic, and the Plainfield Symphony. He currently plays violin and viola with Garden State Wedding Music, a group that plays weddings, banquets, and corporate events. He is also the historian with the New Jersey chapter of the American String Teacher’s association. (ASTA)

 Solo Competition
Keith Calmes
(215) 880-0780

Dr. Keith Calmes is director of the guitar program at Wall High School. He also teaches guitar at Monmouth University, and has been publishing and recording for Mel Bay Publications since 1991. Dr. Calmes' performance credits include solo performances at Carnegie Recital Hall, Sheldon Hall, and Guitar Institute of Technology. He has earned degrees in Classical Guitar Performance from The Juilliard School, California State University of Northridge, and the University of Southern California.