voice

Julie Ackerman-Hovis teaches a wide range of singing styles, with a specialization in CCM (Contemporary Commercial Music), which includes musical theater, jazz, pop, folk, and more. She earned her BA in Music at Swarthmore College, with a concentration in classical voice, then decided to pursue her true love, jazz. She earned her Master of Music in Jazz Vocal Performance at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in New York City, where she studied with Charenée Wade. Julie taught, sang, and raised a family in New York for 16 years before moving to Brattleboro in 2016. She is the choral director at Brattleboro Union High School.

Julie works with students 12 years and older. She believes in functional voice training, which is the basis for healthy singing in any style. She has worked for many years to learn contemporary singing pedagogy through world-renowned pedagoge Jeanie Lovetri. Julie has supported many students in their festival auditions, college auditions, musical theater work, concert preparation, and voice strengthening and stamina. Julie is committed to serving her students, understanding their goals, showing respect for how they feel, and working together to forge a satisfying and healthy path to great singing. She is a member of the following organizations: the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the National Association of Music Educators (NAfME), the Vermont Music Education Association (VMEA), the Jazz Education Network, Somatic Voicework:The LoVetri Method, and is the president-elect for Vermont’s District VI Connecticut Valley Music Festival Association (CMVFA).

Children’s Choir

Stefan Amidon grew up in a world where singing was a part of everyday life, and started performing with his parents, Peter and Mary Alice, and brother, Sam, from an early age. Family trips to grandparents always ended with family style singalongs of You are My Sunshine, camp songs and Christmas carols. He was in the original Brattleboro Children’s Choir, directed by Peter Amidon, and was part of the group of kids who sang Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Blanche Moyse Chorale.

Starting at age 11 Stefan went on tour in Europe with the singing group Northern Harmony and attended a memorable singing workshop with Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey and the Rock, who treated the young singer as a peer as much as any of the adults present. Village Harmony singing camps brought more specialized instruction with on-site study of South African and Corsican singing traditions. Stefan and some fellow Northern Harmony alums started the Starry Mountain Singers who went on tour, recorded three albums, gave workshops, and had an artist residency that delved deeper into communal singing practices.

Stefan has always enjoyed making music with children; as a teacher at family camps, as the music teacher for Halifax Elementary and Signal Pine Play School, as a music director for the Wings summer musical, in one-on-one lessons and with his own children at home. He brings to those experiences a strong background in music education, from first with Steve Rice (recently retired music teacher of Brattleboro Union High School), then at Oberlin Conservatory as a jazz performance major.

In leading the Brattleboro Children’s Choir Stefan hopes to carry on a love of singing for all ages, in the strong belief that singing together makes people feel more connected and in tune with each other.

violin, viola

Kathy Andrew is a resident of Brattleboro, Vermont, and has been a BMC Music School faculty member since 1993. She holds a B.A. degree from the University of New Mexico, and an M. M. from Peabody Institute. Kathy is Assistant Concertmaster of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Concertmaster of the Juno Orchestra, is a member of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA), and a frequent performer in the wide variety of classical music genres and performances in the New England area. In addition to decades performing with the New England Bach Festival Orchestra and Opera North (NH), she also frequently performed with the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, Green Mountain and Middlebury Opera companies, Berkshire, Albany and New Hampshire Symphonies. Kathy taught at Bennington, Keene State Colleges, Greenfield Community College, and coached chamber music at Dartmouth College. She continues to perform chamber music and orchestral projects with colleagues near and far. She teaches violin, viola and chamber music at the Brattleboro Music Center.

brass

Rene Bernard is a brass instrument specialist who focuses on the individual student and their unique physical and natural playing characteristics. He earned his BA in Music Education from the University of North Texas, with a concentration in both classical and jazz trumpet playing. While at North Texas, Rene began an 11 year in depth exploration of brass pedagogy, working with world renowned brass instrument specialist Dr. Donald S. Reinhart.

While pursuing his Master of Music from the University of Missouri/Kansas City Conservatory, Rene taught elementary, middle school, and high school band, and was the brass specialist at Funk’s Music Center. After a dozen years in Kansas City, Rene and his family moved to Iowa, where he taught grades 6-12 concert, jazz and marching band. Many of his students achieved Iowa district, state and collegiate honors. Rene’s students have gone on to national careers in where he taught at Leland and Gray Middle/High School until his recent retirement. He is looking forward to focusing on his love of teaching at the Brattleboro Music Center!

Rene emphasizes correct fundamentals in matching the embouchure, breathing and tonguing for each individual student. Once good habits are established, reading music and counting rhythms are part of the next steps to having fun playing an instrument. Each student moves at their own pace with home practice and setting goals to improve. He enjoys getting to know his students individually and builds confidence through guided listening and emphasizing group participation in school ensembles and solo literature. Every student should also practice music that they like and find something fun daily! Music computer software is also utilized in lessons and encouraged for use at home.

Rene is a member of the National Association of Music Educators (NAfME) and the Vermont Music Education Association (VMEA). He also continues playing trumpet professionally in the Bad News Big Band, Amherst Jazz Orchestra, Oakland Stroke Band and Creacion Latin Band – all based out of central Massachusetts.

harp

New England based pedal and traditional Scottish harpist, Rachel Clemente, has had a passion for music from the early age of five. She began her harp training as a student of the Suzuki method and is now a certified teacher and avid supporter of the methodology of nurturing the whole child/student. She is a graduate of renowned arts boarding high school Interlochen Arts Academy and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow where she obtained a bachelors degree in traditional Scottish music. Her accolades include winner of U.S National Scottish Harp Championship in 2016 and winner of Princess Margaret of the Isles Clàrsach Competition (USA) in 2021. Since moving to Vermont in 2019, Rachel has focused on establishing herself in the New England folk scene as a soloist as well as performing in her duo, If You Must Know, with bagpiper Dan Houghton. She is an advocate for both the lever harp and traditional/ contemporary Scottish music and works to spread awareness and access to the lever harp through her harp building program, Hands on Harps. Currently, Rachel is recording her debut solo album which features unique instrumentation and much of her compositional work.  In addition to teaching at the BMC, Rachel aslo teaches at the Upper Valley Music Center.

piano

Susan is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she studied piano with Charles Fisher and Gyorgy Sandor. As an undergraduate, she was privileged to be rehearsal pianist and choral assistant to the great conductor Maynard Klein, whose example as an emotionally communicative and humanistic musician continues to inform and inspire her work. Upon graduation, Susan joined the University Music School as a staff accompanist, and was highly in demand as recital and masterclass pianist. Surprising to many, during this time she also received a secondary degree in biochemistry and was part of a research lab whose work eventually laid the foundation for the first effective AIDS treatment. 

Susan joined the piano faculty of the Brattleboro Music Center in 1983, and also served as rehearsal assistant to Blanche Moyse. She became Director of the Brattleboro Concert Choir in 1989, and served in that position until 2018.  During her tenure, the chorus doubled in size and became one of the finest auditioned choruses in New England. She directed the Marlboro College Chorus from 1994 – 2002 and was founder/director of the Bach Festival Children’s Chorus as well as the VT Repertory Singers.

In addition to her work at the BMC, Susan is co-founder and director of Winged Productions along with her husband Paul; and founder and director of The Choir School programs for young people.  A long time church musician, Susan served as  Director of Music at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. Both as a pianist and choral/vocal coach, Susan’s approach reflects her commitment to creating meaningful musical communication, and building solid musical skills based on a healthy physical technique.  Susan is an avid gardener and cook, and she and her husband live in an 1830 farmhouse in Williamsville, VT, where they grow enough vegetables to feed the entire village.  

cello

Zon Eastes began piano lessons at age five with his aunt Wanda in a small town in Kansas. He was introduced to the cello in fifth grade via a town-wide public school string orchestra program, and became entirely enamored of the cello and the wide world of music when he met his first private cello teacher, Nancy Kerr.

fiddle, Celtic Classes (youth)

One of Louisa Engle’s fondest childhood memories is dancing through a long tunnel of clasped hands during a contra dance at her elementary school. She grew up to be a fiddler and fiddle teacher who is passionate about bringing together musicians and dancers of different ages and abilities. In addition to teaching at the Brattleboro Music Center, Louisa has also taught at Maine Fiddle Camp, and Nelson Elementary School, has had numerous private students, and has called and played at family contra dances throughout New England. She helped run the legendary all-night Brattleboro Dawn Dance for a decade, and now hosts the Brattleboro-area River Jam Romp. Her current interests include Maypole dances, claw hammer banjo, family dance calling, and alternate fiddle tunings.

Piano

Becky Graber completed a BA in Music from Colgate University, followed by summer studies at Aspen Music Festival. She studied piano with Edith Oppens, and composition. She also has an MEd in the Creative Arts, Lesley University.  

Becky started playing piano at age five. Her first teacher, Ruth Kneeland, encouraged her to create and to write down her songs. Her mom (a World Book saleswoman) helped her learn to read music (using the World Book “Cyclo-Teacher”) so she read music as early as she read words.

Becky studied with Patricia Collyer Zavitz in Connecticut, and with Sharyn Godwin Duncan at Colgate. She served as accompanist and student director for choral groups in high school and college, and began teaching, directing and accompanying professionally when she moved to Brattleboro in 1977. She first joined the BMC faculty as a piano teacher from 1978 -82, and worked on the staff of BMC’s Camp Allegro from 1979 – 2007. Becky founded the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus in 1996. The chorus has had as many as 120 singers singing together in semi-annual concerts that have become a tradition and mainstay of our community. Becky is currently accompanist for the Brattleboro Concert Choir.

violin, viola, New Approach

B.A., Mills College. A student of David Abel and Kato Havas, Michelle is a member of Arcadia Players, and free lances throughout New England. She teaches adult beginning violin class, coaches chamber music and specializes in the New Approach. She also teaches at Northfield Mount Hermon School.

piano

B.Mus., M.Mus.Ed., New England Conservatory; Certification, Kodaly Musical Training Institute. A member of the faculty since 1983, Luba is a frequent accompanist in the area. She has performed in numerous recitals as a soloist, and has appeared with the Windham Orchestra. Luba is also on the faculty of the Chesterfield School in New Hampshire.

flute, Flute Ensemble Camp

Robin teaches flute and directs the Flute Ensemble both at the BMC and at Keene State College, NH. She holds a B.A. degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.A. degree from The City College of New York. Robin’s principal teachers were Frances Blaisdell and Deirdre McArdle. She has performed on both the East and West coasts as a soloist and in orchestral, opera, musical theater, chamber, and jazz ensembles. She is an active freelance flutist throughout New England and regularly performs in faculty recitals. Before moving to Vermont in 1992, she taught for eleven years in the New York City Public Schools and taught graduate courses at The City College of New York. Robin also teaches Environmental Studies at Keene State College.

voice

A.B., Brown University; M.D., UVM College of Medicine; M.Mus. in Voice Performance and Pedagogy, Westminster Choir College, Princeton. Margery has pursued vocal study with Laura Brooks Rice, Nan Nall, Dalton Baldwin, Glenn Parker and Jane Bryden. In addition to performing and teaching voice, Margery is a Board-certified Anestheasiologist with a MD degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Margery has a particular interest in discovering the full potential of one’s unique voice, working with a holistic approach to integrate all aspects of health – physical, emotional and spiritual – in freeing one’s voice.

Piano, Student Placement Coordinator

Raquel began her piano studies at the age of six in Madrid, Spain, under the guidance of Consuelo Barrio Moreno, later continuing her musical education in harmony with composer Adelino Barrio Moreno. She graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid with degrees in Piano Performance; Solfege, Theory, Transposition, and Accompaniment; and Pedagogy. She went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Music Teacher Education from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Her passion for piano education led her to pursue Suzuki Piano training in Lyon, France, with Colette Daltier, and at the British Suzuki Institute in London, where she studied with Caroline Gowers and earned certification as a Suzuki Piano Teacher. Raquel is certified by both the European Suzuki Association and the Suzuki Association of the Americas. She also studied with Michiko Yurko, founder of Music Mind Games.

Since moving to Brattleboro, Vermont, in 2001, Raquel has been a valued member of the Brattleboro Music Center faculty, teaching there since 2003 and serving as Student Placement Coordinator. Drawing on her Suzuki background and more than two decades of teaching experience, she works with students of all ages and abilities. Her teaching philosophy centers on meeting each student where they are, nurturing their individual strengths, and creating a joyful, supportive environment that fosters both confidence and musical growth. She strives to bring happiness and success to every lesson, helping students develop not only their technical skills but also a lifelong love of learning and music.

In addition to her extensive background in music education, Raquel holds a Master’s Degree in Special Education from Keene State College in New Hampshire. Since 2004, she has worked in the Windham Southeast School District and currently serves as a special educator at Brattleboro Union High School.

Her publications include Tú y la Música (1999), and she appears on the recording El Camino de Madrid a Aranjuez by Hipólito Gondois.

traditional music classes, Northern Roots Traditional Music Festival

Keith is a veteran performer, teacher, composer and recording artist in the traditional arts. For over twenty years Keith has toured extensively as a singer and guitar, mandolin and piano player appearing at festivals, folk clubs and performance art centers. Originally from Newfoundland, he has been based in Brattleboro since the early 1990s. He has taught instrumental classes at dozens of traditional music events around the country, working with hundreds of mandolin players, piano players and guitarists.

violin, viola, Music School String Orchestra, Chamber Music, Salons

Moby Pearson grew up in the Boston area where he studied with Lucy Parker and George Zazofsky. He received his degree from Oberlin Conservatory as a student of Robert Soetens and Steven Staryk. Mr Pearson’s active chamber music career has included extensive periods as principal violinist with the Apple Hill Chamber Players and the Atlanta Chamber Players, with concerts at Carnegie Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Phillips Collection (Wash. DC), as well as tours to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He has performed with many Boston area orchestras and ensembles including Cantata Singers, Emmanuel Music, Boston Muscia Viva, Boston Lyric Opera, and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. Mr Pearson has been a soloist with the Concord Chorale and the Nashua Chamber Orchestra, as well as giving many solo recitals including Jordan Hall, the Gardner Museum, and WGBH radio. In addition, Mr. Pearson has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and major concert halls throughout Europe. Recordings include the Deustche Grammaphon, Centaur, and Koch labels. His violin is by Bartolomeo Tassini, 1752.

percussion

Stephen Rice began rhythmically striking things around the house when he was about five years old. In order to keep him from damaging the furniture, his parents bought him a Monkees drum set, and soon after, his first snare drum. Gradually, through high school and college, he came to focus that rhythmic striking in more artful ways. He briefly attended the Berklee College of Music where he studied drum set with Joe Hunt, and then moved on to earn his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where his percussion teacher was Peter Tanner. He also earned a Master of Music Education degree from UMass. From 1987 – 2023, he served as the band director at Brattleboro Union High School. For more than half of that time, he was the music department head, and for six exhausting years, he was also the band director at Brattleboro Area Middle School. He studied conducting with Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr. and Stanley DeRusha as well as with mime artist, Robert Rivest. Under his direction, the B.U.H.S. band marched in the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Parade for President Barack Obama and earned superior ratings at band festivals. In 2016, he received the Arthur Williams award for meritorious service to the arts from the Vermont Arts Council. He was honored as Music Educator of the Year by the Vermont Music Educators Association (2014), School Band and Orchestra magazine’s 50 Directors Who Make a Difference (2014) an Outstanding Leader in Arts Education by the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education (2003) and as Music Educator of the Year by the Connecticut Valley District Music Festival Association (2009).

As a percussionist and drummer, he has performed with the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band and Sextet, TUNDI Festival Orchestra, Massachusetts Wind Orchestra, Windham Philharmonic, Opera North, Marlboro Music Festival and many other local and regional ensembles. Some of his drumming and percussion students have gone on to perform in professional classical, folk, jazz, funk, rock, and country bands and orchestras.

cello

Sabine Rhyne has been teaching cello in Brattleboro off and on since the 1990s to both adults and youngsters. She especially loves to play chamber music, and encourages her students to discover the magic of making music with others. She also has recorded in collaboration with a number of singer-songwriters over the years.

cello

A graduate of the Curtis Institute, Judith was a founding member of the Brattleboro Music School in 1975.  She has toured extensively across the United States, Japan, France, and Canada and has played at various festivals in Switzerland and Poland. Judith began her studies in Puerto Rico with Marta Casals Istomin, then continued with David Soyer and Mischa Schneider at the Curtis Institute.  She was a founding member of the Guilford Quartet and the Hebrew Arts Quartet (later known as the Mendelssohn Quartet). She was also a member of the Iceland Symphony, in Reykjavík, and played principal cello for many years with Musica Sacra in New York City, under Richard Westenberg.  Judith has been a participant at both Yellow Barn and Marlboro Music and has performed on numerous Musicians from Marlboro tours over the years.  She has served on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory Department for the past five years, was a teacher at American University in Washington, D.C., and also teaches at the Brattleboro Music Center Music School.

clarinet, saxophone, recorder, Intro to Improvization

M.Mus., in flute, clarinet, saxophone, and recorder, Ohio State University. Bill has performed and recorded widely as a member of RosenShontz, the nationally acclaimed duo. He has also taught at the University of Illinois, Ohio State University, Muskingum College, and Bluffton College and performs classical and jazz for children, families and adults.

acoustic guitar, mandolin, ukulele

Peter is the founder of the genre-bending band collaboration The Gaslight Tinkers and is active in the traditional and world music scene nationally. Growing up in the Hudson Valley, folk music and dance were a key part of his life. At 11, after his uncle took him to see Andres Segovia, he begged his parents for classical guitar lessons. As a teen he studied in the Jazzmobile education program in Harlem and continued to pick away at the banjo and mandolin on the side. Peter has spent the last few decades working with and sharing the stage with folks like Pete Seeger, Jay Unger and Molly Mason, Judy Collins, Utah Phillips, and Noel Paul Stookey of Peter Paul and Mary. He recorded with Pete Seeger on the Grammy award winning album “Tomorrow’s Children” and his works are published  in Sing Out! magazine and the fiddle tune compilation, The Portland Collection. His family recording Peace Place won a Parents Choice Award in 2012. He currently teaches K-5 music in the Keene School District.

Music-in-the-Schools, Youth Orchestra, violin

Heather was born and raised in El Paso, TX, where music became the foundation for her continuing studies at Bennington College. At 16, she began playing with the El Paso Symphony under the direction of Gurer Aykal, an opportunity which prompted the beginning of her professional career. During her time at Bennington, Heather worked closely with emerging composers, performing a countless number of new works. As first violinist of the Bennington College String Quartet, she traveled with the group to perform and teach in Kingston, Jamaica, and the Czech Republic. Today, Heather continues to promote new music as a regular performer for Brooklyn Emerging Artists, as well as the experimental folk band, Horse’s Mouth. She has recently returned to the southern Vermont area having spent the past several years teaching both group and private violin classes in New York City. Heather is dedicated to nurturing passion, dedication, and enthusiasm in all her students to maintain a healthy balance of technical proficiency and musical integrity.

fiddle, youth traditional music classes

Laurel Swift is a musician, singer, dancer, and an inspiring instigator of creative new projects and performances rooted in the folk arts. She performs on double bass, and clog dances with her band Gadarene and plays fiddle with the ceilidh band The Gloworms. Laurel has choreographed and devised national touring dance productions for Morris Offspring, co-created and performed Under Her Skin with Debs Newbold, advised film and theater companies on using folk music and dance material.  She also teaches folk music, with particular focus on helping people find ownership of our shared traditions through creative approaches to variation, ensemble skills, and simply having a good time! Laurel founded Shotting Roots, a youth folk arts development project, has taught for many education programs including London Youth Folk Ensemble, The Mary Neal Project, Brigstowe Village Band, and West London Folk Band. Since arriving in the USA in 2023, she has somehow managed to perform in both the Cambridge Revels and Revels North, play for a bunch of exhilarating ceilidhs, and teach fiddle, song, morris, and clog at a wide range of camps and local events! 

fiddle, traditional music classes, Northern Roots Traditional Music Festival.

Becky’s fiddle playing and repertoire combines elements of traditional Irish and French Canadian music. She is a veteran of the New England contra dance scene and has performed and traveled widely. Becky began playing for contra dancing in Maine, bending her early classical training to the demands of dance music. Later, she studied Irish fiddling styles with Brendan Mulvihill and Eugene O’Donnel and French Canadian fiddling with Lisa Ornstein. She has been a defining presence in some of the most popular and innovative contra dance bands to come out of New England, being the fiddler for both Wild Asparagus and Nightingale.

classical guitar, lute

B.A., Harvard College; M.F.A. in Early Music, Sarah Lawrence College; graduate of the Kodaly Pedagogical Institute, Hungary; studied with Peter Pears at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, England. Richard, who won a national guitar competition in Washington, D.C., specializes in accompanying singers. He taught both guitar and solfege at Castleton State College for 23 years. He has performed widely and has also taught at Tufts, Sarah Lawrence, Concordia, Central Connecticut State, and Green Mountain College.  Ullman can be heard playing in the movie Meet the Parents.

voice

Junko Watanabe, soprano, has performed widely in operas, oratorios, and recitals in the U.S. and her native Japan, and she has been featured as a soloist with the Boston Lyric Opera, Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, New England Bach Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival. Her recent performances include recitals of Schubert songs, a chamber concert with an all-Bach program, musical theater songs at a “Cabaret Night” fundraiser concert, and various contemporary songs at the Five College New Music Festival. She enjoys teaching singers of all ages and levels, and helping them to discover their voice, develop better vocal techniques, maintain healthy singing, prepare for auditions, and express themselves through music. She holds master’s degrees in opera performance from Osaka College of Music and Longy School of Music. She was a finalist in the Oratorio Society of New York Solo Competition and winner of the NATS competition Professional Division.