New England Suzuki Institute

Clorinda Noyes - Director

Clorinda Noyes teaches from her home studio in Portland (ME) with her cellist husband where she has been established since 1983. She is a violinist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. She and her husband form the duo core of "Encore!" a service providing classical music for special occasions. Originally from Long Island, NY, she has had private Suzuki studios in Arlington Heights, Illinois and in Brewer, ME. She and husband Dick have three adult children, all professional musicians. Her Suzuki training has been with John Kendall, Helen Brunner, and Ronda Cole. She attended Hartt College of Music, University of Hartford, (CT) for several years, and then acquired her BA degree from the State University of New York at Albany. She has directed the New England Suzuki Institute since June 1989 and has been a faculty member of the Western Massachusetts Suzuki Institute in Northampton, MA since July of 1995 and the Greater Washington Suzuki Institute since 2004.

Carlough Faulkner-Carroll - Violin Faculy

Carlough Faulkner-Carroll has been very active in the Suzuki community since moving to Boston in 1997. She has been a board member of the Massachusetts chapter of the Suzuki Association of the Americas since 2001, first as the director of the Massachusetts Suzuki Festival, then as volunteer coordinator, and currently as the president of this regional organization. Carlough has had Suzuki training with Ronda Cole, Edmund Sprunger, and Ed Kreitman among others, and recently completed long-term teacher training with Teri Einfeldt. She also holds performance degrees from New England Conservatory and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a winner of the School of Music Concerto Competition. As a soloist, Carlough has performed the concertos of Barber and Sibelius, and has performed many recitals and chamber concerts. At the moment, her performing is focused on Hungarian and Transylvanian village music. She resides and teaches in Bedford, MA, with her husband, her new baby boy, and pet corgi, where she gets inspiration and joy daily from her 40 students.

Susan Fuller - Violin Faculy

Susan Fuller received her Masters in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan and her Bachelor of Music degree from Vanderbilt University with majors in Violin Performance and German. She has participated in many music festivals including the Meadowmount School for Strings, Encore, and the Aspen Music Festival where she served as Concertmaster of the American Academy of Conducting Orchestra. She has soloed with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, the Vanderbilt University Orchestra, the Evansville Philharmonic and the Southeastern University Chamber Orchestra. She has competed at the State, Regional and National level in the Music Teachers National Association Competition. In 2003, she was runner-up at the national competition in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her performances were described by Paul Kantor, Professor of Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music, as "of the highest technical level with the ability to establish an immediate rapport with audiences and speak to them through her artistry." Her main teachers have been Paul Kantor, Christian Teal, and Carol Dallinger. Before moving to the DC area, Susan served as Assistant Professor of Music at Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL and is also a faculty member of the Tennessee Valley Music Festival and Western Kentucky University's Suzuki String Festival. Susan is currently the chair of the Suzuki Strings Department at the Levine School of Music where she teaches Suzuki and traditional violin.

Joanne Henderson - Violin Faculy

Joanne Henderson grew up in Edwardsville, Illinois. She teaches Suzuki violin and directs the Suzuki Ensemble violin group at the Community Music School of Webster University in St. Louis. Under her direction, the Suzuki Ensemble has performed in the St. Louis area and has traveled to Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Europe. She received her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, cum laude, from Lawrence University Conservatory. Her M.M. is in Violin Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she completed Suzuki teacher training with William Starr. Other instructors have included John Kendall and Calvin Wiersma. Ms. Henderson has taught privately in Boulder, Colorado, served on the violin faculty as String Coordinator at the Lawrence Arts Academy in Appleton, Wisconsin, and was an elementary string specialist at Ladue and Webster Groves school districts in St. Louis. She also enjoys teaching at music institutes and workshops. She recently got engaged to a wonderful man and is looking forward to a 2008 wedding!

Betsy Kobayashi - Violin Faculy

Betsy Kobayashi B.A. University of New Hampshire, studied with Shinichi Suzuki and graduated from Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan. She maintains a studio in the Augusta area where she has taught for 13 years. She is director of Pineland Suzuki School in Augusta. She has been active in the Maine Suzuki Association, co-directing the fall workshop for several years and starting a Sonata Festival for advanced students.

Rachel Noyes - Violin Faculy

Rachel Noyes earned her Masters in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy at University of Maryland, College Park, where she was a student of Ronda Cole and David Salness, and her Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music with academic honors, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and David Updegraff. She has participated at festivals such as Tanglewood's BUTI program, Musicorda (MA), and the Aspen (CO) Center for Quartet Studies. Rachel has had extensive experience as a chamber musician. As a founding violinist of the Chiara Quartet, she studied with members of the American, Audubon, Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, and Orion string quartets. Born into a musical family, she began playing the violin at the age of three in her mother's Suzuki program. She enjoys performing both chamber and orchestral music and is currently freelancing and teaching in the DC area.

Beverly Shin - Violin Faculy

Beverly Shin made her solo debut with the Houston Symphony at age 17 and has since appeared with numerous orchestras throughout the United States. As an active chamber musician, she has performed at Bargemusic, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Yellow Barn, and Kneisel Hall. Recently she completed a residency at the Interlochen Arts Academy with the Avalon Quartet. She is also a member of the IRIS Orchestra and a frequent guest performer with the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra. An avid proponent of music by living composers, she has also performed frequently with Boston Musica Viva, the Harvard Group for New Music, and Boston's Callithumpian Consort.

Ms. Shin has been a Teaching Artist for the Philadelphia Orchestra and is currently on the chamber music faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. She has also been Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Memphis and Donald Weilerstein's teaching assistant at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Ms. Shin has a pending doctorate from the New England Conservatory of Music, as well as Master's Degrees in both Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Nathan Kolosko - Suzuki Guitar Faculty

Nathan Kolosko B.M., University of Buffalo; M.M., University of Denver. Studies with Joanne Castollani, Ricardo Iznaola, Jonathan Leathwood, Masakazu Ito. Master classes with Oscar Ghiglia, Marco Socias, Ignacio Rodes, Stanley Yates, John Holmquist, Sharon Isbin, and Christopher Parkening. 2003 premier of Ricardo Iznaola's "Blood Wedding" score. Grants from Allied Arts Foundation, D'Addario Strings. Winner in the MTNA national guitar competition. Faculty, Bowdoin Music Festival. For more detail, visit Nathan's website at www.nathankolosko.com

Dick Noyes - Cello Faculty

Dick Noyes attended the Hartt College of Music, University of Hartford (CT), then acquired a BA from the State University of New York at Albany, and went on to earn a Master of Music from the University of Maine, Orono. His Suzuki teacher training was with Jean Dexter and Yvonne Tait. He was the public school string instrumental teacher for Brewer, ME public schools from 1975-1983 and then held the same position in the Windham, ME public schools from 1983-1992. He conducted the Portland Youth Symphony and its string training orchestra component from Sept 1983 to June 1997. He has held the assistant principal cello chair position of the Portland Symphony Orchestra since September 1983 and is a cellist with PORT, the opera in Maine. He is founder and performer for Encore! providing music for special occasions. He has had a private Suzuki cello studio in Portland since 1983. He has been a faculty member of the New England Suzuki Institute since the late 1980's and of the Western Massachusetts Suzuki Institute in Northampton since July 1999.

Malgosia Lis - Piano Faculty

Malgosia Lis earned her MM in piano pedagogy at the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poland. She has given numerous recitals in the United States, Poland and France. She is a faculty member of the Hartt Community Division and piano coordinator for the Hartt Suzuki Institute. Her Suzuki training has been with Yasuko Joichi, Francoise Pierredon and Doris Koppelman. She has been a NESI faculty member since 2003.

Anthony Antolini, PhD

Anthony Antolini, PhD, is currently on the faculty at Bowdoin College, where he conducts the Bowdoin Chorus and teaches music theory. His specialty is Russian choral music. In 1988, he published the first modern edition of Sergei Rachmaninoff's 'Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom' and toured the east coast of the US and major cities in the former USSR with acclaimed performances of the work. His award-winning documentary, 'Rediscovering Rachmaninoff', has been aired nationally on public television and is being broadcast overseas. Antolini is also the music director at St. John's Church in Thomaston. Tony was named the Maine ACDA Distinguished Choral Director for 1999-2000. In the summer of 2002 he conducted the Rachmaninoff Festival Choir in a concert tour of Russia with performances in Siberia and the Russian Far East. In May of 2003 he received the Bowdoin College Alumni Award for Faculty and Staff. In February 2008, he was a featured speaker on Greek Choral Music at the Eastern Division Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Hartford, Conn. He is currently working on a new bilingual edition of Stravinsky's 'Les Noces' (The Village Wedding). He also hosts a weekly radio show about vocal music around the world called 'Casa Antolini' on WRFR-LP in Rockland. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College and holds graduate degrees from Stanford University. He is editor of Russian choral music published by E.C. Schirmer-Boston and of the Icons in Sound series published by Paraclete Press. He has been a NESI faculty member since 1997.

Nancy Cash-Cobb

Nancy Cash-Cobb has been teaching general music for 29 years. She is currently a general music teacher for the Windham School Department in Windham, Maine. In 1999, she was named Maine Music Educator of the Year. Nancy is president of the Maine chapter, American Orff-Schulwerk Association and the conference chairperson for the Maine Music Educators Association. She holds a M.Ed from USM and a Level 3 Certification in Orff-Schulwerk from the University of Illinois. She is a NESI faculty member since 1989 and a member of the board of directors since 2006.

Ellen Gawler

Ellen Gawler is a celebrated fiddler conversant in many styles of fiddling including New England, Quebecois, Irish, Scottish and Maritime. She began fiddling at a young age traveling to Ireland, Britain, and the Shetland Islands to study with the masters and collect tunes. She has toured the Northeast, Northwest and Europe and has recorded on 8 occasions with groups such as Pineland Fiddlers, Village Harmony, The Gawler Family, Trillium, and Childsplay. She is a Suzuki violin/fiddle teacher of two decades and teaches at fiddle workshops, music camps and at her home in Belgrade. She has been on the NESI faculty since 1992.

Chiharu Naruse

Chiharu Naruse, born in Itami City, Japan, began studying piano at age 4. She attended the Hans Eisler Hochschule Fur Musik, studying with Klaus Bassler, earning a MM in Music Performance as well as an MM in Music Education. While in Berlin, Chiharu performed recitals on a regular basis including a concert to benefit Amnesty International. Chiharu also participated in numerous piano competitions throughout Europe including the Clara Haskin in Switzerland, Peccary Academia Piano Competition in Italy, and the International Mozart Wettbewerb in Salzburg, Austria. In the spring of 2002, Chiharu moved to the United States to study with Frank Glazer. A member of the faculty of the Portland Conservatory of Music, Chiharu has given several recitals at Bates College, played concerts with the Portland String Quartet, the Daponte String Quartet and Frank Glazer, performed Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, Mozart Piano Concert K466 and the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto with the Augusta Symphony, performed as a featured artist at the Ocean Park Music Festival and the Franco-American Heritage Center and recently concluded concert tours of France and Japan.

Benjamin Noyes

Benjamin Noyes grew up in Portland, inheriting a rich musical/pedagogical heritage from his parents. He found local acclaim immediately and while attending Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, Irene Sharp invited him to study in San Francisco where he attended the School of the Arts and San Francisco Conservatory's preparatory division. He won numerous awards, including top prizes in NFAA's ARTS Recognition, National Federation of Music Clubs, and National ASTA competitions, as well as being selected by Yo-Yo Ma to participate as soloist and recitalist throughout China to perform with the Beijing, Chengdu, Shenzen and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras. As a fellowship recipient he attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, Yale's Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Sarasota Chamber Music Festival, the Aspen Festival, and Meadowmount. As an undergraduate, he attended Eastman School of Music, received his BM from Rice University and his MM from Northwestern University where he participated in the Chicago Symphony's Civic Orchestra program playing under maestros Pierre Boulez, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Daniel Barenboim, amongst others. He held a position with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and various summer opera orchestras for five years before moving to Virginia to focus on teaching and performing. A multi-faceted individual, Benjamin has as many talents as interests. Currently playing with the Roanoke Symphony, Roanoke Opera Orchestra, he also holds a position as principal cello with the Miami Symphony, is adjunct faculty at Randolph College in Lynchburg, maintains a private studio and continues to garner acclaim for performances of solo recital programs, chamber ensemble concerts as well as various non-classical ventures. Pursuing the artist's life has led him to collaborations and performances throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, as well as teaching, coaching, and motivating individuals of all ages and professions. He also finds joy in many areas including but not limited to composing, recording, producing, drawing and writing.

Chuck Speicher

Chuck Speicher currently teaches piano privately from his home studio in Montclair, New Jersey and is keyboard and technology director for "Little Kids Rock", a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching instrumental music in hundreds of public schools across the country. He was Suzuki piano coordinator for Montclair State University Preparatory Center for the Arts between 1996 and 2005, also teaching music history and music theory. His guest teaching and performing engagements have included the Wellington Suzuki Workshop in New Zealand, the Suzuki Institute of Alaska, the International Music Festival in Ohio, the South Carolina Suzuki Institute at Furman University, the New England Suzuki Institute in Maine, the Summer Jazz Workshop at Montclair State University, and the Stokes State Forest Music Festival in New Jersey. In 2006 he was a judge in the Alaska State MTNA piano competition and adjudicator for piano students in the cities of Anchorage and Homer. Chuck freelances regularly on piano and keyboard and in 2002 traveled with the "Crazy Energy Orchestra" to Morocco to perform at the wedding of King Mohammad VI. He also performs throughout New York and New Jersey with jazz guitarist Ritchie Duraney and has had solo piano performances at New Jersey Festival of the Atlantic, William Patterson University and Montclair State University. In 1989 Chuck was the recipient of the New Jersey State Governor's Award in Arts Education.

Martha Shackford - Teacher Trainer

Martha Shackford currently lives in Portland, OR, where she teaches at the Oregon Suzuki Talent Education Center. She is a violin teacher trainer for the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and offers a 2-year course for violin and viola for area teachers. She has had private studios in Philadelphia, PA, Fayetteville, AK, the Washington DC area, and Mount Vernon, IA. She has taught in inner city public schools, conducted youth orchestras, directed and founded a Suzuki School at the University of Arkansas, served on the board of directors of many organizations, been involved in several Latin American Suzuki projects, writes for professional journals, and travels extensively doing Suzuki workshops and summer institutes. Martha particularly enjoys reading, knitting, movies, meditating, socializing, hiking, and traveling. Her greatest passion is in finding ways to develop community. She is currently working on creating the Portland Suzuki Project, a center for teachers and families that focuses on bringing the Suzuki Approach to low-income families.

Kaity Newell

Kaity Newell teaches Suzuki violin and fiddling at her home in Damariscotta, Maine. She teaches music at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb, Maine, is co-founder and manager of the Seacoast Youth and Community Orchestras and teaches at the Maine Fiddle camp. She loves to teach the old time country-dance music to new generations. She has been on the NESI faculty since 1992.