Junior Program Director, is originally from Seattle. She attended Central Washington University where she received many awards including the Farrell Merit Scholarship for a survey of non-standard viola repertoire. She has a masters in viola performance from the University of Washington, where she is currently a doctoral candidate. She performs regularly in Seattle, with Affinity Chamber Players and other ensembles, and collaborates with many local composers as both a performer and as a music editor & copyist.
— Josiah Boothby plays French horn in the Seattle Chamber Brass. He is a graduate student at the University of Washington where he studies with Professor David Kappy. An active performer and teacher in the Seattle area, Josiah is known as a versatile musician, with experience playing rock, jazz, and freely improvised music in addition to classical repertoire. He regularly plays with the Bellevue Philharmonic, the Tacoma Symphony, and the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra.
— equally at home with viola and piano, Annie enjoys an international career as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. She has performed as piano soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. As violist, she has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Olympic, Utah, Prague, Red Rocks, and Music In The Mountains Festivals. She has also performed with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, Emerson, Cleveland, Philadelphia string quartets. Annie holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and San Francisco Conservatory. Her major teachers include Robert Schultz, Paul Hersh, Isadore Tinkelman, Robert Weirich, and Paul Coletti.
For ten years, Mrs. Center was the assistant principal violist of the Phoenix Symphony. She was also the principal violist of the Phoenix Symphony Sinfonietta and the Arizona Chamber Orchestra for which she performed regularly as a viola soloist. While she lived in Arizona, she was the pianist of the Concorda Trio with her cellist husband, Michael Center and violinist Dana Pasley. Currently she is the marketing director and a faculty member of the Academy Of Music Northwest.
— Jan Coleman is director of the Coleman Violin Studio, where she she specializes in teaching form, release of tension, body balance, movement and expression to students of all levels from all over Puget Sound. Other Coleman Studio teachers include Simon James and Elisa Barston. Coleman Studio students have won top awards, including in the Seattle Music Teachers Association Simon-Fiset String Competition, have gone on to study at prestigious conservatories, and have performed as soloists with numerous orchestras, including the Houston Symphony, the Bellevue Symphony, and Philharmonia Northwest.
inclines towards the more imaginative slopes of the classical
spectrum: early/historical performance music, and contemporary music. His
youthful studies took him to Indiana University and the Curtis Institute, in
Philadelphia. Dr. Creswell has had the privilege of working with many great
musicians, including Anner Bylsma, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gustav Leohnhardt,
Abraham Skernick, and the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets. He currently performs
with the Northwest Sinfonietta, Seattle New Music Ensemble, and the baroque
orchestras of Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, B.C. Dr. Creswell teaches as
Adjunct Professor of Violin at Seattle University, is a member of the Annas Bay
Musicians group, and frequently acts as concertmaster for the Seattle Choral
Company and Seattle Pro Musica. In the past summers, he has performed chamber
music at Cascade Early Music Festival in Leavenworth with flutist Jeffrey Cohan,
historical guitarist Oleg Timofeyev, gamba player Susie Napper, and
lutenist/leader Stephen Stubbs. This season in Seattle, Dr. Creswell will
present several contemporary music recitals, in addition to resuming his Walk
to Bach
series after a two-child hiatus.
B.A. with High Honors Michigan State University. Performance studies at Interlochen, University of Michigan, Music Academy of the West-Santa Barbara, and North Carolina School of the Arts. Cello performance and pedagogical studies with Louis Potter, Peter Rejto, Gabor Rejto, Ittalo Babini, and Raya Garbousova. Chamber music studies with Walter Verdehr, Max Rabinowicz, and Savely Shuster. Private cello teacher, performer, chamber music coach, and music history teacher. Conductor, Primo Strings Youth Orchestra. Celllist, St. Louis Municipal Opera Orchestra. Principal cellist, St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra. Principal cellist, Summer Music Festival-Wolf Trap Farm National Park for the Performing Arts. Director and Chamber Music Ensembles Chair, AMN. Yoga instructor (CYT, E-RYT) and teacher of Yoga for Musicians workshops.
Bonnie met her husband, Bruce, an engineer and violinist, in her high school string quartet. They have been married for 36 years and have 11 children and 3 grandchildren, causing her to utter remarks, such as: "Life would be a mistake without chamber music!" and "Chamber ensembles change lives!"
, has performed throughout the United States, Austria, China and Mexico. She received her Bachelors in Viola Performance from the University of the Pacific, and Masters in Viola Performance from the University of Arizona . She did further studies in Vienna, Austria . Her primary teachers include Joyce Ramée, Dr. Michael Allard, Hong-Mei Xiao, and Gertrude Rossbacher, former violist with the Berlin Philharmonic. Currently free-lancing throughout Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, Jennifer regularly performs with the Yakima and Federal Way Symphonies, Seattle Choral Company and Puget Sound Concert Opera. She is also involved in film and videogame soundtrack recordings and coaching chamber music at Academy of Music Northwest.
performed extensively as piano soloist both in the US and Europe, including with the San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony in Washington, DC, the Houston Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Denver Symphony, the BBC orchestras in Scotland and Wales, the New Philharmonia of London and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. She also gave many recitals in London and throughout Great Britain before retiring from the concert stage. She returned to the US ten years ago, and focuses now on teaching and accompanying.
Dr. Eric Flesher, DMA, Provost — Eric studied composition with Joël-François Durand, (University of Washington), Paul-Heinz Dittrich (Künstlerisch-weiterbildendes Studium, Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin), Alexander Goehr (M. Phil., Univ. of Cambridge), and Aurelio de la Vega (B.M., California State Univ. Northridge). Additional studies in master classes with Aaron Jay Kernis, Jukka Tiensuu, Gerhard Stäblear, and Charles Wuorinen. His compositions have been performed widely in both Europe and the United States, and have appeared at such festivals as June in Buffalo, Bumbershoot (Seattle), and the Brandenburg Colloquium for New Music. Prizes include honors from the Internationaler Wettbewerb für Neue Musik (Rheinsberg, Germany) for his composition To Sleep, Perchance and the Hanns Eisler Preis (Berlin) for InSolve. In 2002, he was awarded the Franz Liszt Stipendium by the Hochschüle für Musik "Franz Liszt" in Weimar, Germany, where he lived as a guest composer-in-residence for 4 months.
— Former Music Director of the Dover Symphony, the Weierstrass Society Concerts of New York and the Bellevue Youth Symphony. He has conducted throughout Europe with the Zaccho Festival Orchestra and as Conductor-in-Residence for Jeunesse Musicale. Locally, Mr. Futterman is the Music Director of the Peninsula Ballet Orchestra, the Bremerton Symphony Orchestra and served on the faculty of Central Washington University for over 10 years. Mr. Futterman holds a Master's Degree from the Juilliard School and a Bachelor's Degree from the Manhattan School of Music. As a Doctoral candidate, he served as Assistant Conductor to Maestro Vladimir Kin of St. Petersburg and participated in master classes with Sir Georg Solti and Leonard Bernstein. An active composer, Mr. Futterman's works include Farrago and Fugue, the World Beat Dance Suites I and II and the Fiesta Mexicana, all commissioned by the Yakima Symphony.
— performs widely as cellist and composer, having had premieres of his works across North America, as well as in Germany, Romania, and Japan. He has been a featured performer on KEXP, KBOO (Portland) KBCS, and Performance Today (NPR). After representing Indiana University as student performer in a tour of contemporary music, Brad moved to Seattle in 1999 and formed the Seattle New Music Ensemble. Since that time, he has lectured on contemporary electronic string techniques at the Freiburg Hohschule Für Musik, written two film scores, numerous pieces for chamber groups and choral ensembles, works for theater, ballet, and jazz groups. Brad has also toured in support of a recent CD of experimental improvisational music and performed at the National Oldtime Fiddler Championships in Weiser, Idaho (not the same tour nor the same music).
— Adam holds degrees in composition from Western Washington University (BM) and Indiana University (MM and DMA). He has participated in the Aspen Music Festival, Bang on a Can Music Festival, and received performances at Bowling Green State University's New Music Festival, and the Prishtina DAM Festival in Kosovo. Performing groups include the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Kuttner String Quartet, Color Field Ensemble, and readings by members of the Cleveland Orchestra. He enjoyed several Wagnerian summers interning with Seattle Opera's education department and has worked frequently as a copyist. In his spare time, Adam enjoys hiking, films, his rambunctious cats, and every genre of music he has thus far encountered.
— Australian violinist Simon James has performed around the world as a soloist and chamber musician. He is currently the Second Assistant Concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, where he has often also performed as a soloist and served as concertmaster. In addition, he serves as concertmaster of the Seattle Chamber Orchestra, has performed as guest concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony, and has led the Seattle Opera orchestra on many recent productions. Mr James is an active teacher with a large studio of gifted students and is the newest addition to the highly regarded Coleman Studio. He performs on a violin made by J.B.Vuillaume in Paris in 1860.
— Dorothy Klotzman co-founded the Academy of Music Northwest with Dr. James Paul and Dee Wells in 1997. Composer, Conductor. B.S., M.S., The Juilliard School; Director, Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn College; Executive Director, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College. Recipient of the Danforth Foundation's "Harbison Award for Gifted Teaching." Member: ASCAP. Clarinet, piano, composition. Dorothy is currently on sabatical to complete an opera based on a book by renowned author, Jonathan Spence.
Allyson received a Bachelor of Music degree in performance from Western Washington University in 1984, and a Master of Music from the University of Minnesota in 1988. Allyson loves working with musicians at every age and level, whether it be teaching in her private studio, accompanying, or facilitating music programs at church. As an accompanist, she works with teachers' studios in the Seattle area, WMEA Solo and Ensemble Contest, Seattle Young Artists Adjudications, and has also served as accompanist for the Japan Seattle Suzuki Institute since 2000. She is also the founder and director of a summer chamber music camp, Vivace! Chamber Players, which holds chamber ensemble, choir, orchestra, and piano ensemble classes and performances for over 100 students between the ages of 5 and college every August at Seattle Pacific University. Allyson is delighted to be working with AMNW overseeing their chamber music program..
, violinist/violist, has been in demand as a performer and pedagogue since returning to the Northwest 5 years ago. She received her Bachelors in Violin Performance at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. She also joined the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra in Taipei, Taiwan, before attending the University of Washington where she received a Masters Degree in Violin Performance. Ms. Liu previously served on the faculty at the New Heart School of Music, in Houston, Texas and Moments Musicaux, in Taipei, Taiwan, and directed the Formosa Youth Orchestra, performing with sponsored concerts at the recital hall at Benaroya Hall. An active performer, Ms. Liu can be heard through the Lully Piano Trio, free-lancing with local orchestras and the recording music industry, and the violin-guitar duo, Tutti Dolce, with her husband, Chris Liu. They have a one-year old daughter, and currently reside in Shoreline, Washington.
— Piano, Organ Harpsichord / Teacher / performer / Choral Conductor, Suzuki piano teacher. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Leslie Martin is adjunct professor of organ, harpsichord, and piano proficiency at Seattle Pacific University. His registered Suzuki training includes: Every Child Can!, Piano Book 1, Piano Book 2, From Sound to Symbol: A Natural Approach to Music Reading in Piano Book 1, From Known to Unknown: A Natural Approach to Music Reading in Piano Book 2.
He has performed organ recitals in many European cities including Geneva, Uppsala, Monopoli, Martignano, Sirolo, and Rome, and has appeared as featured recitalist at European music festivals such as the Stagione Concertistica Internazionale d’Organo (Associazione ARS ORGANI “Girolamo Frescobaldi”) in Lecce (2001 and 2009); the Accademia Organistica Elpidiense in Sant’ Elpidio a Mare, and the prestigious Festival International de l’Orgue Ancien, in Sion, Switzerland (1995 and 2007), performing there on the world’s oldest playable organ, dating from 1435.
He holds masters degrees in both organ performance and choral conducting from the University of Oregon, where he graduated as a Pi Kappa Lambda scholar. He has appeared as guest conductor, organist and harpsichordist with many Seattle-based orchestras including Philharmonia Northwest, Thalia Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra. He was principal harpsichordist with Seattle’s renowned Northwest Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Joseph Silverstein, and continues to be in demand as a continuo player, appearing with ensembles such as Choral Arts, and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
One of his great loves is performing the cantata literature of the baroque period. Having done extensive study in the instrumental and vocal performance practices of the baroque era, he takes great pleasure in bringing this magnificent music to life with his musical colleagues. To this end he was engaged in a project, which began in 2008, of presenting a series of Bach cantatas performed on baroque period instruments at the Evensong services at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Seattle, where he was Director of Music.
During his career he has been organist and choirmaster for Episcopal churches in Washington, Texas, and Connecticut, and has also served on the keyboard faculty of the University of Washington.
He enjoys balancing his musical activities with fly-fishing, hiking, and canoeing with his wife, Laura Martin, who is also a Suzuki violin and viola teacher.
— DMA in Historical Performance Practice, University of Washington (1/2 completed at Stanford but invited to teach for a UW faculty on sabatical, so finished his DMA there); M.A., Composition, University of Washington; B.A. in Music, Lewis and Clark College, Oregon; Graduate, Royal School of Church Music, England. Professor, United States International University, San Diego; Adjunct Professor in Comprehensive Musicianship, San Diego State University. Music Producer, National Public Radio. Founder and Director, Early Music Ensemble, a world touring ensemble for 20 years. Choral Conductor.
— Piano Chair, has enjoyed a career of teaching, performing, accompanying, lecturing and master classes in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. During his tenure in the U. of Calgary, he was responsible for developing the Masters Degree program in Piano Performance and the parallel program in Performance/Pedagogy for piano. He was for one academic year Visiting Professor and Artist Teacher in WSU; Head of Piano in Wuhan Conservatory of Music, PR of China, for three semesters; 2 summers in South Bohemia Festivals Czech Republic; presenter in conventions in U.S., Canada, London UK, Canberra, Australia. Since 1994 he has been a regular faculty member and performer in Adamant Summer School for Pianists,VT, and is currently Chair of Piano AMNW. Many of his former students are successfully involved in the music profession in universities, music schools in U.S., Canada, and PR of China. He maintains a studio in North Seattle, serves on the Music Advisory Panel of SYAMF.
Music Director, Seattle Symphony (1985-2011) is one of the leading conductors of his generation; recognized internationally for his innovative programming and renowned recording history. During his twenty-five year leadership with the Seattle Symphony he has passionately advocated for American composers with many performances and recordings of their works. His over 260 releases include collaborations with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Tokyo, Czech, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, London Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, and the New York Chamber Orchestra. As a strong advocate for music education, Maestro Schwarz built an impressive education program for children and youth at the Seattle Symphony. Maestro & Mrs. (Jody) Schwarz' son, Julian, an award winning cellist, is an Academy alumnus, currently at The Colburn School in CA.
— Dr. Julia Tai has established herself as one of the most capable young conductors on the international stage. Her career has led to acclaimed performances and rehearsals with professional and youth orchestras around the world, including the American Youth Symphony, Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Brandenburger Symphoniker (Germany), Estonian National Youth Symphony (Estonia), New Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria), and Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Charlos Chávez (Mexico). She is currently the Music Director of Philharmonia Northwest, and is recognized locally as a prominent innovator of Seattle’s music scene, having premiered many works with the Seattle Chamber Players, Seattle Experimental Opera, and the Affinity Ensemble of the Washington Composers Forum. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. Tai is the founder and co-artistic director of the Seattle Modern Orchestra. She has worked with legendary composers such as Jonathan Harvey and Tristan Murail. In September 2009, Dr. Tai was selected as a quarter finalist in the fourth Eduardo Mata International Conducting Competition in Mexico, and in March 2011, she was selected to conduct the Brandenburger Symphoniker as part of the audition for the ninth INTERAKTION conducting workshop held in Berlin, Germany.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Dr. Tai began her violin studies at age four and piano at eight. She received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where she was honored with the departmental award of "Outstanding Graduate of 2004." She obtained her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Washington, where she served as the principal conductor of the Contemporary Ensemble, the assistant conductor of the University Symphony, and conducted the UW Opera in their productions of Mozart's La finta giardiniera and Kurt Weill's Die sieben Todsünden. She has studied with renowned teachers such as Neeme Järvi, Daniel Lewis, Gustav Meier, Otto-Werner Müller, Jorma Panula, and Larry Rachleff. Her principal conducting teachers were Peter Erös and Jorge Mester.
— Dee co-founded the Academy with Dorothy Klotzman and Dr. Jim Paul in 1997, following a forty-year career in the computer world, working in systems analysis and design. Her experience in business application design, implementation, documentation and management; in hiring, training, and supervising programming and design staff, along with a life-long love of classical music have led her to become the organizational backbone of the Academy, as well as one of its visionary founders.
Nathan Whittaker, DMA —Before joining the Academy, Nathan served on the faculty of the Indiana University String Academy. He performed as principal cellist for the Columbus, Indiana Philharmonic and associate principal cellist with the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra. He performs regularly in early music festivals in the US, Canada, and Europe. Regionally, Nathan is a member of both the Seattle and Pacific Baroque Orchestras, and teaches at Cornish. He holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Cello Performance from the University of Indiana, and was a DMA candidate in cello performance with Toby Saks at the University of Washington Nathan successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in February 2012.
Saturday classes and ensembles are held weekly in Bothell.
Academy Chamber Orchestra (ACO) rehearsals are held weekly in Seattle.
(425) 778-7711 · info@amnw.org
