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Faculty
Faculty by Last Name
Burdett, Kimberley | Burleson, Brett | Edwards, Richard | Gaedeke-Riegel, Turid | Gamso, Nancy | Griffin, Larry | Griffith, Robert | Hiester, Jason | Kaneda, Mariko | Malone, Michael | McCann, Kimberly | Needham, Clint | Nims, Marilyn | Nims, Robert | Niwa, David | Chao, Pei-An | Roden, Timothy | Szabo, Peter | Pfeifer Karen | Gulimina Mahamuti
Faculty by Area
Brass | Composition & Electronic Music | Music Education | Music History | Organ | Percussion | Piano | Strings | Voice | Woodwinds
Our music students, in unison, cite the faculty as the major strength of the music department at Ohio Wesleyan. They are, themselves, accomplished musicians who have additional talents and skills as music educators and mentors. Our students have the unique advantage of working directly with professors, rather than graduate-level teaching assistants.
Professor Robert Griffith (also an Ohio Wesleyan graduate) remembers being heavily influenced by his professors. “I think Ohio Wesleyan tends to hire people who fit into that mold—professors who are interested primarily in teaching and in being there for their students.”
Larry Griffin, D.M.A., M.M., University of Minnesota (trumpet performance); B.M.E., Virginia State University. Larry Griffin began studying trumpet under Paul Taylor, principal trumpet of the National Symphony Orchestra in Norfolk, Virginia. Larry also studied trumpet performance with Charles Schlueter, principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony, Manny Laureano, principal trumpet of the Minnesota Orchestra, and David Baldwin, professor of trumpet at the University of Minnesota. Larry Griffin is a professor of music and the director of bands at Ohio Wesleyan University. In addition to conducting the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Brass Choir, Trumpet Ensemble, Pep Band, and Park Avenue Jazz Ensemble, Griffin has an outstanding trumpet studio and teaches Instrumental Conducting and Brass Methods. Griffin has toured extensively as a soloist and clinician, including a 1981 China tour, and continues to teach and perform at the International Music Camp in Manitoba, Canada (1990-20011). In addition, Griffin is an active guest conductor throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. Dr. Griffin is a freelance musician, clinician and education specialist for the Conn/Selmer/Leblanc Instrument Company Inc. performing on Selmer, Leblanc, and Vintage One Trumpets. Larry has performed with the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra, Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and the Columbus Jazz Orchestra. Aside from performing, Griffin maintains a private studio. He enjoys helping young trumpet players develop their talents and explore creativity through music. Dr. Griffin strives to provide students with an exciting environment to learn the fundamentals of music performance.
Horn
Kimberly M. McCann, horn earned a Bachelor of Music Degree from Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in Wheaton, Illinois. She went on to earn a Masters Degree in Horn Performance from Northwestern University, where she studied with Dale Clevenger. During her studies in the Chicago area, she played with numerous off-broadway productions and local symphony orchestras, including Chicago’s Classical Symphony. Since moving to the Columbus area nearly 15 years ago, Ms. McCann has become a desired teacher and performer in Central Ohio. She is principal horn in the Newark Granville Symphony, Westerville Symphony Orchestra, and WindWorks chamber winds. She has been featured as a soloist with the Newark Granville Symphony, the Westerville Symphony, and the Knox County Symphony. In November 2008, Kimberly appeared with WindWorks as a soloist, premiering Beethoven’s Horn Sonata as arranged for solo horn and wind accompaniment. She has also made appearances with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra as an offstage soloist, and Mannheim Steamroller.
Ms. McCann is also Adjunct Professor of Horn at Capital University, Otterbein College, Kenyon College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and maintains a small private studio.
COMPOSITION / ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Clint Needham, D.M, M.M., Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, B.M. Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory. Dr. Needham teaches Composition, Electronic Music, and Music Theory at OWU. Dr. Needham earned his doctorate degree from Indiana University, where he was a four-year Jacobs School of Music Doctoral Fellow in composition, and has studied with Claude Baker, Loris Chobanian, David Dzubay, Don Freund, Michael Gandolfi, Per Mårtensson, Sven-David Sandström, and Richard Wernick. He has also studied with Robert Beaser, Syd Hodkinson, Christopher Rouse, and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music Festival as a Susan and Ford Schumann composition fellow and with Mario Davidovsky at the Wellesley Composers Conference as a composition fellow. Recently named recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Dr. Needham’s music has been recognized with two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, the William Schuman Prize/BMI Student Composer Award, the Jacob Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, First Prize in the International Ticheli Composition Contest, the Heckscher Prize from Ithaca College, a Lee Ettelson Composer Award and the coveted Underwood New Music Commission from the American Composers Orchestra. His music has been commissioned and performed by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Aspen Concert Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall, the Omaha Symphony, United States Air Force Band of the West, the American Brass Quintet, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and the Stanford Wind Quintet among others. Upcoming commissions and performances for the 2010-2011 year include the Minnesota Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony, Bloomington Symphony, Texarkana Symphony, and the New York Classical Players. Dr. Needham’s music is recorded on the Summit Records and Mark Masters labels and is published by the Theodore Presser Company with additional works published by Manhattan Beach Music and Triplo Press.
Richard Edwards, Ph.D., M.M., University of North Carolina at Greensboro, B.M., Ohio University. Dr. Edwards currently serves as the coordinator of music education at Ohio Wesleyan University. His course load includes supervising student teachers as well as Introduction to Music Education (MUS 108), Conducting 1 (MUS 230), Appreciation of Music (MUS 105), Elementary Music Methods (MUS 373), Secondary Music Methods (MUS 374), and Music for the Elementary Classroom (MUS 363). Dr. Edwards also serves as the chair of the Performing Arts Series at OWU.
Previously, Dr. Edwards was an assistant professor at Ithaca College where he taught music education courses and conducted the All Campus Band. He has taught public school for six years in Ohio and North Carolina teaching music in many areas and ages including concert band, marching band, jazz band, music theory, and elementary general music. He is a member of MENC, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Pi Kappa Lambda, and The College Music Society.
His research interests focus on the neuroscience and philosophy of music education. He is the creator of the Musical Brain Imaging Research Database (MusicBIRD), an ongoing project containing all peer-reviewed brain-imaging studies involving human musical processes. Dr. Edwards maintains an active schedule as a band conductor and a guest lecturer discussing the neuromusical research implications of how humans learn to be musical.
Timothy Roden, Ph.D. (Musicology), M.M., Northwestern University; B.M., Houghton College. Dr. Roden teaches music history, world music, survey of music literature, music appreciation, and occasional honors courses on musicological topics. Grants from Northwestern University and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst made it possible to spend a year in Berlin, Germany researching material for his dissertation on German orchestral lieder. Since that time he has contributed an article on Schumann’s lieder to the NATS JOURNAL, published an edition of orchestral lieder (A-R Editions, 2007), has prepared ancillaries (study guides and CD-ROMs, Instructor’s Manuals, and test banks) to accompany the past four editions of the music appreciation text LISTENING TO MUSIC (Thomson-Schirmer) by Craig Wright. Dr. Roden has also co-authored the anthologies that accompany MUSIC IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION (Thomson-Schirmer) by Craig Wright (Yale) and Bryan Simms (USC). He also serves as the Director of Graduate Fellowships and Scholarships for Ohio Wesleyan.
LIBRARIAN
Peter Szabo has been the Music Librarian at Ohio Wesleyan since 2003. He develops and maintains the Kinnison Music Library, provides reference assistance, and teaches information literacy sessions for music faculty members. In addition to his duties as the music librarian, Peter is also a part-time Public Services librarian at the main library (Beeghly) where he holds office hours and is liaison to 4 other academic departments, including: Black World Studies, ‘Ancient, Medieval, & Renaissance Studies’, Philosophy, and Religion. Peter earned his Master of Library Science degree from the University at Buffalo, and has two degrees in music (an M.A. from Eastern Illinois University, and a B.A. from Rutgers University).
ORGAN
Robert Griffith, M.M., University of Michigan; B.M., Ohio Wesleyan University; post-graduate work, University of Illinois; Licentiate Diploma in Organ Performance (L.R.A.M.), Royal Academy of Music, London, England, where he was a Fulbright Scholar; additional study at the International Summer Academy for Organists, Haarlem, Holland. Mr. Griffith was awarded second prize in the Organ Playing Competition, Fourth International Organ Festival, St. Albans, England. He has studied with Robert Glasgow, Jerald Hamilton, Douglas Hopkins, Rexford Keller, Marie-Claire Alain, and Anton Heiller and has performed in the United States, England, Germany and Holland. At Ohio Wesleyan University, where he teaches organ, he is the Marian Y. Rudd Professor of Liberal Arts and was presented the 2004 Bishop Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award.
Kimberley Burdett, D.M.A, M.M., B.M., B.M.E., The Ohio State University. Ms. Burdett teaches percussion and percussion ensemble and recently completed her doctorate in percussion performance at The Ohio State University, where she studied with Susan Powell and Joseph Krygier. She had the opportunity to perform with the OSU percussion ensemble at both the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, as well as to conduct and solo with the ensemble in various performances. Ms. Burdett has also served as a conductor and as steel band director for the Greater Columbus Youth Percussion Ensemble. Since 1997, she has been the percussion director for Teays Valley High School, where she directs the percussion ensemble and instructs and arranges for the marching percussion section, in addition to working with the drill design and instruction elements for the entire marching band. She has also been the director of the instrumental combo for the award-winning Teays Valley show choir, Prominent Rendition, since 2006.
Mariko Kaneda, D.M.A., Graduate Center C.U.N.Y., M.M. Mannes College of Music, Premier Prix Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris (France). Dr. Kaneda teaches applied and class piano and serves as department staff accompanist. An award-winner, she has won prizes at the Montreal International Piano Competition, the Maria Canals International Piano Competition and the European Piano Competition in Luxembourg. Her orchestral appearances include engagements with the Strasbourg Philharmonic orchestra, the Bordeaux-Aquitaine Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, and the Kingsport Symphony Orchestra. She has performed numerous recitals and chamber music concerts in Japan, France, and Australia. Her appearances in the U.S. include recitals at Carnegie Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has appeared as guest artist with the Ambrosia Trio and has performed at the East End Chamber Series in Adelaide, Australia, the Bard Music Festival, Sunday at Central, and the Banff Music Festival. She is currently a member of the Lighthouse Chamber Players. She has studied with Dominique Merlet, Jacques Rouvier, Edward Aldwell, and Carl Schachter.
Gulimina Mahamuti, D.M.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City; M.M. with Graduate Dean Academic Honors., Pittsburg State University; M.M. in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy, Harbin Normal University (China). A native of Karamay City in western China, Dr. Gulimina Mahamuti is the first Chinese Uighur to receive a DMA in Piano Performance from the United States. She performs extensively in major cities in the U. S., Canada, Europe, Asia Minor, and China, with broadcasts on radio and State TV. On January 8, 2012, she performed at Carnegie Hall and gave the U.S. premiere performance of Chen Yi’s Variations on “Awariguli” for Piano. Her orchestral appearances include performances of Benjamin Britten’s Piano Concerto, op. 13 with the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, Saint-Saens’ Le carnaval des animaux with the Southeast Kansas Symphony Orchestra, Chopin’s Andante Spianato et Grand Polonaise, in E-flat major, op. 22 and the “Yellow River” Piano Concerto with the Harbin Symphony Orchestra in China. She also performs extensively as a guest pianist in American colleges and universities and in music schools in China, where she was interviewed frequently by China newspapers and State TV and where her performances were broadcast on multiple occasions. In 2010, she was featured in a two-part TV series on China State TV. Her life story on music was the subject of a TV documentary in Gansu Province Public TV in China.
Published in major music journals in China and the U.S., Dr. Mahamuti presented her nation-wide research at MTNA national conference on how today’s economy affected private music teaching, and her Clavier Companion article, “Professional Development Makes You Recession-Resistant,” was translated into Italian and appears in Didattica. Her recent editorial work on Chinese composer Shi Fu’s piano compositions was highly praised by the distinguished Shanghai Music Publisher, and her thesis, Shi Fu’s Xinjiang Piano Suites from an Eastern-Islamic Musical Vantage Point, has become the main reference for Chinese and western music scholars. Her CD recording, Xinjiang Piano Music from Western China, features piano compositions by Shi Fu and Chen Yi.
Having received numerous awards and honors, Dr. Mahamuti was selected to attend The Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award Luncheon and was a twice-recipient of the distinguished UMKC Women’s Council Graduate Assistance Fund Fellowship and its Outstanding Merit Recipient of the James Lamar and Clara Winslow Sandusky Memorial Award and the Sarajane S. and R. Kenneth Aber Award.
In the Fallof 2011, Dr. Mahamuti joined the faculty of the Department of Music at Ohio Wesleyan University, where she teaches applied piano, class piano, and keyboard techniques. She is a nationally certified teacher of music in piano in the U.S. and has previously taught at the conservatories of music of Capital University (U.S.) and of Northwest University for Nationalities (China). She is currently a board member of Central East District of OhioMTA and chairs its piano workshop.
For more information, visit Dr. Mahamuti’s website at www.gulimina.com
Brett Burleson, has performed and recorded in a diverse array of musical circumstances. He has played with jazz groups that range from big band to bebop to avant-garde free improvisation as well as rock, pop and blues bands. Standout performance experiences include over a dozen shows in 2008 and 2009 with Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Michelle Shocked and nightly performances for 6 months with an R&B group in Tenerife, Spain in 1999. He has performed in jazz clubs and festivals throughout the United States and continues to be an active member of the Central Ohio music community.
As an educator, Mr. Burleson is on the faculties of Capital University Conservatory of Music (since 2002), Ohio Wesleyan University (since 2003), Denison University (since 2009) and The Ohio State University (since 2009). He was also on faculty at Kenyon College from 2002-2008 where he taught guitar as well as directed the Kenyon College Jazz Ensemble. At Capital University he has directed the Fusion Band, Classical Guitar Ensemble and Guitar Workshop.
Mr. Burleson graduated from Capital University in 1996 with a B.M. where he studied jazz guitar with Stan Smith and classical guitar with Karl Wohlwend. He has also taken private lessons with Gene Bertoncini (Eastman School of Music), Rick Peckham (Berklee College of Music), Fred Hamilton (University of North Texas) and Chris Buzzelli (Bowling Green State University).
David Niwa, M.M. Juilliard School, B.M. the Curtis Institute. His extensive performing career has included feature appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute, the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra, the Chicago Youth Symphony. He has been the featured in recital at the Sunday at Central series, as well as, the Corcoran Gallery, the Terrace Theatre of the Kennedy Center, the Cloitre des Jacobins, and Landgraf. Since 1990, he has been featured regularly as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble throughout Japan and Southeast Asia. He appeared annually with the Chamber Orchestra of the Palisades and the Plainfield, NJ Symphony, where he also served as concertmaster. An active chamber musician, and an active proponent of 20th and 21st century music, Mr. Niwa was honored to perform Gunther Schuller’s “Paradigm Exchanges” and present the United States premiere of Penderecki’s “Sextet” in collaboration with the Ohio State University. His other engagements include concerts with The Niwa Duo, (formed with his sister Gail), The High St. Four, (David is a founding member), The Lighthouse Chamber Players, The Snake River Chamber Players, The Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music at Great Gorge. David has also performed numerous functions for Chicago’s Polish Arts Club. Previously he has performed in Reno, Miami, New York City, and Nice. In 1987 and ‘88, he was the invited guest artist-in-residence at the festival de la Gesse in southwestern France. A native Chicagoan, Mr. Niwa began his studies at the age of five. While under the tutelage of his father, Raymond Niwa, he was awarded top prizes in all five divisions of the prestigious Society of American Musicians Competition. He was a three-time winner of the ISMTA competition, a winner of the St. Paul Musical Arts Competition, and was awarded scholarships by the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation. In 1982, Mr. Niwa was a prizewinner in the NFAA Recognition and Talent Search, and a finalist in the 17- general Motors National Concerto Competition. In 1985 he made his live national TV debut with Tchaikovsky Concerto on NBC. Mr. Niwa currently serves as Assistant Concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and as the Artistic Director for the prestigious Sunday at Central series. His teachers were Raymond Niwa, Aaron Rosand and Szymon Goldberg, His other mentors include Nathan Milstein, Lorand Fenyves, Samuel Rhodes and Felix Galimir.
Pei-An Chao, M.M., San Francisco Conservatory of Music; B.M., Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Chao currently serves as Assistant Principal Cello with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. She joined the CSO in 2000 following two years with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. Cs. Chao began her musical studies at age four in her native country, Taiwan. At age 12, her family emigrated to the U.S., where she continued her musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division in New York City majoring in both cello and piano. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Marion Feldman, Ms. Chao pursued her master’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory with Bonnie Hampton. At graduation, she was awarded the only distinguished musical achievement award given out by the String Department for Graduate Studies. Ms. Chao was the concerto competition winner the previous year at the conservatory. Her festival appearances include Tanglewood, Kent/Blossom, Pacific, Sarasota, Colorado, Spoleto, Waterloo, and the New York String Seminar. Ms. Chao was on the faculty of Otterbein College from 2008-09. She has performed in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Turid Gaedeke-Riegel, M.A., is a graduate of Arizona State University (BM, Music Education, String Concentration) and The Ohio State University (MA, Music Education). Mrs. Riegel was Graduate Assistant to Dr. Robert Gillespie, Professor of String Education at Ohio State University and conductor of the Columbus Symphony Chamber Strings Orchestra. She taught strings/ orchestra for over 10 years in grades 4-12 in Arizona and Ohio where her ensembles consistently received top ratings. Mrs. Riegel currently maintains a private violin/viola studio where many of her students play/have played in the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra Programs and/or Chamber Music Connection and/or occupy principal positions in their school orchestras. She has studied Suzuki Pedagogy with the following well-known teachers: Barbara Barber, Rhonda Cole, Edmund Sprunger, Mary Cay Neal, and Catherine Lee and is Suzuki certified in books 1-4. Mrs. Riegel has also studied Rolland pedagogy under the following well-known teachers: Marla Mutschler and Mimi Zweig. Mrs. Riegel most recently participated in the 2011 Northwestern University Violin and Viola Pedagogy weekend and studied with Barbara Barber, well-known violinist and pedagogue and author of Solos For Young Violinists and Violists in a weeklong workshop in summer of 2011. Mrs. Riegel is on faculty at Ohio Wesleyan University where she teaches string methods. Additionally, Mrs. Riegel is associate concertmaster with the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra and freelances in the Columbus area. Mrs. Riegel is a member of the American String Teachers Association and the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
Michael J. Malone, Ph.D., M.M., The University of Texas at Austin; B.A., University of California, Davis. Dr. Malone teaches Instrumentation and Orchestration. He was born in San Francisco, and raised in the Bay Area, Malone previously served as the Assistant Production Manager for the Department of Music at UCDavis (producing over 100 concerts each year), and Assistant Conductor of the UCDavis Symphony Orchestra. Malone is also a master compositor of musical scores, and has typeset music examples for books published by Schirmer, Prentice Hall, Oxford University Press, and the University of California Press, and has typeset and edited scores for the music publisher J. B. Elkus. At The University of Texas at Austin, he was the recipient of the James Moeser Fellowship in Historical Musicology, was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, and received the Texas Exes Teaching Award for graduate student instructors. Malone was the first graduate student invited by the Center for Teaching Effectiveness at UT Austin to present a seminar (“Establishing Authority in the Classroom”) to incoming graduate student instructors. His dissertation (“Symbols of Transformation: Reconceptualizing the Boundaries of Organicism in the Music of Béla Bartók”) was an investigation of the ways in which historical influences and cognitive theories intersect and inform our analysis and understanding of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Malone has been the keynote speaker at the UCDavis Chancellor’s Club, has presented a paper on the William E. Valente Memorial Lecture Series at UCDavis, and has given papers at the Gamma-UT conference and at the Kalamazoo International Congress of Medieval Studies. He has composed music for brass quintet, string quartet, piano and voice, chorus, and orchestra, and has arranged over 40 pieces for marching band, trombone choir, and brass quintet. He currently sings with the Columbus Symphony Chorus.
Jason Hiester, M.M., (Voice/Choral Conducting) University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; B.M. (Performance) University of Miami in South Florida. Mr. Hiester has also held an teaching internship with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Mr. Hiester, a tenor, teaches voice and conducting, and directs the opera and choral programs. He performs professionally in a variety of genres including opera, oratorio, choral and jazz. His credits include roles with West Palm Beach Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Columbus Opera, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Florida Grand Opera and concert work with Miami Bach Society, Musica Sacra of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky Symphony, Columbus Bach Ensemble, Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, Springfield Symphony, and Vocal Arts Ensemble of Springfield. He was a winner of both the Schloss Leopoldskron competition in Salzburg, Austria and the West Palm Beach Opera Competition.
Mr. Hiester is an active conductor and has directed all levels of singers from children to professional in numerous works ranging from medieval to contemporary. Mr. Hiester is regularly contracted with Columbus Opera as Assistant Chorus Master in addition to his vocal work with the company. Current projects include completion of a D.M.A.degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Handel Recital on April 10th, “Evening of Song” with Springfield Symphony on June 25th, competition in the Kauder Voice Competition and attendance at the Kodaly Institute in the summer. Mr. Hiester has also directed an international summer program for vocalists and pianists of OWU in Salzburg, Austria, a program made possible by an OWU Theory-to-Practice grant.
Mr. Hiester enjoys wood working, golf and spending time with his wife and four children.
Marilyn Andrews Nims, M.M. Ohio State University; B.M., Boston University; B.A.(Spanish), Ohio Wesleyan University. Ms. Nims teaches voice, diction for singers, and voice methods. A mezzo-soprano, she has been opera or oratorio soloist with many orchestras and choral groups including the Columbus, Mansfield, Central Ohio, Welsh Hills, and Columbus Youth Symphony Orchestras, as well as Cantari Singers of Columbus and the Columbus Bach Ensemble. Representative works have included Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Madame Flora in The Medium by Menotti, Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder, Les nuits d’été of Berlioz, Copland’s In the Beginning, and Verdi’sRequiem. She has performed with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers in Souillac, France, and at Carnegie Hall, New York City, and has sung chamber music with the Marble Cliff Chamber Players, OWU’s Duvall Ensemble, MidAmerica Chamber Music Institute, and the sextet, Vocal Colour. Ms. Nims has special affection for the song recital, and her programs present a diverse repertory, often highlighting the vocal music of Spain and Latin America. With a particular interest in zarzuela (a form of Spanish musical theatre), she has served as singer and Spanish diction coach for the zarzuela theatre at Jarvis Conservatory in Napa, California, and has made singing translations of two zarzuelas, Agua, azucarillos y aguardiente and Bohemios, both of which have been produced by the Ohio Wesleyan Opera Theatre. She has studied Spanish art song and zarzuela in Madrid, Spain, with Isabel Penagos, Alejandro Zabala, and Miguel Zanetti, and Portuguese language song with Stela Brandão in New York City. Other teachers have included Mary Davenport, Ludwig Bergmann, Lois Marshall, and Hans Peter Schilly.
Robert Nims retired in 2002 from Ohio Wesleyan University, where he was Professor of Voice and Director of Choral Activities. Mr. Nims trained as both an organist and singer and holds graduate degrees in these disciplines from the Yale School of Music and Boston University. He pursued further studies in voice with Hans Peter Schilly, of the Vienna Academy, and in organ with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau, France. He has appeared as baritone soloist with the Akron Symphony, the Columbus Symphony, the Mansfield Symphony, the Lakeside Festival Orchestra, the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, Cantari Singers of Columbus, Opera Columbus and various university and regional orchestras around the state. A respected teacher of singing, Mr. Nims twice served as president of the Buckeye Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. He has, since his retirement from Ohio Wesleyan, been an adjunct voice teacher at Ohio State University and an interim teacher of voice at Capital University and Cleveland Institute of Music. He is currently a member of the adjunct faculties of both Ohio Wesleyan and Otterbein University
Nancy Gamso, D.M.A. (Woodwinds Performance), University of North Texas; M.M. (Multiple Winds Performance), Florida State University; B.S.M.E., University of Alabama. Dr. Gamso teaches applied woodwinds, history of jazz, woodwind methods, music appreciation, and coaches the woodwind chamber ensembles. She performs regularly as an orchestra musician (all woodwinds) with the Broadway series in Columbus, Akron and Cleveland; as a founding member (clarinetist) with Favorable Winds (woodwind quintet); and as co-principal clarinetist of Capital Winds (wind band). Nancy has performed at the Sarasota Music Festival, the Lancaster Festival, with the Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra, Ohio Valley Symphony, Southern Ohio Light Opera, Columbus Symphony Orchestra and the New Sousa Band. In collaboration with Assistant Professor of Piano, Dr. Tracy Cowden (Virginia Tech.), Dr. Gamso released a compact disc recording, With Blackwood and Silver, in which modern literature for winds (clarinet and flute) and piano explores novel sources of inspiration (jazz, social dance, folk music). Nancy Gamso has studied with Fred Ormond (FSU, UMich), John Scott (UNT), and Eli Eban (IU), and participated in master classes with Anthony Gigliotti (Philadelphia Orch), Franklin Cohen (Cleveland Sym), and Stanley Drucker (NY Phil). Nancy’s current research project is to incorporate the techniques of jazz study (memorization, aural learning, transcribing solos, and recording), vocal techniques (relaxation, resonance, body alignment, breathing, phrasing, etc.) and yoga (stretching, practice intentions, calming the body and mind, etc.) into woodwind pedagogy.
Karen Pfeifer, studied at Temple University with legendary English hornist, Louis Rosenblatt of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and graduated with a Masters of Music in Oboe Performance. Undergraduate studies were at The Ohio State University with oboe training under William P. Baker, where she double majored in Music Education and Oboe Performance. Additional oboe studies have been with John Mack, Richard Johnson, and Robert Sorton.
As a music educator, Karen is driven by an internal passion to inspire music excellence. Karen was awarded the 2011 Columbus Symphony Music Educator’s award in recognition of her oboe instruction. Karen strives to reach each student with honest evaluation, constructive instruction, positive environment, and a compassionate interest in each student. Lessons are balanced between playing, performance, and reed making.
Outside the private studio, Karen has shared her teaching strategies at the Ohio Music Educators Association 2001 Conference, and over the years, students have joined her at six International Double Reed Society Conferences. In 1999, she performed on opening night at the University of Wisconsin IDRS Conference. For a number of summers, Karen developed a program entitled “Oboesong,” featuring her students during the Ohio State Fair in the art gallery. Finally, Karen has recently implemented a series of oboe master classes for area oboists, beginning last year with visiting oboe professors from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Vanderbilt University.
Karen is a founding member of the Columbus Bach Ensemble where she performed as principal oboe for its duration, and was frequently featured as soloist. Karen also enjoys her time as principal oboist of the Central Ohio Symphony where she has also appeared as soloist. Last, Karen is excited be a part of the recently formed New Albany Symphony Orchestra as principal oboe. She and her wonderful husband Bob live in Dublin, Ohio, and share in the adventure of raising six children.