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Ellen Francisco, AFS Director, has been an avid chamber musician since she was very young. She grew up in a musical family, where making music together was a regular occurrence. Mrs. Francisco earned her Bachelors of Music Education, violin emphasis, from Southern Adventist University, She attended Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts for her Masters in viola performance, with an emphasis in Chamber Music. While there, she studied with Raphael Hillyer, founding member of the Juilliard String Quartet, and with members of the Van Swieten String Quartet. She has organized and directed Chamber Music Weekend for twelve years, sharing with others the opportunity to make music with friends. She, her husband and young son live in Greeley Colorado, where Mrs. Francisco plays and performs frequently with chamber ensembles in the Denver/Greeley area. |
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Jeremy Francisco, Conductor holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Southern Adventist University, Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Belmont University (Nashville, TN), and is currently completing his Doctorate in Choral Conducting from the University of Northern Colorado. For the past several years Mr. Francisco has served as a frequent clinician at music festivals in Nashville, Boston, New York City and throughout Oklahoma and Colorado. Mr. Francisco has been Music Director of Chamber Music Weekend since its beginning thirteen years ago, and served as the founding Music Director of the Cumberland Youth Ensemble and Madison Vocal Ensemble, in Nashville, TN. Mr. Francisco’s performing ensembles have toured Jamaica, Canada, Mexico, Germany and throughout the United States.
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Daniel Ashton is a gifted violinist. He also plays viola, cello, bass, oboe, and any number of brass instruments, as well as being an excellent choral conductor. He works as a computer programmer for IBM in Maryland, but spends most of his free time making music in one ensemble or another. His leadership, experience, expertise, and perceptive teaching ability are all very necessary to making At First Sight both successful and possible. |
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Rhonda Burnham, Violinist and Violist, received her Bachelor's Degree from Southern Adventist University, and her masters degree from the University of Central Florida. For twenty-eight years, she ran a very successful string program at Forest Lake Academy, teaching at both on the high school and elementary levels. Mrs. Burnham now runs the large, and extremely successful and demanding, string program at Collegedale's AW Spalding School, teaching violin and viola and conducting the string ensembles.
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Tamara Powers (Tami) King, violinist and violist from Spartanburg, South Carolina, holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Southern Adventist University and a Master of Music degree from Converse College. Mrs. King has played professionally with the Spartanburg Symphony Orchestra, Greenville Symphony Orchestra and the Greater Spartanburg Philharmonic. She is an active performer in area churches, chamber music ensembles and colleges. She is a member of the American String Teachers Association; Music Educators National Conference; Rho Chapter, Pi Kappa Lambda; South Carolina Music Educators Association and the Spartanburg Philharmonic Music Club. Mrs. King is currently director of the strings programs at Chapman High School, T. E. Mabry Middle School, and Holly Springs-Motlow Elementary School as well as director of the District 1 Symphony Orchestra in Spartanburg County Schools. |
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Laurie Redmer Minner, Violinist, Violist, and Conductor, holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Atlantic Union College and M.Mus. degrees in viola performance and conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music. She has extensive experience as a conductor of instrumental and vocal ensembles. She is currently head of the string deparment at Southern Adventist University, and conductor of the SAU Symphony Orchestra.Prior to joining the music faculty at Southern in 2000, Professor Minner taught at Columbia Union College, Takoma Academy, Greater Boston Academy, the New England Conservatory Extension Division, South Lancaster Academy, the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and the Thayer Conservatory of Music, and Columbia Union College. Her performance experience includes concert tours of Europe, Australia, Asia, Russia, and the United States as violinist, violist, vocalist, and conductor. |
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Amy Tyson, Violinist. Oregon born Amy Lozano Tyson received a full scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she earned her Bachelors of Music. Her mentors included Alexander Schneider and Paul Hersh. In 1979, she won first prize in the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Paseden, CA. While in San Francisco, she was a member of the Aurora String Quartet for ten years. With them she played much of the major string quartet literature, performing in a variety of venues including London, Tokyo, and Carnegie Hall, New York City. She had numerous recordings during her twelve years in the San Francisco Symphony before moving to Colorado for a life style change. She joined the CSO in 1989. Mozart gets the nod as her favorite classical composer and she also enjoys jazz. Her non-musical interests include golf, scuba-diving, underwater photography and gardening. She lives in the mountains with her husband and daughter.
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Becca Murphy, Violist, and Pianist, earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Music from Southern Adventist University, with an emphasis in voice and piano. She is currently pursuing her Masters of Music in Piano Pedagogy at Belmont University, Nashville, TN. She played viola with the Southern Adventist University Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Murphy has been a participating violist at Chamber Music Weekend for five years, and the director of the CMW children’s division for the past three years. About chamber music, she says, “I really enjoy the sense of community that chamber music offers, working with other players toward a common goal, and seeing them enjoy themselves in a kind, positive atmosphere.” She is a committed educator, with a passion for passing on the love of music to young players. |
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Ted Ashton, Cellist, holds a doctorate in math from the University of Georgia. A fine cellist, his love for chamber music is intense, which is very obvious to anyone who has enjoyed being a part of his groups. A sensitive and creative teacher, he also brings leadership, enthusiasm, and years of experience with chamber music to his coaching sessions, ensuring both success and achievement for those who work with him. |
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Marla Majett, Cellist, is a dedicated and gifted performer and teacher in the Greater Atlanta area. She brings a wealth of experience and enthusiam to her work with At First Sight and InSight students. Each year, besides teaching and coaching, she organizes and directs the cello ensemble, bringing in everyone willing and able to play. Her results are amazing, and her work is very much appreciated. |
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Dr. Karin Thompson, Cellist. A native of the Northwest, Karin Thompson obtained her Bachelor of Music degree from Walla Walla College. She went on to finish her Master of Music degree in cello performance at the Peabody conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. While a student, she attended the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, the Encore School for Strings in Hudson, Ohio, and the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, Ohio. Her principal teachers include Christopher von Baeyer, Stephen Kates, Evelyn Elsing, and Kenneth Slowik. After finishing her master's degree, she taught English in St. Petersburg, Russia , for one year. In 2001 she completed a PhD in historical musicology at the University of Maryland, College Park. She was on the faculty of Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts from 2000 through 2008, where she taught primarily music history and interdisciplinary humanities courses. She has recently become Music Department Chair at Walla Walla University in Walla Walla, Washington. |
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Dr. Scott Ball, Bassist, is Dean of the School of Music and Professor of Music at Southern Adventist University. He taught previously at Atlantic Union College (So. Lancaster, MA) where he served as Chair of the Music Department and Director of the Honors Program. A native of Washington, D.C., Ball received the B.Mus. in Performance (double bass) from Arizona State University, and continued his studies with Roger Scott, then principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He received his M.A. from Andrews University, and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, where his major professors were Hans-Jorgen Holman and Charles Atkinson, respectively. A musicologist with research interests in late 19th and 20th century English music and American popular music, Ball has taught courses in western music history and theory, world music, American music, and interdisciplinary humanities classes.
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Dr. J. Bruce Ashton, Pianist, Composer, and professor emeritus, recently retired from teaching at Southern Adventist University. He holds degrees in piano performance from Capital University (Columbus, Ohio), American Conservatory of Music (Chicago), and the College- Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. His teachers include Rudolph Reuter, Leon Fleisher, and Raymond Dudley. For 42 years Dr. Ashton taught piano, music theory, and music history at the collegiate level. With Southern's fine symphony, he has played many of the standard piano concerti, including Beethoven's Fourth and Rachmaninoff's Third. Dr. Ashton gets involved with chamber music at every opportunity, either as pianist, violist, or coach. Most of his musical compositions and/or arrangements are done for a particular situation, often involving a slightly unusual mix of instruments. One of his more recent works, “Variations on a Theme of Mendelssohn” was written for cello and wodwind quintet, |
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