Michael Green
Email: michaelcarlgreen@hotmail.com
Following Composition studies at Michigan State University and Film Scoring studies at the University of California in Los Angeles, Michael C. Green joined various musical groups in London and Los Angeles, where he gained experience as an arranger in the recording industry.
Mr. Green moved to New York and continued performing as a trumpeter and pianist in small jazz groups, larger bands, pit orchestras, brass ensembles, and church services. Today his busy career includes appearances in concerts, shows, clubs, private parties, corporate, and civic events and his decade-long performance as a solo jazz pianist at a major hotel in Princeton, NJ.
Active as a composer and arranger, Mr. Green has written works for piano, concert band, brass band, various ensembles, choir and organ. He orchestrated a Broadway show and the score of a PBS documentary film. He has been involved in jazz outreach programs in Pennsylvania high schools and has adjudicated jazz competitions. In 2007 The Princeton Brass Band appointed Mr. Green Composer-In-Residence. PBB recently premiered two of his compositions and commissioned a major contest piece, which was premiered in 2010. Michael Green continues active freelance engagements as a pianist and trumpeter in a wide variety of musical settings.
Ikumi Hiraiwa
Email: hiraiwa@rider.edu
Born in Japan, pianist Ikumi Hiraiwa, NCTM, holds B.A. from UCLA and M.M. from Westminster Choir College of Rider University. Ms. Hiraiwa recently performed both solo and collaborative piano in prestigious venues such as the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia and Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, New York City. She is a frequent performer and accompanist in central New Jersey, Pennsylvania area. She is the recipient of first place at Westminster Piano Graduate Competition in 2006, and UCLA Benno Rubinyi Competition in 2005. Her principal piano teachers include James Goldsworthy, Victor Labenske, Walter Ponce and Jennifer Snow. Ms. Hiraiwa studied piano pedagogy with Jennifer Snow, Phyllis Alpert Lehrer, Betty Stoloff, Ingrid Clarfield, Jean Stackhouse and James Goldsworthy.
Ms. Hiraiwa coached at UCLA Summer Chamber Music Institute for four years,and taught basic musicianship at Point Loma Keyboard Institute, San Diego.
Currently, Ms. Hiraiwa is a member of MTNA, NJMTA, and College Music Society. She has a private studio in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and is on faculty at Westminster Conservatory of Music, teaching piano and theory, since 2006.
Julia Kovalev
Email: jkovalev@rider.edu
Julia Kovalev is a musicologist and pianist. She received her Master of Music degree with distinction from Petrozavodsk State Conservatory, Russia; and her Bachelor of Music degree cum laude from Chernigov Music College, Ukraine. Her postgraduate research in music history was conducted at the Russian Institute for the History of the Arts of Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Her principal piano teachers were Larisa Kolesnik and Lina Demchenko. Her music theory studies were with Larisa Soloshenko and Joseph Kon; music history with Vera Nilova and Anna Porfirieva; and composition with Margarita Demidenko.
She began teaching in her native town of Chernigov and has taught at music schools and colleges in Ukraine, Russia and the United States. Ms. Kovalev currently maintains a private studio in Pennington, New Jersey, and is on the faculties of Westminster Conservatory of Music, and Hunterdon Academy of the Arts in Flemington, NJ. Besides teaching, she enjoys a performing career as a piano accompanist at Princeton Ballet School and as a church music director. Currently, she studies harpsichord and baroque music with Gavin Black.
Julia Kovalev is an author of various choral settings, children’s piano pieces and transcriptions. Her musicological research interests are Byzantine and Western medieval music, music psychology, music for children, children’s music cognition and music as language.
Craig Levesque
Email: clevesque@rider.edu
Dr. Craig Levesque received his Ph.D. in Music Theory and Composition from Rutgers University, and both his M.A. in Music History and his B.A. in Music Theory and Composition from The University of New Hampshire. His primary composition teachers included Niel Sir, Dr. Andrew Boysen, Jr. and Pulitzer Prize winning composer Charles Wuorinen.
Dr. Levesque teaches Music Theory, Orchestration, and Ear Training at Rutgers University and at Westminster Conservatory of Music, where he also teaches Horn and Composition. He is in demand as a composer, arranger and engraver, with numerous premieres and performances throughout the Northeast.
Dr. Levesque’s compositions and arrangements are available through Art of Sound Music (www.artofsoundmusic.com).
Dr. Carmen A. Mateiescu is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Composition, Theory, and Music History at the Westminster Choir College of Rider University (since 2000); composition competition coordinator on the NJMTA’s Board of Directors (since 2008). Dr. Mateiescu was on the faculty of the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University (1997-2005). She received degrees from the University of Music in Bucharest, Romania (BM in Piano Pedagogy and MM in Composition and Theory) and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (Ph.D. in Composition and Theory). Her teachers include Gerald Chenoweth, Nicolas Roussakis, Robert Moevs (Rutgers) and Stefan Niculescu, Speranta Radulescu (Bucharest).
Dr. Mateiescu conducted extensive research in the traditional music of Romania, where she was a recipient of the “Constantin Brailoiu Grant for Ethnomusicological Research.” She authored articles on ethnomusicology issues, LPs and CDs with Romanian traditional music, theory and musicianship textbooks for children, and a “bridge” course in the theory of western art music for musicians educated in non-European traditions.
Her compositions are performed regularly in Princeton, New York, and Philadelphia venues. She is an active concert organizer and presenter of early music (Princeton) and traditional music (the Smithsonian Institution—Washington, DC, the World Music Institute –New York, and the Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ).
Present research interests include music in the oral tradition (from peasant music in central Europe and the Himalayas, to medieval chant – Gregorian and Byzantine) and the perpetuation of compositional devices of the oral tradition into the written music; twentieth-century music; spiritual dimension of sound and music; methods of theory and musicianship teaching.
Chase Morrison
Born in Boston, Chase Morrison attended Wellesley College, where she studied theory and composition with Arlene Zallman and Charles Fisk and where she received her B.A. in Music in 1978. A Masters in Music Composition was awarded by Westminster Choir College in 2000. Her formal studies in cello, piano, conducting, and composing took place in and around Boston beginning at the age of four. Other music studies were completed at The New England Conservatory with Albert Bernard (solfege), and Boston University (cello). Her teachers and coaches include Benjamin Zander, Leonard Shure, George Neikrug, and Eugene Lehner.
At Juilliard, she participated in master classes with Samuel Sanders. At age 22 she was appointed principal cellist of the Tasmanian Symphony (Australia), followed by a co-principal position with the Melbourne Symphony (Australia). After moving to New York City, she founded PANOPTICON, a non-profit music group performing works of women composers.
Ms. Morrison has played on Broadway, in Carnegie and Avery Fisher Halls, toured with Barbra Streisand and Joni Mitchell, and has recorded with Grammy artist Paula Cole. As a classical cellist, Chase has performed under Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, Colin Davis, and Michael Tilson-Thomas. She has published Scottish fiddle music.
Jessica Rey-de-Castro
Jessica Rey-de-Castro is an artist faculty member at the Westminster Conservatory of Music. She earned her Master’s degree in Piano Pedagogy and Performance from Westminster Choir College and her undergraduate degree from Middlebury College. At Westminster, she studied piano with Phyllis Lehrer.
Ms. Rey-de-Castro has been an active member of the Westminster Conservatory since 2006. She has taught students of all levels, including college-level piano lessons at Centenary College.
Email: jessica.reydecastro@gmail.com
Marvin Rosen
Email: mrosen@rider.edu
Dr. Marvin Rosen earned master’s degrees in musicology from the Manhattan School of Music and Teachers’ College, Columbia University; and his doctorate in Music Education from Teachers’ College, Columbia University. He has given many recitals and lecture/recitals as well as radio performances.
He has recorded two CD’s of Alan Hovhaness piano music for Koch International Classics. The Washington Post described “Fred the Cat” as “delectable.” About “Vision of a Starry Night,” the British magazine, Tempo stated, “Rosen’s commitment to, and enthusiasm for, this very exceptional music cannot for a moment be doubted.” Dr. Rosen is the author of liner notes for a number of recordings featuring American music on the Koch International Classics label and has written for Albany Records and the MMC label. He presented lectures at the College Music Society’s Northeast Chapter meetings.
Since 1997, he has been host of the weekly radio program, “Classical Discoveries” on WPRB (103.3 FM). The program won the prestigious ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award in 2005. In addition he hosts “Classical Discoveries Goes Avant-Garde.” In 2011 Dr. Rosen was elected to the media council of New Music USA. For more information, visit www.classicaldiscoveries.org.
A full-time member of Westminster Conservatory’s piano faculty, Dr. Rosen teaches music history for the Honors Music Program and Musical Styles for the Piano Pedagogy Certification Program.
Angelina Shapoval
Email: aashapoval12@gmail.com
Angelina Shapoval received her B.M. from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano with Mack McCray and harpsichord with L. Goldberg. While in San Fransico she performed as soloist and as a member of The Violin-Piano Duo Consortium and the San Francisco Conservatory Baroque Orchestra (harpsichord). Workshops in choral conducting and performance; director of music for church children’s program. Formerly on the faculty of Calder Academy of Music (Cupertino, CA.,) Ms. Shapoval has been on the Westminster Conservatory Piano faculty since 2001 and continues to maintain a private studio in the Princeton area.
AnnaLotte Smith
Email: annalottesmith@gmail.com
AnnaLotte Smith is an American concert pianist who has performed throughout the United States, England, and Germany and publically hailed for her moving performances on both sides of the Atlantic. Smith has successfully competed in multiple international competitions, most notably winning the Grand Prix at the Baden Wüttemberg International Piano Competition, Germany, 2012, and frequently attends international piano festivals such as the exclusive Eastern Music Festival, USA, 2016. Smith is also a distinguished academic and holds two prestigious Andrew J. Rider Scholar awards from Westminster College of Rider University from which she graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Piano, Summa Cum Laude in 2017. In completion of her Bachelors degree, Smith studied Musicology at Princeton University and was a member of the internationally acclaimed Westminster Symphonic Choir, singing under the batons of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Alan Gilbert, Charles Dutoit, and Sir Simon Rattle. Smith is a faculty member of the Westminster Conservatory Honors Music Program, NJ and maintains a private piano studio.
Kevin Willois
Email: drivefest@aol.com
Kevin Willois graduated from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University with degrees in Music Performance and Music Education. He studied flute under Bart Feller, and participated in master classes with James Galway, Paula Robison and Jean Pierre Rampal. Mr. Willois is an active performer in the New York/New Jersey area performing with the Perth Amboy Band, the Edison Symphony, Artemis Chamber orchestra, Chelsea Opera orchestra, Martina Arroyo Opera orchestra, Actor’s Net and small chamber groups, including trio@play, Tripleplay Winds and Vento Trio. The latter group of flute, clarinet and bassoon was a featured group for the “Fou de Bassoon” bassoon conference of 2008 in Angouleme, France, where Mr. Willois, Janet Grice and Sarah Bednarchik played concerts of both classical and jazz music, and taught workshops on jazz improvisation. Mr. Willois and Vento Trio released their first CD, Brazilian Dances and Inventions in 2007, featuring several unpublished works of Brazilian art music, and have been back in the studio recording their second project. A recording project from the group trio@play featuring the music of Seymour Bereb and others is also pending.
Kevin Willois, a well-known teacher in New Jersey, teaches at Westminster Conservatory, the extension division of the Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts and at the Peddie School. He is also active with the Westchester Philharmonic outreach program, bringing his knowledge of woodwind instruments to school children in the New York area.