Applied Lessons

Applied Lessons

• Amy Black

  Email:

  ablack@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Amy King Black is active as a free-lance musician in the Atlanta area and has performed with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Carroll Symphony Orchestra, and Atlanta Ballet Orchestra. She is an adjunct faculty member of Clayton College and State University and Georgia Perimeter College and is the Artist Affliate in Horn at Agnes Scott College. In addition, Ms. Black maintains a studio of about twenty private students and frequently conducts clinics and master classes for high school and middle school students throughout the Atlanta area.  Ms. Black has more than fifteen years of teaching experience. Her college degrees include Bachelor of Music from Samford University and the Master of Music from the University of Georgia.

• George Butler

  Email:

  gbutler@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  George Butler began piano lessons at an early age at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with Ilona Voorm, a protégé of Bela Bartok and head of piano pedagogy at the Conservatory. Butler took up the cello at age twelve and soon was a recognized soloist and session player in the Cincinnati area.  At age 17 he was the only instrumentalist in the state of Ohio selected to perform with a national youth symphony under the direction of maestro Leopold Stokowski at Carnegie Hall. As a cello major at the Cincinnati Conservatory Butler was principal cellist of the renowned Philharmonia Orchestra and was coached in chamber music by the grammy award winning LaSalle String Quartet. After a 30-plus year career in church music, he returned to his classical music roots in 1999 here in Atlanta.  George has been a faculty member of Lovett since 2001, first as cello instructor and since 2006 as Coordinator of Applied Lessons. Still the cello teacher, he accepts piano students on a limited basis as well.

• Travis Cottle

  Email:

  tcottle@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  As a member of a musical family, Travis Cottle enjoyed early recognition as both a Jazz Trombonist and Classical Guitarist. He participated in music festivals, state competitions as well as earning a position in the 1996 Olympic Band before graduating High School in Cobb County. While receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Performance at Shenandoah Conservatory under the tutelage of Matt Niess, Mr. Cottle toured the Eastern Seaboard as a founding member of the Synergy Brass Quintet, Europe and South America with Trinkle Brass Works, and North America with the American Wind Symphony. Upon graduation, Mr. Cottle moved back to Georgia to begin singing with the Atlanta Opera Chorus while continuing education in Instrumental Conducting and Performance at Georgia State University, where he studied under Dr. Tom Gibson and Dr. Robert Ambrose. Mr. Cottle has since toured North and South America with the Tommy Dorsey Band, the Sigmund Romberg Orchestra, and frequently freelances with various orchestras and ensembles, including Jazz Orchestra Atlanta, Symphony Orchestra Augusta, Joe Gransden's Big Band, Cobb Symphony Orchestra, and the Neons. Recently he has been touring the Southeast and has been featured on radio with local band, Blair Crimmins.  Mr. Cottle resides in Historic Marietta with his wife, Erin. He continues to be an active performer as an actor, singer, guitarist, trombonist, church musician, pianist, and organist.

• Jacob Deaton

  Email:

  jdeaton@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Jacob Deaton is a graduate of the Atlanta Institute of music and a United States Air Force combat veteran. While Mr. Deaton’s current personal projects are focused on jazz, his influences come from a spectrum of artists such as Soundgarden, Marvin Gaye, Radiohead, Q-tip, Merle Haggard, the blues legend Lonnie Johnson and many more. This diversity makes Mr. Deaton one of the most sought after guitarists in the metro Atlanta area. Notable performance credits include the Atlanta Jazz Festival and Georgia State University’s Jazz Guitar Summit. Jacob has a talent for recognizing the learning patterns in each student and is able to focus his musical experience into a customized learning experience.

• Phil Ehrmann

  Email:

  pehrmann@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Phil Ehrmann has been trumpet instructor at Lovett since 2007. As a college student, Phil had the rare opportunity to perform three times at Carnegie Hall as Principal Trumpet with the highly competitive National Wind Ensemble. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Trumpet Performance from Northwestern University in 2003, and settled down in Atlanta, where he is carving his niche as a performer. Mr. Ehrmann has appeared with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and  performs regularly with the Hilton Head Symphony, Macon Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Cobb Symphony, Gainesville Symphony, Atlanta Pops Orchestra, Jacksonville (FL) Symphony and Chattanooga (TN) Symphony. He performs consistently in the Atlanta area as a trumpeter in the renowned Midtown Brass Quintet. In addition to freelancing, Mr. Ehrmann maintains an active private lesson studio in Cobb County.

• Leslie Hamilton-Thomas

  Email:

  lthomas@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Leslie Hamilton-Thomas has thrilled audiences with her beautiful lyric-coloratura voice throughout the United States and abroad. While pursuing her graduate degree which she later received at The Juilliard School, Ms. Hamilton-Thomas made her New York City debut at Alice Tully Hall and her Kennedy Center debut with the National Symphony Orchestra. Prior to graduate studies, she was Scholar of the Year at the distinquished University of Maryland. Her extensive repertoire includes the Brahms’ German Requiem, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bach’s Passions, and the John Rutter Magnificat, to name a few. Most recently she performed the role of Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville during a tour of Italy. Her credits also include the making of a world-wide operatic commercial for Fresca soft drink for the Coca-Cola Company.

• Mace Hibbard

  Email:

  mhibbard@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Mace Hibbard is one of the most sought-after saxophonists in the southwest. In addition to leading his own band, The Mace Hibbard Quintet, he has shared the stage with Wynton Marsalis, The Derek Trucks Band, The Yonrico Scott Band, Marcus Printup, Michael Brecker, Phil Woods, Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra , Bobby Shew, Arturo Sandoval, James Moody, the Austin Symphony, The Four Tops, The Temptations, The O’Jays, and many others. In 2010, Mace became a Grammy winner as the saxophonist and horn arranger on The Derek Trucks Band's album, "Already Free."  Mr. Hibbard has taught Jazz Saxophone and Improvisation at Georgia State University since 2005. His experience is priceless and his enthusiasm for the saxophone contagious.

• Candace Keach

  Email:

  ckeach@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Candace Keach is originally from Athens, Ga, and has been principal flutist with the Macon Symphony Orchestra since 1985. She has been a featured performer in Italy, Switzerland, and France, as well as several National Flute Association Conventions. She is a frequent performer in the Atlanta, Birmingham, Columbus, and Greenville Symphony Orchestras. She was principal flutist with the National Touring Company’s Phantom of the Opera at the Fox Theater. In addition to teaching at Lovett, Ms. Keach is flute professor at Spelman College. Her own studies were at the University of Georgia and at the New England Conservatory in Boston as well as master classes with Marcel Moyse, Michel Debost, William Bennett, among others. Recently she was chosen to present at the “Society for the Arts in Healthcare” conference in New York. In 2010 she was awarded placement on the Georgia Arts Council Touring Artist Roster and the Southern Artistry Registry. Her therapeutic music CD, “As Above So Below”, has been embraced within the healing arts community as well as by mainstream music lovers!  Ms. Keach has been flute instructor at The Lovett School since 1992 and is co-director of the “Flutes On Fire” summer workshops, since 1995. Her private students have successfully competed for Allstate and District Honor Bands, Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, The Emory Youth Wind Symphony, and at Brevard, Interlochen & Tanglewood Summer Institutes.

• Luda Kwon

  Biography:

  Luda Kwon is a graduate of Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga, and earned a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance degree from Shorter College in Rome, Ga, and a Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She has been an experienced and highly sought accompanist beginning with her high school years. While in college, she was the accompanist of the Shorter Chorale, was the lead accompanist for recitals and concerts there, and has also performed many events as a piano soloist. She is a recipient of many awards and scholarships. Her musical ability makes her a prominent performer of all styles of music from concert level classical to traditional and contemporary church music. In addition to offering lessons at Lovett, Luda is currently on the music staff of the Woodstock Baptist Church.

• Timothy Miller

  Email:

  tmiller@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Timothy Boyd Miller is a native of Augusta, Ga. He earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in Vocal Performance from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., and the Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Mannes College of Music in New York City. Mr. Miller is an active performer with both national and international credits. Operatic roles include Monastatos and First Armored Man in Mozart’s Die Zauberflӧte, Street in Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, and Un Messaggero in Verdi’s Aida. In June of 2008 Mr. Miller sang the role of Crab Man in critically acclaimed performances of Porgy and Bess at the Opéra-Comique in Paris and on tour in Luxembourg, Granada, and Normandy. He has appeared in concert performances of Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, and a concert version of excerpts from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Miller is a past winner of the Capitol City Opera Vocal Competition, featured soloist with the Atlanta Braves, and was honored to be a guest soloist at the homegoing service of the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America Inc. Besides teaching voice at Lovett he serves as a staff singer at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church and as an instructor at Morehouse College.      

• Joel Morris

  Email:

  jmorris@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Joel Morris is a freelance percussionist / composer/ arranger. He was born in Chapel Hill, NC, and grew up in Athens, Ga. He began playing drums professionally at the age of eight for the University of Georgia Summer Theater and hasn't stopped playing since. Mr. Morris has performed with various touring shows & artists including as timpanist for Phantom of The Opera National Tour II,  Al Jarreau, The Moody Blues, Brian Wilson, drumset for Widespread Panic, Michael Brecker, Sam Arlen, Mac Frampton, Cecil Welch, percussion for Aretha Franklin, Mary Wilson, Ray Charles, Marvin Hamlish, Joni Mitchell, Rita Mareno, Maureen McGovern, and Bernadette Peters. He also does symphonic work, recording and club work, playing drum set, timpani and jazz vibes throughout the Atlanta area, as well as teaching private lessons and instructing at The Lovett School. Mr. Morris arranges music for both marching band and jazz band formats. He has written for percussion ensemble and a book for drum set and one for mallet exercises. Mr. Morris has recorded a number of album projects for various bands and artists including Robert Earl Keane, Widespread Panic, Grant Mclennan, Sam Arlen, Randall Bramblett, Jez Graham, The Vigilantes of Love, Matthew Kahler, The Grapes, The Bonaventure Quartet, Cecil Welch, Mac Frampton, Kevin Kinney, Steve Dancz, Bill Kahler, as well as numerous jingles for TV and radio. Some of the commercials on which you may have heard him were for CNN, Cartoon Network, Ford Trucks, Owens Corning, IBM, Upton's, Sportstown, Arby's, Little Debbie, and Krystal. Mr. Morris received his Bachelor's degree in Music Performance from the University of Georgia.

• Madoka Ohshima

  Email:

  mohshima@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Madoka Ohshima is a Tokyo, Japan, native and experienced a cultural/musical environment as a young person. She came to the United States in her early 20s and received her Bachelor's degree in Music with the concentration in Jazz Studies from Georgia State University. Ms. Ohshima was chosen to be a Spivey Music Scholarship recipient in the piano performance program at Clayton State University and also at Georgia State University. She has been actively performing as a jazz pianist in Atlanta since 2006. She also performs as a choral accompanist at St. Martin's Episcopal School in Atlanta.  Ms. Ohshima is a member of Music Teachers National Association, Georgia Music Teachers Association, and North Dekalb Music Teachers Association. Ms. Ohshima teaches both Classical and Jazz. She, like all of our teachers, have a special connection to students of all ages and experiences.

• Robert Ray

  Email:

  rray@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Robert Ray made his Broadway debut in 1980 and that same year won two New York City Cabaret Awards. He has performed in many of the country's great theaters including The Kennedy Center, Wolftrap Foundation for the Performing Arts, LA's Pantages Theater and The Palace and Beacon Theaters in NYC. He has performed many times at Atlanta's historic Fox Theatre and produced and directed a musical extravaganza to celebrate the Fox's 75th Anniversary. In Atlanta he has appeared at The Alliance, Theater of the Stars, Theatre in the Square, The Strand Theatre and the 14th Street Theater. Robert's vocal students have appeared on Broadway, been finalists on American Idol and won talent awards at both the Miss Georgia and Miss America Pageants. Mr. Ray currently tours a series of shows throughout the south based on the music of Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer as well as a Big Band Show and a Broadway Tribute. He is a favorite among aspiring actors for the enthusiasm and insight he brings to preparation and performance.

• Kimberly Rosquist

  Email:

  krosquist@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Kimberly Rosquist received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance from Kennesaw State University and her Master’s of Music in Vocal Performance from Georgia State University. She has performed in multiple operas with the Atlanta Opera and numerous lead roles with the Capitol City Opera. She is currently working with a new company, Opera South. Ms. Rosquist has over 10 years of private teaching experience and over two years of teaching experience at the collegiate level. She brings to her students a solid technique instilled in her by Drs. Richard and Ann Alderson, two of the most influential pedagogues of our time. Ms. Rosquist specializes in preparing students for All-State and Solo/Ensemble auditions, college auditions, musicals and of course operas. This task includes sight-reading, major/minor/chromatic scales, tonal memory, and diction and song preparation. 
  
  
  
  
  
   

• Raymond Schutt

  Email:

  rschutt@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Piano instructor Raymond Schutt has a special connection with gifted students. At the age of 13, Mr. Schutt made his piano concert debut as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. By the age of 18 he was a member the piano faculty of a major university in Chicago. Later he was chairman of the piano department of the American Conservatory in Chicago. In addition to being a renowned performer and educator, Mr. Schutt and his wife founded and presided over the Alabama School for the Arts in Birmingham, Ala., for 20 years. Mr. Schutt brings this wealth of experience to his piano students at The Lovett School. His patience and insights into the musical patterns of young people make him an especially effective teacher.

• Nancy Soper

  Email:

  nsoper@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Nancy Soper, a soprano, moved to Atlanta in 1996 from Connecticut where she was a visiting teacher in voice at Choate-Rosemary Hall and a frequent performer in the New England area in oratorio, light opera, and song recitals. She has performed by invitation at the Bach Performance Workshop in Brattleboro, Vermont and has been a featured artist with the New York Vocal Artists in their summer series at CAMI Hall, New York.  As well as her oratorio and recital work, Ms. Soper has performed the roles of the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and Zita in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. Ms. Soper was also the co-founder of the Connecticut Vocal Ensemble, a performing organization in the New England and New York area. She has been on the Applied Lessons voice faculty at Lovett since moving to Atlanta in 1996.  In addition to maintaining a studio of voice students, Ms. Soper was also an assistant teacher for 6th grade chorus and 7th and 8th grade voice classes at Lovett for five years. She was the staff soprano for the Evensong Choir, All Saints Episcopal in Atlanta, as well as soloist at St. Luke's Presbyterian and Roswell Presbyterian churches. Ms. Soper holds the Bachelor of Music degree from Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, Ala., and a Masters in Sacred Music from the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York City and was chosen as an alumni member of the music fraternity, Pi Kappa Lambda. She has studied voice with Charles Bressler, Manhattan School of Music, and Lili Chookasian, Yale University, and vocal coaching with Warren Jones and Virginia Zeani. Her cheerful, nurturing presence produces outstanding results in her students.

• Mark Street

  Email:

  mstreet@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Mark Street, a pianist, holds performance degrees from Jacksonville University (FL) and Northern Illinois University, and was also a scholarship student of conducting at the Pierre Monteux Memorial Domaine School in Hancock, Maine. He received extensive instruction from many notables in the professional musical world. Mr. Street’s varied background includes his work as Founder/Music Director of the Little Rock Chamber Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Savannah Symphony, principal bassist of the Illinois Chamber Orchestra, and, since moving to Atlanta in 1994, a twelve-year stint at Georgia State University where he served as Director of Orchestral Activities, professor of music history, music literature, music appreciation, and conducting, regular performer with GSU’s outstanding new music ensemble neoPhonia, and frequent staff accompanist for student vocalists and instrumentalists as well as for the GSU Opera. He more recently held the post of Instructor of Piano at Gordon College in Barnesville, Ga, from 2006 to 2008. Mr. Street is currently the Organist/Choirmaster of St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Dunwoody, a frequent accompanist for various choral ensembles and opera productions in and around the Atlanta metro area, and piano instructor at The Lovett School. 
   

• Laura Tidwell

  Email:

  ltidwell@lovett.org

  Biography:

  Laura Tidwell has been teaching piano in the Atlanta area for the past twenty eight years. She received her Bachelors of Theory degree, piano concentration from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, and has received numerous certifications in piano methods over the years. She as also completed graduate work in education through Agnes Scott College and Kennesaw State University. Laura is also an accomplished organist and church musician. She is a member of AGO and Georgia Music Teacher’s Association.
   

• Kyle Walton

  Email:

  kwalton@lovett.org

  

  Biography:

  Kyle Walton is an Atlanta based free lance violinist who has performed extensively with orchestras and chamber groups throughout the Southeast, including the Atlanta Symphony and the Atlanta Opera Orchestras. Ms. Walton graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has taught hundreds of private violin students over the years, young and old. Ms. Walton uses a traditional teaching method, focusing on the individual needs of each student. She has a particular gift of always being able to instill and maintain the joy of music in the process of teaching. Kyle is also the classroom assistant for the Lower School Orchestra.