ASTA

About the American String Teachers Association:

The American String Teachers Association, founded more than 60 years ago, is a membership organization for string and orchestra teachers and players, helping them to develop and refine their careers. ASTA's members range from budding student teachers to artist-status performers. The organization provides a vast array of services, including instrument insurance, an award-winning scholarly journal, discounts on publications and resources, annual professional development opportunities, and access to a collegial network of colleagues throughout the string profession. ASTA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
ASTA is a national organization with state chapters. State chapters share the overall mission of ASTA National while addressing the needs and interests of ASTA members on a local level.

ASTA National Mission Statement:
The American String Teachers Association promotes excellence in string and orchestra teaching and playing. ASTA pursues its mission through:

• an open sharing of ideas
• benefits, services, and activities responsive to the needs of all members
• development of strong state leadership and chapters
• enhancing the image and visibility of string teaching and study
• advocacy for string education
• an inclusive community of string teachers and players

ASTA/NJ Mission Statement
The objectives of ASTA/NJ shall be to:

• support and encourage the teaching of string instruments at all educational levels
• to promote and improve orchestras at all educational levels
• to establish the highest artistic and pedagogical standards

 

ASTA/NJ Board, 2010-12

OFFICERS

President
Erika Boras Tesi

Erika Boras Tesi , cellist and conductor is currently the orchestra director at the Tenafly Middle School in Tenafly, New Jersey Summers are spent at Chautauqua Institution and most recently as faculty at ASTA's Chamber Music Institute held at Kean University. Erika has conducted orchestras in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey. She has guest conducted The New Jersey Region I Orchestra, The Cape and Island High School Festival Orchestra, and The Rockland County, NY Intermediate Orchestra Festival. As orchestra director for the Tenafly Middle School, she led her orchestra in the 2006 ASTA National Orchestra Festival where they were chosen for first place in their division and the only group with a Superior rating. She has also been chosen as recipient of the 2000 Tenafly Middle School's Governor's Award as Teacher of the Year, was a featured teacher on television's NJN Classroom Close-up Program and has for several consecutive years had many chamber groups accepted to perform at Lincoln Center in the Young People's Ensembles Concerts.

Highlights of Erika’s career as a cellist include principal cellist for the Bolshoi Ballets' American Tour in 1979 performing in Lincoln Center's State Theatre, Chicago and Los Angeles. She was principal cellist at the State Theatre for D'Oyle Carte; Berlin Opera Ballet; and principal cellist for Rudolph Nureyev and the Boston Ballet company at the Uris Theatre in New York. Mrs. Tesi also performed at Lincoln Center with the Joffrey Ballet, The Canadian National Ballet, Radio City Music Hall, Rolland Petite, The National Ballet of Marseilles, Makarova and Company and was a founding member of The All Seasons Chamber Players.

 
President Elect
Membership Directory
Co-Chair, Quartet Festival
Loni Bach

Loni Bach is currently Director of Orchestras at Sparta High School in Sparta, NJ.  There she is the conductor of the Freshman Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra, and the Honors Philharmonic Full Orchestsra.  Ms. Bach is also the founder and director of the Alternative Styles Strings Club at Sparta High School, which has 40 members and includes drums, guitar, electric bass, and string players.

Ms. Bach has brought her students to festivals in Ohio, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Hershey, and Dorney Parks, and Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  She was co-chair of the North Jersey School Music Association for two years. Ms. Bach came to Sparta School District in 1993 and under her direction, the program grew from 45 to 450 students.  The district now has three full-time string teachers.  Prior to Sparta, Ms. Bach started the program in the Clifton School District.

As a student herself in New Jersey, Ms. Bach was a cellist in the Junior Region Orchestra, Senior Region Orchestra, and the All State Orchestra.  She also was a member of the Senior Region Choir and the All State Choir.  As a high school student, Loni attended the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division. She has a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance and a Masters of Music Education in Strings, both degrees from the University of Michigan.

Loni Bach lives in Mendham with her daughter Jessica, who is a second grader and a Suzuki violinist.

Past President
Frances Rowell
201-541-8037

A versatile and enterprising cellist dedicated to musical outreach, Frances Rowell received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School. Ms. Rowell has been a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra since 1995. She is on the adjunct faculty of New Jersey City State University and William Patterson University and will serve as President of the New Jersey Chapter of the American String Teachers Association in 2008-2009. An inventor as well as a cellist, Ms. Rowell received a United States Patent for a portable endpin resonating platform for the cello.

Executive Director Chamber Music Institute
Director of Website Development
Christopher Kenniff
www.ChristopherKenniff.com
908-656-1548

Christopher Kenniff, classical guitarist, is a critically acclaimed soloist & chamber musician who is frequently heard as a member of the acclaimed ensemble Duo Fresco: New Directions for Viola & Guitar and with acclaimed soprano Katherine Harris in Duo Cantiga. Christopher has won First Prizes in several competitions (most notably Concour de Guitarre, Domaine Forget, Quebec, Canada; Music Teachers’ National Association Wurlitzer Collegiate Artists’ Competition ). Mr. Kenniff has performed at the Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival (Juneau, Alaska), the Chautauqua Festival (Chautauqua, NY), the Bowdoin Festival (New Brunswick, ME), The Crossroads of Tradition Festival (Bloomington, IN) and the Access to Art Chamber Music Festival (Cape May, NJ). He is a member of Kean University’s Concert Artist Faculty and is the co-founder and director of the American String Teacher’s Association of New Jersey’s annual Chamber Music Institute. He has been recognized for contributions as a music educator by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and his students are frequent award winners in local and national competitions. Mr. Kenniff has presented workshops & master classes for ASTA/NJ, MENC, NJ State Council on the Arts, Music for All Seasons, the St. Louis Guitar Society and various collegiate/university music programs. He has recorded two compact discs: Duo Fresco Transfiguration (works by Halper, DeFalla, Purcell, Kioulaphides and Adler) and Solo: Christopher Kenniff plays works by Turina, Ponce, Roussell, Tedesco, Dowland, Scarlatti and Mertz.

Secretary
Lisa Miller
609-217-2215

Lisa Miller graduated from The College of New Jersey in 2002 with a Bachelor of Music degree.  She has worked as a string specialist/orchestra director at Hopewell Elementary School, Winslow Township Middle/High School, Bunker Hill Middle School in Washington Township, Sewell, New Jersey.  She currently is a string teacher at Pennsville Middle School and Pennsville Memorial High School.  Lisa is also pursuing her master’s degree in conducting with Salvatore Scarpa at Rowan University. From 1998 to 2004, she worked as a counselor and music coach at the ASTA Summer Conference for String Education and Chamber Music at Rowan University.  She worked for two years as a counselor at the New Jersey Governor’s School of the Arts.  For the past four summers, she has worked as counselor at the Chamber Music Institute at Kean University. As an ASTA member, Lisa has attended the String Symposium at Jersey City University, and attended the National Conferences in Ohio, Nevada, Missouri, and Georgia.  She has assisted the ASTA Certificate Programs for Strings examinations at The College of New Jersey.

Artistic Director Chamber Music Institute, Director of Sponsorship
Chair Solo Strings Competition
Co-Chair, Quartet Festival
Margaret Zufall Roberts
973-625-9552

Margaret Zufall Roberts is the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Institute of ASTA/NJ, which began in 2005 at Kean University.  An active board member and past president of the NJ Chapter of the American String Teachers Association, Ms. Roberts is frequently seen on the site of one of ASTA/NJ’s many projects.
As a Viola Performance Major, Ms. Roberts was the principal violist in the Ohio University Orchestra.  After receiving her Bachelor of Music Degree from Ohio University, she completed a degree in Music Education at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and later did graduate work at California Institute of the Arts, where she was awarded a full scholarship to be in a graduate string quartet.  Her teachers include Charles Ponall, Eugenie Dengel, Howard Beebe, Paul Doktor, Alan DeVeritch, and Jesse Levine.  She was the principal violist of the Duluth Symphony Orchestra, and has performed at the Mozarteum in Salzberg, Austria, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Morris County residents will remember the Zufall String Quartet from many years ago.  The four sisters performed widely in the area, and were featured on the Sonny Fox Show on NBC.  The Zufalls are known most recently in connection with the Zufall Health Center in Dover, which they started.

Currently the principal violist in the Montclair Chamber Orchestra, Ms. Roberts (Peg) is a frequently heard performer of chamber music in the New York/New Jersey area.  She has been featured during Music Week at the historic Mohonk Mountain House with members of the New York Philharmonic, and has performed with members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Weill Recital Hall, and as a guest performer on faculty recitals at the Lebanon Valley College.

Ms. Roberts teaches viola and violin in her home studio. She also coaches chamber music and sectional rehearsals for the New Jersey Youth Symphony, and the Youth Orchestras of Essex County.  An adjunct faculty member at Montclair State University John J. Cali School of Music, Ms. Roberts also teaches string classes and private lessons at the Wharton Music Center in Berkeley Heights.

Currently, Ms. Roberts is serving on the Orchestra Procedures Committee for the NJ All State Orchestra.  Professional memberships include ASTA, MENC, and AFM Local 248.


Certificate Program Co-Chair
Rona Landrigan
973-243-2365

Rona Landrigan was born and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England and followed this up with post-graduate study in violin performance at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. From there she was invited to join the Camerata Orchestra, a 22-piece String Orchestra based at the Concert Hall in Athens, Greece where she played for four years. Rona moved to New Jersey in 1996 with her husband. Since then she has been actively involved in teaching – she is in her tenth year as a string specialist in Chatham Schools, directing the elementary orchestras and the Chatham High School Orchestras. Her ASTA/NJ involvement includes collaborating with Leslie Webster for several years on the Certificate Program and acting as advisor for the Chatham Schools Student Chapter. Rona is currently Secretary and Chairperson of the Sharon Holmes ASTA/NJ Scholarship Committee.

Treasurer
Naomi Youngstein
973-202-1525

A native of Westchester County, New York, NAOMI YOUNGSTEIN attended the Manhattan School of Music’s pre-college division and later received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in violin performance from the School. As a student of Burton Kaplan, Ms. Youngstein won the school’s concerto competition and the Ravel Academie competition, for which she was awarded a trip to France to attend master classes at the Ravel Academie. While a student at the Manhattan School, she performed with the school’s orchestra (as concertmaster) and the Manhattan Contemporary Ensemble. Ms. Youngstein attended the National Repertory Orchestra festival for two seasons; in her second season at NRO, she was assistant concertmaster and performed a concerto with the orchestra.

Ms. Youngstein has been a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra first violin section since fall of 1987. Also, as assistant personnel manager of the NJSO, Ms. Youngstein is the keeper and distributor of all printed materials. She currently has a private teaching studio with students from throughout northern NJ. She has taught at the Thurnauer School of Music, at the Jewish Community Center in Tenafly, and Rutgers Prep School. She is a member of the Amaryllis Ensemble .
 
Ms. Youngstein is the leader of the Greater Newark Violin Ensemble, the newest Ensemble of the Great Newark Youth Orchestra program, sponsored by the NJSO. She also is a mentor/coach of the Newark Early Strings Program, working twice monthly at Quitman Community School and Rafael Hernandez Elementary School.


Certificate Program
Leslie Webster
973-966-1101

Leslie Webster received her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and Master’s degree from Harvard University. She has performed as concertmaster, lecture-recitalist, chamber player, and as a soloist in the tri-state area and abroad. She currently specializes in pedagogy, having studied in particular the methods of Paul Rolland, Kato Havas, Mimi Zweig, Louise Behrend, and Margaret Pressley. Mrs. Webster is a past-president of ASTA/NJ she also edited New Jersey Strings, chaired the ASTA/NJ Solo Competition, co-founded 4 Strings! A Summer Chamber Music Academy and is currently a co-chair of the ASTA/NJ Certificate Program. She has served on a variety of national ASTA committees as well, earning the ASTA Citation for Leadership and Merit in 2003 and 2004. She was awarded the ASTA/NJ Distinguished Service Award for her outstanding contributions to string music education. She offers a summer Cadet Teacher course for pre-college students who want to teach and teaches violin to private award-winning students in regular and accelerated pre-college programs in Madison, NJ.

Newsletter Editor
Kimberly Syvertsen

Kimberly Syvertsen is in her fifth year as director of the youth symphonies at the Montclair State University John J. Cali School of Music, where she conducts the Junior Orchestra, Youth Orchestra, and Chamber Sinfonia. She received her B.M. in violin performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music where she studied with Shirley Givens, and her Artist Diploma from Montclair where she was a scholarship student with Yi-Wen Jiang of the Shanghai Quartet. She has taught in both the college and pre-college divisions of the Cali School. As a member of the strings faculty at the Dwight-Englewood School, she directs the Lower School’s string program and conducts its summer String Society ensembles, Chamber Virtuosi and Prelude Orchestra. Miss Syvertsen has been the conductor of the Overture Strings ensemble in Youth Orchestras of Essex County since 2006. Most recently she was named Coordinator of Orchestral Ensembles in 2010 and director of the Thurnauer Philharmonia in 2009, both at the JCC on the Palisades. During her tenure in the Verismo Quartet, she was an Artist-Fellow at Hampden-Sydney College and appeared on the Colonial Symphony's chamber music series opposite tenor Bruce Rameker. An advocate in both music education and performing arts medicine, she has been on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory Outreach Program and the JCC Thurnauer School’s Music Discovery Program. The ergonomic pedagogy materials she developed received acclaim at a Maryland State Medical Society lecture, and she has appeared as a panelist at a MedChi performing arts forum at Peabody. Under her direction as president, MSU’s American String Teachers Association Student Chapter was nationally awarded “Most Outstanding Student Chapter” for 2007. Miss Syvertsen is a member of both ASTA and the Conductors Guild. Her students have won awards, scholarships, and concerto competitions. She maintains a blog on her adventures in conducting and string teaching at http://mskimberly.wordpress.com.

National High School Honors Orchestra Chair
Barbara Vierschilling
908-322-9586

Barbara Vierschilling, violin, has been teaching strings in Summit for fifteen years. She conducts the High School String Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and several quartets and quintets. The Hilltop String Quartet ,coached by Mrs. Vierschilling will be performing at Alice Tully Hall this spring as winners of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Young Musicians Program (they were also selected in 2005). Mrs. Vierschilling was selected as Teacher of the Year last year in Summit. Mrs. Vierschilling earned her Bachelor’s Degree in performance from The University of Maryland and did graduate work in Music Education at Kean. She is a frequent orchestral clinician and adjudicator in New Jersey and maintains a leadership role in many state Orchestra committees and panels. She is Past President of the New Jersey Chapter of the American String Teacher’s Association and currently serves as National Honors Orchestra Chairman. Previous positions in ASTA include Composer Competition and Quartet Competition Chairman. Barbara is currently an Honorary Chair on the Board of Trustees of The Summit Symphony and is on the Education Committee of the New Jersey Youth Symphony. In addition, she teaches private violin and viola lessons. Her private students have won many competitions including The ASTA Solo Competition , The Suburban Community Concerto Competition and The MTA Solo Competition. They have performed at Steinway Hall and Carnegie Hall.

Young Composers Competition
Sandra Dackow
201-574-5782
  
Student Chapters
Kimberly Chiesa
908-433-7884

Kimberly Chiesa recently received her Bachelors degree in Music Education from Montclair State University, where she was an active member of the ASTA@MSU college chapter. She has been teaching at the Montclair Preparatory Center for the Arts for nearly five years, and has been teaching privately for the past four years. She has received Suzuki Teacher Training for Books one to three on violin.  Kim also just began her career as an Elementary Strings teacher in the Randolph School District, and will be doing some managing work with the Region I junior and high school orchestras this year.

Co-Chair, String Symposium
Mimi Butler
856-795-4285

Mimi Butler teaches violin and viola privately to 25 to 30 students weekly in her Haddonfield, NJ home. Once a month, all of the students play in a chamber music class. Weekly, Mimi teaches string classes at Camden Catholic High in Pennsauken, NJ. With Pam Fay, violist in the Philadelphia Orchestra, Butler runs the "Summer String Festival," a two week day camp every July in Cherry Hill, NJ. Mimi is the author/publisher of "The Complete Guide to Running a Private Music Studio", "The Complete Guide to Making More Money in the Private Music Studio" and "The Complete Guide to Raising Parents in the Private Music Studio". Butler has been conducting workshops on the books throughout the country and in Canada and is a contributing writer for "Strad" magazine.

Solo and Ensemble Festivals
Marilyn Lupchinsky
856-629-0511

Elementary Teacher at Large, Grants
Co-Chair, String Symposium
Betsy Maliszewski
973-701-0385

Nominating Committee, Private Teacher Lists
Sheila Mendel
973-839-8852

Mrs. Sheila Mendel, Director/Conductor of the All-Wayne String Ensemble and Orchestra for the past ten years, is a graduate of The Manhattan School of Music.
She toured Europe with the American Festival Orchestra, and has performed with the Radio City Symphony Orchestra, the Wayne Symphony and The Orchestra of St. Peter By The Sea. Playing in "the pit" on Broadway in "West Side Story", "Pippin", "King And I" as well as numerous recordings are but a few of Mrs. Mendel's accomplishments. She currently teaches strings in the Florham Park School District and is an adjunct instructor of strings and conductor/director of the Abbey Symphonette String Ensemble at the Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey.


Historian
Edwin Black
973-731-5532

Ed Black played violin for 4 years in All-State Orchestra and horn for 2 years in All-State Band. He continued in the U.S. Navy playing horn in the NATO band, the Norfolk Symphony, and violin in the NATO cocktail trio. He has a BA from Montclair State and an MA from the Teacher’s College of Columbia University.  He also holds a state supervisor’s certificate.  Ed played 10 years with the New Jersey Symphony and 25 years at the Paper Mill Playhouse. He has taught 40 years in the schools and colleges of New Jersey, and has conducted Region Band and Orchestra.  He plays horn with the Orchestra of Saint Peter by the Sea, The Festival of the Atlantic, and the Plainfield Symphony. He currently plays violin and viola with Garden State Wedding Music, a group that plays weddings, banquets, and corporate events. He is also the historian with the New Jersey chapter of the American String Teacher’s association. (ASTA)