Washington Township sixth and seventh-grade musicians will reap the benefits of a day (8:15 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.) alongside visiting professional musicians who will serve as clinicians at the district’s 35th annual American String Teachers’ Association (ASTA) Solo and Ensemble Festival on Friday, Feb.28th at Bunker Hill Middle School.
The Festival provides an opportunity for young musicians to perform in chamber groups and as soloists. The ensembles perform for an audience of their peers and also are critiqued by highly qualified clinicians. The festival is organized in an open, master class setting so that performers and the audience can listen to and learn from the clinician’s comments.
The Festival has been a major focus of the string program in the Washington Township Public Schools and continues to contribute to the growth of the students and their program. Currently, there are approximately 260 middle and high school students and 300 elementary students participating in the district’s string program.
“Preparation for the ensemble festival has required students to work cooperatively toward a common goal of perfecting a piece of music for performance at the festival,” BHMS string director Mark Przybylowski said. “Additionally, student ensembles foster independence, as players are responsible for their single part. Our students have all demonstrated collaboration, communication, and teamwork and are excited to participate in this special learning experience.”
The day will culminate with a performance by the Third Annual ASTA Orchestra, with nearly 100 string students from Bunker Hill, Chestnut Ridge and Orchard Valley Middle Schools performing a rendition of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Spring.”
Clinicians contributing to this year’s festival include:
Eliezer Gutman, violin
Romanian-born and raised in Israel, Eliezer Gutman has been a member of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra since 1994 and is currently concertmaster with the Kennett Symphony of Chester County, the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Delaware. He also performs with various local orchestras, including the Reading Symphony Orchestra. Eliezer has performed solo recitals in France, England, Spain, Israel, and the United States. He was the concertmaster of the Israel Technion-Institute Symphony Orchestra, Kibbutzim Symphony Orchestra, the Haifa Israel Symphony Orchestra, and the Ensemble-Carmel-Israel Chamber Orchestra.
Eliezer earned a Bachelor of Industry and Management degree from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and a Master of Music degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He studied under David Arben, Philadelphia Orchestra concertmaster, and Avigdor Zamir, Associate concertmaster of the Dutch orchestra The Concertgebouw. Eliezer finds his greatest joy spending time with his two children, Elad and Ayelet.
Bruce Erwin, violin
A native of Texas, Bruce Erwin began playing the violin shortly after his father started making them. Playing the violin has taken Mr. Erwin to all kinds of places: symphony concerts in La Sala Nezahualcoyotl in Mexico City; busking in the streets of Helsinki; pubs in Glasgow and Achill; Opera in the Graz Opera House; contradances in Canton, Ithaca, Buffalo, and Poughkeepsie; R.S.C.D.S. dances in Cleveland, Columbus, and Hamilton; Van Cliburn Finals in Fort Worth and blues in the Zoo Bar in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Mr. Erwin began his teaching career as an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin as part of the String Project. At his wife’s suggestion, he began studying the Suzuki method of teaching the violin. His Suzuki teacher trainers were Mihoko Hirata, Yuko Honda, Sr. Pat D’Ercole, James Maurer, Alice Joy Lewis, John Kendall, and Mark Bjork. He taught in the Fort Worth Symphony Suzuki School, the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood Ohio, the Oberlin Community Music School in Oberlin Ohio, and Rowan University Music Prep. In summers Bruce has been on the faculties of the TCU Suzuki Institute, DFW WOW Suzuki Institute, the Capital University Suzuki Institute, and the Suzuki Music Columbus Institute.
Bruce earned a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the Graduate String Quartet; a Master of Music degree from Baylor University where he was a member of the Graduate String Quartet and concertmaster of the Baylor Symphony. At the University of North Texas, he has done work toward a D.M.A. degree where he was a teaching fellow and performed two of four doctoral recitals.
Bruce Erwin teaches violin at all levels and ages and also beginning the viola.
Nina Cottman, viola
Pennsylvania-born Nina Cottman has been a violist with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra since 1987. She currently performs with other musical organizations in the area, including the Kennett Symphony of Chester County, Opera Delaware, the Festival of Shippensburg University, and Philly Pops. After her graduation from the New School of Music in Philadelphia, Nina joined the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra then moved on to the Oakland Symphony Orchestra in Oakland, California.
Nina has been with the Copeland String Quartet since it was formed in 2003. Nina is also on the faculty of the Music School of Delaware, Wilmington Branch, and also teaches viola.
Joanne Erwin, cello
Joanne Erwin, Professor Emerita of Music Education at Oberlin Conservatory, is currently an Adjunct Professor of Cello at Rowan University and conductor of the Rowan Youth String Orchestra. She earned her Bachelor’s (magna cum laude) and Master’s degree in Music Education at the University of Illinois. After teaching strings in public schools and Suzuki cello in Illinois and Texas, she went on to earn her Ph.D. in String Pedagogy at the University of North Texas. She has performed as a cellist in many orchestras including the Fort Worth Symphony, Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey and has been a director for youth orchestras in Texas and Ohio. She has maintained a cello studio with traditional and Suzuki students in each location she has lived. At Oberlin, she primarily taught string methods, string pedagogy with an outreach project, and conducting. She has presented at MEA and ASTA conferences and conducted festival orchestras both nationally and internationally. She is a co-author of New Directions for Strings, String Premiere, Scales in Time, Prelude to Music Education, and written other articles for American String Teacher and Teaching Music. She lives in NJ with her husband and near her daughter and her young family.
Douglas Mapp, double bass
Bassist Douglas Mapp is at home in many musical styles ranging from classical to jazz to rock to Broadway to contemporary classical. The list of artists that he has performed, recorded and toured with includes Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Donnie McClurkin, Richard Smallwood, Natalie Cole, Randy Brecker, Sean Jones, Ernie Watts, Lana Del Rey, R Kelly, and Jeff Majors. He is Principal Bassist of the Reading and Kennett Symphonies and Assistant Principal of the Delaware Symphony. He performs regularly with some of the region’s premier ensembles including the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Philly Pops, and Harrisburg Symphony. He has performed as a substitute bassist with the Philadelphia Orchestra both at home and on tour. He is the former President of the International Society of Bassists and chaired the 2015 ISB convention at Colorado State University.
