Adjunct Instructors
Dan Bos currently teaches guitar lessons at Westmont College. Dan is an award-winning composer, record producer, and performer living in Santa Barbara. He has written music for clients, such as Target Stores, Office Depot, ABC Television, HGTV, Coldwell Banker, March of Dimes, David Jay Photography, and Dane Sanders Photography. His composition "Pendulum" won a 2009 ADDY Award. He has produced all the Westmont Chapel recordings as well as recordings for Westmont Phoenix, Santa Barbara Community Church, Philip Ficsor & Emma Lou Diemer, Cal State Channel Islands, Montecito Covenant Church, Elise Witek, and Leif Tinsley. He has been teaching guitar to students of all ages and skill levels for over 12 years specializing in contemporary rock and popular music. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music and Religious Studies from Hope College (Holland, MI). www.truetoneproductions.com
Jim Connolly is a composer and performer living in Santa Barbara, California. He writes music for The Gove County Philharmonic, The Gove County String Quartet and Lit Moon Theatre. He has composed for choir, musical saw, five string violin, string quartet and various chamber ensembles. He plays the double bass, saw, banjo, piano and sings. He attended New England Conservatory. Jim has received five Independent Theater Awards, numerous commissions, grants, ASCAP Plus Awards and in 2001 was listed as one of the twenty-five most intriguing people in Santa Barbara. He has collaborated or performed with Nate Birkey, Gilles Apap, Jeff Kaiser, Brad Dutz, Headless Household, Jeff Bridges, Vinny Golia, Eugene Chadbourne, Cougar Estrada, Anna Abbey and his brother Kevin Connolly. The Gove County String Quartet is Laura Hackstein and Sally Barr on violin, Kirsten Monke on viola and Jim Connolly playing bass. The Gove County Philharmonic has included Ron McCarley on clarinet, Jeff Kaiser playing trumpet, Bruce Bigenho on piano, Jim Bement and Brett Larson on accordion, Gilles Apap and the members of The Gove County String Quartet are the strings. For listening and more information please visit http://www.jimconnollymusic.com
Nichole Dechaine currently teaches private
voice lessons at Westmont College. She graduated from the University of Redlands and earned her master’s degree and doctorate from UC Santa Barbara, where she taught for six years. Dechaine is an active performer with UCSB, Opera Santa Barbara, the Music Academy of the West, the Amherst Early Music Festival Baroque Academy in Connecticut, and numerous local ensembles including Vocal Scholars, Santa Barbara Quire of Voyces and the Santa Barbara Choral Society. She also sings at All Saints’-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church.
Marcia Dickstein (B.M., M/M.) currently teaches harp lessons at Westmont College. She is attracting new audiences to the harp in chamber music and solo with orchestra. To date she has inspired composers from classical, film and jazz/fusion genres worldwide to write over 100 new works. As Founder/Artistic Director of The Debussy Trio she has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, over NPR radio and on commercial and public TV. Important concerts include appearances in Copenhagen, Prague, Geneva (Switzerland), San Francisco, Kennedy Center (Washington, DC) and solo with orchestras in Louisville, Glendale and Seattle. Recordings are available at www.fatrockink.com and on the Klavier, First Edition, Harmonia Mundi, Koch and RCM labels.
Ms. Dickstein’s has played on over 350 film scores such as Toy Story I-III, Matrix I-III, Alice in Wonderland, Royal Tennenbaums, Minority Report, Memoirs of a Geisha, Horton Hears a Who, Indiana Jones 4; CD solos with Roger Wagner & William Hall Chorales; CDs Chamber Music of Arnold Bax and The Debussy Trio’s 3 Friends, a “best pick” by Gramophone Magazine of London. Adjunct Professor of Harp at Cal State University/Long Beach, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Westmont College (Santa Barbara), Ms. Dickstein is also Teacher/Artistic Director of the Central Coast (CA) Harp Workshop. She holds Master Classes throughout the USA and maintains a private studio in Los Angeles. Her transcriptions and scholarly editions of solo and chamber music for professional and student level harpists are published by Fatrock Ink of Los Angeles.
John Enrico Douglas currently conducts a jazz seminar and teaches private piano lessons at Westmont College. He is a pianist, songwriter and composer whose performing credits include tours with the Pointer Sisters (1983), Donald O’Connor and Eddie Fisher (1979-81), as well as performances with Aretha Franklin (Santa Barbara Bowl 2005) and Dizzy Gillespie (1978). John Douglas also regularly serves as pianist and music director for the theatre departments of Goleta Valley Junior High School, Dos Pueblos and Santa Barbara High Schools and summer theatre camps. He recently served as music director for a musical at the Circle Bar B Dinner Theatre, Goleta, and as rehearsal pianist for musicals at PCPA, Santa Maria and Ensemble Theater, Santa Barbara. He is music director and songwriter/composer for City at Peace, a theatre program for at-risk and other teenagers. John is a substitute teacher for the Santa Barbara School District. He accompanies singers and choirs and plays jazz, salsa, blues, rock & roll and Brazilian music with bands here and in Los Angeles. He is a retired deputy public defender for Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties.
Steven Gross currently teaches private horn lessons at Westmont College. He is the Principal Horn of both Opera Santa Barbara and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, a member of the Oregon Coast Festival Orchestra, and has appeared with the Denver Symphony. His international solo appearances include those with the Orchester der Stadt Vocklabruck in Austria, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Moscow Conservatory, L’Abri International Arts Festival in Switzerland, and the Nairobi Symphony in Kenya. Dr. Gross is also currently a Professor of Horn and Director of the Wind, Brass & Percussion Program at UC Santa Barbara.
Paula Hatley earned a bachelor of arts degree in music from the University of Arkansas, where she studied with William Gant. She has worked as a vocal studio accompanist, performing in numerous song recitals, and has been a member of various chamber ensembles. In addition to her work at Westmont, she has accompanied the Santa Barbara Children’s Chorus and the Santa Barbara Master Chorale.
Eric C. Heidner currently teaches private trombone lessons at Westmont College. A native Santa Barbaran, he is in his sixth year as the Director of Bands at Santa Barbara City College, where he directs both the SBCC Concert Band and the "Good Times" Jazz Ensemble. Before recently joining the faculty at the college, he held the position of Director of Bands for Santa Barbara High School for five years. In addition, he has worked with a great many local school music programs, including those of Dos Pueblos High School, Arroyo Grande High School, Bishop Diego High School, and numerous public elementary and parochial schools. He holds a B.M. in trombone performance from UCSB (studying under Bill Booth), as well as an M.A. in musicology. He earned his teaching credential from Westmont College in 1997. As a professional brass instrumentalist, he has worked with Doc Severinsen and has played for such people as Dizzy Gillespie and former President Ronald Reagan, and has served as both principal hornist and principal trombonist to the SBCC Concert Band between 1992 and 2003.
John Casey Hopson currently teaches private guitar lessons at Westmont College. He earned his bacherlors degree in classical guitar performance from California State University Fullerton and his masters degree in studio/jazz guitar performance from the University of Southern California. Casey is also actively involved with the Performing Arts Guild of Orange County, a non-profit arts program that provides quality instruction at a low cost. He serves as a private instructor for guitar and piano students as well as the musical director for the Guild's Touring Band.
Stuart Horn currently teaches private oboe lessons at Westmont College. He has been the oboist for “Southwest Chamber Music” since its founding in 1987 and plays regularly with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Santa Barbara Opera, the Los Angeles Master Chorale Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Stuart Horn has performed with the New Music America, Olympic Arts, Ojai, Summerfest La Jolla, Holland and San Luis Obispo Mozart festivals, both as a soloist and in the festival orchestras. He is also on the woodwind faculty at U.C. Santa Barbara and teaches oboe for the California State Summer School for the Arts.
Egle Januleviciute teaches private piano lessons at Westmont College. She holds the Diploma with Highest Honors from Academy of Music of Lithuania, Vilnius, Master of Music degree from Bowling Green State University, OH, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of California Santa Barbara.
Egle Januleviciute has toured Lithuania, Germany, Finland, Japan, Italy, Belgium and the former Soviet Union, both as soloist and collaborative artist. Egle has been performing extensively with Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and Kaunas Symphony Orchestra along with numerous recordings for Lithuanian TV and Radio. Her international awards include the Premiere Prix Concert Recital Diploma from Guildhall School, London, the sixth prize in Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition, Cleveland, Ohio, and the first prize in the Young Keyboard Artists Association International Piano Competition, Oberlin, Ohio. Egle’s commercial recordings include M.K.Ciurlionis (1875-1911) Pieces for Piano (Tembras Studios, Lithuania, 1992), works by Faure, Franck, Debussy and Ravel for “Young Maestros Label” by Hurstwood Farm Music Studios, U.K., 1998, and J.S.Bach Keyboard Works by Eroica Classical recordings, 2006. Egle has served on Keyboard Faculties of Academy of Music and Arts of Lithuania, University of California, Santa Barbara. You can find more about Egle at http://www.eglej.com
Claude-Lise Lafranque, violinist, studied in Bordeaux, France graduating from Bordeaux's conservatory with a first prize in performance. In Paris she studied with maestro Nerini and attended many music festivals throughout Europe giving her the opportunity to work with great masters such as Irina Boshkova of Moscow's conservatory. She came to Santa Barbara to attend the Music Academy of the West and prolonged her stay to attend University of California, Santa Barbara. She currently performs in Santa Barbara with the Symphony and Chamber Orchestra. She shares her love for music with her own two children and many students in the community.
Heather Levin holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, is a member of the Music Teachers Association of California and teaches piano privately. She has accompanied many vocal and instrumental soloists and ensembles in Santa Brbara, including the Santa Barbara City College Theater Group, the Contemporary Music Theater of Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Grand Opera, the Gilbert and Sullivan Company, and the El Montecito Presbyterian Church Choir.
Valerie Malvinni, violinist and violist, teaches viola at Westmont College and Santa Barbara City College. An active orchestral musician, Valerie performs with the Santa Barbara Symphony, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra and occasionally performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As an active chamber musician she has participated in several festivals including Taos, Recontres Musicales ‘d’Evian, France, the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Festival .
She previously served as Assistant Professor of Music at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ and was strings director of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara. In summer, Valerie has taught at the inaugural Adriatic Chamber Music Festival in Italy and is founder and teacher of the Santa Barbara String Camp. In addition to her current college teaching, Valerie teaches privately at her violin shop, Malvinni Stringed Instruments.
Valerie received her B.M from The Curtis Institute of Music with Karen Tuttle, Joseph de Pasquale and Felix Galimir. She came to California to pursue her M.M. degree at UC Santa Barbara as a member of the Young Artist String Quartet, studying with Heiichiro Ohyama. To further advance herself, Valerie completed post-graduate studies at UCLA with Evan N. Wilson and Paul Coletti.
Jim Mooy currently teaches trumpet lessons at Westmont College. He holds music and education degrees from U.C.L.A. (B.A. and M.A.). His trumpet performance studies have been with Jimmy Valves, Ron Thompson, Tony Plog, and Mario Guarnerri. A Music Academy of the West Alumnus, he has toured the U.S. and Japan as a professional trumpet player.
Paul Mori '77 first gained his reputation as a conductor with the Bach Ensemble of Baltimore in the 1990s. That chamber orchestra performed a wide-ranging repertoire, from Bach to Bartok, and was featured numerous times on the public radio station WBJC's prestigious "Music in Maryland" series. Dr. Mori went to Baltimore to study at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, earning a master's degree in bassoon performance with Phillip Kolker and later completing a doctorate in orchestral conducting, stuyding with the legendary Frederik Prausnitz. He has served as musical director of the Rainier Symphony (1996-2001) and as the music director of the Bainbridge Orchestra and the Rainier Youth Symphony. He has also appeared as guest conductor for various orchestras, including the Northwest Mahler Festival Orchestra and the Huntington Chamber Orchestra (a professional orchestra in West Virginia). Dr. Mori returned to Baltimore, the place of his musical roots, in December 2005 when he conducted a concert with the world-renown violinist Hilary Hahn and members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. At Westmont he teaches bassoon, conducts the Wind Ensemble, and coaches chamber ensembles.
Nona Pyron currently teaches private cello lessons and works with the Westmont Chamber Orchestra. She earned bachelor, master and doctorate degrees from the University of Southern California.
Richard Rintoul is the music director/conductor of the UCSB Symphony Orchestra, where he also teaches conducting. In fall 2010 he will join the Westmont College faculty as a viola instructor. Having founded the Orchestra da Camera at the pretigious Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, he was its music director/conductor for 23 years. He has been Music Director of the Thousands Oaks Philharmonic, the CSULB Orchestral Studies and String Departments, the Pasadena Young Musicians Orhcestra, the Glendale Youth Orchestra, the Colburn Chamber Orchestra, and several Los Angeles Area Churches. Dr. Rintoul has recently appeared as a guest conductor of the Vancouver Symphony, USA, the La Mirada Symphony, the Downey Symphony and has conducted recording sessions for television and videogames among a variety of projects. He has led a number of operatic productions for UCSB, CSULB, Opera a la Carte, the Los Angeles Children's Chorus, radio station KCRW and Grand Productions. Dr. Rintoul is iVasi's video conductor at www.ivasi.net. He remains active in the recording industry, playing viola on soundtracks for television (Lost, Fringe) and motion pictures (Ratatouille, Star Trek, Up).
Seungah Seo teaches piano at Westmont College and is founder of the Santa Barbara Piano Studio. She has appeared in chamber and solo recitals throughout the United States, Russia, China and South Korea. Most recently, Ms. Seo received a Stern Fellowship to study with legendary pianist and vocal coach Martin Katz at SongFest in Malibu, California. She was an active pianist and vocal coach in New York and has served as a pianist for the public master classes of Marilyn Horn, Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe and Carol Wincenc. In addition, she has been awarded Santa Barbara Music Club scholarships and is a two-time recipient of the first prize for the John E. Profant Foundation. Seungah Seo was a participant in the vocal accompanying program at the Brevard Music Festival on a full scholarship and in the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival as a staff accompanist. She is a member of the Music Teachers' Association of California, the Southern California Vocal Association and the American Guild of Organists. Ms. Seo holds a master's degree in accompanying from Manhattan School of Music in New York, where she was a staff accompanist and a scholarship student of distinguished pianist and vocal coach Kenneth Merrill. She received her bachelor's degree in collaborative piano from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she studied with Dr. Charles Asche, Anne Epperson, Paul Berkowitz and Yael Weiss.
Celeste Tavera is a National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition in New York City. She has also performed a variety of operatic roles with Opera Companies such as the New York City Opera National Tour, San Diego Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Santa Barbara Grand Opera, and San Francisco Western Opera Theater. Celeste has also performed in Italy at the festival dell' Opera Lirica Siciliana with Vincenzo La Scola. She sang in concert with Jose Carreras, in Vincenza, Italy and again at the Villa Albergati in Bologna, Italy. Other honors include the Golden Eagle awards, International Bellini Competition, Leiderkranz Foundation, and winner of the Victor Fuchs competition and People's Choice Award. She performed as soloist for the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as well as soloist with the Pacific Symphony, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Las Vegas Symphony and the Palm Springs Desert Chorale. Celeste is a versatile performer of concert, Broadway and commercial music. Her recording credits include: musical promotion for the 1996 Academy Awards and background vocals for Universal Studios soundtrack "Land before Time." Other CDs include "Their Thought & Back Again," "Ivory Joe Cole," "Best Loved Arias," and "You Keep Me Singing." In Musical Theater Celeste has performed in "West Side Story," "Kismet," and in the world premier of "Cole & Will (together again)." She studied voice and vocal performance at Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State. She also studied Italian at the Cultura Italiana language school in Bologna, Italy and studied voice under the tutelage of Jane Randolph, Herta Glatz, and Egidia Bonessi. She has also coached with Metropolitan Opera's Jane Dornermann and Carol Neblett and in Italy with vocal coach Paula Molinari. Celeste has taught voice at Westmont College for the past nine years. Her students have participated in various orchestral concerts and competitions, Celeste developed the vocal program for the Yamaha Music Education Center in Irvine, California, and she went on to produce, direct, and stage the Not So Royal Opera Company's production of "Iolanthie." Ms. Tavera has taught privately for over twenty years and is a member of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singings). Website: celestetavera.net
Craig Thomas Saxophone instructor Craig Thomas is a long time performer and educator whose work spans his years as a studio musician and sideman with artists like Al Jarreau, Les MCann, the Temptations, Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, Tom Jones, Freda Payne, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, Toni Tennille and many others. With a background in classical as well as jazz, he still performs on clarinet with the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra, as well as on saxophone with the critically acclaimed jump blues group the R&B Bombers. He also has his own jazz trio with the long time studio and Tonight Show guitarist Mitch Holder and bassist Domenic Genova.
Mr. Thomas has been teaching privately for over twenty years and maintains a busy schedule of teaching and performing.
Rebekah Scogin currently teaches private harp lessons at Westmont College. BA, MA, a graduate of UCSB's Masters program in Music who has been performing and teaching in Santa Barbara for over 20 years.
Laura Walter received a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from the University of Kentucky. Furthering her studies with Peter Lloyd of the London Symphony, and Kyril Magg of the Cincinnati Symphony, she has also played for Julius Baker, Keith Underwood, Carol Wincenc and in masterclasses around the country. She performs with the Santa Barbara Symphony, Opera Santa Barbara, as well as local choral societies. Alry Publications has published several of her flute choir arrangements and an etude book. The Richards Institute of Education and Research, a non-profit group, has appointed her the next Executive Director. Working with teachers and children, especially at-risk youth, this nation-wide organization promotes song, movement and community to develop motivation, intelligence, literacy, emotional stability and beauty through the aesthetic experience.