LOCAL PRESENTERS FOR THE 2010 SUMMER CONFERENCE

Violist Juliet White-Smith is an active soloist and chamber musician. She has performed throughout North America, Europe and the Middle East. She has appeared at three International Viola Congresses, in Montreal, Tempe, Arizona and most recently in South Africa. Her chamber music collaborations have brought her onstage with such luminaries as violinists Andres Cardenes and Benny Kim, and pianist Gilbert Kalish. She has been a guest artist at various summer music festivals including Strings in the Mountains and Fontana Festival in Michigan.

A devoted educator with a history of printed contributions in American String Teacher and Journal of the American Viola Society, Dr. White-Smith has presented master classes at the Eastman School of Music and was a featured presenter at the ASTA National Conference in 2007. She has served as string juror for various competitions including the William Primrose International Viola Competition and has taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp and Bravo! Summer Institute for Strings and Piano at the University of Minnesota.

A prominent advocate of the viola, Dr. White-Smith is currently President of the American Viola Society. Her debut CD recording of works by contemporary American composers George Walker, Michael Colgrass and Maurice Gardner was released in May 2009 on the Centaur Records label.

Dr. White-Smith earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music.

Michelle Ewer is a 1981 graduate of The University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. She received her Masters in Educational Administration from the University of Phoenix in 1992. Mrs. Ewer taught orchestra in Adams County District 50 for twelve years and has been in Jefferson County since 1994. Her current position includes teaching strings at Creighton Middle School and five area elementary schools. She has nearly 200 students in her program grades 5-8. Mrs. Ewer was President of The Colorado Music Educators Association from 2007-2009. She held office as President of the American String Teachers Association for two separate terms. She currently is a member of MENC, CMEA, ASTA and CBA. In 2002 and 2004 her Symphonic Strings and Jazz Strings from Creighton Middle School were selected to play at the Colorado Music Educators Clinic/Conference in Colorado Springs. Since she began teaching in Jefferson County schools, Michelle has helped develop the district music standards and benchmarks. In 2009 she was one of a few select members chosen to re-write the Colorado Music Standards. Mrs. Ewer is married to Keith, a freelance musician and has twenty-year-old twins, Heather and Tucker. They are both music education majors attending Western Michigan University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Catherine Kentner received her Bachelor of Science with Distinction in Music Education from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 1989. From 1990-1998 she taught general music, band and choir in northwest Colorado; North Park 1990-1992 and Routt County 1992-1998. In 1997, Ms. Kentner earned a Master of Music degree with an emphasis in wind conducting from the University of Northern Colorado. Since 1998, Ms. Kentner has taught at Creighton Middle School in Lakewood. Under her direction, the Lakewood area band program boasted nearly 200 students (grades 5-8) and two full after school jazz bands during the 2009-2010 school year. While in Jeffco, Catherine has served on CAP document writing, prioritized benchmark, instrumental report card writing and other nerdly committees.

Originally from far West Texas, El Paso to be exact, Fred has been a resident of Colorado since June of 1994. Fred currently teaches in the Boulder Valley School District as the Orchestra Specialist in Lafayette. He teaches at Centaurus HS, Angevine MS and the four elementary schools in Lafayette. Fred received his B.M.Ed. from UTEP and continued with classwork toward a Master's degree. He performed with the El Paso Symphony for fifteen seasons and studied violin with Abraham Chavez, Jr. for ten years in El Paso. Fred is also a Suzuki violin teacher. He has maintained a private Suzuki studio in El Paso and in Boulder for 22 years. Substitute violinist with the Boulder Philharmonic for two season between 1994 and 1996, Fred has just been appointed as Concertmaster of the Denver Pops Orchestra, formerly the Mostly Strauss Orchestra. Fred is also a member of the Board of Directors and serves in several capacities as needed for the Trouble Clef Theatre Company of Boulder. He is also a composer of string and vocal music and is hoping to be published soon. Serving as the CASTA newsletter editor for three years now, Fred lives with his partner, two elderly cats and two beautiful red Siberian Huskies in Boulder.

Andrea L. Meyers received a bachelor of music education from the University of Northern Colorado in 1976, and in 1992 received her master of arts from the University of Colorado at Denver.

A Colorado native, Meyers has enjoyed a professional music career as a cellist, conductor, performer, clinician, adjudicator and music education advocate. She is currently the National Member-at-Large with National ASTA. She has served on numerous committees including the Colorado All-State Orchestra Advisory Board, Continental League Honor Music Festival, Colorado Music Educators Association, and has worked with the Colorado High School Activities Association. She has attended several National ASTA Leadership Summits, all our National ASTA Conferences (except Reno).

Meyers’ professional involvement is significant, performing with numerous orchestras throughout Colorado and currently in her 15th season with the Arapahoe Philharmonic Orchestra. She enjoys a career that combines both performing and teaching strings and plays on a 130-year-old Neuner-Hornsteiner cello. She is listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, was one of seven teachers selected in Douglas County for the 2004 Thank a Teacher Award, and has received the Outstanding Teacher Award numerous times in Douglas County. In 2005, the Colorado Chapter of the American String Teachers Association, Inc. selected Meyers as the Colorado ASTA Outstanding String Teacher of the Year. At the Albuquerque, New Mexico National ASTA Conference, Meyers was presented the National 2008 ASTA Outstanding State Leadership Award.

NANCY ALLWEIN received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Northern Colorado and a secondary endorsement in elementary education from the University of Colorado at Denver. Nancy is an experienced string teacher who has taught orchestra in Adams County District 12, Adams County District 50 and Jefferson County Schools.

Ms. Allwein presently teaches at Denver School of the Arts where she is the Director of Orchestras. Nancy has been a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator in Adams County, Jefferson County and Grand Junction. In addition to her many talents in teaching, she has performed with the Boulder Philharmonic, Arvada Chamber, and presently plays with the Cameo String Quartet. She has studied violin with Howard Mickens, Curtis Peacock and Mark Lamprey. Ms. Allwein teaches violin and viola privately, free-lances throughout the Denver-Metro area, and is the treasurer of Colorado American String Teachers Association

Tom began his career as a music educator teaching general music in the Baltimore City Schools upon graduating as a voice and education major from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He and his family later moved to Colorado where he taught choir and guitar for nine years at North Middle School in Colorado Springs School District 11. After completing his Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, he accepted a position as the Fine Arts Coordinator in School District 11 where he is currently employed.

Over the past several years, Tom has been actively involved in various local, state and national arts organizations such as the Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration, the Arts, Business and Education Consortium, Americans for the Arts, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Opera Theatre of the Rockies, the Colorado Springs Children’s Chorale and the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony. He was one of the founding members of a state arts organization ABE, (Advocates for a Balanced Education). In District 11, Tom has helped to set and sustain a vision for strong comprehensive music programs in all schools, enhanced by arts focus schools and arts integration. Tom worked with a team to design a Suzuki program at Bristol Elementary School in District 11 where all students from Kindergarten to third grade receive violin instruction every day.

Tom is a member of CMEA and has been an active member of CAMCI (Colorado Association of Music Curriculum and Instruction) for the past twelve years. He is currently the association’s Chair. His mission is to see that all students have equal opportunity and access to a comprehensive music education. He also believes it is important that we foster a climate of inclusion to all entities in our profession; this includes the vocalists and the instrumentalist, the classical and the jazz, the P-12 and High Ed, the director and the performer, the secular and the sacred, the rote and the read, the young and the old, etc, etc, etc…. As musicians, we seem to function best when we are teaching and learning. In my perfect world, all teachers would continue to perform and all performers would give of themselves to teaching others. It is his conviction that all children can and should learn to sing and he further believe that all children should have an opportunity to play an instrument. Tom himself began to study the cello in 2005 and is currently an active member of the Pikes Peak Philharmonic, a community orchestra in Colorado Springs.

It is Tom’s belief that as musicians and music educators, we have the unique opportunity to affect our culture and society. Research continues to tell us that when we engage in music making we will be better prepared for our 21^st century global workforce. Even though music as a content can stand on its own, we must continue to advocate for music’s ability to guide the mind and the soul in creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. Participating in music develops the habits of mind that attend to value, inclination, sensitivity, capability and commitment. The musician has the human advantage of creating, imagining and innovating.

For the past three years, Ms. Ley has been the Project Director for Galileo Middle School, including management of a successful Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant at Galileo Middle School. Her experiences with curriculum development and desegregation strategies at Galileo have been instrumental in the design of Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy.

CSSD11 successfully launched the Galileo School of Math and Science in 2008. Galileo, previously known as East Middle School, had experienced declining enrollment and test scores to the point where the school was no longer making AYP and had to be restructured under NCLB. The school was even featured on a national syndicated news show as one of the worst ten schools in America.

The downward spiral ended with the receipt of the MSAP grant, the renaissance began and the Galileo School of Math and Science was born. The new administration guaranteed two things, safety and student achievement. The administration delivered and when the school opened, Galileo had already decreased minority group isolation within 10% of District 11’s average minority percentage. Galileo students also made AYP the first year as a magnet school, the first time that students in this building had accomplished this in more than 10 years. In appointing Mary Ley as Project Director, District 11 will take the lessons learned and best practices from Galileo and do the same for students at Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy.

Prior to Mary’s role as a project director she was the International Baccalaureate Coordinator for North Middle School, where she raised more than $300,000 for a major library renovation. She was also the lead for an advisory team that wrote and received a $400,000 Russell Grinnell Foundation Art Integration Grant.

Before Mary served in an administrative capacity, she taught art for twenty-eight years to both middle and high school students. As an art teacher she received two $6,000 At Risk Mini Grants that published student-produced books. She also received grants from Rotary, National Geographic, two Lilly Endowment Creativity Fellowships, a McDonalds Grant, and two Wabash Valley Education Grants.

Mary has been the recipient of multiple awards, including two Wabash Valley Excellence in Teaching Awards, Optimist Club Teacher of the Year, Golden Apple Award Finalist, Leadership of Terre Haute, and Art in Illiana Art Teacher of the Year. Mary is a National Board Certified Teacher, and received her undergraduate degree in art education at Indiana State University, and her Master of Science in Education at Indiana State University.