Adjudicators

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Adjudicators & Clinicians for the Warwick Music Festivals

Robert Culver, Professor of Music Education in The University of Michigan School of Music, is a performing violist, conductor and strings specialist. Prior to joining the Michigan faculty, Professor Culver was string specialist in the Corvallis, Oregon Public Schools; orchestra director in the Springfield and Salem, Oregon Public Schools, violist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, a member of the faculty of the Ohio State University; and conductor of the youth orchestras in conjunction with the Columbus Symphony, Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of the Ohio State String Plan, Services for Strings, Curriculum for Strings, Master Teacher Profile and The Modernization of Instrumental Music Teacher Training.

Professor Culver has attained an international reputation as a public school orchestra conductor and has been a key figure in the development of school orchestra programs throughout the United States . He has been one of the most sought after consultants, clinicians and conductors available to Music Education today having been asked to 47 states and 11 countries in the last decade. He has served on the faculties of the National String Workshop, Madison , Wisconsin from 1984 to 1990, and the International String Workshop since 1980 and was the founder and director of the American String Workshop. As a conductor, he has been active in 39 All-State Orchestra Festivals and many more regional activities. His association with ASTA has been fruitful as Outreach Chairman for the state of Michigan developing many initiatives and programs throughout the state. In addition, he served on the National Board of ASTA as Publications Chairman and was voted as President Elect in 1988 assuming the Presidency in 1990. While originating and serving as Artistic Director of the Banff International Festival, he was also Chairman of Music Education. During his 97-98 school year sabbatical leave, he has been serving as Acting Director of the Cincinnati String Academy developing several new string programs, staff development procedures and inserting the String Academy into the Cincinnati metropolitan community.

DOROTHY STRAUB is the K-12 Music Coordinator in the Fairfield , Connecticut Public Schools where she also teaches strings and orchestra. Teaching experience in Chatham , New York ; Westport , Connecticut ; and Fairfield includes elementary, middle school, and high school levels as well as private violin and viola instruction. As Music Coordinator in Fairfield she established an orchestra program which now has more than thirteen hundred string players and orchestras in every school. The band and chorus programs are equally as strong and the core of the instructional program is a substantive general music program, the goal of which is to provide a quality music education for every child. Through a partnership with South Shore Music, lnc. Fairfield High School has a Chamber Music Honors Program for outstanding string, woodwind, and brass ensembles.

Ms. Straub is a graduate of Indiana University with a bachelor's and master's degree in music education, specializing in strings. She holds a Professional Diploma in Educational Administration from Fairfield University . Ms. Straub is a violist in the Greenwich Symphony and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra and studied viola with David Dawson and William Lincer.

She has served in various capacities for the Connecticut Music Educators Association, including president of the association and chairman of the Professional Affairs Commission. From 1987 to 1989 she served as president of the MENC Eastern Division. She is one of the founders of the Fairfield County String Teachers and has served as chair for many years. The Fairfield County String Festival, now in its twenty seventh year, has been effective in building string players and orchestra programs in Fairfield County .

Ms. Straub is a past president of the MENC, The National Association for Music Education. As MENC president from 1992 to 1994 she represented MENC at music education conferences in more than thirty states. She was involved in the development of national standards in music as well as advocacy efforts for the arts in education as a part of the National Coalition for Music Education. She served as chairman of the MENC Committee for String and Orchestra Education. She coordinated several MENC publication including, "Strategies for Success in the Band and Orchestra," "Establishing String and Orchestra Programs in the Schools," "An Agenda for Excellence in Music at the Middle Level," and "Strategies for Teaching Strings and Orchestra." She contributed a chapter titled "A K-12 Snapshot of a Quality K-12 Music Program" in the 2000 publication, "Performing with Understanding, The Challenge of the National Standards for Music Education, "published by MENC. She also authored the chapter on "Music" in the 2 000 publication, "What Principals Should Know About...",published by Charles Thomas Publishers.

In 1995 Ms. Straub received the ASTA (American String Teachers Association) Citation for Exceptional Leadership and Merit and the NSOA (National School Orchestra Association) Lifetime Achievement Award. From 1996 to 1998 she served on the National Board of the American String Teachers Association. She is presently a member of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Clinic and serves on the Music Committee for the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. She is also a member of the Education Advisory Committee of the National Music Center .

She was one of the founders of the Columbia Council on the Arts in New York state and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Fairfield Arts Council in Connecticut . She is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Fairfield County Children's Choir. She received the Outstanding Administrator by the Connecticut Music Educators Association in 1989. The Westport , Connecticut , Arts Advisory Committee named her the recipient of the Music award at the 19 97 Westport Arts Awards celebration.

Ms. Straub is a conductor for the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras and has been a guest conductor for orchestras in Connecticut , New York , Massachusetts , Maryland , Nevada , Iowa , and Maine . She has presented numerous workshops on music education and string education. She has taught summer workshops at Central Connecticut State University , Hartt College of Music, Villanova University , Duquesne University , VanderCook College of Music, Ohio State University, Illinois State University , Wichita State University , and the University of Florida . She has had two compositions for string orchestra published by Boosey & Fawkes is editor of the new edition of the Melody Book for Strings and the Masterworks Melody Book for Strings both published by Carl Fischer, Inc.

Ben Culver, Artistic Director of the Saline Fiddlers Philharmonic, is renowned as a string educator and innovator in the use of fiddling and other alternative styles in music education. He currently teaches 5th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade orchestra in the Saline Area Schools, teaches a large private studio, works as a guest teacher and clinician nationally, and is active in the freelance musician and audio engineering fields.
Ben received his Bachelors degree in Music Education from the University of Michigan in 2000 where he studied with Stephen Shipps, James Tapia, and Robert Culver.

Greg Abate, (saxophonist / flutist / composer / arranger/ recording artist)
He is considered by jazz writers and aficionados to be one of the most exciting saxophone players out there today. Mike Joyce of the Washington Post describes Abate as "...dedicated to uncluttered, uncompromised, unswerving jazz." Greg is a working cat; on the road more than 150 days a year. He played with the Ray Charles orchestra and the revived Artie Shaw band. Now, Greg performs mainly in small groups throughout the United States and Europe. He is Adjunct Instructor of Jazz at Rhode Island College, where he teaches jazz improvisation, jazz theory, and coaches jazz combos. He is a Conn-Selmer clinician conducting workshops internationally. Having attended Berklee College of Music, Abate is listed among the school's prominent alumni. He has eleven albums as a leader to his credit - all critically acclaimed. Of Greg's most recent recording, Evolution (with James Williams, piano; Harvie S, bass; and Billy Hart, drums) Leo Curran, road manager for the Stan Kenton orchestra in the 1950s, says, "Greg Abate's CD Evolution is great jazz, golden jazz... melodic, interesting and inventive."

Daniel Harp is currently cello and chamber music instructor at Brown University, cellist of the Charleston String Quartet and cellist with the Connecticut College Chamber Players. While still in high school, he was accepted by Indiana University's School of Music to perform in classes by the eminent concert cellist Janos Starker and the world renowned chamber ensemble, the Beaux Arts Trio. He was later accepted into the University of Cincinnati's College‑Conservatory of Music on a full scholarship to study cello with concert cellist Lynn Harrell and chamber music with the Walle String Quartet.

He made his debut as a concert cellist as a result of winning the Young Artist's Competition of the Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Harp performed "Schelomo" by Ernst Bloch and was called a "Master of the Cello" by the Charleston Evening Post. He has subsequently performed concertos by Saint‑Saens, Brahms, Bloch, Piston, Vivaldi and Martinu and has appeared as recital throughout the United States. Mr. Harp has been principal cellist of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Ballet Orchestra, and has performed as cellist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Rhode Island Philharmonic.

Daniel Harp has been the cellist with the Charleston String Quartet since 1983 and has performed hundreds of concerts throughout New England, the United States and Europe. With the quartet, he has performed on chamber music series at major universities throughout the country including Harvard, Yale, Haverford College, Bryn Mawr, Michigan State University and the University of Arizona, as well as on series in such cities as Chicago, New York, Buffalo and Atlanta. In Europe, he has performed in Vienna as well as in France and throughout Denmark and Sweden. Mr. Harp has also performed and studied at the Aspen Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Tidewater Music Festal and the Sandpoint Music Festival. The Charleston String Quartet has performed many premiers by American and European composers and has recorded works of Samuel Alder and Amy Beach, among others, for Albany Records and Gasparo Records.

He has also appeared with the Tidewater String Quartet and the Stewart String Quartet. He has performed with such concert artists as pianists Tedd Joselson, Virginia Eskin and Noel Lee; members of the Juilliard Fine Arts and Cleveland String Quartets as well as members of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has written for Chamber Music Magazine, lectured on classical music and appeared numerous times on radio and television.

As a teacher, Mr. Harp has taught cello and chamber music for Brown University as an Adjunct Lecturer, the University of Charleston as an Assistant Professor, at Haverford College and Connecticut College as an Artist‑in‑Residence, and at Providence College and the University of Massachusetts on the applied faculty. His cello students have won numerous concerto competitions and performed concertos and concert works by Dvorak, Saint‑Saens, Tchaikowsky, Kabelevsky, Vivaldi and Bruch, among others. As a chamber music coach, Mr. Harp has worked with ensembles of all ages and abilities. While primary coaching college ensembles, he has also coached high school ensembles at various residencies and master classes, and for the Providence Music School. He has also coached many adult amateur ensembles at biannual Charleston String Quartet Amateur Chamber Music Weekends held at Brown University. Mr. Harp also appears as a conductor and has been music director and conductor of the Cincinnati Twentieth‑Century Chamber Players and the Providence Sinfonia Camerata Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared as an opera conductor in works of Gluck, Mozart, Donizetti, Bernstein and Ravel with Lyric Opera Cleveland where Cleveland critics said he "brought energy and grace to the music". He has conducted "Hansel and Gretel" with the Dayton Opera and has conducted works of Mozart and Haydn at the Esterhazy Castle (Hoydn's home for thirty years) in Eisenstadt, Austria. His recent orchestral conducting engagements have been with the Brockton Symphony, the RI Philharmonic, the Hartford Symphony, the New England Music Festival Orchestra, the Waterford Music Festival and the Southwest Florida Symphony.

John M. Pellegrino is the Assistant Principal Bass of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and Professor of Double Bass at Ohio Weselyan University in Delaware, Ohio. Since joining the orchestra in 1989, John has performed with the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Peninsula Music Festival (WI), the Lake Placid Symphonietta, the No0rth Carolina Symphony Orchestra and in the Roycroft Chamber Music Festival ( East Aurora , NY ).

Prior to his arrival in Columbus , John was a member of the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. Summer time musical engagements those years included teaching at Kinhaven ( Weston , VT ) and performing at the Sarasota Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and the Waterloo Music Festival. Coaching Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra bass sectionals, adjudicating string placement auditions, teaching at the Delaware Chamber Music Festival (OH), coaching chamber music at Westerville High School (OH) and teaching privately have become a large part of John's non-performance schedule.

As a free lancer and student in New York City , John earned a M.M. with Eugene Levinson at the Juilliard School and a B.M. with David Walter at the Manhattan School of Music. Top ensembles John performed with in New York included the New York Virtuosi , Philharmonia Virtuosi and the Jupiter Symphony. As a student John won many distinctions including: First Prize in the National Music Clubs Solo Competition, Full Tuition Scholarship to M.S.M. and the Pablo Casals Award for string players, First Prize in the Aspen Chamber Music Competition as well as Fellowships to Aspen , N.Y. String Orchestra Seminar, Local 802's Congress of Strings and the Waterloo Festival.

John's early exposure to classical music, while growing up in Warwick , Rhode Island , occurred at home. His music educator mother, father and aunt guided him to appreciate and love learning and growing as an instrumentalist and teacher. John's introduction to his first string instrument occurred in the second grade. The mono-lin, invented by Rhode Island College viola professor Robert Currier , was taught as a way to find interested, young musicians. After a number of years on the cello, John discovered the bass and fell in love with orchestral playing under the baton of Mr. Nedo Pandolfi, Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestra conductor.

John Sumerlin is Professor of Music at Rhode Island College and founding member of the Blackstone Chamber Players. Formerly a pupil of Dorothy DeLay, Sumerlin has concertized in Europe, Canada and the U.S. Original first violinist of the Harrington String Quartet (finalist, Banff International String Quartet Competition), he has also been a first violinist with the American, Dallas , Cincinnati , Honolulu , and Santa Fe Opera orchestras. John Sumerlin is also a composer, and his opera "Air" will receive its world premier at Rhode Island College on 29 April, 2002, as the centerpiece for the Spring Celebration of the Arts.

Cheri Markward is a member of the music faculty at the Community College of Rhode Island . She directs the CCRI Chamber Ensemble, a diverse and ever-changing group of instrumentalists, whose successful performances train students in orchestral and band literature using creative techniques of instrumentation and arranging. She is a professional violinist, a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Ocean State Chamber Orchestra. Cheri has performed with the New Music Ensemble of Providence, the Keewan String Quartet, the Sadovinikoff-Markward Duo (fortepiano and violin), the Toledo , Springfield , and Worcester Symphonies. She has performed many times as soloist with area orchestras, including the Rhode Island College Orchestra, the Ocean State Chamber Orchestra, the Quincy Symphony, the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, and the Great Woods Festival Orchestra. She has taught violin and viola privately for many years, including positions as a faculty member at Wheaton College , Providence College , Northeast Music Camp, and the Great Woods Educational Forum. She has a Masters in Music Performance from Boston Conservatory, where she studied with Stephanie Chase