Faculty & Guest Artists
Current Faculty Roster
Prima Volta Ensemble
Rebecca Goff, conductor
Debut Orchestra
Rebecca Kiekenapp, conductor
Lanson Wells, orchestra assistant
Violin Sectional/Masterclass Coaches
Daniel Santelices
Gretchen Tucker
Viola Sectional/Masterclass Coach
Dale Jones
Dan Santelices
Cello Sectional/Masterclass Coach
Rebecca Kiekenapp
Festival Chamber Music Program
Chamber Music Coaches
Clyde Beavers
David Cooper
Luke Darville
Dale Jones
Rebecca Kiekenapp
Daniel Santelices
Gretchen Tucker
Lanson Wells
Masterclass Teachers
Violin
Daniel Mason
Viola
Deborah Lander
Cello
Clyde Beavers
Rebecca Kiekenapp
Paul York
Piano
David Cooper
Faculty Bios
Clyde Beavers, D.M.A. [website]
Violoncello.
Clyde Beavers is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he was a scholarship student under the tutelage of the world-renowned cellist Harvey Shapiro. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kentucky. Clyde Beavers is Adjunct Professor of violoncello at Asbury College and Transylvania University and also serves as Assistant Principal cellist in the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra. Beavers has recorded for the Naxos label and performs on a cello that was recently crafted by Tim Jansma.
David Cooper, D.M.A.
Piano.
David Cooper is a graduate of The Juilliard School where he studied with pianist Earl Wild. David has also studied with many of the great pianists of the world including Ruth Laredo, John Ogden, and Abby Simon. He holds the doctorate degree in piano from the University of Kentucky. David also plays the organ and is currently organist at Central Baptist Church where he plays an historic 1926 E.M. Skinner pipe organ. He has performed as piano soloist in the Netherlands and Canada. David is also an avid gardener in Lexington having grown over 100 roses and many other plants. He is currently a member of the music faculty at The Lexington School.
Luke Darville
Cello
Luke Darville began playing the cello with the Heritage Area String Program in Danville, Kentucky. He then had the privilege to study under Dr. Clyde Beavers in Lexington. Luke received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Louisville in 2010. While there he won the University of Louisville's Concerto Competition in both 2007 and 2008, playing the fourth movement of the Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor and Ernest Bloch's Schelomo under the direction of Kimcherie Lloyd. Luke has also studied with Hans Jørgen-Jensen at Meadowmount School of Music, and Tanya Remenikova at Bravo! Summer Institute. He plans to continue his cello performance studies under Tanya Remenikova at the University of Minnesota. Luke has toured internationally as a founding member of the Apollo Trio. Luke's cello was crafted by American luthier Timothy J. Jansma.
Rebecca Goff
Prima Volta Ensemble.
Tim Jansma, (I.P.I.A.L.L.) [website]
Luthier
During the past 34 years of fine string instrument making, Tim Jansma has worked with hundreds of musicians who search for a particular sound. He began as an apprentice in one of the biggest violin shops of the time, William Moennig and Sons of Philadelphia. There he learned techniques of repair and restoration. Because Mr. Jansma was also an accomplished violinist, he was given an unusual opportunity to handle and play the finest rare instruments which passed through the shop.
After finishing his years of service as an apprentice, Mr. Jansma moved to Cremona, Italy - home to the Italian Masters of the renaissance, including Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu. He earned his degree and established a workshop in the Po River valley. Jansma instruments were sold to musicians throughout Europe. Mr. Jansma also made a point while in Italy to apprentice for the Italian maker, Maestro Francesco Bissolatti. His weekends were spent traveling to sawmills throughout northern Italy and Yugoslavia where he selected logs he would quarter saw and sell to other Cremonese violin makers. It wasn’t long before Mr. Jansma had earned a reputation as an expert of tonewoods. Only the finest pieces of maple and spruce were reserved for his own instruments, crated and shipped back to the States.
The Jansma Violin Studio was established in America in 1976. Located on the southern edge of the Manistee National Forest in Michigan, the quiet surroundings offer a picturesque setting for visitors and little distraction for the luthier. Over the years, Jansma instruments have been purchased by professional musicians in orchestras throughout the United States, chamber musicians, and students from schools such as Northwestern University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Julliard and Arizona State University. Soloists include Ko Iwasaki and Gordon Epperson. Mr. Jansma speaks regularly at high schools, universities and civic organizations and has been interviewed on PBS, WOTV, WZZM, and on the Todd Mundt public radio program.
Dale Jones, B.M.
Viola.
Dale Jones graduated in 1987 from the University of Louisville with a bachelors degree in music (viola performance), studying with Virginia Schneider and Michel Samson. He also studied abroad at Samson's studio in Amsterdam. As a youth, Dale studied piano and viola; he played viola in the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra for six years, including their Romania/USSR tour. For 10 years, he lived in Japan translating and teaching English and music. Dale began his violin/viola studio in the Lexington area in 2002. Dale has varied musical experience: viola sectional coach for CKYO, co-director of L.O.V.E. (Lexington's Original Viola Ensemble), Kentucky Ballet Theater Orchestra, chamber ensembles, and four years with the West Virginia Symphony. His professional interests include the folk music of Asia and Eastern Europe, Broadway, quartet arranging, and analysis of the old masters of violin and viola. This is Dale's fourth year with Festival of Strings.
Rebecca Kiekenapp, M.M.
Violoncello, Conductor
Rebecca Kiekenapp, a native of Faribault, Minnesota, earned a B.M. summa cum laude in cello performance from the University of Minnesota as a pupil of Tanya Remenikova. She moved to Lexington, KY in 1995 to attend the University of Kentucky where she earned a master's degree in cello.
Ms. Kiekenapp has extensive orchestral and chamber music experience. She has participated in the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! chamber music program at the University of MN, and the National Orchestral Institute. As a member of the Niles String Quartet at the University of Kentucky, she attended the Audubon String Quartet seminar, participated as a semifinalist in the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, and was heard in live performance on the Woodsong Radio Hour. Ms. Kiekenapp served as principal cellist of the University Symphony for several years, also performing as a two-time winner of the UK concerto competition. She performs regularly as a member of the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra and in other area concerts.
Her teaching background includes serving as faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the Governor's School for the Arts, and with the Festival of Strings music camp in Lexington, where she is also co-director. She is also active as a coach with the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras. Currently a doctoral candidate in cello performance at UK, Ms. Kiekenapp also maintains a private studio in Lexington and is cello professor at Campbellsville University.
Deborah Lander, D.M.A. [website]
Viola.
Daniel Mason, M.M. [website]
Violin.
Daniel Mason has concertized widely in the United States and Europe, gaining wide recognition both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. His activities have included live national radio broadcasts from WFMT in Chicago, frequent appearances on NPR's Performance Today and performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington. A member of the Jascha Heifetz Master Class at the University of Southern California for three years, he has degrees from the Ohio State University and the University of Southern California.
Mr. Mason is currently in his twentieth year as Professor of Violin and Head of the String Department at the University of Kentucky. He is concertmaster of and frequent soloist with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also, for seventeen years, concertmaster of the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, appearing many times in a solo role.
Mr. Mason has just completed a series of master classes and performances in Korea and China, appearing as soloist with the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, he appeared as soloist with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchesta in Ravel's Tzigane and Vaughn-Williams' The Lark Ascending and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante Mr. Mason's travels while performing recitals and giving master-classes have taken him to Austria, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey, and the Republic of Georgia. In March, 1996 he played the premiere in Vienna of a solo work written for him by composer Alexander Blechinger. His performance of the work is included on a CD recently released in Vienna.
An enthusiastic advocate of recent music, Mr. Mason has recorded a CD of chamber music by noted American composer Joel Hoffman released by Gasparo Records. He has performed the music of many other composers, working in consultation with them, including John Cage, David Amram, Wiliam Bolcom, Bernard Rands and Joseph Baber.
In summer 2001, Mason appeared in Florence, Italy with the Leonore Quartet playing in the Galleria Accademica. Last summer he was a member of the faculty of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music-sponsored Opera and Music Festival of Lucca.
He also directs the University of Kentucky String Project, for which he received a $100,000 grant from the American String Teachers Association. The Project trains string teachers while providing affordable instruction to more than 100 area children.
Professor Mason's students have won positions in the Chicago Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, Cedar Rapids Symphony and others, as well as teaching positions at universities around the nation.
When time permits, Mr. Mason heads for the mountains for excursions such as a recent traverse of the entire Sierra Nevada range in California, including the summit of Mt. Whitney.
Daniel Santelices, M.M.
Violin
Mr. Santelices is the Violin/Viola Professor at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky and a Master-Teacher for the University of Kentucky String Project. He is actively involved with the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras as a sectional coach and auditions judge as well as being sought out as a guest clinician and adjudicator for Kentucky-area schools.
Prior to moving to Kentucky, he was for many years on the faculty of the Centenary (College) Suzuki School Orchestra in Shreveport, Louisiana as well as Instructor of Violin and Chamber Music at Northwestern State University of Louisiana in Natchitoches. Mr. Santelices is a past recipient of the Suzuki Association of America Grants for short-term teacher training and has been a guest clinician at Suzuki summer institutes in Arkansas, Texas, Michigan, Vermont and New Hampshire. He has had the privilege of receiving Teacher Training from such Suzuki Method luminaries as Ronda Cole, Teri Einfeldt, Carrie Reuning, Mary Cay Neal and Hiroko Driver.
Mr. Santelices was the President of the Ark-La-Tex Youth Symphony Orchestra Board in Shreveport and Director of the Chamber Music Program, which he founded in 1998. He was a regular Guest Conductor for Caddo Parish's Elementary, Middle School and High School Honor Orchestras during his time in Louisiana and was named to Who's Who Among America's Teachers in 2003. As a performer, he is currently a member of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Lexington Philharmonic. He was also a fulltime member of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, the Baroque Artists of Shreveport and during his summers plays for the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra. He was conferred degrees in music from Northern Illinois University and the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University and graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy.
Gretchen Tucker, B.M.
Violin
Gretchen Wilcox Tucker began formal musical training at age four. The youngest of five children, she followed the footsteps of her older siblings and studied violin with her father and piano with her mother. While in high school she performed Winter from Vivaldi'sFour Seasons with her school orchestra, was coached by Charles Castleman while attending the Quartet Program, and held a position with the Owensboro Symphony. Gretchen received her Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Louisville where she studied with Peter D. McHugh. She won two concerto competitions allowing her to perform the Bruch and Tchaikovsky violin concertos with the college orchestra.
After graduating, she won by audition a position with the Louisville Orchestra. During her tenure with the orchestra Gretchen was involved with many recordings including world premiers by composers such as John Corigliano, Joan tower, John Adams, to name a few. The orchestra also toured much of the south and east with performances at Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall.
In 1998 Gretchen relocated to Portland with her husband. Upon arriving she gained a position with the Eugene Symphony and was Principal 2nd during part of her tenure there. She also performed in other orchestras around the area including Portland Opera and Oregon Ballet Theatre.
Gretchen enjoys sharing her time and talents through teaching. She received her teacher training from the Suzuki Association of the Americas and has attended classes given by John Kendall, Brian Lewis, Craig Timmerman and Michelle Higa George. She held a position teaching and performing at Clark College in Vancouver Washington, and she taught violin to group classes, ages K-6 at Sojourner Elementary School in the North Clackamas School District.
Gretchen returned to Kentucky with her family in 2007. She now has a residence and teaching studio in Lexington, Kentucky.
Lanson Wells, M.M.
Orchestra Assistant,
Violin, Viola. Lanson Wayne Wells (violin/viola) is active as a performer and teacher. He is currently principal violist of the Firelands Symphony, assistant principal of the Ashland Symphony and the Tuscarawas Philharmonic, as well as a section member of the Cleveland Opera Circle. He is a former member of the Muncie Symphony and Marion Symphony. Mr. Wells performs chamber music with flutist Kimberly Sperian as a member of Duo Galant. He has attended the Aspen, Brevard, Sewanee, Hot Springs, Oberlin Baroque, and Pierre Monteux summer festivals. He has studied at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music as well as Cleveland State University. His major teachers are Art Klima, Louise Zeitlin, Nancy Campbell, and John Hedger. Born in Lexington Kentucky, Mr. Wells is also active in teaching and performing upon bass, mandolin, dulcimer, guitar, and banjo.
Paul York, M.M. [website]
Violoncello.
An accomplished soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Paul York has appeared in recital and with orchestras in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. York serves on the string faculty at the University of Louisville, where he maintains an active teaching and performing schedule. Recent solo appearances include a performance of Karel Husa's Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Colored Field for Cello and Orchestra with the Louisville Orchestra and Vivaldi's Double Concerto in G Minor with internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. York is a member of the Louisville String Quartet and was a founding member of The Logsdon Chamber Ensemble, a Texas Commission of the Arts Touring ensemble as well as ensemble-in-residence at Hardin-Simmons University. In April of 2006, he performed recitals throughout Japan. As a champion of contemporary music, Mr. York has commissioned works for the cello by such composers as Stefan Freund, Marc Satterwhite, Steve Rouse, Paul Brink, and Fredrick Speck. He also premiered Alfred Bartle's new orchestration of Bartok's First Rhapsody for cello with the Sewanee Festival Orchestra.
Mr. York has participated in numerous summer festivals. He is currently a member of the artist faculty at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, where he performs solo and chamber works, in addition to his teaching schedule. He has also performed at Strings in the Mountains in Colorado, the Abilene Chamber Music Series, and served as principal cello with the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra. He has held principal cello positions with numerous regional orchestras and performed as a member of the cello section of the Saint Louis Symphony under the direction of Leonard Slatkin.
Mr. York received his bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California and his master of music degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he studied with Ronald Leonard. Other teachers include Gabor Rejto, Owen Carman, and Louis Potter. The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Mr. York was selected to participate in the prestigious Piatigorsky seminar at the University of South California. Mr. York can be heard on the Centaur, Arizona University Press and CRS labels and is presently recording a CD new works written specifically for him.