Amy Likar, President and Trainer for Andover Educators, was one of the first people certified by Barbara Conable to teach Body Mapping. She is also an AmSAT certified Alexander Technique teacher having completed her training with Frank Ottiwell at the Alexander Training Institute of San Francisco. She has presented Body Mapping and Alexander Technique workshops at colleges and music schools throughout the United States and in Europe, including, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Juilliard School and the Army School of Music in addition to numerous conferences such as MTNA, Medical Problems of Performing Artists Symposium in Aspen, and the National Flute Association. As a professional flutist, Amy is a member of the Oakland East Bay Symphony and freelances with other groups in the Bay Area of California. She and Miles Graber released a solo CD in November of 2005 and released a live album with soprano Jenni Cook in October of 2006. Amy holds M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in flute performance from The Ohio State University and a B.M. in Music Education and Performance from Kent State University. Her flute teachers include Martha Aarons and Katherine Borst Jones.
Stacey Pelinka is a guild-certified Feldenkrais Method® practitioner and a professional flutist. She teaches the Feldenkrais Method throughout the Bay Area, working regularly with musicians, artists, and people with chronic pain and disabilities. Stacey has presented Feldenkrais workshops at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the California College of the Arts, and the National Flute Association. Stacey enjoys exploring how Feldenkrais’ ideas enhance her own performance and that of her flute students. An avid chamber musician, she is a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and the Worn Chamber Ensemble, and frequently performs with sfSound and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. She also plays principal flute with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program productions, and second flute with the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, and the Midsummer Mozart Festival. Stacey attended Cornell University and the San Francisco Conservatory, where she studied with Timothy Day. She studied the Feldenkrais Method with Dennis Leri, one of Feldenkrais’ first American students. Stacey can be reached via her website.
Liisa Ruoho is known throughout Europe as a consummate performer as well as a brilliant teacher. She presents concerts throughout Europe almost monthly, and is a regular teacher at several master classes in Greece, Iceland and Finland. At the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, Liisa is a Flute Professor, Director of the Wind Department, and Vice-Director of the Orchestral Instruments Department. Her Academy students receive 2 hours of private lessons every week, as well as weekly Body Mapping, pedagogy and performance classes. Formerly an assistant to Severino Gazzelloni in Italy, she studied with Gazzelloni and with Aurele Nicolet. Her personal study of the Alexander Technique revolutionized both her playing and teaching, and for over 40 years she has taught flutists how to use their original instrument – the body. She now presents workshops throughout Europe and is designing a joint Body Mapping course with the Sibelius Academy and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Liisa is a certified Andover Educator.
Our collaborative pianist:
Yien Wang serves as the full-time Collaborative Pianist at the Schwob School of Music, Columbus State University, where she teaches applied piano, collaborative piano, chamber music, performance seminar, and performs over eighty concerts per year with faculty, guest artists, and students. Admired for her musical sensitivity and warmth of personality, she is a pianist with a powerful gift for communication. She has performed throughout the United States and China, and her artistry has touched audiences and critics alike. Her artistic vision and insightful interpretations have resulted in numerous accolades from audiences and critics in diverse concert settings.
Ms. Wang’s most recent accomplishments include first prize in the Collaborative Artists category of the 2007 Liszt-Garrison International Piano Competition. She was awarded the prize for the best string accompanist in the Corpus Christi International Competition in the spring of 2000, and in 2001 she won first prize in the Sidney Wright Accompanying Competition.
Ms. Wang has appeared as a soloist with The University of Texas Symphony and the Texas Festival Orchestra. She was the top prize winner of the 2002 Round Top International Festival-Institute Concerto Competition and the 2001 The University of Texas Symphony Concerto Competition. She was also a prize winner of the First Shanghai Young Artists Piano Competition.
In 2009, Ms. Wang collaborated with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra trombone section to release a CD, “Road Work,” which was recorded in Legacy Hall at RiverCenter for the Performing Arts. She has also released a CD and piano pedagogical DVD under the Shanghai Arts-Press label for the John Thompson’s Modern Piano Guide.
Born in Shanghai, Ms. Wang came to the United States in 1999. She holds the Bachelor of Music from The University of Texas at Austin and the Master of Music from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. She is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Piano Performance at the Peabody Institute. Her teachers include Yong Hi Moon, Dr. Betty Mallard, and Zhijue Chao.
