As a classical vocalist, Laury Christie brings to somatic education an extensive international background in opera, concert and recital and many years of teaching as a tenured Professor and area coordinator of the voice faculty at the School of Music University of South Carolina. She was awarded the highly coveted Innovative Teaching and Research Grant to be trained and certified in the Alexander Technique.
She developed the first Alexander Technique course to be integrated into a music program of studies at a major southern university as well as being the first Alexander Teacher in the State of South Carolina and first Licensed Andover Educator.
She was fortunate to be trained and certified in the Alexander Technique by Aileen Crow in New York City. Additional studies with some of the world’s other leading teachers include Marjorie Barstow, Barbara Conable, Alex and Joan Murray. She has presented workshops and master classes in the Midwest, Southeast USA, Italy and at NATS, VASTA, MENC, MTNA. She continues to teach Alexander Technique and Body Mapping at the USC School of Music and workshops in the Southeast.
Adam Cole has been a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner since 2000. He works most often with musicians and performers to overcome difficulties and achieve new levels of ability. His articles on music and the Method have been published in numerous journals and blogs from Natural Awakenings to www.mymusicfriend.net. As a clinician, he has worked with brass players, singers and pianists.
For the last six years, Adam has been working within the public school system of Fulton County, Georgia. He has taken the Feldenkrais Method into the schools to better enable children to perform as choral musicians. His most recent book, Solfege Town, teaches elementary students to compose music by combining Solfege with storytelling.
Adam was trained as a pianist at Oberlin College and Georgia State University where his teachers included Neal Creque and Geoffrey Haydon. He has worked as a vocal and ballet accompanist across the South and has appeared on a number of recordings including Let’s Get Nice with the Georgia State Jazz Ensemble.
As a composer, Adam has written a large number of works for a variety of instruments. His Woodwind Quintet Number One is scheduled to be read by Access Contemporary Music in the near future. His orchestral piece, Themes Off A Variation, a tribute to Robert Schumann, is archived at the Schumann House in Zwickau, Germany. In addition to his music pursuits, Adam has written a number of novels all dealing tangentally with music. For information about Adam’s current projects, visit www.mymusicfriend.net
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.
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.
Flutist Meerenai Shim is a founding member of the Blithe Duo (flute duo) and co-artistic director of the New Arts Alliance. A passionate advocate of contemporary composition, Ms. Shim has commissioned five pieces from American com- posers since 2010. Ms. Shim’s 2011 debut album titled, “Sometimes the City is Silent” was described as “an eclectic mix that never flags the listener’s interests and beguiles the ear with the most musical phrasing and sparkling tone” by Anthony Kershaw of Audiophilia.com.
Ms. Shim’s book, “Scale Studies for Beginner and Intermediate Flutists,” published in 2007, has received praise from flute pedagogues and publications worldwide. Her teaching philosophy is influenced by studies in Body Mapping, Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais. As a Licensed Andover Educator®, she also teaches the Body Mapping course, What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body®.
Ms. Shim’s most influential flute teachers are Linda Lukas, Mary Stolper, Liisa Ruoho and Alexa Still. She studied orchestral conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and Eastern Music Festival, with teachers such as Paul Vermel, Murry Sidlin, and Sheldon Morgenstern. Ms. Shim received a Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance from DePaul University in Chicago and a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from San Francisco State University. She resides in Campbell, California with her husband Dave and dog Lucy.
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.
