Pianophoria! Faculty

Marcia Eckert (Director), a native of Terre Haute, Indiana, is active as piano soloist and collaborative artist and has appeared in the Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as at Merkin, Alice Tully, and Weill concert halls, and London's Leighton House. She has travelled throughout the United States presenting lecture-recitals on piano music by women composers and on the music of Charles Ives. Recordings include music by Debra Kaye on the CD And So It Begins, Songs by Women with soprano Susan Gonzalez, and 20th Century Music for Recorder and Piano with Anita Randolfi. The Ehrlich/Eckert Duo, a violin and piano duo, recorded music of Germaine Tailleferre for Cambria Records. Ms. Eckert performs with the Eckert/Gilwood Piano Duo and Trio la Bella. Previous groups have included Aurelia Piano Quartet, Blue Door, Albany Chamber Players, Polyhymnia, Sarasa, and Dulcinea Piano Trio. She has given numerous premieres, including works by Eleanor Cory, Ursula Mamlok, and Roger Zahab. Ms. Eckert has served on the keyboard, chamber music and theory faculty of Hunter College, where she was a 1998 recipient of the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has been teaching piano and chamber music in the Mannes College of Music Preparatory Division since 1983 and is the director of the summer piano intensive Pianophoria!, which began in 2004. Ms. Eckert holds degrees in Piano Performance from Indiana University School of Music and State University of New York at Stony Brook. Teachers have included Jorge Bolet, Gilbert Kalish, Claude Frank, William Masselos, Seymour Bernstein, Luis Batlle, and Lucy Greene. She has participated as a fellow at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood and Yale School of Music Summer Chamber Music Festivals and also at the Aspen and Interlochen Music Festivals.

Deborah Gilwood has appeared as a soloist as well as a collaborator with numerous orchestras and ensembles, including the Long Island Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonia, and Solisti New York. As an active chamber musician, Ms. Gilwood has performed with many groups such as Musical Elements, Infusion, the Alliance for American Song, the Eckert/Gilwood Piano Duo, and Blue Door with cellist Arthur Cook, in performances at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, as well as at many colleges and universities. She has participated in summer festivals at Tanglewood, Sarasota, Aspen, Siena, and Rutgers, and was a co- founder of the Blue Door Chamber Music series on Cape Cod. Her recording with Mr. Cook, Censored by Hitler, the Rediscovered Masterpieces, can be heard on the Centaur label. Ms. Gilwood attended Mannes College of Music, and received her performance degrees in Piano from SUNY Purchase and SUNY Stony Brook. Her principal teachers included Richard Goode, Gilbert Kalish and Lucy Greene. She has taught at Smith College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Seton Hall University, and is currently on the faculties of Mt. Holyoke College and Westfield State University.

Pianist Raj Bhimani's concerts are "virtuosic, heartfelt and eloquent," writes New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman. Time Out NY noted him as being a "gifted and highly expressive pianist." Performing regularly across North America and Europe, he also makes frequent appearances in India, where the nationally distributed newspaper The Hindu wrote, "Raj Bhimani is a very sensitive piano player, with a predilection for lyrical melody accompanied with rhythmic gracefulness." In New York, where he resides, he appears often at Lincoln Center and other venues. Mr. Bhimani is a champion of new music and has developed a particular expertise in French piano literature. During his time studying in Paris composer Henri Dutilleux declared him "a great artist who plays with sensitivity and intelligence." Another prominent French composer, Thérèse Brenet, has written six works especially for Mr. Bhimani, two of which can be heard on a CD entitled To the West Wind, on the Delatour label. A disc containing Schubert's B-flat Sonata and Moments Musicaux has also been issued on Delatour. Two more works Ms. Brenet wrote for Mr. Bhimani were issued in 2014 on a disc entitled Le Visionnaire, released by Musik Fabrik, which has also released a recording of late solo works by Brahms. All these recordings are available on iTunes, Amazon, and numerous other sites. Mr. Bhimani performs with Syrinx : XXII, a group he formed with musicians from Portugal. Frequently sought after as a teacher and pedagogue, Mr. Bhimani's students have earned numerous prizes and have been heard in performance at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and other venues in New York and across the United States. He is a frequent judge and lecturer on piano pedagogy and serves on the board of The Leschetizky Association. His teachers include John Steele Ritter, Peter Hewitt, Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer, Claude Frank, and Seymour Bernstein.

Edmund Arkus has performed for many years in the United States, Japan and England to high critical acclaim. He has been presented in solo recitals, as soloist with orchestras, and he has collaborated in many chamber music concerts and sonata recitals. Mr. Arkus performed on radio in New York on WNYC, WFUV, WQXR, as well as live performances over National Public Radio from Washington DC, the BBC radio in England, and NHK-TV in Japan. He has collaborated regularly with Keisuke Wakao, Assistant Principal Oboist of the Boston Symphony, and with other members of the Boston Symphony, and with members of the NHK Orchestra (Tokyo), Berlin Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. Edmund Arkus first studied the piano with his mother, Helena Arkus. He then worked with pianist Leopold Mittman. Later, Mr. Arkus entered The Juilliard School in New York, where he studied with the distinguished teacher Rosina Lhévinne, and received both a bachelor's and master's degree in music. Mr. Arkus then completed his piano studies with Wolfgang Rosé, nephew of Gustav Mahler. Edmund Arkus teaches privately and at the Third Street Music School Settlement in Manhattan. He has presented numerous master classes in New York, and in Ogaki, Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan.

John Bloomfield is a Kentucky native and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Furman University. He earned a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music, since which he has been a long-term student of Dorothy Taubman and Edna Golandsky. He has taught at Adelphi University and in the pre-college division of the Manhattan School of Music. In demand as a clinician around the country, he has been a featured presenter at many festivals and workshops. He maintains a private studio in New York City. In 2003 he co-founded The Golandsky Institute with colleagues to bring high-level training in the Taubman Approach to the music community. This Approach has proven to be highly effective in the resolution of technical limitations and playing-related injuries. The aim of the Institute is to provide musicians with a foundation that allows for full artistic expression and the development of technical ease and freedom. He serves as one of the Institute's senior directors and as its faculty chair.

Joe Bubenas is an Associate Professor of Health and Exercise Science at Hofstra University and a faculty member at the CUNY. He is Board Certified in Biofeedback and Stress Management and instructs CPR to healthcare professionals. Joe holds a black belt in Karate and has taught Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Kung for over 30 years. He is also a member of the New England Masters Swim Club.

Pianist Rosemary Caviglia is committed to the performance of American Music and has premiered several new works. As a doctoral student at NYU, she became particularly fascinated with piano music by Leo Kraft. Her dissertation, The Solo Piano Music of Leo Kraft (1996), involved performances of his works which resulted in a new set of Piano Preludes written for her. Ms. Caviglia received her doctorate from New York University and completed her Master of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she earned her Bachelor of Music degree at San Jose State University where she was a student of Aiko Onishi. She has appeared as soloist with the Palo Alto Symphony and the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra. In 2000 she made her solo recital debut at Weill Recital Hall. Ms. Caviglia teaches piano and chamber music at the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City where she serves as Piano Department Chairperson. She has recorded with clarinetist Esther Lamneck works by Leo Kraft on Capstone Records (CPS-8641 and CPS 8649).

Caroline Copeland, Associate Director of The New York Baroque Dance Company (NYBDC Northeast Region) has been described as a "dance-provocateur" by the Courier-Journal and "sublime" by the Wall Street Journal. In 1996, she joined the NYBDC and has performed throughout the US and Europe, including the Drottningholm Theater, the International Händelfestspiele Göttingen, Danspace at St. Mark’s Theater, the Guggenheim Museum, and at Potsdam Sanssouci. Caroline is also a featured performer and choreographer with the Grammy-award winning Boston Early Music festival. As a solo performer, Caroline has collaborated with numerous early music groups including Cantata Profana, Juilliard415, Quicksilver, The Four Nations Ensemble, Brooklyn Baroque, The New Dutch Academy, Bourbon Baroque, and the New York Consort of Viols and her choreography has been presented at Alice Tully Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Public Theatre, and the Phillipzaal in The Hague. Caroline teaches master classes in historical dance across the country. Some of her presentations include appearances at ACJW-Carnegie Hall, NYU Gallatin, Rutgers, Cornell, Yale, and Vassar. She earned a MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College and is an Adjunct Professor at Hofstra University where she enjoys teaching dance history and classical ballet from a historically informed perspective.

Stanley Dorn is an adjunct associate professor of music at Mannes College the New School for Music, and Stern College of Yeshiva University. He received his BA in Music from New York University, where he studied with David Chaitkin, Edward Murray, and Brian Feneley. His post graduate studies were at Mannes College, where he studied with Carl Schachter, Robert Cuckson, L. Poundie Burstein, and David Loeb. His early professional training was in classical guitar, and he is currently studying the viola da gamba. Stanley is the Chair of the Techniques of Music department in the Extension Division at Mannes College, where he has taught for over 40 years. His expertise in music theory and ear training is much sought after.

David Dubal is internationally known as a pianist, teacher, writer, and broadcaster. An acknowledged authority on the piano literature, Mr. Dubal’s books. The Art of the Piano, Evenings with Horowitz, Reflections from the Keyboard, and Conversations with Menuhin are highly acclaimed. Recipient of the first ASCAP Deems Taylor award for broadcast journalism, David Dubal has won numerous awards including the coveted George Foster Peabody award. He has been on the faculty of the Juilliard School since 1983 and the Manhattan School of Music since 1995. At Juilliard, his series The World of the Piano is one of the most popular classes in the Evening Division. David Dubal has conducted master classes worldwide and has judged many international competitions. Currently Mr. Dubal is heard every Wednesday night at 10:00PM on WQXR in his program: Reflections From The Keyboard, The Piano in Comparative Performance. His new book, The Essential Canon of Classical Music, was recently published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. In May, 2006, Mr. Dubal received an honorary Doctor of Music from The State University of New York.

A music archaeologist, Allan Evans began his studies with Rev. Gary Davis. He created Arbiter of Cultural Traditions, published many CDs and teaches music history and interpretation at Mannes/The New School University. Evans is co-founder of the Scuola Italiana del Greenwich Village and has written on cuisine.

Anne Farber is Director of the Dalcroze School of Music at the Lucy Moses School in New York City, offering classes for adults and children, as well as Dalcroze teacher training. She teaches at the Special Music School of America, a public school in New York City for musically gifted children. In addition, Anne maintains a private piano studio and serves on the summer faculty of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. She has a B.A. in Comparative Literature, University of Wisconsin, Dalcroze Certificate and License from the Dalcroze School in New York City under Hilda Schuster, and the Diplome Superieur from the Dalcroze Institute in Geneva, Switzerland. As an active clinician Anne presents workshops throughout the United States, Europe and Japan in Dalcroze studies: Eurhythmics, Solfege, Improvisation and Pedagogy. She has performed two-piano improvisation recitals with colleagues Lisa Parker and Joy Kane. Her articles have appeared in The American Dalcroze Journal, Music Educators Journal, Keyboard Companion, National Music Council Newsletter, The Bennington Review, and Dissent.

Soprano Helen Gabrielsen is a performer of art songs, chamber works and new music. This past season she premiered song cycles set to texts by e.e. cummings by New York composers Daniel Temkin and Steve Aprahamian and a pocket opera for two sopranos entitled All Three Acts of a Sad Play Performed Entirely in Bed, composed by her husband Dag Gabrielsen and set to text by poet Julie Larios. Helen most recently sang the role of The Serpent at Theatre 80 St. Marks in a production of Orfeo, Eurydice and The Serpent, a new satirical chamber opera based on the Orpheus myth that combines scores by multiple composers including Monteverdi, Rossi, Sartorio, Telemann, Gluck, Milhaud and Offenbach. In 2008 she premiered a pierrot chamber version of Second Childhood with Helix New Music Ensemble and gave a recital of American Songs at the Renee Weiler Concert Hall. She made her Weill Auditorium Carnegie Hall debut performing Tosti songs arranged for guitar and clarinet and her Messiah debut with New York State Baroque Orchestra at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Buffalo. Helen has performed with New England Light Opera, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra Outreach Program, Amalfi Coast Music Festival, New York Opera Forum, One World Symphony, Broadmoor Chamber Singers, Harbor Choral Arts, Chamber Chorale of Fredericksburg and The Chromatic Club of Boston. She studied acting with Ann Baltz and Gloria Parker and voice with Mary O'Connell, Penelope Bitzas, Norma Newton and Richard Slade. Helen is on faculty as the music specialist at the Hamilton Park Montessori School.

A certified teacher of Brain Gym since 1991, Connie Green teaches Brain Gym 101, lectures, presents in-services for schools, cruise ships, hospitals and community organizations as well as one-on-one consultations. A soprano with the famed Metropolitan Opera Chorus, her career has also included many supporting roles with the company. She has toured Japan, Spain and Germany with the Met, performing in productions aired over international television and radio. She is on the faculty of her Alma Mater, Mannes College of Music, where she has taught Brain Gym for Musicians. For over a decade she has been collaborating with the Performing Arts Library producer to create and perform programs for their series. The amazing technology of Brain Gym has been the foundation for Ms. Green's ability to ground her creativity and direct her own energy.

Musicologist L. Michael Griffel is chairperson of the music history department at The Juilliard School, where he has taught since 1997. He is also professor emeritus of music at Hunter College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. At Hunter, he taught music history from 1970 until 2005, and he served at various times as chair of the music department, co-chair of the Thomas Hunter Honors Program, associate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and acting associate provost. He taught for many years in the doctoral program in music at the CUNY Graduate School and at The Mannes College of Music. Dr. Griffel earned his B.A. in music theory at Yale, his M.S. in piano under Rosina Lhevinne and Martin Canin at Juilliard, and his M.A. in the theory of music and Ph.D. in historical musicology at Columbia. Dr. Griffel specializes in the music of the Romantic period, with emphasis on Franz Schubert. He has published chapters in The Cambridge Companion to Schubert, The Schirmer History of Music, and Scholars Who Teach, and articles and reviews in such journals as The Musical Quarterly, Music Library Association Notes, The Beethoven Journal, Current Musicology, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and The New Leader. He has been an invited guest speaker for such groups as the Music Theory Society of New York State, the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and the New York Chapter of the American Musicological Society. He is currently working on a book on Schubert’s late symphonies. Dr. Griffel is a board member of the Schubert Society of the USA and served as vice-president of the New York Chapter of the American Beethoven Society.

Mimi Y. Hsu is a Certified Dalcroze Eurhythmics Instructor on the Faculties of Hoff-Barthelson, CPSM Queens College, and Greenwich House Music School. A native of Tainan, Taiwan, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in voice performance with a minor in piano at the Chinese Cultural University in Taipei, followed by studies to Dalcroze certification at The New York Dalcroze School, and the License Program at The Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. Mimi taught Dalcroze Eurhythmics at The Central Conservatory of Beijing, China, summer 2004. In summer 2005 she introduced the Mind-Body Studies in Performing Arts Festival at Greenwich House Music School—a multi-disciplinary program combining Dalcroze, Feldenkrais, European Mask/Clown/Movement and Multi-Arts Performance. She is president of Tri-State Chapter, Dalcroze Society of America.

Donald Isler is a classical pianist, piano teacher, and recording artist who is active in Westchester County and New York City. His CD's have appeared numerous times on the David Dubal’s WQXR radio program Reflections From the Keyboard as well as his WWFM radio program The Piano Matters. He has given a presentation on the music of Artur Schnabel at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes College, written the Preface for the new edition of the Dance Suite of Schnabel, and been interviewed on the blog, New York Pianist. Also, he is the founder of KASP Records, which has produced CD's which include his performances of music by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, plus little known but important works of Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859) and Artur Schnabel (1882-1951). Donald Isler has served on the juries of various competitions, such as the Pre-College Concerto Competition at the Juilliard School, and on the Bruce Hungerford Memorial Award panel at the Young Concert Artists auditions. He received the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, and attended pedagogy courses at the Diller-Quaile School in New York, as well as the summer seminar in piano technique at the Taubman Institute in Massachusetts. His teachers were three wonderful ensemble artists, Sina Berlinski, Artur Balsam and Eleanor Hancock, and five pianists with major solo and recording careers: Bruce Hungerford, Constance Keene, Robert Goldsand, Lilian Kallir, and Zenon Fishbein. He teaches privately and at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY, and also writes concert reviews.

Birgit Matzerath holds a degree in piano and a teaching degree in High School for Music and English, from Hochschule für Musik, Köln, and the University of Cologne in Germany. Her teachers have included Oxana Yablonskaya and Seymour Bernstein. For more than 20 years she taught piano and chamber music and performed solo and collaborative recitals in Germany. In 2002, she joined the faculty of the Concord Community Music School in New Hampshire. Since that time she has performed Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I in the United States and Germany. In addition to teaching and performing, Ms. Matzerath has done extensive research in music education. Her articles have appeared in the music education magazine Üben und Musizieren in Germany, and in Keyboard Companion and Clavier Magazine in the United States. She initiated and organized chamber music camps for music school students in Köln, Germany and St. Petersburg, Russia. She frequently serves as adjudicator for competitions in this country and abroad.

Described by The New York Times as an "astonishingly good pianist", Tatjana Rankovich is committed to continuously expanding the boundaries of the traditional repertoire. She is the first pianist ever to play the First, Second and Third Piano Concertos of Nicolas Flagello, recording them with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and the Slovak Philharmonic, which were released to unanimous praise and chosen for one of the five "best of the year" recordings in 1996 and again in 1999, by Fanfare magazine. Born in Belgrade, Serbia, Ms. Rankovich has performed throughout the USA, Canada, Europe, Central and South America and as a guest soloist with many orchestras worldwide. Ms. Rankovich holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Juilliard School. As a recipient of the Fulbright Grant, Ms. Rankovich appeared as a Cultural Ambassador in recitals throughout Serbia and Montenegro. She has recorded several highly acclaimed discs for Phoenix USA, Naxos, Albany, Artek, Dezil, Citadel, and most recently, a highly praised 3-disk set of live recordings for IBox Records. In 2008, Tatjana Rankovich was one of the recipients of the prestigious State Award, "Golden Badge", which is awarded annually by the Serbian Ministry of Diaspora in Belgrade, Serbia. In addition to her career as a pianist, she is a music therapist and an affiliate with Performance Wellness, Inc., specializing in working with professional musicians and performers, using a clinically proven approach to diagnosing and treating performance related disorders, such as acute performance anxiety, mind-body injuries/illnesses and addictions. Ms. Rankovich is presently on the piano faculty in the Preparatory Division at the Mannes College of Music.

Jimmy Roberts composed the music for I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, second longest-running Off Broadway musical in New York theater history after The Fantasticks. Written with playwright Joe DiPietro, I Love You received both the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations as Best Musical when it opened in 1996. It has since played in all fifty states as well as over 25 countries around the world. Mr. Roberts also composed The Thing About Men (2003, New York Outer Critics Circle award for Best Musical). His latest show, All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go, directed by Hannah Ryan, Resident Director of Hamilton, will be presented at an exciting reading for the Broadway community this September. His children’s musical, The Velveteen Rabbit, toured the United States for well over a decade. Among his recent compositions is a commissioned work: The Heart of the Matter, words by noted poet Dana Gioia (Guggenheim Museum). Another fascinating new musical, Rex and Lilli and The Master, about the lives and careers of Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer, and Noel Coward, and written with Rex Harrison's son, playwright Carey Harrison, is also in preparation. Jimmy Roberts is a sought-after performer and vocalist, delighting audiences with his wit and special way with a song. His entertaining programs feature unique mixtures of classical and popular music (i.e. Sondheim and Bach, Vivaldi and The Beatles), along with large helpings of Gershwin and Broadway. Recent engagements include: Merkin Concert Hall, the Time Warner Center, Steinway Hall, St. Peter’s Church, the National Arts Club, and the Off Centre Music Salon (Toronto). He is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with the legendary pianist, Constance Keene.

Cynthia Shaw received her Master's of Music in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky. Other piano teachers include Dora Zaslovsky, Philip Evans and Francisco Aybar. In New York she has worked as a musical director, choral conductor, choral singer, piano accompanist and teacher. She has musical directed Off-Broadway, in regional theatres and was musical director of the New York Christmas Revels at Symphony Space, with whom she was also featured on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor at Town Hall and on NPR Radio. As a choral singer, she sang The New York Philharmonic's premiere of John Adams' On The Transmigration Of Soulsi, which won three Grammy Awards and she sang with Paul McCartney at Carnegie Hall. She currently sings in the professional chorus of Dr. David Hurd at St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square. She plays piano for Jewish services and for several years has been the pianist for high holiday services at both Temple Emanuel and Temple Israel on the upper east side. She is an English Country Dance pianist with CD*NY and for the second summer will be pianist and voice teacher at Early Music Week at CDSS' Pinewoods Camp. She also works as a film and theatre actor and is currently writing a one-woman show about her first year in New York as a young classical pianist. She lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with her husband, David Simonoff, where she teaches adult piano lessons.

Monica Verona, pianist, taught at Northern Illinois University-DeKalb where she assisted pianist Naomi Zaslav teaching piano and chamber music in the undergraduate and graduate programs. She served as Adjunct Professor of Piano at the Brooklyn College Preparatory Center for the Performing Arts for 15 years and joined the piano faculty at the Bloomingdale School of Music in 1999 where she maintains a full roster of students. In 2005, she became one of Bloomingdale’s Resident Teaching Artists and has since performed each year in solo and ensemble concerts as well as participating in the yearly “Piano Project Concerts” in one full day of four recitals that focus on a particular theme. In addition to her full-time work as a piano teacher and performer, in 1998, Ms. Verona became president of the New York City Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon – America’s oldest co-ed music fraternity. Ms. Verona has appeared as soloist and keyboard collaborator at the Salzburg International Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Steinway Hall, Nicholas Roerich Museum, Goethe Institute, Tenri Cultural Institute, the American Landmark Festival Series, Brooklyn College, Villa Terrace Museum, Charles Allis Art Museum, Donnell Library Series, the MacDowell Club Series, and with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She holds a B.A. Degree in Art History (focusing on Baroque Painting and Sculpture and African and Pre-Columbian art) and Italian Language and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; a Performer’s Certificate Degree from Northern Illinois University; and a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Naomi Zaslav, Ada Kopetz-Korf, and Karl Ulrich Schnabel.

Jessica Wolf is a certified teacher of The Alexander Technique and a member of the American Society for the Alexander Technique. Jessica trained at The American Center for the Alexander Technique and continued her studies in London. She has maintained a private practice in New York City since 1977. For over 25 years, Jessica has been exploring and conducting research in respiratory function and breath. In 2002, Jessica became the founder and director of the first post graduate training program for Alexander teachers in The Art of Breathing.