Music with the Masters
We love having guest artists on campus at PCA! On March 31st, ten professional musicians inspired our students through performance and education in voice, strings, brass, piano, woodwinds, guitar, and percussion. Clinicians included a Julliard graduate, a world-class concert pianist, an opera & musical theatre actress, university professors, and more. We praise God for such talented professionals willing to invest in our students.
Music with the Masters: Upper School Guitar
April 8, 2016
Music with the Masters: Chorale
March 31, 2016
Music with the Masters: Upper Strings
March 31, 2016
Music with the Masters: Percussion Clinic
March 31, 2016
Music with the Masters: Junior High Band
March 31, 2016
Music with the Masters: Junior High Girls Chorus
March 31, 2016
2016 Master Musicians
Piano: Mary Towse-Beck
Pianist Mary Towse-Beck has been a performing artist for over twenty-five years. She has captured the praise of critics and audiences with her sensitive and lyrical playing. Equally at home as both soloist and collaborative artist, she has performed throughout Europe, Australia and the United States. She has been a featured artist on Australian National Radio and on public radio in the United States.
After having lived in England for twenty years, Mary returned to the United States in 2007 and now resides in New Hampshire. In April, 2015, she performed a solo recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Other recent highlights include appearing as soloist with the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra and the release of her CD, ‘The Impressionists’. She is pianist for the Aliento Chamber Players who both perform and educate throughout New England. Along with her performing career, Mary maintains a private studio in her home. She has also been a lecturer at Northern Essex College and a music director for Great Bay Youth Orchestra. She has a keen interest in developing and nurturing the talents of young musicians and continues to work toward providing opportunities for youths in New Hampshire.
Mary received her Masters and Bachelors of Music from Indiana University where she studied with James Tocco and Edward Auer and also received coaching from many renowned teachers including Josef Gingold, Janos Starker and Gyorgy Sebok. She attended Eastman School of Music as an undergraduate studying with Rebecca Penneys, after having studied with Jerome Rose at Bowling Green State University. After completing her Masters, she continued her studies in London with Norma Fisher and Benjamin Kaplan.
Guitar: Eric Turner
Eric combines his wide variety of performance and music-education experience to address the needs of students of all ages and all abilities. He welcomes and incorporates many different styles of music in his lessons, while maintaining a focus on the common elements that bind all forms.
Eric graduated Cum Laude from the University of New Hampshire in 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education and has been performing in the New England Area with the band Duty Free and as a free-lance musician since 2001. He is a versatile musician who has played hundreds of gigs on both guitar and bass. In 2006, Duty Free was selected as the National Battle of The Bands winner and was awarded a slot at Amster Jam 06, sharing the stage with likes of Tom Petty as well as The Foo Fighters.
Eric’s music education background is equally diverse as his performance background. Eric has been giving private lessons since 2001 and is currently the music director for The Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy and also teaches classes at Dover High School. Classes and subjects that Eric has taught or directed include guitar ensemble, keyboarding, music theory, orchestra, jazz band, jazz choir, elementary string, percussion, brass and woodwind lessons, world drumming, and music history.
Musical Theatre Vocal Clinic: Melissa Manseau
Melissa Manseau graduated with her Masters of Music in vocal performance from the University of Northern Iowa. She received her Bachelor of Arts in music education from the University of New Hampshire.
Melissa was an Apprentice Artist with Sarasota Opera in 2001 when she was awarded the Sarasota Opera Guild Scholarship and the Kern Foundation Scholarship. She returned as a Studio Artist for Sarasota’s 2002 season, covering Fiordiligi from Cosi fan tutte and Leonore from Le Trouvere (Verdi’s original French). In addition, Ms Manseau performed with the Sarasota Outreach Program.
Melissa also performed as a Young Artist with Opera North, covering Donna Elvira from Don Giovanni, and performing staged scenes from Le Nozze di Figaro and Tatyana’s “Letter Aria” from Eugene Onegin. In November 2005, Ms. Manseau performed the soprano solo in Brahm’s Requiem with the North Shore Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Robert Lehmann.
Other professional roles include Witch (Hansel and Gretel), Lady Thiang (The King and I), Title role (Suor Angelica), Mimi (La Boheme), and Miss Jessel (Turn of the Screw) as well as a returning artist for 12 years in the Chatham, MA. First Night Celebration singing a full recital of operatic arias.
Choral Groups: Jamie Hillman
Assistant Professor of Music
Conductor of Men’s Choir and College Choir
choral methods and literature, voice, and graduate music education
Associate diploma Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto
B.M. University of Western Ontario
M.M. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
D.M.A. Boston University
Dr. Jamie Hillman is a multi-faceted musician who is active as a singer, pianist, conductor, music educator, and composer. As a Boston University Prison Arts Scholar and faculty member of BU’s Metropolitan College/Prison Education Program, he has co-initiated a comprehensive choral music program at a large, medium-high security men’s prison in Massachusetts. In addition, he serves as associate music director at Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts. He is the 2012 laureate of the Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting from the Ontario Arts Council.
His recent engagements as tenor soloist include Messiah with the Clark University Chorus and Orchestra and the Laudate Dominum Choir and Orchestra; Dett’s The Chariot Jubilee with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale and Windsor Classic Chorale; Saint-Säens’ Christmas Oratorio with the Rosebud Masterworks Choir; and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Studio Cantorum Choir and Orchestra (Indonesia). As a pianist, he has shared the stage with numerous choirs including the Boston Children’s Chorus and Rhode Island Children’s Chorus, and professional singers including Desiree Hassler and Kevin McMillan. His choral compositions have been performed in Asia, Europe and North America by ensembles including the Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto, Boston Children’s Chorus, Calgary Girls’ Choir, Cantabile Choirs of Kingston, Les Choristes, Oakville Children’s Choir, Worcester Children’s Chorus, and numerous other school, church and community choirs. His popular Christmas carol, “Who Would Have Thought,” is published by Cypress Choral Music (Vancouver, British Columbia).
Dr. Hillman is an examiner for Conservatory Canada and has adjudicated at festivals and presented at conferences in Canada, the United States and Southeast Asia. His co-editorial work includes numerous editions of Arabic, Asian, Latin American and Western choral pieces published by Earthsongs and Hinshaw Music.
He lives in Boston with his wife and son.
Orchestras: David Upham
Dr. David Upham is the orchestra conductor at the University of New Hampshire, and the founding director of the UNH Youth Symphony Orchestras. Prior to his arrival in New England, he was active in Seattle, Washington, as a conductor of professional, community, and student ensembles. He was the Music Director of the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra and of the Young Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra at the Seattle Conservatory of Music. Dr. Upham also served as the Associate Conductor of the Rainier Symphony Orchestra, regularly conducted various professional ballet orchestras, and was a featured guest conductor with the Northwest Mahler Festival. In November of 2009, he made his international debut at the contemporary music festival, Aujourd’hui Musiques, in Perpignan, France. Dr. Upham conducted the New Hampshire All-State Orchestra in April 2012.
Dr. Upham is in demand as an educator and clinician at festivals across the country. In addition to his work at the Summer Youth Music School at UNH, he also conducts at the Lutheran Summer Music Academy in the Midwest. He had a long tenure with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras, serving as conductor or assistant with each of the organization’s five orchestras. Dr. Upham also had a successful 10-year career as a public school music educator, leading orchestral programs in Kent and Bellevue, WA. In his position at Newport High School, he developed a thriving program with 120 string students across 3 orchestras, who consistently won top awards at various music festivals throughout the region.
Dr. Upham has degrees from Luther College (Decorah, Iowa), the University of Northern Colorado, and received his DMA in conducting from the University of Washington.
Bands and Brass: Mark Zielinski
Mark Zielinski currently serves as Senior Lecturer of Music Education at the University of New Hampshire. Having taught music at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels, Mark is in demand as an adjudicator and clinician throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic. He is a past board member of the Maryland Music Educators Association and a current New Hampshire Music Educators Association member.
In addition to teaching and conducting, Mark remains active as a trumpet player. He performs regularly as a member of the New Sousa Band, which tours throughout the U.S.He has also performed with the Maine State Ballet, Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Regal Brass Quintet, Columbus Pro Musica, and Bloomington Pops Orchestra. In 1993 Mark was selected as runner-up in the International Trumpet Guild’s Mock Orchestra Audition Competition. His trumpet teachers include Jeff Christiana, Charles Gorham and Stephen Burns, and has studied conducting with Stephen W. Pratt, Ray E. Cramer and Keith Brion.
A native of Indiana, Mark received a Bachelor of Music Education and Performers Certificate from Indiana University as well as a Master of Music in trumpet, with a cognate field in Wind Conducting from the same institution.
Woodwinds: Elizabeth Gunlogson
Elizabeth Gunlogson serves as Associate Professor of Music at the University of New Hampshire. Prior to this appointment, she served on the faculties of Morgan State University, the Baltimore School for the Arts and Luther College. Active as a performer, Dr. Gunlogson has worked with the Tallahassee Symphony, Annapolis Opera, Opera Vivente, the Maryland Philharmonic and Keith Brion and his New Sousa Band. She also performs regularly with the trio, Northern Accord, an ensemble formed to explore music written for the combination of mezzo-soprano, clarinet and piano.
Active in the International Clarinet Association, Dr. Gunlogson was selected performed at the 2010 and 2012 international conferences. She also served as a judge for the 2011 and 2008 ICA International High School Clarinet Solo Competition and is the organization’s New Hampshire State Chairperson. Originally from Alaska, Dr. Gunlogson attended Luther College, Indiana University and Florida State University. While at Florida State University, she received a Dissertation Research Grant to assist in her pedagogical studies of clarinetist Stanley Hasty. Most recently she has presented her research on Hasty through publication in The Clarinet and at the 2010 International Clarinet Association conference and the 2010 Eastman School of Music Hasty 90th Birthday Celebration.
Upper Strings: Sally Wituszynski
Sally earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Heidi Castleman and Marcus Thompson. She has also completed a Masters degree in Music Education from UNH. Sally has played in many ensembles, including the Vermont Symphony, the Hanover Handel Society, the Granite State Symphony, and the New Hampshire Philharmonic, and she is an active freelance performer throughout New England. She currently teaches music at Berwick Academy and Tri-City Christian Academy, and she is the Master Teacher for the UNH String Project. She lives in Somersworth, NH, with her husband and two sons.
Lower Strings: Dorothy Braker
Dorothy Braker graduated from the Juilliard School with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music performance. Her studies were with Phil Blum, Karl Fruh, and Harvey Shapiro. Primarily a soloist and chamber musician, her numerous performances across the United States have included Lincoln Center and Paul Hall in New York City, The Bennington Museum in Vermont, and the Newberry Library in Chicago. She has performed in Orchestra, Carnegie, Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls. She has also performed extensive educational concerts across the United States, an activity she has continued here in New Hampshire.
Here in New Hampshire, in addition to chamber music and solo performances, she is principal cellist with the Portsmouth Symphony, the Connecticut River Valley Orchestra, and also coaches chamber music and has a private studio of students. She has played with many other local orchestras and for choral groups. She firmly believes in experiencing music as an integrative and joyful part of life, both in her East Kingston home with her family, and in performance.
Percussion & World Drumming: Paul Donahue
Paul has been playing drums for the past 20 years and teaching for over a decade. While open to many styles of music, his favorites include Jazz, Funk, Rock and Soul. He currently performs with many groups including Elsa Cross, Amorphous Band, FunkyTown, Todd Royce, Eric Chase, Joe Gattuso, Steve Carter, and various other ensembles. Playing with such a wide variety of bands has afforded Paul the opportunity to perform with many national acts such as Maceo Parker, The Headhunters, Corey Glover, The Rebirth Brass Band, The Radiators, SemiSonic, Chris Duarte, Tim Reynolds, Johnny Winter and members of The Commodores. He has toured up and down the East Coast from the tip of Maine to Southern Florida. He has played on 11 albums, and continues to perform and practice his craft daily.