Instrumental Teacher Bios
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Cynthia Lawrence – Piano
Cynthia has worked as a singer, musical director, vocal coach, accompanist, and arts educator for many years. Before moving to Cincinnati, Cynthia served as Musical Director for Springfield Little Theatre, Missouri’s oldest and largest civic theatre. Musical directing credits include Beauty and the Beast, Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and many other productions. As a performer, Cynthia has experience onstage in regional, community and professional theatre as well as in the studio as a jingle artist and studio musician. Her teaching credits include private studio voice and piano instruction, public school music education and community theatre education and workshops. Her focus in recent years has been on training the young musical theatre singer, arts integration and program development. Cynthia holds a BS, Vocal Performance, from Southwest Baptist University, teacher certification in music and theatre studies from Missouri State University, and a MM from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, with special emphases in music education, musical theatre and arts administration.
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Richard Miller-Wimmer – Beginner and Advanced Guitar, Ukulele, & Trombone Instructor
Rich currently serves as a Worship Pastor at a church in Northern Kentucky while teaching lessons on a variety of instruments. With a Bachelor of Music Education, Rich has studied a variety of instruments with a large emphasis on Trombone and other low brass instruments. While working on his degree he studied trombone under Jeanie Lee and Bill Mann. Rich has also taken lessons with Douglas Yeo, Massimo La Rosa and Joseph Alessi. Not only has he studied and played trombone but has been involved in multiple bands playing bass guitar most often. He has toured across the United States and spent time recording in Nashville. With studying orchestral trombone to playing bass and guitar, touring and recording, Rich has developed a unique and diverse musical experience and perspective.
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Brooke Batchelor – Violin, Piano, & Voice
Brooke Batchelor, originally from Knoxville, TN, holds both a Masters and Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Ms. Batchelor was the winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Northern Alabama District, and placed third in the MONC Auditions Mid-South Region that same year. Additional credits include two years with Cincinnati Opera, multiple roles during her time at CCM, a two-time semi-finalist with the Palm Beach Vocal Competition and two-time winner of the Friends of Lima Symphony Young Artist Competition. Brooke recently returned to Cincinnati and CAPA from Denver, CO. She deeply enjoys teaching voice, violin and piano students of all ages and styles. In addition to her classical training, she was raised in a bluegrass household where she and her sisters frequently performed alongside their father in his bluegrass band. She is an accomplished fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and banjo player in this genre and thoroughly enjoys using her homegrown skills. |
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Kevin Norton – Saxophone
Dr. Kevin Norton earned his DMA in saxophone at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (where he studied with Dr. James Bunte). He is currently a private instructor in the Cincinnati metro area, primarily at the Cincinnati Academy of Performing Arts (CAPA) and the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA). During the 2012–13 school year, he was also an Adjunct Professor (teaching Intro to Music and music history) at The Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio.
A native of Williamsburg, Kentucky, Kevin previously studied at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky under Dr. Nathan Nabb and Prof. Eugene Norden. At Morehead, Kevin earned a Bachelor’s degree (Summa cum laude) in Music Education and a Master of Music in saxophone performance. He has performed at several events held by the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA): regional conferences at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (2007), Northeastern Illinois University (2011) and Bowling Green State University (2013); the 2008 national conference at the University of South Carolina; the 2010 national conference at the University of Georgia; the 2012 national conference at Arizona State University; and the 2014 national conference at the University of Illinois. Furthermore, he performed at the United States Navy Band’s International Saxophone Symposium in 2011, 2015 and 2016. In addition, Kevin has actively premiered several new works for saxophone. As a member of the CCM Graduate Saxophone Quartet, helped premiere composer Matthew Browne’s work “Two Pieces” at the 2011 Navy Band Saxophone Symposium at George Mason University. A year later, he (as a member of the 3-2-5 Quartet) premiered Amber Autumn by CCM composer Carrie Magin at the Arizona State conference. Most recently, Kevin gave world premieres of composer Ian Dicke’s soprano sax arrangement of his Chapter One, Page One at the 2014 NASA conference and Brandon Nelson’s new work PRN in Fall 2015 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is currently part of a consortium commissioning a saxophone concerto by Matthew Browne that is scheduled to be completed in December 2016. Kevin Norton is a current member of the Prestalgia Duo along with Jennifer Grantham (saxophone professor at Northern Kentucky University). Together, they were members of a consortium (headed by the Ogni Suono duo) that commissioned Ian Dicke’s work Straphanger (for tenor and baritone sax); the Prestalgia Duo gave the regional premiere of the work at the 2013 NASA conference in Bowling Green. Kevin and Jennifer also actively perform together in the Cincinnati area, most recently in December 2015 for the Cincinnati version of Classical Revolution. |
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Krista Weiss – Clarinet
Krista is a Reserve Method Clinician for D’Addario Woodwinds. Through her work with D’Addario, Ms. Weiss has traveled to dozens of schools across the Midwest to give clinics on clarinet fundamentals and equipment. She also currently serves as principal clarinet of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and second clarinet of the Richmond Indiana Symphony. An active freelancer, Ms. Weiss has recently performed with the Cincinnati Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Opera, South Bend Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and New World Symphony in Miami, Florida. Ms. Weiss also enjoys a career as a studio musician and has performed in dozens of recordings for the Hal Leonard Corporation. Ms. Weiss spent four summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she served as both the E-Flat and B-Flat fellow and studied under Joaquin Valdepeñas and Burt Hara. In addition to her time in Aspen, Ms. Weiss has spent summers performing with the National Repertory Orchestra, Chautauqua Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, and Marrowstone Music Festival. Ms. Weiss attended Indiana University, where she received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Clarinet Performance as a student of Eli Eban. During the 2010-2011 academic year she served as the clarinet instructor at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana, teaching a full studio of undergraduate and graduate students and performing with the ISU Faculty Woodwind Quintet. In addition to her college teaching experience, Ms. Weiss enjoys teaching clarinetists of all ages and abilities and maintains a private studio in the Cincinnati area.
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Emily Toth – French Horn
Emily Toth is an Indiana native, freelancing and teaching in the greater Cincinnati area. She maintains an active private studio in the Milford, West Clermont, and Oak Hills school districts. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music where she earned a Masters in horn performance, studying with Randy Gardner, Duane Dugger, and Elizabeth Freimuth of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Emily is currently a member of the Queen City Chamber Opera and Lebanon Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Lima Symphony (OH), Springfield Symphony (OH), and Richmond Symphony (IN) Orchestras. She is also a member of the Ohio River Brass Quintet, which performs regularly in the greater tristate area, with the purpose of performing contemporary and unfamiliar works for brass quintet.
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