Rodney Page
As a qualified and experienced educator, Mr. Page can deliver advanced expertise that earned him a Conducting Fellowship at The Juilliard School of Music and a position as an instructor at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Rodney has taught individual lessons to hundreds of students and provides them with intimate instruction, mentoring, and personal growth that is of superior quality. Students learn while maximizing their appreciation for music.
Alan MacNair
Alan MacNair graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy and then received a Bachelor of Music degree from Michigan State University, where he majored in string education. He then attended Boston University, earning a Master of Music degree in violin performance. He has studied with violinists Joseph Silverstein, Louis Krasner, and Walter Verdehr, and has also studied conducting with Gustav Meier at the University of Michigan. Mr. MacNair was the orchestra director at Troy High School for twenty-nine years, and built the orchestra program from 35 students to 220 string players. Under his direction, the Troy High Symphony commissioned several original works, was three times named National Grand Champion, and earned top ratings at other festivals around the United States.
Mr. MacNair has also been the Music Director and Conductor of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, which draws students from all over Southeast Michigan, and performs orchestral repertoire of the highest order. Mr. MacNair has also been the Concertmaster and Assistant Conductor of the Rochester Symphony, and a substitute violinist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He was the 1993 MSBOA District String Teacher of the Year, and was also named the State String Teacher of the Year by the Michigan String Teachers Association in 1998. In 2004, was named the Troy District High School Teacher of the Year, and in 2007, was one of USA Today’s Top Twenty Teachers in America, and remains the only music teacher to win this award. He was recently presented the Elizabeth Green Award as the American String Teachers Association National String Teacher of the year.
He is also a founding member of the Michigan State University College of Music Alumni Board, and the founder and conductor of the Oakland University Chamber Orchestra. He is a frequent clinician at national and regional music education conferences.
Marla Smith
Marla Smith maintains an active violin and viola teaching studio in Farmington Hills. Her students range from grade school to adult. When she is not teaching, Marla can be found in area high schools leading sectionals and coaching chamber music, judging various festivals and solo and ensembles, and freelancing in the greater Detroit area. In the summers, she teaches chamber music at the Blue Lake Suzuki Family Camp, runs Adventures in Chamber Music, and performs with the Baroque on Beaver music festival on Beaver Island.
Paul Lundin
Paul Lundin, a native of Escanaba, MI received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in violin performance at the University of Iowa where he studied with Allen Ohmes. Before moving to southeast Michigan, Mr. Lundin was a free-lance violinist in the Milwaukee,
WI area. He served as Concertmaster of the Racine Symphony, Assistant Concertmaster of the Waukesha Symphony, and played in the Green Bay, Festival City, and Milwaukee Ballet orchestras. He taught on the faculty of Concordia University of Wisconsin from 2000-2008. Mr. Lundin held a full time position in the Shreveport Symphony in Louisiana from 1992-99. While there, he also served on the faculties of Northwestern State University and the Centenary Suzuki School and as concertmaster of the Longview (TX) Symphony. Mr. Lundin continues a strong musical relationship with Upper Michigan directing the “Strings on the Bay Chamber Music Series” through Bay de Noc Community College in Escanaba, a post he has held since 1994.
Kathy Blanchard
Kathy Blanchard graduated from the University of Michigan and is an active teacher and performer throughout the metro Detroit area. She plays regularly with many different groups across multiple genres, from classical to musical theatre to rock and roll. Kathy finds great joy in sharing her love of music and the viola with the students in her own studio, as well as in sectionals with students at various schools and string camps, and is so happy to be working with the young violists here in Brighton!
Dr. Jennifer Koa
Jennifer Koa is a performer, collaborator, and instructor based in Metro Detroit. She completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts at Michigan State University in 2020, and holds bachelor’s and masters degrees in cello performance from Vanderbilt and Florida State Universities.
She has been teaching in Michigan since she moved to Lansing to pursue studies at Michigan State. Previously, she taught in Tallahassee while at Florida State, as well as in her hometown of Raleigh during the summers. In 2016 she was a coach at MASTA Strings camp where she taught chamber groups, sectionals, and private lessons. As a graduate assistant at both Florida and Michigan State Universities, she has taught, coached, and assessed students at the collegiate level.
She has experience teaching students of a wide range of ages and skill levels from beginner to college undergraduate. As a performer, Jennifer plays regular solo and chamber recitals and performs in local orchestras, such as the Lansing Symphony Orchestra. In 2019 she performed as a soloist and chamber player at the Cello Springs Festival in Yellow Springs, OH. While at Vanderbilt University she won the Tennessee State MTNA Chamber Music Competition with the Music City Trio in 2010, as well as third place at the national level with the Apollo Trio in 2013. Jennifer has played in masterclasses for artists such as Steven Isserlis, Amit Peled, Norman Fischer, Laurence Lesser, and Colin Carr, among others.
Stephen Castiglione
Stephen Castiglione is an improviser, educator, double bass player, and composer based in Michigan. He holds orchestral positions as principal bass of the West Michigan Symphony, and as a section player in the Ann Arbor and Canton symphony orchestras. His primary teachers have included Larry Hutchinson, Scott Dixon, and Nicholas Walker. He has also studied with Francois Rabbath, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Robert Hurst, and Paul Ellison. He holds a degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of Michigan.
Jim Van Eizenga
Jim Van Eizenga is the Director of Orchestras at Novi High School, where his orchestras regularly receive top ratings at District festivals and have performed in New York, Washington DC, and at the prestigious Michigan Music Conference. In addition to his position in Novi, he is the conductor and music director of the Gaylord Community Orchestra and the Alpena Symphony Orchestra, and regularly conducts the pit orchestra for Novi HS and Gaylord Community Productions.
As a violist, he has performed with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, Marquette Symphony Orchestra, Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, Dexter Community Orchestra, Alpena Symphony Orchestra, and Ypsilanti Symphony Orchestra. Currently, he performs with Spectrum Orchestra in Bloomfield Hills.
Jim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Western Michigan University and a Master’s degree in Music Education from Michigan State University. He currently is a member of MSBOA and serves on the Board for the Michigan chapter of ASTA as MMC Coordinator.
Jean Lee
Jean Lee is the Instructor and Coordinator of String Music Education at the Michigan State University College of Music. She teaches string pedagogy and string methods courses while growing the string music education program through student recruitment and retention outreach programs. Lee is well-known throughout the Midwest as an accomplished clinician, conductor, Suzuki violin teacher, and adjudicator. She brings nearly two decades of experience to her role within the University along with a unique skill set as an entrepreneur and brand strategist. Whether in the classroom, leading an orchestra, or working one-on-one with students, Lee loves connecting with young musicians to help them develop their talents and see their potential through music education.
Lee is a proud graduate of Michigan State University where as an undergraduate, she studied violin with I-Fu Wang and piano with Deborah Moriarty. She graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Music Education before also pursuing her graduate studies in Music Education at the University of Michigan.
Before joining the university’s faculty, Lee taught music for fourteen years in the Okemos Public Schools, a district renowned for having one of the state’s strongest orchestra programs. Throughout her career, Lee has led orchestras of varying age groups—from elementary strings to university-level musicians. She also directed orchestras at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lakes, Michigan; the Michigan Chapter of the American Strings Teachers Association String Camp in Howell, Michigan; and the New England Music Camp in Sidney, Maine. She is an active member of the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association, the American String Teachers Association, and the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
In addition to applying her expertise as a strings educator and orchestra director, Lee is actively developing new strategies and outreach programs to attract string musicians to careers in music education.
Mary Baldwin
Mary Baldwin began her violin instruction at the age of 5 in Grand Rapids, MI, in the Suzuki program run by the Grand Rapids Public Schools. Serving as a violin instructor, cabin counselor, camper and parent, she has been involved with Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Suzuki Family Camp almost continuously in some capacity since those early days. She graduated in 2001 from Michigan State University with a Bachelors of Music Education Degree, and from Eastern Michigan University in 2009 with a Masters of Music in Violin Performance. She has performed as a section violinist with West Shore, Midland, Rochester, Macomb, Oakland and Warren Symphonies, as well as with numerous churches and community organizations. She currently teaches 5th through 8th grade orchestra in Bloomfield Hills Schools in Bloomfield Hills, MI where she has been employed since 2001. She lives in Milford, MI with her family which includes two daughters who enjoy making music together.
Gabe Villasurda
A native of Detroit MI, he attended East Detroit High School in the suburb of Eastpointe MI. He ranked first in the graduating class 1959 (of 452) and was class valedictorian. He entered The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he earned the degree Bachelor of Music in Music Education With High Honors in December, 1963. He studied violin with Gustave Rosseels and conducting with Elizabeth Green and Theo Alcantara. Later he earned the Master of Music degree also from UM.
Teaching posts have been held in Patchogue, Long Island (3 years), Ann Arbor Public Schools (16 years), The American School in London, UK (5 years), the Park-Tudor School, Indianapolis (3 years), Oberlin College (1 year) and the Punahou School, Honolulu (12 years). Summer teaching at the Interlochen Arts Camp has spanned 35 years.
Villasurda is a fully certified Suzuki violin teacher, having finished the teacher training course laid down by the British Suzuki Institute. He has done studio and group teaching following the Suzuki method in England, Holland, Ohio, Michigan, Arkansas, Indiana, Texas, and Hawaii.
He has done numerous clinics and adjudications in Michigan and Hawaii. He served as an ASTA state officer, chair of the String Committee of the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association, and as president of the Hawaii state MENC organization.