ANNOUNCEMENTS

Kathleen Balfe, cellist and California native, has been a member of the CalASTA San Francisco Section since the 1980s when she joined as a student. In the 1980s and 90s, she studied with Irene Sharp, attended the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory Division, and was a member of the California Youth Symphony and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. Today in California she is a member of the Cabrillo Festival orchestra and has performed as a substitute with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, and the Monterey Symphony. In Spain, she has been a principal cellist of the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada since 2007, and recently completed a year contract as principal cellist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife. A founding member of Ensemble NeoArs Sonora since 2008, Kathleen has a passion for performing and premiering contemporary music. In 2020, ten works for solo cello were dedicated to her as part of a women composer project. She has performed those works in various venues around Spain and also in California. Kathleen teaches cello students in her private studio and has given classes through the International Festival and Academy in Tenerife, the Andalusian Youth Orchestra, the Tenerife Symphony Academy, the Granada Orchestra Academy, and the New World Symphony outreach program. During the pandemic, Kathleen served on the preliminary panel of judges for the section solo competition and greatly enjoyed the experience. In 2021 she volunteered again, and in July 2021 was designated the new chairperson of the competition. Kathleen helped to digitalize the solo competition through the platform Acceptd in 2022 and organized a live final round for the first time in two years. In August 2022, she was asked to be an interim president, and she agreed to hold the position until elections could be held.

ensembles. She has concertized throughout the Bay Area and over-seas .

Shawn Prudhomme is a violist and violinist currently living in the SF Bay Area. He received a Bachelor of Music in strings performance from University of the Pacific. In addition to teaching viola and violin in the south and east bay areas, Shawn performs regularly in the SF Bay Area and around Northern California with a variety of groups including the Merced Symphony, In Concert Sierra, the Apollo Orchestra, and others. Shawn also frequently performs in traditional Irish music and other styles. For fun he has a very slowly growing list of instruments that he can competently play about 3-5 easy songs or tunes on, which currently includes Cello, Tin Whistle, and Button Accordion.

Cellist Wendy Reynolds has degrees from UC Berkeley, Cal State East Bay and Golden Gate University. As an adult, she studied and participated in workshops for many years with Milly Rosner in Berkeley. She is currently principal cellist with the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra in Walnut Creek. Wendy enjoys playing chamber music and is a member of several performing groups. By day she masquerades as a CPA, specializing in international tax, with a firm in San Francisco.

Stephanie Chiao is a professional cellist and music educator. Currently, she is the Assistant Principal Cellist in the Stockton Symphony and a music educator in Santa Clara County. As a dedicated music educator, she was the past president of the ASTA (American String Teachers Association) Stockton Teacher’s chapter. She is also adjudicator for California Orchestra Director’s Association and an active member of California Music Educators Association Bay Area Section. She not only contributes to professional learning communities but also is part of many, including the MERIT (Making Education Relevant In Technology) program at the Krause Center of Innovation. Her ultimate goal is to inspire joy, beauty, expression, creativity through music and to build the community through our shared experiences of music.

Violinist JAMES GREENING-VALENZUELA has performed as a soloist with orchestra, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America.  Dr. Greening-Valenzuela has been featured on seven solo CDs, produced by Musical America, Locrian Recordings and as an artist on the Con Brio Recordings label:  his recording of the Bach Sonatas for Solo Violin earned a submission for a Grammy Award nomination.  He attended the San Francisco and St. Louis Conservatories of Music, as well as the City University of New York.  Teachers include Henryk Szeryng, Joseph Silverstein, Zaven Melikian, John Korman, Daniel Phillips, Masao Kawasaki, and Doris Brill. Honored by theviolinsite.com as one of today's most influential violin soloists, he served as Program Director of New York Academy of Music and adjunct faculty member of Queens College, Brooklyn College and Boise State University. Dr. Greening-Valenzuela maintains a private studio in Walnut Creek and is sought after as a master teacher, lecturer and competition adjudicator. In addition, he is Founder and President of Vocal Artists Management Services, (VAMS) which tends to the careers of internationally acclaimed opera and concert singers.

 Violinist Merav Singer has pursued music performance and academics, with an M.M. from Cincinnati Conservatory and a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from UC Berkeley. She has performed in orchestras, folk music bands, her own quartet, and as a strolling violinist. She is also a lecturer at UC Berkeley, where she has taught musicianship and academic writing. Merav has a private violin studio in Walnut Creek. 

Cybèle D’Ambrosio, a violin student of Anne Crowden, David Dalton and David Abel, taught her first violin lesson when she was 15 years old. It was safer than gymnastics and paid better than babysitting so she kept at it. Spreading her wings early she supported herself for two years as a French Quarter street musician in New Orleans. She later obtained Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music Performance from Brigham Young University (Provo, Ut) and Mills College (Oakland, Ca). In addition to an active performing career, Cybèle maintains a private teaching studio in Berkeley, California and is currently working towards her dreams of publishing children’s books and composing film scores. She has served on the board of CalASTA San Francisco since 2012 in a variety of roles including President, ASTACAP Coordinator and Solo Competition Chair.

From kinesthetic music education to teaching for diverse learning needs, Jennifer R. Ellis (B.M. Oberlin, M.M. CIM, D.M.A. University of Michigan) is dedicated to innovative music pedagogy. She is a professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in both their collegiate and precollege programs where she teaches harp, pedagogy and community engagement. She has also served as the harp instructor at Mills College, Holy Names University PMD, and Harps Etc. She is the founding director of the SFCM Summer Harp Camp and has served as guest harp instructor at other summer programs including MPULSE and Nief Norf. Awarded an inaugural University of Michigan Engaged Pedagogy Fellowship, her pedagogy training includes earning a UM CRLT Graduate Teacher Certificate as well as training in eurhythmics pedagogy at CIM. She is an in-demand clinician; she was a featured teacher at the 2017 International Harp Festival and has presented masterclasses across the country at institutions including Interlochen, Boston University, and University of Arizona. Her students have won national awards including the AHS Young Composers Project and Prodigy International Music Competition. In her performing life, she thoroughly enjoys using her instrument in new and unexpected ways, premiering over 100 works and serving as the first harpist to be a U.S. State Department One Beat Fellow. She is in her second term of serving on the American Harp Society national board and has served on the CalASTA San Francisco Section board since 2016.