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 .

Tristanne Talarico maintains a private studio in Concord, CA for the education of musicians of all ages. Her teaching style emphasizes theory, technique, ear training, and tone quality. A talented and dedicated teacher, Tristanne strives to promote success through the skillful support of each individual student's level of musical development. Tristanne has been a member of the CalASTA San Francisco Section board for several years.

Cookie Segelstein, violin and viola, received her Masters degree in Viola from The Yale School of Music in 1984, studying with Raphael Hillyer and Jesse Levine. Until her move to the west coast in 2010, she was principal violist in Orchestra New England and assistant principal in The New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Cookie has toured the world with her folk chamber trio “Veretski Pass” that specializes in the 19th and 20th Century Jewish instrumental folk music of the Carpathian mountains. They played to a sold out audience at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and regularly tour Germany, Austria and Switzerland, playing concerts and teaching workshops . She recorded the violin music for the Jewish wedding episode of HBO’s “Sex and the City”, has recorded 5 CDs with Veretski Pass, and on several CD’s as an expert on Jewish violin style, and written many music books of  historical transcriptions. Cookie teaches violin and viola students of all ages and levels in both folk and Classical styles. With the guiding principal that a combination of ear training, sight reading skills and good position makes a well rounded musician, Cookie incorporates all of these elements into lessons.  Her lessons stress the importance of full musicianship; a musician must be able to play musically at first reading of a sheet of music, with full expression blooming as the piece becomes more familiar, as well as participate happily in an impromptu jam session. Combining Suzuki style teaching with more traditional methods, and adapting to each student’s individual learning styles, Cookie’s students range from absolute beginner to performing professional.

Erik Andersen is a versatile teacher of bowed instruments with an eclectic approach informed by language acquisition, historical pedagogy, and experience as a multi-instrumentalist performer. Erik performs on all sizes of viola da gamba, including the pardessus de viole, as well as on baroque and modern cello. He also enjoys playing and teaching modern violin and viola. His wide range of experience informs and adds complexity to his musical approach, helping to uncover articulations and colors not so readily found on the single-instrument path. Erik strives to find the voice of each instrument, each composer, and each musical work, sharing the discoveries of those interactions with his audiences. He teaches at the San Francisco Community Music Center and at workshops and events around the country.

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.

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.