Sally Pinkas

Professor
Ph.D., Brandeis University
M.M., Indiana University
Artist Diploma, New England Conservatory

Since her London debut, Israeli-born pianist Sally Pinkas has concertized widely in the USA, Europe, Russia, China and Africa, as soloist and as a member of the Hirsch-Pinkas Piano Duo (with husband Evan Hirsch). She has participated in summer festivals at Marlboro, Tanglewood, Aspen, Kfar Blum (Israel), Rocca di Mezzo (Italy) and Pontlevoy (France), and has appeared as soloist with the Boston Pops, Aspen Philharmonia, Jupiter Symphony, and the Dobrich Chamber Orchestra (Bulgaria).

Her extensive discography includes Debussy’s Twelve Etudes and Estampes (Centaur), Rochberg’s Piano works (Naxos), Bread and Roses: Piano works by Christian Wolff (Mode), and Fauré’s Thirteen Nocturnes (Musica Omnia), named one of 2002's best CDs by The Boston Globe. A Schumann solo disc, as well as Fauré’s two Piano Quartets (with the Adaskin Trio) were recently released on MSR Classics to critical acclaim. Pinkas holds performance degrees from Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Ph.D. in Composition and Theory from Brandeis University. Her principal teachers were Russell Sherman, George Sebok, Luise Vosgerchian and Genia Bar-Niv (piano), Sergiu Natra (composition), and Robert Koff (chamber music). She serves as Pianist-in-residence and Professor of Music at Dartmouth College (NH).

Theodore Levin

Arthur R. Virgin Professor of Music

Ph.D., M.F.A., Princeton University

B.A., Amherst College

Theodore Levin is a specialist on music, expressive culture, and traditional spirituality in Central Asia and Siberia. His two books, The Hundred Thousand Fools of God: Musical Travels in Central Asia (and Queens, New York) and Where Rivers and Mountains Sing: Sound, Music, and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond, which won ASCAPís 2007 BÈla Bartok Award for Excellence in Ethnomusicology. As an advocate for music and musicians from other cultures, Levin has produced recordings, curated concerts and festivals, and contributed to international arts initiatives. During an extended leave from Dartmouth, he served as the first executive director of the Silk Road Project, founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and currently serves as Senior Project Consultant to the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, and as a chair of the Arts and Culture sub-board of the Soros Foundationsí Open Society Institute. He is currently working on a book on culture and development in Asia, and completing a 10-volume CD-DVD series, ìMusic of Central Asiaî, released by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. At Dartmouth he teaches courses on ethnomusicology and world music, sacred music in East and West, and, in 2008, began teaching an interdisciplinary course on the Silk Road.

Alex Ogle

Senior Lecturer, Flute
Director, Performance Laboratory in Chamber Music

Alex Ogle has performed at the Marlboro and New England Bach Festivals and played principal flute for, among others, the D'Oyly Carte Opera, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the original American production of Jesus Christ Superstar. At conventions of the National Flute Association he has performed several times and moderated a panel on the teaching of Arnold Jacobs. For many years he also taught flute at Amherst and Mount Holyoke Colleges. He attended Harvard College and the Juilliard School of Music and studied with Douglas Royal, James Pappoutsakis, Julius Baker, Harold Bennett, Marcel Moyse, and Keith Underwood. He has recorded for MusicMasters and Opus One.

David Newsam

Senior Lecturer, Jazz Guitar

B.A., Berklee College of Music

David Newsam is an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music. He also teaches at the University of New Hampshire. He has performed with Clark Terry, Joe Williams, Milt Jackson, Louis Bellson, Buddy DeFranco, and Dave McKenna. He has co-authored a highly successful book entitled Making Money Teaching Music, published by Writer's Digest Books.

John Muratore

Senior Lecturer, Classical Guitar

M.M., New England Conservatory

B.M., University of Akron

John Muratore has performed as guitar soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Russia. He has performed with numerous ensembles including Alea III, the Spectrum Singers, the Mastersingers and Counterpoint. Recent concerto appearances have been with the Vermont Symphony, Boston Chamber Orchestra and Symphony by the Sea, under the direction of Jonathan McPhee. Among the composers with whom John has worked closely to produce new solo and chamber works for the guitar are Daniel Pinkham, Scott Wheeler, Larry Bell, Roger Zahab and Jon Appleton. Mr. Muratore has been the featured soloist at the Academie Festival des Arcs (France), St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Concerts and the Atelier International Concert Series in Paris. In 1996 John was awarded First Prize in Alpha Delta Kappa Foundationís National Competition for String Players. The Boston Globe has described him as ìa fleet-fingered and musicianly performerî and has characterized his playing asÖîunleashing so many different varieties of tone and color in quick successionÖa kind of aural iridescence.î John, whose live performances are often featured on WGBH Radios Classical Performances with host Richard Knisely, has recorded for Albany and Arabesque Records. His recent, critically-acclaimed solo CD, Shadow Box, has been hailed by Britain's Classical Guitar magazine as "a fine recording with serious intent."

Erma Mellinger

Lecturer, Voice

M.M., Eastman School of Music

B.M., Northwestern University

In addition to earning a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, Erma also earned both Teaching and Performance Awards. A professional singer, Erma has performed leading roles with many of the country's major opera companies including the Cleveland Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Florida Grand Opera, the Fresno International Grand Opera, and the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh.

Gregory Hayes

Senior Lecturer, Classical Piano

M.M., Manhattan School of Music

B.A., Amherst College

Gregory Hayes has taught piano and occasionally harpsichord at Dartmouth College since 1991. He is a busy chamber musician and orchestral keyboard player, and has appeared as soloist with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. He plays harpsichord, piano, and celesta regularly for the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and has also performed with the Vermont Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Lukeís (New York). He has participated often in the New England Bach Festival and Marlboro Music Festival, and on the Mohawk Trail Concerts series. He is longtime music director for the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence (Massachusetts), and for fourteen years directed Da Camera Singers, an auditioned chorus based in Amherst. Mr. Hayes is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Amherst College and the Manhattan School of Music. He has also studied at the Hartt School of Music and, for several summers, at the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin College. His teachers have included Ming Tcherepnin, Kenneth Fearn, Dora Zaslavsky, and Raymond Hanson. He has written frequently on music, including liner notes for many recordings and articles and reviews for magazines and newspapers. He lives in Goshen (Massachusetts) and has taught for many summers at Greenwood Music Camp in nearby Cummington. In his free time he enjoys playing squash and building stone walls.