Strings & Early Music
Heloise Degrugillier
Private Lessons Instructor, Recorder
Heloise Degrugillier has worked extensively as both a recorder and traverso performer, and teacher throughout Europe and the United States. She has performed with leading period ensembles, including the Boston Early Music Festival Opera, Handel and Haydn, the Boston Camerata and Tempesta Di Mare. Heloise also enjoys an active teaching career, working with the Amherst Early Music Festival, the Texas Toot, Pinewoods Early Music Week, and others. She is the president and music director of the Boston Recorder Society. She has completed her studies in the Alexander Technique and has a Masters in Music from the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands. She studied recorder with Heiko ter Scheggett, Saskia Coolen, and Pedro Memelsdorff.
Pascale Delache-Feldman
Private Lessons Instructor, Bass
Pascale Delache-Feldman, double bassist, was a prizewinner at the Prague International Chamber Music Competition, received first prize at the Paris Conservatory with honors and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. Called by the New Music Connoisseur as having "technical certainty and musical imagination" and by The Phoenix as "a gifted colorist... who produced an entire range of orchestral effects", she has soloed with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic, North Shore Philharmonic, Greensboro Festival Orchestra, among others. She has collaborated with Midori, Joel Smirnoff, Virginia Eskin, Victor Rosenbaum, Dawn Upshaw, the St. Petersburg, Borromeo and Lark String Quartets. As co-founder of Cello e Basso with cellist Emmanuel Feldman, they have concertized in the US and in Europe and have released a new CD on Synergy Classics. She has recorded chamber works with the Albany, Archetype, Arsis, AFKA and CRI labels. Since 2001, she has been the artistic director of the Boston Bass Bash, an international festival dedicated to the double bass. She teaches at the Longy School of Music, Tufts and Brown Universities and Rivers School of Music.
Miriam Eckelhoefer
Private Lessons Instructor, Cello
Miriam Eckelhoefer has a multifaceted career as a performer, teacher and administrator. An active freelance musician, Ms. Eckelhoefer is a member of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and Michigan Opera Theater and has performed with various other groups throughout Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. Ms. Eckelhoefer served as Director of Preparatory and Continuing Studies at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, from 2008 until 2013. An avid educator, she taught cello, coached chamber music, and served as Assistant Director of Ensembles at the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, CT from 1999 to 2008. In 2005, she co-founded Elm City ChamberFest, a summer chamber music festival in New Haven, and quadrupled the festival's enrollment by the time of her departure in 2008. Ms. Eckelhoefer holds a D.M.A. from SUNY at Stony Brook, an M.M. from Yale University, and a B.S. in Mathematics and B.A. in Music from the University of Notre Dame. Her principal instructors include Colin Carr, Aldo Parisot, Karen Buranskas, Irene Sharp, and members of the Tokyo and Emerson String Quartets. She has performed at festivals throughout the United States, Canada, England, France, Italy and Holland. Ms. Eckelhoefer maintains a private cello studio in her home and is frequently called upon to coach chamber music groups and youth orchestra sectionals.
Emmanuel Feldman
Private Lessons Instructor, Cello
Hailed by John Williams, Grammy award winning composer, as "an outstanding cellist and truly dedicated artist", Emmanuel Feldman has emerged as one of the most innovative cellists of his generation. Known for his intense soulful playing and a broad range of repertoire, he enjoys an active career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, champion of new music, and educator. He has soloed with the Boston Pops, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, BMOP, New England String Ensemble and many others. An avid chamber musician, he was invited to participate in the Marlboro Music Festival, has collaborated with fellow artists Gilbert Kalish, Richard Stoltzman, Joy Cline Phinney, Jennifer Frautschi, the Borromeo String Quartet, and soloed with pop and jazz artist Bobby McFerrin. Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote "Feldman was superb" in his recent Celebrity Series debut. His solo CD on Albany Records "Rider on The Plains" featuring Virgil Thomson's Cello Concerto was nominated for a 2008 Grammy award for producer Blanton Alspaugh (producer of the year) and was called an "excellent recording…the concerto sounds exhilarating in this bracing and confident performance" by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times. He has also recorded for Naxos, Arsis Zimbel, and Navona. A consummate advocate of new music, Mr. Feldman has premiered cello works by composers Aaron Kernis, Richard Danielpour, Gunther Schuller, and many others. Co-founder of Cello e Basso with bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman, they were called "a musical Lewis and Clark" by NPR's Ron Schacter. He has performed at the Pablo Casals, Schlesswig Holstein, Yellow Barn, Killington, and Summit Music Festivals. A Curtis Institute graduate with studies at the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Feldman is also on the cello faculty at New England Conservatory.
Frances Conover Fitch
Private Lessons Instructor, Harpsichord/Organ
Frances Conover Fitch is fortunate to have been teaching and performing on the harpsichord for the last fifty years. She has taught keyboard students at all levels and ages, including kindergartners who are beginning piano to Master of Music candidates preparing for their final harpsichord recitals.
She was a member of the faculty of the Longy School of Music for nearly three decades, and served as Chair of its Early Music department. In 2006, Longy awarded her the George Seaman Award for Excellence in the Art of Teaching. Ms. Fitch is on the faculty of The New England Conservatory, where she originally received her Master of Music degree before beginning post-graduate studies with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. In 2012-13, she was Guest Professor at Ferris University in Yokohama, Japan. She is co-author of the figured bass workbook, Running the Numbers. Ms. Fitch maintains a private studio in the Boston area, and is Minister of Music at St. John’s Church in Beverly Farms, MA.
As a performer, Ms. Fitch has toured extensively in North America and Europe performing with many prominent early music ensembles. She helped found the groundbreaking ensemble for 17th-century music, Concerto Castello, and has been described as a “delightfully inventive and compelling” continuo player. Ms. Fitch has participated in major music festivals, including Tanglewood, Aix-en-Provence, Pepsico Summerfare, Tage Alter Musik (Regensburg), the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Festival de Musica Antigua in Mexico.
Ms. Fitch has made more than a dozen recordings, including a double CD of music by Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre.. Her playing has been noted for its “precision and delicacy of wit.”
Email Frances or visit Frances' website for more information.
Video
Phillip Grannan
Private Lessons Instructor, Guitar, Jazz
Phillip Grannan is a guitarist, composer, and educator based in the Boston area. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, he graduated from Tufts University in 2012 before earning two master’s degrees from the Longy School of Music of Bard College in 2015, focusing on Composition and Modern American Music.
Since 2019, Phillip has taught guitar and jazz band at Somerville High School, where he also leads an afterschool Jazz Club and Ukulele Club. He offers community music classes at Tufts and private lessons to undergraduates. He has been actively teaching tufts community music classes and summer music program since 2012. Currently, Phillip performs with Gateway Jaz, contributing to Boston's vibrant music scene.
Jane Hershey
Private Lessons Instructor, Viola da Gamba/Recorder
See faculty profile.
Joanna Kurkowicz
Private Lessons Instructor, Violin
A prize winner in numerous competitions and praised in the magazine Gramophone for her "disciplined virtuosity," the Polish-born violinist Joanna Kurkowicz enjoys an active and versatile career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and concertmistress. She has performed worldwide in such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, and the Große Saal, Salzburg, and has appeared as a soloist with, among others, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Jefferson Symphony Orchestra, San Luis Obispo Symphony, Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, and Polish National Radio Orchestra in Katowice, as well as with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra in which she currently serves as concertmistress.
She holds the position of Artist in Residence at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and serves on the faculty at Tufts University. She is also a frequent coach at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Joanna Kurkowicz is a strong advocate of contemporary music and has premiered many works by living composers and made many recordings on such labels as Chandos, Bridge, Centaur, CRI, Albany, New World, Neuma, Capstone, and Archetype. Her Chandos recording of Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 3, and 7 by Bacewicz was awarded a "Golden Tuning Fork" by the magazine Diapason d'or and reached No. 6 on Amazon's chart of Best Classical Albums in 2009. A founding member and artistic advisor for the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, she has been a guest artist at the Mozarteum Festival in Salzburg, Ravinia Festival, Bargemusic in New York, Asia Pacific Festival in Wellington, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, and Marthas's Vineyard Chamber Music Society, among others. Joanna Kurkowicz plays a violin made by Pietro Giovanni Guarneri in 1699.
Watch Ms. Kurkowicz's videos here: Paganini Marathon, Bach and Beyond Recital, Bach and Beyond Masterclass/Lecture, and Beethoven Recital.
Contact Ms. Kurkowicz at joanna@joannakurkowicz.com, or visit her website.
Mary Jane Rupert
Private Lessons Instructor, Harp
Education
D.M. in Piano Performance, Indiana University
M.M. in Harp and Piano, Indiana University
B.M. Oberlin College
Private harp study with Marcel Grandjany
Ms. Rupert is currently a faculty member of Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts. Freelance harpist and recitalist in the Boston area. Other performances in Carnegie Recital Hall and the Beijing Concert Hall, China. She has published an arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite for flute and harp (or piano) with New Boston Editions.
Sarita Uranovsky
Private Lessons Instructor, Violin
Sarita Uranovsky, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, enjoys a varied career as soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and orchestral musician. Since her debut at the age of 15, she has appeared as soloist and in recital with, among others, Boston University, Cape Town, Richmondshire, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Symphony Orchestras. Sarita has been Concertmaster of Orchestra Geminiani de Fallonica (Italy), the RSAMD Symphony Orchestras, and Assistant Concertmaster of the Cape Symphony Orchestra. She can be seen performing regularly in groups around Boston including Boston Musica Viva, the Cantata Singers, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Boston Pops.
Ms. Uranovsky is a founding member and violinist of Boston-based group, MONTAGE Music Society. She has recorded and broadcast for both the BBC and SABC. Sarita has performed in concert for HRH Prince Charles, HRH Princess Anne and at the church of St-Martin-in-the-Fields. Ms. Uranovsky teaches at Tufts University, is teaching Assistant to Bayla Keyes at Boston University, and serves on the faculty of MIT's Emerson program.
Scott Woolweaver
Private Lessons Instructor, Viola
Scott Woolweaver, B.M., graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan School of Music before moving to Boston for graduate work with Walter Trampler. He was founding member of the Boston Composers String Quartet, which won the silver medal at the 1993 String Quartet and Chamber Music Festa in Osaka, Japan, and with the Quartet, he performed across the United States and Europe. He is violist of the award-winning New England Piano Quartette, Boston's Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and he spends his summers at the Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park (CO) Chamber Music Festival, and the Adult Chamber Music Seminar at the Interlochen (MI) Arts Camp. A champion of twentieth century music, Mr. Woolweaver has premiered numerous works for the viola, many of which were written for him. He is also a faculty member of the All Newton Music School, the University of Massachusetts, and has recorded for Orion, Koch International, TelDec, Audiofon, Albany Records, Decca, and Northeastern Records.