Mary Jane Austin-Reynolds earned her bachelor's degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Olga Radosavljevich and Vivian Weilerstein. Her graduate work included studies in vocal coaching and accompanying, both art song and opera at Duquesne University with Warren Jones and Claudia Pinza.

Mary Jane co-founded the Sky Meadow Chamber Players with her husband Paul Reynolds in 2003, has worked at the Green Mountain Opera Festival as the pianist for their Young Artist Program, and has played with the Mad River Chorale, Onion River Chorus, Vermont Opera Theater, and Echo Valley Community Arts. She has also played for several silent films at the Vergennes Opera House.

Jane Bearden moved to Vermont from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she performed as a first violinist of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra for fours years. She completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in violin performance under Sheryl Staples and Burton Kaplan at the Manhattan School of Music. She joined New World Symphony shortly before relocating to Malaysia and has played with orchestras including the Philharmonia of the Nations, Sarasota Orchestra, and Macau Orchestra. As soloist, she has performed with Burlington Ensemble, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic Chamber Players. Upon moving back to the United States, Jane joined the premedical program at the University of Vermont and rediscovered her passion for neuroscience and its relation to playing and teaching.

Jane continues to perform in Malaysia and with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and the Burlington Chamber Orchestra. She and her husband divide their time between Burlington and Montreal, bringing along their giant dog and two Malaysian street cats.

Mary Bonhag received her B.M. from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Carmen Pelton, and her M.M. from Bard College, where she studied with Dawn Upshaw and Edith Bers. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2009 and has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today. Mary performs regularly around the country at music festivals and with orchestras such as Strings in the Mountains, Yellow Barn, Maui Classical Music Festival, Pine Mountain, SongFest, Cactus Pear Music Festival, Fontana Chamber Arts, the American Symphony Orchestra. A newcomer to Vermont, though not to northern New England, she is now a member of Counterpoint, Vermont’s own professional choir.

Influenced by training with Gwen Ellison and Judith Grodowitz in Alexander Technique and Breathing Coordination, Mary believes that good natural singing comes from released and efficient use of the body and strives to help her students find joy and freedom in their own unique instrument while singing any style of music.

Lisa Carlson has taught flute in Central Vermont since 1985 and was a founding member of the Monteverdi Music School.

Active as a freelance flutist, Lisa performs solo and with a variety of small ensembles and the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of Oberlin College, her private teachers have included Katherine Borst Jones at Oberlin Conservatory, Jane Ambrose, Mark Sparks, and Jerilee Kechley. Her study of the Suzuki approach has included classes and observations at Suzuki Institutes in the United States and Canada, and master classes with such world-renowned teachers as Suzuki flute method founder Toshio Takashashi, Louis Moyse, and Robert Willoughby. Her Suzuki teacher trainers have included Kenichi Ueda, June Warhoftig, David Gerry, Pandora Bryce, and Laura Larson. Lisa has taught at the Vermont College Preparatory School of Music and Dance, in public schools, and for groups, choirs, and chamber ensembles. She is a member of the National Flute Association, the Suzuki Association of the Americas, and the Vermont Association of Wedding Professionals.

Michael Close has taught cello at Monteverdi Music School since 2005. He is the music teacher at Moretown Elementary and also teaches cello with the Vermont String School. He plays cello with several orchestras in Vermont and loves playing chamber music with friends. An active composer, he has been a composer–mentor with the Vermont Midi Project since 2004. He graduated from Bennington College in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in music composition and a master of arts in education. He is an avid bagpiper and a member of the Catamount Pipe Band.

Jay Ekis began playing guitar when he was 9 years old and was writing and performing music by the age of 15. His teachers include local guitar heroes David Kraus and Colin McCaffery. Jay has performed extensively in Central Vermont and across the country for the past decade, and has been teaching since 2004.

Paula Ennis, pianist, holds a doctor of music degree from Indiana University where she was a graduate teaching assistant to Menahem Pressler. An active performer in Vermont, she has performed solo and chamber music throughout Europe and the United States and is a member of the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble. After Fulbright study in Cologne, Germany, she taught on the music faculties of SUNY at Albany, Williams College, Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, and Johnson State College in Vermont. Her recordings of solo and chamber music appear on Grand Prix, Musical Heritage Society, and Coronet Recording labels.

Stephen Falbel, bass-baritone, has been active as a singer since high school and has performed with a wide range of choruses, from the 120-voice Tanglewood Festival Chorus to the Alba Quintet. He studied voice for many years in the Boston area with Robert Honesucker, Richard Morrison, and Carol Mastrodomenico and performed with professional ensembles such as the Boston Camerata and the Handel & Haydn Society. His solo work includes opera and oratorio, with recent performances in Don Giovanni with Echo Valley Community Arts, The Mikado with Unadilla Theater, and The Messiah with Rip Jackson and the Rutland area chorus and orchestra. Stephen is currently a member of Counterpoint, Vermont’s professional vocal ensemble.

A classical singer, actor, and director, Naomi Flanders has spent the last 30 years committed to the development of the performance arts in Central Vermont. She founded Echo Valley Community Arts in 2002 and developed Shakespeare in The Hills, a project of EVCA, in 2008. She has directed three operas and produced others, directed six Shakespeare camps for kids and numerous Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, and directed and produced musicals for local public schools and community theaters. She received her bachelor's degree in the humanities from Johnson State College with a minor in music, and studied voice and Feldenkrais bodywork in New York with Marcy Lindheimer. Naomi incorporates deep breath work, Feldenkrais, and yoga into her teaching and accepts all singers from various musical genres.

Ira studied jazz and classical performance at the University of Southern Maine and William Patterson University. He has enjoyed teaching for more than 15 years, and you can catch him performing with many bands, including The Ira Friedman Trio, Viscus, and The Dave Keller Band.

Jenni Jenkins earned her bachelor’s degree from Plattsburgh State University, where she majored in classical percussion, composition, and theory and minored in jazz composition and theory. She has studied classical theory with William Pfaff, jazz theory and composition with Rick Davies and Drew Waters, jazz/funk/Latin drumming with Vermont’s own Gabe Jarrett, vibraphone with Dov Schiller, and classical percussion with Daryle Redmond.

In Vermont, Jenni has performed with the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra, the Hanover Chamber Orchestra, and the Dartmouth Handel Society. In 2006, her boogaloo funk band performed at the Burlington Jazz Festival, and in 2009 she coached the percussionist in the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Jenni's students at Monteverdi learn not only all aspects of percussive rhythm but also the melodic theory behind music.

Erik has performed in opera, musical theater, oratorio, operetta, and art song throughout the world, working with companies such as Green Mountain Opera, Bronx Opera, Opera Colorado, and the Amato Opera. His symphonic and oratorio performances include engagements with the New York Philharmonic, the Korean Philharmonic, Chautauqua Symphony, and the American Classical Orchestra. Erik has won many awards, including the 2010 Gerda Lissner International Competition, Wagner Division, the 2008 American Wagner, and St. Bonaventura awards from the Liederkranz competition. He was a 2002 and 2003 winner of the Friedrich Schorr Vocal Competition.

Erik has fifteen years' teaching experience with all voice types, abilities, ages, and styles. He has been a student of master teacher Braeden Harris for over ten years, and his philosophy of teaching is that all singing and song interpretation is organic and comes from good tone, no matter the style. His performance experiences allow him to help students focus not only on voice but on performance, style, and technique.

Raymond Karl Malone was a scholarship student to Roman Totenberg at Boston University. In 1976 he participated in the "Herbert von Karajan Stiftung," founded by von Karajan to encourage young musicians and to promote tolerance among nations. His New York orchestral debut was at Carnegie Hall in 1972 under Walter Suskind and the "American Youth Performs" national orchestra. Since then he has performed with numerous orchestras, including Opera Orchestra of New York, Brooklyn Philharmonia and the Long Island Symphony. Chamber music is an important part of his student and professional life. In vermont he is one of the founders of "Arioso" chamber ensemble. He is also on the board of the Green Mountain Youth Symphony.

Joni Hollis McCraw has been teaching woodwinds for more than 40 years. A busy freelance musician, she has performed in more than 100 musical theater productions on everything from piccolo to baritone saxophone. As a clarinetist she has performed with the Vermont Symphony, Vermont Mozart Festival, the Indian Hill Symphony, and many other groups. She has a degree in applied music from the University of Massachusetts. Joni studied clarinet and saxophone privately with Joseph Allard at the New England Conservatory of Music and flute with Nancy Jerome.

Biographical information coming soon.

Otto Muller is a young American composer whose work investigates the peculiar residue that remains when recognizable musical images are forced through the deteriorating mechanics of modernism (an investigation that has at various times embraced Puccini, old cassette tapes, serial techniques, and puppetry). He received his doctorate from the University at Buffalo where he studied with David Felder as a Presidential Fellow. He has also studied at L’Accademia Musicale Chigiana and Northwestern University with Azio Corghi, Amnon Wolman, and Amy Williams. Muller’s music and multimedia collaborations have been performed across the United States and Europe and have received accolades including the BMI Student Composer Award.

Otto Muller teaches in the BA in Individualized Studies Program at Goddard College and is a founding member of the Open Music Foundation.

Double bassist Evan Premo spent two years in New York City performing regularly at Carnegie Hall and Julliard and giving educational performances and residencies. Evan has performed concerti with numerous orchestras, including the 2009 premiere of his own double concerto for violin and double bass with Andrés Cárdenes and the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra and the 2006 premiere of his Concertino for Bass Fiddle and Winds with the University of Michigan’s Symphony Band. He has been featured on NPR’s “Performance Today” and twice on “From the Top.” A graduate of the University of Michigan, he earned degrees in double bass performance and composition and studied double bass with Diana Gannett and Gary Karr.

Evan is an experienced public-school and private-lesson teacher. He stresses the importance a diverse musical interests and is especially inspired by folk, traditional, contemporary, and classical music.

Jill Pruitt began playing violin at age 3 in a Suzuki program in Amarillo, Texas. After completing her program 12 years later, she studied violin with Annie Chalex, then a member of the Harrington String Quartet, and with Ronald Lance of the Portland String Quartet. She received a bachelor’s degree in music from Colby College and taught with the Pineland Suzuki School in Augusta, Maine. In 2007, Jill moved to Vermont, where she has completed the Suzuki in the Schools certification and certification training to teach Suzuki books 1 through 4. She currently teaches Suzuki violin through the Monteverdi Music School. Jill resides with her husband and two sons in Barre.

Paul Reynolds has served as principal violist with the Sarasota Opera Company, the National Chamber Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the New World Symphony of Miami, with whom he also performed as soloist. While in D.C, he played in the National Symphony Orchestra and Kennedy Center Opera and served as associate professor of Music at George Washington University. Mr. Reynolds is currently Principal Violist of the Burlington Chamber Orchestra and the Green Mountain Opera Festival. He also performs with the Vermont Symphony, Vermont Mozart Festival, Capital City Concerts, and is on the faculty of Middlebury College.

Paul devotes much of his time to teaching the next generation of musicians. He has served on the faculty of several summer music camps including Point Counterpoint, Arts for the Soul, Green Mountain Youth Symphony, Vermont Youth Orchestra, and he has taught string orchestra in the Washington County public school system.

Dov Michael Schiller is a professional percussionist, drummer and timpanist -- in other words he likes to strike things that create sounds & rhythms! Dov attended the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with a number of Boston Symphony Orchestra members and worked with luminaries of jazz, third stream and klezmer. After 10 years touring Europe with Broadway Musical Theater companies, Dov maintains an incredible schedule of performance projects throughout the Northeast and recording engagements on both coasts. He is principal timpanist with the Handel Society Orchestra, Great Waters Music Festival Orchestra and Clearlakes Chorale, and he is an active member of the Vermont Mozart Festival orchestra and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Dov serves as the artistic director and was a founding member of the Mt. Elmore Music and Arts Center. He enjoys playing at many area clubs and venues with COSA BUENA, a four-piece jazz/latin band (see www.cosabuenavt.com), and is also a member of the fantasy rock band, Moss Circle (www.moscircle.com).

At home in the Green Mountains, Dov maintains a busy teaching schedule, presenting frequent workshops and clinics throughout the region. He is proud to be on the faculty here at the Monteverdi Music School, helping to enrich and inspire our supportive and vibrant artistic and musical community.

Carol Spradling Bruce is a professional singer, actor, coach and director who recently moved to Vermont from New York. Audiences in Vermont and New York have seen her in dozens of roles in musicals, opera, straight theater, oratorio, recitals, concerts and jazz engagements. She has performed frequently with Lost Nation Theater in Montpelier and as soloist with the Vermont Philharmonic. She is the director of the Champlain Echoes, a women’s barbershop chorus in Burlington, and serves on the Board of the Montpelier Theater Guild. She holds a degree in music from University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.

Carol is married to the pianist and conductor Daniel Bruce and has three school-age children. She teaches at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, privately at her home in Stowe/Morrisville, and at the Monteverdi Music School. Carol loves helping singers of all ages to find their voice’s potential and sharing with them the joy and passion of singing well.

Eliza Thomas received her musical training at Harvard University and the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano and accompanying with Margo Garrett. Since moving to Montpelier in 2000, she has worked as an accompanist with area musicians and with a number of organizations, including Echo Valley Community Arts, Vermont Opera Theater, Unadilla, and WordStage Vermont. She participates regularly in workshops given by Dalton Baldwin and Lorraine Nubar at the annual Fall Foliage Art Song Festival, sponsored by the Vermont Opera Theater. In addition to teaching piano at the Monteverdi Music School, Eliza is also its part-time director.

Ron is a former member of the Juilliard Orchestra and the National Symphony of Washington, D.C. He was the instructor of trumpet at Westmont College in Montecito, California, from 1964 to 1991. Ron has taught privately for more than 50 years and at Monteverdi Music School for 5 years. His keen interest is in creating an emotionally safe learning environment as well as providing excellent technical direction.

Katie Trautz has studied old-time fiddle and Appalachian folk music with some of the best instructors in the nation, including Pete Sutherland, James Bryan, Greg Boardman, James Bryan, Bill Hicks, Jimmy Triplett, and Alan Jabbour. Katie has toured with the Village Harmony Choir in the United States and Europe, and studied harmony singing with both Ginny Hawker and Sheila Kay Adams. The director of the Summit School, she presently teaches individual fiddle lessons through Monteverdi Music School and performs in a number of ensembles, including Mayfly and Knotty Pine.

J.D. Williams began taking piano lessons at the age of 6 in his home state of West Virginia. He graduated from Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in music performance J.D. has participated in the Banff, Aspen, Tanglewood, and Meadowmount music festivals as a chamber musician and soloist, as well in the International Holland Sessions. J.D. is a resident of Plainfield, Vermont, and when not performing or teaching, he plies his other trade as a carpenter.

Nora Zablow has been teaching piano since 1973 and voice since 1980. She holds degrees in liberal arts and music from Goddard College and Johnson State College and has pursued postgraduate work in vocal and choral pedagogy at the Hartt School of Music, Westminster Choir College, the Kodaly Institute, the VoiceCareNetwork of St. John's University, and U. Mass/Lowell. She has many years’ experience teaching choral, general, and instrumental music in public and Waldorf schools and conducting children's and adult choruses.

Theatrical performance credits include many productions with Vermont Opera Theater, both as featured soloist and as chorus master, the Green Mountain Opera Festival, and Lost Nation Theater. She has been choir director at the First Presbyterian Church of Barre for 22 years. Nora enjoys working with students from age 4 to 94 teaching all styles of music and believes that all people can and should enrich their lives through using their voices to sing music they love in healthy, physically efficient ways.