2020 Conference  Program Presenters

PANEL SESSION

"Online Music Teaching: Engaging the Student in the Virtual Classroom"

Sunday, November 15, 2020 at 1:00 - 2:30 PM

Panelists: Kenneth Ellison (clarinet, saxophone), Amy Glennon (piano), Paul Manulik (viola, violin), Rose McCathran (piano), and Richard Woo (piano)

Kenneth Ellison has performed internationally with many ensembles, including the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Riverside Symphonia, the Greenville Symphony and the American Fine Arts Festival, and has played under such conductors as Andrea Quinn, John Rutter, Frederick Fennell and Rossen Milanov at such venues at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, NJPAC and the Liszt School of Music. He performs regularly with the Chelsea Opera Company and is Professor of Clarinet at Kean University.  Kenneth can be heard on the recordings “Bread of Life” with the Tim Keyes Consort, “On Course” by Laurie Altman, “Pictures at an African Exhibition” by Darrel Yokely and the trio@play CD’s “Wille Was Different” and “In the Sandbox.”  Kenneth is on the Master Faculty at Westminster Conservatory. He holds degrees from Furman University and Arizona State University.

Ken will discuss virtual teaching of wind students of all levels.

Director Paul Manulik founded Princeton String Academy in 2005 after several years of running a private teaching studio in the Princeton area. In addition to directing the Academy, Mr. Manulik enjoys a diverse career as orchestral player, chamber musician, teacher and recitalist. He teaches both violin and viola using the Suzuki Method of Talent Education. One of his principal teachers of this method was Doris Preucil, who is internationally recognized for establishing one of the first US Suzuki schools, and from John Kendall, another highly respected founder of the Suzuki Method in the U.S. Mr. Manulik also conducts master classes for high school orchestras and serves as guest clinician at summer festivals.
Mr. Manulik has studied with Evalina Chao, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra associate principal violist, and with Jerry Horner and William Preucil. He holds a master’s degree in viola performance from the University of Iowa and has taken additional teacher training from Mimi Zweig, professor of violin and viola at Indiana University and Director of the Indiana String Academy.

Paul will speak about the challenges of starting beginning string players online and ways to enhance online teaching for experienced students.   

Pianist Rose McCathran (BM, MM, NCTM) is a teacher, lecturer, adjudicator, and performer who loves sharing her passion of music. Her piano students have performed beautifully in studio recitals, won composition competitions, successfully fulfilled musicianship examinations, given full-length solo piano recitals, and enthusiastically participated in high level piano competitions and festivals, some of which have awarded her students solo and ensemble piano performances at Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York, at The Academy of Music of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University. While several of her advanced students have continued to study piano professionally in college as majors, minors, and participants in ensembles, all of her students have continued to participate in their enrichment of music. 

An active music communicator, Rose has presented lectures and lecture recitals at Harvard University, at Westminster Choir College, at Westminster Conservatory of Music, at venues in the greater Princeton, New Jersey area, and at state and local conferences of the Philanthropic Education Organization. 

Ms. McCathran holds a Master of Music degree and a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College, where she studied under internationally renowned teacher and pianist Ingrid Clarfield. Ms. McCathran is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) and has served on the distinguished faculty of the Westminster Choir College Piano Pedagogy Certificate Program, where she taught courses in piano technique. She also served as a member of the Artist Piano Faculty at the Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, New Jersey. Most recently, Rose was awarded The 2019 Top Teacher Award from Steinway & Sons. 

Rose will address how to maintain studio success during quarantine with the following topics:

• How to prepare students in their "final stages" of polishing repertoire for performances and examinations online,

• How to motivate students, given the diminished performance opportunities, and

• How to maintain a sense of studio camaraderie online. 

Richard Woo maintains a private piano studio in the greater Princeton area of New Jersey.  He has served on the piano and music theory faculties at Westminster Conservatory of Music of Rider University, and he has taught piano secondary courses at Westminster Choir College and at The College of New Jersey.  Mr. Woo presides as a board member of the New Jersey Music Teachers Association as well as the Piano Teachers Forum of Central New Jersey.  He adjudicates for statewide piano performance events for students, and his own students regularly participate in competitions, examinations, festivals, and school and community events.  Mr. Woo holds Master of Music degrees in Piano Pedagogy and Performance and in Music Education from Westminster Choir College, a diploma from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music from the United Kingdom, and he is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music with the Music Teachers National Association.

Richard will explore the use of teacher and student videos, e-assignment sheets (i.e. Google Docs), and asynchronous tutorials in the virtual lesson format.