Boston Public Quartet, Music Education, Chamber Music, Betsy Hinkle

Betsy Hinkle, Founder, Director, Resident Musician

Betsy Hinkle began her violin studies at the age of five in Winter Park, FL, as a Suzuki student of Kathleen Weidley. The daughter and granddaughter of professional musicians and educators, her path was naturally but not purposefully fostered at an early age. She attended the Florida State University as a violin performance major on full music and academic scholarships, and while at FSU played in an Honors Piano Trio as a Liberace Scholar. She has been devoted to performing chamber music since High School, playing for two years in the "Real Quartet," who could be heard playing her arrangements of Cyndi Lauper tunes alongside Mendelssohn and Corelli at the Barnes and Noble on Saturday nights.

Betsy relocated to the Boston area in 1999 to study at the New England Conservatory. There she studied with Nicholas Kitchen of the renowned Borromeo String Quartet, and received a Music in Education Concentration along with her Master of Music in 2001. While at NEC, she co-founded (with colleague Mona Rashad) the student organization "Playing for Change," which organized and performed benefit concerts for non-profit organizations.

Since 2001, Betsy has been free-lancing and teaching in the Greater Boston area. She created a successful strings program at the Chestnut Hill School in Newton, MA, growing the program from 5 students to more than 70 during her 4-year tenure. In addition to her work with the BPQ and its residency at the Chittick School, Betsy is on the faculty of the Rivers School Conservatory and has a home studio in Roslindale. Betsy performs regularly with the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, the Boston Ballet Orchestra and the Boston Classical Orchestra.

In addition to directing the program, Betsy teaches violin, viola and chamber music in our Chittick residency, and is a violinist in the Boston Public Quartet.

Ashleigh Gordon, Resident Musician

Originally from upstate New York with a new address of Boston, MA, violist Ashleigh Gordon has performed throughout the United States, Paris, France and Florence, Italy on Radio Papesse. She is an active performer of classical and contemporary music with a solo and chamber music repertoire ranging from Bach, Schubert and Debussy to Cage, Gubadulina and Andreissen. Ashleigh has performed with the Callithumpium Consort in Jordan Hall, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Xanthos Ensemble and the New England Philharmonic, all of whom specialize in contemporary music. Her strong desire to promote new music has led her to work with such composers as Steve Reich, David Lang, Augusta Read Thomas, Christian Wolff, Frederic Rzewski and Krzysztof Penderecki.

Also active in the orchestral field, Ashleigh has performed with the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra (CO), Atlantic Symphony (MA), Pierre Monteux School Orchestra (ME), Ohio Light Opera Company and Glens Falls Symphony (NY), with whom she has recorded under Mode Record Label. Off stage, Ashleigh maintains an active violin and viola studio at the South Shore Conservatory and North End Music and Performing Arts Center located in Boston's own Little Italy.

Ashleigh is a recent graduate of the New England Conservatory where she earned her Masters Degree. Her primary teachers have included Carol Rodland, Louise Zeitlin and Jeffrey Irvine with supplemental solo and chamber music studies with Peter Slowik, Karen Ritscher, Eric Rosenblith and Mai Motobuchi of the Borromeo String Quartet.

Ashleigh will be teaching violin, viola and chamber music in our Chittick School Residency, and is the violist in the Boston Public Quartet.

Jennifer Bewerse, Resident Musician

A native of Florida, Jennifer Bewerse received her Bachelors of Arts magna cum laude from the University of South Florida and is currently pursing her Masters of Music from The Boston Conservatory. Her principal teachers include Joan Markstein, Scott Kluksdahl and Rhonda Rider.

Jennifer is a devoted champion of the music of our generation and is enthusiastically involved with numerous emerging young composers. As a result of her collaborations, she has premiered many works including Drew Cutler’s Authentic Interruption for cello and percussion (2007) and Daniel Frantz’s Sech Kleine Tanze for solo cello (2008). Other composers she has had the privilege to work with include Augusta Read Thomas, Michael Sydney Timpson, Kenji Bunch, Gunther Schuller, Jonathan Harvey, and David Del Tredici. She has also participated in the Sound Encounters, SICPP, Music from Salem: the Cello Seminar, and the Oregon Bach Festival: Composer Symposium modern music festivals, and as a guest soloist for the Robert Helps Festival and International Composition Competition.

Jennifer is an avid chamber musician and is currently the cellist of the Boston Conservatory Honors String Quartet. Her other projects include the Solaris Duet with marimbist Alex Delgado, the commission and premier of works for solo cello by Mischa Saklind-Pearl and Justin Ralls, and teaching in her private studio.

Jennifer will be teaching Cello and Chamber Music as part of our Chittick School Residency, and is the celloist in the Boston Public Quartet.

Marji Gere, Resident Musician

As a performer, artist, and teacher, Marji Gere has found a home at the intersection of the visual, musical, and literary arts. In a given week, you may find Marji rehearsing contemporary piano/violin duos, writing wacky rounds, or building puppets and writing music for another episode of the Shelly and Zipper Show (a weekly presentation of music and shadow puppetry) with fellow composer/performer and husband Dan Sedgwick. You may also find her teaching private music lessons and classes in puppetry, composition, and creative writing at the non-profit Charlestown Working Theater. Now and then, you may find her developing and performing extravagant dramatic musical works with her ensemble An Exciting Event; directing summer sessions at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in Nelson, New Hampshire; and traveling to the Eastern Mediterranean island country of Cyprus to organize Apple Hill-style Playing for Peace chamber music workshops with fellow musicians from the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities. Marji received a B.M. in Violin Performance and a B.A. in English at the University of Iowa in 2002, and an Ed. M. in Arts in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2007. Marji is thrilled to teach violin and chamber music at the Chittick Elementary School with the Boston Public Quartet.

Margi will be teaching Violin and Chamber Music as part of our Chittick School Residency, and is the violinist in the Boston Public Quartet.

Nina Vansuch

A Boston native and “ham” since childhood, Nina Vansuch has performed with many musical groups and as a solo performer, singer, director, comedian, and actor. As a self-taught musician with learning disabilities, Nina loves the learning and teaching process, especially working with children who start out saying ”It’s too hard” and helping them discover that “I can play music”. (She’s been there.). She extended the self-taught route to study with Karen Shepard, Kate Judd, Ric Poulin, and Marla Blakey among others.

Nina has worked extensively with arts organizations, and educational programs as a consultant, teacher, grant writer, and as director of arts programming and curriculum for children and adults. She is the recipient of 15 grant awards, including one from the American Business Collaboration for excellence in children’s arts programming.

Nina is currently resurrecting a program she developed in the 1990s, the Neighborhood Arts Exchange, which places college student interns in after school programs and community centers and also serves as a consulting resource for these organizations.

www.ninavansuch.com

Zachary, Lydia and Miranda Burrage-Goodwin, and their mom, Melissa Burrage live in Weston, MA. Zach and Lydia are sophomores at Weston High, and Miranda is in 8th grade at Weston Middle. All four are accomplished musicians. Miranda, Lydia and Zach participate in many Weston musical groups, including the Rivers School Conservatory Youth Orchestras, Weston Public School orchestral and choral programs, and have been invited to attend All-State and District Festivals. All three are members of the Bass River string ensemble.

Melissa Burrage received her Bachelor of Music Degree from Keene State College in 1984, studying voice with Carlesta Henderson-Spearman, Carroll J. Lehman, and piano with Chonghyo Shin. She received her Masters Degree in History from Harvard University in 2004, and is currently working on her doctoral dissertation on the life of Dr. Karl Muck, Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor during the anti-German hysteria years of World War I.

The Burrage-Goodwin family enjoy working with the students at the Chittick School in Mattapan and are happy to give back to the community whatever skills and lessons they've learned along the way. Thank you for this opportunity!