Adult Chamber Players Weekend 2024
July 12 – July 14
Join other chamber music enthusiasts for a weekend of music, learning, and fun!
Registration deadline is June 1st.
You will work primarily with a fixed group delving deeply into a single work in preparation for an optional performance on Sunday afternoon, and also have the opportunity to sightread with other participants, getting a taste of the larger repertoire.
The weekend includes a lecture/discussion and performance by the Fairmount String Quartet, an Improvisation Workshop with Dr. David Rudge of Music for People, and StringFlo chair yoga (as featured in Strings Magazine) with live music by composer Dr. Ellen Fishman. You will be coached by members of the Fairmount String Quartet (Saturday only) and by Settlement Music School’s esteemed faculty.
Tuition for the Summer Chamber Festival is $395 and includes all coaching, lectures, and workshops, up to four tickets for the Fairmount String Quartet performance, Meet-and-Greet breakfast on Friday, and lunch and snacks daily.
The campus is near public transportation and is wheelchair accessible.
Information on coaches and workshop leaders:
Beth Benson (Settlement Music School Staff Coach) has been a member of Settlement Music School’s faculty since 1999. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Florida State University. Major teachers include Elizabeth Camus, Eric Ohlsson and Daniel Stolper. She performs with Newtown Chamber Orchestra and Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra and is an active freelancer on oboe, oboe d’amore and English horn. Beth also teaches for the Continuing Education program at Bucks County Community College and at the George School.
Christine Danoff (Settlement Music School Staff Coach) is the 2022 recipient of the Sol Schoenbach Award for excellence in teaching. Her principal teachers were Charles Wendt (University of Iowa), William Stokking (Philadelphia Orchestra), and Orlando Cole (New School of Music). She also studied violin and chamber music with Edgar Ortenberg (Budapest Quartet), and chamber music with Roman Totenberg, William Kroll, and members of the Stradivari and Colorado Quartets. Christine was runner-up in the National Federation of Music Clubs national competition, cello division, and Associate Fellow at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood. She was also Principal cellist with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra. She is currently a member of the Danoff String Quartet and a freelance performer in the Philadelphia area. A child of music educators, she began teaching at age 18 as an adjunct instructor for the Des Moines Public Schools. She has taught class cello in four Philadelphia Archdiocese high schools. She is proud to have the opportunity to share the gift of music with students of all ages, abilities and playing levels in a community music school setting.
Marcello De Vita (Settlement Music School Staff Coach) is an Italian pianist and conductor. He studied piano with Orazio Maione, Andrea Lucchesini and Giovanna Prestia, chamber music with Marco Grisanti and Daniela De Santis and conducting with Simone Ori, Giancarlo Guarino, Gyorgy G. Rath and Alessandro Pinzauti. He performed at the Keiros Theatre in Rome, at the Caracas Festival “El piano”, with the Orquesta Sinfònica Juvenil de Carabobo for the “Sistema Nacional y Coros Juveniles y Infantiles de Venezuela”, at the MG concerts in Bruxelles, at the Spoleto festival, “Festival dei due mondi” and he was selected to perform at the festival “Naturalmente Pianforte”. He regularly works with the Deutsches Institut in Florence. In October 2022 he performed as piano soloist and conductor in Bulgaria with the Pazardzhik Symphonic Orchestra playing and conducting Mozart’s piano concerto K. 271 “Jeunehomme” and conducting Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony #1, op. 21. He has extensive chamber music experience with many different musicians and repertoires. After moving to Philadelphia, he started the “Trio New World” with violinist Chiara Ferrero and cellist Jacob Gin. He currently teaches piano and chamber music at Settlement Music School.
Beth Dzwil, (Fairmount String Quartet, viola), founder, and director of the Fairmount String Quartet, is a seasoned chamber musician, performing for over thirty years with the Fairmount String Quartet and for fifteen years with the Elysian Camerata. She has been featured as a soloist with the Pottstown Symphony, where she served as principal violist for over twenty years, and with the Buxmont Chamber Players, the St. John’s Festival Orchestra, and the Fairmount Chamber Ensemble. In addition to her classical work, she has performed internationally and recorded six critically acclaimed jazz albums with the Tyrone Brown String Sextet. She teaches at the Community College of Philadelphia and the Haverford School, conducts the Philadelphia Sinfonia Strings youth orchestra, and coordinates the Adult Chamber Music Program at Settlement Music School.
Fairmount String Quartet – Described as “likable and warmhearted” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and “expert to the point of perfection” by the Chestnut Hill Local, the Fairmount String Quartet – Rachel Segal and Leah Kyoungwoon Kim-Tomilson, violins; Beth Dzwil, viola; Mimi Morris Kim, cello – has been active in the Philadelphia chamber music scene since 1984. They are dedicated to bringing the intimacy and vitality of chamber music to diverse audiences and are committed to performing classical works of historically under-performed composers in addition to those in the standard classical repertoire, works by women composers, and works in diverse genres including pop, jazz, folk, and Latin music. Their albums “Spoken with Strings” of pop music, Jennifer Higdon’s “Amazing Grace”, “Unleashed” of classical music by women composers, and “StringFlo” music for yoga and meditation, are available on all major streaming platforms. The Fairmount String Quartet records on the Spring Garden Records label and is in residence at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Philadelphia.
Leah Kyoungwoon Kim-Tomilson (Fairmount String Quartet, violin), was born in Busan, South Korea where she served as the Associate Concertmaster for the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra. In Philadelphia, she has performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, the Opera Company of Philadelphia Orchestra, the Harrisburg Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Elysian Camerata, and Trio Excelsior. She is a founding member of the La Croix Quartet, Tononi Quartet, Sori Duo, and Caritas Trio. She has served on the faculty at Temple University, West Chester University, Valley Forge Christian College, West Catholic Conservatory, Settlement Music School, and Peabody Conservatory Prep and as the Director of Music for the Rebecca Davis Dance Company.
Currently, Leah is the Director of Music at Villa Maria Academy High School, and is the Director of the Pennsylvania Youth Orchestra, Pennsylvania Petit Ensemble, and Vivace Competition and Chamberstrings Music Camp. Leah studied Performance and Pedagogy at Juilliard, Peabody Conservatory, and the National Conservatory in France.
Mimi Morris-Kim (Fairmount String Quartet, cello), loves playing chamber music on modern cello as well as continuo on Baroque cello. She has a doctorate in cello performance from the University of Michigan where she met her husband, harpsichordist and medical physicist, Leonard Kim and where she played with Fairmount String Quartet violinist Rachel Segal as a member of the University of Michigan Graduate String Quartet. Mimi performed as a member of the Ann Arbor Symphony for seven years. She performs frequently with the Riverside Symphony and as a substitute with many groups throughout the Delaware Valley. Mimi has three children, two of whom are among her twenty-five cello students. Mimi is on the faculty of Princeton String Academy and has extensive training in the Suzuki method of cello instruction.
Dr. David Rudge (Music for People), taught Free Improvisation at the State University of New York at Fredonia for over 20 years where he founded The Improv. Collective, a performing ensemble dedicated to free improvisation for self-expression. He now leads clinics and Playshops in the US and internationally for all ages. (www.NoWrongNotes.com) As an improvising violinist involved with the Human Potential Movement, he has performed with such musicians as Paul Winter, Paul Horn, Arthur Hull, Don Campbell, and David Darling. Since its inception, David has been involved with Music for People, a nonprofit founded by Grammy-winning cellist David Darling. David serves on its teaching staff and is the Director of its Musicianship Program. (www.musicforpeople.org) For over 30 years he has taught free improvisation in such diverse settings as Oklahoma State University, Connecticut, SC, NY Public Schools, the Kiental Center in Switzerland, the Tenri Cultural Center in NY City, Strings without Boundaries, the American Fiddle Camp, Charles Castleman’s Quartet Program, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and has conducted orchestras for David Darling and Jon-Luc Ponty. For many years he has collaborated with acclaimed dancer/choreographer Terry Beck on numerous projects as composer, performer, and co-facilitator. Director of Orchestras and Opera at SUNY Fredonia for 25 years, he also conducted symphony orchestras and operas on five continents to critical acclaim. (www.davidrudge.net) Dr. Rudge was a member of the College Music Society’s Task Force on the Undergraduate Music Major, and co-author of it’s published document entitled Transforming Music Study from Its Foundations: A Manifesto for Progressive Change in the Undergraduate Preparation of Music Majors, which advocates strongly for including Improvisation in the curriculum of college music programs, and is committed to sharing the art of improvisation with everyone.
Rachel Segal (Fairmount String Quartet, violin), a native Philadelphian, is a violinist, educator, and the Founder and President of The Primavera Fund, a program that mentors and supports young musicians in Philadelphia. As an orchestral violinist, her career has taken her throughout the USA and abroad. She served as Concertmaster of the Central City Opera orchestra and as a violinist with the Colorado Symphony for twelve seasons, and has had posts as Concertmaster of the Orquestra Sinfonia Portugesa in Lisbon, Portugal, and as Fourth Chair of the Tampere Filharmonia in Tampere, Finland. She currently performs in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the Washington D.C. area with various orchestras. She began her career as Concertmaster of the South Bend Symphony in Indiana. As an educator, Ms. Segal has held positions at Regis University and the Community College of Aurora in Colorado, Luzerne Music Center in New York, is Director of Chamber Music at the Music and Mindfulness camp in Virginia, and has been Associate Director of the Young Musicians Debut Orchestra since its inception. Ms. Segal received her Bachelor of Music degree from The University of Michigan and her Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music. Prominent teachers include Sidney Harth, Paul Kantor, Barbara Govatos, and Jerome Wigler. She lives in the Brewerytown section of Philadelphia with her beagles Abby and Sam, and cats Gilbert and Sullivan.
Jean Louise Shook (Settlement Music School Staff Coach/Mr. And Mrs. Donald Kardon Distinguished Faculty Chair) received her Bachelor of Music degree from Temple University where she studied violin and chamber music with Edgar Ortenberg (formerly of the Budapest String Quartet) and piano with George Sementovsky and Natalie Hinderas. Further string coaching studies were with the Hungarian Quartet in addition to performing under the leadership of notable conductors including Eugene Ormandy, Zubin Mehta, Alexander Schneider, Max Rudolf, Victor Alessandro, John Nelson, Richard Burgin, and Robert Page. She has been a faculty member of the Settlement Music School since 1975, teaching violin, coaching chamber music and performing as a staff accompanist. Since 1999 Ms. Shook has held the ‘Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kardon Distinguished Faculty’ chair at Settlement. In 2005 she was awarded the Sol Schoenbach Award for outstanding service to the school. As pianist, Ms. Shook has frequently accompanied master classes of Pamela Frank, Ida Kavafian, Jaime Laredo, David Kim, Kim Kashkashian, Michael Tree, Diane Munroe, Branford, Marsalis, Marcy Rosen, Peter Stumpf, Rachel Barton Pine, Timothy Eddy, and Randall Goosby, among others, sponsored by Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Ms. Shook performs as violinist and pianist with the Elysian Camerata and is a member of and music arranger for the Danoff String Quartet. She has shared her passion for music and teaching with students of all skill levels and has had students presented on “From the Top” at Carnegie Hall, quarterfinalists in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Recitals at the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution and the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Master classes with the Emerson, Muir, Miro, and the Chicago Quartets, and winners of the Tri-County Competition.