Alumni of the MasterWorks Festival

Below are testimonies and updates from some of our alumni.

Strings

Diogo Pimentel
Strings Alumni

Diogo Pimentel, MWF '07, is currently studying at the University of Florida, where he is pursuing a Master's Degree in Violin Performance and serves as concertmaster for the UF Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he is sometimes invited to play with the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra (GCO). Upon [...]

Katie (Andrews) Benson
Strings Alumni

'MWF 03-05, married James Benson in June 2006. Katie is currently teaching 5th and 6th grade strings at Carroll Middle School in Lumberton, NC. Soon she will be headed to South Hamilton, MA. Here James will begin studies in Fall 2009 at Gordon-Conwell Seminary to earn his MDIV. Katie requests prayer as she is presently looking music [...]

Devin Arrington
Strings Alumni

Since attending MasterWorks in 2001, Devin received his Masters in Music Composition from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and currently resides there with his lovely wife, Andrea. Besides giving private Suzuki violin lessons to 25 children, Devin performs at weddings, with the [...]

Griffin Browne
Strings Alumni

Since MasterWorks, Becky (McGlaun) Wilsford, MWF '98'-00, finished her degree at Texas Tech, married her college sweetheart, and moved to Arizona for his job. She's been teaching Suzuki violin lessons and playing in the West Valley Symphony, while raising their two children, Jonah [...]

Simona Barbu
Strings Alumni

Since attending MasterWorks in 2003 and 2004 Simona earned a Master's Degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She is currently finishing up her Doctorate in Cello Performance at University of Memphis, [...]

The Dickson Quartet
Strings Alumni

After attending the 2007 MWF, Ashley, Daniel, Brandon and Benjamin made it their focus to glorify Christ through their Dickson String Quartet. “It has been super cool to see the Lord honor that decision over the summer,” Benjamin says. “We have had many people tell us they enjoy our playing [...]

Claude Chew
Strings Alumni

Since Attending Masterworks in '02, '03, and '05, Claude has been married to fellow alumni Rebecca Valentino (Chew), completed a Graduate Diploma at the Juilliard School and is now freelancing around the New York area, playing as Principal [...]

Logan Strawn
Strings Alumni

Logan, MWF '03, '04, and '06, completed a Master's Degree from Indiana University in '06 and began working on a Performer Diploma. He is currently freelancing in Indiana playing Principal Viola with the Terre Haute Symphony [...]

Bobby Nicholson
Strings Alumni

In 2006, Bobby graduated from The Peabody Conservatory and started his Masters Orchestra Performance at The Manhattan School of Music, where he completed his degree last May. From there he went to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he joined a quartet which served both [...]

Fiona Hughes
Strings Alumni

Fiona Hughes, MWF '03 and '04, graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music in Spring of 2008, having studied with Steve Rose. She is now working toward a Master's in Historical Performance at the Oberlin Conservatory, [...]

Tate Olsen
Strings Alumni

MWF '97-'98 and '02-04 and MWE '04, and his cello quartet, Cellofourte, are delighted with the strings the Lord has pulled for them. Recently, the group was featured on the front page of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Tate is marveled by how far the Lord [...]

Winds

Catherine (Sipher) Aday
Winds Alumni

Catherine, MWF '97-'98 and '00, graduated from James Madison University with a BM in Clarinet Performance in 2002. After graduation she joined her husband, Scott, in Jacksonville, FL where they now reside. Catherine maintains [...]

Emily Whittaker
Winds Alumni

Since attending MasterWorks as an oboe student in 1997, Emily Whittaker graduated with her Bachelor's Degree in Music from Houghton College. She is currently studying at Pinecrest Bible Training Center in Salisbury Center [...]

Vytenis Gurstis
Winds Alumni

The Lithuanian flautist, Vytenis Gurstis, has continued to perform and nationally and internationally since last attending MasterWorks Europe in 2005. In 2007, he placed first in the European Competition for Flute [...]

Rachel Mortenson
Winds Alumni

Rachel, MWF '07 and '08, is currently in her second semester as the oboe department Graduate Assistant at the University of Akron where she studies with Cynthia Sperl. Rachel is pursuing a Master of Music performance [...]

Nathaniel Hale
Winds Alumni

After a three-year Bassoon Fellowship position with the New World Symphony Orchestral Academy, Nathaniel Hale came to the Masterworks Festival in the summer of 2002. In 2003 he was invited by my former teacher from the [...]

Ben Opp
Winds Alumni

MWF '06 and '08, graduated with a BM in Bassoon Performance from the University of the Pacific in Spring 2008, and is just about to start his second semester of Master's studies in bassoon performance at Eastman. Ben says, [...]

Matthew Sikes
Winds Alumni

Since Masterworks '05 Matthew has completed his Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance from the University of Georgia in 2006 and a Master's Degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Michigan in 2008. He now [...]

Kerrin Kampa
Winds Alumni

Flute and Piccolo, MW '99 & '00 - Since coming to MasterWorks eight years ago, Kerrin has graduated from Penn State with a degree in Flute Performance as well [...]

Heather Wible
Winds Alumni

Oboe, MW Winchester ’04 and MW ’05 – ’08, is currently finishing her Master’s degree at Ball State University. Heather also plays second oboe for the Erie Philharmonic, having won [...]

Melissa Williamson
Winds Alumni

MWF '05-'08, has just finished her fourth summer at MasterWorks and is excited about her future. After completing her Masters from Oklahoma State in music pedagogy and performance she was unsure where God [...]

Andrew Somerville
Winds Alumni

Andrew Somerville is from Edinburgh in Scotland. He first attended Masterworks in Summer 2003 and has remained involved by helping out with the Masterworks Europe Festivals. He recently moved to Chicago to study [...]

Andrew Sharkey
Winds Alumni

Andy Sharkey, MWF '08, is spending part of his Summer 2009 at the Pierre Monteux School for conductors and instrumentalists in Hancock [...]

Ryan Webber
Winds Alumni

Ryan Webber, MWF '07, graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in Trombone Performance in the Spring of 2008. He expresses that [...]

Terrence Byrne
Winds Alumni

Terrence Byrne, MFW '98 and '99, attended the University of Maryland, College Park. Here he studied trombone performance, with the late Milt Stevens, and Chinese [...]

Greg Hotrum
Winds Alumni

Greg Hotrum, MWF '07 and '08, was invited to come to China for four years and help start the music program at SIAS University in China (300 miles SW of Bejing). His specific duties [...]

Ben Osborne
Winds Alumni

Ben, MWF '00-'02, completed a Master's in Trombone Performance from Southern Methodist University in 2007 and he is currently the Second Trombonist in the Austin Symphony Orchestra. Aside from that, he is [...]

Chris Ellington
Winds Alumni

Tuba, MW '08 - is a sophomore at Baylor University. Chris was reccently accepted into the National Collegiate Wind Ensemble. This coming May he will be playing with the ensemble at Carnegie [...]

Percussion

Chris Ellington
Percussion Alumni

Luke Giannini, MWF '02, graduated from Curtis Institute of Music in 2003 in Percussion. He finished five years of military service in 2008, which included a 14 month [...]

Piano

Borah Kang
Piano Alumni

Borah, MWF Piano '05-'07, is currently pursuing a Doctoral of Musical Art in piano performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is also teaching group [...]

Kristina (Lobenhofer) Tanner
Piano Alumni

Since attending MasterWorks 2003 and 2004 as a student, Kristina has returned to MasterWorks as a staff accompanist, which she finds to be wonderful fun and a huge blessing - and, of course, a challenge! In addition, she got married [...]

David Pert
Piano Alumni

David Pert, MWE '04-'05, shares that Masterworks Europe was a real Godsend to him, as he attended at a time when he was feeling very discouraged about music making. It really [...]

Peter Oehrtman
Piano Alumni

Peter, MWF '08, had a pretty exciting fall semester at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. It ended with a bang - he made it to the finals in the student concerto competition performing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1. He [...]

Samantha Biniker
Piano Alumni

Recently, pianist Samantha Biniker, MWF '06-'08, played with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. "I played the same piece I won the Competition with at MW last [...]

Kris Becker
Piano Alumni

Pianist and composer Kris Becker, MWF '97, '98 and '07, was a semi-finalist in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York and has recently garnered prizes in several competitions besides, including the Corpus [...]

Guitar

Fausto Varela
Piano Alumni

After graduating from Universidad Nacional Autonoma Honduras in July of 2008, Fausto has been working at the Honduras National Conservatory as the guitar and guitar ensemble instructor and performing frequently. Recently he gave [...]

Dance

Megan McDonald
Dance Alumni

Megan, MWF '06-'08, is in the middle of her second season with The Ballet San Antonio, preparing for their final performances. They had a great two week run of Nutcracker, getting to dance to a live symphony this year which, as always, created more energy and [...]

Theatre

Jeff Watson
Theatre Alumni

Jeff, MWF '00 and '01, is now in Phoenix, Arizona where he is in Graduate School studying Philosophy. After MasterWorks introduced him to Improv, he's been performing improv regularly since 2003. The last three years he has been a part of The Remainders, which a troupe that improvises one-act musicals completely from scratch. They [...]

Serena McCarthy
Theatre Alumni

Theatre, '02 - Serena is both teaching and directing, while pursuing an MSA in Directing at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri [...]

George Halitzka
Theatre Alumni

Theatre, MW ’99 and ’01, started freelancing (writing and theatre) fulltime in fall 2006, got married in March 2007, and is now living in Kentucky where his blushing bride started seminary. He is currently directing a touring [...]

April Marie (Scholten) Sokolova
Opera Alumni

Marie (Scholten) Sokolova, MWF '00, currently performs full-time with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, performing various small roles and covers as well as being in the core regular chorus. She is a two time regional finalist with the Metropolitan Opera [...]

Charlotte Hale
Opera Alumni

Opera, '99 - Charlotte is now on faculty at the University of Victoria, in British Columiba, Canada. In addition, she continues to sing locally [...]

Erin Richard
Opera Alumni

MWF '04 and '07, is finishing her degree at Southern Nazarene University. Excitement and anxiety filled her upon her return to MasterWorks this year. "I didn't know where my life was headed and I had no idea what awaited [...]