Faculty

Betsy Ko, flutist, has been an active performer and teacher in Chicago since moving to the area in 1991. She joined the faculty at Merit School of Music in 1994, where she teaches individuals and groups of all levels. During the 2008-09 school year, she coached the Lewis Weinberg Honors Flute Quartet which was one of the winning ensembles in Midwest Young Artists’ 2009 Chamber Music Competition. She was also a member of Merit's administrative staff, serving as Director of Bridges: Partners in Music from 2006 to 2009.

As a performer, Ms. Ko freelances in a wide variety of settings. Performance resume highlights include being a soloist on “Live from Studio One” on WFMT and at the National Flute Association’s annual convention. She can also be heard performing on the compact disc “Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano”, a collection of Jewish cabaret music released in 2002 by Cedille Records.

Ms. Ko received her M.M. in Flute Performance from DePaul University, where she studied with Mary Stolper, and she holds an undergraduate degree in Pure Mathematics from Brown University. She is currently completing her Illinois Type 10 certification in music at DePaul University.

Rob Block is a guitarist and pianist who has been active as a professional jazz musician since 1982. His work has graced the jazz communities of New York, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. Rob has worn many hats, functioning  as a composer and arranger as well as an instrumentalist in most jazz sub-genres. As an instructor, Rob has taught at the university level for 12 years, covering everything from theory and improvisation to small group scoring and arranging. He has also taught Latin Jazz at the Old Town School of Folk Music since 2006. He can be seen performing around the Chicago area in a variety of settings, including Afro/Cuban and Brazilian music, small group jazz ensembles, and accompanying a wide range of jazz vocalists. Visit http://www.robblockjazz.com.

A recent graduate from Northwestern University, Natalie Chami holds a Bachelors in Music for Music Education with a choral and voice concentration. She has studied with renowned professors such as choral conductor Robert A. Harris, soprano Pamela Hinchman, and music educators and researchers Bennett Reimer and Maud Hickey. With her degree progress, she is also Illinois Teacher Certified for grades K-12 music. During her time at Northwestern, she volunteered and coordinated groups such as the Music Learning Community (MLC) and UpBeat!, organizing free music lessons for the Evanston and Chicago community with collaboration from Northwestern students. Along with studying and performing classical voice and opera, Natalie enjoys composing in experimental and electronic medium. The aspect of music that she loves the most is in its social context—music brings people together. It is an outlet for emotion, creativity and tradition, it is a constant in all cultures, and the music classroom is an opportunity to fulfill these human needs and expressions during the school day. She hopes for ChiArts students to leave the classroom with a connection to how music exists with all people, and the tools to pass the passion and joy of music on to others.

Thomas Clippert indulges the wide variety of music available for the guitar, from the early Renaissance to the present day. He frequently performs as both soloist and chamber musician throughout the Chicago area. He has appeared with a variety of ensembles including L’Opera Piccola, Heartland Voices, CUBE, The University Of Chicago New Music Ensemble, the Yale Guitar Orchestra, and the Northwest Chicago String Quartet. Tom is a graduate of the Yale School of Music where he studied with Benjamin Verdery and was awarded the Eliot Fisk Guitar Prize. Additional studies include Phillip de Fremery at the the Mount Holyoke Guitar Master Class and Patrick Roux at the Domaine Forget Music and Dance Academy in Quebec. Tom currently teaches guitar, jazz guitar, and chamber music, at The Merit School of Music, Oakton Community College, Wilbur Wright College, and The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.

Racheli Galay-Altman is an international strings education specialist. She has performed and conducted worldwide and has presented clinics and workshops at universities, colleges and school-orchestras. Dr. Galay has taught at VanderCook College of Music, the Music Institute of Chicago and at New-Trier High School, inspiring hundreds of students and music educators in the studies of musical foundations, performance and creativity in music. She is also co-author of an Improvisation Method for String Orchestra and has arranged and composed works for the cello. Dr. Galay completed her Doctorate in Music at Northwestern University, an M.M. at Indiana University and a B.A. in Musicology, magna cum laude, at the University of Tel-Aviv. Dr. Galay is a member of the American Strings Teachers Association (ATSA), Music Education National Convention (MENC) and the Suzuki Society of the Americas (SSA). She is an adjudicator for the Society of American Musicians (S.A.M.) Competition and director of the Chicago Improvisation Institute at the Music Institute of Chicago. Visit http://www.rachelgalay.com.

Hsing-Huei Huang was born and raised in Pingtung in the south of Taiwan and came to the United States in 1993 to pursue higher musical education. In 1997, she received her B.F.A. at Carnegie Mellon University where she studied piano with David Deveau and Enrique Graf. Under Hanna Wu Li's supervision, Ms. Huang taught private lessons as well as group lessons in Carnegie Mellon University's Preparatory School from 1995 to 1997. She received her piano pedagogy certification in 1997, and her M.M. in Piano Performance from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999. She served as a piano instructor at St. John's School from 2000 to 2002, where she and her colleagues developed the curriculum for piano studies for the Fine Arts department. Ms. Huang moved to Chicago in July 2002. Currently she has a private studio at home and enjoys teaching and performing.

Jeff Kelly has played and studied drums and percussion for more than two decades. He was fortunate to have received a large part of his training from the late Alan Dawson, who mentored such drum set luminaries as Tony Williams and Vinnie Colaiuta. He studied Music at Boston University, and went on to earn his Master's Degree in Jazz from The Berklee College of Music / Boston Conservatory. There he continued his drum set work under the tutelage of Ron Savage, and Jon Hazilla, who was a student of Max Roach's. He studied Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music with Ed Uribe, Sa Davis, and Bobby Sanabria (Dizzy Gillespe, Arturo Sandoval) and West African drumming with Joe Galeota (maker of JAG drums). He traveled to Ghana for additional study with Emanuel and Rueben Agbeli, sons of Master Drummer Godwin Agbeli. He is an experienced and dedicated drum teacher and an active performer who plays in genres including jazz, funk, folk, rock, pop. In addition to his work as a Professional Musician, Jeff is also a producer, recording engineer, songwriter, and composer. As a composer, Jeff has written and recorded original scores for Twentieth Century Fox Searchlight, MTV, and independent films.

Tina Laughlin was born in Elgin, IL and attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. She received both her B.M. and M.M. in Percussion Performance with a minor in Art History from DePaul University. Her training included eight years with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, where she performed under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez and Sir Georg Solti. As a freelance artist, Laughlin performs with many orchestras and theaters in the Chicagoland area including the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Grant Park Orchestra, Lake Forest Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, The Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Sinfonietta, Light Opera Works, Drury Lane Oak Brook and the Elgin Symphony. She is a strong advocate of new music and appears regularly on the New Music DePaul concert series and performs with CUBE. In 2000, Laughlin became a core member of the Fulcrum Point New Music Project which is "dedicated to presenting thematically inspired programs that reinvigorate the concert experience through the presentation of works influenced by jazz, latin, rock. literature, film and theater." Laughlin maintains a private percussion studio and is on the faculty of DePaul University, Merit Music and The Chicago High School for the Arts.

Canadian choral director and pianist, Mary Martell, received her Master's Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Calgary where she studied with Charles Foreman, Martin Isepp, Donald Bell and Talmon Hertz and participated in intensive master classes with various performers including Christopher Hogwood. She has studied choral conducting with Wayne Riddell, George Evelyn, Carleton Elliott and Sir David Willcocks. From 1988 to 1990 she was the Choir Director at Universite Canadienne en France (Nice). Mary came to Chicago in 1991. She recently conducted the Faure Requiem, orchestra and chorus with soloists, and has worked extensively in recital with singers in the Chicago area. At Merit School of Music she conducts 5 performing choirs and has taught for 5 years in their 'Bridges Partners in Music' program. In addition to performing  and conducting, Ms. Martell teaches piano, has written a group piano method - “Keyboard Connection.” Many of her former students have pursued careers in music.

"A compelling improviser of wit, determination, positivity, and tremendous talent...” (Chicago Reader), Nicole Mitchell is a creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator. Mitchell was awarded “Jazz Flutist of the Year” (2008) by the Jazz Journalists Association and Downbeat magazine’s #1 Rising Star Flutist from 2005-2009.  Her compositions reach across sound worlds, integrating new ideas with moments in the legacy of jazz, gospel, pop, African percussion and classical contemporary music. Mitchell is the founder of critically acclaimed Black Earth Ensemble and Black Earth Strings, and her work has been a highlight at art venues and festivals throughout Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Nicole Mitchell is currently President of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and continues the exciting directions in music that AACM has charted for decades. As an educator, Mitchell has done jazz and composer residencies at Vancouver Jazz Festival, University of Michigan, University of New Mexico, Cal State University Fullerton, Guelph University, and others. She has worked as an adjunct professor at Northern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Northeastern University, and University of Illinois - Chicago. Named Chicagoan of the Year 2006 by the Chicago Tribune, Mitchell is also a member of the Chicago Sinfonietta, Anthony Braxton’s 12+1-tet, Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, David Boykin Expanse, and Orbert Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. As a composer, she has won fellowships from Chamber Music America and the Illinois Arts Council and has been commissioned by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Ravinia and the Jazz Institute of Chicago. Mitchell has six recordings as leader and several recordings as co-leader. Visit http://www.nicolemitchell.com.

Devvora Papatheodorou has an M.M. in Piano Performance from DePaul University, a B.M. in Piano Performance from Nikos Skalkotas Conservatory and a Degree in Harmony from Model Conservatory. She studied piano technique and chamber music for five years with Deborah Sobol, Mary Sauer, Dimitris Toufexis (Juilliard) and John Naumann, and studied harmony and composition with Peter Tsitsopoulos and Panagiotes Adam. She has had master classes with Mary Stolper, Yehuda Hanani, Jerry Grossman, William Cernota, and Christopher Costanza among others. Devvora has extensive experience in teaching piano, piano ensemble and theory. She has had training and certification in YAMAHA’s Clavinova lab and trained piano faculty in group class repertoire, class management and methodologies. She has coached one‐piano four‐hand and two‐piano ensembles, as well as mixed chamber groups for several years. She currently teaches at Dominican university, Merit School of Music, Music Institute of Chicago, and Old Town School of Folk Music.