Rita Addico-Cohen has sung Adele in Die Fledermaus and Ado Annie in Oklahoma! with the Ash Lawn Opera Festival. As a young artist with Virginia Opera, she toured Oh, Freedom! for Virginia and some North Carolina schoolchildren; and covered the role of The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. She recently sang the role of Country Girl while covering that of Susanna for Virginia Opera's The Marriage of Figaro, and had the opportunity to sing the role for the student matinee performance. The agile soprano triumphantly sang the title role in Paragon Ragtime Orchestra’s East Coast première of Rick Benjamin’s restoration of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha at Wake Forest University and Bucknell University in October 2005, in which hers was proclaimed “the most finished voice… she is a most winning Treemonisha” (Classical Voice of North Carolina). She reprised that role in 2006 in performances that included include one in Texarkana, TX, Joplin's hometown. Thanks to her versatility in performing not only operatic, but musical as well as 'straight' theatre, Ms. Addico-Cohen has been selected as a Vocal Fellow, one of 'six rising stars' to take part and perform in Virginia Arts Festival's Composer's Institute. Ms. Addico-Cohen has studied with Bill Schuman and Adele Addison, and is currently a voice student of Dr. Julian Kwok, of New York City. The Norfolk Academy graduate holds a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music; and a B.A. (Music) from the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols and Achievement Scholar and was awarded the Morrison Prize in Music upon graduation. |
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Violist Jena Chenkin is accomplished on both violin and viola and performs as a chamber musician and freelance artist. Ms. Chenkin is a member of the Williamsburg Symphony and is often invited to perform with the Virginia Symphony and Richmond Symphony. Ms. Chenkin has appeared on stage with Van Clyburn, Red Skelton, Mitch Miller, Itzhak Perlman, Frank Sinatra Jr., Harry Connick Jr., The Moody Blues, Mannheim Steamroller, Tony Bennett, Bruce Hornsby, Josh Groban, Toni Tennille, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Monica Mancini. Ms. Chenkin is a member of Temple Sinai in Newport News, and is the director of Shalom Strings, a musical group that performs for Shabbat services and other events at Temple Sinai. |
Natalia Goodloe began to study violin at the age of seven. After graduation from the Ural State Conservatory in 1997, she moved to Moscow and became a member of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra "The Seasons" and the Moscow State Theater "Helikon Opera." With these groups, she performed around the world in many prominent concert halls, such as, the Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, National Chiang Kaishek Cultural Center in Taipei (Taiwan), Bolshoi Theater, and many concert venues of Russia. With "The Seasons" orchestra she made several recordings for the "Mosfilm" and the "Melodia" studios. Dr. Goodloe is a lifelong learner. She completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Music Education at Old Dominion University in Norfolk in 2004 and 2006, respectively, and a Ph.D. in Education at The College of William and Mary in 2023. Dr. Goodloe has currently been working on a Postgraduate Certificate in Conducting at Old Dominion University. She has been granted numerous awards and scholarships and is a National Board certified teacher. Since moving to the United States in 2000, Dr. Goodloe has actively performed as a violinist and a chamber musician, and she received US citizenship for her work. Dr. Goodloe studied violin with Irina Golovanova and Dr. Vladimir Reva in Russia and Vahn Armstrong in the United States. Currently, she teaches Orchestra in Virginia Beach City Public Schools and Violin and Viola at Tidewater Community College and actively performs. |
Cellist Dionne Smith has shared the stage with a variety of musicians including Celtic Women, Tommy Lee, Richard Marx, Kathy Mattea, Natalie Merchant and Johnny Mathis. She has performed in Bath, England, in the Soesterberg International Music Festival in Holland, as principal cellist of the Dublin Music Festival in Ireland and in the Bowdoin Chamber Music Festival in Maine. Mrs. Smith has performed in the sections of several symphony orchestras throughout the region, including the Williamsburg Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, and the Harlem Symphony, and currently performs with the Arte Musicale Ensemble and Hardwick Chamber Ensemble, featuring the music of living composers. An avid teacher, Mrs. Smith has served on the faculty of Chowan University and Christopher Newport University. She currently teaches at the Governor's School for the Arts and Saint Patrick Catholic School, while maintaining a private studio. Mrs. Smith received her Master of Music Degree from the Pennsylvania State University where she was awarded a teaching assistantship under Kim Cook. Her Bachelor of Music Degree is from Ohio University, where she studied with Mark Schroeder, and graduated Magna Cum Laude. Her 6 year old Ellis is a budding cellist. |
Marlene Ford, horn, is a long-time resident of the area. She has music degrees from Ohio University and Norfolk State University. Ms. Ford was for many years a member of the Virginia Beach Pops, the Virginia Opera Orchestra and Virginia Symphony. She currently performs with the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra and is horn instructor at Old Dominion University. She’s a reader and a baker. |
Robert Ford received the B.A. degree in music from Ohio Wesleyan University, the Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Catholic University of America. Former positions include classroom music with the Va. Beach Public Schools, and applied adjunct teaching (low brass instruments) at Old Dominion University, Christopher Newport University, and Virginia Wesleyan College. Formerly with the Virginia Symphony, and the Spokane (Washington) Symphony, Dr. Ford currently performs with the Lakeside (Ohio) Symphony, and the Eastern Virginia Brass Quintet. |
Jeanette Winsor studied piano with Clifford Herzer, Lois Rova Ozanich, and Shirley Harrison. She received a Bachelor of Music degree cum laude from Heidelberg University and a Master of Music degree in piano performance from Kent State University. She has occasionally coached with Thomas Schumacher. She teaches piano in her studio in Virginia Beach, is the Head of Keyboard Studies at Tidewater Community College and teaches applied piano and Class Piano at the Norfolk Campus of TCC, and is a piano instructor at the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts. She accompanies the Virginia Beach Chorale and is the pianist for the Hardwick Chamber Ensemble. Jeanette holds National and State Professional Teaching Certificates from MTNA and VMTA as well as certification throught the American College of Musicians. She is the past MTNA Southern Division Competitions Chair, and is a past president of the Virginia Music Teachers Association and Tidewater Music Teachers Forum. Her articles on piano pedagogy have been published by Piano Guild Notes, and she serves as an adjudicator for the National Guild of Piano Teachers. She frequently appears as a collaborative pianist, solo pianist, and lecturer. |
John Winsor (B.Mus., Heidelberg University; M.A., Kent State University) has taught music theory at the Armed Forces School of Music and at the Virginia Governor's School for the Arts (GSA). He has also taught clarinet at GSA and Tidewater Community College (TCC). He is the Hardwick Chamber Ensemble's clarinetist and composer-inresidence and webmaster for NACUSA, the MusicLink Foundation, and the Virginia Music Teachers Association (VMTA), among others. He is a past chairman of NACUSA's board of directors. John's composition prizes include two Delius Awards, six VMTA Commissions, the Modern Music Festival 2000 Film Scoring prize, and others. He has received ASCAP "Plus" awards almost every year since 1994 and grants from the American Music Center and Meet the Composer. He is author of Breaking the Sound Barrier: An Argument for Mainstream Literary Music, which received the iUniverse Writer's Showcase, Editor's Choice, and Reader's Choice awards and a Bronze Medal in ForeWord Magazine's 2003 Book of the Year competition. |