Sarah Schwab Ambrogi:

A violin student at Merrywood, she currently enjoys singing.  Married for over 35 years, she’s raised three children and has one grandchild so far.  She ran her own law firm for 12 years and served as an elected member of the Manchester NH School Board for 10 years.  A trusts and estates attorney since 1991, with a brief break for a spell of in-house work at a tech company, Sarah has lived in Manchester, NH since 1993.  She now works for a larger firm in hopes of retiring within the next several years.  She and her husband love the outdoors and spend time on their tandem bicycle.

Adria Benjamin:

A viola teacher and conductor at Merrywood, Adria has been a longtime member of Orchestra Lumos’s viola section and serves as the orchestra’s personnel manager.  She has worked at the Mannes College Preparatory Division teaching viola, chamber music, and conducting the orchestra.

Alison Hicks Greifenstein:

A cello student at Merrywood, Alison is a writer living in southeastern PA with her husband Charles and son Jeremy.  She has published four full-length books of poetry, a novella, and co-edited an anthology.  She has also published poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in many national literary journals. She leads community-based writing workshops under the name Greater Philadelphia Workshop Studio (www.philaworkshop.com).  She graduated summa cum laude from Bryn Mawr College and received and MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona.  She played cello as a child and adolescent, and took it up again when her son started taking viola lessons.  She is a member of SCOR! Strings and participates in their on-line and in-person events.  She plays in Orchestra Concordia in the Philadelphia area.

Margi Kugelman Hofer:

A viola student at Merrywood, Margi is currently the Executive Director of the Coby Foundation (www.cobyfoundation.org) as well as an Independent Curator (www.margihofer.com).  She has written and published several books, including: A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls; Making it Modern: the Folk Art Collection of Elie and Viola Nadelman; Stories in Sterling: Four Centuries of Silver in New York; and The Games We Played: the Golden Age of Board and Table Games.  She currently lives in NYC with her husband Andrew.  She has 3 adult sons and one grandson.  To this day, she still plays the viola and enjoys playing chamber music.

Anna Kuwabara:

A violin student at Merrywood, Anna is now lives in NY and is an arts and education consultant.

Sarah Paul:

A violin student at Merrywood, Sarah is now a psychiatrist in private practice in NYC.  She is married with two grown children, both of whom played musical instruments (violin and cello) and attended music camp at Kinhaven.

James Rosenthal:

A French horn student at Merrywood, he played horn and sang in choruses throughout college, law school, and the beginning of his professional life as a lawyer in Washington, DC.  When he moved back to Cleveland, he stayed connect to music in other ways.  He served several years as President of the Board of the Grammy-winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire, Baroque Orchestra, which is now internationally renown and of which James is proud to serve as Chair Emeritus.

Nick Rozen:

A trumpet student at Merrywood, he earned his Master’s degree in Engineering.  Now an aerospace engineer, he works for a non-profit research organization.  He married a “lovely woman from Ireland” with whom he has children.  He notes that “music was good for my brain and soul.  I’m still not a ‘great’ player but I’ve at least had some fun playing jazz and classical.  Still noodling around.  Still love jazz, which Mrs. Hurwitz barely tolerated.”

David Salvin:

A clarinet student at Merrywood, David worked in the finance industry from 1983-2001.  He then joined WNYC from 2001-2003.  A stay-at-home parent for the next nine years, he is now a ski instructor in Colorado.

David Vogel:

Both a violin and viola student and teacher at Merrywood, David currently plays with the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra.  A physician, he is also an adjunct assistant professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Eric Wen:

A violin student and teacher at Merrywood, he currently plays the piano as well.  He has worked as an Adjunct Professor at the Curtis Institute since 1999, semi-retiring to England with his wife in 2023.  Eric continues to teach two online courses for Curtis.  Publications include Structurally Sound (Dover, 2017), Graphic Music Analysis (Roman & Littlefield, 2020), and Single and Combined Species Counterpoint (Routledge, forthcoming).

Lisa Mulroney Yates:

A flute teacher at Merrywood, Lisa now also sings and plays baroque flute.  She performed extensively in Boston, New York, and Washington, DC while a professional musician.  She changed careers to high tech in 1982, however has continued to perform.  She has been a CTO/CIO and VP of Engineering at many companies in the Boston area.  Principally a software architect, she is also an Adjunct Professor at Boston University teaching graduate-level computer science.  She is a listed author on many highly-cited academic papers on genetics.  (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marciayates/)

Barbara Chaffe:
https://www.sanfranciscoballetorchestra.org/barbara-chaffe-principal-flute/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RfEXqCp5dk

Lindy Clarke:

https://oslmusic.org/bios/lindy-clarke/

Angus Cooke:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-02-20-vl-3640-story.html
https://thatsgoodenoughforme.com/bad-astronaut-announce-untethered-album-of-reimagined-tracks-release-grey-suits/

Barbara Creider:

https://www.coursicle.com/nmsu/professors/Barbara+Creider/
https://www.feenotes.com/database/artists/creider-barbara/

Christopher Durrenberger:

https://www.wittenberg.edu/academics/music/christopher-durrenberger
https://www.loomischaffee.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=5425
https://www.wnewsj.com/2024/03/11/wittenberg-wind-quintet-to-conclude-wcs-2023-24-chamber-music-series/

Sharon Baker:
https://www.sharonreissbaker.com

James Bergin:
http://jamesbergin.net

Shira Cion:
https://www.kitka.org
https://www.youtube.com/user/Kitka

Lisa Kugelman:
https://musicalclubhartford.org/content/music-by-members---dec8%2C-2016/906

Sean Lyons:
https://lyonsjazz.com/bio