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.

Harry Chomsky:

A violin student at Merrywood, Harry is now a software developer residing in California.  He continues to enjoy playing his violin.

Bob Grijalva:

A piano teacher and technician at Merrywood, Bob received his Bachelor’s degree in Music from Oberlin University in 1979, his Master’s degree in Music from the University of Wisconsin in 1981.  He worked as the Executive Director and as Assistant Professor of Piano Technology at the University of Michigan.  Publications include Guide to Institutional Piano Technology (PTG Press, 1989) and Computer Music Journal (Vol. 35, #1, MIT Press, 2011).

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.

Brenda Herschbach Jarrell:

A cello student at Merrywood, she now works as an intellectual property lawyer in Massachusetts.

Nikki Levin, MD:

A piano student at Merrywood, Nikki is now a dermatologist and professor at U. Mass Chan Medical School.  She rarely plays the piano these days, but she and her husband are happy beneficiaries of all the musical ensembles in the Boston area and beyond.

Wendy Rolfe-Dunham:

A flute teacher at Merrywood, Wendy earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.  She then completed her Masters and Doctorate degrees in Flute Performance from the Manhattan School of Music.  She currently plays not only the flute but also the piccolo and historical flutes.  She is a professor at the Berklee College of Music and plays with both the Boston Baroque Orchestra and the Cape Symphony Orchestra.  She’s published articles in Flute Talk, The Instrumentalist, and The Flutist Quarterly.  Recordings include Images of Brazil, Images of Eve, and others with the Boston Baroque Society, The Handel and Haydn Society, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, chamber ensembles, and others.  From the National Endowment for the Arts she was awarded the Fulbright Senior Specialist, Solo Recitalist Grant.

Ilene Stahl:

A clarinet student at Merrywood, Ilene is now the featured clarinetist of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and is the clarinetist and leader of Klezperanto (www.klexperanto.com).  She has had the pleasure of teaching many students over the years, including at KlezKamp in NY, at KlezKanada, and privately.  While still a student at Hampshire College, she won a position in the Klezmer Conservatory Band in 1987.  With KCB, Ilene has performed extensively throughout the United States and internationally.  She has been featured on radio and TV broadcasts, including them Great Performances programs “In the Fiddler’s Echo,” “Eternal Echoes,” and “Rejoice” with Itzhak Perlman.  She is a soloist in Perlman’s ongoing concert touring klezmer ensemble.  Her musical theater experience includes the world premiere of the American Repertory Theater’s production of Shlemiel the First and Borschtcapades with Joel Grey.  Ilene is known for her passionate performance style as well as her soulful interpretations of traditional Yiddish music.  In 1999, she and some of Boston’s most acclaimed klezmer musicians formed Klezperanto to expand the possibilities of Yiddish and Mediterranean melodies.

 

Matthew Strassler:

A piano and clarinet student at Merrywood, Matt has become an internationally renowned physicist.  He recently published an acclaimed book on physics, Waves in an Impossible Ocean.  He has his own blog page (https://profmattstrassler.com/blog/) and even has a page dedicated to him on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Strassler).

 

Elizabeth Tillman:

A piano student at Merrywood, Liz is now an internal medicine physician and medical professor.  She still enjoys playing the piano for herself and in 2023 she decided to start taking violin lessons.  She has presented internationally on the topic of Moral Injury in Medicine.

 

Barbara Crouse Vaughan:

A violin teacher at Merrywood, Barbara currently plays both the violin and viola.  She performs with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and with Hop River Chamber Music.  She previously taught violin in the Mansfield Public Schools and violin/viola at Eastern CT State University.  Enjoying travel abroad, she resides in CT.

Sarah Zaslaw:

A violin student at Merrywood, Sarah now hosts her own classical music radio program.  She and her family comprise a string quartet and often play at their local synagogue and other locales.

Deborah Boykan:
https://friendsofrobbinslibrary.org/azalea-chamber-music-sunday-february-11-2024-3-pm/
https://newtonfreelibrary.libcal.com/event/14203259

Harry Chomsky:
https://vallejosymphony.org/meet-the-musicians
https://www.sfcivicmusic.org/calendar/2021/11/06/civic-chamber-xl6y3
https://books.google.com/books/about/Monolog_for_Solo_Violin.html?id=-_e0uAAACAAJ

Cathy Chutich:
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/cathy-chutich/403464009

Sandy Dennis:
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/directory/faculty-staff/sandra-dennis

Fran Bard:
https://www.hoprvrmusic.com
https://musicalclubhartford.org/content/music-by-members---dec-8%2C-2016/906

Jeral Benjamin:
https://www.ratdisk.com/jeral.html

Anne Black:
https://emmanuelmusic.org/personnel/anne-black
https://proarte.org/profiles/anne-black
https://www.dinosaurannex.org/anneblack
https://handelandhaydn.org/about/musicians/orchestra-and-chorus/anne-black/
https://artsarlington.org/featured-artist-anne-black/

Linda (Betancourt) Geidel:
https://briarwoodclinic.com/meet-our-therapists/f/linda-geidel-lmhc
https://adamfrankcl.blogspot.com/2011/01/1st-staff-bio-linda-geidel.html

Phillip Keoghan:
www.philkeoghan.com

Lia Purpura:
https://liapurpura.com

Barbara (Crouse) Vaughan:
https://www.hoprvrmusic.com