Staff and Faculty

Faculty:

Göran Berg

Göran Berg, violin, viola, orchestra, chamber music
Artistic Director/Owner

Mr. Berg holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Pedagogy from the Royal Swedish Music Academy at Stockholm University, and a Master’s Degree in Music Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy in the String Development Program at the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

He is strongly dedicated to the teachings of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, and his own teacher, Professor John Kendall. He has 36 years of music teaching experience, the last 30 years including the Suzuki Method. He conducts parent and teacher education training classes throughout the United States and Europe.

Mr. Berg teaches violin, and viola, both Suzuki and traditional methods. He conducts orchestra and coaches chamber music. Among other music styles, he likes to utilize fiddle tunes as part of his teaching as a complement to classical instrumental studies.

Besides his time with SSA, he is also Director of the Suzuki Program at the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley. He teaches violin at Crowden and conducts the Crowden Summer Suzuki Workshop, formerly the SSA Suzuki Workshop.

Mr. Berg has a long background in voice and singing. He has an educated barytone from many years of voice studies in Stockholm. As a member of several choirs and choruses in Sweden his repertoire streches from medivial music to contemporary works. As a member of the Stockholm Motet Choir he can be heard on the BIS CD “Scandinavian Choir Music.” He also performs on the Erato recording of “Figure Humaine” by F. Polenc, with the Stockholm YMCA Chamber Chorus. Well-known chorus conductors of great importance for him are Dan Olof Stenlund, Professor at the Copenhagen Music Conservatory, and Eric Ericsson, Professor emeritus at the Royal Swedish Music Academy in Stockholm.

Goran Berg writes original arrangements of Scandinavian fiddle music, both for violins and orchestra/string quartet. His “Fiddle Heart” books are used by educators internationally. See separate website www.fiddleheartmusic.com.

He has published string arrangements in the new Eclectic Strings Series, Book 1, at Alfred Publications, go to Home / Eclectic Strings.

Goran Berg’s contact information:

EMAIL:
gberg@sycamorestringsacademy.com

TELEPHONE:
925.606.5818 – Sycamore Strings Academy office

Christina Berg

Christina Berg, guitar, Kindermusik
Co-Owner of SSA with husband Goran.

Mrs. Berg completed music studies at the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm. She was a music and elementary school teacher for fifteen years in Sweden, and has taught guitar in the Tri-Valley Area for over a decade. She is a certified Kindermusik Educator, Montessori instructor, and author of music education materials used to train other music educators. At SSA, she teaches her own guitar program, called Guitar with Christina. It emphasizes chord play as accompaniment to own singing. Her Kindermusik classes are organized under the auspices of Livermore Area Recreation and Park District (LARPD).

Christina and Goran Berg are parents of three children, now adults, and to two grand children. All three children took Suzuki violin and cello throughout their childhood. While the children still lived with their parents, the Berg family furnished a family string quartet, The Berg Quartet. It performed at numerous church events at the Swedish Church in San Francisco. The quartet can be heard on the Fiddle Heart CD recordings, complement to the books with the same name.

EMAIL:
cberg@sycamorestringsacademy.com

Tamara Beliaeva Bohlin, cello

Tamara Bohlin, wife of Ragnar Bohlin, conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, is a

Swedish national of Russian origin. She acquired her soloist diploma in 1992 after studies at the Rimsky-Korsakov Music Conservatory of St. Petersburg, Russia. She has worked with conductors and musicians like Igor Oistrach, Yehudi Menuhin, and Mstislav Rostropovich. In her early career she for several years held the principal cellist position of the St. Petersburg Camerata, a highly acclaimed orchestra with which she has toured all over Russia, plus Europe, Japan, and South Korea. She has performed in famed concert halls like Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, and Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. She has also recorded several critically acclaimed CDs on Sony Classical with this orchestra and has also appeared as soloist with the orchestra.

Tamara has won prices at international competitions plus been a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany.

She has extensive experience as chamber musician. As the cellist of Quartet of Soloists of Camerata St. Petersburg she among other productions recorded a CD with piano quartets by Brahms and Schumann. In Stockholm, Sweden, she has been a chamber musician on a regular basis with the Royal Ballet in productions of Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 11, “Andersson, Dawson and Hampson” as well as “Black Angels” by George Crumb in the world premier of “Ossarium” in 2004.

Tamara is currently on leave-of-absence from the Royal Opera Orchestra in Stockholm, the world’s oldest symphony orchestra, founded in 1526. Tamara joined in 1997 and got tenure in 2000. She has substituted as assistant principal cellist in the same orchestra and as principal cellist in the Västerås Sinfonietta. During her time in the Bay Area so far, she has substituted in the San Francisco Symphony and is getting offers to play in other regional orchestras as well.

Tamara is an experienced cello teacher carrying on a legacy of quality Russian/European pedagogy tradition. Her great sense for students’ personalities and love for children makes her a rare capacity for students in the area. She resides in Berkeley with her husband Ragnar and her two sons, who play cello and piano and attend school at the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley.

EMAIL:
tbohlin@sycamorestringsacademy.com

Elizabeth Foort

Elizabeth (Beth) Foort, bass, cello

Elizabeth Foort received her B.S. and M.S. in Music Education, with emphasis in string pedagogy, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her primary instrument is Double Bass. She has 25 years of classroom and private studio teaching experience, with string students of all ages, in Arizona, Illinois, Missouri, Massachusetts and California.

Her playing experiences include the Glendale Jazz Lab Band (Glendale, AZ), the Elgin Symphony (Elgin, IL), the St. Louis Philharmonic (St. Louis, MO), the Gateway City Big Band (St. Louis, MO), the New England Philharmonic (Boston, MA) and, currently, the Livermore-Amador Symphony (Livermore, CA).

Because of the relatively small number of bass teachers, young bass players often do not have access to proper instruction from the beginning. Elizabeth has worked on changing this situation through her private teaching; bass club events and providing bass seminars for non-bass-playing teachers.

Elizabeth’s introduction to Suzuki teaching methods began when she taught in the Parkway School District in Chesterfield, MO. In this very large school district, for an entire school year, every 3rd grade student is involved in violin classes based on Suzuki’s pedagogy. She worked closely with Winifred Crock and Loren Abramson (nationally recognized experts in Suzuki pedagogy), as well as attending Suzuki workshops at Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville.

Elizabeth lives in Pleasanton, CA with her husband, Andy, and daughters, Olivia and Victoria.

EMAIL:
bfoort@sycamorestringsacademy.com

KC Still

KC Still, violin, viola

Violist and violinist KC Still recently moved from the New York area where she divided her time between performing and teaching. She maintained a private teaching studio and after teaching in the Suzuki program at Elizabeth Morrow School in Englewood, NJ, KC took Suzuki teacher training with Allen Lieb. She become certified in Violin Books 1, 2 and 3. She has been a member of the Suzuki faculty at the Spring School in Tenafly, NJ, since 2001, and was also member the faculty of the Hudson River School of Music in Dobbs Ferry, NY. With her colleagues at Spring School she, for the 5th year this year, conducts The Spring Violin Camp, a three week Suzuki violin workshop in Tenafly, NJ.

KC Still is a California native. She attended California State University at Long Beach as a violin performance major before attending Manhattan School of Music as a viola performance major studying with Arianna Bronne and Raphael Bronstein. As a scholarship and fellowship recipient, KC attended numerous master classes with notable viola teachers including Donald McInnes, Karen Tuttle, Walter Trampler and Gerald Stannick.

KC was active as a New York freelance orchestral and chamber music performer appearing in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the State Theater, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Her performance work included everything from major symphonic work to Broadway shows. In 1995 and 1997 KC toured Japan with both The New York Pops and the New York Symphonic Ensemble. In the spring of 1998 she performed in two concerts with the American Symphony Orchestra in Sao Paulo, Brazil. KC was a member of the orchestra of the Sarasota Opera Association during the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

As a member of the Fairfield Orchestra, KC can be heard on the ECM recording of internationally known pianist and composer Keith Jarrett. She can also be heard on the Nonesuch recording of The Desert Music by Steve Reich with the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

KC currently resides in Richmond. In addition to teaching violin and viola at SSA, she also teaches at the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley and in the Napa Suzuki Program.

EMAIL:
kcstill@sycamorestringsacademy.com

Ying Quan

Ying Quan, violin

Ying currently teaches violin out of her home studio in San Ramon. She is passionate about teaching Suzuki. “Any child is able to display highly superior abilities if only the correct methods are used in training.” Ying strongly believes in these words by Dr. Shinichi Suzuki and has been attracted to the Suzuki Mother Tongue Method for a long time.

She has started her Suzuki teacher training at the Northern CA Suzuki Institute and has earned her first teaching certificate from the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Well-known names among her trainers: Kathryn Lee, Beth Titterington, Joe Kaminsky, and Helen Higa. Ying has observed lessons with many established Suzuki violin teachers at schools, studios, workshops, and training classes.

Ying has received a Masters of Education Degree from the University of Tokyo Gakugei, Japan. She is a certified Montessori teacher and speaks three languages. She used to be a member of the local symphony in Dalian, China. Ying is a mother of violin student William.

Kathryn Walda

Kathryn Walda, piano accompanist

Katie Walda, piano, Staff Accompanist at SSA, has been a professional accompanist for over 25 years. She is Staff Accompanist at Las Positas College and the Director of Music/Organist at the Centerpointe Presbyterian Church in Pleasanton. Katie has performed with Choral Groups and Orchestras throughout the Bay Area, including the Valley Concert Chorale and The Classical Philharmonic. She has a degree in Organ Performance and has performed Organ Concerts in venues throughout the world, including Westminster Abbey in London, St. Ignatius in Rome, and Grace Episcopal Church in San Francisco. This is her second year working with the Sycamore Strings Academy where she provides accompaniments for students and teachers at rehearsals, auditions, recitals, concerts, and workshops.

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Staff:

Helena Berg
Finance Manager
hberg@sycamorestringsacademy.com

Johanna Berg
PR Mangager, Marketing & Advertising
jberg@sycamorestringsacademy.com

Sandra Hodzic
Parent Coordinator
shodzic@sycamorestringsacademy.com

Brian Michelsen
Webmaster/Technical Services
webmaster@sycamorestringsacademy.com