String Faculty
Hover your mouse over any faculty member to read a short biography.
Vasile Beluska
M.M., Southern Methodist University
Professor (violin)
Vasile Beluska Professor and coordinator of strings; member of the Class of Jascha Heifetz; graduate of Liceul de Muzica and Conservatural de Muzica in Cluj, Romania, and Southern Methodist University; winner of numerous competitions and awards; chamber music performer throughout the United States and Europe as a member of various ensembles including The International Trio, American Arts Trio, the Mozart Fortepiano Duo and The Guarneri Duo; formerly on the faculties of Liceul de Muzica, University of Northern Iowa and the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point; first violinist of the Chautauqua Faculty String Quartet; visiting professor of violin at the Academy of Music in Cluj and professor of violin at the Chautauqua Institution; recipient of numerous teaching awards; has presented lectures on new approaches to pedagogy at national and international conferences, as well as universities through the United States and Europe; students have been prize winners in young artist competitions with the Minnesota Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, the Cleveland Philharmonic, the Stulberg Auditions and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; his students have also won positions with major orchestras, including the Cleveland, Philadelphia and Detroit Symphony orchestras, and as concertmaster and other principal positions with the Birmingham, New World, Lima (Peru), Dayton and Toledo symphonies.
Photo courtsey of Cybelle Codish.
Dr. Eileen Brownell
D.M.A., University of Michigan
Instructor (cello/adjunct)
Dr. Eileen Brownell Member of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, principal cellist of the West Shore Symphony Orchestra in Muskegon, and also performs with Jackson, Kalamazoo, Rochester Hills and Battle Creek symphonies; performs with the Envision Chamber Consort, a group dedicated to breaking down the barriers between performer and audience through interactive and intimate performance situations; regularly performs in the Ann Arbor community both as a recitalist and chamber musician; teaches at the Ann Arbor School of Performing Arts and maintains a private studio; co-administrates the Black Glove Cello Festival in St. George, Utah, each summer; member of the Detroit-based band Canada, a folk rock band that writes and performs all its own original material; graduated magna cum laude from the University of Denver with a bachelor’s degree in cello performance; master’s and doctorate from the University of Michigan; instructors have included Richard Slavich, Anthony Elliott, Katharine Knight and Debra Fayroian.
Chris Buzzelli
M.M.E., University of North Texas
Professor (guitar)
Chris Buzzelli Professor and director of the guitar program; teaches guitar, guitar ensembles and jazz studies courses; has written articles for Jazz Educators Journal, Just Jazz Guitar and American String Teacher; has published a number of arrangements and original compositions for solo jazz guitar and jazz guitar ensemble; earned a bachelor's degree at the College of New Jersey and a master’s degree at the University of North Texas, where he was a teaching fellow in the areas of lab band, jazz improvisation and small jazz ensembles, as well as a recipient of scholarships in both jazz and classical guitar performance, and a member of the prestigious One O’Clock Lab Band; has performed concerts on the campus of BGSU with jazz artists such as Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Mike Stern, Tal Farlow and Clark Terry; has backed up, in concert, Dizzy Gillespie, Nancy Wilson, The Fifth Dimension, Pat Boone, Jim Nabors and many others; has recorded several CDs as an ensemble leader and member.
Julie Buzzelli
M.M., Bowling Green State University
Assistant Professor (harp/adjunct)
Julie Buzzelli Holds a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University; involved in both national and international activities; has represented the United States in an introductory recital at the World Harp Congress in Holland; participated in the Maria Korchinska International Harp Competition and workshop held on the Isle of Man, the Ninth International Harp Competition in Israel and the Cours International d’Éte de Gargilesse in France; has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States and Canada; former principal harpist of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra; teaches privately and is in demand as a free-lance musician in northwest Ohio and southeastern Michigan.
Photo courtsey of Cybelle Codish.
Megan Fergusson
M.M., New England Conservatory of Music
Instructor (viola)
Megan Fergusson Orchestral performances include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and as guest principal viola of the Flint Symphony Orchestra; chamber music performances with Ida Kavafian, Paul Katz, Yan Wei of the Silk Road Ensemble and Michigan Chamber Players; as a recitalist, she has performed in such diverse locations as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. to Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown Concert House with musicians from Indian rock star A.R. Rahman, PDQ Bach a.k.a. Peter Schickele and Chicago’s lead singer Peter Cetera; appeared at the Tanglewood, Aspen, Sopleto USA and Canada’s Domaine Forget festivals; numerous premieres including recent collaborations with Bright Sheng and Michael Daugherty, and interdisciplinary work with former Martha Graham dancer and choreographer Peter Sparling; currently on the faculty of the New England Music Camp, and has also worked with Young Audiences in Dorchester, Mass., and taught at the New England Conservatory and University of Michigan; 2007–08 season highlights include a performance of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, with Yizhak Schotten, and solo recitals throughout North America with repertoire including works by Berio, Hindemith and Ligeti; teachers include Martha Katz, Karen Ritcher and Yizhak Schotten; dissertation is titled “Viola as a Voice of the 20th Century.”
Jeff Halsey
M.M., Bowling Green State University
Professor (double bass)
Jeff Halsey Professor; teaches jazz history and improvisation, as well as applied jazz bass studies; has toured Europe and the United States performing with such artists as Tommy Flanagan, Jimmie Forrest, Clark Terry, Jay McShann, J.C. Heard, Dizzy Gillespie, Arturo Sandoval and Stanley Cowell; has recordings on the Azica, Cadence, Cimp, Hiroko, Steeplechase and Timeless labels with artists such as Jack Schantz, Chip Stephens, Ernie Krivda, J.C. Heard, Stanley Cowell and the Cadence Jazz All Stars; member of the Faculty Jazz Quartet.
Dr. Penny Thompson Kruse
D.M.A., University of Missouri at Kansas City
Associate Professor (violin)
Dr. Penny Thompson Kruse Trained at Northwestern and Yale universities and earned a D.M.A. from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri at Kansas City; formerly on the faculty of William Jewell College; former member of the Kansas City Symphony, serving as associate concertmaster for the 1989–90 season; was an artist-in-residence at Music at Penn’s Woods at Pennsylvania State University as first violinist of the Escher Quartet; has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras in the Midwest, including the Kansas City Camerata, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Overland Park Orchestra, Philharmonia of Kansas City, Hutchinson Chamber Orchestra, and the Independence, Lima, Liberty, Northland and Perrysburg symphonies; has performed in numerous summer music festivals, including the Colorado, Sunflower, Peninsula, Spoleto and Grand Teton music festivals; a member of the International Women’s String Quartet, performing at the 2002 National Women’s Day in Hanoi, Vietman, as well as master classes and recitals in Hanoi, Tainan, Taiwan, and Sibiu and Tirgu Mures, Romania; has performed/presented at the College Music Society, Ohio and Missouri Music Educators Association, the 2003 International Viola Congress in Germany and the 2006 American String Teachers with National School Orchestra Association National Conference; in 2004, performed as soloist with the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet Orchestra in a concert of American music; in 2006, performed as soloist with the State Philharmonic of Sibiu (Romania); currently serves as assistant principal second violin at the Eastern Music Festival; her students have won state and regional competitions; solo performance of Chen Yi’s Chinese Folk Dance Suite, with the Bowling Green Philharmonia, on Albany Records; has published articles in American String Teacher, The Strad and Journal of the American Viola Society.
Robert Rohwer
M.M., Rice University
Instructor (double bass/adjunct)
Robert Rohwer joined the BGSU faculty in fall 2007; holds bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College, where his primary teachers included Timothy Pitts and Scott Haigh; received his master’s degree in bass performance from Rice University under the guidance of Timothy Pitts and Paul Elison; as a Fellow of The Tanglewood Institute of Music, attended for two consecutive years studying privately and performing in master classes with esteemed bassist Edwin Barker; past instructors include Ethan Connor, Harold Robinson and Dave Malone; performed nationally with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Cleveland Ballet, Cleveland Opera, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Toledo Symphony and Fort Wayne Philharmonic; internationally with the Bergen Philharmonic (Norway) and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in addition to performances in Japan, Switzerland, the former Soviet Union, Germany, France and Italy; toured with the Amabile String Quartet and performed as solo bass in numerous chamber ensembles; currently a member of the Ann Arbor, Flint and Saginaw symphonies.
Dr. Alan Smith
D.M.A., University of Texas at Austin
Professor (cello)
Dr. Alan Smith Professor and associate dean; graduate of the University of Texas; formerly on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, visiting professor of cello at the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Arizona; winner of several national artist competitions and soloist with the Houston, Shreveport, Abilene (Texas), Midland-Odessa (Texas), Lima and Filharmonica de Jalisco (Mexico) orchestras and others in Denver, Philadelphia, Kansas City and Washington, D.C.; solo recitals throughout the United States including the Phillips Collection and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., represented the United States in a concert cycle of international piano/cello duos sponsored by the Bellas Artes concert series in Mexico City; other performances have included the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto; master classes at La Escuela Nacional de Musica (University of Mexico), Shanghai and Sichuan Conservatories of Music (Peoples Republic of China); cellist with the Colorado Springs, Corpus Christi and North Carolina Symphonies; principal of the Austin Symphony (Texas); judge for The Leonard Rose International Cello Competition; clinician at the National String Workshop (Madison, Wis.), the mid-West International Band and Orchestra Colnference (Chicago, Ill.); guest artist with the Lancaster Festival (Ohio), the Chapel Hill Chamber Music Festival (N.C.) and Chautauqua Institution; tours of Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Romania and the Peoples Republic of China as cellist of The Guarneri Duo; represented Ohio at Millennium Stage State Days Concert Series at the Kennedy Center and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.; has recorded on the Mutual, Columbia, Access and ASUC labels.