Andrew Massey
Interim Conductor, Vermont Youth Orchestra
email: andrew@vyo.org
802.655.5030 x 102
Andrew Massey has lived in Vermont for eight years, but only emerged as an audible presence in Vermont music after conducting the Vermont Symphony Orchestra's Summer Tour in 2007. He is delighted to have the chance to work with the wonderful Vermont Youth Orchestra for a year, and is eager to get started.
A native of England, Mr. Massey is no stranger to youthful music making. He started organizing concerts, conducting, and composing while still in High School, and after graduating from Oxford University, he conducted the Apollo Symphony Orchestra for ten years. The ASO was an orchestra of students and young aspirant professionals that met twice a year to perform tough repertoire such as the symphonies of Mahler, the ballets of Stravinsky, and the tone poems of Richard Strauss. In England he also conducted the Harrow Youth Orchestra and other student orchestras such as the Middlesex Philharmonic and Nottingham Pro Musica. He was also busy in repertory theater, performing in the Nottingham Playhouse and composing for the Ludlow Shakespeare Festival.
In 1978, after worldwide auditions, Mr. Massey was appointed Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra by Lorin Maazel, and moved to the United States. Massey stood in for Maazel on many occasions, including a performance of Bruckner's 8th Symphony in the Brucknerhaus, Linz, Austria on just 3 hours notice.
Conducting has led to a somewhat itinerant life-style. Andrew and his wife Sabra met in Cleveland, and have subsequently lived in New Orleans, San Francisco, Rhode Island, Ohio and Montgomery Center Vermont. During these years, Massey has been Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and the New Orleans Symphony, Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony, and Music Director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Fresno Philharmonic, The Oregon Mozart Players, the Michigan Chamber Orchestra, the Racine Symphony and the Toledo Symphony. He has appeared as a guest conductor in Hong Kong, Italy, Indonesia, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, with the National Symphony in Washington and with the BBC in England. He will be conducting the inaugural public performance of the Green Mountain Mahler Festival on June 28 at the Elley-Long Music Center. This will be a performance of Mahler's mighty Symphony No 2, Resurrection.
He wrote a Violin Concerto to be performed as a companion to Vivaldi's Spring, and this world, called Another Spring was premiered in Racine Wisconsin in 2007.
There is more to life than music, however, and Andrew has appeared several times at philosophy conferences, in London, Coventry, and Prague, delivering papers on the philosophy of Sir Karl Popper, especially concerning the relevance of Popper's World 3 to music.
Jeff Buettner
Conductor, VYO Chorus
email: jeff@vyo.org
Jeff Buettner is conductor of the VYO Choruses, and Director of Choral Activities at Middlebury College. Jeff has conducted high school choral festivals, young college ensembles and children's choirs in Michigan, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio. He has served on the faculties of Earlham, Simpson and Hope Colleges, and prepared opera and oratorio choruses for the Des Moines Metro Opera, the Brevard Music Center and the Richmond (IN) Symphony. He has taught private voice to high school, college and adult singers and adjudicated solo vocal competitions. Jeff's work as an arranger and composer has led to performances by college, community and professional choruses and orchestras, including a performance at a national convention of the American Choral Directors Association.
Jeff received his Bachelor of Music degree from St. Olaf College, where he studied organ and conducting. At St. Olaf, Jeff participated as singer, assistant conductor or accompanist with every choir at the college and was a founding member of the Limestones a cappella group. Jeff received his Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he also worked with the College-Conservatory of Music Children's Choir. During his career in Cincinnati, Jeff was bass vocalist and director of several vocal ensembles that performed with the Cincinnati Pops, the Sing Cincinnati! festival, on many concert series and on radio and television programs. Jeff received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from Michigan State University, where he conducted the College Choir, a jazz and popular music ensemble. Jeff began studies in ethnomusicology at Michigan State that led to ongoing research of Romani (Gypsy) music and Gypsy choirs in Ukraine, and he has presented this research at national and international music conferences.
In addition to his work with college and youth choirs, Jeff has served in music directorships of several churches throughout his career and also as recording engineer for WCAL Northfield and WGUC Cincinnati public radio. His engineer credits include broadcasts of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and a College-Conservatory of Music Philharmonia on Centaur.
Jeff strives to provide young people with an exciting musical experience through diverse repertoire and performance opportunities that encourage vocal and musical excellence and a broad appreciation of their community and their world.
Asiat ("Ace") Ali
Conductor, Presto
Interim Conductor, Vermont Youth Sinfonia
email: ace@vyo.org
655.5030 x 302
A lifelong Vermont native, Ace Ali has studied and performed music in Vermont for his entire life. Locally, he has appeared with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra, the University of Vermont Orchestra and the Burlington Choral Society. He has also been a guest conductor of district string orchestras in both Vermont and New Hampshire. Ace holds a degree in violin performance from the University of Vermont, where he studied with Thomas and Evelyn Read. He also studied at the Conservatoire National de Region in Rouen, France. Ace is a 1988 graduate of the VYO, where he played the violin with the orchestra for three years. Currently, Ace is the beginning and middle school string instructor in the Essex Junction Public School System; he conducts the Essex High School Orchestra, and he maintains a private studio of violin and viola students.
Anne Decker
Conductor, Vermont Youth Philharmonia
Interim Music Director, Reveille Music Festival
email: anne@vyo.org
655.5030 x 300
Anne Decker joined the artistic staff of the Vermont Youth Orchestra in 1999, as conductor of the Vermont Youth Sinfonia. She has been conducting the Vermont Youth Philharmonia since the fall of 2000. In 2004, Ms. Decker led the VYP in their first international Youth Orchestra exchange with the Sherbrooke Youth Orchestra of Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Ms. Decker teaches at U-32 High School in East Montpelier. Most recently, she conducted the Amateur Musicians Orchestra in Burlington and served as interim conductor of the University Orchestra at the University of Vermont through the 2005-2006 season.
In the summer of 2005, Ms. Decker conducted Tosca with the Middlebury Opera Company. She has also been involved with Vermont Opera Theater, where she conducted Amahl and the Night Visitors and the world premiere of Erik Nielsen's A Fleeting Animal. As a part time assistant conductor for the Amato Opera Company in New York City, Ms. Decker conducted Bizet's Carmen in May 2002.
Ms. Decker holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Illinois State University, where she served as Music Director for the musical Cabaret and also conducted Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. She earned a degree in music education from Western Michigan University. She has studied conducting with Glenn Block, Kirk Muspratt, and David Effron.
Photo: Stina Plant
Berta Frank
Director, Vermont Youth Chamber Winds
email: berta@vyo.org
David Gusakov
Conductor, Vermont Youth Strings
email: david@vyo.org
655.5030 x 301
David Gusakov, a 1971 graduate of Yale University, has been active on the Vermont music scene since 1973. He has been a member of numerous chamber groups as well as bluegrass and swing ensembles, and can currently be heard playing Parisian-style jazz with the Will Patton Ensemble. He has been a violinist with the Vermont Symphony since 1973. For the last 20 years he has performed with Fiddlesticks!, a VSO ensemble that presents schools concerts throughout Vermont.
As violin teacher, Mr. Gusakov was an adjunct faculty member at Middlebury College from 1982-1994, and currently maintains a teaching studio in his renovated carriage barn in Bristol, VT. As conductor, he led the Amateur Musicians Orchestra from 1993-2004, and has been conductor of Vermont Youth Strings since 1993. He is also the co-founder and conductor of the recently-formed Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra, based in Middlebury. As recording artist, Mr. Gusakov appears on three discs with Scottish folksinger Jean Redpath, and has made numerous recordings with various local artists.
Erik Nielsen
Music Theory Instructor
email: nielsen@sover.net
Annemieke Spoelstra
Accompanist
email: annemiekespoelstra@yahoo.com
web site: www.annemiekespoelstra.com