Instructor Bios
Instructor: Sherry Barben
Bio: Barben has a Bachelor of Music degree from Susquehanna University and a Master of Education degree from Penn State University. She has also attained level-two certification in World Music Drumming from Will Schmid. Barben currently teaches classroom music (grades 6-8) at Selinsgrove Area Middle School where World Music Drumming is part of the music curriculum.
Instructor: Allison Houtz
Bio: Houtz has a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Susquehanna University. She has furthered her studies in Early Childhood Music Education through graduate courses with John M. Feierabend from The Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, including "First Steps in Music" and "Conversational Solfege." Allison has eight years of experience working in early childhood and began teaching in the Music Preparatory Program in 2005. She was also music director for the Selinsgrove High School Musical for two years. She is a member of the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association and the Susquehanna Valley Chorale.
Instructor: Anne Lawrence
Bio: Lawrence has a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Susquehanna University and has taught music for thirty-five years in the Lewisburg Area School District. She has taught as an adjunct instructor at Susquehanna as well as Bucknell University. In addition she has 25 years of experience as director of church music, has served as guest conductor for children's choir festivals and is a member of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and the American Choral Directors Association.
Instructor: Mary J. Lippert-Coleman
Bio: Mary Lippert-Coleman is Director of the Susquehanna University Music Preparatory Program. She has a Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in Music Education from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa. She taught in the Williamsport Area School District as a music educator for 28 of her 31 years in the public system and was instrumental in the development of the middle-school music curriculum in the Williamsport schools. Since her retirement she has worked as an instructor and supervisor of students enrolled in music education at Susquehanna University as well as Penn State University. She is a past president of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and recently served as Retired Members Chair for District 8, PMEA. She is a certified Suzuki Piano teacher and teaches privately in her home studio.
Instructor: Jennifer Sacher Wiley
Bio: Sacher Wiley is associate professor of strings at Susquehanna University, where she is also director of the SU Orchestra. She earned the D.M.A. from the University of Minnesota where she studied violin performance with Sally O’Reilly. She also holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the New England Conservatory. As a soloist, Sacher Wiley has appeared with the Des Moines Symphony, the Central College-Community Orchestra, the Central Pennsylvania Orchestra, and the Williamsport Symphony. She has developed her private teaching through participation in the Starling-DeLay Symposium for Violin Studies at the Juilliard School and the seminar "Teaching Violin to Children" at Indiana University. Wiley has competed twice as a semi-finalist at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Ind. She lives in Lewisburg, Pa., with her husband and two children.
Instructor: Marcus Smolensky
Bio: Smolensky holds degrees in music performance from the Eastman School of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music and Rutgers University. A former member of the viola sections of the Rochester Philharmonic, Syracuse Symphony and Harrisburg Symphony, Smolensky has been the featured soloist with the Valley Symphony (Edinburg, Texas), the Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic), Central Pennsylvania Symphony (Hershey, Pa.), Genesee Symphony (Batavia, N.Y.), the Lowell Philharmonic (Lowell, Mass.), and the University Circle Chamber Orchestra (Cleveland, Ohio). Smolensky has held teaching positions at Lebanon Valley College, Penn State University, Bucknell University and the University of Texas-Pan American.
Instructor: Judith White
Bio: White, a lyric soprano, has been a soloist for many major choral works. She is an instructor at Susquehanna University of applied studio voice, voice class and conductor of the University Chorale.
White is a member of the Allegheny Mountain Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and has taught voice and conducted choirs for over 25 years. Before joining the voice faculty at SU in 1993. White maintained a twelve-year private studio of thirty students, some of whom went on to pursue careers in music or theater professionally. She also taught applied voice at Bucknell University and Lycoming College.
White has furthered her passion for vocal pedagogy with additional study at Marywood College, workshops at Westminster Choir College, and has pursued vocal coaching with Klara Meyers at Temple University, as well as Ruth Drucker, Phyllis Curtin and Thomas Houser. Adopting the philosophy that performing artists need to explore and perform all genres of music, she dedicates her instruction to that end teaching the vocal classics of all eras.
