Meet the Judges!
JAMIE GEIDEL grew up in a family of professional musicians and teachers and studied violin, viola, flute, and piano privately with great artists, such as Carlo Renzulli, first violinist in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others. She has a B.A. in Music from Thomas Edison University and took undergraduate courses at The Juilliard School and Mannes College, and graduate courses at Teachers College (Columbia) and Manhattanville College.
Ms. Geidel has dedicated her life to music and has taught hundreds of students at all ages and levels. She loves to support every person who has a commitment and a dream to perform music. She has worked in the field of Learning Psychology in instructional methods based on the science of how the brain works and creatively applies methods she has developed to bring out each individual’s unique talents and strengths. Her lessons are custom tailored to each person, whether a child or adult, beginner or advanced player, aspiring professional or hobbyist.
She taught at Sacred Heart School, Greenwich, CT, 2014 to 2018 and Ossining School of Music from 1986 to 1988. In 2013 and 2014 she taught piano to special education students in the Pleasantville, NY school district, and some of those students have continued their lessons. She has taught remotely long before it became fashionable, and her studio has become fully remote since 2020.
Her students always receive high grades on exams (NYSSMA, ABRSM, MPREP) and get accepted into competitive orchestras (All-County, GWYOA). She has organized numerous student concerts at libraries, schools, and other venues. Since 2020 she has organized remote concerts and group master classes on Zoom.
Ms. Geidel’s performing experience is varied. As pianist in Combo America, a South American band, she recorded two albums, played in night clubs in the tri-state area, and toured in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. She was first violinist in the Ridgewood Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company Orchestra in NJ, second violinist in the Centre Symphony in NYC, alto voice in St. Phillip Neri Church choir, Bronx, and soprano voice in Vincent LaSelva’s chorus, performing two years at Carnegie Hall. In 2020 and 2021, she recorded performances on violin, viola, and alto voice for virtual concerts with Manhattanville College Chorus, The Socially Distant Orchestra, New Conductors Orchestra, and others.
JOANNA FARRER is a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, as well as a chamber musician, solo performer and orchestral musician in the United States and abroad. She has performed as a soloist in the Berlin Philharmonie with the Goteborgs Symfoniker and has premiered new solo works by contemporary composers at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Chelsea Art Gallery. With Itzhak Perlman, Farrer has performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins at Carnegie Hall, as well as in a “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcast. She has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic.
As a concertmaster, she has worked with conductors such as James Conlon, James DePreist and Lorin Maazel, including performances of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at the Kennedy Center with Maazel. She has served as guest concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and New York’s Opera Moderne and as concertmaster on many occasions with Juilliard Orchestra ensembles while studying with Glen Dicterow. She has toured as a guest artist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada. Ms. Farrer has a wide variety of classical chamber music experience, including performances with artists such as Pinchas Zukerman, Emanuel Ax and Itzhak Perlman, and has appeared at Merkin Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
She is an alumna of the Perlman Music Program and has participated in the National Arts Centre Young Artist Programme as a student of Pinchas Zukerman. Ms. Farrer completed her master’s degree at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Glenn Dicterow, former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.
PAUL GEIDEL earned a B.A. in Music from New York University, where he received an award for “Outstanding Progress in the Study of Music” at graduation. Since then, he has been very active as a performer of Classical Music, having played trombone with countless orchestras and sung on many stages in the U.S. and abroad. He has performed both as a singer and instrumentalist in Carnegie Hall, Geffen Hall (formerly Fisher Hall and Philharmonic Hall), Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, The Kaye Playhouse, The Symphony Space, Wolf Trap, as well as venues in Mamaroneck, Yorktown Heights, Peekskill, Stamford, Connecticut, and Hackensack and Ridgewood, New Jersey, and directing the Boricua College Choir in Manhattan. He performed on a tour in Spain with the Norman Luboff Choir.
As a conductor, he was Music Director of the Ridgewood Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company for six seasons. He is also Music Director and arranger for The Original Uptown Sound, an A Cappella Jazz Ensemble in NYC. His arrangements for choir and various chamber groups have been performed by many, and he has orchestrated two operas for local composer, John Taylor Thomas.
Mr. Geidel’s teaching experience includes teaching AP Music Theory at Ridgewood High School, a top-rated high school in Ridgewood, NJ, and directing the Boricua College Choir in Manhattan.
ALEXANDRA SNYDER DUNBAR is an award-winning harpsichordist, pianist, and pedagogue. She earned her D.M.A. in Harpsichord Performance at the Juilliard School, where she received a full scholarship as a resident in the
C. V. Starr Fellows Program in the Doctoral program at Juilliard in the harpsichord studio of Lionel Party. She earned her M.M. in Harpsichord Performance and B.M. in Piano Performance at Manhattan School of Music.
Solo performances with orchestra have included Orchestra 54, Dorian Baroque Orchestra, The Memphis Chamber Music Society, The Symphony of Westchester, and The Chamber Orchestra of New York.
Dr. Dunbar has collaborated on performance projects with the Dryden Ensemble, the Foundlings Ensemble, and the New York Philharmonic. Dr. Dunbar is on the music faculty at University of North Georgia and Piedmont Conservatory, and she concertizes and maintains a private teaching studio. She is a faculty member in the Music Theory department at the world-renowned Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. Currently she serves as harpsichordist and co-artistic director for Amethyst Baroque Ensemble.
DAVID MARKOWITZ earned his B.A. in Music Performance at Oberlin College and his M.M. in Performance at Yale School of Music, specializing in flute. He has a music career as an arranger, composer (of a variety of styles), solo concert artist, and private teacher of flute, music theory, music history and ear training. He designed an innovative classroom music curriculum for the Enchanted Garden School in Connecticut. This comprehensive course guides young musicians in developing fluency in the language of music through an emphasis on ear training and music theory.
Since music and language share many similar skills and functions, it is not surprising that Mr. Markowitz is also a linguist par excellence, with coursework toward a Master of Professional Studies in TESOL from Manhattanville College.
Alongside his music career, since 2015 he has been teaching English to speakers of other languages in bilingual programs from Kindergarten through 12th grade, including at the Women’s Academy of Excellence in the Bronx, Bedford Central School District, EF International Language Campus New York in Tarrytown, and the private UCEDA Institute in Portchester, NY.
Contact
Ms. Jamie Geidel
Email: jamie@geidelmusic.com
The MPREP™ Music Exam
JamieGeidelMusic 2022
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