String Intensive Faculty and Staff
Sunmi Chang
String Intensive Director
Assistant Professor of Violin, University of Oregon
As the laureate of the 2007 International Markneukirchen Violin Competition, and the 2007 Sion-Valais International Violin Competition, Sunmi Chang has performed widely and to acclaim throughout North America and Europe as a solo artist and chamber musician. In 2008, she was the soloist of the Asian Tour to Seoul, Beijing, and Shanghai with the Yale Philharmonia, performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto. She started playing the violin at the age of seven with Professor Nam-Yun Kim in South Korea. Before starting her studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England in 1995, she had already won several national competitions including the Wol-Gan Music Competition, 20th Junior Korean Newspaper Competition, and Cho-Sun Daily Newspaper Competition. While studying at the Yehudi Mehuhin School in England, she performed regularly in concerts at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and Purcell Room. In 1998 and 1999, she toured with the Yehudi Menuhin School orchestra playing Bach Double Concerto for two violins conducted by Lord Menuhin at the UNESCO Headquarter in Paris, Guilford Cathedral etc. After graduating from the YMS she went to Germany to continue pursuing a musical career and to study at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin with Professor Eberhard Feltz. She has taken part in various summer festivals and master classes with Mauricio Fuks, Maya Glezarova, Felix Andrievsky, Zakhar Bron, Robert Masters, Zvi Zeitlin, Rainer Kussmaul, Boris Kuschnir, Igor Ozim, Midori, and Lord Menuhin. As a chamber musician, Sunmi won the first prize at Plowman Chamber Music Competition and has collaborated with renowned artists including Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, Atar Arad, Steven Taylor, Marcy Rosen, Edward Arron, Wu Han, and David Finckel. In 2006 and 2007, she was invited to take part in the Rising Stars Series at the Caramoor Chamber Music Festival, and in 2009 she was one of eleven international program artists for Music@Menlo, an internationally acclaimed chamber music festival and institute in the San Francisco Bay Area. She completed her studies with Peter Oundjian and Ani Kavafian earning the Artist Diploma and the Master of Music degree at Yale University, where she won the School of Music Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition in 2006 performing the Bartok Violin Concerto No.2 with the Yale Philharmonia. She won a position in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2009, and was a full time tenured member of the orchestra from 2009 until 2015. As well as being an active performer she is a dedicated teacher educating the next generation of young musicians. Starting September 2023, Sunmi will start her role as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Oregon School of Music & Dance. Prior to joining the University of Oregon, Sunmi taught at West Virginia University. She was a faculty member at the Chamber Music Institute Program at Music@Menlo for many years and was also a board member and a judge of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Youth Chamber Music Competition. In 2020, Sunmi completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan. Currently, she also serves as the artistic director of Summit Chamber Music Series, which aspires to bring joy, peace, comfort and encouragement to Morgantown, WV by presenting world-class chamber music performances throughout the season.
Hal Grossman
Associate Professor of Violin, University of Oregon
Violinist Hal Grossman has been enthusiastically acclaimed by critics and audiences alike for his “vibrant tone” and “superb technique”. Grand Award Winner of the Lima Young Artist Competition and Silver Medalist of the International Stulberg String Competition, Mr. Grossman also received First Prize Awards at the prestigious International Cleveland Quartet Competition and the National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. His New York Debut at Carnegie Hall received exceptional reviews from the New York Times. He was invited to perform for their Royal Highnesses, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, in a CBC television and radio broadcast. Recital appearances have taken him throughout North America and Europe. In the United States he has also been heard on National Public Radio, WQXI-New York, and WFMT Chicago. Mr. Grossman served as the Concertmaster of the Estranach Festival Orchestra in Luxembourg, a position he has also held with the Illinois Philharmonic, the Boise Philharmonic, the Lansing Symphony and the SaginawBay Symphony Orchestra. He has been featured at the Casals (Puerto Rico), Evian (France), Orfeo (Italy), InterHarmony (Germany) music festivals and, in the continental U.S., the Aspen, Lancaster, Breckenridge, Fontana, Great Lakes, Marrowstone, Manitou, and Garth Newel music festivals. Mr. Grossman is Professor of Violin at The University of Oregon and on the violin faculty at the Aria International Music Academy, Marrowstone Music Festival and the Northwest Music Retreat. He is the founder and creator of the award-winning The Grossman Method, a course of study addressing musician’s health issues.
Shelley Rich
Violin, Associate Director of Community Music Institute (CMI)
Shelley Rich is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she earned a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and studied chamber music with members of the Cleveland Quartet. The following five years of freelance playing and teaching in the Salt Lake City and Phoenix regions led her to an intensive interest in Violin Pedagogy. She became immersed in using the Suzuki Method to build violin and viola technique and selected the program at Northern Arizona University to complete a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance with Long Term Suzuki Training with Louise Scott. While in Arizona, she taught string methods, taught at the NAU Prep School, and served as Vice President and Co-founder of the Arizona Suzuki Association. In 1997, Ms. Rich joined the string faculty at the University of Oregon where she established the Violin/Viola Pedagogy Program (then called degree emphasis). Within her eight-year tenure at UO, Ms. Rich founded and directed the CMI Suzuki Strings Program, the Chamber Players Program, the Northwest Suzuki Institute, and the Northwest Advanced String Camp, which attracted students from across the Western United States. During this time, she also served on the faculties of numerous ASTA workshops and Suzuki institutes across the country, including Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Utah, Idaho, California, Arizona, and Hawaii. In 2006, Ms. Rich began 15 years of teaching on the faculty at Northern Arizona University, where she taught violin performance and music education majors and was an active violinist, performing on faculty recitals, soloing with the NAU Orchestra and Wind Symphony, and serving as Assistant Concert Master of the Flagstaff Symphony. Previously, Ms. Rich had performed with the Ballet West Orchestra, Eugene Symphony. Oregon Festival of American Music, Oregon Coast Music Festival, Geneseo Symphony Orchestra (NY,) Heidelberg Castle Festival Opera Orchestra (Germany,) Music Academy of the West Orchestra, and Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. In addition, Ms. Rich served on the faculty as a master teacher at the NAU Academy of Music and Dance, teaching individual lessons and group classes. A dedicated pre-college teacher throughout her career, Ms. Rich has taught numerous students who have gone on to successful careers in music and have achieved awards in competitions, soloed with professional orchestras, and received scholarships to high profile music camps and music schools. Ms. Rich was elected president of both the Oregon and Arizona chapters of the American String Teachers Association. Under her leadership, AZ ASTA grew to host 13 different annual state-wide events for the string teachers and students of Arizona. In Fall of 2021, Ms. Rich returned to the University of Oregon to accept the position of Associate Director of the Community Music Institute, where she is dedicated to growing back and expanding CMI’s offerings and reestablishing the SOMD as central to state-wide pre-college opportunities for Oregon string students and teachers. Since her arrival, she has accepted young beginning students to re-establish the Suzuki Strings Program in the Eugene community and has worked to revitalize Chamber Players. In Fall of 2022 at the SOMD, she will be teaching violin lessons and classes to graduate students in the Violin/Viola Pedagogy Specialization, with expanded opportunities for mentorship with CMI students. Recently, a generous donation to the SOMD will allow her to continue the groundwork of her violin colleagues at UO and spearhead an annual Summer Orchestra Camp for Strings at UO beginning Summer 2023.
Arnaud Ghillebaert
Senior Instructor of Viola, University of Oregon
Originally from Paris, Arnaud Ghillebaert performed as an orchestra musician with The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields (Sir Neville Mariner) and the London Symphony Orchestra. He toured Europe for two summers with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under the baton of Sir Colin Davis and Herbert Blomstedt in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall in London or the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has played with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra (Corrado Rovaris, musical director) for many years and is a former member of the New Haven Symphony. He performed with the Southbank Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra in England for one year and appeared in London’s National Theatre production of Tom Stoppard’s and Andre Previn’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. A founding member of the Elsewhere Ensemble, in 2013 he created the role of the Shadow in His Majesty the Devil-a play with music. The show, inspired by Dostoyevsky, was performed at 59E59 Theaters in New York City, FringeNYC, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and more recently in a concert version at the UO School of Music and Dance. The Elsewhere Ensemble is currently working on a new piece called Invocation by composer Colin Pip Dixon, based on the themes of violence and peace. The piece features Grammy award-winning baritone Kenneth Overton as well as UO soprano Camille Ortiz. Excerpts of Invocation have been workshopped recently at the UO SOMD; the whole work will be premiered in the Winter of 2023. A dedicated chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists such as pianist Anton Nel, pianist Kelly Kuo, violinist Anthea Kreston. He was invited to perform at the Louis Moreau Institute in New Orleans and in the “Starry Nights” music series at the Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University alongside Colin Carr, Eugene Drucker (Emerson String Quartet) and Nick Cords (Silkroad Ensemble, Brooklyn Rider). He received his Masters from the Royal College of Music in London and completed his Doctorate in Violin and Viola performance at Stony Brook University in 2016. He has been the viola instructor at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance (Eugene, OR) since Fall 2017. Since arriving in Oregon he has performed in the Oregon Bach Festival, is the principal violist of the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Mozart Players and Eugene Opera and has been playing concerts with Chamber Music Amici and microphilharmonic.
Steve Polege
Professor of Cello and Chamber Music, University of Oregon
Steven Pologe is a professor of cello at the School of Music and cellist with both the Oregon String Quartet and Trio Pacifica. At The Juilliard School Pologe was a three-year scholarship student. During his early professional career, he played for two years with the Rochester Philharmonic and one year with the Buffalo Philharmonic. Pologe has also been a member of the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonia, and principal cellist with the New York String Ensemble, Rome Festival Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Orchestra, and the Philharmonic Symphony of Westchester. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Sweden, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, New Zealand and Canada. Recently released CDs include works by Jon Deak for solo cello and piano trio, the Lev Abeliovich Piano Trio, and two discs recorded with the Oregon String Quartet (string quartets by William Grant Still and a disc titled The Oregon String Quartet and All That Jazz). Since joining the UO music faculty, he has appeared frequently as concerto soloist with several Northwest orchestras and as principal cellist of the Oregon Bach Festival. He also performs annually at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and Grand Teton Music Festival. Prior to moving to Oregon, Pologe was principal cellist with the Honolulu Symphony for thirteen seasons, appearing frequently as a featured soloist, and was in the University of Hawaii music faculty. While in Hawaii, Pologe co-founded and directed the Academy Camerata chamber music series in Honolulu.
Tyler Abbott
Senior Instructor of Double Bass, Jazz Bass, and Music Theory, University of Oregon
Tyler Abbott is an instructor of double bass, jazz bass, and music theory. He maintains an active performance schedule as an orchestral bassist, chamber musician, jazz bassist, clinician, and soloist, performing throughout the region and nation with some of the finest musicians in both the classical and jazz music worlds. He has recently performed with, or is a member of, the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, Spokane Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Festival of American Music’s “American Symphonia,” Eugene Opera Orchestra, Yakima Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Mozart Players, Salem Chamber Orchestra, and several other professional orchestras throughout the region and country. As a chamber musician, he has performed with the Oregon String Quartet, Pacifica Trio, Beta Collide, and Hundreth Monkey, a contemporary ensemble based in Eugene, of which he was co-director. As a jazz bassist, Abbott has performed with Tom Grant, Ben Monder, Randy Porter, Roswell Rudd, Danilo Perez, Dave Pietro, Scott Wenholdt, Nancy King, George Mitchell, Arnie Caruthers, Ryan Keberle, Randy Halberstadt, Dick Hyman, Howard Levy, Warren Rand, John Stowell, and many others. He regularly performs at jazz festivals and on radio broadcasts. His recording with Toby Koenigsberg, Sense, was released by Origin Records and was met with numerous favorable reviews. In addition to the University of Oregon, Abbott also taught at Walla Walla College and Willamette University. He maintains a private teaching studio in Eugene, Oregon. Abbott has studied double bass with Roma Vayspapir, Bruce Bransby, Jeff Bradetich, Don Hermanns, Lynn Seaton, Dave Captein, Ken Baldwin, Curtis Daily, Eugene Jablonsky, and has studied briefly and/or participated in master classes with Hal Robinson, Edgar Meyer, Al Laszlo, and Eugene Levinson.
David Jacobs
Orchestra Director
Associate Professor of Orchestral Studies and Conducting, University of Oregon
Dr. David Jacobs began his career as an orchestral musician in 2000 and for seven seasons he played regularly with the Sarasota Orchestra as well as the renowned Sarasota Music Festival Orchestra. He also was a member of the Sarasota Opera Orchestra for three years and appeared regularly with the Southwest Florida Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and New World Symphony. In 2007, he began training as a conductor at the Eastman School of Music. There, he was the recipient of several conducting prizes, including the prestigious Frederick Fennell Fellowship for Advanced Conducting Study and the Walter Hagen prize for excellence in conducting. Throughout his residency, he conducted performances with almost every major ensemble including the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Eastman Wind Orchestra, Graduate Conducting Orchestra, New Eastman Orchestra, and Ossia, the school’s student run contemporary sinfonietta. Currently, Dr. Jacobs is the Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Oregon where he conducts the symphony orchestra and teaches courses in conducting. Prior to that appointment, he was the Music Director of the PBA Symphony at Palm Beach Atlantic University, where he brought that orchestra to a heightened level of notoriety throughout the South Florida classical community. Dr. Jacobs has also given performances with several other well-respected university programs, such as Duquesne University, the Cole Conservatory at CSU-Long Beach, Florida State University, and has been invited back to Eastman as a guest artist in residence for three weeks in 2015. In addition to his work with academic orchestras, Dr. Jacobs has also guest conducted performances with several professional orchestras here and abroad, including, the Oregon Music Festival Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Palm Beach Symphony, and the St. Petersburg (Russia) State Symphony Orchestra. As an academic and pedagogue, Dr. Jacobs has given presentations on conducting and interpretation at Duquesne University, the Oregon Music Educators Association, CSU-Long Beach, and the Oregon Orchestral Conducting Institute, which he founded in 2013. The institute has grown into a highly competitive three-day intensive workshop that attracts young conductors from all over the world. Dr. Jacobs has published articles on repertoire internationally and will be releasing an updated edition of Myaskovsky’s Nineteenth Symphony with Le Chante du Monde in Paris. Despite his relatively young age, Dr. Jacobs has already been credited on three commercially available albums. He served as Assistant Conductor for “Manhattan Music,” a collaboration between the Canadian Brass and the Eastman Wind Ensemble, which was released in 2008 on the Opening Day label; Conductor for “Let Others Name You,” an eclectic fusion of contemporary orchestral music with Balinese Gamelan performed by the Ossia Chamber Orchestra on the New World Record label, released in the Fall of 2009; and music director of brass and trumpet performer on “We Proclaim,” a collection of worship music released by the Ekklesia label in 2011. Dr. Jacobs’s primary conducting teachers were Mark Scatterday and Neil Varon, and studied additionally with JoAnn Falletta, Gustav Meier, and Marin Alsop.
Barbara Harris
Administration
Barbara Harris is the Administrative Coordinator of OBF Youth Choral Academy and UO String Camp. She oversees logistics for these summer programs and arranges lodging, transportation and scheduling. She supervises the student staff, maintains bookkeeping records, and recruits students to the summer programs. Before working for UO-SOMD, Harris was development director of Eugene-Springfield Youth Orchestra. She received her master’s degree at the UO in Arts Administration and her bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University in Art and Music History. She is also an accomplished violinist and performs in the Riverside Chamber Symphony and Owl Road Quartet.