Professor Battersby has recorded for MHS, Koch International Classics, Marco Polo, and Naxos. He has performed as part of an ensemble with the Tokyo and Orion quartets, Elmer Oliveira, Carter Brey, Colin Carr, and has taught master classes at Royal Irish Academy of Music (Dublin) and the University of California at Irvine. He is also the artistic director of The Artur Balsam Ensemble Classes for Piano and Strings held in Wabash, Indiana in the late spring. He plays teaching concerts for the Smithsonian Institution.

Professor of Music, Jacobs School of Music
M.M. The Juilliard School, 1977
B.M., The Juilliard School, 1977

His North American solo and chamber music itinerary for more than a quarter century numbers concerts in the hundreds, from Los Angeles to Boston, Seattle to Naples, Detroit to Mexico City, Miami to Winnipeg and Toronto, Chicago to Dallas.

Hailing a performance in Germany, the Berlin Morgenpost said, “Highly sensitive, articulate artistry,” while Brussels’ Le Soir exclaimed “exciting and masterful playing.”  His discography includes recordings of the classical repertoire, music for piano and cello, and hymn tunes in the classical style.  His writing achievements appear in the catalogues of several American publishers.

Since 1971 he has been one-half of Nielson & Young, one of the most acclaimed duo-piano teams of our time.  Messrs. Nielson and Young display a breadth of repertoire and performance venues virtually without comparison – concert halls, college campuses, festivals, cruise ships and countless churches.

Stephen Nielson and his wife Carolyne reside in Dallas and are the proud parents of daughters Christiana (University of Missouri School of Journalism – Class of 2012) and Caroline (Hillcrest High School – Class of 2011).

Professor of Violin at The Eastman School of Music, Charles Castleman has conducted master-classes in Kiev, London, Montreux, Salzburg, Vienna, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, and over 50 U.S. Universities. He is founder/director of THE CASTLEMAN QUARTET PROGRAM, in its 42nd season, now at S.U.N.Y. Fredonia in New York State, and University of Colorado at Boulder, an intensive and extensive workshop in solo and chamber performance. Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma have donated master-classes there, Mr. Ma praising it as “the best program of its kind…a training ground in lifemanship.”Mr. Castleman graduated Harvard University, followed by a graduate degree from The University of Pennsylvania and published essays on Renaissance madrigals and 19th century performer-composers.

Expert on Hungarian music, due to his Emanuel Ondricek and Eugen Lehner training and wide-ranging personal research, his CD of the “Scenes from the Csarda” by Jeno Hubay with the Eastman Chamber Orchestra has been released by Music and Arts. Hubay was both a historic violinist and very influential musician, who trained Solti, Szell, Lipati, Szigeti, Sebok, and Starker, and hired Bartok, Dohnanyi, Kodaly in his capacity as Director Liszt Academy in Budapest . Brahms greatly valued him; almost all Brahms chamber music first was tried out in Budapest with Hubay and Popper at house-concerts before the Viennese official premieres.

Thirty-five years ago, not long out of school, given $1500 and a handful of scholarships in April, Castleman recruited 9 string quartets by July to attend a 8-week workshop in chamber music and group dynamics at Saratoga, NY he named The Quartet Program. On its website http://quartetprogram.com alumni who have maintained contact with Charles Castleman are listed by profession: 260 members of major orchestras, 133 college teachers, 118 members of professionally active chamber groups,:49 section leaders of “A” and “B” orchestras, 26 in arts management, 19 in the medical arts, 15 lawyers, 14 in business and finance, 9 in the recording and film industry, and soloists, motivational speakers, engineers and luthiers.

In 1995, for a season, a satellite program for String Quartets ready for management took place in Vail Colorado. Currently a QUARTET PROGRAM for European and American Conservatory graduates takes place in late August in Oberwart, Austria.

PUBLICATIONS
“Bocca della Verita” of George Rochberg edited Charles Castleman 1965 Presser Music Company
“Tre Dame di Ferrara” 1969 (l’Anuario Musicale)..an edition and treatise on the 16th century madrigals of Luzzasco Luzzaschi
“The Romantic Violinist-Composer: Pro-active Artist before a Susceptible Public” 2001 (Isabelle Cazeaux Festschrift)
“Superior Finger Exercises” of Emanuel Ondricek edited Charles Castleman 2005 Southern Music Company

EDUCATION
A.B. Harvard University
B.M.Curtis Institute of Music
M.A.University of Pennsylvania

She also studied the Suzuki Method in Japan with Shinichi Suzuki.  In addition to her duties at TU, O’Boyle performs as Concertmaster of the Tulsa Opera Orchestra, and of the Signature Symphony at TCC.
From 1993 to 2001 Ms. O’Boyle performed as Associate Concertmaster of the Tulsa Philharmonic. She has performed as a recitalist and with orchestras throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Japan, and South America. She has also held positions with the Omaha Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, New Haven Symphony, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. Before coming to Tulsa, Ms. O’Boyle was the Instructor of Violin at Missouri Southern State College in Joplin.

As the co-artistic director of the French summer music academy and festival Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves, Max Zorin is a dynamic presence in France and regularly performs at some of the most prestigious Chateaux in the Bordeaux region. A sought after chamber musician, Zorin was featured as a guest artist with the Parker String Quartet, Philadelphia Piano Quartet and collaborated with artists such as violinists Sergiu Schwartz, Susanne Hou, bassist Thomas Martin and violist Martha Katz (Cleveland String Quartet). Max Zorin harbors a strong commitment to contemporary music; he recently premiered works dedicated to his father and himself by the late Joseph Dorfman as well as new works by Didier Lockwood. His recent album “French Touch” recorded in France has won unanimous critical acclaim.

Born in Israel into a Russian family of professional musicians, Max began studying the violin at the age of five with his father and gave his first performances when he was eight years old. At age 17 he won a First Prize at the Corpus Christi International Competition (USA). Max Zorin holds degrees from the Juilliard School, Yale University and a doctorate from Stony Brook University. His past teachers include Dorothy De Lay, Naoko Tanaka, Peter Oundjian and Philip Setzer. During his studies at Yale, he was drawn to acting and directing courses. His versatility led him to be featured in a Yale

Drama School production “The Skriker” and at the Prince Music Theatre in Philadelphia for the world premier of Elise Thoron’s “The Green Violin” where he also served as assistant musical director. A dedicated teacher, Max Zorin assisted Dorothy De Lay at the Juilliard School. He regularly conducts master classes at various musical institutions and universities worldwide including the Royal Academy of Music in London (UK), State Conservatory of Thessaloniki (Greece), Columbus State University (GA) and the Lutheran Summer Music Academy. In 2005, he was appointed to the violin faculty at  Penn State University. Max Zorin performs on a violin crafted by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume.

He received the Master’s Degree in Music Performance and Literature and the coveted Performer’s Certificate in Opera from the Eastman School of Music. He studied choral conducting with Robert Shaw at the Meadow brook School of Music and was a charter member of the Atlanta Symphony Chamber Chorus under Mr. Shaw. He received the Bachelors of Arts degree in Music at Morehouse College and was a soloist at the Funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King.  He was a first place winner in the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions.  He has been a soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic, Eastman Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Charlotte, Savannah, and Madison Symphony Orchestras and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, performing Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Verdi, Martin, Schubert, Mozart, Fauré, Prokovief, Bernstein, and others.  He has appeared in leading roles in five world-premier Operas. Including creating the role of Wellington in Seymour Barab’s Opera, Phillip Marshall, for the Chatauqua Institute Centennial, July 12,1974, He also sang the Barber in the United States premiere of Die Schweigsame Frau by Richard Strauss.

Ordained in 1982, Rev. Bias has served in full-time church music ministry for 25 years.  For 3 years he hosted his own weekly Christian Music program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Prior to coming to Tulsa he was pastoral counsel to the Entertainment Industry Fellowship and served in both the Renaissance and New Song Choirs of Church on The Way in Van Nuys, California.

Rev. Bias has seven solo recordings of Christian music and has appeared on several classical and popular music recordings with other artists.  He is a member of SAG-AFTRA, The Hymn Society, the American Choral Directors Association, the Rotary Club of Tulsa and the Glastonbury Fellowship. He is the Founder of the Rotary Club of Tulsa’s Crescendo Music Awards Competition.

In 2006 he was inducted in to the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, Gospel Music Division. He performs in concert regularly. He mentors a group of college students in a weekly Bible Study in his home.

The Munich Abendzeitung heralded her as “a Mezzo-soprano discovery” for her performance in the title role of Rossini’s Cenerentola, directed by Brigitte Fassbaender. Ms. Herseth premiered “…and a time for peace” by Richard Wernick with La Scala Opera Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Muti, “Songs of Innocence and Experience” by William Bolcom with the Stuttgart State Orchestra and Dennis Russell Davies,  “Shirat Ma’ayan” by Jan Radzynski with the Haifa Symphony, Israel, and operas with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Southwest German Radio and Television and the Munich Radio Orchestra.

With the Be’er Sheva Sinfonietta, conducted by Yuri Mayer, she performed Elijah in Jerusalem, which was recorded for Israel Radio.  Ms. Herseth has performed new works at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Bastille Opera Festival, and the Vienna Festival with the Stuttgart Opera and during two trips to Russia she performed at the Moscow Conservatory of Music with Orchestra 2001 of Philadelphia.  Recordings: The Binding by Samuel Adler (Naxos), The Dybukk by David Tampkin (Naxos), both with the Radio Orchestra of Slovakia, Dorothy Parker Songs, by Braxton Blake (Albany), with the Philharmonic Orchestra, Bowling Green State University, Lux Aeterna by George Crumb (CRI) with Orchestra 2001 and Vocalise by Revier with flutist Leone Buyse (Albany).

Freda Herseth has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Brevard Music Center.  She has given Master Classes at The Master Teachers of Singing Symposium at Westminster Choir College, Aria Festival, Indiana University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Northern Illinois University, Baylor University, University of Houston, University of Puget Sound, Swarthmore College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Oklahoma, and the International Convention of The Voice Foundation. Awards include an Honorary Doctor of Music (University of Puget Sound), Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship (University of Michigan), Richard Wagner Stipend (Wagner Society, Bayreuth), DAAD/Fulbright Grant, Van Lawrence Award (The Voice Foundation, awarded for excellence in Vocal Pedagogy), and the 2007 Professional Achievement Award (University of Puget Sound).  Ms. Herseth is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Associate Professor of Voice, and Singing Voice Training Specialist with the Vocal Health Center at the University of Michigan.  She has served as adjudicator for numerous competitions, including Grand Concours de Chant, The Metropolitan Opera District Competition, and The Classical Singer Competition.