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Emily Rome Viola, Chamber Music Violist Emily Rome is currently a free-lance player and teacher in the Boston area. Emily performs with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Odyssey Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Landmarks Orchestra, and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra among others. In addition, Emily also has a very active teaching career. She especially enjoys working with children and teaches a number of private students through her program Brioso Strings. She has also served as a chamber coach for students at Harvard University and the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. In the summers Emily is faculty at Greenwood Music Camp and Rivers Conservatory Summer Program. In the past she has servedas a coach at Berkshire Summer Music Festival, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, the Youth Festival Orchestra Summer Program at the New England Conservatory, and has led orchestra sectionals, lessons and chamber music coaching for the NEC Preparatory Division. Emily studied with Atar Arad at Indiana University, Kim Kashkashian at New England Conservatory and Martha Katz at Rice University. e.rome@rivers.org

> ABOUT US > Staff Directory > Staff Directory RSC Main Office (Blackwell House) music@rivers.org 781-235-6840 Administrative Staff Eya Setsu , Program Coordinator & Administrative Assistant, 781-235-6840 Taylor Stobinski , Registrar & Business Systems Manager, 339-686-2336 Matthew Heck , Conservatory Program Director, 339-686-2370 Emily Lobono , Marketing & Communications Manager, 339-686-2246 Lindsey Robb , Director of Operations, 339-686-2334 Javier Caballero , Executive Director of Performing Arts, 339-686-2330 Ensemble Managers/Directors Jason Fisher , ChamberMusicLab Philippe Crettien , Jazz Ensembles Katherine Greene , Rivers Youth Orchestras (RYO) Kristen Krauss , Studio Chamber Music Dan Loschen , Theory & Composition Kira Ousey , Rivers Youth Wind Ensembles (RYWE) Lauren Cless , Suzuki Programs Sarah Tenney , Marimba Ensembles Marta Zurad , Camerata Strings Summer Programs Philippe Crettien , Summer Jazz Emily Rome & Kirstin Peltz , Summer Music Jenna Potts , Summer Suzuki Katherine Greene , Summer Orchestra Kira Ousey , Summer Band Sarah Tenney , Summer Percussion

Mission & Values Inspiring Musical Excellence We are a community that focuses on cultivating exceptional musicianship through performance. The hundreds of workshops, masterclasses, recitals, and concerts available each year present opportunities for students to develop, strengthen, and refine their talent through public presentation. We foster creativity and imagination in our students and cultivate the inspiration, self-confidence, discipline, and leadership skills that are developed through the exploration of music. We are proud of our reputation for developing a life-long passion for music in our students. Who We Are Over 100 distinguished artist-teachers in the Boston area 1,300+ students ages 3-90 from over 90 New England towns What We Offer Private Instruction on all classical and jazz instruments, piano, and voice Weekly workshops and recitals to cultivate exceptional musicianship through performance Over 30 after school ensemble opportunities for all ages and abilities Numerous classes in music theory, composition, and weekly piano seminars Performance opportunities throughout the year, including over 200 recitals, masterclasses, and special events

News The Farny-Webb Teaching Legacy at RSC RSC teachers and sisters Ethel Farny and Anne Webb have guided generations of students, shaped programs, and shared laughter and lessons across nearly four decades of teaching. Both sisters emphasize personal connection and enthusiasm as key components of their teaching philosophies. “One thing I love to do as a teacher is listen to the personality of the person I’m teaching”, flute teacher Farny explains. “I become a slightly different person with each student. Some need very creative music, some need technical precision, and some just go sideways, but you adapt.” Webb has a similar approach, adding that humor and imagery often shape her lessons. “I bring excitement and sometimes funny imagery to help students connect with a piece,” she says. For Webb, who teaches violin, viola and Scottish fiddle, music should be as joyful as it is instructive. Read the full story here. RSC hosts sold-out Holiday Pops 2025 On a Saturday night in early December, The Rivers School’s Benson Gymnasium was filled with the sounds of marimba music, musical theater song and dance, big band jazz, and a full symphony providing holiday revelry. While Holiday Pops is a long-standing tradition for RSC, this was the first year that it was held in Benson Gymnasium. The new venue accommodated more than 300 guests for an evening of music, food, and fun. The sold-out event raised money for the RSC Financial Aid Fund, which benefits nearly 25% of the total students who study at RSC. Read the full story here. RSC featured in Wellesley/Weston Magazine The Winter 2025/2026 edition of Wellesley/Weston Magazine includes an article about RSC and its relationship to the Rivers School and the greater Boston music community. The article features an interview with Javier Caballero, Executive Director of Performing Arts, and details how the dedicated faculty and programming continue to shape and elevate musical excellence at RSC. Read the full story here.

Jackson Carruthers Piano, Chamber Music, Accompanist Jackson Carruthers is a pianist and educator based in the Boston area. He has performed as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and conductor throughout the Midwest and Northeast as well as abroad. As a pianist, his programming is notable for its dedication to the music of American pianist-composers and the works of Franz Liszt, as well as generally neglected and underrepresented repertoire. An experienced teacher, Carruthers previously served on the faculty of the University of Akron, where he was also employed as a staff accompanist. He has also taught at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Bowling Green State University Summer Music Institute, as well as Rivers Summer Music. Carruthers is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at Boston University, where he studies with Boaz Sharon. He has previously studied piano with Laura Silverman, Solungga Liu, and Mayumi Kikuchi, and studied organ with W. Robert Morrison. Other notable pianists he has worked with include Andrius Zlabys, Pavel Nersessian, Michel Beroff, Ian Hobson, Carol Leone, and Olga Radosavljevich. When he’s not practicing, he enjoys using old cameras, collecting and listening to LP records, playing golf, and drinking Mountain Dew. j.carruthers@rivers.org

Velleda Miragias Cello, Chamber Music Acclaimed for her “perfect technical mastery [and] strong emotion,” cellist Velléda Miragias enjoys a diverse career as a chamber and orchestral musician, educator, and entrepreneur. She holds degrees from the Conservatoire National de Boulogne, Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris rue de Madrid, Indiana University, and Boston University; is the recipient of France’s coveted Ministry of Culture Award; and won first prize at the Prix de la ville d’Epernay string competition. Ms. Miragias is currently associate principal with the Boston Philharmonic, assistant principal with the Cape Symphony, and regularly performs and records with a roster of New England’s premier orchestral and period ensembles. A committed educator, Ms. Miragias is adjunct instructor of cello at Phillips Exeter Academy, cofounder of Artisan Music Studios and Artisan Childcare Center for the Arts, and serves on the faculties of New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School, The Rivers School Conservatory, and the International Academy of Music in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana. v.miragias@rivers.org

Claire Nalven Conductor, Rivers Youth Wind Ensembles Claire Nalven is a Music Educator, Conductor and Clarinetist. She holds degrees in Performance, Chamber Music and Anthropology from Northwestern University (BM/BA) and the University of Michigan (MM). She also holds K-12 Music Teaching Certification in Massachusetts. Claire currently teaches Band, Jazz Band, Chamber Music and AP Music Theory at Weston High School and Middle School in Weston, MA. She has previously worked as a band director, private clarinet teacher, and orchestral winds clinician in the Twin Cities, MN. She enjoys freelancing with orchestras and performance groups. When not teaching or performing, Claire enjoys cooking, participating in triathlons and practicing different instruments. Claire lives with her husband Zach who is an orchestra teacher, their baby Jacob who loves listening to music and will hopefully play one day, and their dog Annie who sings along (though not quite in tune!) c.nalven@rivers.org

MinKyung Oh Piano, Chamber Music With performances that convey the most delicate of sentiments and virtuosity that carries her own musical expression, Dr. Oh is an active solo and chamber music in Boston. Minkyung Oh was introduced to the piano at age 3, when she learned a few pieces of music and began playing them at wedding ceremonies starting when she was 4. Later She began her professional training in piano at age 11 at the renowned Yewon School and Seoul Arts High School in Korea. She made her debut at age 14 with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra at Seoul Arts Center. She has won numerous prizes in major national competitions in Korea including Chosun Newspaper Competition, Korean Newspaper Competition, and Samick Piano Competiton. She was invited to the KBS classical Radio studio and her performances being broadcast on KBS FM Radio and The Classical Channel in Korea. Minkyung was honored to be the soloist with the Seoul Arts High School Orchestra at the school’s annual celebratory concert for seniors. After graduating with top honors from Seoul Arts High School and gaining entrance with also top honors to Korean National University of Arts Graduating with Distinction in Performance from New England Conservatory, Minkyung Oh has won the first prize in Richmond Competition and Honors Competition in Boston, Dr. Oh earned a BM and MM from New England Conservatory, a Post Graduate Diploma from Royal Academy of Music in London, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University where she was also a teaching assistant. Dr. Oh has performed at various music festivals including Bowdoin Music Festival, the Mozarteum Festival in Salzburg, Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, the TCU Cliburn Piano Institute in Texas, the New Paltz Summer Festival in NY, and Cervo Music Festival in Italy. She performed as soloist with the Perugia Festival Orchestra in Italy in 2011 and was invited as a guest artist at Orléans Music Festival in France in 2012. In 2013 Phoenicia Publishing released Ms. Oh’s first recording, of recent works by the American composer Jon Appleton, The Scarlatti Doubles and The Couperin Doubles, which was broadcast on VPR Classical Radio Station and praised by Steve Reich as “…a beautiful addition to piano literature”. Appleton dedicated his new composition Suite des Hommages to Minkyung in 2014. Dr. Oh recently gave an acclaimed solo recital in Korea to a sold-out audience at The Seoul Arts Center in Korea and gave a special ceremony of Isang Yun centennial celebration sponsored by Korea Cultural Society of Boston. Dr. Oh is a member of the piano faculty at Rivers School Conservatory and at ASMI summer institute, and is the Artistic Director of Boston Piano Ensemble and Weston Al Fresco Concert Series. Beside piano, she is an active practitioner of Taichi and Qigong and she eanred the certification of a Qigong instructor to deliver the technique to her students and her friends. m.oh@rivers.org

Jenna Potts Suzuki Violin Ms. Potts holds a Master of Music with an Emphasis in Pedagogy from the Longy School of Music where she studied with Mark Lakirovich. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music, summa cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University where she also studied with faculty from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Ms. Potts currently has the great privilege to serve as president of the Suzuki Association of Massachusetts and is an active member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Her Suzuki teacher trainers have included Moshe Neumann, Kimberly Meier-Sims, Nancy Jackson, Sherry Cadow, Joann Melvin, Thomas Wermuth, and Charles Krigbaum. Additional pedagogical studies have been with Clay Hoener, Valerie Bobbett Gardner, Ed Sprunger, Mark Mutter, Cathy Lee and Terry Durbin. Ms. Potts sits Principal Second Violin with the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra. j.potts@rivers.org

Matthew Heck Director of the Conservatory Program at The Rivers School Matt Heck, the director of the Conservatory Program at The Rivers School, is a musicologist, writer, violinist, DJ, drummer, voiceover artist, singer, and actor. After attending Oberlin College, where he earned a BA in music, he went on to graduate studies in musicology at Brandeis University and completed a PhD. His dissertation connected theoretical explorations of Dmitri Shostakovich’s harmonic-contrapuntal language with musicological studies that emphasize the composer’s ambivalent and ironic modes of expression and situates Shostakovich’s aesthetic in the history of Russian ideas. He has studied in St. Petersburg with the help of an American Councils Study Abroad Scholarship and a Title VIII Fellowship from the U.S. Department of State. With a Mellon Dissertation Research Grant, he explored Shostakovich’s datebooks at the composer’s family archive in Moscow. As a writer, he has written scripts for “Tanglewood: Then & Now” segments on the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s “BSO Now” site, and published pieces for the BSO program book, among other projects. As a violinist, he plays with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. As a DJ, he has held multiple residencies at clubs in and around Boston, and taught a class entitled “Love is the Message: Dance Musics and Their Cultures from Disco to Dubstep,” which received a University Prize Instructorship award at Brandeis. As a voiceover artist, he has recorded voiceovers for the BSO’s “Tanglewood: Then & Now” segments, recorded pre-concert announcements for the BSO at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood, and performed as the narrator in the world premiere of Paths of Parables by Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. He also performed in Porgy and Bess at Tanglewood and Symphony Hall with the BSO under Bramwell Tovey. m.heck@rivers.org

Jeri DiMarco Bergonzi Jazz Piano Jeri grew up singing the songs of her beloved Laura Nyra and Joni Mitchell while listening to the progressive rock bands of the 1970’s. After graduating from Boston College with a degree in philosophy and literature she decided to get serious about her piano playing. She studied jazz improvisation with the legendary Charlie Banacos and followed her new found career path playing and singing at clubs and Boston hotel venues. Stints with dance bands, GB groups and solo piano tours in Europe helped pay the rent while honing her jazz skills. Today, Jeri’s repertoire spans the jazz tradition from the standards of the Great American Songbook to the Bluenote sounds of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Mccoy Tyner. Jeri brings her teaching experience of 35 years (piano, harmony, improvisation, vocal coach) to the Rivers School Conservatory. Married to world famous saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, she has worked with her husband editing his 7 book series titled “Inside Improvisation”, published by Advance Music, which describes practical methods and approaches for developing improvisational skills: Melodic Structures, Pentatonics, Jazz Line, Melodic Rhythms, Thesaurus of Intervallic Melodies, Developing a Jazz Language, Hexatonics. g.bergonzi@rivers.org

Dubravka Moshfegh Violin/Viola Graduate from Zagreb University and Brussels Royal Conservatory; Diplome Superieur for violin and Premier Prix for Chamber Music; studies with K. Hauser, I. Pinkava, A. Gerller, Yankelewitch, and Chugajewa; masterclasses in Budapest, Weimar, Salzburg, Goslar; solo and chamber music performances in Europe and U.S.; TV and radio recordings; member, Duo Affetuoso; Director of Camp Cadenza. d.moshfegh@rivers.org

Kristen Krauss Director of Studio Chamber Music Kristen Krauss is a violinist, teacher and the founder and director of Berkshire Summer Music, a two-week resident chamber music camp in Massachusetts that is currently in its eighth year. Kristen is on faculty at The School for Strings and teaches many private students in New York City where she uniquely combines her dedication to music education and her personal experience as a mother to four musical children. Kristen has performed solo, chamber, and orchestral works on the violin and viola at the Aspen and Waterloo Music Festivals and at Columbia University. She has been on the violin faculty of the JCC, Thurnauer School of Music, and Elisabeth Morrow School as well as the Accademia Perosi in Biella, Italy. She has coached chamber music for the New York Youth Symphony and managed the program’s chamber division. Additionally, she has held administrative positions at the Interlochen Arts Camp, Waterloo Music Festival, and Music in the Mountains where she also coached chamber music. Kristen received her BA from Barnard College and studied the violin and viola with Patinka Kopek as part of the Manhattan School of Music/Barnard joint program. She began teaching at the School for Strings in New York City in 1994 after completing its Teacher Training Program under the tutelage of School for Strings founder Louise Beherend. Additional teacher training with Ronda Cole and Linda Fiore. k.krauss@rivers.org

Nicole O’Toole Flute, Conductor, Rivers Youth Wind Ensembles Nicole O’Toole directs the Rivers Youth Wind Ensemble Junior and has been teaching music in Massachusetts since the early 90s. She has been a flutist for over 40 years and holds a Masters degree in flute performance. At the Groton Hill Music Center Nicole directs the Groton Hill Flute Orchestra–an ensemble for skilled adult flutists. She teaches beginning band in her hometown of Bedford, Massachusetts, where she also serves as the K-12 Program Director of Performing Arts. An active musician, Nicole performs with the Metropolitan Wind Symphony, the Gateway City Orchestra, and the Firebird Pops Orchestra. She was also a playing member of the Groton Hill Flute Orchestra for many years before becoming its director. Nicole enjoys adapting music for flute choir and many of her arrangements can be heard on the ensemble’s YouTube channel. n.otoole@rivers.org

Liana Zaretsky Violin Liana Zaretsky, violin, appears regularly with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, and is former principal second violinst of the Portland Symphony (ME). Ms. Zaretsky holds a Master’s and Graduate Diploma degree in music from Northwestern and New England Conservatory respectively. She also teaches at the School of Continuing Education at the New England Conservatory. l.zaretsky@rivers.org