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9815 NE Covington Road
Vancouver, WA 98662
360-882-0501
musicalbeginnings@att.net
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Our Teachers
Susan Ferrell
Susan is the owner of Musical Beginnings. She has been
a licensed and practicing Kindermusik Educator since
1997 and has also taught piano for many years. She has
11 years experience teaching Special Education children
ages 2 - 10 years in the public school system. She is
the mother of two school-age boys. Susan has a background
in piano, oboe, and choir. She has combined her love
for children with her love and appreciation for music
in her growing business. |
Lori Edenfield
Loris love for singing and acting began more
than 20 years ago. As a student of vocal performance
and music education in college, she performed in numerous
concerts and musical theatre productions. Lori was a
featured soloist with her college jazz band, lead singer
in various local bands, and has performed in over 15
musical theater productions in the Portland area since
1989. Throughout those years, she has studied privately
with some of the areas most highly regarded vocal coaches
and recently taught after school choir in some of Portlands
elementary and middle schools through the non-profit
organization, Ethos, Inc. Lori lives in Vancouver with her husband Patrick and
their one-year old son, Quinn.
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Kristen Chaudhary
With a background in both classical music and musical
theater, Kristin has been singing professionally in
concerts, church services, and
other community events
since the age of 18.
Kristin is currently pursuing
a Masters of Music degree in Vocal Performance at Portland
State University.
She holds a Bachelor of Music degree
in Vocal Performance from Arizona State University
and
also has attended the American Institute of Musical
Studies in Graz, Austria, where she studied German
song repertoire.
Kristin discovered her love of teaching
in 2003 as the voice instructor at Chandler Music in
Arizona. Kristin moved to Vancouver in 2004 whereupon
she joined the teaching staff at Musical Beginnings.
Based on her teaching abilities and experience, Kristin
was granted full membership to the National Association
of Teachers of Singing in 2007. Kristin is available
for lessons in voice and piano and also teaches classes
in choir, musical theater, and Kindermusik.
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Chris Heath
Playing the piano came very natural to Chris. He first studied for 5 years with the late Jan Kryscowski who noticed his natural talent right away. After playing for only 6 months, Chris was learning to
play by ear such Billy Joel classics as "Angry Young Man" and "New York State of Mind". Although sight reading did not come easy, his ability to play by ear was astounding and his teachers pushed him to enhance that talent.
Chris went on to study and receive a B.M. at the Berklee College of Music. He chose to major in Songwriting and Film Scoring. Having the chance to study with great songwriters and lyric writers, Chris excelled his knowledge of the music language and the craft of songwriting and composition. He was fortunate enough to have private piano lessons with the amazing late jazz pianist Dean Earl and accomplished piano and Hammond organ player Dave Limina. Throughout his Berkelee experience, Chris learned from and played with a vast array of musicians and performed on many studio projects. Having learned many styles of music including Blues, Pop, Rock, Jazz, Funk, Fusion, Country, Bluegrass, Latin, Afro Cuban and New Age, Chris has had the chance to compose and perform with countless bands and musicians and has recently began to work as a solo artist. Chris aspires to become a film composer in the future but has always and will continue to find joy in teaching his musical knowledge to all those willing to learn. |
Phyllis Ernsberger
Phyllis Ernsberger has a Bachelor's in Arts and Science
with a major in music (piano as the primary instrument)
from the University of Washington/Seattle and a Master's
in church music (organ and choral directing) from Westminster
Choir college in Princeton, New Jersey. She began her
violin studies in 7th grade and was a member of the Seattle
Youth Symphony Orchestra. She is currently director of
music/organist at Saint Andrew Lutheran Church where
she directs several choirs, rings in a bell coir and
plays fiddle in a Celtic band. Her other instruments
are recorder and accordion. |
Dee Hale
Introducing Dee Hale, a licensed Kindermusik Specialist.
Dee is a California certified Pre-school teacher who
worked in the field for over16 years. Her love of teaching
music to children is what brought her to Kindermusik
and wanting to live closer to her grandchildren is what
brought her to Washington. Dee declared her retirement
from Pre-school Education in 2004. She loves teaching
Kindermusik because it offers her flexibility of time
so she can balance teaching with writing picture books
for children. She says it will be nice to put her BA
Degree in Journalism back to work.
In addition to a career
in Pre-school education and now teaching Kindermusik,
Dee has been a voice-over talent, active in community
theatre group called Off Broadway and has directed children’s
musical plays for her church. She’s played trumpet,
has had some piano and played the flute throughout Jr.
and Senior high school in orchestra and solo competitions.
Most recently, she directed a pre-school music program
of 78 children at a private academy in Orange County,
California. |
Steve Jackson
Steve Jackson has been playing music actively for
the last 20 years. He began taking lessons at age 7,
and by 15 was studying guitar at the University of
Texas. At age 19, he began studying at Central Washington
University under classical musician and guitarist James
Durkee and jazz vocalist Vijay Singh. Steve still performs
locally with a variety of artists, including nationally
acclaimed Christian group Hyper Static Union. He is
passionate about music and enjoys helping others to
have enriching musical experiences as well. |
Becky Gregory
Becky Gregory began teaching herself to play piano
at the age of thirteen and began taking private lessons
at the age of fifteen. Piano and theory came easily
to her and within a year of beginning lessons she began
to play weekly for her church worship team. Through
our High School Becky was very active in the music
department, doing accompaniment work for choir and
drama productions, singing in various choirs, serving
as choir president and even being part of the auditioned
Nevada All-State choir.
After High School Becky studied
at the university of Nevada for two years, then transferred
to Central Bible College in Springfield, MO where she
studied music and Bible and graduated in 2005.
Becky
moved to Vancouver in 2006, with her husband David
to serve at Bethel church as children's pastors and
in June 2007 Becky also began serving as Minister of
Music for Bethel. In September 2007 Becky joined the
staff at Musical Beginnings as a piano teacher and
licensed Kindermusik educator. |
Gary Duckworth
Gary has been producing and directing musical theater
with youth of all ages for 18 years. Audiences from
100-900 people are usually left asking “How did
they get those young people to act and sing on that
level? Gary loves to teach life skills and values in
a humorous way while teaching music and drama. He feels
this is why many students return year after year.
Students
grow in self confidence as they learn to overcome insecurities
that are common to all of us. Gary works to draw out
or bring into focus what each individual child needs
to reach their full potential. Students are able to
watch and listen to themselves on camera which helps
them to act and sing with a maturity beyond their years.
Many youth theater teachers know acting but they could
be better at knowing how to motivate the youth to go
beyond the ordinary and create something special in
the role they are playing. Gary knows that “we
are all acting all the time”. We tend to learn
a lot about ourselves in a good acting class that effects
us in a good way. |
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