Winds/Strings/Brass

Mary Allen-Lynch, Flute

Mary Allen-Lynch has an extensive background of over 40 years in music education and music performance. Having taught piano, flute, voice lessons as well as Music History at Culver Academies, a college preparatory boarding school in Northern Indiana for over twenty years, she brings a wealth of teaching and performing experience to her current students at Stafford Music Academy. Her teaching philosophy has always been that of an artist-teacher as well as being student centered. She believes wholeheartedly in meeting students where they are in terms of individual learning styles and their personal goals for studying music. Mary believes in using a variety of methods, techniques, and technology to help students learn and grow as musicians. She includes elements of music theory as a natural part of the early learning process.

Mary Allen-Lynch holds a Bachelor of General Studies from Indiana University with a focus on Music, Folklore and German. She also holds a Masters in Music and Arts Technology from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She is a seasoned professional and has played the piano for 56 years since the age of 6. She studied privately with Purden Lausten and Thomas Lawston in her early years of piano. In addition to piano, Mary Allen-Lynch began studying flute at the age of 10. She continues performing on both flute and piccolo in the Bloomington Community Band and the Bloomington Community Band Flute Choir. She was also very active in teaching, coaching and performing with the Music Theater program at Culver Academies. In 2012 she traveled with and coached a student theater group’s musical production during performances at The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh Scotland. She has accompanied extensively and enjoys working with and supporting soloists.

In addition to teaching at Culver Academies, she has also maintained a private teaching studio working with both children and adults of all ages throughout her professional life. In addition, she has worked extensively as a musician within various worship traditions and spaces, playing piano, organ, flute and as a song leader.  Locally, she currently sings in the soprano section of the choir at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Bloomington as well as accompanying the choir at Beth Shalom on occasion.

Another part of Mary’s musical life is volunteering locally with music and memory sessions, utilizing the power of music within the brain to positively impact the lives of those with dementia and Alzheimer’s as well as their families and caregivers. She currently volunteers at Better Day Club and and in Gentry Park’s memory care residence. Mary Allen-Lynch has traveled and lived abroad for long periods of time, including Malaysia and Japan. She counts her years of living in many diverse cultures as a hugely formative factor in her education. She teaches music so that others may find their voice in many ways and enjoy the many benefits that music lessons and education bring to the quality of life.

Dr. Sean Burdette, Trumpet

Sean Burdette is a trumpeter, educator, and entrepreneur based in Bloomington, Indiana.. Primarily a classical performer, Sean is also proficient at jazz and baroque styles. He holds an a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University.

As an active performer, he has played with the West Virginia Symphony, Bourbon Baroque Orchestra, and Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, and has performed with prominent artists such as Joshua Bell and Nicole Parker. While at Indiana University, he was a student of John Rommel, Edmund Cord, Marie Speziale, and Kris Kwapis. In 2019, Dr. Burdette published a series of method books titled "Brass in Color," that uses an innovative, color-coded tablature to teach young students how to play brass instruments. Brass in Color was a Finalist in the 2019 Music Teacher Awards for Excellence in London. In addition to being a performer and educator, he founded Songburd Music Publishing - an independent music publishing company that provides publishing services for new composers.

Cody Byrum, Cello

Native Oklahoman and cellist Cody Byrum has performed throughout the United States as well as internationally, including performances in Nice, France and Loja, Ecuador. Cody currently serves as the principal cellist of the Billings Symphony, and he has additionally performed in orchestras such as the Evansville Philharmonic, Owensboro Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and the Ft. Smith Symphony. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Oklahoma Youth Orchestra, and the Billings Symphony.

Cody is an avid chamber musician, regularly performing in variety of ensembles. He has been a guest chamber artist with the Billings Symphony, and most recently he was a guest chamber artist with the BrightMusic Chamber Ensemble in Oklahoma City. Cody was also previously a teaching assistant at the Fresno Summer Opera Orchestra Academy, as well as cello faculty at the Sinfín Armonía music festival in Ecuador.

Cody received his Bachelor of Music with distinction from the University of Oklahoma, and his Master of Music from Indiana University. He is currently finishing his Doctor of Music degree at Indiana University, researching the chamber music of Ernö Dohnányi. His primary teachers include Emilio Colón and Jonathan Ruck, with additional instructors including Eric Kim, Lynn Harrell, Thomas Lowenheim, Austin Hartman, and Mark Hollowa

Anoushka Divekar, Clarinet

Anoushka Divekar (she/her/hers) is a first-generation American who remembers coming home to hearing her mom singing Hindustani Classical Music, as her dad played Tabla. Her love for music was early and nurtured well. She started clarinet at the age of 10, after two years of learning violin and piano. While she developed a love for performing, and a great fondness for the teachers who had supported her endeavors, she’d tell her mom that her music was “wrong” upon coming home. However, she was so taken by the art form that she therefore began study at the University of Colorado Boulder in Clarinet Performance and Music Education. Throughout her degree, she noticed many inequities in the school system, leading her to question the way she was taught, and her cognitive dissonance about her own Indian heritage.

Anoushka also grew to acknowledge the many privileges she held, which allowed her to pursue her passions. Performing many recitals and concerts led her to realize that the works of BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people, and women were consistently left out of the music that she played, and the faces she saw in her schools. Throughout her undergraduate, she was part of CU Boulder’s Diverse Musicians’ Alliance, a group that sought to normalize and amplify all voices in the realm of music making. She is a part of the clarinetrepertoire.com team, continuing Dr. Maggie Greenwood’s dissertation of cataloguing a database of clarinet works written by people with a range of gender identities in an effort for them to be played on more clarinet recitals. This led her to creating the Take Two Knees concert, and pledging to play works by all kinds of composers on her programs.

Anoushka currently attends Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in pursuit of a Doctor of Music, with a Doctoral Minor in Music Education. Anoushka graduated with her Bachelors degree in Music Education and Clarinet Performance in May 2020 from the University of Colorado Boulder. She graduated with her Master’s degree from Texas Tech University in May 2022. Her primary teachers are Professor Gábor Varga, Dr. David Shea, Professor Daniel Silver, and Dr. Christine Bellomy. She has attended Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Eastern Music Festival, and Rocky Ridge Music Festival, and has performed most recently with CU, TTU, and IUs top ensembles. She serves as principal clarinet in the virtual Dad Village Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, she won first prize in the International Clarinet Association’s Clareidoscope Festival Collegiate Category Essay Competition and Performance Competition in April of 2021.

Anoushka looks forward to a future of performing and teaching. Anoushka is a classroom and private teacher and has now become adept at teaching both in person, and online. She is passionate about social justice, and restorative justice education and feels compelled to use music as a vehicle to make change.

Lauren Greene, Violin

Lauren Greene is a gifted violinist with a passion for orchestral performance and teaching. She
also enjoys chamber music, opera, new music, religious music, and pops orchestras. Lauren Greene
graduated with a Master of Music in Violin Performance at the College Conservatory of Music at the
University of Cincinnati in 2021 and a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance at Kennesaw State
University in 2019. Ms. Greene studied violin with accomplished musicians such as Stefani Matsuo, Giora
Schmidt, Helen Kim, Janet Sung, Jay Christy, and Angele Lawless.

Ms. Greene began teaching private violin lessons in 2014 and it has been an enriching and
fulfilling part of her career since. Lauren has been a violin teacher at multiple music studios where she has
taught students from age 5 to 70 through individual private lessons and group classes. Ms. Greene has also
enjoyed teaching students in public schools, by coaching sectionals, giving demonstrations and casual
performances at various middle and high schools. In both her undergraduate and graduate education, she
sought out pedagogy courses to further develop her teaching skills and benefit her current and future
students. Lauren employs a traditional method of teaching, drawing heavily from the Suzuki method
books while creating a uniquely tailored collection of method books and repertoire for each student.

Ms. Greene has abundant experience playing in orchestras. She has been a section violinist with
the Carmel Symphony Orchestra in Indiana since 2023. In addition, Lauren has played with the Kentucky
Symphony Orchestra, Danville Symphony Orchestra, Georgia Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Pops
Orchestra, and the Marietta Pops Orchestra. She has also attended numerous chamber and orchestra
festivals: Brevard Summer Music Festival, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Miami Classical
Music Festival, and the Credo Festival.

 

 

Hayne Kim, Violin

Korean-American violinist Hayne Kim leads a distinctive musical career as a performer and educator that has brought her around the world. She made her solo Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 16, and has performed as a soloist with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra (Michigan, USA) and Tuscia Operafestival orchestra (Viterbo, Italy). An active chamber musician, Hayne has collaborated with reputed artists such as Alexander Markov and Clive Greensmith, and performed for diverse occasions ranging from ensemble performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to intimate gatherings at the home of Thailand’s Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.

Taking a special interest in contemporary music, she is the violinist and co-founder of Círculo Trio, an ensemble dedicated to exploring and presenting new and/or underperformed works alongside standard repertoire. Projects that the trio has commissioned include The Triumph of Time, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale for actor and trio with original music, and a collaboration with Bangkok City Ballet for Thea Musgrave’s theatrical chamber work, Pierrot

Hayne holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and Michigan State University. Her past mentors include Lyman Bodman, Grigory Kalinovsky, and Dmitri Berlinsky. Dedicated to sharing her experiences with up-and-coming generations of musicians, she served as a faculty member of Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music in Bangkok, Thailand from 2017-2022. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Music degree at Indiana Jacobs School of Music under the guidance of Kyung Sun Lee.

Erin Napier, Viola & Violin

Erin Napier currently enjoys a dynamic and versatile career as a performer of orchestral and chamber music. She currently performs as a section violist of both the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, she was selected as a semi-finalist for the Ekstrand Memorial Graduate Competition and a finalist for the College of Music Honors Competition at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After earning a dual degree in viola performance and music education from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, she went on to complete her masters in viola performance and pedagogy at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2019. She received a performer’s diploma from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2024. Notable past appearances include the National Repertory Orchestra, Round Top Festival Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival and Brevard Music Center.

 

In addition to performing, Napier is a dedicated educator, with over a decade’s worth of experience in private and group instruction spanning across four states. Working with students of all ages, she aims to facilitate every student’s unique creativity and individuality at each stage of their music learning. She is certified in Suzuki Books 1 and 2 for violin and viola, and her teaching approach draws from the influences of the Alexander Technique and Body Mapping, Kodaly, Havas, and Rolland methods.

Jessica Prus Harris, Flute

Jessica has studied flute and piano privately since she was in middle school. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Flute Performance from Northwestern University and the University of Louisville. She also recently completed her Master of Music Education degree at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Jessica performs on flute and piccolo with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic. Jessica has been teaching piano and flute for the Stafford Music Academy since 2008.

Zach Walter, Trumpet & Violin

Zach Walter is a trumpeter and violinist based in Bloomington, IN. Having started music at a young age, it quickly developed into a deep passion. Following the footsteps of his first trumpet teacher, Zach received his Bachelor of Music from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where he also specialized in music production. He is currently finishing his Master of Music at Indiana University.

Zach began teaching in 2019 with the philosophy that anyone can learn an instrument. It is never too late, and the love of music should be a universal experience. He has helped students of all ages and skill levels along their musical paths through personalized, student-centered instruction.

While classically-trained, Zach is also immersed in the jazz/commercial realm as a lead trumpet player. He has a diverse performance history spanning a variety of genres and ensembles, including solo work, chamber music, orchestras, wind bands, jazz ensembles, and mariachi bands. His performance has been recognized at the national level, having placed in the quarterfinals of the National Trumpet Competition in 2022 and 2024.

Zach has extensive background in the marching and pageantry arts communities, having toured nationally for two years with the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps in the Drum Corps International circuit. Previously a brass instructor with the Hawthorne Caballeros Drum and Bugle Corps, he remains active in the community teaching various high school marching bands in Indiana and southeastern Pennsylvania.