Middlesex Community College

Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta, pianist, has appeared as piano soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Peru, and Mexico. As a winner of Artists International Young Musicians Auditions, she was presented in two solo recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. Of her debut, The New York Times review called her “a thoughtful musician; her playing was full of intelligence and poetry…a pianist well worth hearing.” Ms. Rodríguez-Peralta has performed at Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood, and in the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago and Los Angeles. She has also given recitals throughout Peru, her father’s native country, under the auspices of the American Embassy. As a chamber musician, she frequently performs with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Her recordings include Teresa Carreño: Solo Piano and Chamber Works, her collaboration with cellist Luis Leguía in Music for Cello and Piano from South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and A Peruvian Sojourn: Music Inspired by Andean Indigenous Melodies, Rhythms, and Traditions, which was released by Albany Records in 2022.

Ms. Rodríguez-Peralta has given piano master classes at the Conservatorio Nacional in Lima, Peru and the music school Artes Revueltas in Cholula, Mexico, and she has presented numerous lecture recitals on Latin American music, including at Harvard University, Cornell University, Wellesley College, Tufts University, and the University of Maine. She is the editor of Piano Works by Teresa Carreño published by the Hildegard Publishing Company, and her chapter "Teresa Carreño: Triumphant Artist in a Man's World of Music" appears in A Woman's Gaze: Latin American Women Artists published by White Pines Press. Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta is also dedicated to performing new American music and has given many premieres of works by New England composers. In March 2020 she participated in the world premiere of Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues by Larry Bell in Boston. (The complete set was played by four pianists, and she played the first six.) The Boston Musical Intelligencer wrote that she “carried exceptional clarity of line.”  She performed these pieces again at Merkin Hall in New York in January 2022.

Carmen Rodríguez-Peralta holds a Bachelor of Music from Temple University, a Master of Music from The Catholic University of America and a Post-Graduate Diploma from The Juilliard School. Her teachers include Maryan Filar, Ney Salgado, and Beveridge Webster. While at Juilliard she was the teaching assistant of American composer Vincent Persichetti. She is currently the Chair of the Music Department of Middlesex Community College in Bedford, MA and Director of A World of Music Concert Series.

Music Appreciation
Piano I - IV
Piano, Independent Study
Chamber Music, Independent Study

peraltac@middlesex.mass.edu
781-280-3923

“In Orlando Cela’s able hands and imagination, a flute becomes a world orchestra,” says the Oregon ArtsWatch about Orlando’s lively performances that open new worlds of experience. Known for his compelling renditions, using imaginative programming, Orlando has premiered over 200 works, both as a conductor and a flutist, to rave reviews from the national media. Mr. Cela has performed at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian (Washington DC), the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston), and at the Center for New Music and Technologies at UC Berkeley. His credits abroad include concerts at the Zentrum Danziger (Berlin), the Espace des Femmes (Paris), and at the Musikverein (Vienna). As a collaborative artist, Mr. Cela has concertized with flutist Paula Robison, tabla player Samir Chatterjee, harpsichordist John Gibbons, and with shen (mouth organ) virtuoso Hu Jianbing. He recently became a finalist in the American Prize in the professional instrumentalist division. He recently released his third solo CD, “Shadow Etchings” with rave reviews from Grammophone, Naxos Music, and Avant Music News.

As a conductor, he serves as the Music Director of the Lowell Chamber Orchestra and the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra, and he is the former music director of the Orchestra of the North Carolina Governor’s School. He has also guest conducted the Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Choral, the London Classical Soloists, Marquette Symphony Orchestra, and others. He created the Ningbo Symphony Orchestra during his year as visiting professor at Ningbo University, in China. Orlando has received the American Prize for conducting youth and community orchestras, the Vytautas Marijosius Prize for orchestral programming, and the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for excellence in the performance of American music. His interpretation of Beethoven’s Symphonies 7 and 8 with the London Classical Soloists earned him a second prize with their competition.

celao@middlesex.mass.edu

http://www.orlandocela.com/

Guitarist Raley Beggs is an active concert performer and pedagogue. Florida born and Boston based, he performs solo and chamber works for the classical guitar and seeks to emphasize the instrument’s versatility and collaborative capability.

As an educator Raley Beggs serves as faculty at Middlesex Community College teaching class guitar and private lessons and is the founding guitarist at EKS Music School. His students have gone on to gain entrance to Berklee College of Music, win internationally competitive awards with The Royal Conservatory of Music, and perform in concert venues that include Carnegie Hall in New York City. Raley also served as Faculty at Bridgewater State University and Competition Director for the prestigious annual Boston Guitarfest, where he also taught private lessons, coached ensembles, and performed.

Established through the Community Performances and Partnerships Program at New England Conservatory, Raley’s focus on community outreach led him to share concert programs all over the New England area for community centers, schools, places of worship, and assisted living facilities. Raley taught at the Malden YMCA and later served as the first guitar instructor for the Boston-based guitar classes at Fiorentino Community Center with The Kithara Project.

Raley Beggs received his Bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and Master’s from New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with the esteemed Eliot Fisk. He is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts under profound guitarist and pedagogue Bruce Holzman. Raley is also an established singer-songwriter, performs weekly, and competes in endurance athletics.

beggsr@middlesex.mass.edu

http://raleybeggs.com

Born near Eindhoven (the Netherlands) Robert Bekkers received his teaching and master's degrees in classical guitar at the Conservatory of Maastricht. A scholarship from the Dutch Government enabled him to study abroad with the guitarist and composer Angelo Gilardino at the Accademia Superiore Internazionale di Musica "Lorenzo Perosi" in Biella, Italy and the Conservatory of Alessandria, where he developed his knowledge of both guitar technique as well as the contemporary guitar repertoire. While accompanying flamenco dance classes, Robert formed the group "IMPETU" consisting of 9 musicians and dancers, mixing flamenco and classical music. He played Mexican music with the group Serenata Mexicana in the Netherlands. Between 1997 and 1999, he toured with the Amstel Guitar Quartet. As a result of this wide range of activities, Robert is versatile in classical, flamenco, and other styles, and he continues to perform both as soloist and with other instrumentalists. In recent years, Robert has focused on performing new compositions and arrangements in a variety of settings. One of such projects is to perform works composed for his piano and guitar duo with Anne Ku. The composers Erik Otte and Allan Segall dedicated works to them. Robert recently received his DMA Degree from New England Conservatory where he studied with Eliot Fisk.  Currently he teaches classical guitar at the South Shore Conservatory, Gordon College, and Middlesex Community College.

Guitar I and II
Guitar, Independent Study

bekkersr@middlesex.mass.edu

https://dutchguitar.com/

Todd Brunel is a clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator who performs extensively as a classical and jazz musician. He has been a member of several acclaimed original music projects including: Musaner (Music of Armenia re-imagined), The Eric Hofbauer Quintet, Made In the Shade, the Dylan Jack Quartet, the David Haas Group, the Last Taxi with Pat Battstone, the Sonic Explorers and the avante-funk band, The Circadian Rhythm Kings. He performs frequently with Peter Cassino and Sal Baglio and has worked with Andy Pratt, Laurence ‘Butch’ Morris, Jonathan Stout and his Campus 5, Garrison Fewell, Louis Bellson, John McLellan, Dave Maxwell, Daniel Carter, Bobby Watson, John Tchicai and Guo Yhazhi. Brunel is the director of the Vortex Series for New and Improvised Music and has been awarded grants by the Somerville, Cambridge, Arlington and Massachusetts Cultural Councils.

Mr Brunel was a member of Music at Eden’s Edge, and he has appeared as a guest artist with the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra Salon Series, The Arlington Philharmonic, the Chaminade Music Club, ALEA III, The Chromatic Club of Boston, The International Cat Murr Composers Society, The Bulgarian Virtuosi, Xanthos Ensemble and Opal Ensemble which he co-founded in 2012. He has premiered new works by composers John McDonald, Alla Cohen, John Kusiak, Pamela Watson, Vache Sharafyan, Vuk Kulenovic, Pamela Marshall and many others. Some of his recent appearances include Carnegie Hall, ISIM 2015-16, Dartmouth College, Bard College, Boston College and Spazio Teatro NO'HMA in Milan. The Boston Globe has hailed: "Clarinetist Todd Brunel and pianist Cynthia Sture played with tremendous virtuosity and heart." He can be heard on several critically acclaimed albums including the Eric Hofbauer Quintet Prehistoric Jazz Volumes One, Two, Three and Four (CNM), Musaner (Lucent Music), Alla Elana Cohen: Red Lillies of Bells (Ravello Records), The Dylan Jack Quartet: Diagrams (CNM) and the soundtrack to several independent films including: One Cut One Life, and the PBS documentaries, the Battle of Chosin and Paul Robeson, 'Here I Stand'.

Todd Brunel is currently on the music faculty of Middlesex Community College, and he teaches instrumental music in the Arlington Public Schools. He is also affiliated with the Powers Music School in Belmont. Previously Todd was the Director of Music at the Heronfield Academy in Hampton Falls, NH, and on the clarinet and saxophone faculty as an artist at Wheaton College. He holds a Master of Music from the Brooklyn College Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music from the Boston Conservatory, where he was a clarinet student of Atilio Poto.

Clarinet and Saxophone, Independent Study

https://clarinetconspiracy.com/home

Richard Chowenhill is an award-winning composer and guitarist. His music has been performed across North America by the Lydian String Quartet, the Talujon Percussion Ensemble, the Beat City Percussion Ensemble, the Wellesley Composers Conference Orchestra, Music From China, members of the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, members of the UC Davis Early Music Ensemble, the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble, and numerous other soloists and ensembles.

Originally from California, Richard has performed as a guitar player in numerous California-based bands and chamber ensembles. Currently he performs with the Boston-based experimental group Ehnahre, and will appear on the group’s forthcoming record. Drawing influence from his experiences performing in rock and metal bands, chamber ensembles, orchestras, jazz groups, an early music ensemble, several theatre productions, and a Hindustani vocal ensemble, his compositions frequently reflect his diverse musical background. Richard is currently the resident composer and associate artistic director with the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble.

Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts in music composition and classical guitar performance from the University of California at Davis, and a Master of Fine Arts in music composition and theory at Brandeis University, where he is currently a Ph.D. candidate.

Music Technology II and III online

chowenhillr@middlesex.mass.edu

http://www.richardchowenhill.com

Susan Dill, lyric soprano, is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music with a major in Choral Education. She studied voice with Alice Long Walker, Philip A. Duey, Robert Gartside, and Ella Lou Dimmock, and piano with Alice Kern and Kenneth Seitz.

In addition to her training in classical vocal and piano music, Ms. Dill is at home with Broadway and popular songs, and has served as music director for a number of musicals. Her credits include The Music Man, Carousel, Something's Afoot, The Drunkard, The Apple Tree, Little Shop of Horrors, The Robber Bridegroom, Godspell, A Child's Christmas in Wales, Working, Baby, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, The H.M.S.Pinafore, Celestial City, Ebenezer Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, and Song on the Wind, where she played the role of the Squaw Sachem.

Ms. Dill also has a love of folk music, especially that of America and the British Isles. She has performed as soloist at Middlesex Community College, most recently in A World of Music Concert series' American Folk Tradition: Songs of the River, Rails, and High Seas. She has directed the Middlesex Community College Chorus, the Concord Madrigal and the Hartford Street Singers, and performed with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Boston and Lenox. In addition to teaching, she is also choir director and organist at the historic Eliot Church in Lowell.

Piano I - IV
Voice I

dills@middlesex.mass.edu

James Grenier is an instructor at Middlesex Community College where he teaches Introduction to the Music Business, Business Ethics and related courses. He first piloted Music Business at MCC in 2008, based on his 16 years in the industry as a radio broadcaster, music director and producer.

Outside of the classroom, he is the Director of Online Education at MassBay Community College and both speaks and publishes regularly on the use of games and simulations in learning.

Mr. Grenier is a graduate of Middlesex Community College, having earned an Associate Degree in Fine and Performing Arts. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Music from The University of Massachusetts Boston and a Master of Education in Adult and Organizational Learning from Northeastern University.

Introduction to the Music Business

grenierj@middlesex.mass.edu

Pamela J. Marshall studied at Eastman and Yale and has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony. She has written for chamber ensembles, chorus, orchestra, synthesizers, and mandolin. Her commissions include "Walden at Evening" for the International Horn Society at their Memphis symposium in 2013, South Beach Chamber Ensemble in Miami, Mastersingers of Lexington, MA, Green Mountain Youth Symphony, organist Carson Cooman, Assabet Valley Mastersingers, Unitarian choirs in Massachusetts and Minnesota, the Fisher Foundation, Axiom Duo, Trio Arundel, mandolinist Neil Gladd, and DanceArt.

At Eastman and Yale, she studied composition, horn, conducting, and electronic music. Her teachers included Jacob Druckman, Joseph Schwantner, Betsy Jolas, Warren Benson, and Samuel Adler in composition; horn studies with Verne Reynolds, Paul Ingraham, Charles Kavalovski, and Jean Rife; and conducting with Arthur Weisberg. Ravello Records released a CD of her chamber music titled “Through the Mist” in 2015. Her mandolin music is recorded on Plucked String and Uncommon Strings CDs and chamber music is recorded on the Beauport Classical, Clique Track and Living Artist labels. Her label Nachursona has released two CDs of her nature soundscapes. Her Christmas arrangements for orchestra “Traditional Christmas” and “Three Appalachian Carols” have been played throughout the United States. From 1998 to 2005, she was a member of Just In Time Composers and Players, a Boston-area collaborative of composers and performers that presented several concert seasons of beautifully accessible new music. Since 2005, the Spindrift Commissioning Guild, with contributions from friends and patrons, has supported several projects for new chamber music and recordings. A major project has been Art-Poem-Music, a collaboration with visual artist Sirarpi Heghinian Walzer and poet Elizabeth Kirschner. She has also written a series of poetry-inspired solos for various instruments.

Pamela Marshall plays horn in the Concord Orchestra and Carlisle Chamber Orchestra. She has written music software and developed sounds for Kurzweil synthesizers and written technical documentation about software programming tools. She leads improvisation workshops, records concerts and nature soundscapes, and does photography and web design.

French Horn, Independent Study
Composition, Independent Study

http://www.spindrift.com

Johnny Mok, cellist, was born in Hong Kong, and he began cello lessons at the age of five at the Hong Kong Performing Arts Academy. He continued his musical studies in New Mexico, where he moved with his family when he was in elementary school. Mok was awarded a full scholarship, sponsored by Camilla Huxford, at the University of Alabama for the Bachelor of Music Degree in Cello Performance under the tutelage of Carlton McCreery. During his college years he won every string competition in the state of Alabama, including the Birmingham Music Guild, Alabama Federation of Music Clubs, and the Camilla Huxford Concerto Competition. At the age of twenty, Mok won the position of Section Cello with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, Mok performed Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, under the baton of Blake Richardson, as a result of the Camilla Huxford Competition.

After his undergraduate degree, Mok went on to study at The Boston Conservatory with Andrew Mark. In Boston he continued his passion for chamber music and solo performing. In 2016, he was the founding member of the Aston String Quartet and was featured in Berklee College of Music/Boston Conservatory 150th Anniversary. He and the Aston String Quartet premiered “Alcantara” by Scott Ethier. In the summer of 2017, Mok was invited as a Cello Fellow at the National Repertory Orchestra, where he where he performed with the notable musicians Stephen Hough, Karina Canellakis, Brett Mitchell, and Michael Stern. Immediately after his Master of Music Degree, Mok was awarded full tuition to a Professional Studies Certificate at the Boston Conservatory. During his certificate studies, Mok appeared as a soloist performing Popper’s Hungarian Rhapsody with the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, Mok founded the Aroma Duo with his piano partner, Tianhong Yang. Together they have been actively performing in various chamber music series and venues across the New England Area. Last month he appeared as cello soloist with the New Hampshire Philharmonic in the Rococo Variations by Tchaikovsky.

Mok is Principal Cello of Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra, Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra, and New Hampshire Philharmonic, and he frequently performs with the Lowell Chamber Orchestra. He is a member of the music faculty at Middlesex Community College and an active teacher in the Boston area. Mok is currently pursuing a DMA at Boston University with Michael Reynolds. Thanks to a generous patron, he performs on a 1724 Martinus Mathias Fichtl Cello.

Cello, Independent Study

Marcus Santos, contemporary percussionist and educator, is a native of Bahia, Brazil and commits his life to the study, teaching and performance of his hometown's Afro-Brazilian music and heritage. Marcus received a scholarship and completed his studies with honors at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has performed with artists such as Paquito D'Rivera and the Gipsy Kings. Recently, Marcus performed for the Sony Pictures Oscar nominated movie 'Rachel is getting Married' featuring Anne Hathaway. He has been honored with the Outstanding Arts Performer Award by the Brazilian Immigrant Center (2008) as well as Outstanding Percussionist by Berklee College of Music in 2004.

Marcus produced his own DVD Modern Approach to Pandeiro and the DVD Musically Speaking II together with BOSE.  He also appears on a new DVD by drummer Neil Peart (from the rock band Rush) produced by Hudson Music.  Marcus leads workshops on Afro-Brazilian percussion and music for Social Change in universities and conventions around the world such as MIT, Harvard, Brown U, Universidad Central de Venezuela and PASIC 2007, 2010 and 2011. He is currently the director of the Grooversity network project, and is the artistic director of drumming groups in seven different states in the US.

World Drumming
Percussion, Independent Study

santosm@middlesex.mass.edu

https://www.marcussantos.com

Johannah Segarich, Professor of Music and Coordinator of the MCC Music Outreach Program until her retirement in July 2016, has performed as a mezzo-soprano with the Opera Company of Boston, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Concert Opera, Longwood Opera, and the Boston Opera Association school programs. Her numerous operatic roles include Hansel and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte, Maddalena in Rigoletto, and the title role in The Medium. She has also performed throughout New England in recitals, as an oratorio soloist and in outreach programs. In addition to her vocal performance career, she has been a speaker and panelist for numerous events nationally and internationally. Ms. Segarich received a Bachelor of Music from Boston Conservatory, where she participated in the Opera Theater Program, and a Master of Music degree in voice performance from Boston University.

In the summer of 2010, Professor Segarich participated in a U.S. Department of Education grant funding a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad to Cambodia. Until her retirement she was engaged in two projects which came out of this grant: a project to include Cambodian music in the Lowell Public Schools and a capital campaign, called Strings for Cambodia, to raise funds to send Luis and Clark carbon fiber (Western) string instruments to the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In the fall semester of 2014, Professor Segarich was granted sabbatical leave, during which time she studied Arabic and Arabic music. The presentation of an Arabic concert in the fall 2015 and the accompanying Blackboard module are some of the results of her sabbatical project.

Although Johannah Segarich has retired from the fulltime faculty, she will continue to teach Music Appreciation and American Music online.

Introduction to American Music online
Music Appreciation online

segarichj@middlesex.mass.edu