Robyn Julyan, Director and Violin Instructor

M.M. Cleveland Istitute of Music, 2005
B.M. Peabody Conservatory of Music, 2003 
     
Robyn is originally from Albuquerque, NM, where she began playing the violin at age three.  She later continued her studies with Leonard Felberg, then professor of violin at the University of New Mexico.  She has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician throughout the U.S. and abroad.
   
She received her Bachelors of Music from the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Tokyo Quartet first violinist Martin Beaver and Herbert Greenberg, former concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony.  She received her Masters of Music in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with David Updegraff, violin department head.
     
An active chamber musician, she has been a featured performer in concert series and festivals around the country and abroad, including the Piccolo Spoleto Spotlight Series, the Charleston Chamber Players, Charleston House Concerts, and the Breckenridge Music Festival’s Winter Concert Series. 
      
In 2003 she was awarded a fellowship to help Singapore start its first conservatory, the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, and to play with the Singapore Symphony. 
   
Robyn has been a full-time member of the Charleston Symphony, held the position of Assistant Concertmaster of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and was a member of the violin section of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for three years.    
   
In the summers, Robyn plays with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, CA.

Robyn maintains a full private violin studio in Southeast Denver. Her students have been accepted to the top orchestras of DYAO, CYSO, CYS, the first violin sections of All State and the Western States Honor Orchestra, and the International Music Academy Pilsen.  She has done apprenticeship Suzuki training with renouned Suzuki pedagogue and her former mentor, Susan Kempter.

     Robyn lives in SE Denver with her husband, Benjamin Tomkins. They share their home with their cat, Molly, and their dog, Wallace.


Jessica Berg, Violinist and Yoga Instructor

Jessica Berg began studying Suzuki violin at Wheaton College in Illinois when she was three. She has played with the Steamboat Springs Orchestra and the Cascade Symphony in Portland, Oregon. Jessica began training as a Suzuki teacher with Sue Levine in Boulder, Colorado, and completed a three-year apprenticeship with Ellie Albers Leroux in 2005. Jessica has played with the Steamboat Springs Orchestra and the Cascade Symphony in Portland, Oregon.

Yoga and Music

Jessica discovered yoga while traveling in India in 1998, and became an avid practitioner. She is trained in the Iyengar tradition, and has been teaching adults and children since 2002. She continues her study with senior teachers Nancy Crum Stechert, Manouso Manos, Ramanand Patel and Gabriella Giubilaro.

Jessica has led numerous yoga workshops for children, including those for the Suzuki Association of the Colorado and Boulder Suzuki Strings. She enjoys teaching musicians how yoga can help them ease the physical stress of playing an instrument, and find an inner calm, which will aid them in performance and beyond.

Currently Jessica teaches violinists through Boulder Suzuki Strings and the Denver Waldorf School, and continues her yoga study with renowned senior teachers and enjoys spreading the teachings of yoga to the music community.

Benjamin Tomkins, Violinist, Theory Instructor

Benjamin Tomkins began playing the violin when he was 11 years old. At age 13, he was accepted into the studio of Monte Belknap, where he studied for eight years. During that time, he soloed on numerous occasions with orchestras, including the Monument Symphony, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the Western Illinois Symphony. In 2005, he was awarded his Masters of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Stephen Rose.

As a chamber musician, Benjamin has performed with the Hyperion String Quartet, and played in masterclasses and coachings with members of the Cleveland, Penderecki, Arditti, Tokyo, Miro, and Miami quartets. In 2005, he won a full-time position with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.

Teaching

Benjamin has been an active teacher for the last ten years. In 2001, he served as Adjunct Professor of Violin at Illinois College in Jacksonville. He and his wife Robyn taught at Creative Spark in Charleston, and under their guidance the program expanded dramatically. Together with Robyn’s sister, Megan Holland, they started the Charleston Educators recital series, a monthly recital program featuring students from teachers throughout Charleston. Their teaching styles incorporate the Suzuki method as well as traditional techniques.

Composition

Benjamin is also an accomplished composer. His music has been performed in recitals all over the country. He has received comissions by such ensembles as the Strada Trio in Los Angeles,  the Colorado Chamber Players, La Cueva High school in Albuquerque, and the Sioux Falls Symphony Orchestra. Benjamin recently completed a commission for a violin concerto dedicated to his longtime teacher and friend, Monte Belknap, which was performed in February 2008, in Salt Lake City and Missouri.

Benjamin currently lives in Denver with his wife, Robyn, and his cat, Molly.

Jeremy Dittus, Dalcroze Eurhythmics