Junior Music Program

Mary Beth Tyndall

Junior Program Director

Mary Beth Tyndall is a cellist in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and performs in the symphony’s string quartet. She is also on the Arizona Commission on the Arts roster as a member of the Southwest String Quartet. As a chamber musician she has performed a wide variety of string quartet works from the classical to contemporary periods. She is also actively involved in educational programming and performances for young people. She is known for her portrayals of the more outrageous characters in the children’s books of Susan Lowell (such as Josefina Javelina), which the quartet dramatizes annually as soloists in the Tucson Symphony Kinderkoncerts series. The chamber music festival created by the Southwest String Quartet is a two week workshop in Tucson for middle and high school students. Mary Beth is one of the original founders of this festival and is the primary cello coach and orchestra conductor. She has also taught at the Chamber Music in the Mountains camp on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, the Northern Arizona University Summer Music Camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, the Tucson Cello Congress, the Valley of the Sun Suzuki Workshop in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Kenai Peninsula Orchestra Summer Festival in Alaska. She is frequently a sectional coach for Tucson adult amateur orchestras and youth orchestras. In 2016, she was named Outstanding Studio Teacher by the American String Teachers Association.

Mary Beth has a Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance and Music Education from Ball State University and a Master’s Degree in Cello Performance from the University of Arizona. She has studied with Joseph Saunders, Gordon Epperson, Claus Adam, Martha Gerschefski and Hans Jorgen Jensen. She maintains a large studio of cello students of all ages and levels! Many of her students have performed as soloists with local orchestras and are continuing their studies in music conservatories around the country.  As a performer and teacher her philosophy is one of joy, self-expression and personal growth through music.

Maggie Polk Olivo

Junior Program Composition and Music Theory

Maggie Polk-Olivo wears multiple hats as a musical collaborator, composer, educator and performer. Passionate about music education and new music, she is the creator and director of the BloomingSongs project- a music collection of works by renowned artists from all over the world. She teaches and co-directs the Fairview Artful Learning Violin Project alongside Brenda Brenner while coordinating the school’s performing arts program. Awarded the IU Freshman Composition Competition, she studied music composition with P.Q.Phan, Sven-David Sandstrom, Don Freund, Claude Baker, and Marilyn Shrude at IU Jacobs School of Music. Recognized by the Music Educators National Conference and a National Young Composer Award semi-finalist in her youth, Olivo has since had music performed and commissioned by the Southwest String Quartet, Vera String Quartet, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Kim Carballo, Alejandra Martinez, and Sara Fraker.

In addition to composing, Olivo directs the IU JSOM’s Musical Beginnings and co-directs the Musical Arts Youth Organization’s Bridges, teaching music composition and chamber music. She is certified in the methodologies of John Feierabend, Musikgärten, Orff-Keetman Schulwerk, and Kodály Methodology. Maggie presents teacher-training workshops throughout the year and has been the recipient of Smithville, Puffin, and BUEA Foundation grants. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana with her husband and two children. In addition to creating music with and for others, she loves gardening and putting on shows with her kids.

Carol Rankin

RRMA Faculty

Carol Rankin studied at the Mannes College of Music and received her Master of Music degree with distinction, and Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music. As winner of the Frank Huntington Beebe Award for Musicians, she received a grant for one year’s study at the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, Hungary. Carol also studied Dalcroze Eurhythmics at the Longy School and is currently pursuing teacher certification at the Dalcroze School of the Rockies in Denver. She has been on faculty of the South Shore Conservatory of Music, the Washington Conservatory of Music, and the College of William and Mary, as well as, a chamber music coach for the Denver Young Artists Orchestra. Carol maintains a private studio in Denver.

www.carolrankinmusic.org

Jason Lichtenwalter

JAS & YAS Faculty

Jason Lichtenwalter holds the Oboe/English Horn position with the Colorado Symphony in Denver and the Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon.  Previous positions include Principal Oboe with the Dallas Opera Orchestra and East Texas Symphony as well as Associate Principal/2nd Oboe and Acting English Horn with the Honolulu Symphony.  He has also performed with the Dallas Symphony (Dallas and Vail), Fort Worth Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and Colorado Bach Ensemble, among many others.  As a featured soloist, he has appeared on oboe, oboe d’amore, and English horn.  He served as adjunct faculty at the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of Denver.  Jason earned oboe performance degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Eastman School of Music.  His primary teachers were James Caldwell and Richard Killmer, and he pursued post-graduate studies with Elaine Douvas, Robert Walters, Mark Ackerman, and David Matthews.  In October 2020, he founded Peak Reeds, an online reed and cane shop catering to oboists and English hornists at altitude.

William Hinkie

Violin/Viola Faculty