Erin Archer
Erin Archer has been teaching Suzuki violin and viola for over 20 years. She began studying violin at the age of nine and has held several roles in the Knoxville area: Knoxville Symphony violist, youth orchestra conductor, string coach, early childhood educator, and Suzuki parent.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Ms. Archer has extensive Suzuki teacher training in violin, viola, and early childhood education. She is regularly seeking training as she has a belief in lifelong learning. Erin has taught an after-school string program at Tate’s School since 2016. Over the course of this very different year, Erin teamed up with her sister Megan and co-created a music education platform, learnwithmuze.com.
Ms. Archer has performed with the Knoxville Symphony, Oak Ridge Symphony, and various ensembles of multiple genres around the Knoxville area. She is also a member of the Knoxville Symphony Education Advisory Council and helps with the annual planning of the KSO Young People’s Concerts.
“Working with the Philharmonia has been a privilege and a great opportunity to watch our youth orchestra students grow musically. I’m proud of this group, sticking with the virtual and distanced setting and stepping up as musicians.”
Jim Fellenbaum
James Fellenbaum is in his 10th year as the Music Director and Conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra. He joined the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra during the 2006-2007 season as a Guest Conductor, before becoming Resident Conductor in 2008. His duties with the KSO include serving as cover conductor for the KSO’s subscription series and conducting Outreach, Pops, and Young People’s Concerts. Also, Maestro Fellenbaum has been the Director of Orchestras at the University of Tennessee since the Fall of 2003. The UT Orchestra Program includes the Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra (founded in 2004), Opera Orchestra, Studio Orchestra, and the Contemporary Music Ensemble (founded in 2006).
In May 2018, Maestro Fellenbaum was named Artistic Director and Conductor of the Brevard Philharmonic (NC), with his first season occurring during the 2018-2019 season. He has conducted orchestras nationally and internationally, including recent guest conducting engagements with the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic (PA), Springfield Symphony (MA), Asheville Symphony (NC), Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Orange County Symphony, American Youth Philharmonic, the Symphony of the Mountains, the Satu-Mare State Philharmonic and Sinfonia Bucharest Orchestra of Romania, and the Russe Philharmonic and Vidin Philharmonic of Bulgaria. Maestro Fellenbaum was invited to the 2006 First International Gennady Rozhdestvensky Conductors Competition, where he was a top-five finalist out of 112 conductors from 26 countries around the world.
Maestro Fellenbaum holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violoncello performance from James Madison University in Virginia and holds a double Masters degree in violoncello performance and orchestral conducting from Northwestern University.
Kathy Hart
This is Kathy Hart’s twenty-fifth season conducting in the KSYO. She is also the General Manager for the Youth Orchestra Association.
Kathy began her music connection with the Suzuki Method as a violin student in Western New York State. Her environment was filled with a great deal of love and support from family and teachers. She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a concentration in Suzuki Pedagogy. Her long-term teacher training was under the direction of Debbie Goolsby. Kathy also trained with teacher-trainers William Starr, Louise Wear, Linda Fiore, Hiroko Driver, and James Mauer. She’s been active in teacher enrichment courses offered by master teachers, Sandy Reuning, Lorraine Fink, Alice Joy Lewis, Mark Bjork, Kay Collier-Stone, Terry Durbin, Joanne Bath, and Mary Kay Neal.
Kathy directs Hart-Strings, a violin ensemble with students four through 18 years old who perform several times throughout the community each year.
She created the youth orchestra’s annual string camp program with fifteen string students and one assistant. The 2019 string camp celebrated 25 years with 247 students and staff! String Camp has served over 3600 students since 1994.
Kathy is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Tennessee where she teaches the String Methods courses and assists string education majors in-field experience and observation; she also helps organize the Violin Festival through the School of Music. She has volunteered with several school string programs and was instrumental in bringing the orchestra program back to Bearden High School in 1998. Kathy has also been a guest conductor for ETSBOA, had a student selected in the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, and has been recognized six times with an Outstanding Teacher Award from the state of Tennessee Governor’s School of the Arts. Recently, she was honored as a finalist in the YWCA’s Tribute to Women.
Megan Kehren
Megan joined the KSO in 2011 as a part of the viola section and has been teaching orchestra and private violin/viola lessons as well as performing over the course of her career.
Her musical education led her to Southern Methodist University for her undergraduate degree in music education, and she went on to earn a graduate degree in viola performance at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she served as the viola studio’s teaching assistant. In Colorado, Megan had the fortune of studying chamber music with Erika Eckert, Judith Glyde, and the Takács Quartet.
Megan’s passion is teaching, and she enjoys teaching privately as a Suzuki teacher in Knoxville, as an adjunct instructor of violin and viola at Maryville College, and being a part of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra. This season she happily serves as the conductor of the Preludium Orchestra with the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra and enjoys providing an encouraging environment for our area’s young musicians. During the past year, Megan has also created a new music education platform called Muze along with her sister Erin Archer. learnwithmuze.com
In her spare time, Megan loves developing her new skills as a ceramics hobbyist as well as hiking in the mountains near and far with her husband, Frank.
Cynthia Wright
Mrs. Cynthia Wright is in her seventh season working with the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association and is currently the conductor of the Sinfonia Orchestra. She is the Orchestra Director at Montgomery Ridge Intermediate School in Maryville. Mrs. Wright attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, both in music education. In 2004, she began her teaching career at Karns High School and West Valley Middle School. After two years teaching in Knox County, Mrs. Wright moved to Wilmington, NC where she taught orchestra at Roland-Grise Middle School for eight years. She returned to Knoxville and resumed teaching in Knox County Schools in 2014. She spent five years as the director at Bearden High School and West Valley Middle School. Mrs. Wright is currently the Orchestra Chair of ETSBOA, a member of NAfME and TMEA, and has served as a mentor teacher, clinician, presenter, and adjudicator. She lives in Clinton with her husband, Wes, and their two children, Carson and Elaina.