Paula Unsal 
Visiting Specialist
Music Therapy
973-655-7212

Paula Unsal, MA, MT-BC, MM, BS, a professional singer and educator, holds degrees from Montclair State University, Boston University and Northwest Missouri State University. Ms. Unsal was distinguished with the honor award in opera at Boston University for two years, awarded an appearance in a Lincoln Center concert by the New York Singing Teachers Association, as well as winning prizes in Metropolitan Opera auditions. She formerly served on the boards of Bel Canto Opera and the Professional Women Singers Association.  In her more recent degree of music therapy, she was awarded the David’s Fund Graduate Scholarship. During her internship, she provided services in the adult psychiatric community, and as a board certified music therapist, Ms. Unsal has worked with adults with developmental disabilities and children on the autism spectrum. She has served as a fieldwork supervisor for Montclair State music therapy practicum students in geriatrics and as adjunct faculty at both Montclair State University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison campus.  Ms. Unsal is a member of the New Jersey Association of Music Therapists and the American Music Therapy Association.

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Jessica Valiente 
Adjunct Professor
World Music
jessicavalientenyc@hotmail.com

Flutist/percussionist/composer Jessica Valiente earned a BA in music from Barnard College in conjunction with Manhattan School of Music, an MA in music performance from Queens College and is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the CUNY Graduate Center. She studied Afro-Cuban percussion in Santo Domingo and New York City. She performs with many classical, jazz, experimental and Latin groups. Her performances include work with Nuyorican salsa conjunto of timbalero/band leader Orlando Marin, Teatro Pregones, the Harbor Wind Quintet, and an all-female straight-ahead jazz group, Nosotras, Non Sequitur (flute, violin, cello) and her own Latin jazz and salsa band, Los Mas Valientes. In May of 1999 Los Mas Valientes released their self-titled debut CD (Laughing Buddha) and later releases, Gira Caribena and Titere Fue. Ms. Valiente has taught music at Brooklyn College, John Jay College, University of Bridgeport and New School University and is currently on the music faculty of Mercy College.

Valerie Van Hoven 
Adjunct Professor
Secondary Voice and Piano
973-655-7212
valerie@vanhovenmusicstudio.com

Valerie van Hoven has studied music at the Hartt Conservatory, and SUNY Purchase. Valerie earned a BA in music education from Montclair State University and a graduate certification from the American Center for the Alexander Technique. For nine years a music teacher in the Randolph, NJ public schools, she now operates her own studio in Denville, NJ where she teaches piano, voice, and the Alexander Technique. Valerie has given workshops in voice and the Alexander Technique at Wagner College on Staten Island, Montclair State University and has assisted workshops at the Juilliard School in NYC. She has appeared as Lorraine in Steppin' Out, Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella, and Eliza in My Fair Lady in regional theater. She has been involved in more that 40 shows as musical director and played piano in the orchestra for many others.

Madeleine Ventre 
Visiting Specialist
Music Therapy
973-655-7212

Madelaine Ventre, M.S., MT-BC, FAMI, is a Board Certified Music Therapist, a Fellow and Primary Trainer of the Association for Music and Imagery (AMI), and an ATMA (Association for Teachers of Mandala Assessment) approved Instructor. She has been a clinician for over 30 years and in private practice in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) since 1981. Ms. Ventre coordinated the Music Therapy program at City University of New York from 1974-6, has been a Visiting Specialist at Montclair State University since 1978 and has been an adjunct faculty member at New York University since 1981, when she instituted the first university training in GIM. She has trained GIM students nationally and internationally. Ms. Ventre has published in professional journals and books and presented at national and international conferences. She has served on both the national and regional executive boards of NAMT, is a past president of the Mid-Atlantic Region of NAMT and has served on national committees in AMI. She is currently the director of the Creative Therapies Institute and the Center for Creative Therapies and the Arts.

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Barbara Wheeler
Professor Emerita
Music Therapy

Frances White
Visiting Specialist
Instrumental Techniques

Frances White composes instrumental and electronic music. She studied composition at the University of Maryland, Brooklyn College, and Princeton University. She has received awards, honors, grants, commissions, and fellowships from organizations such as Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (France), the International Computer Music Association, Hungarian Radio, ASCAP, the Bang On A Can Festival, the Other Minds Festival, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Music Center,  the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.  She recently completed  The ocean inside,  a work commissioned by the Third Practice Festival at the University of Richmond. Recordings of her work may be heard on the Wergo, Centaur, Nonsequitur, Harmonia Mundi, and Bridge Records labels.  A CD devoted to her electroacoustic chamber works, Centre Bridge, was released in 2007. Her music was featured as part of the soundtrack of two of Gus Van Sant's films:  Elephant and Paranoid Park. Ms. White studies the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), and finds that the traditional music of this instrument informs and influences her work as a composer.  Much of Ms. White's music is inspired by her love of nature, and her electronic works frequently include natural sound recorded near her home in central New Jersey.

James Wilson 
Visiting Specialist
Voice
973-655-7212
wilsing@verizon.net

Tenor James Wilson holds a masters degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has taught at MSU since 1987. During his distinguished career, he performed with many opera companies including the New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Goldowsky Opera. He has performed leading roles in operas, musicals and operettas including Barber of Seville Don Giovanni, Elixer of Love, Cosi fan tutte, The Magic Flute, I Pagliacci, Taming of the Shrew, Albert Herring, Curlew River, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Don Pasquale, Die Fledermaus, Falstaff, Madame Butterfly, The Merry Widow, Babes in Toyland, Naughty Marietta, Brigadoon, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance, The Gondoliers, Iolanthe and Patience. He has performed as soloist with many orchestras including the Detroit, Dallas, Baltimore, Denver, Edmonton and Vancouver symphonies. Has toured with the Robert Shaw Chorale, performed the major song cycles of Schubert, Britten Vaughan Williams and Dvorák, and the oratorios of Handel, Haydn, and Bach.

Tanya Dusevic Witek 
Visiting Specialist
Flute
(973) 655-7212

Tanya Dusevic Witek has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia with the New York Symphonic Ensemble, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Continuum. She has recorded for EMI, Bridge, NHK, CRI, Panasonic and CBC, and her debut solo recording was released in 2006 on the MSR label. Ms. Witek has appeared at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival and has toured with the acclaimed Musicians from Marlboro. As a founder of the Forest Hills Chamber Players, she is dedicated to bringing free performances to community venues in the outer boroughs of New York City. She graduated from the University of Calgary and received her master and doctoral degrees from Juilliard. Ms. Witek is currently a Teaching Artist for Lincoln Center Institute, the New York Philharmonic and is a faculty member for The Academy: A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and The Weill Music Institute.

David Witten
Associate Professor of Music
Piano (Coordinator-Keyboard Studies)
Music History
(973) 655-4379
wittend@mail.montclair.edu
David Witten - Website

Pianist David Witten has performed extensively in Europe, Russia, and South America. As a 1990 Fulbright Scholar, he spent five months in Brazil. Witten has recorded piano music of various Latin American composers. Witten's involvement in music has not been limited to performance. He is editor of Nineteenth-Century Piano Music: Essays in Performance and Analysis (Garland, 1997), which includes his landmark analytical study of the Chopin Ballades. Born in Baltimore, Witten studied at Peabody Conservatory, and Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. His undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University led to a degree in Psychology. Later graduating with high honors from Boston University, he earned the D.M.A. degree in piano performance. Witten is currently Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University.

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Chaim Zemach
Professor Emeritus
Cello