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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.

Ruth Rendleman
Professor of Music
Piano - Theory - Music History
973-655-7208
rendlemanr@mail.montclair.edu

Ruth Rendleman was educated at the North Carolina School of the Arts, Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University. She is a specialist in the performance of eighteenth-century music. She has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for research and studies at the University of Maryland and has served on the faculty of the Aston Magna Performance Institute. She has performed as a solo artist and in chamber recitals throughout the New York metropolitan area. Her tours abroad have included performances in Korea, China (where she was artist-in-residence at the Shanghai Conservatory), and Australia. In the New York Times, Joseph Horowitz wrote that: "The performance showed force and fluency, consistently communicative. Her work had a firmness of design and continuity of emotion." Her interest in contemporary music led her to commission her colleague, Ting Ho, to write a piano sonata for her. She has received two major commissions from the N.J. State Arts Council for new piano works. Prof. Rendleman founded Montclair State's Preparatory Center for the Arts and Stokes Forest Music Camp. She has served as the music coordinator of the New Jersey School of the Arts and served on the board of the College Music Society. She also served as chair of the Committee on the Status of Women for the College Music Society.

Jeffrey Kunkel
Associate Professor
Music Education
(Undergraduate Coordinator)
MSU Jazz Ensembles/Jazz Piano
973-655-7215
kunkelj@mail.montclair.edu

Jeffrey Kunkel (D.Ed., Music Education, Penn State University; M.M., Jazz Studies, New England Conservatory; B.S., Music Education, Penn State University) serves as Coordinator of Music Education and as director of the MSU Jazz Band, which performs at festivals throughout the area, including the Villanova Jazz Festival, University of the Arts Jazz Festival, and New York Vocal Jazz Festival. Prof. Kunkel is serving his third term as president of the New Jersey chapter of the International Association for Jazz Education, and is Jazz Procedures Chair for the New Jersey Music Educators Association. He is active as a jazz pianist, composer, adjudicator, and clinician, and was selected to direct the Pennsylvania District IV Jazz Band early in 2007. He also had the honor of conducting the 2006 and 2002 New Jersey Intercollegiate Jazz Ensemble, the 2003 New Jersey Region II Jazz Ensemble, and the 2000 New Jersey Region I Jazz Ensemble. He can be heard on a CD release by jazz trumpeter and composer Peter Sciaino. He was also featured prominently on piano, keyboards, and trumpet on a 2001 CD release by singer/songwriter Julie Aaron entitled Borrowed Time.

Mark Pakman
Assistant Professor
Piano
973-655-7212

Mark Pakman's solo recitals and collaborations with other musicians have taken him throughout North America, Mexico, Russia and Europe. He performed at New York major concert halls and Richter Museum in Moscow, at a Mostly Mozart Festival pre-concert, Bard and Amati Festivals in New York State, 8th International Cervantino Festival in Mexico, Musica Camerino Festivals in Italy and Bedford Springs Festivals in Pennsylvania. He also appeared on radio and TV. Mr. Pakman premiered compositions by Hayess Biggs and Alexander Zhurbin and wrote program notes for the Russian Disc and Consonance CD releases. A graduate of Moscow State Conservatory, Mr. Pakman has been on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and Preparatory Division and 92nd Street Y School of Music. He serves on the board of the Leschetizky Association. He has judged numerous auditions and competitions including a scholarship competition at the Juilliard Preparatory Division. His students have won prestigious competition awards. Mr. Pakman has been working at Montclair State University since 1980.

Lisa DeLorenzo
Cali School Deputy Director
Professor of Music — Music Education (Graduate Coordinator)
Secondary Piano
973-655-7220
delorenzol@mail.montclair.edu

Prof. DeLorenzo holds an EdD from Teachers College, Columbia University, an MME from Indiana University, and a BS from West Chester State University -- all degrees in music education. At MSU she is the Coordinator of Music Education where she teaches music education courses and supervises student teachers. Her interests in creative and critical thinking and movement/dance as well as teacher education have provided material for numerous articles in practitioners and research journals. In addition, Prof. DeLorenzo continually seeks teaching opportunities with young children. Her work as a public school music teacher, with the MSU Preparatory Division, and on a Hopi Indiana Reservation attest to that interest.  In 1993-1994, Prof. DeLorenzo was awarded a John A. Goodlad Fellowship for study at the Institute for Educational Inquiry in Seattle. Her fellowship was one of eighteen selected throughout the country to examine teacher education and school renewal. She served on a writing panel for the New Jersey Department of Education to draft the core proficiencies for music instruction in the State of New Jersey and has been a clinician on music teaching throughout the Eastern region of the USA. Her affiliations with teaching organizations include the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA), and other nationally recognized education organizations.

Renée Louprette
Visiting Specialist
Organ
973-655-7212

Renée Anne Louprette has been Associate Director of Music at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York City, since 2005. She previously served as Organist and Director of Music at the Churches of St. Ann in Avon, Connecticut and Immaculate Conception in Montclair, New Jersey. European performances include solo recitals at the festivals of Magadino, Switzerland, In Tempore Organi, Italy, Ghent and Hasselt, Belgium, and Toulouse Les Orgues, France. She participated in the international organ competitions of Chartres, France; Bruges, Belgium, and the national competition of the American Guild of Organists. In July 2007, she was featured at the Region II Convention of the American Guild of Organists in New York City performing music of Ned Rorem and Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. She has performed as an accompanist with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, the National Chorale and Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, Orchestra of Our Time, Piffaro and CONCORA. As organist and harpsichordist, she has performed with l'Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestra New England, and the keyboard trio TRIPTYCH directed by Grammy award-winning composer Paul Halley. She holds a Bachelor of Music in piano performance and a Graduate Professional Diploma in organ performance from the Hartt School of Music. She earned a Premier Prix mention très bien in 2003 from the Conservatoire National de Région de Toulouse, France and a Diplôme Supérieur in 2005 from the Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse, both in organ performance. Her teachers have included Dame Gillian Weir, Larry Allen, James David Christie, Jan Willem Jansen and Michel Bouvard.

Gwendolyn Toth
Visiting Specialist
Harpsichord
973-655-7212

Gwendolyn Toth is recognized as one of America's leading performers on early keyboard instruments and performs with equal ease on the harpsichord, organ, fortepiano, and clavichord. She holds the D.M.A. in performance from Yale University. She is Director of Music at St. Francis of Assisi Church in New York City and has taught at Yale University, Mount Holyoke College and Mannes College of Music. She has won prizes in the Magnum Opus Harpsichord competition and in American Guild of Organist competitions. She has been heard in concert throughout North America, Europe and the Far East, and on radio networks in Holland, Germany, France, and America's National Public Radio. She has performed in early music festivals in Boston, USA; Utrecht, Holland; Regensburg, Germany; and the Czech Republic. She has recorded CDs of organ works by Heinrich Scheidemann and J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. Ms. Toth also has an active career as conductor of historical performance ensembles and orchestras. She is the director and founder of New York City's virtuoso period instrument ensemble, Artek, that has released the first North American recording of Monteverdi's opera, Orfeo. Ms. Toth's interests also extend to contemporary music. She has worked and recorded with eminent composer/performers such as John Cage, Rhys Chatham, Petr Kotik, Dave Soldier, Louis Andriessen, and Elliot Sharp at BAM Next Wave Festival, The Kitchen, Bang on a Can Festival, Cage Nachttage in Köln, Germany, and others.

Monsoon Han Kim
Adjunct Professor
Secondary Piano
Accompanist
973-655-7212

Mansoon Han Kim has won numerous competitions including the Yale Gordon Competition, the Yook Young Competition, the Piano Music Competition, and Nan Pa Music Competition. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Seoul National University in 1991. In 1992, she began studies with concert pianist Ann Schein at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore (MD), where she received her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. She has performed throughout the United States, Canada, South Korea, and China. She has performed with members of the Maia String Quartet, Ceruti String Quartet, the Anchor Trio, and soprano Hyunah Yu. Kim has won the Clara Ascherfeld Accompanying Award, Peabody Career Development Grant. She has studied at summer festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, the Orford Arts Center, and the Kent Blossom Summer Chamber Music Festival and participated in master classes by Mennahem Pressler, Leon Fleisher, Abbey Simon, Jörg Demus, Sergei Dorensky, and Gabby Casadesus.

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.