Our Instructors
Sally O’Reilly, violin
Sally O'Reilly is known throughout the music world as a soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. Professor of Violin at the University of Minnesota School of Music in Minneapolis, she studied with Ivan Galamian at Curtis Institute and with Josef Gingold at Indiana University, where she was his assistant. Later she studied with Andre Gertler and Carlo Van Neste in Brussels, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. Her chamber music coaches included Janos Starker, Gyorgy Sebok, Artur Balsam, William Primrose, and Felix Galimir.
Professor O'Reilly's former students are members of the world's major symphony orchestras and hold prominent teaching positions throughout the United States, Asia, and Australia. They have been first prize winners in numerous competitions including the Vittorio Gui in Florence, Italy, the Tokyo International, Irving Klein International, Music Teachers National Association student competitions, and the Banff String Quartet Competition.
She has held Fulbright Senior Lectureships to teach in South America, and has been visiting professor of violin in China, Austria, Ireland, Germany, Israel, Central America, Canada, Korea and the Czech Republic.
Professor O'Reilly has been a frequent member of adjudication panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Commission, Chamber Music America, ASTA, and MTNA. Her many pedagogical publications for Kjos Music Company are distributed internationally.
John Haspel Gilbert, violin
Violinist John Haspel Gilbert is Professor of Violin at the Texas Tech University School of Music in Lubbock, TX. He is the recipient of the 2015 TexASTA Phyllis Young Outstanding Studio Teacher Award, and the TTU President's Award for Excellence in Teaching. Praised by legendary performers such as the late Josef Gingold ("I have great admiration for this superb violinist"), Glenn Dicterow ("Obviously we are dealing with a very high level of artistry"), Camilla Wicks, Arnold Steinhardt and the late Joseph Fuchs, he is an active soloist, recitalist and chamber music collaborator, regularly performing throughout the United States, having appeared from coast to coast in prestigious venues from Weill Recital Hall in New York City, to Abravanel Hall in Santa Barbara (CA). Recent international engagements have included performances in Brazil, France, Iceland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. A sought after clinician and adjudicator, he has been heard in concert in every major city in Texas. His former students perform in major orchestras, hold university positions, and are public school educators, throughout the US, Brazil, and Russia.
Gilbert served as concertmaster of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra for 13 seasons. With the LSO he appeared as soloist in the concerti of Beethoven, Brahms, Corigliano, and Sibelius. He previously held this position with the Baton Rouge Symphony and Knoxville Symphony and has been a member of the faculty at the SMU Meadows School of Music, University of Memphis, and Hope College. Gilbert was the teaching assistant to Sally O'Reilly at both the University of Minnesota and Louisiana State University. A former member of the artist faculty member of the Green Mountain (Vermont) Chamber Music Festival, his other summer festival appearances have been at the Madeline Island (WI) Chamber Festival, Schlern (Italy) International Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, BRAVO! Summer String Institute, Eastern Music Festival, Heidelberg Castle Festival, Killington Music Festival, and the Spoleto Festival.
Gilbert's principal studies were under the tutelage of Sally O'Reilly and Charles Castleman. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, the Yale University School of Music, and the Eastman School of Music, and has held fellowships at the Aspen Music School in both chamber music and orchestral performance. His chamber music studies were with current or former members of the Julliard, Tokyo, Cleveland, Fine Arts and Yale string quartets, and the Eastman and Rafael trios.
Mr. Gilbert may be heard on the Centaur, Naxos and Innova labels. His most recent recording, of the Sonatas of Samuel Barber and Richard Strauss, will be released on the Fleur de Son label in 2016. His recording of the Kurt Weill Concerto and the Alban Berg Kammerkonzert with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra was released on the Sono Luminus labelin September of 2012 (Sono Luminus 92161).
George Work, Cello
George Work, professor of cello at Iowa State University, holds his bachelor’s and master’s degrees of music and a performer’s certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where he also served as teaching assistant to Robert Sylvester. His principal teachers include Robert Sylvester, Paul Katz, Ronald Leonard, Gabor Rejto and Carol Work.
In 1981, he joined the Ames Piano Quartet, in residence at Iowa State University. In the course of its career, the Quartet released fourteen critically acclaimed CD recordings, one on the Musical Heritage label, five on Albany Records, and the others on Dorian/Sono Luminus Recordings. The Ames Quartet appeared regularly in concert throughout the United States and Canada. International appearances included Salzburg, Austria, Paris and Marseilles, France, Taipei, Tainan, Kashiong and Taichung, Taiwan, Merida, Mexico, Havana, Cuba and Kaliningrad, Russia. The group was also featured on NPR’s “Performance Today,” WQXR’s “The Listening Room,” and appeared on a special edition of “St. Paul Sunday” commemorating the 50th anniversary of WOI radio. This latter led to an invitation to tape a second “St. Paul Sunday,” which aired nationally for the first time in November 1999. In 2012, following the retirement of two long-time members, the Quartet was renamed the Amara Piano Quartet. It continues to concertize throughout the US under the new name, and has recently released its first commercial CD on the Fleur de Son label.
George Work has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras in the Midwest, as well as in Taiwan, R.O.C. and Kaliningrad, Russia. His recording of the Ibert Concerto for Cello and Winds was released in 2012 to critical acclaim. A faculty member at the a Brevard Music Center in North Carolina from 1998-2002, George Work was also chosen to be an artist faculty member at the first-ever Schlern International Music Festival, held in Voels am Schlern, Italy, in the summer of 2003. In addition to concertizing with the Ames Piano Quartet, George Work is also a member of the Belin String Quartet and the Des Moines Symphony. In 2016, he became the first-ever recipient of the Jean Bacon Louis Faculty Fellowship.
Autumn Deppa, violin
Autumn Emily Deppa is a native of Wisconsin who has played for orchestras across the country including Spoleto USA, New World Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival and Colorado Symphony. Autumn holds four degrees in violin performance, with Sally O’Reilly and Elmar Oliveira among her principal teachers. Her orchestral responsibilities have led to collaboration with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Sir James Galway and Itzhak Perlman. Autumn currently serves as a violinist with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and runs her own private violin studio in downtown Colorado Springs.
Melissa Holm-Johansen
Soprano Melissa Holm-Johansen is a native of Halden, Norway, and is a 1998 graduate of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, USA, where she graduated cum laude with a double major in vocal performance and music education. Dr. Holm-Johansen holds a D.M.A. in vocal pedagogy and performance from the University of Minnesota and was a two year recipient of a Torske Klubben scholarship.
Dr. Holm-Johansen is a longtime member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and was previously awarded the NATS Independent Teacher Award. She has a private voice studio at her home in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and is the Vocal Performance Program Instructor at Shattuck – St. Mary’s Boarding school in Faribault, MN. She is a section leader at The House Of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul and studies with Tony-nominated singer/actor Melissa Hart and University of Minnesota professor Jean del Santo.
Dr. Holm-Johansen serves on the board of directors and the program committee of the Edvard Grieg Society of Minnesota.