Nancy Goodwin
Nancy is the founder and director of Upbeat New Hampshire and conducts the Upbeat New Hampshire Ensembles. Her private teaching studio in Nashua has 20 students. Nancy also performs regularly with Symphony New Hampshire.
Nancy began learning violin in a New York public school string program in 3rd grade. She studied violin privately with Margaret Pardee of the Juilliard School, Matthew Raimondi of Vassar College and Mimi Bravar, Music Director Emerita of Phillips Exeter Academy. Nancy attended the Meadowmount School for the Violin during summers and the Queens College String Seminar under Alexander Schneider. She received a Bachelor’s of Arts in Music Composition from Vassar College.
She has been a teacher at the Nashua Community Music School and group violin and ensemble teacher in the Nashua School District. Nancy conducted the Hollis Brookline String Ensemble for Hollis Brookline Public School students and three times at the NH String Festival Orchestras.
She has performed opera and orchestral works with Concert Orchestra of Long Island and was Concertmaster with Opera on the Sound. New Hampshire performances include New England Symphony, Nashua Symphony, and SymphonyNH. She developed a performance program and performed with a Nashua Symphony String Quartet to demonstrate string instruments for the twelve Nashua elementary schools
Kimberly Plummer
Kimberly is Assistant Program Director for Upbeat New Hampshire. Beginning violin study at the age of three, Kim is a firm believer in the importance of music being an integral part of children’s lives. As a young violinist she studied with Ron Lantz of the Portland String Quartet and always participated in their summer chamber music program at Colby College. She also played for several years with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Kim has performed with several area orchestras including serving as principal second violinist for the NH Philharmonic and working as a sub for the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra, Symphony NH and the Great Bay Philharmonic. Kim lives in Nashua, New Hampshire with her husband, Andrew, and four school aged children. She is deeply invested in the Nashua schools and the community that surrounds them.
Kim holds a bachelor’s degree in recreation management and policy from University of New Hampshire. Paired with a love and passion for both children and music, Kim is thrilled to be in role merging all her skills and passions.
Beth Welty
Beth Welty teaches group lessons in the elementary school program. She received her Bachelor and Master’s degrees in violin performance from Indiana University, where she was a student of Yuval Yaron. She has performed with numerous groups in the Boston area, including the Boston Classical Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. She has performed abroad with various organizations, touring Italy with the Chorus of Westerly and South Africa with the London Chamber Players. She toured Spain twice as concertmaster of the Massachusetts Symphony. In 2014, she traveled to Switzerland to perform a solo recital, and in 2015 did a five concert tour of England with the Aryaloka String Quartet.
Beth is the assistant principal second violinist with the Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra, and serves as concertmaster of both the Nashua Chamber Orchestra and the Waltham Symphony Orchestra.
An avid chamber musician, Beth is a founding member of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Ensemble. In 1991 she made her Lincoln Center debut with the Boston Quartet, of which she was also a founding member. She maintains a private teaching studio in her home in Waltham.
Priscilla Hayes Taylor
Priscilla Hayes Taylor is the creator, cellist, programmer, researcher, and artistic director of Decompression Chamber Music. She is a member of the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra and Symphony New Hampshire. Ms. Taylor performed with Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, the Temptations, and Mary Wilson of The Supremes. She has performed with various chamber groups and orchestras in New England, California, Nevada, France, Austria, Vietnam and Thailand. Ms. Taylor has a MM in Cello Performance from New England Conservatory, and a BA in Music Performance and Composition with a minor in Spanish Literature from Bennington College. An experienced cello teacher and chamber music coach, Ms. Taylor has taught privately and at various educational institutions in California and New England, Ms. Taylor is currently on the music faculty at UMASS Boston. She received a Provost’s award for scholarly and/or creative activity from that institution in 2012.
Brianne Biastaff
Brianne Biastoff teaches Zoom music theory for Upbeat New Hampshire and has taught music theory at Sinfonietta Summer Week. She is a resident of Nashua and currently in her sixth year both as choral director at Nashua High School North and as a member of the adjunct choral faculty at University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Mrs. Biastoff received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from UMass Lowell, and has twice participated in the Sarteano Chamber Choral Conducting Workshop, studying conducting with Brian O’Connell and Simon Carrington. Mrs. Biastoff’s high school choirs have performed in several collegiate festivals, as well as performing at several venues in Belgium, Montreal, and New York City. She teaches both Honors and Advanced placement Music Theory at Nashua North.
Before returning to graduate school, Mrs. Biastoff maintained a private studio for nearly ten years at her previous home, in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. Many of her private students have participated in All-Eastern and both MA and NH All-State festivals. Mrs. Biastoff has recently performed with several choral groups, including the New Hampshire Master Chorale, the Berkshire Bach Society, the Chamber Singers of UMass Lowell, and Lexington’s Masterworks Chorale, as well as currently being a staff singer for First Church in Nashua.
Lisa Brooke
Lisa Brooke is Upbeat New Hampshire’s string teacher for Birch Hill and Amherst Street Elementary Schools. She taught string ensembles and private students at Shore Country Day School for 3 1/2 years and at Salem State University. Lisa’s teaching philosophy is wrapped around her firm belief that learning is a fluid art form. Beloved by her violin students and violin class alike she is able to provide the students what they need in order to flourish.
As a student at Music and Art High School, where she was concertmaster and graduated with highest honors, and the Manhattan School of Music Pre-college division, Lisa spearheaded music outreach lecture/concerts in the underserved population of NYC, through the public schools. She received her BFA from Suny College at Purchase, where she was concertmaster of the senior orchestra.
As a performer, Lisa Brooke is concertmaster of Symphony by the Sea. She has appeared as soloist with New England Classical Singers and the Salem Philharmonic. She performed in NYC with the Orchestra of St. Lukes`, and with Leonard Bernstein and James Levine in the Music for Life concerts, in Carnegie Hall. In Boston, she subs with the Boston Symphony Pops, is principal second violinist and has recorded with Coro Allegro and is concertmaster for the New England Classical Singers. Lisa is a tenured member of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra.
ON BAROQUE VIOLIN, she has performed with the New York Collegium, Concert Royal, Rebel Baroque Orchestra, Amor Artis, the American Classical Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Cecilia, and as concertmaster/soloist with Tempesta Di Mare (Philadelphia.) She currently performs regularly with Tre`s Maresienne at the Museum Concert Series of Somerville, First Church Cambridge, and on Cambridge Society for Early Music’s series. She began studying Baroque performance practice, as a young girl, in Vienna, Austria, where she lived for 3 years.
Kyra Davies
Kyra Davies taught strings at Bicentennial Elementary School for Upbeat New Hampshire for 2 years and is currently a substitute teacher for Upbeat. She received her Bachelor of Music degree at age 20 from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, studying under Kenneth Goldsmith. She continued her studies at the Longy School of Music, where she was a recipient of the inaugural Eric Rosenblith Scholarship and appeared as concertmaster of the Longy Chamber Orchestra. Other private teachers have included Ronan Lefkowitz, Kazuko Matsusaka and Robert Eshbach.
Kyra enjoys an active teaching career and has served on the faculties of Youth and Enrichment Family Services (Hyde Park, MA), the Belmont Public Schools, and the Sharon Music Academy.
She regularly appears with Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, South Florida Symphony Orchestra, Symphony New Hampshire, Orchestra of Indian Hill, New England String Ensemble, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. As an orchestral musician, Kyra has worked with performers ranging from Itzhak Perlman and Denyce Graves to Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and hip-hop artist DJ Premier. She has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra of St. Margaret Mary and the National Repertory Orchestra. Recent highlights include appearances at the New Hampshire Music Festival under Donato Cabrera, the Castleton Festival (Castleton, VA), where she worked with Donald Runnicles and Lorin Maazel, and the Siena Music Festival (Siena, Italy).
Carolyn Fryer
Carolyn Davis Fryer, bassist, has a wide range of experience as chamber musician, orchestral player, coach and teacher. She has performed extensively around Europe, South America, the United States and Mexico. Notable touring opportunities have included travelling to South America with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehta, multiple U.S. tours with the Brandenburg Ensemble under the direction of Jaime Laredo, and several east coast tours as part of the prestigious “Music from Marlboro” concert series. As guest artist she performed with Isaac Stern at the State Department in Washington D.C. and for the Kennedy Center Honors to honor her mentor, Alexander Schneider, in a nationally televised live broadcast.
Chamber music guest appearances have included performances with Triple Helix, Lavazza, the Colorado and Mendelssohn Quartets, the Orion Trio, Maine Mountain Chamber Music, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. Ms. Fryer has also spent multiple summers performing in the Grand Teton and Marlboro Music Festivals.
Since moving to the Boston area in 1996, Ms. Fryer has performed regularly with the Boston Ballet Company and Boston Musica Viva. In addition to Boston University’s School of Fine Arts, she is on the music faculty at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell and, as guest artist, has coached at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) and the New Hampshire All State Chamber Music Festival.
Before moving to Massachusetts, Ms. Fryer was an active freelance musician living and working in New York City where she was Principal Bassist with Philharmonia Virtuosi, performed with the American Ballet Theater, and taught at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts and Mannes Preparatory School of Music. She graduated from the Juilliard School where she was awarded the Zimmerman Scholarship for Outstanding Achievement and earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees.
Susan Faux
Susan Faux teaches strings at Upbeat New Hampshire summer week program each summer. She received a BM from Hartt School of Music and a MM from New England Conservatory. She has studied violin with Eric Rosenblith, Ben Sayevich, and Charles Treger and chamber music with members of the Emerson Quartet. Sue has also attended teacher training workshops at University of Wisconsin at Steven’s Point.
Sue has performed with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Albany, Vermont, Portland ME, Newfoundland CANADA, Greenville SC, Richmond, Jacksonville, and Springfield MA symphony orchestras as well as Rhode Island Philharmonic, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Ballet Florida, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Michigan Opera Theater, Orchestra of Indian Hill, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Philharmonic, and Symphony New Hampshire. She is also a member of the orchestra at Sarasota Opera, where she plays co-principal 2nd violin.
Ms Faux has participated in numerous summer festivals including New Hampshire Music Festival, Bellingham WA, Aspen, Hampden-Sydney VA, Conductors’ Institute at Hartt, and Musik Festival Davos in Switzerland. She was also a member of the orchestra for the North American tour of “Star Wars in Concert”.
Sue is a former member of the faculty of the Community Music Schools of Manchester and Concord NH, Winchester MA, as well as the coaching staff at Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. She lives in Jamaica Plain
