TASIS Music Instructors 2015

TASIS Music Program

Instructor Biographies

Daniel Bagutti – Modern Percussion From Lugano, Daniel started to play the drums at the age of three. He began playing professionally with Koan, a well-known Swiss rock band. He has since played with JC Harpo, the Red Hot Blues Sisters, J-Bross, Marco Marchi, and others. Festival appearances include Estival Jazz, Blues to Bop, Blues in Lugano, and Music Under the Stars. From 2012 to 2014 he played professionally in New York City with Thierno Camara, Fay Ola, Marvin Dolly, and Shannon Soderlund.

Ingrida Barrow (née Daktere ) – Piano Ingrida has been teaching and performing professionally since 1992, and joined the TASIS music program in September 2014 as both piano teacher and accompanist.

She graduated in 2001 with a Master’s in piano from the Jazeps Vitols Academy.

She enhanced her studies in 1996 and 1997 at the Conservatoire de Musique de Luxembourg under Beatrice Rauchs and Carlo Jans before being tutored in Toronto by Canadian/Latvian pianist, Arthur Ozolins. Her professional engagements have included concerts in Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Ukraine, Canada, the US, and the UK. To date, she has made recordings at the Latvian Radio Studio, Luxembourg Radio Studio, and CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.

Dessislava Deltcheva – Violin Dessislava’s career as a violinist began during her childhood in Bulgaria. In 1998 she graduated with honors from the Lubomir Pipkov College for Music and Performing Arts in Sofia, continuing her studies at the Academy in Sofia with Elisaveta Kazakova. She has since studied at the Musikschule Konservatorium Bern and theConservatoire de Musique de La-Chaux-de-Fonds-Neuchâtel and she holds a post-graduate Diploma Certificate of Advanced Studies in Education for string instruments at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano.

Dessislava has performed in many professional orchestras throughout Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. She collaborates regularly with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and since 2013 has been leader of Arcadia, the Camerata dei Castelli orchestra. In 2008 Dessislava established her own successful violin and chamber music studio in conjunction with teaching violin at the Leonardo da Vinci Institute and TASIS.

Alessio di Tonno – Guitar Alessio joined the TASIS music team in 2013. Over the past 10 years, Alessio has developed an accessible group and individual teaching technique for students in both elementary and middle schools in Italy and Switzerland.

During this time he has also been a freelance guitarist performing with his band Tra liga e Realtà and has performed in over 1000 concerts throughout Italy and central Europe. Alessio has greatly increased the numbers of students engaging in guitar and modern music, through guiding students’ initiative to create music with others. He also offers coaching in songwriting and composition.

Samantha Forrest – Voice Now in her fourth year at TASIS, Samantha shares her experience and expertise as both a teacher and professional soprano coaching the TASIS choristers and teaching voice. Initially trained as a cellist, her professional background includes singing engagements with Lyric Opera Australia, English National Opera, London Voices Covent Garden, Scottish Opera, the BBC London and the Volksoper Vienna, and theater management in London’s West End. Internationally educated and Masters qualified, she now coordinates the TASIS music program and maintains elements of her performance career as a concert recital artist.

Jonathan Morris – Voice Jonathan has an international career as a pianist, répétiteur, and vocalist that has spanned 60 years. His principal collaboration, initiated at the Metropolitan Opera House with Grace Bumbry, lasted 33 years and included performances at every major opera house and theater in the world. This includes historic performances such Nelson Mandela’s first European concerts in Paris, varied performances for charity events for Prince Charles, and the inauguration of Ronald Reagan at the White House. His background encompasses performances with classical colleagues such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Gwyneth Jones, Rita Streich, Shirley Verrett, Montserrat Caballe, Eva Marton, Edita Gruberova, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti, and with popular music names such as Frank Sinatra, Liza Minelli, Johnny Carson, Charlie Pride, and Dean Martin. Jonathan’s collaboration with Ms. Bumbry led to engagements to teach Masterclasses to advanced professional students which began in Salzburg in 1988 and successfully continued for a decade. This lead to the development of his specialist teaching studio which has given birth to many professional singers who are now enjoying enormous success in major opera houses throughout the world, including the Metropolitan New York, Covent Garden London, Salzburg Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Geneva Opera, Paris Opera, and La Scala Milan. He has been working with TASIS students since 1999 and continues to regularly travel to Sweden, Portugal, Croatia, London, New York and Salzburg to teach.

Melody Tibbits - Voice Melody’s love of music began at age four, singing onstage with her family band who traveled with 26 different instruments. She moved to California to perform and toured Japan, Europe, North America and parts of southern Africa as a performer, teacher, manager and director. On these tours she fell in love with teaching and returned to California to graduate from CSULB Music Conservatory, where she was mentored by great artists and musicians.

She spent four years teaching and gigging in Los Angeles and Orange County, where she performed with Broadway artists such as Susan Egan, Laura Bell Bundy, Hugh Panaro, Nita Whitaker and Brian Stokes Mitchell and worked with director Mark Watters. She began teaching for the Performing Arts Program at TASIS in the summer of 2009, where she formed a band entitled Melody Tibbits & The Cade which has featured at events and venues including Blues to Bop, MelidEstate, Aspettando Estival, Piazza Della Riforma Lugano, Hotel Villa Sassa, Hotel Swiss Diamond, the Grotthard Cafe and others. Melody featured in a duet with lead singer, Nic Maeder, on renowned Swiss rock band Gotthard’s chart-topping 2014 album Bang!, which recently won best album at the Swiss Music Awards. Melody is passionate about music education and her students’ love of music and feels blessed to be able to pursue her dreams while encouraging students to do the same.

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