CWU Preparatory Strings Program

08-09 Prep Strings Staff

(more info to be added soon!) jaffeja @ cwu.edu
Jan started playing violin in fourth grade, joined choir in middle school, and finally was able to participate in band in her senior year of high school playing percussion. She knew she wanted to teach music and went straight after high school to CWU as a vocalist in the music education program. After graduating in 2005, she enjoyed substitute-teaching for various orchestra, choir, and band programs in University Place (outside Tacoma) and Ellensburg, while also offering private voice lessons. She is happy to return for her second year as the Prep Strings Program Director! Though her job, schooling, and hobbies are mostly music-related, Jan also enjoys crafts, board games, BBQ's, and her crazy dog Stilts (named so for his noticeably long legs).

bpsmith @ cwu.edu
Bret Smith is a teacher educator, conductor, and cellist who specializes in instrumental music education. He holds degrees in music and systematic musicology from the University of Washington, where he worked with James C. Carlsen and Barbara Reeder Lundquist, and a Master of Music and Doctor of Philosophy in music education from the University of Michigan, where his mentors were Robert L. Culver, James O. Froseth, Richard J. Colwell, and Anthony Elliott.

Dr. Smith has taught instrumental and vocal music from elementary to high school in Washington state, and comes to CWU from Maryland, where he taught as a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Music from 1999-2005. He has served on the Executive Boards of the Washington and Maryland Music Educators Associations, and the faculty of the Maryland Summer Youth Music Camp and the Laughing Horse Youth Orchestra Festival. He has conducted numerous honor orchestras, including the Prince George's County High School Honor Orchestra in Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center in 2000. He has participated in the Aspen and Marrowstone music festivals, the International Institute for Chamber Music, and the International Workshop, where he studied conducting with William LaRue Jones and Marvin Rabin. His recent clinics include the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, the Eastern Division Music Educators National Conference, the American String Teachers Association national conference, and the West Virginia, Colorado, and Washington Music Educators Association state conferences. He frequently provides in-service sessions in the public schools, adjudicates orchestra festivals, and works with private arts organizations.

He enjoys performing as a member of the Yakima Symphony cello section, the string ensemble Trio Sole' (with Susan Coson and Jackie Gause), on electric cello with the trio Uku the Mighty (with John Moen and Greg Vik), as tenor banjo player in an as-yet-unnamed Dixieland band (with Curtis Peacock, David Blink, and Jeffrey Chapman), and as the lead guitar player in the classic rock band Short Term Memory (with Dale Hubbard, Todd Pederson, and Jeff Lund). He frequently collaborates in other chamber ensembles with CWU colleagues on cello, baroque cello, bass, guitar, and banjo.

Smith is co-author, with James O. Froseth, of the innovative string method Do It! Play Strings! published by GIA Publications. In addition to incorporating sequential pedagogy into authentic, diverse musical repertoire, he performed all the cello models and produced and mixed the 5 CDs that define the curriculum. His research interests include students motivation and personal investment in instrumental music study, personality and music teaching and learning, and the assessment of musical learning. He has published articles in several peer-reviewed and discipline-specific journals, including the Psychology of Music, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, the Journal of Research in Music Education, and the American String Teacher. He is currently Chair of MENC's Special Research Interest Group on Assessment.

Early Beginners Violin Class
Master Teacher Barb Riley
Barbara Riley, violinist and violist, received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Western Washington University. While in Bellingham, WA, she was introduced to the Suzuki Method and encouraged to begin teaching. In 1988, she spent several months in Matsumoto, Japan, studying with Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. For 23 years she led a busy life in Seattle, teaching violin and viola and playing in musical theater. Barbara has taught at many Suzuki Institutes including Seattle, Oregon, Idaho, Palouse and Walla Walla.
Since moving to Ellensburg, Washington in 2005, Barbara enjoys sharing the Suzuki method and philosophy with her new students and their families. She continues to be active in chamber music, orchestra and fiddling groups, and enjoys her new life on a small farm that she shares with her husband, a dog, a cat, and two horses.



Beginning Strings




Silver Strings




Gold Orchestra




Debut Orchestra




Kittitas Valley Youth Orchestra
Kim Roy, Director and Graduate Teaching Assistant
Kim is a long time resident of Washington state and going on her sixth year in the grand city of Ellensburg. She completed her bachelors in viola performance at Central Washington University in the Spring of 2007 and is continuing her education at Central, focusing on a Masters in Orchestral Conducting. Kim is the assistant director of the Central Washington Symphony Orchestra, studying under Dr. Nikolas Caoile. She is still an active violist in the Stretta and Pike String Quartets as well as the CWU Chamber Orchestra. Over the years Kim has coached, assistant directed, or directed every group in the Preparatory Program. Kim is very excited to continue working with the Kittitas Valley Youth Orchestra for the second year. When not conducting or playing the viola, Kim likes to drink coffee, read ee cummings, and romp about with her pointer puppy Nora.