Michael Lund Ziegler, Executive Director
Prior to his time in Northeast Ohio, Michael founded Music for the Sake of Music, an education-focussed classical music festival in Green Bay, Wisconsin. As Executive and Artistic Director, Michael oversaw the development of the educational experiences and week-long festival of performances. Under his direction, all Music for the Sake of Music programming remained free and open to the public while experiencing consistent growth, often as much as 25% annually.
An educator and conductor by training, Michael has held positions with youth, collegiate, community, and professional orchestras and bands and both public and private schools. At each level, he has been noted for his clarity on the podium and an ability to create an empowering sense of ensemble and accomplishment amongst the players.
Michael holds an M.M. in Orchestral Conducting from Ball State University and a B.A. in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay with additional study at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music and Doctoral work at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Outside of his work in music and the arts, Michael enjoys sports, traveling, and spending time with family.
Melissa Lund Ziegler, Director of Marketing and Development
Melissa holds two degrees in Viola Performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College-
John Ross, Registrar and Operations Manager
Dr. Ross has been principal flute of the orchestra for MFSOM, the Italian-American Opera Festival Orchestra (CA), the Charleston Chamber Orchestra (WV), and has also performed with the Topeka Symphony, the Muncie Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony, and the Charleston Light Opera Guild. He has appeared as soloist with the WVSU Wind Ensemble, the FSU Symphonic Band, and the orchestra of MFSOM. He has been a featured soloist with the WVSU and Cottey College Wind Ensembles, the Florida State University Symphonic Band, the orchestra of Music for the Sake of Music, and the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra in Hamilton, OH. His flute ensemble Silver Lining Flutes toured around Costa Rica in Spring 2017, performing and giving masterclasses as part of the Promising Artists of the 21st Century series. His folk trios, Cuttin’ Bracken and Rakish Ramblers, have performed throughout northern Florida, including multiple performances at the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs, FL.
Dr. Ross attended West Virginia University, Ball State University, and Florida State University, studying with Joyce Catalfano, Thomas Godfrey, Francesca Arnone, Mihoko Watanabe, and Eva Amsler. He is also pursuing a certification in body mapping through the Association for Body Mapping Education, studying with Amy Likar.
Amy Hunter, Program Coordinator
A native of Maine, Amy Hunter holds a B.M. and M.M. in piano performance from Temple University’s Esther Boyer School of Music where she studied with Dr. Charles Abramovic. She performed in master classes with Arnaldo Cohen, Alexander Fiorillo, Lara Kargul, Oleg Koshelev, and Wu Han. Amy has taught private piano lessons for over 20 years in Philadelphia PA, Yerevan Armenia, Washington DC, San Jose CA, and Portland ME, and group piano and theory classes at Montgomery County Community College in PA.
During her time in Philadelphia Amy accompanied numerous college choirs including Temple University, Villanova University, Rosemont College, and Gwynedd-Mercy College. She also served as organist and musical director at various churches and denominations throughout Philadelphia and Washington DC. She has won or been a finalist at various competitions including Bay Chamber Concert Prizes, Pine Tree Competition, Bangor Concerto Competition, and University of Maine Farmington Concerto Competition.
In 2015 Amy founded the music school, The Hunter School of Music, in San Jose, CA where she taught and was the Executive Director for six years. HSM served over 100 students a week and employed six talented faculty members. When Amy and her family decided to move back to Maine in 2021, she passed the music school on to a new director where it continues to grow and thrive.
Amy enjoys teaching students of all ages and abilities through positive reinforcement, patience, and is dedicated to helping students feel motivated and connected to the music they are playing.
Sylvia Schwartz, Marketing Coordinator
Deeply inspired by the relationship between music, movement, and dance, violinist and teacher Sylvia Schwartz is a passionate chamber musician in both modern and historical performance practices. The power of music to heal and to bring us together drives Sylvia to teach through the Suzuki method and to perform wherever she can, from the Scarborough, ME COVID-19 vaccine clinic to Shostakovich Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia—and many places in between.
Sylvia’s history with the Suzuki method goes back to her first experiences with the violin. After a demonstration in her Kindermusik class by Stow, MA-based Suzuki teacher Doris Goldman, Sylvia was very definite about starting lessons. Her mother believes at least in part Sylvia was drawn to Doris’s vibrant, deeply kind, nurturing, and loving spirit, as well as her joy in making and teaching music. Sylvia strives to bring that same deeply kind spirit to her own students, sharing her own love of performing and music in the community as she gives students the technical, artistic, and practice tools to develop into capable, creative, and healthy musicians—and people! She has taught at Waynflete, Winchester Community Music School, Vienna Music Institute in Irvine, CA, the Boston Music Project (formerly JQOP), and was Interim Orchestra Director for three fabulous orchestras at Woodbridge HS, a Grammy Signature School.
She steadfastly believes that every child—every person—can learn, and makes it her business to meet each individual where they are on their journey of learning, discovery, and mastery. Sylvia enriches the Suzuki curriculum by drawing on her own experiences with Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, dance, theatre, and historical performance—something that in particular offers great insights into Shinichi Suzuki’s choice to include so many baroque works in his foundational repertoire. Truly, a sense of rhetoric in this music sets up compelling musicianship in the music of any era and genre and speaks to our own humanity.
Sylvia is an active and committed performer, enjoying the ways her performing and teaching inform and enrich each other. She co-founded and directs Guts Baroque, one of the first North American early music groups to livestream concerts in 2020. Guts continued a monthly livestream series through the spring of 2022, and now performs on series and festivals throughout New England including Noonday Concert Series, SoHIP, Portland Bach Experience, and Quietside Chamber Music Festival. Sylvia also plays with Baroque Orchestra of Maine (BOOM), Classical Uprising, Newton Baroque, Eudaimonia: A Purposeful Period Band, and has performed with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Los Angeles Baroque, L’Esprit Baroque, LA Master Chorale, New England Classical Singers, Harvard Baroque, and the the Amherst Baroque Academy opera orchestra. She was thrilled to return to live performances with Portland Bach Experience 2021, playing ten concerts in two weeks as Concertmaster of the festival orchestra and as Guts Baroque.
Sylvia earned an M.Mus. in Violin Performance from Longy School of Music, where she studied violin with Laura Bossert and historically-informed performance with Dana Maiben, Na’ama Lion, and Vivian Montgomery. She has continued her education with Julie Andrijeski and Elizabeth Blumenstock. She also earned a B.S. in Engineering from Olin College, where she was Concertmaster of the Olin Conductorless Orchestra.
Paul Lichter, Artistic Director – Dimensions in Jazz
Through his 20 plus years as lecturer and administrator at the Maine Jazz Camp, he has been instrumental in exposing student musicians from all over Maine and beyond to the richness of America’s most singular art form.
Founder and club owner of Portland’s famed jazz club Cafe No from 1988 to 1995, Paul is Portland’s own jazz impresario. When the club closed, Paul started DIJ and eventually teamed up with the Conservatory to offer area jazz fans a chance to hear some of the best local, national and international jazz performers.