It’s time to vote for the MASTA Teacher of the Year. In 2014, our organization began alternating this award between studio teachers and classroom teachers each year, and this is the year to award a studio teacher. Voting is open until January 6, 2020. Please read about each candidate below, and then cast your vote by following this link:
2020 Teacher of the Year Candidates
Andrea Yun
Dr. Andrea Yun is currently a member of the Michigan Opera Theatre and the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. She teaches a full studio of private cello students in her home in Ann Arbor. Dr. Yun takes joy from organizing “water cooler” time for private teachers to interact with one another. She also tries to find new ways every year to bring cello students together to laugh and engage with other cellists. In an effort to build community in Michigan, Dr. Yun has organized many events, such as the MASTA Studio Teachers Forum, the Michigan Cello Festival, and numerous Suzuki teacher training courses. Dr. Yun draws upon her broad performing and teaching experiences while leading sectionals, camps, clinics, and Suzuki workshops around the state and country. Dr. Yun has been a lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Music Theatre, and Dance, teaching courses in cello pedagogy through the Department of Music Education. She has served as Assistant Professor of Cello at the University of Texas at San Antonio; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Cello at Bowling Green State University (Ohio); Orchestra Director at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School; and Orchestra Director at Chippewa and Kinawa Middle Schools in Okemos. Dr. Yun has performed with prestigious orchestras such as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the San Antonio Symphony. She has performed as principal of the Michigan Opera Theatre, Windsor Symphony Orchestra (Canada), Ann Arbor Symphony, Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, Flint Symphony, and Laredo Philharmonic (TX). At Indiana University, Andrea earned a dual bachelor’s degree in music education and mathematics, as well as a master’s degree in cello performance with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi. She completed her doctorate in cello performance from the University of Michigan with Erling Blondal Bengtsson. Andrea is one of 40 Suzuki cello teacher trainers in the Americas. Her solo performances have been heard on Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) Radio.
Nominators’ Statements of Support (2 nominations):
“Andrea Yun has been a dedicated member of the Michigan private teaching community for well over a decade. Her students have regularly demonstrated excellence in preparation and dedication to a positive ensemble culture in the public schools setting. She is my first call whenever I have cello items to discuss, and also has a good pulse on what is happening the entire Michigan private teaching community, not just Ann Arbor. She is one of the gems of our state, and I feel she is the perfect candidate for this award.”
“Among Andrea’s recent accomplishments are conceiving, organizing and implementing the excellent MASTA Studio Teachers’ Workshop at UM SMTD on 9.8.19. Making it a valuable experience, each guest was a specialist in her/his field and Andrea’s good planning was in ample evidence the whole day. She was very effective helping organize, plan and emcee the Ann Arbor Suzuki Institute’s 50th Anniversary Gala Concert at Pease Auditorium on 10.1.19, making it a great success. Andrea brought a cello pedagogue from Japan a few years ago, to teach masterclasses at UM to local Ann Arbor cello students. It was a memorable day! At Blue Lake I witnessed how she quickly brought an auditorium full of active, bubbly children into rapt attention as she described the workings of Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and we then played it. You could have heard a pin drop! For many years Andrea has taught at Blue Lake’s Family Suzuki Institute and at the middle and high school summer music and arts camp. I could see she’s been a beloved teacher there. She is also a teacher trainer of Suzuki cello. I am aware of the high quality of her teaching from personal observation. She engages both children and adults fully, and has changed countless lives over the decades through her dedicated work. I believe she amply deserves to be honored as Teacher of the Year.”
Megan Crawford
A Michigan native, Megan Reiter-Crawford gave her first public recital, at the age of six, in Detroit. Her concerto debut, at the age of 12, was in her hometown of Dearborn as part of a concert series in Henry Ford’s Fairlane Estate. She has since concertized throughout the United States, appearing with orchestras in Ann Arbor, Aspen, Basalt, Dearborn, Detroit, Ft. Collins, and New York. She has performed extensively in recitals with Ann Arbor pianist Michele Cooker, and since marrying Grand Rapids Symphony Concertmaster James Crawford, the family duo has appeared on the scene here in West Michigan.
In addition to her recital appearances, Megan has been an active chamber musician and performed recitals with a Manhattan-based trio, Quest, when coaching with Isidore Cohen at the Manhattan School of Music. Most notably, Megan appeared with Vienna Philharmonic Principal Clarinetist Peter Schmidl in the trio version of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale while touring Japan with the Pacific Music Festival.
Ms. Crawford has been the recipient of numerous awards including a fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival, which she attended for five summers; the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Bradlin Award; an Upton Foundation Grant for the Meadowmount School of Music; the Francis B. Furlong Scholarship for the University of Michigan; and a Governor’s Award nominee in the Emerging Artist category. Ms. Crawford won the concerto competitions at both the University of Michigan and the Manhattan School of Music, has been a prizewinner in the Florida ASTA Competition, the Ft. Collins Symphony Young Artist Competition, the Corpus Christi International Young Artist Competition, and has participated in the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition in New York City. She has been a featured artist on Detroit’s classical music station, WQRS, and many of her orchestral performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio.
Ms. Crawford received her Bachelor of Music degree with honors from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Paul Kantor. She then went on to graduate from the Manhattan School of Music with her Master of Music degree, where she worked with Michael Gilbert and Patinka Kopec.
In addition to her full time job with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Ms. Crawford is a dedicated violin teacher. She has been teaching privately for the past 20 years and before moving to West Michigan, worked with many talented youngsters in the Preparatory Divisions of the Manhattan School of Music as well as the Mannes College of Music as a substitute teacher. In the past, Ms. Crawford had the honor of temporarily joining the faculty of the School of Music at Western Michigan University, filling in for Professor Renata Knific while Knific was on sabbatical.
Nominator Statement of Support:
“Megan has been an outstanding studio teacher in West Michigan for 20 years. She is a leading Suzuki teacher in West Michigan and now is the violin studio teacher at GVSU. Many of her students have achieved the highest honors throughout Michigan and she is driven to make the best of all of her students.”