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 will end on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. Please read about each candidate below, and then cast your vote by following this link:
2024 Teacher of the Year Candidates
JENNIFER BERG
Private Violin/Viola Instructor, Jennifer Berg Violin Studio
Jennifer Berg has performed and taught for over ten years since earning a Masters of Music at the University of Michigan. She maintains an active private studio of violin and viola students in Farmington Hills and online, hosting collaborative student concerts and supporting string ensembles throughout the Detroit area. Studio instruction is guided specifically by pedagogical studies with long-term mentor Sally O’Reilly as well as extensive Suzuki teacher training, designed to support and inspire the musical and artistic aspirations of beginning through advanced students of all ages. Her students have gained recognition through regional competitions, concerto performances with orchestras, earning top placements in ensembles (including the Detroit Civic You Ensembles DSYO, Detroit Metropolitan Youth Symphonies, and the Blue Lake Advanced Chamber Orchestra), and selection for collegiate music programs across the country. An advocate for string education, Jennifer’s involvement in schools includes roles as a sectional and chamber music coach, a member of the A2SO Quartet, a Music Mentor, and a Sphinx Overture instructor. She is currently an ongoing sectional coach at the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools and recently adjudicated for the Michigan Music Festival and the ASTACAP exams.
Also a seasoned performer, Jennifer is a regular member of the Ann Arbor Symphony and Flint Symphony and serves as the FSO Librarian. Over the years international recitals and performances have taken Jennifer to the Dominican Republic, Bermuda, and Czech Republic, a few recent concert highlights include the Lexington Bach Festival, the Vienna Light Orchestra tour, and performing with Ed Sheeran. Beyond the music realm, Jennifer enjoys spending time running with her husband and golden retriever, Simba.
Nominator’s Statement of Support:
“Jennifer was one of the first private teachers I got to know when I started at Novi 12 years ago. My students were starting to take lessons and the improvement was instantly noticeable, when asked who they were taking lessons with they all said Jenny. Since that first year, many of my top students have studied with her. She’s had numerous students in All State or named honorable mention. Her students have been nominated to MYAF and they all receive top ratings at S&E. On top of all of that she is also an ASTACAP adjudicator and sends her students to participate in ASTACAP. She has been a regular sectional coach and audition adjudicator for my program. Her impact on my program and my students cannot be overstated.”
JAMIE FISTE
Associate Professor of Cello, Central Michigan University
Dr. Jamie Fiste is Associate Professor of Cello at Central Michigan University. Alongside his university position, he maintains a private pre-college studio ever since his first cello student in 1986. Jamie began his career in the Las Cruces (NM) public schools teaching middle and high school orchestra. After spending a brief period in Boston, he began serving the mid-Michigan area string community and CMU in 2000.
Dr. Fiste has been a nearly annual presence at MMC (Michigan Music Conference) where he has given numerous presentations. He founded the String Pedagogy Club at CMU that ultimately became an official MASTA student chapter in 2018. He serves as their faculty advisor overseeing an after-school string program at Fancher Elementary in Mount Pleasant taught by student members. He has also organized workshops on Paul Rolland and George Bornoff methods for MASTA chapter and fellow string colleagues.
Committed to supporting music education at every level, Jamie frequently visits public school orchestra programs to provide master classes and hold various cello workshops.
Jamie’s passion for sharing resources, technique videos, and knowledge reaches a global audience through his popular website www.celloprofessor.com. His sustained commitment to broadening the skills of students shows through his development of camps like Emerald Isle String Haven Camp for adult amateurs (now in its 10th year) and his Cello Haven Camp for high school students both in Clarkston.
He founded and was co-artistic advisor of the Plymouth Chamber Music Festival (2001-2007) in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which included students from Michigan. He has also taught at Blue Lake and Orion String Camps. Dr. Fiste is a regular adjudicator for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Concerto Auditions and has adjudicated for the MTNA East Central Division Competitions and the Michigan Music Teachers Association Concerto Competitions.
Dr. Fiste has guided so many of his cello students to successful paths as both public school teachers, professional performers, and graduates of Cincinnati Conservatory, Hart School, Eastman School and Boston Conservatory. In 2018, he was invited along with two of his students to the MOY International Festival of Music in Hong Kong and was on faculty at the Saarburg Festival in Germany for three years. Dr. Fiste was awarded MSBOA Honorary Membership in 2021 and was nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award at CMU in 2014.
Jamie is a frequent performer in the mid-Michigan region and spends his free time caring for his shelties and horses in Midland.
Nominator’s Statement of Support:
“Dr. James “Jamie” Fiste, Central Michigan University (CMU) Associate Professor of cello, has served the string teachers and cello students of Michigan for 24 years. He started CMU’s student chapter of MASTA in 2018, organizing some important pedagogical workshops right off the bat including ones by nationally-acclaimed specialists in Rolland and Bornoff methods. In that same inaugural year, Jamie spearheaded an after-school strings program at Fancher Public Schools in Mt. Pleasant where CMU Education majors got regular weekly teaching experience. Before the MASTA student chapter was established there was CMU’s String Pedagogy Club, also headed by Dr. Fiste. Due to Jamie’s dedication to string education, student learning and pedagogy, CMU has graduated many of our state’s successful string orchestra educators. In 2021, MSBOA recognized his “significant contribution to the field” by awarding him Honorary Membership.
An inextinguishable passion for teaching cello and pedagogy is something that Jamie exudes, as evidenced by his ubiquitous presentations at Michigan Music Conference (MMC)–this year will mark his tenth presentation. Jamie always excitedly shares his new research, often on body mechanics or physiology, or divulges another list of helpful tips, creative methods and discoveries for all teaching levels. Many of us non-cellists have used Jamie’s unforgettable “robot wave” when trying to create the correct vibrato motion in our lower string sections.
Dr. Fiste is the creator and curator of the indispensable and highly-lauded teaching website Celloprofessor.com. Started in 2008, musicians the likes of Alban Gerhardt, Mark Schumann and Irene Sharp’s student Maggie Edmondson, have all praised the site for its clear, cut-to-the-chase style videos and its overall accuracy. Many have used this site or linked to it as a resource for our students.
Not only dedicated to university teaching, Jamie has shared time and energy with his local pre-college cello studio in Midland and with various summer events. He has created opportunities for high schoolers at the popular Cello Haven Camp, where this past summer, 23 students collaborated on several cello choir projects over three days. For 13 summers, was a fixture at East Kentwood Schools ABC Camp (Anything But Classical). And there are the adult camp opportunities he co-founded at Emerald Isle String Haven and the adult amateur version of his Cello Haven Camp.
As a performer, Jamie served the Midland Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal for 23 seasons until his recent retirement from that position, but he continues to serve as principal substitute in other mid-Michigan symphonies.
Jamie is a generous teacher and colleague. He has visited numerous schools throughout Michigan for coachings and orchestra sectionals, including several residencies at Cellopalooza in Sault Ste. Marie to name one. He leads students to success in performance, education careers and life. He brings a folksy and humorous approach to teaching and it has endeared him to so many of his students at CMU and at his many appearances at workshops, camps and coachings. I highly recommend James Fiste for Teacher of the Year.”