Erin Archer
Erin Archer is excited to work with the Preludium for her 17th season. A Suzuki violin, viola, and early childhood music instructor, Erin has served the Knoxville area for over 20 years. A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Ms. Archer has extensive Suzuki teacher training in violin, viola, and early childhood education and has maintained a private studio for over 20 years. She also led an after-school string program at Tate’s School from 2016-2020.
Erin has held several roles in the Knoxville area: Knoxville Symphony violist, freelance musician, youth orchestra conductor, string coach, early childhood educator, Suzuki parent, and youth orchestra parent. Erin, along with her sister and fellow youth orchestra conductor Megan Kehren, teamed together and co-created a music education platform, learnwithmuze.com. Erin also regularly performs with musician, author, and songwriter Erick Baker.
Ms. Archer has performed with the Knoxville Symphony, Oak Ridge Symphony, and various ensembles of multiple genres around the Knoxville area. She is also a member of the Knoxville Symphony Education Advisory Council and helps with the annual planning of the KSO Young People’s Concerts.
Megan Kehren
Megan Kehren has been a part of the KSYO since 1993 and has served as a student, coach, assistant and is now in her fifth year as conductor of the Junior Orchestra.
Megan earned her degrees from Southern Methodist University and the University of Colorado at Boulder where she served as the teaching assistant for the viola studio. Her studies have awarded her great opportunities including working with the Takacs quartet on a regular basis in chamber music as well as receiving invaluable guidance from her teachers, Erika Eckert and Barbara Sudweeks.
Professionally, Megan has performed with many orchestras and was assistant principal viola of the Boulder Philharmonic (Colorado) before moving to Knoxville and joining the Knoxville Symphony in 2012. Megan’s passion is teaching and she has a robust studio of violists and violinists of all ages. She also serves as the adjunct violin and viola professor for Maryville College. Since 2020 she has been working closely with her sister, Erin Archer (Preludium conductor) in creating an online music teaching platform called Muze (learnwithmuze.com).
In her spare time Megan enjoys studying and practicing the art of ceramics as well as exploring the world and climbing its many mountains with her husband, Frank.
Cynthia Wright
Mrs. Cynthia Wright is in her ninth season working with the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association and is currently the conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra. She is the Orchestra Director at Montgomery Ridge Intermediate School in Maryville, where she teaches 5th-7th grade. Mrs. Wright attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, both in music education. In 2004, she began her teaching career at Karns High School and West Valley Middle School. After two years teaching in Knox County, Mrs. Wright moved to Wilmington, NC where she taught Orchestra at Roland-Grise Middle School for 8 years. She returned to Knoxville and resumed teaching in Knox County Schools in 2014. She spent five years as the director at Bearden High School and West Valley Middle School. Mrs. Wright is currently the Orchestra Chair of both ETSBOA and TMEA, as well as a member of NAfME and ASTA. During her 19 years in education, Mrs. Wright has served as a mentor teacher, clinician, presenter and adjudicator. She lives in Clinton with her husband, Wes, and their two children, Carson and Elaina.
Kathy Hart
This is Kathy Hart’s twenty-seventh season conducting the Sinfonia Orchestra. She is also the General Manager for the Youth Orchestra Association. During her tenure, the ensembles have grown from three orchestras serving 120 students to six orchestras serving over 300 students. As a high school student, she was a violinist in the KSYO when her family moved to Knoxville in the 1980’s.
Kathy began her music connection with the Suzuki Method in Western New York State. Her environment was filled with a great deal of love and support from family and teachers. She graduated from the University of Tennessee with a concentration in Suzuki Pedagogy. Hart-Strings, her private violin studio has over 50 students ages 3-18 who perform several times in the community each year. Many Hart-Strings violinists are KSYO members.
She created the youth orchestra’s annual music camp program with 15 string students and one assistant. Music Camp has served over 3600 students since 1994.
Kathy is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Tennessee where she teaches the String Methods courses and assists string education majors in field experience and observation. She has volunteered with several school string programs, and was instrumental in bringing the orchestra program back to Bearden High School in 1998. Kathy has also been a guest conductor for ETSBOA, had students selected in the National Youth Orchestra of the USA and has been recognized eight times with an Outstanding Teacher Award from the state of Tennessee Governor’s School of the Arts. In 2020, she was honored as a finalist in the YWCA’s Tribute to Women.
Katie Liaw
Katie Liaw graduated from The University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education. She later attended The Hartt School at the University of Hartford to earn a Master of Music Education in String Pedagogy. Katie has worked with students for 15 years through private cello lessons, school orchestra teaching, and conducting with the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra.
During her time at UT, Katie became involved with the KSYO as a rehearsal assistant. Over the years, she has served the organization in other capacities as assistant conductor, stage manager, and building host for Monday rehearsals and string camp. She is thrilled to begin her 2nd season as conductor of the Youth Chamber Orchestra.
James Fellenbaum
James Fellenbaum is in his thirteenth year as the Music Director and Conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra. He joined the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra during the 2006- 2007 season as a Guest Conductor, before becoming Resident Conductor in 2008. His duties with the KSO include serving as cover conductor for the KSO’s subscription series, and conducting Outreach, Pops and Young People’s Concerts. Also, Maestro Fellenbaum has been the Director of Orchestras at the University of Tennessee since the Fall of 2003. The UT Orchestra Program includes the Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra (founded in 2004), Opera Orchestra, Studio Orchestra and the Contemporary Music Ensemble (founded in 2006).
In May 2018, Maestro Fellenbaum was named Artistic Director and Conductor of the Brevard Philharmonic (NC), with his first season occurring during the 2018-2019 season. He has conducted orchestras nationally and internationally, including recent guest conducting engagements with the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic (PA), Springfield Symphony (MA), Asheville Symphony (NC), Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Orange County Symphony, American Youth Philharmonic, the Symphony of the Mountains, the Satu-Mare State Philharmonic and Sinfonia Bucharest Orchestra of Romania, and the Russe Philharmonic and Vidin Philharmonic of Bulgaria. Maestro Fellenbaum was invited to the 2006 First International Gennady Rozhdestvensky Conductors Competition, where he was a top 5 Finalist out of 112 conductors from 26 countries around the world.
Maestro Fellenbaum holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violoncello performance from James Madison University in Virginia, and holds a double Master of Music degree in violoncello performance and orchestral conducting from Northwestern University.