Trustees
Barbara Lister-Sink,
President,
is an internationally acclaimed pianist who has
performed throughout Europe and North America with many of the world’s
most distinguished musicians. A graduate of Smith College and recipient
of the Prix d’Excellence from Utrecht Conservatory, she is currently
Director of the School of Music and Artist-in-Residence at Salem
College, Winston-Salem, NC. As an acknowledged world leader in teaching
injury-preventive technique, she has been featured at numerous national
and international music conferences, in over 18 states as Music Teachers
National Association conference artist and/or clinician, and was
featured pedagogue for the 2010 Piano Texas/Cliburn Institute
International Piano Academy. Her DVD
Freeing the Caged Bird -
Developing Well-Coordinated, Injury-Preventive Piano Technique won
the 2002 MTNA-Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award and was praised as
“A monumental work!" by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. Formerly keyboardist
for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, she has taught on
the Artist Faculty of the Eastman School of Music, at Duke University
and Brevard Music Center. Currently, Lister-Sink is in the Doctoral
Cohort Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York
pursuing research in neuroscience and piano pedagogy. She directs
America’s first Professional Certificate Program in Injury-Preventive
Keyboard Technique at Salem College.
Mary
Ellen Bliss is a graduate
of Smith College and Rutgers Law School. Her legal career began in New
York City: five years prosecuting fraud in the New York State Medicaid
program, followed by ten years representing major not-for-profit health
care facilities in New York during a time of significant changes in
patient rights and in the way hospitals and nursing homes are paid. She
is also an amateur violinist and violist, and has always loved playing
chamber music. It was through chamber music that she met her pianist
husband, Enoch Gordis. After they moved to the Washington DC area, she
worked for AARP as a legal analyst and advocate on a range of health
care issues important to older persons. Since retiring in 2001, she has
been studying violin seriously and has also learned enough clarinet to
start playing the lovely chamber music literature for that instrument as
well.
Jessie Coulter
attended Salem College from 2003 to 2007 where she majored in piano
performance and international relations. She attended the William and
Mary School of Law from 2007 to 2010. She now practices law as a
legislative attorney in Austin, Texas. Jessie works for a state agency
that provides bill and amendment drafting services to the Texas
legislature. When the legislature is not in session and she has more
free time, she teaches piano on the side and plays with a band called
the Chicon Street Orchestra. She volunteers with several Austin
not-for-profits and is an active member in her church.
Timothy Durkovic,
Vice
President and Treasurerwas born and raised in Guatemala
City, He received the Bachelor of Arts from the National Conservatory of
Music of Guatemala where he studied piano with Consuelo Medinilla.
Accepted to the Juilliard School, where he studied with Jacob
Lateiner, he then went on to study with Barbara Lister-Sink at Salem
College. He later studied at the University of Southern California with
Daniel Pollack and Kevin Fitz-Gerald where he received a Bachelor of
Music, summa cum laude, and a Master of Music. Mr. Durkovic has
served as Guest Lecturer at the USC Thornton School of Music and on the
faculties of the Orange County High School for the Arts and the
University of La Verne. In fall of 2005, he was appointed as Director of
Keyboard Studies at Long Beach City College. Mr. Durkovic received the
gold medal at the 1996 Los Angeles Liszt Competition, and has performed
in recital and as soloist with orchestra in the United States, Canada,
Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and Central and South America. He has
appeared at the International Festival BRAVISSIMO (Guatemala City,
Guatemala), the Banff Festival for the Arts (Alberta, Canada), SMU in
Taos (New Mexico), and Music in the Mountains (California). His
performances have been broadcast on the International Voice of America,
NPR, and TGNA. Mr. Durkovic also serves as the Director of Music and
Organist at Church of the Good Shepherd, United Methodist in Arcadia,
California, and is on the Executive Board of the California Association
of Professional Music Teachers. In addition, Mr.
Durkovic is an official Steinway Artist.
Enoch
Gordis M.D.
is originally from New York
City, where he received his early formal musical training, studying the
piano from the age of 5. He is a graduate of both the college and
medical school of Columbia University. He has played solo piano and
chamber music during his whole life, both in New York and in the
Washington, DC area where he moved with his wife Mary Ellen in 1986.
Prior to that move, he was Professor of Medicine at the Mount Sinai
School of Medicine in New York. From 1986 until his retirement in
December 2001, he was director of the National Institute on Alcohol
Abuse and Alcoholism at the NIH. Retirement allowed him to resume
serious study of the piano, and he was fortunate to connect with
Professor Barbara Lister-Sink at Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC,
whose creative teaching, piano virtuosity, and enthusiastic support of
all her students have been an inspiration.
Jamie Grigsby,
Secretary,
earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Iowa, and a
Masters of Music from the University of Colorado-Boulder in piano
performance. She has also received the Professional Certificate in
Injury-Preventive Keyboard Technique from Salem College, and is a
Certified Lister-Sink Method Instructor, Level III. She lives with her
family in Denver, CO where she is a beloved piano teacher, especially of
young students. With rare exception, she trains all of her students in
the Lister-Sink Method, both successfully and joyfully. She is an
accomplished pianist and performs regularly at local venues. While
working with Barbara Lister-Sink as she retrained injured keyboardists,
Ms. Grigsby has also ventured into the world of physical therapy and is
completing prerequisites for admission into a doctoral program in
physical therapy. Her aspiration is to be able to reach out to injured
musicians both through retraining them in the Lister-Sink Method, as
well as in being a part of the medical team throughout the healing
process.
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