Georgia Music Teachers Association's "Chapter of the Year" for 2022-2023!
Clinicians -
The Physicality of Collaboration
SMTA's 2024 Art of Collaboration Workshop
Cameron Fuhrman
Cameron Fuhrman is a pianist, teacher, and musical academic. Born in rural Central Oregon, she began taking piano lessons at age five and teaching them at age eleven. She has given solo, collaborative, and concerto performances across the United States and has received numerous awards for her teaching and research.
Cameron earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature, with a minor in Vocal and Instrumental Chamber Music, from the Eastman School of Music. She also received her MM in Piano Performance and an MA in Theory Pedagogy from Eastman. Her primary solo piano instructors included Natalya Antonova, Albert Kim, and Omri Shimron. Her primary collaborative piano coaches included Jean Barr, Elinor Freer, and Russell Miller.
She performs across the country in a variety of venues, ranging from traditional concert halls to museums to school assemblies. Cameron champions bringing both intellect and instinct to bear in performance, advocating for deeper understanding of music’s construction, context, and performance. Her live recordings have been featured on Classic FM radio.
Active as a pedagogue, Cameron maintains a piano studio in the Savannah area. She has extensive university classroom and private teaching experience at the Eastman School of Music, Georgia Southern University, and Hillsdale College. Her scholarly research highlights a pedagogical emphasis on the relationship between performance and music theory and history. She regularly presents her research at conferences across the country.
She lives in Savannah, GA, with her husband, Jacob, who is Director of Music and organist at the Independent Presbyterian Church.
Yvonne Johnson
Yvonne Johnson, originally from Sioux City, Iowa, was a member of the Savannah Symphony since 1997 and is assistant principal viola of the Savannah Philharmonic, helping to found the organization in 2008. She has a B.A in English from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and a M.M. in viola performance from Indiana University, Bloomington. Yvonne has performed with many orchestras including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Toledo, Ohio Symphony, the Schleswig- Holstein Festival Orchestra, the Aspen Festival Orchestra, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, and has made recordings with Garrison Keillor of "The Prairie Home Companion,” the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Savannah Music Festival chamber orchestra. Her summer experiences include the Missouri Chamber Orchestra, Killington,Vermont Chamber Music Festival, Manchester, Vermont Music Festival and as the faculty string quartet violist at Blue Lake, Michigan Fine Arts Camp.
Yvonne taught string methods at Armstrong Atlantic State University from 1998-2020, was violist in the Magellan string quartet in residence at Georgia Southern University in 2008-2009, and was a member of the contemporary string quartet in residence at Cleveland State University in 1996-1997. She has performed viola concertos with the Savannah Symphony in their 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 Telfair series and the Hilton Head Symphony in their 2002-2003 season. Yvonne was a member of the Chamber Music Hilton Head string quartet for over ten years and continues to perform with the Coastal Symphony and the Jacksonville Symphony. Yvonne performs solo and chamber music concerts throughout the southeastern region and maintains a full private studio of violin/viola students in Savannah. Yvonne is married to violist, Lizhou Liu, and they have 3 children.
Kristen Spiridon Sanders
Clarinetist Kristen Spiridon Sanders is an active performer and teacher in the Southeast. Currently, she serves as Lecturer of Clarinet at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. She also holds the titles of Principal Clarinet of the Savannah Philharmonic; Principal Clarinet of the Coastal Symphony; Second Clarinet of the South Carolina Philharmonic and Second Clarinet of the Augusta Symphony. Prior to her present appointments, she held the position of Second Clarinet with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic.
Kristen has performed with numerous orchestras, notably the Atlanta Ballet, Charlotte Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony, and numerous others. She has appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Strathmore.
A respected teacher and lecturer, Kristen has been invited to give masterclasses at Boston University, Georgia Southern University, Miami University of Ohio, George Mason University and Coker University.
She holds a Master of Music degree and an Artist Diploma in Woodwinds from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and a Bachelor of Music degree in both Performance and Education from the Peabody Conservatory at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Her primary teachers include Richie Hawley, Steven Barta, Carmine Campione, and Chris Pedersen.
Kristen is a Buffet Crampon Performing Artist, Chedeville Performing Artist, and RCW Performing Artist.
