VASTA: Virginia String Teachers Association

Lucy Manning

President

LUCY MANNING directs the orchestra, teaches violin and string methods, and coordinates the chamber music program as Asst. Professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. The recipient of the 2007 Virginia String Teacher of the Year award from VASTA, she regularly conducts and adjudicates school orchestra festivals in the country.
A graduate of West Virginia University, University of Illinois (including study with Paul Rolland), and University of South Carolina, she brings extensive experience as a violinist, violist, and chamber musician to the podium as a former member of numerous professional orchestras where she also appeared as soloist.  Dr. Manning is the author of Orchestral “Pops” Music: A Handbook, published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Gary Frisch

Past-President, Special Events Committee Chair

Gary Frisch is a violinmaker and dealer. He owns and operates a shop located in Falls Church. Gary trained in violin making under Deena Spear. Over the past year and a half, Gary has teamed up with Lynne Denig, to develop a diagnostic approach for assessing the appropriate chinrest heights and contours for students. He has presented at the ASTA National Convention in 2006. As Chair of VASTA’s Special Events Committee, he is developing ongoing programs statewide that will benefit all members and their students.

Gretta Sandberg

President-Elect, Public School Liaison

Gretta Sandberg retired in June 2009 after 42 years as an orchestra director in the elementary and high school levels in Arlington and Fairfax Counties.  She retired from McLean High School and Haycock Elementary School in Fairfax, where her orchestras consistently received "Superior" ratings at festivals and adjudications.  Ms. Sandberg built an exchange program between her top orchestra, the Chamber Soloists of McLean HS, and the youth orchestra (Detmolder Jugend Orchester) at the Grabbe Symnasium in Detmold, Germany (1995 - present).

Ms. Sandberg graduated from the Univ. of Minnesota with a B.S. in Music Ed and received her M.Ed. from George Mason Univ.  She was Founder and Director of the Arlington Honors Orchestra, Co-Founder and Director of Arlington All-County High School Orchestra and Artistic Director of Chamber Music of Arlington (1990 - 1998).  She is a member of MENC, ASTA, and was the 2007 VASTA Orchestra Director of the Year.

Charlotte Dettwiler

Secretary

Charlotte Dettwiler comes from Ontario, Canada where she attended Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Western Ontario with degrees in Music Education. As a cellist, she performs with the Millennium Symphony, Symphonicity, Spumoni Strings and Piano Trio. She has played with the Waterloo Chamber Players, the Con Spirito Quartet, and has performed with the Virginia Arts Festival and ODU's CREO Ensemble. Her international performances have taken place in Vienna, Prague, Woodstock NY, Guantanamo Bay, London, and Paris. Ms. Dettwiler is a strong music education advocate and is currently orchestra director at Cape Henry Collegiate School in Virginia Beach. For a complete bio, click here.

Karey Sitzler

Treasurer

Karey Johnson Sitzler holds a Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Music Education with emphasis in Strings from Western Michigan University (1977) and a Master of Music in Viola Performance Pedagogy  from Arizona State (1983). She has performed with professional symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras and chamber ensembles in Michigan, Indiana, Arizona, Ohio, and now Virginia for 32 years. She has taught string classes and private lessons to students ages four - adult at beginning to university levels, and has taught in school music programs for 31 years.  For her complete bio, click here.

Elizabeth Blakeslee

Member-at-Large, Northern Region

Elizabeth Blakeslee is a free-lance harpist in the greater Washington, D.C. area and currently plays second harp with the National Symphony Orchestra. She studied with Marjorie Tyre and Marilyn Costello and has held the principal harp positions in the Richmond Symphony Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia. She has been the harp instructor at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester since 1997, and also directs the harp activities at their summer Performing Arts Camp. She maintains a private studio of about thirty students in Falls Church. She is chairman of the ASTA Harp Committee for the Certificate Program; she serves on the Committee on Studio Instruction (COSI), and at the 2007 ASTA National conference she will be presenting a session on how to include the harp in school string ensembles.

Deanna Kringel

Member-at -Large, Eastern Region

Deanna Kringel is currently in her tenth year as the Director of Orchestras at Oscar F. Smith High School in Chesapeake as well as the beginning strings teacher at several feeder elementary schools. She has directed the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra’s String Orchestra for five years and is listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who in American Women, Who’s Who in America, Who's Who in American Education, Who’s Who in America’s Teachers and National Honor Roll's Outstanding American Teachers. Deanna has served as a guest conductor and adjudicator throughout Virginia. Deanna is also a free-lance musician performing violin, viola, and flute throughout the Hampton Roads area.

Lisa Maynard

Member-at-Large

Dr. Lisa Maynard is a professor at James Madison University.  For her complete bio, click here.

Donovan Stokes

Member-at-Large, Northwestern Region

Katie StPierre

Fingerboard Editor

Katie Frampton StPierre comes to us with a wealth of performing, teaching, and editing experience.  She earned her BA cum laude in Music Education from the Harrt School at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, where she served as editor of the school newsletter and also coordinated fundraising for Habitat for Humanity.  After she began teaching in the Connecticut school system, she was newsletter editor for the Connecticut state chapter of ASTA.  She has ample experience with computer publishing as well as website development.

Margaret Whiteside

Website Administrator

A violinist whose first love is chamber music, Margaret Whiteside freelances in the Washington, D.C. area and has a violin studio in Fairfax, VA.  Currently she serves as assistant concertmaster of the Arlington Philharmonic.  She has played with many local groups including the Fairfax Symphony, the Washington Sinfonia, the Washington Bach Consort, Capitol City Opera, Maryland Opera, and the Strolling Strings.  Before that she played with the Rhode Island Philharmonic and Artists Internationale Opera.  Margaret received her B.A. from Cornell University and pursued graduate work at Northwestern University.  She also has a certificate in computers from CDC and has worked as a technical writer, but very much enjoys sharing her love of music with young people.