Adult Chamber Players Weekend 2025
July 11 – July 13
Join other chamber music enthusiasts for a weekend of music, learning, and fun!
Schedule subject to change
Join other chamber music enthusiasts for a weekend of music, learning, and fun as you work with a fixed group delving deeply into a single work in preparation for an optional performance on Sunday afternoon.
The weekend includes six hours of coaching with Settlement Music School chamber music faculty and members of the Fairmount String Quartet, a performance by the Fairmount String Quartet, instrument specific workshops, a Sound Bath Meditation with Bridget Yanni, an Alexander Technique Workshop, and an Art x Music Workshop with Sydney Dombrowski.
The campus is near public transportation and is wheelchair accessible.
Tuition is $435 and includes all coaching, lectures, and workshops, up to four tickets for the Fairmount String Quartet performance, Meet-and-Greet breakfast on Friday, and lunch and snacks daily.
Information on coaches and workshop leaders:
Beth Benson (Settlement Music School Staff Coach) has been a member of Settlement Music School’s faculty since 1999. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Performance from Florida State University. Major teachers include Elizabeth Camus, Eric Ohlsson and Daniel Stolper. She performs with Newtown Chamber Orchestra and Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra and is an active freelancer on oboe, oboe d’amore and English horn. Beth also teaches for the Continuing Education program at Bucks County Community College and at the George School.
Christine Danoff (Settlement Music School Staff Coach) is the 2022 recipient of the Sol Schoenbach Award for excellence in teaching. Her principal teachers were Charles Wendt (University of Iowa), William Stokking (Philadelphia Orchestra), and Orlando Cole (New School of Music). She also studied violin and chamber music with Edgar Ortenberg (Budapest Quartet), and chamber music with Roman Totenberg, William Kroll, and members of the Stradivari and Colorado Quartets. Christine was runner-up in the National Federation of Music Clubs national competition, cello division, and Associate Fellow at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood. She was also Principal cellist with the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra. She is currently a member of the Danoff String Quartet and a freelance performer in the Philadelphia area. A child of music educators, she began teaching at age 18 as an adjunct instructor for the Des Moines Public Schools. She has taught class cello in four Philadelphia Archdiocese high schools. She is proud to have the opportunity to share the gift of music with students of all ages, abilities and playing levels in a community music school setting.
Sydney Dombrowski earned her master’s degree in counseling psychology with a specialization in art therapy from Holy Family University. Central to her therapeutic philosophy is the belief in fostering healing through empowerment, curiosity, and self-exploration utilizing diverse art modalities. Employing an eclectic approach to art therapy, Sydney specializes in tailoring treatments to each individual client because every person is unique, and no one size of therapy fits all! Emphasizing trauma-informed, person-centered, and strengths-based care, she is committed to helping you find the type of therapy that feels right to you.
Beth Dzwil, (Fairmount String Quartet, viola), founder, and director of the Fairmount String Quartet, is a seasoned chamber musician, performing for over thirty years with the Fairmount String Quartet and for fifteen years with the Elysian Camerata. She has been featured as a soloist with the Pottstown Symphony, where she served as principal violist for over twenty years, and with the Buxmont Chamber Players, the St. John’s Festival Orchestra, and the Fairmount Chamber Ensemble. In addition to her classical work, she has performed internationally and recorded six critically acclaimed jazz albums with the Tyrone Brown String Sextet. She teaches at the Community College of Philadelphia and the Haverford School, conducts the Philadelphia Sinfonia Strings youth orchestra, and coordinates the Adult Chamber Music Program at Settlement Music School.
Fairmount String Quartet – Described as “likable and warmhearted” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and “expert to the point of perfection” by the Chestnut Hill Local, the Fairmount String Quartet – Rachel Segal and Leah Kyoungwoon Kim-Tomilson, violins; Beth Dzwil, viola; Mimi Morris Kim, cello – has been active in the Philadelphia chamber music scene since 1984. They are dedicated to bringing the intimacy and vitality of chamber music to diverse audiences and are committed to performing classical works of historically under-performed composers in addition to those in the standard classical repertoire, works by women composers, and works in diverse genres including pop, jazz, folk, and Latin music. Their albums “Spoken with Strings” of pop music, Jennifer Higdon’s “Amazing Grace”, “Unleashed” of classical music by women composers, and “StringFlo” music for yoga and meditation, are available on all major streaming platforms. The Fairmount String Quartet records on the Spring Garden Records label and is in residence at the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Philadelphia.
Leah Kyoungwoon Kim-Tomilson (Fairmount String Quartet, violin), was born in Busan, South Korea where she served as the Associate Concertmaster for the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra. In Philadelphia, she has performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, the Opera Company of Philadelphia Orchestra, the Harrisburg Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Elysian Camerata, and Trio Excelsior. She is a founding member of the La Croix Quartet, Tononi Quartet, Sori Duo, and Caritas Trio. She has served on the faculty at Temple University, West Chester University, Valley Forge Christian College, West Catholic Conservatory, Settlement Music School, and Peabody Conservatory Prep and as the Director of Music for the Rebecca Davis Dance Company.
Currently, Leah is the Director of Music at Villa Maria Academy High School, and is the Director of the Pennsylvania Youth Orchestra, Pennsylvania Petit Ensemble, and Vivace Competition and Chamberstrings Music Camp. Leah studied Performance and Pedagogy at Juilliard, Peabody Conservatory, and the National Conservatory in France.
Mimi Morris-Kim (Fairmount String Quartet, cello), loves playing chamber music on modern cello as well as continuo on Baroque cello. She has a doctorate in cello performance from the University of Michigan where she met her husband, harpsichordist and medical physicist, Leonard Kim and where she played with Fairmount String Quartet violinist Rachel Segal as a member of the University of Michigan Graduate String Quartet. Mimi performed as a member of the Ann Arbor Symphony for seven years. She performs frequently with the Riverside Symphony and as a substitute with many groups throughout the Delaware Valley. Mimi has three children, two of whom are among her twenty-five cello students. Mimi is on the faculty of Princeton String Academy and has extensive training in the Suzuki method of cello instruction.
Rachel Segal (Fairmount String Quartet, violin), a native Philadelphian, is a violinist, educator, and the Founder and President of The Primavera Fund, a program that mentors and supports young musicians in Philadelphia. As an orchestral violinist, her career has taken her throughout the USA and abroad. She served as Concertmaster of the Central City Opera orchestra and as a violinist with the Colorado Symphony for twelve seasons, and has had posts as Concertmaster of the Orquestra Sinfonia Portugesa in Lisbon, Portugal, and as Fourth Chair of the Tampere Filharmonia in Tampere, Finland. She currently performs in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the Washington D.C. area with various orchestras. She began her career as Concertmaster of the South Bend Symphony in Indiana. As an educator, Ms. Segal has held positions at Regis University and the Community College of Aurora in Colorado, Luzerne Music Center in New York, is Director of Chamber Music at the Music and Mindfulness camp in Virginia, and has been Associate Director of the Young Musicians Debut Orchestra since its inception. Ms. Segal received her Bachelor of Music degree from The University of Michigan and her Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music. Prominent teachers include Sidney Harth, Paul Kantor, Barbara Govatos, and Jerome Wigler. She lives in the Brewerytown section of Philadelphia with her beagles Abby and Sam, and cats Gilbert and Sullivan.
Jean Louise Shook (Settlement Music School Staff Coach/Mr. And Mrs. Donald Kardon Distinguished Faculty Chair) received her Bachelor of Music degree from Temple University where she studied violin and chamber music with Edgar Ortenberg (formerly of the Budapest String Quartet) and piano with George Sementovsky and Natalie Hinderas. Further string coaching studies were with the Hungarian Quartet in addition to performing under the leadership of notable conductors including Eugene Ormandy, Zubin Mehta, Alexander Schneider, Max Rudolf, Victor Alessandro, John Nelson, Richard Burgin, and Robert Page. She has been a faculty member of the Settlement Music School since 1975, teaching violin, coaching chamber music and performing as a staff accompanist. Since 1999 Ms. Shook has held the ‘Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kardon Distinguished Faculty’ chair at Settlement. In 2005 she was awarded the Sol Schoenbach Award for outstanding service to the school. As pianist, Ms. Shook has frequently accompanied master classes of Pamela Frank, Ida Kavafian, Jaime Laredo, David Kim, Kim Kashkashian, Michael Tree, Diane Munroe, Branford, Marsalis, Marcy Rosen, Peter Stumpf, Rachel Barton Pine, Timothy Eddy, and Randall Goosby, among others, sponsored by Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Ms. Shook performs as violinist and pianist with the Elysian Camerata and is a member of and music arranger for the Danoff String Quartet. She has shared her passion for music and teaching with students of all skill levels and has had students presented on “From the Top” at Carnegie Hall, quarterfinalists in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Recitals at the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution and the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Master classes with the Emerson, Muir, Miro, and the Chicago Quartets, and winners of the Tri-County Competition.
Bridget Yanni (StringFlo yoga instructor) founded the Amma Center for Bodywork and Massage in 2004. For over 10 years she facilitated Certified Massage Trainings and CE programs. In 2007 the Yoga Studio was added, since then Bridget has developed an integrative structural alignment style of asana teaching and practice. in 2011 she put her style and philosophy into a 200 hr Teacher Training Program that was approved through Yoga Alliance; in 2014, Bridget expanded the Teacher Training by another 300 hrs for Advanced Yoga & Structural Alignment protocols also YA approved. In 2016 /the Center was renamed as The Ammayanni Yoga Center & School. Bridget is currently holding E-RYT 500 Certification and A Continuing Education Specialist in Integrative Bodywork, Ammayanni Yoga and Yoga Therapy. Bridget also teaches group classes and workshops in AYT Yoga, Structural Alignment Yoga, Yin Yoga and non-certified Massage workshops for the general public.