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Our Instructors


Evan Fiehrer
guitar, ukulele
Evan Fiehrer is a guitarist currently located in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated in 2013
with a Bachelor of Music in Guitar Performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and in 2015 from the Peabody Institute of the
Johns Hopkins University with a Master of Music, also in Guitar Performance. An
accomplished classical guitarist, Evan has played solo and ensemble concerts
throughout the Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana areas, and along the East Coast. Evan is a professor of guitar at Indiana University East in Richmond, IN, and teaches
privately at McCutcheon Music in Centerville and Star City Music in Miamisburg. He
also plays guitar in the five-piece funk band The Johnson Treatment.

Joe Getts
bass guitar
Joe Getts has been involved in music most of his life. His primary instruments are bass guitar and keyboards. He started playing the bass guitar at age 11. After a brief set of formal lessons he developed his own skills on the bass guitar and started playing with several local bands, including the Dayton Christian School Gospel Ensemble known as “The Spirit of Praise” during the mid 1970s. He traveled professionally for three years playing bass guitar with the Gospel Mariners, a regionally known Gospel quartet of that era. During his college years he played in several recording studios in southwest Ohio, specializing as a back-up studio musician on bass guitar. Joe currently owns and plays several bass guitars regularly, including various 4-5-6 and 8 string models. Throughout adulthood he has played bass guitar and keyboards in several praise and worship bands in the churches he attended. For the last two years he has played keyboards with “Vellowcity”, a local jazz-rock instrumental band. Today Joe continues to play the bass guitar at Trinity Church in Miamisburg, where he is the lead pastor. Joe’s educational background placed him at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio where he studied history extensively. He is a graduate of the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in History from Concordia College in Wilmington, Delaware and a Master of Arts in Philosophy and Apologetics from Trinity Theological Seminary in Newburgh, Indiana. He earned his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the St. Luke School of Biblical Studies in Hephzibah, Georgia. He also holds certifications in Biblical Counseling and Life Coaching from the Light University of Forest, Virginia. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, Joe is currently an adjunct instructor at the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science and a continuing education seminar presenter for the Central Institute for Educational Advancement in Dayton, Ohio. He and his wife Jeri have been married for over 35 years and reside in Miamisburg, Ohio.

Dr. Samee Griffith
piano, Musikgarten
Dr. Samee Griffith received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, her Master of Music degree in piano performance and collaborative piano from Bowling Green State University, and her Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Wright State University, where she graduated summa cum laude. An experienced instructor, Samee has taught piano for more than fifteen years, including at the Penn-Griffin School for the Arts in High Point, North Carolina. Her students regularly place in the top tier of competitors in state level piano competitions and festivals.

Her honors include: the Mary Elizabeth King Brown Teaching Excellence Award (2012), First Place in the Undergraduate Division at the Marjorie Peatee Art Song Competition (2004), and the MTNA Star Award (2002).


Emily Imes
piano
Emily Imes recently graduated from Wright State University with her Master’s Degree in Piano Performance. A violinist as well as pianist, Emily previously performed with the Southeastern Ohio Symphony Orchestra. Currently, Emily is the pianist for Honey Creek Presbyterian Church in New Carlisle.

Blaine Heeter
voice, piano
Blaine Heeter III received his Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance at Wright State University, where he was the Graduate Teaching Assistant for the vocal and choral departments. Blaine has been studying and performing music and theater since childhood. Some early productions include Oliver, Anything Goes and Barnum. Blaine began his collegiate career as a music performance major at Sinclair Community College where he earned his associate’s degree in 2005. That same year he transferred to Bowling Green State University to begin working towards his bachelor’s in vocal performance. While attending BGSU Blaine was involved in the opera theater’s production of Die Zauberflöte,participated in a vocal master class with Julliard pianist Margo Garrett and in 2007 had the privilege of playing the male lead in Francesco Cavalli’s 1642 opera, La virtù dei strali d’Amore for its North American debut in collaboration with early music musicologist, Paul O’Dette and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. After graduating from BGSU in 2007, Blaine moved back to the Dayton area where he opened a small studio teaching private vocal and piano lessons. Blaine’s students have been accepted into such music performance schools as the Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton and the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Blaine’s students have also received superior ratings in OMEA solo and ensemble adjudicated events in both piano and voice. In addition to teaching private lessons, Blaine has also served as music director for Richmond Civic Theatre’s Stage One youth theater program in the summers of 2003 and 2004. In 2009, he also served as music director for the Vandalia Youth Theatre’s production of Les Misérables. Earlier that same year Blaine portrayed the role of Lumière in Richmond Civic Theatre’s Main Stage production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.Blaine performed as a member of the Dayton Opera Chorus for La Traviata, also in 2009, the 2005 production of Tosca and the 50th Anniversary Star Gala in 2011.

Debbie Johnson
cello, piano
Debbie Johnson is a junior at Wright State University pursuing her Bachelor’s in Music degree in Cello Performance.

Growing up with six siblings, Debbie taught herself piano at age twelve. When she was fifteen, she started taking piano lessons in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with Dan Taylor. In addition to piano, she learned music theory, singing, and guitar. The summer before she matriculated at Wright State, Debbie took piano lesson with Barbara Leeds, also from Yellow Springs.

As a piano major, Debbie also had a passion for cello, and began to take cello lessons while at Wright State. In her sophomore year, after playing cello for only a year, she changed her concentration to cello performance.

Debbie has sung and performed piano and guitar at the Friends Care Community in Yellow Springs for the past three years. During her time at Wright State she has sung in numerous choirs and playing solo piano at Arts Gala and at the Troy Hayner Cultural Center in Troy, Ohio. She is a member of the University Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra, and is a member of the student trio “Trio Con Brio.” In the summer of 2016 she performed in the A.C. Strings Community Orchestra in Fairborn, Ohio, and will continue to perform with the orchestra during the 2017 season. In 2017 she joined the Giving Strings Orchestra.


Aaron Mood
piano
Aaron Mood received his Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and his Bachelor of the Arts degree in music from Allegheny College, where he graduated magna cum laude. He is the recipient of the Edith Mead Osbourne Memorial Prize for distinguished pianism, the Frederick Marantz Memorial Prize in recognition of marked talent with the piano, and the Mary Elizabeth King Brown Teaching Excellence Award.

In addition to being a Master Teacher of Piano at Star City Music Studios, Aaron holds the positions of Weekend Host on Discover Classical FM 88.1/89.9 and Organist at Grace Lutheran Church in West Carrollton. Previous positions include Staff Accompanist at Winston-Salem State University, Adjunct Instructor of Theory and Music Appreciation at Guilford Technical Community College, and Associate Master Teacher at the Music Academy of North Carolina. He has participated in master classes with Anna Maria Trenchi de Botazzi and Jon Nakamatsu.

Aaron lives in Miamisburg with his wife, Samee Griffith Mood, daughters, Evelyn and Raegan, and sons, Nathaniel and Karl.