Tatiana Kats

Executive Director and Artistic Director of CICC,
Conductor of Swallow and Chamber Choirs

Tatiana Kats is the founder of Columbus Music and Art Academy and the Columbus International Children's Choir. She is responsible for the educational and artistic development of the choir.

Mrs. Kats earned a Master of Arts degree in choral conducting and a Master of Music degree in piano pedagogy from The Ohio State University where she studied under Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt and Mr. James Gallagher. Mrs. Kats was awarded by National Music Certificate Program as "Founding Teacher ... instrumental in establishing a national standard for developing musicians in the United States of America".

Before coming to the United States, she worked as a director of a music school and a conductor of youth and mixed choirs in Moscow, Russia.

Dawn Beckman

Vocal coach and Assistant conductor

Dawn Beckman, soprano, holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Ohio State University and a Master of Music degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has appeared in various opera productions in Colorado, and was chosen for master classes with Martin Isepp and Frederica von Stada.

Mrs. Beckman was a frequent soloist in the Denver area performing with the Westminster Symphony, the Boulder Music Festival, the Colorado Mahlerfest in Boulder and the Colorado Opera Troupe. She served as soprano staff singer at St. John's Cathedral in Denver for four years before relocating to Columbus in 2007.

Kathleen Bates

Conductor of the Creative Notes and Rainbow of Voices Choirs

Kathleen Bates holds a Bachelor's in Music Education from Capital University in Bexley, Ohio, with additional studies at the Kodaly Institute of Music Pedagogy in Kecskemet, Hungary. Mrs. Bates holds a Masters of Music Education with Kodaly Certification, also from Capital University, where she was the recipient of the Gregory Von Stein Memorial Scholarship.

She teaches kindergarten, first and second grade music at London Elementary School in London, Ohio, and co-directs the London Elementary Cross Grade-Level Choir for third, fourth and fifth graders. She is the soprano section leader for the Capital University Choral Union, a member of Capriccio Vocal Ensemble, and active in the music ministry at Clinton Heights Lutheran Church.

Irina Utkina

Conductor of Sunny Smiles Choir and Principal Accompanist

Irina Utkina graduated from the St. Petersburg Music Conservatory in Russia as choral conductor. Before coming to the United States, she worked as a director of adult and children's choirs and as accompanist in Moscow, Russia.

She has been working as assistant conductor and principal accompanist of the Columbus International Children's Choir since 1998. Mrs. Utkina also arranged music for the choir.

 

 

Erik Kotheimerer

Art Instructor

Erik Kotheimer is an Ohio native, from the Cleveland-Akron area. He received a Bachelors degree in Art Education from Kent State University in 2006.

Since then, he has worked with the Art for a Child's Safe America Foundation, or ArtSafe. ArtSafe is a non-profit organization that believes in empowerment through the arts. Erik also teaches private painting and drawing classes through the City of Grove City Parks and Recreation Department.

Yuri Bortz

Music theory and composition instructor

Yuri Bortz, our , has been teaching at CMAA since 2006. In 2005, he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Ohio State University, where he was a Composer-In-Residence for OSU Symphony Orchestra and winner of OSU's Ruth Friscoe Prize in Composition. Other institutions at which he has taught include OSU, University of Akron, and Otterbein College.

In addition to teaching, Mr. Bortz is an active composer who has had original premieres at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Columbia University's Miller Theatre, and Harvard University's Paine Hall. His Quintet in the Present was featured for OSU's 2007 Contemporary Music Festival.

Michelle Williams

Choir Events Supervisor

Michelle Williams has been helping with organizing fundraising, concerts and tours of the Columbus International Children's Choir since 2004. Her daughter Maddie Williams sings in the Chamber Choir.