Brass & Woodwinds

Jenny Cline

Jenny Cline (Flute) holds a Bachelor of Music in flute performance from Northwestern University, where she studied with Walfrid Kujala.  She is the principal flutist of the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra, piccoloist with the Summit Symphony, and performs regularly with the Plainfield Symphony.  In addition to her orchestral performing, she is also active as a chamber musician.  As a member of FLUTATIOUS!, a professional flute ensemble, she performed at the 2009 National Flute Association convention in New York City.  Her woodwind quintet, the Monmouth Winds, recently performed a concerto with the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra, and is busy commissioning new works to expand the repertoire.  She has been a guest performer with the Uptown Flutes, and is in demand as a freelance musician around the state.  On the faculty at NJWA since 1996, her students regularly achieve honors at the local, regional, state, and national level.


Howard Toplansky

Howard Toplansky holds a B.Mus.Ed and an MM from the University of Michigan. He has been an instrumental music instructor for over 30 years and is currently a teacher in the Kenilworth school district. Mr. Toplansky is the author of Essentials of Bassoon Technique , which is considered the “Bassoonist’s Bible”. This textbook is used in orchestras and universities around the world. He directs The Music Studio Concert Band.

 
 

Janet Lyman

Janet Lyman has been teaching since 1967. She studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, receiving a B.M. and an M.M. Ed. She is Director of Music at Zion Lutheran Church in Clark where she established a brass and string ensemble and conducts the Adult and Youth Choir. Ms. Lyman was string advisor to WYACT/NJPAC Summer Musicals and has conducted the North Jersey Junior Regional Orchestra. In 2003 she started and directed a Hand Bell Choir at Zion Lutheran Church in Clark, NJ. She currently conducts the Wednesday Morning Strings and Summer Symphony.

 


Thomas Appert

Thomas Appert (Brass) holds a B.S. in Music Ed. from West Chester University, an M.A. in Music Ed. from New York University, and studied in the graduate division of the Juilliard School. His principal horn teachers were James Walck (St. Louis Symphony), John Simonelli (Philadelphia Orchestra), Ranier DeIntinis (New York Philharmonic), and Harry Berv (NBC Symphony). 

Mr. Appert has extensive teaching and conducting experience. He has taught in the public schools of Ridgewood and Summit and at Koinonia Academy in Plainfield, and maintains a private brass studio in Warren, N.J. He has conducted the Central Jersey High School Orchestra, the Summit High School Orchestra, assisted with the Summit High School Marching Band (“The Pride of Summit”). Mr. Appert was the founder and director of the Koinonia Academy Concert Choir, an 80 voice ensemble made of all the students in the high school. He has also coached and conducted at the New Jersey Youth Symphony Orchestra Camp for many years.

Mr. Appert served as Principal Horn in the Air Force Band of the Mid-Atlantic and performed with many freelance and community ensembles in New Jersey, including Masterwork Brass Quintet, Colonial Symphony, Somerset Hills Symphony, Chamber Symphony of New Jersey.