Meet the Leadership Team
Read about why we are so passionate about creating this experience for rising musicians.
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Holly Bates is the Orchestra Director for grades 6–12 in the Princeton City School District. A passionate educator and performer, she earned her Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Music Education from Miami University, where she also served as President of the Miami University Symphony Orchestra.
Holly’s main instruments are violin and viola, but she loves exploring a wide range of sounds—from cello and bass to steel pan. She currently performs with the Cincinnati Community Orchestra and helps teach the CSO Nouveau Satellite at Princeton. Holly also serves on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Multicultural Awareness Council and is dedicated to creating inclusive, inspiring opportunities for young musicians.
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Isaac Smith is a pianist and high school educator. He is dedicated to helping students grow through both artistic expression and analytic thinking. A native of the Appalachian region, he brings the values of creativity, curiosity, and community into his classroom. Isaac has taught music in a variety of settings, guiding students in building confidence, technical skills, and a deeper understanding of musical storytelling. He also teaches mathematics, which he believes is a form of art and music in of itself.
Guided by a belief in the transformative power of education, Isaac is committed to helping students explore their strengths and discover new passions. He is inspired by the words of Ludwig van Beethoven, “Do not only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the Divine.”
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Jon Sanford is the Founder and Director of Oxford Music Academy and a Collaborative Choral Pianist at Miami University. Jon’s passion for the Oxford Summer Music Institute is rooted in his own transformative experience at a summer music camp. As a young musician whose only exposure to music had been through private lessons, his first summer music camp introduced him to a community of peers and mentors who shared his passion, an experience that ultimately inspired him to pursue music professionally. Through OSMI, Jon hopes to offer the same kind of life-changing opportunity to the next generation of musicians.
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Madison Theil is a Pianist and Music Educator specializing in elementary education. She draws much of her inspiration for OSMI from the summers she spent at music camps and intensives while growing up. Those programs opened doors for her—introducing her to collaborative playing, challenging repertoire, and a community of musicians who helped shape her into the artist she is today.
Madison went on to earn her BM in Piano Performance from Miami University and her Master’s degrees in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from West Virginia University. Now, as an educator and performer, she is committed to creating spaces where young musicians can stretch themselves, be supported by mentors, and make genuine friendships. OSMI represents that vision: an exciting, welcoming place for students to explore their potential and grow alongside peers who share their enthusiasm for music.
2025 Faculty and Guest ARtistS
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Frank Huang, DMA, is an Associate Professor of Piano at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Previously, he served as a faculty member at The College of Wooster and The Cleveland Institute of Music.
Described by New York Concert Review as a “thoughtful and accomplished performer” and that his playing was “impressive for its maturity and refinement,” Huang has gained international recognition for his artistry and technical command. Others have also acknowledged his talents, as the Chopin Foundation of the United States, Northwest Chapter has commented that “Huang plays with authority and panache” while El Comerico of Lima, Peru praised his interpretation of Mozart’s Piano Concerto, K.482 “with the utmost sensitivity.” His concerts have led him throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Such notable venues include Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall, Benaroya Hall (Seattle), US Embassy in Warsaw, Zelazowa Wola (Warsaw), Gijon International Piano Festival (Spain), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Holland Music Sessions, Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Dame Myra Recital Series at Chicago’s Cultural Center, Lincoln Center in New York, and St. Martin in the Fields, London, UK. His concerts have also been featured on various radio and television broadcasts across the United States and abroad. Most recently, his performances were aired on “Primo movimento,” a popular classical music program on RaiRadio 3 in Rome, Italy. An avid chamber musician, he also enjoys performing with others as he has collaborated with members of the Cleveland Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in recitals. Equally active as a soloist with orchestra, he has performed with the Sammamish Symphony, Northwest Philharmonia, Peru National Symphony, Wooster Symphony Orchestra, Central Ohio Symphony, and Sichuan Symphony Orchestra.
Recent notable engagements included performances at the University of Ulsan (South Korea), Sichuan Normal University (China), The PianoForte Foundation (Chicago), Reinhardt Piano Festival and Academy (Georgia), MedtnerFest (London, UK), and Southwest Piano Festival (New Mexico).
Huang is also an active recording artist. His recordings can be found on the Centaur Records and Nimbus Alliance labels. Recently, Huang released two recordings, Jack Gallagher: Piano Music and Johannes Brahms: Selected Piano Music, in spring 2017. Both recordings have received rave reviews as critics have described Dr. Huang’s performances as “thrilling” (The Classical Reviewer) and that “Huang deserves kudos for his sparkling and sensitive playing, and that better performances of these works would be well-nigh impossible to come by.” (Fanfare) Soon-to-be-released albums include a chamber music disc of contemporary American women composers and volume one of the complete solo piano music of forgotten Russian romantic composer, Nikolai Medtner.
Huang's creative interests consist of promoting lesser-known works and music of our time. He has performed and recorded music of Mark Applebaum, Augusta Read Thomas, and Jack Gallagher. Recently, he has been performing Frederic Rzewski’s monumental work, “The People United Will Never be Defeated!” in recitals as well as selected pieces from his Medtner project.
As a prize winner of several important international competitions, Huang has garnered awards at the World International Piano Competition, The International Artists Competition, and Artists International Auditions.
A native of Seattle, WA, Huang studied extensively with Willard Schultz at the Academy of Music Northwest before obtaining Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he continued his studies with Julian Martin. Following his training at Juilliard, he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The Cleveland Institute of Music under the direction of Antonio Pompa-Baldi. Other influential teachers included Lee Kum-Sing, Robert McDonald, Daniel Shapiro, and Dominique Weber. He has also participated in masterclasses with eminent musicians of our time including Nelita True, Byron Janis, Jon Kimura Parker, Richard Goode, and Murray Perahia.
Equally dedicated as a music educator, Huang feels privileged to share his knowledge with students at Miami University, where he teaches piano, chamber music, and literature courses. He has been invited to present master classes in various institutions across the United States as well as an adjudicator at local piano competitions and auditions.
Additionally, Huang values that classical music should be accessible to everyone. To this end, he has started a blog where he shares his knowledge of music including several “how-to” posts as well as his passion on lesser-known works. You can visit his website and blog at www.frankhuangpiano.com.
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Harvey Thurmer, DMA, enjoys a varied career as a soloist, concertmaster, chamber musician and pedagogue. A native of Tennessee, his studies included work with mentors Dorothy DeLay and Louis Krasner at the New England Conservatory, and Sandor Vegh at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
After finishing his studies in Austria, Thurmer performed extensively as a chamber musician in Europe, with appearances at the Salzburg Festival, the Cheltenham Festival in England, London’s Wigmore Hall, Zurich TonHalle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Paris Salle Gavaeu, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. As a member of the Franz Schubert Quartet of Vienna, he held teaching positions at the Graz Musickhochschule and the Royal College of Music in Manchester England. He has taught at the Lappland Festival in Sweden, the Lake District Summer Music Festival in England, and the Summer Acadamy in Graz, Austria. He has collaborated with artists such as cellist David Soyer of the Guarneri quartet, pianists Anon Nel, Sandra Rivers, Jorg Demus and Cyprien Katsaris, and clarinetists Peter Schmiedl and Alois Brandhoffer of the Vienna Philharmonic. Thurmer performed annually from 1997 -2006 as concertmaster of the Echternach Festival Chamber Orchestra in Luxemburg. As a former member of the Oxford String Quartet, he has performed in Venezuela, Austria, Seoul, South Korea and Nagasaki, Japan and in the US in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.
As a soloist, Thurmer toured with the Salzburg Philharmonie in South America performing in Santiago, Chile, Lima, Peru, and Buenos Aires Argentina, as well as in Salzburg and Vienna, Austria. In this country he has appeared in recital and as soloist in Tennessee, Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, and Florida, and Washington D.C.
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Siok Lian Tan, DMA, is a Professor of Piano and Coordinator of the Keyboard Area in the Department of Music. She teaches piano performance, piano pedagogy, chamber music, and class piano.
As a performer, Tan has been heard in live broadcasts on Cincinnati Public Radio Station WGUC and has appeared as a soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Chamber Orchestra, and Miami University Symphony Orchestra. She has also presented solo and chamber music concerts in major cities such as New York, Chicago, Luxembourg, Cologne, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, and London, including a solo recital at the St. Martin-in-the-Fields concert series. Tan has recorded the chamber music of James Lentini on the Naxos
Active as a clinician and pedagogue, Tan has presented lectures at prestigious music conferences such as the College Music Society National Conference, the National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Forum, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and the Music Teachers National Association National Conference. Her articles appeared in Piano Pedagogy Forum, American Music Teacher, MTNA e-Journal, and Clavier Companion. She has received the 2011 Ohio Music Teachers Association Teacher of the Year, the 2020 Miami University Crossan Hays Curry Distinguished Educator, and the 2023 American Music Teacher Article of the Year Awards.
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