Whether you are 3 years old or 75 years old, new to music, an experience musician, desire a fun extracurricular activity or professional career Roberson School of Music is the choice for you. Deciding on the appropriate school and teacher will effect your enjoyment and success in music.


What makes RSM’s teachers so unique?

RSM provides professionally educated instructors. Our faculty is consisted of experienced musicians with excellent credentials. They come from diverse, educational and performance backgrounds. Each holds advanced music degrees, certifications and performance credentials, which enables us to uniquely work with students of all ages, levels and backgrounds.


Meet Our Faculty


Dr. Monica Tripp-Roberson, Director of Roberson School of Music, is a recognized performer, composer and music educator. Before receiving her Doctorate of Music in Composition/Theory and Piano Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Roberson also studied at Peabody Conservatory of Music where she received her Masters of Music and the University of North Florida where she received her Bachelor’s of Education in Music. She currently teaches piano, voice, woodwind, and strings.


As a teacher, Dr. Roberson has received positive ratings from her students. She has recently taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Spelman College and the University of Maryland at Baltimore County. She has also assisted with the growth and development of private piano programs at the Nathan Cater School of Music, Maryland Conservatory of Music and Champaign School of Music. Dr. Roberson is currently a Professor at the Anne Arundel Community College and Howard Community College.


As a pianist, she has performed throughout the United States to rave reviews. She has been featured on public television in Jacksonville, FL. Her piano playing has been described as “passionate and energetic.” She has competed in various piano competitions and received awards such as first place winner of the DeBose National Piano Competition.

To learn more about Dr. Roberson, visit the director’s link.


Kate Jackman, mezzo-soprano, is a multifaceted musician and actress who is as comfortable on the concert stage as she is in operatic roles. Her previous roles include Hippolyta in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hero in Cavalli’s L’Egisto, the title role in Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Jou-Jou in Lehar’s The Merry Widow, Prince Orlofsky in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus.

In 2009, Ms. Jackman sang the alto solos in Handel’s Messiah over internationally televised programming with The Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington, D.C., where she currently sings as a soloist and chorister. In 2008, she traveled to Rome with the Basilica choir to participate the International Festival of Sacred Music and Art. Also in 2008, Ms. Jackman was a featured soloist in a televised memorial commemorating the 2008 floods in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

This season, Kate has performed role of Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Maryland Concert Opera, the role of La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Bel Cantanti Opera, and the roles of Margaret and Wise-Waning in The Figaro Project’s Piecing It Apart by Paul Mathews and Lux et Tenebrae by Douglas Buchannan. At the Peabody Conservatory, Kate performed several roles including Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, which she “sang with considerable nuance and communicative weight”.

Ms. Jackman graduated Cum Laude from the University of North Texas with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, studying under Dr. Lynn Eustis. She is currently a second-year graduate student, studying with Phyllis Bryn-Julson at the Peabody Institute.


Nadezda Mijatovic-Sekicki is a native of Serbia. She received her BM and MM degrees in piano performance from the University of Arts in Belgrade. In addition, Mrs. Mijatovic-Sekicki received her Concert Diploma in piano performance from Conservatoire de Musique de Lausanne (Switzerland).

Mrs. Mijatovic-Sekicki is currently perusing her Graduate Performance Diploma in Vocal Accompanying at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She also serves as an Opera Graduate Assistant, a highly competitive position that is offered to the best-qualified students, at the Peabody Conservatory.


Mrs. Mijatovic-Sekicki has received several honors and awards as an outstanding musician. These awards include Study Scholarship of Serbian Government, Irene Denereaz Foundation Award, and City of Belgrade Scholarship.


As a concert pianist, Mrs. Mijatovci-Sekicki has extensive experience performing as a chamber musician, collaborative pianist, and soloist. She has special interest in performing contemporary music. She has also performed in masterclasses for many renowned pianists, such as Roy Howat, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Eric Le Sage, Melvin Tan, and Paul Gulda.


Mrs. Mijatovic-Sekicki served as an accompanist vocal coach at the University of Kragujevac’s Vocal Department in Serbia. She is a former piano teacher in the Music School and has several years of teaching experience as a private piano teacher.


Mrs. Mijatovic-Sekicki is fluent in Serbian, English and French.


Kevin Shannon actively performs solo and chamber music on both modern classical guitar, and various period instruments including Lute, Baroque guitar and percussion. Kevin is a former member of the 1 East Guitar Quartet, and he is a founding and current member of the Atlantic Guitar Quartet. In the genre of early music, Kevin has performed with the Peabody Consort, the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble and the Byrd Consort. He received a Masters of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute, where he was the Graduate Assistant to Julian Gray, and was awarded a Peabody Career Development Grant.

Mr. Shannon’s recent notable performances include collaborations with the New York Baroque Dance Company, performances through the Midori and Friends Foundation, performances in the Marlow Guitar series and the Loyola College Concert Series, and performances at the Kennedy Center. He is currently an artist in residence with the Engineers Club at the Garret-Jacobs Mansion, performing modern chamber music. Along with his performance schedule, Kevin teaches guitar in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area.


Amber Abbott is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s of Music Education.  While at Maryland, she studied clarinet with Mr. Edward Walters and performed in the Wind Ensemble, Wind Orchestra, and Symphony Orchestra on clarinet and bass clarinet.  She also participated in small ensembles such as clarinet duets and quartets within the school.  Furthermore, Ms. Abbott was a member of the marching band for four years. Her roles included playing baritone and serving as section leader for the low brass.  Ms. Abbott also played euphonium, tuba, trumpet, horn, and percussion in the university band. She is very fluent on each instrument. Ms. Abbott is also a marching baritone with the Reading Buccaneers Drum and Bugle Corps, who have won the Drum Corps Associates world championship for the last six years. Ms. Abbott is currently teaching band and piano at Laurel High School in Laurel, MD.


Hana Chu,
an acclaimed piano soloist and recording artist, has appeared throughout the United States, Canada and Korea, in chamber music concerts and with many artists, including performances in New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Colorado and California.

Widely recognized and sought after for numerous new-music collaborations, Ms. Chu has premiered and released a piano solo Blue Pacific (Ecstatic Records) by a leading contemporary composer, Michael Torke. This recording has been broadcast live on radio stations throughout the States and in Korea, including Arirang Radio Program “IT Classic.”


Winning her first competition at the age of five, Ms. Chu is a prizewinner of Korea Nationwide Music Competition, Mary Graham Lasley Scholarship Competition, MTNA Eastern Division Competition, The Nordmann Piano Scholarship, Juilliard Pre-College Concerto Competition, The New York Piano Competition and The Oberlin Piano Competition. She was also a recipient of Arthur Gold/Robert Fizdale Scholarship, Olga Smaroff Scholarship, Sejong Scholarship and Hyon Chough/Bernie Sacharski Scholarship.


Ms. Chu is currently pursuing her Master of Music degree at Juilliard under the instruction of Matti Raekallio and Jerome Lowenthal.

 

Our Faculty