The Owner
Owner
Sherry Miller is the owner and one of the piano teachers at S Music Studio. She has been teaching piano and voice for over 40 years. Her B.S. in Music Education is from West Chester University. Sherry has been involved in music since middle school. She loves teaching, working with children and helping her teachers be the best they can be. Providing music lessons for the residents of the MOT area is a dream come true.
Sherry has been married for over 40 years and has 2 married girls and 6 grandsons and 1 very spoiled little princess. When not teaching she loves spending time with her children and grandchildren, reading books and gardening. Sherry's husband is an associate pastor at Love of Christ Church where she play the keyboard with the worship band.
Director
Morgan Whitcraft has played violin for 30 years, and has taught for nearly 20 years. She was first enrolled in musical instruction at the age of three, when her grandfather watched her become captivated by violinist Ithzak Perlman's television performance. Soon after she began instruction in flute and piano.
The Suzuki method helped foster Morgan's early musical education, and was influential in developing her passion for music and the desire to share music with others. After completing the method at age twelve she established her own private studio at fourteen; she has not stopped teaching music since. She has received training in the Suzuki method and specializes in teaching younger children.
As a young adult Morgan majored in Violin Performance and Music Education at the Hartt School of Music, as well as studying at the University of Delaware with world-renowned violinist Xiang Gao. She took the role of Assistant Concertmaster in Newark Symphony for four years, and is often found collaborating with other members to form small ensembles for seasonal performances. Morgan is currently a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and the American String Teachers Association, and is also a certified Kindermusik instructor.
Teachers
Carissa Pierce teaches both group and private students. Carissa has been trained musically in voice and piano as well as working with young children. She is currently doing online classes at University of Valley Forge where she is majoring in church ministry and minoring in worship arts. Carissa is an accomplished worship leader and keyboardist at her church.
Penny Mears graduated from Lee University with a degree in music and has taught piano lessons for the past 35 years. She has accompanied choirs led worship and taught privately throughout her career. She homeschooled her 4 boys and still teaches history at Mount Sophia Academy. Penny is an accomplished teacher who loves working with children.
Andrew Denneny is currently a student at Delaware Technical & Community College, studying to be a math teacher. He has been playing piano since he was 12 years old, and has lots of music experience, including marching band, symphonic band, musical theater, music theory, and concert choir. He is also actively involved in a local competitive drumline team.
Herbie Maitlandt began playing guitar at an early age, spurred on by his cousin. After initial meetings with his cousin, he decided to leap into the deep end of the pool. His formal studies began with Sal Salvador and Joe Carter in New York. After high school he continued his studies at Lehman College with the primary focus being on performance.
Herb began teaching after one of his teachers recommended him for a teaching position at, The American Institute of Guitar in New York. Along the way he has performed across the country as well as Europe and Asia.
In his lessons, the focus is on the student and how far they wish to take their playing and studies. Above all else, it’s going to be a fun experience for both student and teacher.
Courtney Marra Johnson graduated from the University of Delaware with a master’s degree in education for students with autism and severe disabilities. Her full time job is at Claymont Elementary School in the Brandywine School District, as a teacher for students with autism in the Brandywine Specialized Autism Program. Ms. Johnson has a long history in music and theatre and is also a published children’s book author. She has spent 7 years so far in the autism community, but has worked with adults and children with a variety of disabilities.
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Matthew L. Horan is an accomplished musician at 29 with 18 years of musical experience under his belt. His musical journey started in 4th grade where he played alto and tenor sax in concert band until 7th grade. At age 12 Matthew picked up guitar and had guitar classes 1-4 in high school as well as a short period of private lessons in classical guitar. Matthew has played lead guitar in several bands playing shows in the tri-state area, and most of the music was composed by Matthew himself and in the process he learned recording software such as FL Studio and Garage band. Matthew then went to Wilmington University for game design and development furthering his musical education as well by studying soundtracks to film and games, sound effects, aspects of sound design and setting the scene, which involved extensive use of Pro-Tools the professional standard music recording software today.
Currently Matthew has extensive knowledge of composition with a multitude of instruments though primarily focuses on guitar, and is the lead guitarist for his Christ the Cornerstone church in bear. While teaching music his goal is to give students an experience learning music that is fun, engaging, and prepares them well for whatever musical paths they may choose in life.
Kelly Willburn has enjoyed music since she was a child, starting with singing in church. Soon after that she took piano lessons and started playing violin at her elementary school. As she began middle school she picked up the cello and fell in love with its beautiful sound.
In 7th grade she joined her first youth community orchestra and soon thereafter a more advanced group called the Young Artists Symphony Orchestra. She went on tour at 14 years old with this orchestra and performed in several cities in China as part of the prelude to the 2008 Olympics. At 17, she went on tour again to Germany and Austria. During high school she played with the school orchestra at many California Music Festival competitions, including competing as a part of several quartets.
She has a Bachelor of Science in Food Science. She still enjoys science and baking along with her love of music.
Kelly teaches both cello, her main instrument and violin. She is looking forward to working with cello and violin students at S Music Studio.
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Manny Scott is a percussion-concentrated Music Student at Delaware state University. His interest in music started at the young age of five years old. Introduced to drums by his father, Manny grew an early love and passion for music. He started playing snare drum for the band in the fourth grade, then, from 5th to 6th grade, he joined the intermediate band. During the spring of 2010 and 2011, He was selected as a percussionist for the Kent County Junior Honors Band. By high school, Manny was playing for every ensemble, including symphonic, jazz, and marching band. In the marching band, he served as the drumline section leader and has been knowledgeable in a variety of different percussion
Manny served a majority of his college matriculation as a Symphonic percussionist, jazz pianist, and marching band percussionist, with prior experience and knowledge on every marching drum.
He is currently a church organist and drummer in the Delaware area. “Music is my everything.” says Manny. He aspires to teach the next generation after him to develop that same love for music. Manny is approaching his senior year of his Music curriculum, and plans to perform, create, and teach music.
Haley has loved music for as long as she can remember. She began piano lessons at the age of 8 and continued exploring music throughout middle school, high school, and college. She graduated with a BA in Spanish Education from the University of Delaware and has been joyfully teaching both music and Spanish for students of all ages for over 10 years. In her free time, Haley can be found spending time with her family, painting, cooking, and speaking Español.
Alexander Dunford has been involved in music since he was a very small boy. Attending his first concert at age 4, he quickly grew to love music and his father, a drummer himself, gave him his beginnings on his drum set in their basement. Always an avid musician, Alex joined the school band and choir in 3rd grade and grew his musical talent to perform with Delaware All-State Choir then join Cab Calloway School of the Arts in 7th grade with a vocal major.
Through Alex's career with Cab Calloway middle and high school vocal, he performed across the East Coast and competed and won many choral competitions performing works in Italian, Mongolian, French, and German, as well as solo performances with both classical and Broadway music.
While in high school, Alex also formed one of many bands with fellow classmates, and created a collective with them that spawned a record label and a venue (still in progress) as well as many other local groups. After high school, Alex's band Kobika recorded their one and only album with all four members called Monolith on which Alex plays drums and guitar, after which he left the group and focused on his duo work with Proud Apes.
To this day, Alex has loved the deep connection he has with music and looks forward to sharing his skills and knowledge with the next generation of young musicians so that they might experience some of the joy that playing and writing music has brought into his life.
Judy Johnson is a student at Appoquinimink High School. She has played piano since she was 3 years old and currently plays piano for her high school jazz band and clarinet for the marching band. Judy can also play bluegrass music on her guitar.
Amanda Ostrusky graduated from Susquehanna University with a degree in music education. Her area of focus in college was instrumental and vocal. This is her 23rd year of teaching. Her experience includes middle school choir, band, theater, and general music. She also taught music, choir, band and theater at Bunker Hill Elementary from 2009-2018.
She is currently a middle school band director at Cantwell’s Bridge Middle School in Odessa.
In her spare time she loves to get crafty and create, sing in a local community choir and perform on tuba. She has played tuba and taught brass lessons since 1994.
At the Barn Amanda teaches piano, voice, and instrumental lessons. (Brass and some woodwinds)
Eliana Wang has been playing piano for over 10 years and most of them were as a student at S Music Studio. Although piano is her main instrument, she also plays percussion and sings. She plays the marimba and synthesizer in her school's marching band, and in the summer she performs with a competitive drum corps team. Outside of music, she likes to travel and hang out with her cat.