Dr. Daniel Gasse
Co-Founder
drgasse@gasseschoolofmusic.org
Specialty: Cello, MusikGarten, and Chamber Music
Dr. Daniel Gasse is a Founding Director of the Gasse School of Music in Forest Park, where he teaches cello, MusikGarten and coaches chamber music.
Dr. Gasse has a Profesor de Violoncello degree from the Concervatorio Provincal de Musica de la Provincia de Cordoba, Argentina, a master’s degree and a doctorate in Musical Arts with a minor in Music Education from the University of Illinois.
Dr. Gasse has more than 30 years experience teaching cello and coaching chamber music and orchestra. His training and experience includes traditional methods as well as the Suzuki method. He also has experience teaching college students as a former faculty member of Columbia College and Olivet Nazarene University. Many of his students have taken cello for their music major college degrees and several of them have earned the first prize in the Concerto Competition of the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Gasse also is trained in and has many years experience in early childhood education. He has extensively taught Orff and MusikGarten classes. Along with his wife, Sarah Gasse, Dr. Gasse founded the Music for Life Foundation; a not-for-profit organization that provided scholarships to students that otherwise would not have been able to take instrumental lessons. He was also the music director of the Suzuki-Orff School for Young Musicians in Chicago for 12 years, until 2002.
Dr. Gasse served as principal cellist of the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra for 18 years until January 2006 and currently plays with the Oak Park River Forest Symphony Orchestra. He was the cellist in the Opus 3 Piano Trio, the Convergence String Quartet and has been a member of the Chicago Twentieth Century Music Ensemble until the end of its regular performances.
Previous experiences include numerous performances as a recitalist, and soloist with orchestras in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and the United States, as well as holding the position of principal or assistant principal cellist in orchestras in Argentina, Brazil and the US.
Dr. Gasse is also the author of the books The Music Written for Cello by Argentinean Composers, and The History of Spain Through the Arts. Dr. Gasse is a frequent guest clinician for the River Forest middle school orchestra program.
Sarah Gasse
Co-Founder
Specialty: Violin, Viola Chamber Music
Mrs. Sarah Gasse teaches viola, violin, chamber music at The Gasse School of Music in Forest Park, IL where she is also a Founding Director.
Mrs. Gasse is a native of Sunderland, England. She attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland and Glasgow University where she earned the BA (Musical Studies) HONS degree. After performing with renowned ensembles such as Britten-Pears Orchestra, Scottish Early Music Consort and the Cruic Quartet, she emigrated to the United States in 1995 for a career in performance and teaching.
She has coached the string sections of The McHenry County Youth Orchestra and The Kankakee Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has been on the faculty of Olivet Nazarene University, The Suzuki-Orff School for Young Musicians in Chicago and the McHenry County Music Center. She also was the Director of Chamber Music at the McHenry County Music Center.
Mrs. Gasse training and experience include both traditional and Suzuki methods for strings and early childhood music education. Mrs. Gasse and her husband, Dr. Daniel Gasse, founded the Music for Life Foundation; a not-for-profit organization that provided scholarships to students that otherwise would not have been able to take instrumental music lessons.
Mrs. Gasse played viola in the Oak Park River Forest Symphony Orchestra for two years until 2007, and was principal violist at the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra for 9 years until May 2006. She also played violin in the Opus 3 Piano Trio and viola in the Convergence String Quartet. Mrs. Gasse is a frequent guest clinician for the River Forest middle school orchestra program.
In 2014, Mrs. Gasse presented at the Music Teacher’s National Conference: “Piano Trios for Tots through Teens:
An Exploration of Piano, Violin and Cello Trios for the Beginning through Intermediate Levels”
Zhivko Nikolov
Guitar Instructor
Specialty: Guitar
Zhivko Nikolov has taught guitar at The Gasse School of Music since 2013. He has been teaching private guitar lessons since 2006. In addition he was also the guitar instructor in two Bulgarian Learning Centers and has experience of teaching students of any age.
Mr. Nikolov started playing classical guitar since he was 11. His attraction to the instrument guided his choice to continue his education with music in the “Pancho Vladigerov” High School for Music in Bourgas, Bulgaria. During his youth studies he was often given the chance to perform solo and with ensemble on various occasions such as; guitar seminars, festivals, and concert. The musical environment helped him built his musicianship skills, scene behavior, and general musical knowledge from early adolescence. When residing in Bulgaria, Mr. Nikolov won prizes in few competitions such as:
- “Singing groups” in Gotse Delchev – 2003
- The Balkan contest in Kyustendil – 2003
- “Competition for Interpretation of Music by Bulgarian Composer” in Bourgas – 2004
Mr. Nikolov moved permanently to the United States in 2007, and shortly after that he auditioned and was accepted to the Music Conservatory of Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University. Since then he had studied under the supervision of the well-known performer and Professor Denis Azabagic.
Since his enrollment in Roosevelt University, he has had the exceptional chance to meet and perform for several world-known artists such as Marcin Dylla, Paul Galbraith, Elena Papandreo, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Nicholas Golouses, Mathew Cochran, and Eduardo Catemario. Furthermore he also often performed in concerts, and guitar seminars both inside and outside of Chicago.
Mr. Nikolov won the 2nd prize in Louisville International Solo Competition (Kentucky), and was also among the semifinalists in Rosario Guitar Competition (South Carolina), and Indiana International Guitar Competition (Bloomington, Indiana).
In addition to his classical musical training Mr. Nikolov is also interested in various musical styles and genres. In 2012 he formed a clarinet- guitar duo with which he often performs world music in various venues in Chicago.
Dr. Summer Baek
Piano Instructor
Specialty: Piano
Dr. Baek Biography
At four years old, Dr. Baek started learning the piano and decided to study piano performance seriously at an early age.
After she graduated from Kyeonggi Art High School, Dr. Baek received her bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea. She started teaching in private and at academies since she was a college student. In the meantime, she also worked as a music therapist at a school for the disabled. She moved to the United States to earn a Master of Music degree under Dr. Tuyen Tonnu and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance under Dr. Mark Clinton from Illinois State University (ISU) and University of Nebraksa-Lincoln (UNL). At Illinois State University, she received a full-scholarship and worked as a pianist in the ISU wind symphony and participated in the Midwest Institute of Opera (MIO) during the summer. At her doctoral study, she received a full-scholarship and the Pearl M Finigan Fellowship. As a graduate teaching assistant, she taught group piano classes for undergraduate students and had private lessons for graduate students. As a collaborative pianist, she accompanied at University Singers and had many students’ solo recitals at UNL. In 2019, she had an interdisciplinary project collaborating between music and dance with a grant and traveled to South Korea with cello professor, Dr. Karen Becker and dance professor, Dr. Hyewon Hwang from UNL.
Currently, she works as a collaborative pianist in cello studio of Professor Stephen Balderston and Professor Brant Taylor at DePaul University.
She believes that piano lessons provide students performance skill and invaluable life-skills such as responsibility, dedication, patience, confidence, and satisfaction.