​Oregon ASTA

executive board biographies

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Diane Chaplin, President & ASTACAP Chair 

Diane Chaplin is a solo artist, chamber music cellist and nurturing music educator who lives Portland, Oregon. She tours around the U.S. as a featured member of the Portland Cello Project, and is often heard in solo and chamber music performances across the globe. She has a large class of private students, both in-person and online, and teaches online classes to an international clientele through Cello Refinery. Diane has taught at Yale University, Bard College, UC Santa Barbara, Oberlin Conservatory, Linfield University, Lewis and Clark College, Swarthmore College and at the Castleman Quartet Program, and has given master classes in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, The Netherlands, Bosnia and Russia. As a member of the Colorado Quartet for twenty years, Diane performed in more than twenty countries and recorded several critically acclaimed albums. The Quartet was the first all-female string quartet to perform the complete quartets of Beethoven in both North America and Europe. Diane holds a BFA degree from the California Institute of the Arts and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. She received a Special Prize from the International Cello Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile, and a Certificate from the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. (www.cellochaplin.com)

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Sharon Eng, Vice President

Violist Sharon Eng has performed worldwide with her trio, Classical Nuances (oboe, viola, piano) for more than 20 years on five continents. While studying for her bachelors and masters in viola performance at the Juilliard School in New York City, she played in the American Ballet Theatre and NYC Opera orchestras. Professionally, Dr. Eng toured China twice as co-principal viola of the Polish Sinfonietta, maintains a private violin studio in Portland, is on the strings faculty of Portland Parks and Recreation, co-founded Madrona Viola Duo and the Raphael Spiro String Quartet, and is president of the Oregon Viola Society. She freelances with many local ensembles, among them-- Oregon Coast Music Festival, Portland Opera, Portland Symphonic Choir, Newport, Rogue Valley, Corvallis and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras. Since 2003, Dr. Eng has served on the summer faculty of the Intermuse lnternational Music Institute and Festival (IIMIF) at Mount St. Mary's Univ. in Emmitsburg, Maryland (www.imif.us). Eng has been a member of ASTA for over 40 years and is currently treasurer of the Oregon Chapter of the American Strings Teacher Association. Her board qualifications include a doctorate (PhD) in international nonprofit management and 25 years as a development aid specialist managing USAID, Asian Development Bank and Australian AID projects ranging in grants of $25,000 to $8 million. Dr. Eng is currently adjunct associate professor on the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of Canberra in Australia (www.sharoneng.com)

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Jerry Bobbe, Treasurer

​From his home in Portland, Jerry Bobbe maintains dual careers as both a professional cellist and internationally respected numismatist.  Mr. Bobbe’s primary teachers included Frank Miller, former Principal Cellist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Georg Solti, and the celebrated Karl Fruh. He served as Principal Cellist in both the Chicago Chamber Orchestra and the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Assistant Principal in the Milwaukee (WI) Symphony, and Principal Cellist of the Florida Orchestra.  For more than a decade, he served as Principal Cellist of the Vancouver (WA) Symphony, appearing three times as soloist with that organization. Jerry was named Portland’s Best Cellist in Willamette Week’s 1994 “Best of Portland” issue, where he was pictured on the front cover as his Charlie Chaplin cello-playing alter ego. Along with Maria Choban, he was a founding member of the critically acclaimed piano trio St. Elvis. In 2007, Jerry and Maria completed a recording together of the sonatas of Barber, Villa-Lobos, and Muczynski, under the Alitisa label, entitled “St. Elvis, Back in the Building.” He is absolutely delighted with the legacy left by OR-ASTA's outgoing treasurer, Sharon Eng, with the easy filing/records-keeping systems, easy online protocols and financial templates that help with budgeting and managing of OR-ASTA's many exciting projects.

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Myriam Gendron-Dupont, Secretary

Myriam is the Orchestra Director at Rosemont Ridge Middle School in the West-Linn-Wilsonville School District. She is a native French speaker from Quebec, Canada, and is certified to teach both music and French. Myriam is a lifelong cellist and always knew she would follow a career path embedded in the music world. She attended Portland State University on a full scholarship and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Masters in Education. She obtained her teaching license and has worked over 15 years in the public education system, teaching elementary general music, choir and orchestra, as well as middle school choir, orchestra, guitar and French. She is currently attending PSU again to earn a second Masters in Curriculum & Instruction. Myriam teaches middle school orchestra and guitar, private lessons on the cello, and occasionally performs in orchestras, weddings and other events. 

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Lillian Manis, Past President

Widely recognized for her work as a Suzuki educator, Lillie Manis is currently completing her doctorate at Teachers College, Columbia University, where her research focuses on studio teachers' holistic strategies for cultivating expressive performance in young violinists. She is a faculty member at the Willamette Violin Academy, teaching students of all levels — from preschool-aged beginners to concerto-level high schoolers — in both individual lessons and groups. From 2009-2020, she was a faculty member at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, where she mentored graduate violin and viola pedagogy students, served as the Assistant Director of the Community Music Institute, and taught courses within the music education department. Members of her vibrant pre-college studio and her graduate student mentees have achieved noteworthy musical and professional success, including competition wins, full scholarships to major music schools and summer programs, and college teaching appointments. Active as a clinician, masterclass presenter, adjudicator and conference presenter at both the regional and national levels, she enjoys performing chamber music alongside some of the northwest's finest players, and recently completed a term of service on the editorial committee of the American String Teacher magazine.