Faculty and Administration

At the heart of the Virtuoso Program is our exceptional music faculty, whose distinguished members are accomplished professional musicians from around the Bay Area. Students enjoy the priviledge of studying closely under and being mentored by our faculty, as well as benefit from master classes with frequently visiting guest artists. Recent visiting artists include the Cavani Quartet, Miró Quartet, Euclid Quartet and Quartet San Francisco.

Virtuoso Program faculty provide support and encouragement for preparation for regional, national and international auditions and competitions as well as college and conservatory applications. They also collaborate closely with leaders of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Marin Symphony Youth Programs on behalf of students who seek membership in these other organizations.

Ann Krinitsky, Virtuoso Program Director
Rob DeNunzio, Music Conservatory Director

Susan Bates, Viola
Eugene Chuklov, Violin
Zaven Melikian, Violin
Sergei Riabtchenko, Cello

Ann Krinitsky, Virtuoso Program Director, recently completed her tenure as Music Director of the Nova Vista Symphony. During her four seasons as Music Director, she and the orchestra presented exciting and diverse programs featuring soloists from the San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet orchestras, the Rochester (NY) Philharmonic, and the New World (FL) Symphony, as well as acclaimed soprano Nuccia Focile for a special benefit concert at Herbst Theater in San Francisco. Other positions she has held in the Bay Area include Interim Director of Orchestras at Stanford University; Music Director of the Palo Alto Philharmonic, the Berkeley Youth and Community Women’s Orchestras; Conductor of the Acalanes Chamber Orchestra; and Assistant Conductor of the Pacific Mozart Ensemble. She has also served on the faculty at Laney College in Oakland and as Conductor of the Chautauqua Summer Orchestra in western New York.

A frequent guest conductor with the Honolulu Symphony in recent seasons, Ms. Krinitsky led community and educational concerts on Oahu as well as on tour to the neighbor islands of Hawaii and Kauai. Ms. Krinitsky conducted the Honolulu Symphony for Ballet Hawaii's 2008 and 2009 productions of The Nutcracker. In collaboration with the Onium Ballet Project, she conducted Chamber Music Hawaii's combined "Tresemble", featuring members of the Symphony, in three modern ballets: Hindemith's The Demon, Martinu's Kitchen Revue, and Milhaud's Creation of the World. In May 2009, she and renowned trumpet soloist Matthias Höfs performed with the Honolulu Symphony for a crowd of 40,000 at Ala Moana Beach Park as part of the Memorial Day Lantern Floating Ceremony. Ms. Krinitsky has also appeared as guest conductor with the Maui Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Chamber Music Hawaii, the Women's Philharmonic, the Camellia Symphony, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, the Marin Chamber Orchestra, and the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra.

Graduating with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley, Ms. Krinitsky completed three summers of study with Harold Farberman and various visiting artists at the Conductors' Institute at Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. In 1993 she was invited to participate in the American Composer-Conductor Program, designed to allow five conductors and five composers exchange knowledge and expertise. She has also attended numerous workshops sponsored by the Conductors Guild and the American Symphony Orchestra League.

Ms. Krinitsky received the 2000-01 JoAnn Falletta Conducting Award. Given by The Women's Philharmonic and funded by the Stein Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, the award and accompanying prize money recognize women actively pursuing careers as conductors. To culminate her term as award recipient, she guest conducted The Women's Philharmonic in a work of her own reconstruction at Herbst Theater in San Francisco.

Rob DeNunzio, Music Conservatory Director has been managing San Domenico's music prorgrams since 2005 and was chosen in 2010 to head up the Virtuoso Program's recruiting and fundraising efforts. A San Francisco native, Rob recieved his degree in Music Composition from the University of Oregon where he studied music with Don Latarski, Dr. Jack Boss, and Dr. Robert Kyr. His work as a freelance composer and recording artist has been used in film and television broadcasts, and counts a number of firms such as MTV, Adidas International, and YouTube as licensing clients. After working as the Operations Manager for the Marin Symphony, Rob came to San Domenico to assist in the business management and fundraising database development in the Music Conservatory. Besides his role in the VP, he teaches guitar to a number of San Domenico students and has also initiated a high school music composition course. He lives in Fairfax with his wife Desiree and his two children, Mia and Leo.


Susan Bates, Chamber Music Coach and Viola instructor, is Instructor of Viola and Chamber Music in the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a post she has held since 1984. She is the founding coordinator of its Preparatory Chamber Music Program (1984-1998), and past Director of Summer Music West (1992-1995). In 1995, Ms. Bates united her colleagues to found California Summer Music, and served as its Program Director (1995-1999). Currently, she directs the Lake Tahoe Music Festival Academy (2002), and is instructor of viola and chamber music at Midwest Young Artists in Chicago. She is the 1992 recipient of The Gruber Award for "Excellence in Chamber Music Teaching" from Chamber Music America, and has for over 20 years, instructed and mentored numerous chamber ensembles that have distinguished themselves in the Carmel, Kohl Mansion, Fischoff and Coleman Chamber Music Competitions.

Susan is a tenured member of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, a post she has held since 1979. Previously, she was principal viola of the San Jose Symphony Orchestra, and served on the faculty of San Jose State University Music Department (1976-1983) as violist of the San Jose String Quartet. In 1983, the San Jose String Quartet collaborated with composer Lou Harrison, giving his "Quartet Set" its U.S. premier. Subsequently, Ms. Bates recorded Mr. Harrison's "Trenody for Carlos" for viola solo and Javanese Gamelan Degung for the CRI Label. She co-founded the New Age String Quartet, an ensemble that won awards from the South Bay Chamber Music Society of Los Angeles, the Monterey Peninsula Chamber Music Society (Carmel Competition), and the Coleman Chamber Music Competition.

 
Eugene Chuklov, Violin Sectional Leader and Violin Instructor, is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and has over 24 years of performance and teaching experience as a member of the Arlekin String Quartet. The quartet has been affiliated with the chamber music program at San Francisco State University for many years. In addition to his quartet duties, Eugene is applauded regularly as a soloist and orchestral player throughout the Bay Area. Eugene is also on the faculty at the Crowden School in Berkeley and is a member of the Berkeley Symphony. He counts Milly Rosner, Joan Balter, and the late Colin Hampton as his great mentors.

Eugene lives in El Sobrante with his daughter Alexandra Marie and wife Edith. Eugene's parents moved from Europe to live across the street from him in the house that he bought for them. The Chukhlovs have a dog and four cats, two of which Eugene's mom brought from Russia. He is an avid gardener, mainly roses and grapes (no wine this year though). He shares with his wife a passon for fishing California lakes and the South Pacific seas. They plan to retire in Kona, grow orchids, fish, paint watercolors, and perhaps give a few violin lessons to the local kids.

Zaven Melikian, Chamber Music Coach and Violin instructor, is nationally recognized as a leading expert in string pedagogy. He graduated with a License de Concert from Ecole Normale de Music in Paris, where he studied with Yvonne Astruc. Before coming to the United States, he performed extensively throughout France, Italy, Egypt, Lebanon and his native Yugoslavia. Mr. Melikian was a member of the San Francisco Symphony for twenty-three years, serving the last fifteen of that tenure as Assistant Concertmaster.

In 1977 he was appointed Concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, a post he held until 1994 when he was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal upon his retirement. In 1969 he became professor of violin at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, retiring in 1998 and receiving an honorary Doctor of Music degree. During this time he trained an extraordinary group of violinists at the Preparatory and Collegiate level who may be found among the ranks of major symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles in the United States and abroad. Mr. Melikian began teaching at San Domenico in 2000.

Sergei Riabtchenko, Chamber Music Coach and Cello instructor, received a Bachelor degree from Pushkin Music College in Russia, where he was the Grand Prix winner of the Moscow Young Musicians Festival. He received his Masters from the Moscow Conservatory of Music, and performed with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra until 1990. Upon moving to the United States, Mr. Riabtchenko taught for three years at San Francisco State University and currently performs with the California Symphony Orchestra and the Arlekin String Quartet. He began teaching at San Domenico in summer 2000.