Meet our team.
Violin
Jacob Olbrot
Jacob Olbrot is the Executive Director of the Suzuki Academy of Kalamazoo and a violin instructor at the school. A Kalamazoo native, he grew up studying at the Suzuki Academy of Kalamazoo and performing with the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra before later joining the Academy’s faculty in the early 2000s. He studied violin performance and pedagogy at Western Michigan University’s School of Music and has remained deeply involved in music education and performance in the region ever since.
Jacob is also a core member of the Traverse City Symphony Orchestra. His professional interests include ensemble playing, historically informed Suzuki pedagogy, improvisation, and connecting young musicians to the joy of collaborative music-making.
Outside of teaching and performing, Jacob enjoys exploring music across genres, collecting records, watching films, doing puzzles and spending time with his family. He lives in Kalamazoo with his wife, Sheri, and their two daughters, Mayim and Zoe.
Sherese Bultman Mom
Sherese Mom teaches violin and piano at the Suzuki Academy. She has a Bachelor of Music Education from Michigan State University, studying violin with Dr. Walter Verdehr and piano with Dai Uk Lee. She pursued graduate study in musicology at University of Michigan. Among her Suzuki teacher trainers were Carrie Reuning and Rebecca Sandrok, who trained with Dr. Suzuki. Sherese also teaches piano and violin at REACH Kzoo and is the violinist for Thorn Among the Roses.
Janet Bogart, founder of Kalamazoo Talent Education (aka SAK), was her first violin teacher, leading to membership in Kalamazoo Junior Symphony and studying with David Updegraff (WMU). Sherese studied piano with Marcia Bultman, Will Fickes, and Jill Christian, participating in many KAMTA/MMTA competitions.
Sherese also taught Suzuki strings/orchestra and K-12 general music in schools, played in Fox Valley and Green Bay Symphonies, and was the fiddle instructor at Blue Lake Suzuki Camp. She enjoys time with friends and family, including fiddling at traditional music festivals with her children Liesl, Jeffrey, and David, who are graduates of her studio and have, or are working on, music degrees.
David Mom
David Mom is a violin instructor at the Suzuki Academy of Kalamazoo. He is a student at Western Michigan University, studying music education. He studies violin under Dr. Junqi Tang and plays in the University Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, David has a passion for folk music; he plays with several bands on mandolin, fiddle, and other instruments, and is the founder of the Bronco Folk Music Club at WMU. He has been featured on mandolin with the WMU Chorale. David is from a musical family and was taught for many years by his mother, Sherese Bultman Mom, in her Suzuki violin program. He has been playing violin for nineteen years, eight of which he played in the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony organization. He is excited to share his enthusiasm for music with his students.
Piano
Michael Zutis
Michael Zutis is a pianist, composer and educator based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He currently teaches at the Suzuki Academy of Kalamazoo, directs music at St. Thomas More Catholic Student Parish, and serves as the Michigan composition chair the Music Teachers National Association. A graduate of Western Michigan University’s composition program, he has dedicated much of his time to collaborating with other musicians with the end goal of creating and developing exciting new works for various instruments. He is also the cofounder and President of Arts In Action, a local nonprofit that seeks to raise money for humanitarian needs through art fairs and concert ticket sales.
Cello
Grace Field
Grace Field holds a BA in cello performance from Michigan State University, where she studied with Louis Potter, Jr. She also attended the New School of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Orlando Cole, cellist of Curtis String Quartet and professor of cello at Curtis. She received her Suzuki certification at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY, at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, and at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.
In the past, Grace has been a member of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra (1959-1989), a member of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra String Quartet (1963-1989), the Bach Festival Orchestra, the Arion Trio and Quartet, and the Four Seasons String Quartet.
In addition to teaching at the Suzuki Academy of Kalamazoo, Grace has also taught at Kalamazoo College, and has served as a Suzuki Association of the Americas teacher and trainer in Brazil, Australia, and Calgary. She continues to be a clinician at many US workshops.
Grace is the director of the Suzuki Academy of Kalamazoo cello program, and is also a director of the Chamber Music Workshop here in Kalamazoo, MI. She has also served as the president of the Michiana Cello Society, the Stulberg International String Competition, and the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra Women's League. She is a current member of SAA, ISA, and ASTA. She was the 2000 recipient of the Community Medal of Arts Award and the 2002 recipient of the PRISM award given by Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity.
She has two grown sons and four grandchildren.
Zachary Earle
Zachary Earle earned his Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from Western Michigan University, where he studied with Bruce Uchimura as a recipient of the Rhea Yeager Fetzer Scholarship.
Committed to historical performance, Zachary has studied at the Amherst Early Music Academy, the Chamber Music Collective, and the Smithsonian Haydn and Beethoven Academies, and has performed with the Smithsonian Academy Orchestra under the direction of Ken Slowik. He completed a Master of Arts in Historical Performance (Cello) at the Royal Academy of Music in London studying with Jonathan Manson, where highlights included touring with the Academy Baroque Soloists to Paris & Edinburgh, and performing Telemann Triple concerto with Linden Baroque Orchestra.
In addition to his performance career, Zachary is also a passionate teacher for students in the West Michigan area. He serves as the lead cello instructor at the Kalamazoo Kids In Tune music program, teaches students of all ages at the Crescendo Music Academy, and maintains his own private studio in the Kalamazoo area
Guitar
Mike Savina
Mike Savina is a guitarist and percussionist with over 20 years of performing experience. He began taking guitar lessons at the age of 9 after playing the air guitar in his bedroom window for the better part of two years. It was a sense of finality, of attaining the key to unlock a lifetime of exploration. When guitar was not an offering for concert band in school, he joined the percussion section instead. Intent on being immersed in music as much as possible, he was a member of concert band, the symphonic wind ensemble and the marching band in high school, and for his final two years joined the choir. He joined his first "rock" group at 13, has played extensively in a recording studio collective that encompassed half a dozen projects, and is currently a member of Kalamazoo-based band The Go Rounds. Music is fun, elevating, and a wonderful tool for processing the relationship between the world around us and our inner selves.
Operations
Esprit Autenreith - Operations Manager
After earning her bachelor’s in Liberal Arts from Kalamazo College in 2016 and a subsequent decade pursuing arts administration in the Seattle area, Esprit Autenreith has returned to the pleasant peninsula in search of stories to weave and arts organizations to shine a light on. She lives in Kalamazoo with her fiance Michael Zutis, and their (zesty) pups Clawra Schumann and Codetta James. She will often be your first point of contact at the Suzuki Academy at suzukiacademykalamazoo@gmail.com.