School of Fine Arts Faculty

The School of Fine Arts is pleased to offer instruction by some of the most highly qualified musicians and creative artists in the Chattanooga area.

All instructors are approved by the School of Fine Arts Advisory Committee and are experienced in their field of instruction, both as teachers and performers.

Every member of the music faculty has studied extensively on their instrument, with many holding advanced degrees.

Kellen Shiles

Guitar, Bass Guitar & Ukulele

Kellen Shiles is a local musician who specializes in guitar, ukulele, and bass guitar instruction. He has logged over 15 years of passionate playing and has studied a wide variety of styles.

Read More

Kellen has experience with anything from touring in a funk-rock band, to playing with the UTC Jazz Band, singing with the CSO Choir, classical Celtic style guitar, country music recording  sessions, a latin rock band, and many more. He has a particular interest in world music styles as well. He is currently the guitar and ukulele instructor at St. Nicholas Elementary.

He regularly writes his own music, and still performs frequently around town. In the past he has had a few Riverbend appearances, and will be playing at the Grand Ole Opry in the fall of 2022. 

Ben Van Winkle

Cello

Ben Van Winkle is a native Chattanoogan who has 16 years experience playing cello. He is 25 years old and graduated from Tennessee Tech University in May 2015.

Read More

He has played with ensembles such as the CSO and Rome (GA) Symphony and has studied under notable cellists: Dr. James Stroud, Dan Allcott, and Annie Camp. Ben is skilled in pedagogy and genuinely enjoys teaching others the wonderful craft of cello performance.

Jessica Nunn

Violin/Viola

A Chattanooga native, Ms. Nunn started the violin at the age of 10 at Hixson Elementary, with Priscilla Estrada. When she was 15, Jessica began teaching private violin lessons for several middle school students in Hamilton County and switch from violin to viola the following year.

Read More

When she was a junior she placed third in the Tennessee All-State Orchestra and then first her senior year. She holds a Bachelor’s in Music from The University of Tennessee in Knoxville and studied with Sheila Browne and Hillary Herndon. She performed both in the UT symphony and the UT studio orchestra where she played jazz charts under the direction of Rusty Holloway.

During her last two years at UTK, Jessica performed with the Oak Ridge Symphony, Symphony of the Mountains, and the Knoxville Symphony. She also performed several masterclasses with Victoria Chang (Peabody), Kathryn Plummer (Vanderbilt), Daniel Sweaney (USC), Dr. Scott Rawls (UNC), Heidi Castleman (Juilliard), Jennifer Stumm (Royal College of Music) and chamber masterclasses with the Avalon Strings Quartet, Miami Strings Quartet, and Felici Piano Trio.

She moved from Knoxville to Tallahassee FL and started her Master’s in Music Performance at Florida State University, where she became a graduate assistant for Dr. Pamela Ryan. During her two years in Florida, she performed with the Northwest Florida Symphony, Albany Symphony, Sinfonia Gulf Coast, and the Panama City Pops. In 2012, she began playing with the Tallahassee Shelter Band, a music therapy program performed by FSU graduate students and tenants at the homeless shelter.

After graduating with honors from FSU, Jessica moved back to Chattanooga where she performed with several local bands at Riverbend, Riverfront Nights, Scenic City Roots, and temporarily sub for the Chattanooga Symphony.

David Kammerdiener

Piano

A charter member of the faculty since 1997, David Kammerdiener has been playing the piano since he was five years old.

Read More

He is a graduate of the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas, and holds the following degrees:  Bachelor of Music, Oklahoma Baptist University, Shawnee, Oklahoma; Master of Church Music, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Mill Valley, California; Master of Music in Education-Kodály Emphasis, Holy Names College, Oakland, California; Associate of Applied Science-Networking Specialist, Georgia Northwestern Technical College, Rock Spring, Georgia.

He has taught piano and directed choirs for more than 35 years in the U.S. and four Latin American countries, served as an International Music Missionary and Minister of Music in the U.S.  Fluent in Spanish, “Mr. K” as he is known, is a certified Chorus teacher and Spanish teacher.  In addition, Mr. Kammerdiener is the pianist for the Chattanooga Girls Choir “Bella Voce” Choir (5th and 6th grade), for a local jazz combo, ¡Qué Jazz! and has been playing in Big Bands since the mid-1990’s.  He is the keyboardist in The UPTown Big Band of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Joan Tonkinson

Voice and Piano

Mrs. Tonkinson, soprano, brings a wealth of experiences as both teacher and performer to the School of Fine Arts. She has taught private voice, vocal pedagogy, and music education methods and has directed choirs for many years at colleges in Missouri, Tennessee, and Georgia, including: Covenant College, Chattanooga State Technical Community College, Tennessee Temple University, and Baptist Bible College (Springfield, Missouri).

Read More

She is currently the Director of the Bella Voce Choir of the Chattanooga Girls Choir, and also teaches music at McConnell Elementary School. She is a member of NATS and MTNA, and has sung with the Mid-America Singers (Springfield, MO), the Springfield Regional Opera, and Choral Arts of Chattanooga. She received a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Midwestern State University (Wichita Falls, TX), and a Master of Science degree in Music Education from Southwest Missouri State University.

She also studied voice and art song at the Hochschule for Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria, and earned certification as a Kodoly Instructor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Penny Downs Tullock

Voice and Piano

Ms. Tullock, a lyric contralto, earned her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Carson-Newman College. She is a winner of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Regional Auditions. A frequent guest artist and recitalist, Ms. Tullock can be heard on Choral Arts of Chattanooga recordings of “Days of Blue and Gray,” a CD of Civil War era music, and “Dave Brubeck in Chattanooga.”

Read More

She has performed as guest soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Carson-Newman College, Mozart’s Requiem with Orchestra Atlanta and also with the Huntsville Symphony, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, Bach’s Magnificat with Southern Adventist University, and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Rome (GA) Symphony.

An accompanist/coach for more than 30 years, she has played at the University of Louisville, Southern Seminary, Carson-Newman and Covenant Colleges, the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, the Linz Austria Choral Festival, and the Savannah Georgia American Traditions Vocal Competition.

She is currently the staff accompanist at Baylor School and with the Chattanooga Girls Choir, accompanist at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and The Baylor School. Her students regularly win local and regional music and scholarship competitions.

Alla Kogan

Piano

Ms. Kogan does not remember a time since she was 6 years old when she wasn’t playing the piano. She began her training in a special music school with in-depth learning piano, under the supervision of several great teachers.  In addition, she had a personal tutor at home, her great grandmother, who was an amazing pianist herself.

Read More

She received an associate degree in music from College of Music Arts, Piano Performance department, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Theatre and Music Arts with diplomas in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy, Theory and Music History. After graduation, she mentored students in piano and theory, working in the Music Department of the same University for 15 years.

As a true adherent of Russian Classical Piano School, well-known for its strong traditions, Ms. Kogan believes in teaching techniques: hand position, memorization, sight-reading, practice routines and, as a result, the beautiful sound and understanding of music language. She feels very strongly that you cannot have artistic freedom if you do not have technical freedom. Her teaching philosophy: ”To play a wrong note is insignificant, to play without passion is inexcusable.” Ludwig Van Beethoven.

Gordon Inman

Clarinet

When Gordon Inman was ten years old, his mother became a working folk musician in Chattanooga, Tennessee. During this time young Gordon fell in love with the timbre of the instruments and the soulful, unapologetically emotive nature of the music of his home. When he began playing the clarinet two years later, early attempts at transposition in order to play his mother’s music were devised and eventually tabled.

Read More

Robert Cirlot and David Butler were his band directors; Jonathan Cathell sold him his first clarinet; Steve Tonkinson was his private instructor; Jay Craven was his mentor; Todd Waldecker was his professor; and Jessica Harrie was his big sister. 

Mr. Inman served in his mentor Jay Craven’s Chattanooga Clarinet Choir from 2013 to 2023 in the following roles, respectively: alto clarinet, soloist, concertmaster, artistic director, manager, conductor, and his favorite: emeritus. 

One of Mr. Inman’s proudest artistic achievements was a combined chamber music/film series experiment in responsible indoor live music in the Spring of 2021 known as the Northshore Karass Series. The series was a collaboration with the Chattanooga Theatre Centre and was dubbed by a local publication as “the return of live music” in Chattanooga post-lockdown.

In 2021, the regionally celebrated American roots ensemble, The New Quintet, was formed with folk historian/podcaster Nicholas Edward Williams, Jade Watts, Emma Dubose, Cody Ray, and Gordon Inman. His mother is one of their biggest fans. 

At present, Mr. Inman is working on his next project: a center dedicated to clarinet research and pedagogy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Far-flung collaborations welcome.)