Music Staff Bios

Assistant Director of Music

Kelli Workman attended University of North Texas from 1977-1980 majoring in Music Theory with a concentration in piano. She has also been Vocal Director at Media General Broadcast Services in Memphis, TN from 1982-1989, where she also served as a radio id/jingle singer. Kelli has also been a freelance singer/songwriter in Nashville, TN. As Assistant Director of Music at The Renaissance Center, Kelli has been teaching music at The Renaissance Center since 2003. She teaches voice, beginning piano and all of the Kindermusik classes. She also teaches a studio singing workshop, which is a crash course in the vocal number system, studio technique, and creating background vocals. She teaches classes in vocal instruction and early childhood music education.

Adjunct Instructors

The Music Department of The Renaissance Center employs a variety of instructors to meet the diverse needs of students through both private and group instrumental and vocal instruction. Most instruments are offered covering a variety of styles including classical, jazz and improvisation.

Todd Boswell (bagpipes) has played the Highland Bagpipe for almost fourteen years, and has been an instructor of pipes for about ten years, mainly with the Nashville Pipes And Drums, and now, for past few years at The Ren. Center. A French Horn player throughout High-school and College, an interest in his Scottish heritage sparked a desire to take up the pipes. A solo piper through the Southeast, teaching the bagpipes fulfills a love of the instrument, and a love of passing on an ancient tradition of playing the pipes.

Marilyn Fair (voice and performance) has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts with a minor in Vocal Production and has performed primarily in musical theatre throughout her 20-year career. Marilyn studied voice for seven years in New York City with Emile Renan of the New York City Opera Company and acting with Elizabeth Browning of Circle Rep and performed in numerous Off-Broadway productions, including a four-year run in The Fantasticks. Marilyn began teaching private voice at The Renaissance Center in the fall of 2003 after making her home in Middle Tennessee with her husband, singer/songwriter Joe Fair, and their son, Nicolas.

Connie Haun (piano) Bachelor of music degree from UT Knoxville, MS in Piano Pedagogy from George Peabody School of Music in Nashville. She is a member of National Piano Guild of Teachers, Nashville Piano Teachers Association and Music Teachers National Association. Connie studied piano with Alfred Schmied, Lucien Stark, Vernon Cherrix, Vicki King and Enid Katahn. She has served as pianist for the Kingston Springs United Methodist Church, Cheatham County Community Theatre, South Cheatham Choral Society, as pianist for the Renaissance Center's production of 2 Nights, 2 Acts, 2 Gether(2007) and performed the first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 19 at the Steinway Gallery Mozart Birthday Bash and with The Renaissance Center Concert Band in 2004. She is an adjunct teacher of piano at The Renaissance Center, David Lipscomb Music Academy, and in her studio at home in Kingston Springs.

Connie also plays oboe with The Renaissance Center Concert Band.

Leslie Hudson (piano) holds a Bachelor of Music from Belmont University, where she majored in Piano Pedagogy. She studied piano with Robert Marler and Pedagogy with Linda Ford. Leslie began taking lessons when she was seven years old and though she knows she has talent, she has had to work and practice hard to develop into the musician she is today. This learning process makes her more understanding and creative as a teacher and she loves discovering solutions to musical challenges presented to her and her students.

Karen Pendley-Kuykendall (violin) has taught violin and fiddling at The Renaissance Center since 2005. Karen has extensive experience as both a teacher and performer. She has taught Orchestra programs in the Nashville-Davidson County schools for several years, as well as private violin instruction at Hermitage Arts Academy. Karen continues to work as a professional fiddle player and singer, backing up and touring nationally and internationally with many well-known country artists, and well as with her own bluegrass group, The HeartStrings. Karen is good teacher for students looking for a good classical violin foundation, with the ability to combine it with the commercial art of fiddle playing. For further information on Karen, you can visit her website at www.karenpendley.com.

Whitney Petty (piano) is from White Bluff, TN. A graduate of Belmont University (2009), she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education. She has studied piano with Dr. Robert Marler, the current pianist for the Nashville Symphony, and also with Mrs. Leslie Hudson, a piano instructor at The Renaissance Center. In 2007, she took part in a choir tour in China with Belmont University Chorale, the university's premiere touring choir. In addition to teaching piano lessons, she accompanies theatrical productions with the Gaslight Dinner Theater and Houston County Community Theater and is a member of The Renaissance Center Chamber Choir. Her professional memberships include MENC (The National Association for Music Education) and Kappa Delta Pi (International Honor Society in Education).

A native of Houston, Texas, Lauren Winkens (clarinet, saxophone, flute) teaches private woodwinds lessons in Dickson at The Renaissance Center and in Clarksville at Mary’s Music. She is the coordinator of The Renaissance Center Chamber Series and the clarinetist and founder of The Iris Chamber Players. In Clarksville, she is a tenor saxophonist with The Cumberland Jazz Project. Lauren earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in clarinet performance from Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX) and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Greensboro, NC), respectively. She was a winner of the 2004 UNCG Concerto Competition. Also while at UNCG, Lauren helped to found Una Voce, the university’s award-winning clarinet quartet. Una Voce was the 2003 and 2004 North Carolina division of the Music Teachers’ National Association Chamber Competition winner, a finalist in the 2004 Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, California, and a performer at the 2005 Clarinet Fest in Tama City, Tokyo, Japan. Mrs. Winkens was previously the bass clarinetist for the Fayetteville Symphony (NC) and has performed with the Carolina Pops and Greensboro Ballet. An accomplished doubler, she has also played in the pit orchestras with The Temple Theatre (Sanford, NC), The Renaissance Center’s Gaslight Dinner Theatre, The Roxy Theatre (Clarksville), The Greensboro Day School (Greensboro, NC), and various other venues. Before moving to Tennessee, Lauren taught private lessons in central North Carolina and Texas.