About Us

Josué González comes to Project STEP having recently served as the Director of Education for Rockport Music. His professional career has been centered in music education, having previously served as a teacher and program director for the El Sistema music program at the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston.

A trained classical cellist, Josué holds a B.M. and M.M. in Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy from the Cleveland Institute of Music and is a graduate of the Perrone Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership.  In 2017 he received an Emerging Leader Award from the Arts Schools Network (ASN) for his work in the music education field and was a prize winner at the 2011 Sphinx Competition.

A talented double bass player, Dr. Saunders earned both his bachelors and master’s degrees in double bass performance from The Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA). He continued his studies at the University of Maryland, where he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree. He served as the Assistant Dean of Students for the Eastern Music Festival for four years; held the title of Classical Roots Coordinator for a year with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; and most recently, he worked at The Longy School of Music, in Cambridge, serving as the Assistant Dean for Artistic and Social Change (in which capacity he also worked with Longy’s El Sistema orchestra for students ages 8 to 18). A committed educator, Dr. Saunders has taught in youth programs in Virginia and Maryland and was associated with Cincinnati’s El Sistema program; additionally, he has taught at the collegiate level (including The University of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky University, and Penn State University). His orchestral experience is extensive, and includes performances with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Virginia Symphony.  In addition to his music degrees, Dr. Saunders earned an Artist Diploma from The University of Cincinnati. 

Mariana Green Hill began studying violin at the age of four. At age nine she auditioned into Project STEP, and under its auspices Ms. Green Hill studied at the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School. Her teachers included Farhoud Moshfegh, Marylou Speaker Churchill, then Principal Second Violin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Tamara Smirnova, Assistant Concert Master of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Green Hill received Bachelors and Masters Degrees from the Juilliard School, and a Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes College of Music. Ms. Green Hill is a Second, Third and Best Tone Award Winner of the Sphinx Competition and placed First in the Boston Symphony Orchestra Youth Competition, the 17th Annual NAACP Act-So Competition, and the Chinese American Art Society Competition. Ms. Green Hill has been a featured guest soloist with the Memphis, New Jersey, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, the Boston Pops, Symphony Pro Musica, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Civic Symphony, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and the Cape Ann Symphony. Ms. Green Hill is a member of the Young Eight, a group of emerging African American artists who perform chamber music throughout the country. She is concertmaster of the Soulful Symphony in Baltimore. For eight years she was the second violinist of the Amaryllis String Quartet. She currently teaches at the Boston Arts Academy and Orchard Gardens Pilot School, as well as privately. She is Artistic Advisor of Project STEP where she consults with the Artistic Director and Executive Director on issues pertaining to the Youth Preparatory, Preparatory and Pre-College Divisions. She also assists with content and student selection from the FOCUS program. In conjunction with the Artistic Director and the Executive Director, she helps develop curriculum for the program. She is a resource for parents and faculty.

Leigh Kelter served as Project STEP’s Executive Director from 2001-2005 and moved on to specialize in non-profit fundraising in her subsequent position as the Director of Development at the Conservatory Lab Charter School. She returned to Project STEP in 2010 and has been focusing on foundation, corporate, and government fundraising since then. Serving as Interim Executive Director in 2018 and again in 2021 strengthened her already deep commitment to the organization. Ms. Kelter received a Master of Arts in ethnomusicology from UCLA and a Bachelor of Arts in music and anthropology from Tufts University.

Jodie McMenamin joined Project STEP in the fall of 2014. Her role at Project STEP includes working with the Executive Director, Development team, and Board of Trustees to lead a successful campaign of support for the organization’s continued growth and stability. Through her work at Project STEP she has been honored to speak at the National Guild for Arts Administration and the DeVos Institute for Arts Management, among other organizations, to share successful information in development and fundraising for arts and humanities organizations.

Jodie has worked for over 20 years in the arts and culture sector of Boston in fundraising and development for various non-profit organizations including the USS Constitution Museum, Arsenal Center for the Arts, and Glovebox. She also previously served as a Board member for the Fort in Arts Community, and as as an intern at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Fort Point Arts Community.

In addition to her position with Project STEP, Jodie is a successful curator and fine arts painter. Her art has been featured in Boston Magazine, Boston Home, Apartment Therapy, and the Boston Weekly Dig among other publications. Jodie’s work is on permanent reserve at the Boston Public Library and State Street Bank, and permanent exhibition at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She has been nominated as a Brother Thomas Fellow by The Boston Foundation (2018), recognized as a Fay Chandler Emerging Artist by The City of Boston (both in 2018 and 2019), and was nominated by the St. Botolph Club, Boston for an emerging artist grant (2021). In 2022, Jodie was awarded a curatorial ship by the Fort Points Art Community that was sponsored by The City of Boston for an exhibition titled There Once Was Parking – which also supported an evening of music from student musicians of Project STEP. Also in 2022, Jodie was awarded The People’s Choice Award for the National art competition, “Emptiness” for her painting titled Last Call, and she received a grant from The City of Boston to produce a series of cultural events in Dorchester, MA under the umbrella title There Once Was Parking II.

In addition to her artwork and her work in fundraising, Jodie is a member of the Fort Point Arts Community, The National Guild for Community Arts Education, and The Edward Hopper House Artists’ Members in Nyack, NY, and The American Iris Society.

Jodie studied Industrial Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Printmaking and the History of Italian Gardens at the Lorenzo de’ Medici School in Florence, Italy, received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, and a Master’s of Science in Art Administration from Boston University.

Josefina Leonor Guzmán Pérez is a violinist, arts administrator, and educator from the Dominican Republic.

Nurturing her love for education, she currently is an Ensemble Director at Boston Music Project, where she teaches music to a beginner elementary school string orchestra in Brighton. In her most recent role during her time as Community Inclusion and Engagement Manager at Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Josefina worked with the community to bring compassionate student performances to new and familiar audiences with the purpose of building a greater Berkshire community. Additionally, she led initiatives and affinity groups that engaged students in discussions and provided resources on historically underrepresented composers and communities in classical music.

Josefina’s musical ability has earned her accolades, notably as the winner of the international competition BritchamDR Young Musician of the Caribbean Award in 2020. She has performed and studied at various festivals across the United States, including the Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Kinhaven Young Artist Seminar.

At the heart of Josefina’s professional philosophy lies her belief in the transformative power of music. She is committed to creating meaningful experiences through sharing the joy of music with audiences, students, and communities. She holds performance degrees from respected institutions, including Boston University, Texas Christian University, and Florida State University. In 2022, she earned an Executive Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship from the Global Leaders Program.

Benz Theodore has been involved with ProjectSTEP since its public beginning when he and his brothers auditioned for the first student cohort and his youngest brother was accepted into the program’s inaugural class. This led to his driving and sitting in on his brother’s lessons, recitals, master classes, concerts, and performances. Years later, he deepened his involvement with STEP as two of his own children entered the program and one of them completed the whole experience from Kindergarten through 12th grade and is now attending college studying Chemical Engineering and Viola.

As a ProjectSTEP parent, Benz immersed himself in the program, participating in several instrumental and theory classes. He also performed on stage with the students on many occasions, including the First Night, MLK, the 30th, and 35th Anniversary celebrations. One year after becoming an alumni parent, he served as head usher for the recent 40th Anniversary Gala concert at the JFK Library and Museum.

Benz was elected by his fellow parents to two terms as a Parent Representative. In this position, he led parent initiatives, the monthly Parents’ Council meetings and interfaced with the STEP board where he served on several committees including the Artistic, Strategic Planning Consultant Search, Strategic Planning, Executive Director Search, DEI Task Force, and the Artistic Director Search Committee which he co-chaired with Alex McCray, the sitting First Vice President.

Benz studied music theory and violin performance at Moorpark College. He holds a Teaching Certificate from the Mark O’Connor Method of String Playing and an S.B. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from M.I.T.

Photo by Olan Mills Portrait Studios

Jason Amos began the viola at age eleven in his hometown of Southfield, MI.  He placed 4th in the 2007 Sphinx Competition and 1st in the 2006 Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Bradlin Scholarship Concerto Competition. He has also performed as the featured young artist of the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and as soloist with the Ann Arbor Symphony. After undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, Mr. Amos received a Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music.  During the summers, he has enjoyed serving as faculty for the Sphinx Performance Academy and the Four Strings Academy, as well as mentoring the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Jason studied primarily with Martha Strongin Katz, Yizhak Schotten, Caroline Coade, and Catherine Carroll.  Mr. Amos completed the Fellowship program at Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI. Jason serves as violist in the Boston Public Quartet, which has a permanent residency at the Chittick Elementary School in Mattapan, MA.

Alexander Badalov received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Cello Performance from the Tbilisi College of Music, his PhD from Tbilisi State Conservatory, and an Artist Diploma from the Longy School of Music. He also received a Kodaly Method Certification Level I from the New England Conservatory. He has since performed many times with the Cape Cod Symphony, Nashua Symphony, Central Massachusetts Symphony, New Hampshire Symphony and Bangor Symphony Orchestras.

Miriam Bolkosky, cello, appears nationally as an orchestral and chamber musician. She has performed extensively with orchestras in Boston, New York, D.C. and Chicago, including Boston Lyric Opera, A Far Cry, Boston Pops, BMOP, Odyssey Opera, Boston Ballet, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, National Lyric Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. She has appeared as soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Paul Hill Chorale, and on classical and popular commercial recordings.

A graduate of the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Miriam maintains a large private studio and has held faculty positions at Northwestern, the Music Institute of Chicago, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. She is on the faculty of Berkshire Summer Music, and of Project STEP. Miriam is also a Registered Yoga Teacher, and is currently pursuing an Alexander Technique teaching certification.

Violinist Heidi Braun-Hill enjoys a musical career that spans a wide variety of genres and styles. She is the violin soloist and concertmaster of the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music where she performs regularly as part of their weekly Bach Cantata Series, having performed over 100 Bach cantatas. She has been a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel Music and performed in the Peter Sellars/Craig Smith production of Bach Cantatas BWV 82 and 199 with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson which was presented in Boston, New York, Paris, London, Lucerne, Amsterdam, and Vienna. Ms. Braun-Hill is also concertmaster of Odyssey Opera of Boston and the Marsh Chapel Collegium at Boston University and appears regularly with many Boston groups including Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Pops, Boston Ballet, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Cantata Singers, and others. She has performed with numerous chamber music series, including Winsor Music, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, and Token Creek Music Festival. She can be heard on recordings of Bach arias with soprano Kendra Colton and oboist Peggy Pearson as well as on recordings with various groups on the Arsis, Nonesuch, Naxos, BMOP/sound, and Albany labels. As a frequent performer of new music, she has premiered chamber works by John Harbison, Martin Brody, Martin Boykan, Scott Wheeler, Edward Cohen, Allen Anderson, and others. Passionate about arts education, Ms. Braun-Hill was on the faculty of Phillips Exeter Academy for many years, currently teaches at the Rivers School Conservatory and the Bach Institute at Emmanuel Church, and has participated in musical outreach programs in many capacities. Ms. Braun-Hill lives in Natick, MA with her husband, French hornist Whitacre Hill, and their two children.

Meghan Carye is an active cellist and music educator in the Greater Boston Area. She began her musical training at New England Conservatory and holds a Bachelor of Music and a Graduate Performance Diploma in cello performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. She has performed throughout North America, Europe and Israel and is a founding member and cellist of the Illyrian Chamber Players.

She is currently on faculty at New England Conservatory Preparatory School and the School of Continuing Education. In addition to her role as a cello teacher and chamber music coach at NEC she is the chair for SCE’s Chamber Music Department. From 2012 until 2016 she served as Program Director of New England Conservatory’s Festival Youth Orchestra (an intensive summer orchestral institute) after serving as the Assistant Director and Chamber Music Coordinator for twelve years.

In addition to her home cello studio in Lexington, she is also the cello sectional coach for Tufts Youth Philharmonic and an adjunct cello faculty member at Belmont Day School, Belmont Hill School and Buckingham Browne and Nichols School. Former teaching positions include cello faculty member at Powers Music School, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Intensive Community Program.

Meghan is the recipient of the American String Teachers Association 2018 Studio Teacher of the Year.

Conductor, cellist and educator Mark Churchill is widely known in New England and abroad. He served as Associate Conductor of the Boston Ballet from 1990 to 2012 and is the founder and Music Director of Symphony Pro Musica, now in its 37th season. Former conducting roles include music director of Worcester’s Salisbury Lyric Opera and Salisbury Chamber Orchestra and the Thayer Conservatory Orchestra. He has also led the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra in its annual gala concert and recently conducted the National Ballet of Mongolia and the Tokyo’s Komaki Ballet. For eleven years he served as Resident Conductor and Faculty Chairman of the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong, a pan-Asian organization led at its inception by the late Sir Yehudi Menuhin. He is the founder and vice president of the Orchestra of the Americas (formerly the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, established in 2002, which draws gifted young musicians from throughout North and South America.

As a cellist Mark has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and chamber music player throughout the United States and on tours of South America. He has also appeared in Seoul, Hong Kong, and Taiwan with the Trio Pro Musica. He is much sought after as a cello teacher of gifted teenage cellists, many of whom have gone on to study at major conservatories, achieving notable careers as performers and teachers. He was given the Boston Cello Society’s 2017 annual recognition award for outstanding service to education, performance, and scholarship. In addition to his 40-year tenure as cello instructor at NEC’s Preparatory School, Mark has presented numerous masterclasses and workshops, and has served on the faculty of summer music festivals such as the Cremona, Heifetz, Musicorda and Foulger International Music Academies, and Greenwood Music Camp. He and his wife, violinists Marylou Speaker Churchill, received Harvard’s Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award in 2005.

Mark is Dean Emeritus of New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School and and School of Continuing Education, which he oversaw for 31 years. During his leadership of the Preparatory School, the program expanded enormously and became known as one of the best of its kind in the nation, emphasizing serious, professional training for the pre-college student along with high-level music education for students of all ages and aspirations. He launched the School of Continuation as the counterpart to the Preparatory School and shaped the first two decades of its growth. In addition he established the NEC at Walnut Hill Program 1982 and initiated and curated numerous community-based programs and local, national, and international partnerships.

An active advocate for the improvement and expansion of music education programs in American schools, Mark for many years oversaw NEC’s Center for Music-in-Education, which featured the development of new music education curricula and music teacher training programs. He is founder and board member of El Sistema USA, the advocacy and service organization for US programs that are inspired by the renowned Venezuelan model of social development through music, and he established NEC’s Abreu Fellows Program for the training of El Sistema leaders in 2008. Beginning in the late 1990’s Mark began developing New England Conservatory’s close relationship with Venezuela’s massive El Sistema youth orchestral training program, leading to the signing of the 2005 “Friendship Agreement” between New England Conservatory and El Sistema along with numerous faculty and student exchanges and the joint founding of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. He oversaw NEC’s close relationship with El Sistema until 2010. In January 2018 he was given El Sistema USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mark is currently Senior Advisor to the Boston Philharmonic and Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations, including Project STEP, a pre-professional support program for string students of color; the Center for Artistry and Scholarship, dedicated to leading arts education reform in the US public schools; El Sistema USA; and the Orchestra of the Americas (vice-president). For 18 years Mark served as a founding board member of the Conservatory Lab Charter School, a K-8 public inner-city Boston elementary school offering a music based curriculum. Other former board roles include the Walnut Hill School, an independent school for serious high school age art students; and the Berkshire Institute for Theology and the Arts, which fostered the interface between those two areas.

Mark holds the B.M. M.M. degrees from New England Conservatory and a D.M.A. from the Hartt School. He received a Fulbright Grant to Brazil for doctoral dissertation research, and spent a year writing, playing and teaching in that beautiful country. His teachers include Herbert Blomstedt and Charles Bruck (conducting); Rudolf Kolisch (chamber music); and Raya Garbousova, Laurence Lesser, David Soyer, and Benjamin Zander (cello). He was married to the the late Marylou Speaker Churchill, Boston Symphony Orchestra principal second violinist and New England Conservatory faculty member. His twenty-three-year-old twin daughters are both studying music in university and plan to pursue careers in music.

Miki Cloud enjoys a rich musical life as a violinist and artistic director passionate about building community.  Chosen as the inaugural recipient of the Sun-Law Vuillaume Fellowship, Miki is fueled by music’s ability to connect people more deeply to one another and to themselves.

Since 2009, Miki has been a core member of the self-conducted chamber orchestra, A Far Cry, where she serves as one of its violinists, 17 artistic directors, and since 2021, head of community partnerships and learning. Acclaimed for her thoughtful and innovative approach to the listening experience, her programming and artistic direction has been described as “ingeniously crafted” by the Boston Globe and “intoxicating” by the New York Times.

Miki is a former member of the New York-based Solera Quartet, winners of the 2017 Pro Musicis International Award and 2018 Guarneri Quartet Residency from Chamber Music America. She is also a former artistic director of the White Mountains Music Festival.

Past studies include Harvard College, Yale School of Music, New England Conservatory, and the Perlman Music Program.  As an educator and teaching artist, Miki has been privileged to share music in educational and community spaces across America – most recently Dartmouth College, Project STEP, Boston Children’s Hospital, Notre Dame University, and Corrigan Radgowski Correctional Center.

Miki is honored to play an 1855 violin by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, graciously on loan to her through the Tarisio Trust: Eric Sun-Karen Law Vuillaume Fellowship. When not working in music, she spends most of her time learning to see the world through the eyes of her spirited, creative, and expressive kid.

Hailed as a “intensely dramatic,” (Cleveland Classical) and praised for his “graceful approach [with] silvery power,” (The Arts Fuse) violinist Thomas Cooper has established himself as one of the most dynamic young musicians and leaders of his generation. A three-time winner of New England Conservatory’s Entrepreneurial Musicianship award, Cooper is the founder and Artistic Director of Fermata Chamber Soloists, an award-winning collective of young artists performing innovative concerts.

In the 2023-2024 season, Cooper appears regularly in concerts as a soloist and chamber musician, with engagements to include performances of Saint-Georges Violin Concerto in A Major with the New England Repertory Orchestra, and the Du Bois Orchestra, as well as Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with cellist Tyler James, and pianist Byron Zhou – in addition to a session at WGBH’s Fraser Performance Studio recording Chausson’s Poème.

Previously, Cooper has appeared with several orchestras, including the Colorado College Festival Orchestra, the Coeur D’Alene Symphony Orchestra, the Credo Baroque Orchestra, the Bar Harbor Music Festival Orchestra, the Du Bois Orchestra, and the Middlesex Chamber Orchestra among others. He is a laureate of the Naftzger, Arlington, Coeur D’Alene, and Cremona International Competitions, and was a semi- finalist at the 2018 Washington International Competition. He has performed as a soloist in venues such as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Giovanni Arvedi Auditorium at Museo Stradivari in Cremona, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

With a love of conductor-less ensemble playing, Cooper has appeared with many of the finest chamber orchestras in the country, including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, and the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra. He has spent his summers performing at Keshet Eilon in Israel, the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, Nagold Sommermusik in Bavaria and Festival Orford Musique in Quebec.

As a chamber musician, Cooper has had the fortune of sharing the stage with such groups and individuals as the Oberlin Trio, the Jupiter String Quartet, David Bowlin, Amir Eldan, Evgeny Sinaiski, Vadim Gluzman, and Per Ennokson. An avid performer of new music, Cooper has appeared on the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s “What I Hear” concert series, showcasing works of living composers commissioned by the BSO.

As an educator, Cooper is on faculty at Credo Music in Ohio, Project STEP in Boston, and was a guest faculty member at Music Adventure in Spannocchia, Italy. A native of the Boston area, Cooper received his formal training at New England Conservatory and Oberlin Conservatory.

Sarah Darling owes the fact that she is still a musician to her wonderful parents, who should have given up on her at age 5, but didn’t! Let’s just say that at the time she wasn’t a model student – and certainly hadn’t figured out how practicing and lessons had anything to do with music. They gave her the option of quitting – but casually mentioned that if she stopped playing, she’d have to bring her violin back to the shop. Sarah can’t remember if tears were shed, but she definitely managed to hang on to her fiddle. The rest, as they say, is history.

These days, Sarah is an insatiable musician, deeply grateful to the city of Boston for supporting her habit. What she craves is simple, really: just to play as much music as possible at the highest level possible while reaching out in as many ways as possible. She hopes she won’t have to rewrite the laws of physics in order to make this happen, though she might not be opposed to donning a Batsuit or brandishing the occasional Time-Turner, if that’s what it takes.

Sarah got her undergraduate degree from Harvard University while studying with the ebuillent James Dunham, and with a year at Juilliard under the mythological Karen Tuttle added for good measure. A grant from the Beebe Fund led her to Amsterdam to work with the elemental Nobuko Imai, and an award from the DAAD took her to Freiburg where she earned an Artist Diploma with the energetic Wolfram Christ (and spent a couple years playing with the prizewinning Amaryllis-Quartett.) Finally, she came back to Boston for a Master’s degree at NEC with the awe-inspiring Kim Kashkashian. She is currently in the DMA program there, glad to be be closing her educational circle by re-connecting music and scholarship.

In and around Boston, depending on when and where you look, you can catch Sarah playing with the Symphony, the Pops, Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Portland and Rhode Island Symphonies, BMOP, the Callithumpian Consort, White Rabbit, the Sarasa Ensemble, the Radius Ensemble, Musicians of the Old Post Road, Les Bostonades, and the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, which she serves as Concertmaster and Assistant Director. Then there are the groups that she is intimately involved in as a founder or collaborator: the Arcturus Chamber Ensemble, Boston Hausmusik, the Conspiro Quartet, the Rosetta Trio, and of course, A Far Cry. Joining A Far Cry at the end of their first season, Sarah first experienced their white-hot performances as a stunned audience member and is thrilled to now be a part of the action.

She is indebted to several great viola works – Alfred Schnittke’s Viola Concerto (and his terrifying Monologue), J.S. Bach’s 6th Brandenburg Concerto, and Vaughan Williams’ meditation on love, Flos Campi, for making it possible for her to solo with some wonderful groups on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Freiburg and NEC orchestras, and most recently, Joshua Rifkin’s acclaimed Bach Ensemble (over there) and the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra (over here.) Sarah would also like to make a plug for her newly released CD featuring the wild and whimsical sonatas of American composer Leland Smith, and available on Naxos Records.

When Sarah is not making music, chances are, she still is. She enjoys many other things – a good meal, a crazy conversation (auch auf Deutsch, bitte!), a long run, a riveting painting, an exhausting martial arts session, an intriguing book partnered with a cup of jade oolong – but sooner or later, it all gets connected – or metaphorically mixed up – with this music thing she loves. She is continually on the lookout for a really good theory that embraces the million ways that poetry and music intersect. All ideas are welcome!

…there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.

– T. S. Eliot, from “Four Quartets”

Jenny Fan teaches at the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division as well as at her home studio in Natick. She holds a Master’s degree from the Boston University School of Music, where she studied with Michael Reynolds.

French double bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman enjoys a diverse career performing as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, recording artist, commissioner of new music, educator and founder and artistic director of the Boston Bass Bash.

As a soloist, she has performed with the Nashua Chamber Orchestra, Merrimack Valley Philharmonic, the North Shore Philharmonic, Greensboro Festival Orchestra, Longy Chamber Orchestra and others. New Music Connoisseur described her playing from a recent concert as having “technical certainty and musical imagination” and by the Phoenix as “ a gifted colorist ….who produced an entire range of orchestral effects”.

An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with violinists Midori, Joel Smirnoff, St. Petersburg String Quartet, Borromeo String Quartet, members of the Lark String Quartet, Fidelio; pianists Virginia Eskin, Victor Rosenbaum, Randall Hodgkinson, and with soprano Dawn Upshaw. She was a prizewinner at the Prague International Chamber Music Competition and won first prize with honors for double bass performance at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. She has recorded CDs of chamber music with the Albany, Archetype, Arsis, AFKA and CRI labels and has appeared on NPR’s Artbeat, WGBH Boston, Vermont Public Radio, France Inter, Radio France Toulouse, and local television stations.

As an orchestra player, Ms. Delache-Feldman has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, Toulouse Capitole National Orchestra (France), and as principal bassist with Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, New England String Ensemble and BMOP, among others.

As co-founder of Duo Cello e Basso (formerly the Axiom Duo) with cellist Emmanuel Feldman, she has concertized both in the US and in Europe at such distinguished venues as the Kennedy Center, the Phillips Collection, Jordan Hall, Sanders Theater, Liszt Academy Budapest, Altes Rathaus Vienna, Radio France Paris and many others. Duo Cello e Basso’s repertoire champions music of our time and collaborates with dynamic artists from many genres. The duo has arranged more challenging and diverse music from Bach to Bartók and has commissioned numerous pieces including composers John Harbison, Daniel Pinkham, John McDonald, Eric Sawyer, Andrew List, Mark DeVoto, Alexander Blechinger, Elena Ruehr, Hayg Boyadjian and many others.
The duo debuted on the Boston Celebrity Series in collaboration with the Rebecca Rice Dance Group and has realeased their first CD on Synergy Classics.

Since 2001, Ms. Delache-Feldman has been the founder and artistic director of the Boston Bass Bash, an international festival dedicated to the double bass that included guests Edwin Barker, Larry Wolfe, Don Palma, Tim Cobb, Rufus Reid, Michael Moore and many others.
Ms. Delache-Feldman teaches double bass at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Tufts University, New England Conservatory and has been recently invited to give masterclasses at Eastman, University of Taipei, New Englande Conservatory and University of Texas among others. She has taught at the Yellow Barn and Summit Music Festivals, and is on the faculty of the Killington Music Festival, VCU Global Summer Institute of Music, Foundation for Chineses Performing Arts and the Wellesley Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center.

A second-generation bassist, she studied with her father Jean-Claude Delache from age 10 at the Toulouse Conservatory, later studying with Jacques Cazauran and Frédéric Stochl at the Paris Conservatory where she earned her Bachelor of Music. Ms. Delache-Feldman came to the US to study with Roger Scott at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she received her Artist Diploma. She has also studied with Edwin Barker, Evgeny Kolosov, and violinist and renown pedagogue Burton Kaplan. Ms. Delache-Feldman was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow and participated in the Pablo Casals and Schlesswig Holstein Musik Festivals.

Susanne Friedrich, cello, was born in Vienna, Austria, and received her cello training at the Vienna Conservatory (modern cello) and the Innsbruck Conservatory (baroque cello). She performed for many years with Concilium Musicum on period time instruments, touring all of Austria and Europe as well as Southeast Asia. During her years in Vienna she played regularly with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Wiener Kammeroper.In 1997 she moved to the Boston area to establish herself as a freelance player with many of New England’s orchestras. She was assistant principal of Symphony New Hampshire for many years, and plays regularly with many other ensembles. She founded Trio Orione (piano trio) together with Katharina Radlberger and Roy Imperio, as well as the Vienna Waltz Ensemble, which performs Strauss’ waltzes and polkas, and has been a member of Trio con Brio, two flutes and cello, with Wendy Vignaux and Laura Wilkins. With Joshua Peckins, Lilit Hartunian, and Gillian Rogell she performed as the Rivers String Quartet for two seasons.Most recently she is part of Trio con Anima, a piano trio, with Ana Popa, piano, and Marie Louise Sjöberg, violin.Susanne teaches cello and chamber music at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Dana Hall School of Music, Rivers School Conservatory, and in her private studio.

Cellist Melody Giron was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She began her musical studies at the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School when she was four. She has since performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. Currently based in NYC and Boston. Melody’s musical versatility has engaged her in a variety of work including new music premieres, Broadway theater, orchestral work, chamber music, and solo performances. She has also recorded for movie scores, and TV commercials in addition to recording and performing with various popular music artists.

Most recent new music collaborations include the world premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Spinning, at Montclair State University, as well as Ted Hearne’s premiere of “PLACE” at BAM, Brooklyn. Melody also performed David Chesky’s “Arbeit Macht Frei” for solo cello and orchestra with the Metro Chamber Orchestra of New York.

Melody frequents the popular music world, she was on tour with Sara Bareilles’ for the Amidst the Chaos Tour in the U.S. She has also performed with Stevie Wonder, Shawn Mendes, Eminem, 50 Cent, Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, Skylar Grey, Keyshia Cole, H.E.R, Andra Day, Emily King and The Burned, among others. She has performed on Saturday Night Live and The Today show.

Melody also maintains an active orchestral career, playing principal chair for the Metro Chamber Orchestra, subbing with the Chamber Orchestra of New York, the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra in Alabama, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic among other orchestras.

Melody’s TV engagements include starring in the GMC Acadia car commercial, airing nationally on television, marking her first commercial appearance. Melody can also be seen on TV as a member of the string ensemble for NBC’s America’s Got Talent season 10, as well as Amazon’s TV series, Mozart In The Jungle seasons 2 and 4. More recently, Melody booked her second TV commercial, for Classe Audio. Melody can also be heard on two feature films- Boy Erased and Gemini Man.

Melody’s Broadway Theater appearances include being chosen by playwright, Edward Albee, to act the role of “The Musician” in the Off-Broadway production of The Sandbox directed by Lila Neugebauer at Signature Theatre Company in NYC In 2020 she played for the NYC premiere of Unknown Soldier at Playwright’s horizons and previously played cello for Bard SummerScape’s revival production of Leonard Bernstein’s Peter Pan directed by Chris Alden.

Melody has collaborated with many classical artists including renowned pianist and Irish music producer, Phil Coulter. While on tour with Coulter, Giron performed for former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton at Carnegie Hall. Melody has also worked with the Takacs Quartet, the Peabody Trio, The Borromeo String Quartet, Vivian Weilerstein, James Buswell, Lucy Chapman, John Heiss, John Gibbons, Ran Blake, Benjamin Zander, and Hugh Wolff, among others. Her summer studies have been with renowned pedagogues, Eloenore Schoenfeld, Orlando Cole, Metta Watts, Dmitri Ferschtman, and Rienhard Latzko.

Melody’s summer festival engagements include, The Britten-Pears Young Artiste Programme in Aldebrugh, England. She performed for the widely proclaimed production of Benjamin Britten’s opera, Peter Grimes. She returned to Britten-Pears for the “Tchaikovsky Project” under the baton of Semyon Bychkov. Melody played principal cello in the Penderecki Academy Orchestra of Westfalen, Germany as well as the Luslawice Academy Orchestra of Poland under the direction of Krzysztof Penderecki. Giron has attended the International Holland Music Sessions, Netherlands, Aims in Graz, Austria, and the Sienna Summer Music Festival in Italy.

Committed and passionate about teaching and pedagogy, Giron completed the two year Suzuki Method teacher training program at the School For Strings in Manhattan, New York under the tutelage of Pamela Devenport. Melody’s teaching style combines the traditional method with Suzuki method. Melody holds a private studio in addition to teaching being a teaching artist for Project step and The Suzuki School of Newton.

Melody earned her bachelor’s degree in cello performance from The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA under the tutelage of Natasha Brofsky. She earned her master’s degree in cello performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, at which she studied with Alan Stepansky.

Nancy Hair (cello) received her B.M. from Indiana University and The Hartt School, and attended graduate studies in pedagogy at Ithaca Talent Education. She studied with Janos Starker, Raya Garbousova, Yehuda Hanani, George Neikrug, Timothy Eddy as well as the Alexander Technique. She has performed with Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, New Hampshire Symphony, Opera Company of Boston, Rhode Island Philharmonic and has been former faculty at Longy and Powers music schools. She is currently on faculty at The Hartt School, All Newton Music School, and New England Conservatory Preparatory Division.

Christopher Hernández is a multi-genre instrumentalist and educator based in Boston, Massachusetts. An intensely passionate educator and artist, Hernández has been afforded the opportunity to build string orchestra programs for the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts’ public school system. A successful four year run as the Director of Orchestras at Vassal Lane Upper School led Hernández to pivot to The Amigos School or La Escuela Amigos, a nationally recognized dual-language immersion bilingual K-8 school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Formerly a self-taught musician, Hernández feels strongly about providing access to high level musicianship and opportunities for students of diverse backgrounds. Hernandez is actively working to dismantle white supremacy culture through his curriculum design, repertoire selections, and philosophy. His classroom techniques have been recognized by Boston-based organizations amongst the likes of El-Sistema Somerville, The Boston Music Project, and Project STEP. As a performer, Hernández is building his reputation as a workhorse by maintaining artistic flexibility, never backing down in the face of a challenge or a genre. Recently, he has collaborated with Conn-Selmer’s Music Professor, Veronica Robles, Speechless Music, Boston Music Project Ensembles, the Du Bois Orchestra, the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra, the Orchestra Without Borders Boston, the Manchester Symphony Orchestra and the Carlisle Chamber Orchestra. His past and current mentors in education and artistry include but are not limited to Robert Black, Nat Reeves, John Lockwood, Cole Davis, Dr. Warren Haston, Dr. Vanessa Bond, and Dr. Ian Saunders. Hernández holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Education, Instrumental Emphasis ‘19 from the University of Hartford’s The Hartt School, Hartford, Connecticut as well as a Master of Music in Music Education ‘22 from the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Additionally, Hernández spent summer 2023 studying under Craig Brown at the Brevard Music Center, Brevard, North Carolina.

Mariana Green-Hill marks this upcoming year as the 15th anniversary as Founder and Director of Four Strings Academy, an intensive string program held during the summer geared to children, ages 4-18 and some adults, demonstrating the potential to become professional musicians and love for the art form.

Mrs. Green-Hill is also the Strings Director at Boston Arts Academy under the leadership of Gregory Holt, directing both technique and orchestral classes for the school’s string students. From 2012-2013, her role was expanded to teach violin at the Orchard Gardens School under the leadership of Principal Andrew Bott with his Arts Initiative Team also considered President Obama’s choice turn around school in Boston.

Along with these responsibilities, she currently serves as the Interim Artistic Director but usually has worked as the Artistic Advisor of the Project STEP program located in Boston’s Symphony Hall, where she teaches, coaches and advises students and parents grades K-12. Ms. Green-Hill also performs in various venues as a soloist and chamber musician and teaches privately.

Mariana Green-Hill is a multi- prize Winner of The Sphinx Competition as well as the recipient of the 2009 Sanford Allen Award in recognition of her “artistic merit, persistence, and extraordinary achievement.” She has also won first place in the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Harry and Marion Dubbs Competitions. Mrs. Green-Hill has been a featured guest soloist with the New Jersey, Memphis, Detroit, and Boston Symphony Orchestras and The Boston Pops. In addition to her solo performances, she is an experienced chamber and orchestral musician. The Amaryllis String Quartet, of which she was a member, was awarded First Prize in the prestigious Fischoff Chamber Music Competition (Jr. Division). Ms. Green-Hill has performed with YoYo Ma, Pamela Frank, Lynn Chang, Marcus Thomson, and with members of the Houston and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. She was also a member of the Young Eight String Octet for six seasons.

Mariana Green-Hill was of the Concertmasters of Soulful Symphony, a symphony ensemble made up of classical orchestra, big-band and gospel choir. Their performance of “Song in a Strange Land” composed and directed by Darrin Atwater earned an Emmy. This ensemble has also performed in collaboration with members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Green-Hill was one of the violinists of the former MarNi Duo that performed for a benefit concert for former President Barak Obama in Boston’s Jordan Hall. She enjoys performing with non-classical musicians, and has recorded with gospel artists Donnie McClurkin and Richard Smallwood. She has also performed with the “Gorillaz,” and with Joss Stone and Alicia Keys. Ms. Green-Hill studied violin under the auspices of Project STEP and attended Walnut Hill School for the Arts. She received her Bachelor and Masters Degrees from The Juilliard School and a Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes College of Music under the respective tutelage of the late Dean Stephen Clapp, Dr. Ann Setzer and Ida Kavafian.

Kathleen Jara is a creative educator who focuses on developing student voice through the refinement of the artistic self.  She has spent the last fourteen years working in education while maintaining an active performance schedule with her violin, in various idioms, and has continuously found that one discipline informs the other.  She has studied with Sharan Leventhal, Vasile Beluska, Steven Cornelius, Russell Schmidt, Bernard Woma, and Jeff Halsey on her journey to becoming a musician/educator, and has taught and performed in the United States and various countries in South America.  It is her pleasure to be working with Project Step this year.

Susan Bradley-Jarvis, a native of Canada, is an internationally known violin teacher, adjudicator, and lecturer in string pedagogy. Currently living in Boston, she teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music where she was also chair of Suzuki Department, and teaches for and directs the Milton Suzuki Talent Education. A clinician at many Suzuki workshops and institutes in the Americas and Asia, she has twice been an invited guest speaker for Suzuki Association national conferences. Known as a teacher for the serious beginner, many of her students have won district, state, and national competitions including the Canadian Stepping Stone Competition, and the National Student Music Competition in Seoul, Korea. Her students have been featured on “From the Top”, and have appeared on solo recitals in NYC Steinway Hall.

An advocate of music for everyone and music in the public schools, Ms Jarvis was part of the delegation that visited Venezuala for the re-signing of the friendship agreement between the famous El Sistema program and New England Conservatory, and was instrumental in the establishment of the El Systema Fellowship training program. She teaches as a private instructor for Boston’s Project Step, and group classes Focus II program. For many years, Ms Jarvis coordinated and taught in the outreach for Boston Arts Academy, a public high school for the visual and performing arts in Boston’s inner-city schools.

Ms Jarvis holds degrees from Ottawa University (violin performance), University of Lethbridge (music education), and Ithaca College (Masters in Performance with Suzuki Emphasis), and is a Silver Medal winner from the Royal Conservatory of Music. She is president and founder of Arco Press, a music publishing house devoted to providing advanced technique to young string players, and the author of the soon to be published nine book series Tailor Made Scales, and Seeing Beats, Saying Rhythms; A String Player’s Guide to Understanding and Sight-Reading Rhythms.

Chu Chun Jean Huang | Violin

“Left speechless after having the chance to watch and listen to Jean Huang close up.” –The WBUR-FM (2020).

As a consummate artist, Taiwanese violinist Jean Huang is equally passionate about all three career roles: performer, music scholar, and educator. Jean holds a Doctoral of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance from the New England Conservatory with the thesis topic “A Performative Analysis and the Critical Edition: Francis Poulenc Violin Sonata”, and her active performing career has brought her to concert halls internationally and has impacted listeners throughout the United States. Passionate for teaching, Huang currently maintains a private studio in Boston, with students ranging from six years old to adults. She also teaches violin lessons at the New England Conservatory School of Expanded Education and Preparatory School.

“Superior leading.” –The Boston Musical Intelligencer (2019).

Maintaining an active performing career, Jean serves as both the Concertmaster of the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra and Brookline Symphony, she received recognition for her leading artistry from the Cape Cod Times and other prominent music critics. In addition to formal concert halls, Huang seeks to reach untapped potential classical music lovers through various approaches. Praised for her emotive and expressive playing, Jean enjoys presenting standard repertoire alongside contemporary music. Finding the common language and connection between professional musicians and music-lovers alike invigorates her passion. This has led to valuable experiences such as a residency at the Chamber Music Conference at the Colgate University.

“A consummate artist — so poised, in control, expressive, and exciting and moving to listen to.” –Victor Rosenbaum (2018).

Jean loves performing and believes music can provoke the wildest imagination. As a result, she often looks for a three-way connection between composer, performer, and audience. Jean is recognized for her lecture-recitals discussing topics such as “The Musician’s role,” “Baroque Dances,” and “The Evolutionary Violinist.” During these lecture recitals, she combines virtuosic violin playing, her musicology background, and multi-media commentary that audience members of all experience levels can engage with.

“Our eyes and ears concentrated on the elegant and outgoing Huang. With both serious attitude and a million-dollar smile, she gave a riveting account of the 28-minute ‘Turkish’ concerto.” –Boston Musical Intelligencer (2022).

Praised for her “transcendent tone,” Jean’s recent concerto appearances include a sold-out Vaughan William’s Lark Ascending concert, Mozart sinfonia Concertante concert, and Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aris concert with the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, and Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.5 with the Music for Peace Orchestra. Her other affiliations include Miclot Chamber Series, Vangarde Orchestra, Anastasia String Quartet, and a founding member of Trio Flamecrest.

Teaching philosophy: https://www.violinjeanius.com/teaching

Hyun-Ji Kwon, cellist, currently maintains an active schedule as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Korea, and was the winner of the top prize at the Seoul Symphony Orchestra Competition and the third prize at the Seoul Youth Chamber Music Competition. She was the principal cellist for the Ewha orchestra and performed as a soloist with the orchestra for two consecutive years.

She came to Boston to study at the New England Conservatory, where she earned a Master of Music in cello performance as well as a Graduate Diploma. From there she moved on to complete a Doctor of Musical Arts in cello performance at Boston University’s School of Music, in the studio of Rhonda Rider. Her other teachers have included Natasha Brofsky, Il-hwan Bai and Sungwon Yang.

Kwon has performed in master classes for renowned cellists such as Natalia Gutman and Anner Bylsma, and she has participated in numerous music festivals and concerts in Korea and North America. During her studies at BU, she was selected numerous times to perform in joint Faculty/DMA candidate “Chamber Music Masterworks” concerts, and she was awarded special String Department Honors upon graduation as well as membership in the national honorary society Pi Kappa Lambda. She has performed as guest alumna along with the celebrated Muir Quartet and violist Michelle LaCourse at BU’s Tsai Center, with the Convergence Ensemble, and in several other Boston area ensembles.

Kwon joined the BU School of Music cello faculty in 2015. During the summer, she serves on the faculty of Boston University Tanglewood Institute as co-director of the cello workshop program and cello instructor of the Young Artists Orchestra program.

Currently Angela Leidig is on the Suzuki faculty at New England Conservatory and Project Step, teaching both private lessons and group classes since 2013 and maintains a private studio in Somerville, MA as well. She is Co-coordinator of the NEC Suzuki Program at NEC along with colleague Jennifer Fan. She was on the Suzuki faculty at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA from 2008-2013. In the summer, Angela teaches at the NEC Summer SuzukiFest and at White Mountain Suzuki Institute in New Hampshire.

Angela’s involvement with the Suzuki method goes back 40 years. She started playing violin when she was five years old in a Suzuki public school program in Pennsylvania. She began teaching in 1991 while finishing high school, going on to study Suzuki pedagogy and Alexander Technique after completing her performance degrees and has continued teaching ever since. Angela is a certified Alexander Technique (AT) teacher; she is dedicated to teaching young children how to play with an attitude of creativity and enjoyment, developing a technical and musical foundation of ease, balance and freedom from the beginning stages. She works closely with parent and child to develop healthy habits with the instrument and practice at home from the very beginning. Angela teaches AT group and private lessons in the greater Boston area, as well at the Alexander Technique School of Cambridge teacher training program.

She studied and taught AT with Robyn Avalon at Meadowmount String Summer Institute to advanced string players ages 13 and up in 2019 and teaches AT courses at NEC Prep, NEC conservatory and in the greater Boston community. Angela’s violin teachers include Paul Kantor, Helen Kwalwasser, Ed Dusinberre, Benedict Goodfriend, and Judith Ingolfsson. She studied chamber music intensively at Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, Musicorda, Point CounterPoint and other summer programs throughout her studies. She started and developed the Chamber Music program at Ann Arbor Performing Arts Center in 2000. She has performed with various trios and quartets over the years including the Congdon Quartet and the Neftali Trio.

M.M. Boston University, MA. B. A. Roanoke, College, VA. Doctoral work at University of Colorado-Boulder with the Takacs Quartet. Suzuki Pedagogy training Books 1-10 with Kimberly Meier-Sims, Linda Fiore, Ronda Cole, Ed Sprunger and Ed Kreitman. Alexander Technique Teacher Training at Alexander Technique Center of Cambridge under Tommy Thompson. Post-graduate Alexander Technique Teacher Training with Bruce Fertman, Robyn Avalon, and the Alexander Alliance. Faculty, Longy School of Music 2008-2013. Faculty, Boulder Suzuki Strings, 2004-2007. Faculty, Ann Arbor Performing Arts, MI and Chelsea Center for the Arts, MI 1997-2002.

Haitian-American cellist Francesca McNeeley has received critical acclaim as a collaborator and soloist, and enjoys an eclectic career in the Boston area. She has premiered dozens of works, solo and chamber music—including pieces by John Harbison, Mark Neikrug, Augusta Read Thomas, and Joseph Phibbs. Recent musical collaborations have included soloing with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra and touring with the Grammy-nominated A Far Cry chamber orchestra as a guest principal cellist. She is frequently featured with Castle of Our Skins, the New Gallery Concert Series, and the Celebrity Series of Boston. She has been invited to participate in various artist residencies at the Longy School of Music, Yellowbarn, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Marquette University, and Keene State College. She has performed with the Boston Symphony and Sarasota Orchestras, and can be heard on BMOP/sound with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Ms. McNeeley graduated Princeton University Phi Beta Kappa, and went on to receive scholarships to attend the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and the New England Conservatory for her graduate degrees in cello performance. She has earned fellowships and prizes from the Tanglewood Music Center, where she also served as a New Fromm Player. With her Fromm colleagues she has founded the Chroma Trio, championing modern string trio repertoire. She has received fellowships to attend the Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, & Toronto Summer Music. She has been awarded multiple grants from the Sphinx Organization, and now serves on The Artist Council for the National Alliance for Audition Support. Her teachers and mentors have included Tom Kraines, Darrett Adkins, Norman Fischer, Yeesun Kim, and Astrid Schween.

Francesca is dedicated to community engagement through teaching and mentoring. In addition to her private teaching studio, she serves on the faculty for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Intensive Community Program.

Graduate from Zagreb University and Brussels Royal Conservatory; Diplome Superieur for violin and Premier Prix for Chamber Music; studies with K. Hauser, I. Pinkava, A. Gerller, Yankelewitch, and Chugajewa; masterclasses in Budapest, Weimar, Salzburg, Goslar; solo and chamber music performances in Europe and U.S.; TV and radio recordings; member, Duo Affetuoso; Director of Camp Cadenza.

Originally from Poland, Magdalena Richter has appeared as soloist with the Warsaw and Cracow Philharmonic and in the US with the Boston Pops, Cape Ann Symphony, the Nashua Philharmonic, Wellesley Symphony and Symphony by the Sea among others. “Violinist Magdalena Suchecka Richter is a virtuoso of her instrument, an artist of great, yet well controlled temperament,”- from the Copenhagen newspaper the Svenska Dag Bladet, in a review of her performance of Bacewicz Solo Sonata.

Richter is also a very devoted teacher and serves as a Chairman of New England Conservatory Preparatory School String Department and Rivers School Conservatory String Department. In May 2009 she was awarded the prestigious Jean Stackhouse Award for Excellence in Teaching at NEC Preparatory School. She is also a Director of the Rivers School Chamber Orchestra. Her students are very involved at NEC and BYSO youth orchestras as well as District, All State, All Eastern and National Orchestras, often serving as section leaders. Her students are also winners of concerto competitions in Boston area and many of them became professional musicians.

As a solo recitalist, Richter has presented concerts at the National Radio House, Paris, France, the International Cultural Center, Leipzig, Germany, at the Sibelius Academy of Music, Helsinki, Finland and Warsaw Symphony Hall, Poland. Now settled in the Boston area, Richter has performed on various concert series: at Jordan Hall, the Gardner Museum, Edward Pickman Concert Hall and St. Paul’s Church. She also participated in hundreds of concerts-presentations for school children both in Poland and US.

Richter has performed chamber music recitals with Arthur Balsam, Ronald Feldman, Roman Totenberg, Judi Stillman and Elise Jackendoff. As a member of New England String Quartett, Richter has presented concerts throughout New England.

Born to a family of professional musicians, Magdalena Richter began her concert career playing with her parents. She studied first at the Academy of Music in Warsaw, where she earned her diploma with highest honors and joined a faculty. She continued her studies in US at Boston University and Longy School with Roman Totenberg. Richter holds her Master of Music degree from Juilliard School, where she was a scholarship student of Dorothy Delay, earning the Extraordinary Student of America Award.

Other awards have included a fellowship to the Aspen Music School, a Special Award from the International Competition for American Contemporary Music in New York City, first prize awards from numerous National Competitions in Poland, a prize in the International Wieniawski Competition, and the International Young Violinists’ Competition in Paris.

M.M. with highest honors (Warsaw Academy of Music, Poland); M.M. (The Juilliard School), chosen as Extraordinary Student of America; prize winner, International Competition in Paris, Wieniawski International Competition, American Contemporary Music International Competition; numerous solo and chamber music performances, and recordings for radio and TV in Europe and U.S.; former faculty, Warsaw Academy of Music.

Timothy Terranella has performed as cellist and flutist with many of the Boston area’s most prestigious musical organizations including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Ballet, Boston Esplanade Pops, New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera, and Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Terranella is a founding member of the New York-based Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and a former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He has served on the faculties of Boston University, Buckingham Browne and Nichols School, College of the Holy Cross, Clark University, Joy of Music Program in Worcester, and Indian Hill Music, Littleton, MA (string chair). Mr. Terranella is also principal conductor of the Joy of Music Youth Orchestra and is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music. He earned the Masters Degree from The Boston Conservatory and the Artist Diploma from New England Conservatory. His cello teachers have included Leonard Rose, Orlando Cole, Mischa Nieland, and Ronald Thomas. His flute teachers have included Bernard Goldberg, Randolph Bowman and Jeanne Baxtresser. Mr. Terranella has performed on the musical soundtracks of Sophie’s Choice and Schindler’s List.

Laura Williamson is a string player in the Boston area. She received a masters degree from New England Conservatory following her undergraduate studies at Vanderbilt University. Her most influential teachers include Aaron Janse, Katheryn Plummer, and Marcus Thompson.

Laura Williamson teaches private lessons and group classes. She has registered Suzuki Teacher Training with Teri Einfeldt, Carol Smith, Kirsten Marshall, and Lynn McCall. In addition to her private studio, Laura teaches at Suzuki Metro West and New England Conservatory Preparatory School.

Laura began her graduate studies at New England Conservatory in 2016 and in her second year joined the faculty of NEC’s Preparatory School where she teaches private violin and viola lessons, violin ensembles, and Suzuki Early Childhood Education. While at NEC Laura took pedagogy under Magdalena Richter. Having graduated with her Masters in 2018, Laura endeavors to prioritize working with young musicians for the duration of her career, and to be a “life-long learner” in furthering her pedagogical awareness.

Laura frequently attends workshops and SAA conferences and loves learning from and observing her colleagues.

Website: laurawilliamson.com

Recently featured in the Boston Globe (Karen Campbell, “A streamed and streamlined Sleeping Beauty“) and hailed as a conductor with “gusto and exuberance” (Jim McDonald, the Boston Musical Intelligencer) while being recognized for her “intelligent and out of the ordinary programming” (Vance Koven, Boston Musical Intelligencer), Ms. Woods has become a recognized and respected conductor in the Boston community and beyond. The Music Director for the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Woods is also a frequent guest conductor, having performed across the United States, Europe, and South America. Recent engagements include working with the Pioneer Valley Symphony, Maine’s Portland Symphony Orchestra, Opera Southwest on their world premiere of the National Endowment for the Arts Commission, Bless Me, Ultima, by Héctor Armienta, and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell choral department for Verdi’s Requiem.

Ms. Woods began her conducting career with a literal bang, making her debut with Stravinsky’s iconic masterwork The Rite of Spring and the massive 118-piece Worcester Consortium Orchestra. Since then she has gone on to a successful career, winning acclaim in all idioms, including opera, choral, chamber, ballet, and symphonic orchestra. She has collaborated with some of today’s great artists, including Joan Tower, Lisa Bielawa, Alexander Korsantia, and Gianni Di Marco, as well as serving as the Music Director for Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville’s (20 Feet from Stardom) documentary on Amar Bose. Ms. Woods conducted the world premiere of Conrad Pope’s The Little Match Girl in 2017. She commissioned and performed a new ballet set to Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2018 and has most recently conducted the world premiere performance of Grammy-winning and six-time Emmy-nominee Nan Schwartz’s latest work, Angels Among Us, for solo trumpet and orchestra, the performance of which was also broadcast on WHRB radio as a part of their Boston Live series.

Along with her conducting activities, Ms. Woods is also a frequent speaker and writer. She has been a guest lecturer at institutions such as MIT and the Longy School of Music of Bard College, a panelist for radio shows such as WGBH’s Callie Crossley, and is a frequent contributor to The Boston Herald’s State of the Arts blog. She has also been featured in Boston Magazine, the Huffington Post, Boston.com, the Cambridge Chronicle, The Boston Musical Intelligencer, and Comcast Newsmakers. She was awarded a scholarship to study violin with the Grammy award-winning Takacs String Quartet at the University of Colorado-Boulder, received the Dean’s Talent Award while doing her graduate studies at the Hartt School of Music, and won a full fellowship to study composition at the prestigious Atlantic Center for the Arts. In addition to her current roles as Music Director and guest conductor, Ms. Woods is also a member of the conducting and violin faculty for the New England Conservatory.

Liana Zaretsky is an active chamber and orchestral musician in the Boston area. She is the former principal second violinist of Portland, ME, Symphony and appears regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and Boston Ballet. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Zaretsky was one of the original and former members of the Radius Ensemble. She has collaborated with faculty from Longy School of Music, New England Conservatory, as well as with Boston Symphony musicians to perform frequently. Ms. Zaretsky holds a Masters degree in music from Northwestern University and a Graduate Diploma degree from the New England Conservatory. Between degrees, she was a member of the New World Symphony-one of the rotating Concert Masters, under Michael Tilson Thomas.

Ms. Zaretsky is currently the Rivers Summer Music Program Director, a newly appointed position. During the year, she is a string faculty member at the Rivers School Conservatory and at the Preparatory and School of Continuing Education at the New England Conservatory. She has recently joined the Project STEP faculty and continues to actively work with the Boston Youth Symphony, coaching chamber music and leading orchestra repertoire sectionals. In the summer, she has been a regular member of the Peninsula Music Festival in Wisconsin.