Musician Category: Strings

Julie Bougher received both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Violin Performance from the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University where she studied with William DePasquale and Jonathan Beiler.  She maintains an active schedule as a performer and instructor and has performed in orchestras and ensembles throughout the continental United States and Puerto Rico. 

Julie is a member of the Delaware Symphony, Allentown Symphony, and Riverside Symphonia, and is the founder and first violinist of the Elysium String Quartet. She has performed with artists such as Gil Shaham, Andrea Bocelli, Chris Thile, Steven Van Zandt, Jim Brickman, Celtic Thunder, Bobby Vinton, Celtic Woman, and Eddie Holman among others.  As a member of the Delaware Symphony, she received a 2010 Latin Grammy nomination for the DSO’s recording with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet.  She also won an Emmy Award in 2017 with the Allentown Symphony for their broadcast of “Peter and the Wolf.” 

Julie enjoys teaching and developing curriculum and is actively involved in string pedagogy.  She has participated in the Starling-DeLay Symposium at The Juilliard School and taught at Temple University, where she was Artist in Residence.  Julie is registered with the Suzuki Association of the Americas and teaches at Lafayette College.  She also maintains an active private studio.  

Ezgi Yargici is an accomplished baroque and modern cellist as well as a successful teaching artist. She graduated from Bilkent University with a Bachelor’s of Music Degree in Cello Performance and from Temple University with a Master’s of Music Degree in both Cello Performance and String Pedagogy. Additionally, she has done professional studies at The Hartt School of Music.

As an active freelance cellist, Ezgi performs in different settings: solo recitals, chamber music concerts, historical ensembles, contemporary ensembles, and orchestras in and around the Philadelphia area. She has appeared with Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Kennett Symphony, Allentown Symphony, New Manhattan Sinfonietta, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Orchestra, Brooklyn Metro Chamber Orchestra, Bay Atlantic Symphony, Vox Ama Deus, Garden State Philharmonic, Wilmington Ballet, Pennsylvania Philharmonic, New Jersey Capital Philharmonic, and Great Hall Chamber Orchestra. In addition to performing at various venues including Verizon Hall at Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and the United Nations building in New York, she has also performed abroad in Canada, Belgium, China, and Turkey.

As a teaching artist, Ezgi works with individual students of all ages and levels as well as groups in various school programs. Currently, she provides private cello instruction and coaches chamber groups in her studio. She also works at The Shipley School, Germantown Academy, and Nelly Berman School. Her main teaching approach mixes instructional techniques from the Suzuki and Orff methods with games to help her students learn and grow in an enjoyable environment.

Ellen Strange has been a professional freelance musician in the greater Philadelphia area for many years. She also taught elementary instrumental music in the Abington school district for 35 years. She received her Bachelor of Music Education from Temple University and her masters of Music in conducting from the College of  New Jersey.
She resides in Montgomery County, PA.

A Philadelphia native, cellist Elena Smith maintains an active career as a performing and teaching artist. She is the cellist and manager of Blue Line String Quartet, and she performs frequently with Fairmount String Quartet, Elysium String Quartet, and many other local chamber ensembles. She is principal cellist of the Wayne Oratorio Society, and she has appeared with the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, Reading Symphony, Bay Atlantic Symphony, West Jersey Chamber Orchestra, and other orchestras.

In addition to her career as a modern cellist, Elena has a passion for historical string instruments, and she performs regularly on baroque cello and viola da gamba. She has appeared on tour with Venice Baroque Orchestra, and she was the viola da gamba soloist in New York City Opera’s production of Los Elementos by Antonio Literes. She has participated in the American Bach Soloists Academy in San Francisco, the International Masterclasses Festival in Gaming, Austria, and Juilliard at Piccola Accademia in Montisi, Italy. Elena is a founding member of Muse Camerata, Musicivic Baroque, and Filament, and has appeared as a guest with Bach Collegium Philadelphia, Gamut Bach Ensemble, Crescendo Period Instrument Orchestra, Ex Umbris, Elm City Consort, and The Musick Art. In 2018, she made her Canada debut performing with l’Extase d’Ornace in Montréal. She has studied with Sarah Cunningham, Phoebe Carrai, and she has performed in masterclass for Thomas Fritzsch and Paolo Pandolfo.

A dedicated educator, Elena maintains a private studio and is the Operations Director and Cello Teaching Artist at The Common Place Orchestra, an arts education program that provides musical instruction to children in underserved communities in Southwest Philadelphia.

Elena is a graduate of Temple University, where she studied with Jeffrey Solow.

Barbara Jaffe, violinist, received a Master of Music degree in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, where she was a student of Donald Weilerstein. She graduated magna cum laude from the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Music degree and was the recipient of the PCPA Book Prize for excellence in the Liberal Arts. Former teachers include Edgar Ortenberg, Charles Castleman, David Cerone, and Yumi Ninomiya-Scott.
A founding member of Elysian Camerata, Ms. Jaffe’s chamber music career began in 1982 in Great Falls, Montana with the Cascade String Quartet, the resident quartet affiliated with the Great Falls Symphony, and followed with a position in the Bradley University String Quartet in Peoria, Illinois.
In the greater Philadelphia area, Ms. Jaffe has performed with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Ballet and Opera Delaware Orchestras, Philly Pops, Relache, the Fairmount String Quartet and Chamber Ensemble, and the Arioso Quartet. She serves as concertmaster of the newly formed Orchestra Concordia.In the Lehigh Valley she has performed with the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Jaffe has performed in Switzerland as a member of the New Bridge Ensemble.
Barbara Jaffe has taught violin students at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges and maintains a teaching studio in her home as well. In the summer she is music director, faculty member, performer and chamber music coach at the Vermont Music and Arts Center in Lyndonville, Vermont.
 

A born and bred Philadelphian, Andreia Torain completed her undergraduate studies at Ithaca College, in upstate New York, receiving a B.M. degree under the tutelage of both Philip Clark and Debra Moree. Upon graduating, she returned home to study with Helen Kwalwasser at Temple University, where she received her Master of Music in String Pedagogy. These days she is a regular freelancer in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. She has performed with numerous groups over the years, including the Fairmount Chamber Ensemble, Philadelphia Classical Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Delaware Valley Philharmonic, Newtown Chamber Orchestra, and the Riverside Symphonia. In 2012, she helped  found Philalea, a chamber music ensemble devoted to performing piano trios, a genre she’s been in love with since her teenage years. Andreia has been a member of the violin faculty at Settlement Music School since 1994, where she teaches private violin lessons using both Traditional and Suzuki methods, as well as Suzuki group classes, and coaches chamber music; she also serves as Suzuki Coordinator for all six of the school’s branches. Along with helping her students build strong music and violin fundamentals, she is passionate about getting kids to explore and develop their creative expression. During  her down time, Andreia  gets her kicks training 3-4 days a week in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and trying out new cake and cookie recipes.

A Magna Cum Laude honors graduate of West Chester University, Mr. Raub has been an active freelance Double Bassist in Southeastern Pennsylvania since 1980. In addition to colleges such as Ursinus, Franklin & Marshall, Lafayette, Muhlenberg, Moravian, the University of Valley Forge, Kutztown University, Lehigh University, and the University of Pennsylvania, Tim has appeared regularly with Berks Grand Opera, Opera Delaware, the Kennett Symphony Orchestra, the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, the Reading Choral Society, the Reading Symphony Orchestra, the Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Sinfonia, the Wheaton Chorale, and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra. Beyond his performance schedule, Tim served as Personnel Contractor and Orchestra Manager for the Pottstown Symphony Orchestra Association for more than fifteen years, as well as Associate Principal Double Bass from 1980 to 2006. Raised in Montgomery County and residing in Berks County, Tim considers this area his home and held the Music Director post at First Baptist Church (Pottstown) from 1987 to 2005. During his tenure, the music program at FBC sponsored a variety of special projects with combined choirs from public schools and other churches; moreover, he spearheaded new outreach opportunities for institutions such as The Frederick Mennonite Home, Manatawny Manor, and Berks County Prison. In addition to his conducting duties at FBC, Tim has also appeared as Guest Conductor for other organizations and events, such as the 125th Anniversary Celebration of Trinity Reformed Church (Pottstown) and additional community performances at Berks County Prison. 

Music Education continues to be a priority for Mr. Raub and his students have competed in Pennsylvania and nationally. Since 1984, his Berks County students have taken first chair at PMEA District, Regional, All-State, and All-Eastern Orchestra Festivals. Locally, several students appeared in the Double Bass section or as soloists with The Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra, The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, as well as The Reading Symphony Orchestra. Other highlights of student achievement include Honorable Mention at The International Double Bass Competition (Houston) and several hundred thousand dollars in scholarships for Penn-State University, Temple University, and the Peabody Conservatory. When the Reading School District appointed Mr. Raub in 2000, he was the only full-time elementary String Specialist and there were only two string positions serving less than 200 students in the City of Reading. There are now five positions serving more than 800 String Orchestra students throughout the entire school district!  

Between seasons, Tim travels throughout Central America and enjoys snorkeling on the world’s second largest coral reef, photographing amazing wildlife, and exploring hidden ruins as far away from other tourists as possible. During winter vacation, Tim looks forward to the warmth and relaxed change of pace in old town Key West.

The recipient of the Edwin E. Stein Award for Excellence in Musical Studies, cellist Talia Schiff completed her undergraduate studies at Boston University under renowned cellist Leslie Parnas. As winner of the 1982 Austrian-American Society Mozarteum Scholarship Competition she was awarded a summer of study in Salzburg with legendary cellist Antonio Janigro. She later attended the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, earning her Master’s degree in the studios of concert cellists Stephen Kates and Yehuda Hanani. Ms. Schiff subsequently went on to become a founding member of the Castalia String Trio, semifinalists in the 1987 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition.

In 1989 Ms. Schiff continued to pursue her love of chamber music with the Tenor Clef Dwellers: a cello quartet, which she established with three colleagues. For the next decade she devoted much of her artistic energy to developing the performance and repertoire of the cello quartet ensemble. In Spring of 2001, a collection of music she had transcribed for the Tenor Clef Dwellers’ performances was published by Musicelli Publications.

At present Ms. Schiff’s chamber music pursuits focus on her work with Elysian Camerata, with whom she has performed since 2004. An ensemble made up of string quintet and piano, the Elysians regroup into various size and types of ensembles to perform a wide range of chamber music encompassing literature from the Baroque to contemporary. With them, Ms. Schiff performs regularly throughout the season, both locally and on tour.

Formerly the principal cellist of the Pottstown Symphony Orchestra and the Opera New Jersey Orchestra, Ms. Schiff is currently a member of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and can be heard in recital as part of the Schiff-Burgman Cello/Piano Duo. As a substitute cellist, she has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philly Pops and the Philadelphia Opera Company. Her diverse activities include performing the solo cello part in the world premiere of the Ben Steinberg work “Psalm of Thanksgiving” in Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall.

Sophie Bruno Labiner is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Marilyn Costello. Ms. Bruno has performed with major orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, and The English Chamber Orchestra. She has appeared both as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles in the Philadelphia area, including broadcasts on Public Radio. She has also performed with The American Ballet Theater, American Boy Choir, Kirov Ballet, Royal Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Reading Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Academy of Vocal Arts Opera Orchestra and Opera Festival of New Jersey. Ms. Bruno is currently principal harpist with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and Orchestra 2001. Sophie enjoys reading, playing scrabble and especially spending time with her two granddaughters, Ella and Olivia.

Ron received his early training at The Settlement Music School and later went on to study at The Manhattan School of Music with Bernard Greenhouse and at The Marlboro School of Music, where he studied with Pablo Casals. He was the recipient of a Ford Foundation Grant and gave his debut recital at Alice Tully Hall. He has performed with The New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein and Erich Leinsdorf, and with the American Symphony under Stokowski, and has performed and appeared as soloist with the Symphony of the New World. He appears frequently as a recitalist. He has performed and recorded with many well-known entertainers and singers, including Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. and recorded with James Brown live at the Apollo. He is a faculty member of Drexel University and Eastern College.

Principal Harpist for the Pennsylvania ballet, Mindy Cutcher is an in-demand professional soloist, teacher and recording artist in Philadelphia. Symphonic engagements include the Baltimore and Delaware Symphonies, the St. Louis Symphony and Philadelphia’s Chamber Orchestra. Mindy has performed on The Tonight Show and with notable names such as Joshua Bell, Josh Groban and Anne Hathaway. She studied with world-renowned Alice Chalifoux at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she received her Bachelor of Music degree in Harp Performance. Mindy has traveled the world playing on cruise ships, loves a good read and is a s’more connoisseur.  Originally from Baltimore, Mindy now resides outside of Philadelphia with her husband, two children and a Cockapoo named Hubble.

Melissa Ortega Locati has been an active chamber musician in the Philadelphia area since 1996. She received a Bachelor’s degree from Eastman School of Music and a Master’s degree from the University of Miami. As an orchestral musician, she has been a member of the Delaware Symphony, the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, the Lancaster Symphony and the Ocean City Pops. As a chamber musician she has performed as a member of the Fairmount String Quartet, the Tyrone Brown String Sextet, the Petra String Quartet & the Chancellor String Quartet. When not playing violin, Melissa can be found working with her (violinist) husband Michael at Locati, LLC which deals in fine art and antiques.

Marka Gwynn Stepper, has been a member of the Ocean City Pops since 1989. A graduate of Manahttan School of Music, she was a student of Lillian Fuchs, and before that studied with Joseph de Pasquale, of the Philadelphia Orchestra at Temple University. An active freelance musician, she spent three years in Xalapa, Mexico with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa and later lived in South Texas, where she performed and taught. She currently plays with the Bay-Atlantic and the Bucks County Symphony, Fairmount Chamber Ensemble, and the Newtown Chamber Orchestra. She is a substitute player with the Harrisburg Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Marka is also a member of Kyrah, a string trio and the Danoff String Quartet.

Ms. Kasker-Simmons is on the faculty of the Settlement Music school teaches and also coordinates the Adult Chamber Music Players, a chamber music program for adults.

Louise received a Master of Music Degree in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music and a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts. At Eastman she studied viola with Heidi Castleman, and chamber music with members of the Cleveland String Quartet. At PCPA she studied violin with Charles Castleman, and viola with Patynka Kopec. Other notable musicians with whom she has worked include Donald Weilerstein, Mitchell Stern, Edgar Ortenberg, and Abram Loft.

She began her performing career as violist with the Shelbourne and Cascade Quartets in Great Falls, MT. Since then she has performed in numerous chamber recitals in the United States and abroad, including concerts in Zurich, Bern, Boltigen, and Castasegna, Switzerland.

Louise is a founding member of the Elysian Camerata and performs with the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble, the New Bridge Ensemble (Switzerland), Chadds Ford Strings, the Wilmington String Ensemble, and ViVaCe Strings. Other ensembles with whom she has performed include the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, Delaware Symphony, Allentown Symphony and Pennsylvania Opera Theater.

Louise’s other love is teaching violin and viola. She maintains an active teaching studio, working with children and adults of all ages.

She spends her summers at Vermont Music and Arts Center, where she serves as faculty violist. She coaches and performs with other faculty musicians, as well as with adult non-professional musicians who are passionate about chamber music.

Philadelphia native Joanne DiMaria Bates began her studies at the Settlement Music School with Eligio Rossi. She was awarded a fellowship from the Ford Foundation to study with Henry G. Scott of the Philadelphia Orchestra while at Girls’ High, and continued working with him for a year at the New School of Music until entering the Curtis Institute of Music. At Curtis, Joanne studied with Philadelphia Orchestra principal bass Roger M. Scott, and worked extensively with Karen Tuttle, Felix Galimir and Mischa Schneider for chamber music. Joanne was a Koussevitzsky Foundation Fellow at Tanglewood, where she studied with the Boston Symphony’s principal Edwin Barker and assistant principal Lawrence Wolfe. Joanne also participated in the Aspen Music Festival and the Colorado Philharmonic (now the National Repertory Orchestra), and has performed as a substitute member of the Philadelphia Orchestra at both the Academy of Music and Carnegie Hall. In addition to the Fairmount Chamber Ensemble, Joanne has performed with the Princeton Symphony, the Riverside Symphonia, Vox Amadeus, the Delaware Symphony, the Lancaster Symphony, the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, Relache, Network for New Music, Orchestra 2001, the opera companies of Philadelphia, Delaware and Trenton, and many other organizations. Joanne is on the faculty of Germantown Academy, St. Basil Academy, Temple University’s Music Prep, Kutztown University and Chestnut Hill College.

Gregory Teperman’s musicality, sense of style, and joie de vivre is evident whenever he performs. Among his credits include his performing with the Moscow Symphony, Moldavian Philharmonic, Kirov Ballet, and the Trenton Symphony, for whom he was assistant concert master. He has, as well, performed for such diverse artists as Pavarotti, Carreras, Domingo, Joshua Bell, Hillary Hahn, Josh Groban, and Frank Sinatra Jr. Among others, he has recorded with Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Will Smith, Justin Timberlake, and Rosemary Clooney. Currently a member of the AVA and the Philly Pops Orchestras, he is also concertmaster for Broadway at the Academy and for the Walnut Street Theatre.

Fran Berge performs widely on both historical and modern instruments. In the mid-Atlantic region, she plays Baroque and Classical concerts with Tempesta di Mare, the Washington Bach Consort and Melomanie. Playing modern violin, she has performed frequently with the Elysian Camerata, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Ballet, and Orchestra 2001 as well as Fairmount Strings. Outside this area, she has enjoyed being part of the Carmel Bach Festival and numerous chamber concerts in Spain, Italy and Greece. In New York, Ms. Berge has taught actors how to use early music in Commedia del’Arte and in Philadelphia, she teaches violin, ensemble techniques and Baroque performance practice.