A dedicated educator, Ms. Coletti is Chair of the Ed and Mari Edelman Chamber Music Institute at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, and teaches viola at Colburn’s Community School of Performing Arts and Music Academy. Her students have gone on to pursue music degrees at such institutions as Juilliard, Rice, USC and UCLA, and have garnered regional and national awards.

Recently, she also resumed her role as a regional director for Junior Chamber Music. And she is founder of ViolaFest Los Angeles which over its 10 year annual run has brought together over 1500 student violists for an inspirational and educational day (www.socalviolasociety.org). Currently, she is honored to be the president of the Southern California Viola Society. Ms. Coletti is on faculty of the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program and has served on the faculties of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and at summer courses in Prague (Ameropa International Music Festival) and Italy (Adriatic Chamber Festival). In 2007 she was an honoree for Los Angeles Music Week for her musical contributions to the community and was honored by the City of Los Angeles in the City Hall Chambers.

Ms. Coletti received a Master of Music from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Stanford University. She was a recipient of Stanford University’s Golden Medal in the Humanities for excellence in her chosen field of study. Her primary teachers have been Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Ben Simon.

Ms. Coletti is married to violist Paul Coletti and they have two daughters, Olivia and Julia.

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Margaret Shimizu has been a full-time faculty member at the Colburn School’s Community School of Performing Arts since 1984. Along with teaching violin and viola, Ms. Shimizu conducts Colburn’s String Ensemble and String Orchestra, and is active in the Colburn Suzuki Strings Program. She received her Bachelor of Music in Music Education and California Teaching Credential from USC where she studied violin with Alice Schoenfeld. As an undergrad, Ms. Shimizu was mentored by music education pedagogue, Rosemarie Krovoza. After teaching elementary instrumental music in the Pasadena Unified School District and at the Community School as a part-time violin faculty member, Ms. Shimizu attended Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and completed her Master of Music in Violin Performance, with an emphasis in Suzuki Violin Pedagogy with John Kendall. She studied viola with Pamela Goldsmith through USC’s extension program, and was the violist in The Marina Ensemble from 1997-2015. Ms. Shimizu was a string coach for the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra from 1988-2002 and has been a frequent clinician at music camps, Suzuki institutes, and workshops throughout the United States. She is a member of ASTA, SAA, SAI, SMAC/LA, and Tuesday Musicale of Pasadena.

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Robert Brophy can be seen and heard playing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera and many West Coast chamber music series. He is featured with Nigel Kennedy in a quartet for Kennedy’s new release Greatest Hits on theEMI label and has performed alongside Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Michel Dalberto and Dmitri Sitkovetsky. He won the viola audition with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in December 2011.

An advocate for new music and former member of the Ensō Quartet, Robert has worked with many leading composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Joan Tower, William Bolcom, Tan Dun and Bernard Rands. Of the Ensō Quartet’s concerts, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted, “It was standing room only,” while The Strad applauded their “totally committed, imaginative interpretation.” The quartet earned its place in the ensemble world with multiple honors at the 2004 Banff International String Quartet Competition, including best performance of the pièce de concert, for the quartet’s riveting performance of Stewart Grant’s String Quartet No. 2. It also won awards at the 2003 Concert Artists Guild International, the Fischoff National Chamber Music and the Chamber Music Yellow Springs competitions. Robert can be heard on two recordings with the Ensō Quartet on the Naxos label,

In Los Angeles, Robert continues his quartet life as a member of the New Hollywood String Quartet, performing with them throughout the Southland for the last six years. This quartet recently became quartet-in-residence at South Pasadena Library’s Restoration Concert Series.

Robert holds degrees from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England and Rice University, where he studied with James Dunham, formerly of the Cleveland Quartet. When not busy making music, he enjoys cooking, sailing and hiking with his German Shepherd, Sascha.

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Violist Diana Wade likes to make strange sounds, usually on the viola. In a recent performance of Berio’s Sequenza VI, Diana was praised for playing with “both athletic and operatic ferocity” and “throwing herself into tremolo passages with a physical force that shook her and a sonic one that practically shook the walls” (Mark Swed, LA Times). If none of this is ringing a bell, then you may recognize her for saying “Shia LaBeouf” in that internet video.

Diana enjoys a richly varied musical life that she is cultivating in Los Angeles. Not only can she be heard recording for film and television, but also performing with ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, wild Up and appearances in series such as Jacaranda, Tuesdays @ Monk Space, and the Hear Now Music Festival.

Recently, Diana has found herself turning to composition. Her bizarre vocal fry extravaganza “Fry on Fry” has been tickling audiences all along the West Coast. Current projects include a new work for the duo So Much Hot Air, an arrangement of Garth Knox’s Jonah and the Whale for Diana and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Beattie, and a piece for two performers and one 25 foot long drainage tube. This season, Diana has been invited to attend the retreat Artists at Albatross Reach as a violist and composer where she will be collaborating with fellow artists on the development of weird, fun new work.

Formerly a founding member of the Argus Quartet, Diana has collaborated with Anthony Dean Griffey, David Shifrin, and the Brentano Quartet and worked with composers such as Christopher Theofanidis, Martin Bresnick, Andrew Norman, and Thomas Kotcheff in the performance of their music.

Diana holds degrees and certificates from Temple University, Cleveland Institute of Music and University of Southern California and she studied with CJ Chang, Jeffrey Irvine, and Donald McInnes. Diana plays on a viola made by Tetsuo Matsuda in 2004 that she’s lovingly named Fernando. In the rare moment that she’s not playing viola, Diana enjoys writing lists, running, and wishing she were an opera singer.

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Gail A. Acosta,

Gail A. Acosta, violin, viola, a native of Indiana, began her musical studies at the age of 8. Coming from a family of violinists, she was awarded scholarships to Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, University of Illinois String Festival, Miami University in Ohio, Bay View Chamber Music Festival, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and the University of Southern California. A B.M. was awarded from UNC-Greensboro where she studied with Marla Mutschler and performed with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Acosta was also awarded the Tom J. Stone Award for performance excellence and was winner of the University Concerto Competition. The University of Southern California granted her a teaching assistantship to study with Eudice Shapiro and perform with the USC Graduate String Quartet coached by Gabor Rejto. Her M.M. summa cum laude was completed in 1981 and she was honored the String Chamber Music Ensemble Award for 1981. As an active performer, Ms. Acosta has performed with the Santa Barbara Symphony, The Orchestra of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Mozart Camerata, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, the Ernest Bloch Music Festival, Oregon, the Ojai Music Festival, California, Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra, Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival, California and La Folia Chamber Ensemble.

An avid teacher and supporter of music education for young students, Ms. Acosta has taught across the United States at many major string workshops and universities.

She is a member of the American String Teachers Association, Suzuki Music Association of California-Los Angeles Branch, Suzuki Association of the Americas and Musician’s Union Local 47. Gail lives in Valley Village, CA, where she is Suzuki String Coordinator at Evergreen Music Conservatory, maintains a private studio of violin and viola students, coordinates and teaches the Kindergarten/1st Grade Suzuki String Program at Colfax Charter Elementary (180 little violinists!) and is an Adjunct Violin/Viola Professor at Glendale Community College. Her home in Valley Village, CA with her husband, Jerry and son, Michael is filled with music!

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Cynthia Fogg

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Chris Luther  One of few teachers that can fully teach and perform classical and non-classical styles at the highest level, Dr. Luther combines both worlds for exciting, innovative performance, and to revolutionize the process of music education.  Recent performance examples include a free-improvisation performance for the Showcase Concert at the 2016 American Viola Society National Festival, and as the only performer of non-classical styles (a composition for solo viola based on Well, You Needn’t by Thelonious Monk) at the 2017 International Viola Congress, in addition to the performance of his classical arrangements.

Dr. Luther elevates his students with a tailored teaching approach to all ages and all abilities. Certified for the entire Suzuki Violin Method from the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Dr. Luther understands the importance of structure and thoughtful sequencing of technique and repertoire. More recently, Dr. Luther has used his abilities as a teacher and pedagogue to teach String Teaching/Pedagogy classes, and String Literature classes for the graduate and undergraduate levels

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Praised for her “rococo gracefulness”, Lindsey Strand-Polyak is active throughout the West Coast as a baroque violinist and violist. Nationally, she performs with ensembles such as the American Bach Soloists, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Pacific MusicWorks and Bach Collegium San Diego, and Austin Baroque Orchestra; and has appeared at the Oregon Bach Festival, Twin Cities Early Music Festival, and the Fringe Series of both Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals. In her home base of Southern California, she can be heard with her own group, Ensemble Bizarria, as well as Musica Angelica, Con Gioia Early Music Ensemble, Tesserae, and Concordia Clarimontis. Dr. Strand-Polyak was the assistant director for the UCLA Early Music Ensemble from 2011-2015, and is artistic director of Los Angeles Baroque—Southern California’s first community Baroque orchestra. She earned her PhD/MM in musicology and violin performance from UCLA has served on the faculty of the Colburn School and the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA, and was recently appointed adjunct professor of baroque violin and viola at Claremont Graduate University.

Violin track:
Mary Kelly, Viola/Violin joined the Pasadena Conservatory of Music community as chair of strings in 2009 after serving as Director of the Bethel College Academy of Performing Arts (BCAPA) Suzuki Strings program in Newton, KS. In Kansas she was assistant principal viola of the Wichita Symphony and principal viola of the Wichita Grand Opera. Ms. Kelly received her Bachelor of Music in viola performance from University of Texas at Austin and her Masters in viola from Wichita State University. She has worked with teachers across the country including Roland Vamos, Roger Myers, Donald McInnes, Catherine Consiglio, and Christine Rutledge. While studying in Austin, she received Suzuki pedagogy instruction from Phyllis Young and Lori Scott as part of the Strings Project Program. That experience led her to start Suzuki pedagogy training at Ottawa Suzuki Institute in 2004. Since then, she has completed training through book 7 in Suzuki violin with teachers Elayne Ras, Ed Kreitman, Susan Kempter, Julia Hardie, Joanne Melvin, Alice Joy-Lewis, Carol Dallinger, and Ed Sprunger. In the summers, she teaches and performs at several Suzuki Institutes and festivals around the country. She is currently President of the SMAC-LA board.