Executive Director
Mariana Green-Hill
Artistic Director
Naira Underwood
Director of Development
Rashida N. Black
Board of Directors
Geralde Gabeau, MPH
Diane Monroe
Donnell Patterson
Epp Sonin
Advisory Board
Sonya White
Melvena Green, Ed.D
|
 |
Faculty |
 |
The Faculty
The Artistic Director and Founder of Four Strings is Mariana Green-Hill. She and her faculty are dedicated to the art of teaching performance and practice techniques. All are experienced soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians. Our faculty members hold degrees from accredited institutions including: The Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, The New England Conservatory, and Boston Conservatory. Our faculty are well versed in teaching students from diverse backgrounds, and all levels of proficiency. Our Goal is to challenge and encourage students to work diligently to achieve short and long-term goals.
 |
Mariana Green-Hill
Founder, Executive Director, Violin Professor
Violinist Mariana Green-Hill is the first ever alumna of the Project STEP program located in Boston's Symphony Hall to become Artistic Director as well as hold a faculty position in New England Conservatory's Preparatory Division. Alongside being an active performer, teacher, coach and advisor to students and parents grades K-12, she is the Founder and Director of the Four Strings Academy Summer Institute. In 2009, Mariana Green-Hill, received the Sanford Allen Award given by the Sphinx Competition. She has been a featured guest soloist with the New Jersey, Memphis, Detroit, and Boston Pops and Symphony Orchestras and has performed with such notable artists as YoYo Ma, Pamela Frank, Lynn Chang, and Marcus Thomson. Mariana Green-Hill has been a member of EDM since 2002 graduating from the Juilliard School of Music with both Bachelor and Masters Degrees and a Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes College of Music under the respective tutelage of Stephen Clapp, Ann Setzer, Ida Kavafian, and others.
|
Naira Underwood
Artistic Director, Violin Professor
Naira Underwood, a native of Pensacola, Fl began playing the violin at the age of three. Over the course of her studies and career, Naira has received recognition for her artistry and has been given several awards including winning the Doris Kahn Concerto Competition, a semi-finalist in the National Sphinx Competition, and the 2004 Artist Award from the New York Foundation for the Arts . As a soloist, she has been featured on NPR radio, WUWF Classic radio, and WEAR TV. As a chamber musician with the Ebony Strings Quartet, Naira strives to perform new innovative musical compositions written for the traditional string quartet and has premiered works by emerging young composers such as Christina Spinae. She has served as an Artist in Residence for the Sphinx Performance Academy, Queens Borough Community College, and The Noel Pointer School of Music. Ms. Underwood has served as the Artistic Director of the Four Strings Academy in Lexington, MA, and Artistic Director for the Noel Pointer School of Music. As a pedagogue and advocate for arts education, Ms. Underwood has instructed hundreds of students in Brooklyn, and throughout the New York Metropolitan area.
|
Philip Rush
Chamber Music Faculty, Viola
Born in Bellingham Washington and raised in Riverside California, Philip Rush is a musician with a wide range of interests and experience. Although classically trained and at home in traditional recital, chamber and symphonic settings, he has also performed as an electric violist in rock bands, in folk ensembles, and in jazz ensembles. In addition to teaching at the Brookline Music School, Philip is chair of the string department at the South Shore Conservatory in Hingham, and is an active freelance musician, performing with ensembles including the Gardner Chamber Orchestra, the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Intermezzo Opera Boston, The Rhode Island Philharmonic, The Handel and Haydn Society and the Cantata Singers. He holds a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from the University of California at Riverside, a Master of Fine Arts in viola performance from the California Institute of the Arts, and a Doctor of Music in viola performance from the Florida State University.
 |
Sophie Vilker
Violin Professor
Sophie Vilker graduated from the Gnesin Music Academy in Moscow. Her principal teachers were Yuri Yurovetsky and Gregory Gamburg. She was Concertmistress of the Stanislavsky Opera and Ballet Company. In 1972, she emigrated to Israel where she was a member of the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. As a recent immigrant in the United Sates (1974), she was a soloist with the Boston Pops. Since that time she has performed recitals, conducted master classes and workshops in North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Armenia, Japan and China.
Sophie was the founder and first conductor of the Wheaton College and Longy School of Music Chamber Orchestras, and Conductor of the Little Orchestra of Cambridge. She was the founder and first violinist of the Artemis String Quartet. She was concertmistress of the Boston Opera Company, the Black and White Orchestra, and the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra.
Sophie spent ten magic summers on the faculty at Greenwood Music Camp, Cummington, Massachusetts, as a chamber music teacher and, the last three years, as conductor of the chamber orchestra. She is currently on the summer faculty of the International Music Camp, Liminka, Finland. She served for seven years on the Chamber Music Faculty of Harvard University, and for eight years as String Department Chair of Longy School of Music. She is presently on the faculty of Longy School of Music, the Preparatory Division of New England Conservatory and Walnut Hill School for the Arts.
Sophie recently returned from the trip to Russia and Romania, where she conducted a number of Master Classes, played a concert with her student and was a member of the Jury for the International Chamber Music
Competition in Moscow. |
 |
Chamber Music Faculty, Violin
Balancing traditional classical music, contemporary concert music, and mainstream genres, Ms. Matthews is a dynamic young violinist who is leaving her mark in the music world. Noteworthy solo performances include her performance at Queens Hall in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad under the patronage of Trinidad’s President George Maxwell Richards, her appearances at the Dundas Performing Arts Centre in support of a Safe House for Women in Nassau, Bahamas, and a series of ten performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. A prize winner in numerous competitions, Ms. Matthews was the first place winner of the National Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition and the 90.9 FM Bill Cerri Award. Ms. Matthews has been featured as guest soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington Symphony Orchestra, and Takoma Park Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Matthews is the founder and first violinist of the Ebony Strings Quartet. The quartet has been featured on NBC’s The Today Show, the Black Girls Rock Awards in conjunction with VH1’s Hip-Hop Honors, and The Juilliard School’s Evening of Chamber Music at Alice Tully Hall. Other chamber music appearances include participation in the Shenandoah Conservatory Chamber Music Workshop, the Chamber Music Institute at the University of Nebraska, Gateways Music Festival and the Treetops Chamber Music Festival, as well as being invited to participate in the Youth Orchestra of the Americas East Coast and South American Tours. Ms. Matthews was concertmistress of the Verdi Orchestra under Maestra Carol Crawford, presented by the Martina Arroyo Foundation. She is also a violinist with the Soulful Symphony under Darin Atwater and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra.
In addition to performing, Stephanie is also a music educator, composer, and recording artist. She has conducted numerous master classes and seminars for young musicians, both within the United States and abroad. She is currently an artist-in-residence at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. She most recently conducted performance lectures at Wilberforce University and Central State University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ms. Matthews is a composer and songwriter with ASCAP and has written and recorded for numerous classical, gospel, R&B and hip-hop music projects. She wrote and arranged music for Kanye West’s Glow In The Dark Tour and VH1 Storytellers, during which she was lead violinist. She has collaborated with other noteworthy mainstream artists such as Sean “Puffy” Combs, Kim Burrell, Richard Smallwood, PJ Morton, DeWayne Woods, Common, Donald Lawrence, Karen Clark-Sheard, Lalah Hathaway, Jay-Z, and Lady Gaga.
Ms. Matthews earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana and completed her Master of Music degree program at The Juilliard School under the instruction of Stephen Clapp. |
Lisa Guttenberg Orfaly
Violin Professor / Preparatory School
Lisa Guttenberg Orfaly is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) where she received a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and a Master of Music in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy. At CIM, she was a student of Linda Cerone, David Russell, and Michele George. Lisa has also studied with Koji Toyoda at the Talent Education Institute in Japan. She has been a member of the faculty at the Preucil School of Music, the University of Northern Iowa Suzuki School, and the New World School of the Arts. She was Assistant Concertmaster of the Waterloo Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra and also played with the Cedar Rapids Symphony. For the past four years, she has lived and taught in Valencia, Spain. She is currently teaching at All Newton Music School, Winchester Community Music School, and Powers Music School.
|
Jason Amos
Viola Professor
Jason Amos began his viola studies at age eleven through the public schools in his hometown of Southfield, MI. He has received honors in several competitions including 4th place in the 2007 Sphinx Competition and 1st place 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. After undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan where he served as co-principal violist of the University Symphony Orchestra for all four years, Mr. Amos received a Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music. He has appeared as soloist with the Ann Arbor Symphony, played in the Flint Symphony, and has played principal viola for many other orchestras throughout Michigan as well as the Aspen Sinfonia. During the summers, Jason has enjoyed serving as faculty for the Sphinx Performance Academy and the Four Strings Academy (Lexington, MA), as well as mentoring the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Jason has had the honor of studying primarily with Martha Strongin Katz, Yizhak Schotten, Caroline Coade, and Catherine Carroll. Mr. Amos completed the Fellowship program at Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI. While there, he collaborated with the Providence String Quartet toward the organization's goal of transforming communities through chamber music-based youth development programs. In addition to viola, Jason enjoys singing and directs a young men's choir ("The Fellas") as part of the Boston City Singers. Jason serves as violist and resident musician at MusiConnects (home of the Boston Public Quartet), an organization modeled after Community MusicWorks with a permanent residency at the Chittick Elementary School in Mattapan, MA. He has been teaching at Project STEP since 2010.
|
 |
Troy Stuart
Chamber Music Faculty, Cello
Troy Kenneth Stuart, cellist, a native Baltimorean, is a graduate of the Peabody Preparatory, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Mr. Stuart’s major teachers included Richard Kapuchinski, Steve Doane, Norman Fischer, and Ronald Thomas. He has coached chamber music with the Apple Hill Chamber Players, Isidore Cohen, Abraham Skernick, Timothy Eddy, Issac Stern and members of the Guarneri, Julliard, Vermeer, Lydian, Audubon, Chester, Concord and Smithson Quartets. He has performed in the master classes of Anne Bylsma, David Finkel, Leon Fleisher, Donald Wallerstein and Mehnahem Pressler. In 1987 Mr. Stuart was chosen to be a member of the prestigious New York String Orchestra, under the direction of famed violinist/conductor Alexander Schneider, performing at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. In 1988 Mr. Stuart was invited to participate at the internationally televised (CBS) Kennedy Center Honors in honor of Schneider, where he performed alongside Isaac Stern, Jamie Laredo, Michael Tree, Sharon Robinson and Pamela Frank. Concert pianist Armenta invited Mr. Stuart to participate in the newly formed Gateways Music Festival where he served as principal cellist under conductor Michael Morgan.
Recent seasons have included a performance at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon, a residency at the Walden School with the Phoenix Chamber Players, participation in the 2003 Yale Gordon recital series, a tour sponsored by the Chicago Symphony with the Gateways Ensemble, and, since 2002, several guest artist appearances with the Apple Hill Chamber Players. In addition, he is a member of the Ritz Chamber Players, which has toured nationally, held residencies in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Florida, performed a sold out concert at Carnegie Hall, and was featured on the international FOX-TV broadcast of the NAACP Image Awards.
In 2007-2008 Mr. Stuart will perform several recitals with internationally acclaimed pianist Terrence Wilson, and will embark on a European tour with the Ritz Chamber Players. A passionate and dedicated teacher, Mr. Stuart has taught String Pedagogy at Morgan State University in Maryland, and he currently teaches cello with the Peabody Preparatory and Conservatory and the Baltimore School for the Arts. In 2006-2007, he will judge the National ACT-SO competition and participate in several teaching residencies with the Ritz Chamber Players.
Mr. Stuart is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Friedberg Lecture/Artist Award, and the Martell Cordon Bleu Award, presented by actor/musician Dudley Moore.
|
Diana Golden
Chamber Music Faculty, Cello
Diana Golden holds a Master’s degree in Cello Performance with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Felix Schmidt. She received Bachelor degrees in English literature from Cornell University and in Cello Performance from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where her primary teachers were Jean-Michel Fonteneau and Mark Kosower.
Since moving to Boston in November, Diana has enjoyed teaching and performing with the Boston Civic Symphony, the Dartmouth Symphony, the Voices of Distinction Choir, and various other ensembles throughout New England. In London, Diana was a member of the Orion Symphony Orchestra, FeMusa Ensemble, Orchestra Europa (2008-2009 Fellow), and Ardente Opera. Diana has also been employed by the Catskill, Utica, and Cape Symphonies, Binghamton Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, and San Francisco Academy Philharmonic. An avid chamber musician, Diana has participated in chamber music festivals such as Manchester Music Festival (Faculty and Guest Artist Series), Quartet Program, Killington, Musicorda, Zephyr, Lozzo Musica, and Summit.
Diana was invited to be on the faculty at Mohawk Valley Community College and Trumansburg Conservatory, and has held private teaching studios in Syracuse, Ithaca, San Francisco and London. Diana has received instruction from the St. Petersburg Quartet, the Cassatt Quartet, Bernard Greenhouse, Fred Sherry, Colin Carr, Steven Doane, Matt Haimovitz, Nathaniel Rosen, Sadao Harada, Philip Mueller, David Strange, Alan Harris and Carol Ou.
She is a freelance writer of “Upbeat” articles for the American Federation of Musicians’ International Musician Magazine, and plans to begin freelance writing for Strings Magazine this winter. A member of the AFM’s local chapter, the Boston Musicians’ Association, and Chamber Music America, Diana’s recent awards include a John Baker Career Development Award, Sir Stapley Educational Trust Award, and a Bursary Award from the Royal Academy of Music. Diana’s plans for 2011 include creating a chamber ensemble in residency and a chamber music concert series at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Malden. |
 |
Cello Professor
Cellist Emileigh Brooke Vandiver is committed to teaching and performing in many parts of the world, and possesses a breadth of experience. She has earned recognition for her artistry as a recitalist, chamber musician, teacher and soloist. She began performing as a regular recitalist on the Houston Young Artists Concert series from the age of 12. For six years, she participated in the Houston Young Artists Concert series and performed works ranging from Chopin to Beethoven and Britten.
As a soloist, she has made fourteen appearances with orchestra. Her engagements include performing concerti with the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Bend Symphony, the Clear Lake Symphony, the Virtuosi of Houston Chamber Orchestra, and the Houston Civic Symphony Orchestra (twice). She has performed concerti in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Jordan Hall, the Moores Opera House, the Wortham Center, and the Hobby Center.
Her chamber experiences include being a member of the New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Ensemble, under the direction of John Heiss and the NEC Bach Ensemble, lead by John Gibbons. As a chamber musician, her repertoire spans from Haydn to Schoenberg to Mauchet. This past concert season she performed “Pierrot Lunaire” unconducted in Jordan Hall. She was also selected to perform “Aphorisms” by Gunther Schuller in Jordan Hall for a concert honoring his 85th birthday. She has performed chamber music at the Lincoln Center, New York, NY, Jordan Hall, Boston, Ma, Stude Concert Hall in Houston, TX, the Whyte Museum in Banff, Canada and the Westport New York Library, in Westport, NY. Committed to reaching out to new audiences, Ms. Vandiver has performed in hospitals, public schools, libraries, community centers, and at the Houston live stock show and rodeo. She has also performed with Savion Glover, Charlotte Church, and Gloria Estefan.
In addition, she has performed at a number of festivals, such as the Holland International Music Sessions, Orford Centre d’Arts, Meadowmount School for Strings, Encore School for Strings, Aria International Summer Music Academy, Lyrica Fest, the Banff International Centre, and at the Baylor Quartet Conference.
Ms. Vandiver is an active teacher. She is currently on cello, solfege, and chamber music faculty at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s non-profit organization Project STEP and at the Four Strings Academy. In the summer of 2010 she performed and taught as guest artist at Camp Encore/Coda. She has had a private studio for eight years. Her student’s ages span 4-75 years old.
She holds her Bachelor degree from the New England Conservatory of Music where she studied with Paul Katz. She is currently completing her Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA where she is studying with Natasha Brofsky. Her former teachers are Christopher French and Ann Victor. She has played in master classes for Bernard Greenhouse, Anner Bylsma, Pieter Wispelwey, Andres Diaz, Jean- Michel Fontenaeau, and Raphael Wallfisch.
Ms. Vandiver enjoys reading the works of Dorothy Parker, Kurt Vonnegut, and Hermann Hesse. She is also currently learning Spanish. On weekends she is often found in the kitchen cooking Tex-Mex with her sisters and friends.
|
 |
Amanda Romano
Harp Professor
A native New Yorker, harpist Amanda Romano has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the Kauffman Center, Ground Zero, Gracie Mansion, the National Arts Club, and CAMI Hall. Ms. Romano debuted as a soloist at the age of 15 in Alice Tully Hall. As an ensemble performer, Ms. Romano plays with the Boston Philharmonic and Atlantic Symphony. She has also performed with other orchestras throughout New England including the Bangor Symphony, New England Philharmonic, Cape Ann Symphony and Symphony by the Sea. As a 2010 Harp Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Ms. Romano was privileged to work with John Williams, Michael Tilson Thomas, Raphael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Robert Spano and Oliver Knussen among others. Ms. Romano has always had a passion for teaching. Graduating the New England Conservatory with a concentration in Music-in -Education, Ms. Romano keeps a busy teaching schedule. She is on faculty at the Brookline Music School and also keeps a private teaching studio. Ms. Romano has recently appeared as soloist with the Northeastern Orchestra and the New England Conservatory Jordan Winds. She has also performed in Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center) and Gracie Mansion as a soloist. Ms. Romano received her Masters degree from Boston University and Bachelors degree from the New England Conservatory both in harp performance studying with former Boston Symphony Orchestra harpist Ann Hobson Pilot. |
Isabel Aybar
Dalcroze Eurythmics
Isabel Aybar holds a Bachelor in Psychology from the Instituto Technologico de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and a Dalcroze Eurhythmic Certificate from the Longy School of Music. She studied Solfege and Improvisation with Lisa Parker in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Isabel has taught group music classes to children starting from 12 months of age, and group piano lessons around the Boston area. She also has taught piano and music to special needs children.
DALCROZE EURHYTHMICS
What is Dalcroze Eurhythmics?
• Is a Method that uses movement to teach fundamental musical concepts. Turning the body into an instrument, the student experience the music, how if feels and moves, and then they will discover how it looks like.
• This method has a deep connection to daily activities, like walking, breathing, language and emotions, and using those activities, we approach the understanding of music. At the same time, Eurhythmics classes emphasize the musical connection to other arts (drama, dance or poetry).
• Eurhythmics classes for children are designed to nurture the natural development of every stage and integrate it into an environment of melody, rhythm and songs that will allow the birth of a lifelong love and understanding for music.
Who developed the Dalcroze Method?
• Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (July 6, 1865-July 1, 1950), was a Swiss musician and music educator who developed Eurhythmics. He gained initial fame as a composer, composing hundreds of songs and large symphonic works often based on the folk song traditions of his region.
• He developed his method after a student with severe rhythm problems left his class, walking with a steady rhythm. Dalcroze though that student could walk and have a steady rhythm, he could use that natural movement and connect it to the music he was playing. And after consulting with educators, dancers, actors and physiologists, he developed his work to what we know and love now as the Dalcroze Method.
Why Dalcroze Eurhythmics?
• Dalcroze classes are divided into three components:
1. Eurhythmics: the use movement to teach rhythm, structure and musical expression.
2. Solfege: Specific ear training games will guide the students to develop the use of the natural singing voices, inner hearing, a sense of pitch and to teach scale and tonality. Students will feel and internalize the relationship of pitches in
a scale or song.
3.Improvisation: using the spontaneous mind of kids, they will be guided to create their own musical pieces or rhythms using movement, instruments or voice.
• Using these three components, every child is exposed to more than singing and using a shaker or tapping a drum; they are connecting those simple acts into more complex subjects and will able to understand them, use them and love music in a different level. |
|
Colin Benn- Viola, Chamber Music Faculty
|
|
 |
Sharon Robinson-Byrd
Chorale & Theatre Arts Director
Sharon Robinson-Byrd, is a graduate of Boston Conservatory of Music, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater. Mrs. Robinson-Byrd toured throughout New England in performance and artist in residence programs with the Just Around the Corner Theater Company. She developed a passion for bringing the arts to educational programs and this passion led to the completion of a Masters Degree in Education- Creative Arts in Learning, from Lesley College. Mrs. Robinson-Byrd brought the Byrd's Nest- A Participatory Storytelling Theater Experience to summer camps and schools during the late 80's and throughout the early 90's. Her work also includes radio voice-overs. She was the voice of Diana Harris, ballistics specialist, in the media series Spenser for Hire. Mrs. Robinson-Byrd also performs as a solo and ensemble vocalist in area churches. She is currently an educator in the Boston Public Schools where she integrates creative arts through theater and music in her teaching curriculum.
|
|
|
