A native of Severna Park, Maryland, Lydia Miller Choorapuzha began playing violin
at the early age of five.  Her talent and enthusiasm for the instrument resulted in a
scholarship to study at the preparatory division of the Peabody Conservatory
in Baltimore, where she learned from world-renowned musicians during her seven
years there.  Lydia is, however, a scholar as well as a performer.  She attended Boston
University on a merit scholarship where she graduated magna cum laude with a
Bachelor of Music degree in the history and literature of music. There she studied
with Peter Zazofsky, first violinist of the Muir String Quartet.  Additionally, Lydia
traveled abroad to Berlin, Germany, where she studied German language, history,
and literature at the Freie Universitaet and violin at the Hochschule der Kunst, as a
student of Rainer Kimstedt.  She completed her master's degree in violin
performance at the State University of New York College at Purchase, where she was
a scholarship recipient and the teaching assistant for Laurie Smukler, founding
member of the Mendelssohn Quartet.  Lydia completed additional studies with her
long-term mentor, Jorja Fleezanis, former Concertmaster of the Minnesota
Orchestra.Lydia has played with such orchestras as the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Minnesota
Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera Orchestra, the
American Composers Orchestra, the Hawaii Symphony and the World Symphony
Orchestra, and has shared the stage with such artists as singing legends Art
Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen, Barry Manilow, Michael Buble, and Josh Groban. She is
the former Concertmaster of the Mankato Symphony, where she also founded the
popular chamber music series, Music on the Hill. Her performance schedule has
taken her to concert halls in Canada, Iceland, Scotland, England, Germany, and
South Korea.Lydia studied violin pedagogy with Mimi Zweig of Indiana University and is a
certified Suzuki Violin Teacher. In 2015, Lydia became a member of the College of
Examiners at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. As a String Specialist in the
College, she travels throughout the US and Canada, adjudicating exams for students
of all levels. Her own students have won National Gold Medal awards and have
performed in Carnegie Hall after their successful exams. In addition to her work as
an examiner, she coaches teachers on their skills through RCM’s Teaching
Elementary Violin course. She has presented at the American String Teachers
Association national conference, the ASTA Virtual Summit, and has published articles
in the AST Journal. Lydia is chair of the String Department and teaches at the PYCO
School of Music in Wexford, Pennsylvania.

Kathleen Melucci holds the principal cello chairs at the Pittsburgh Opera and Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh. She has also worked in the cello sections of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Grand Teton Music Festival, and Chautauqua Symphony. In addition to her orchestral endeavors, she is an active chamber musician, clinician, and educator. A sought after cello pedagogue, Kathleen is on the string faculty at Youngstown State University, maintains a thriving private teaching studio, and is a fully trained Suzuki instructor.A native of Pittsburgh, Kathleen was a member of the Three Rivers Young People’s Orchestras (TRYPO) as a student and is now proud to be a part of the Artistic Staff and Strings Co-coordinator for TRYPO’s Youth Chamber Connection (YC2). YC2 is a program unique to the Pittsburgh region and has participants from the majority of public and independent schools in the area. Kathleen works to bring together elementary through high school age young musicians to form chamber ensembles, passing on her love of chamber music study and performance.Kathleen earned her bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and a master’s degree from the Mannes School of Music studying with Steven Doane and Timothy Eddy. She also studied with renowned artists including Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, and William Pleeth.

Liza Barley holds a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Music in Music Leadership/Collaborative Composition from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Her primary teachers in the western classical world include Carolyn Huebl, John Kochanowski (viola), Paul Kantor, and members of the Cavani and Juilliard String Quartet.
In addition to growing up as a Suzuki student of Michele Higa George and being trained and certified in the method, Liza has been teaching Suzuki violin/viola for about 20 years all over the world, including the ten years she spent building and directing a Suzuki program and arts education and performance center in Arusha, Tanzania, East Africa. She is well-known in the Suzuki world and has been a guest clinician at workshops and institutes all over the U.S., Canada, Central America, Europe, Africa, and Japan.
In her performance life, Liza’s time spent outside the U.S. has brought lots of cross-cultural collaborations and work outside the classical genre of violin/viola playing. She has collaborated, learned from, and performed with various artists on projects in Argentina (Tango), Palestine (Arabic classical), the Gambia (Fula, Susu, and Wolof), Kenya and Tanzania (Congolese Highlife, African fusion), India (Carnatic), Greece (Rebetiko), Portugal (Fado), U.K. and U.S. (jazz, bossa nova, fusion, rock, experimental, electronic, devised theater music, and more), and has won awards as a versatile, multi-genre string composer and performer and sound artist.
Liza also spends a lot of time leading collaborative composition workshops. As a practitioner in this area, she has been hired repeatedly by the Baltimore Symphony and the Grand Rapids Symphony to run projects where orchestra musicians collaborate with members of the community to create performances of original work. Liza has collaborated with composers such as Jon Deak at the Kennedy Center Very Young Composers project and other institutions such as the London Symphony Orchestra, London Contemporary Dance School, BBC Studios in London, and countless others as a leader of collaborative composition projects.
In Pittsburgh, she is a long-time teaching artist with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, designing and implementing educational musical experiences in collaboration with different artists and school teachers and is a certified Wolftrap Teaching Artist, through which she works with early childhood teachers to train them in integrating music and creative play into their classroom curricula.

Katie Wickesberg, violin, enjoys an active career as both a performer and teacher. She has toured with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and performed with orchestras including the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony, and served as concertmaster for both the Erie Chamber Orchestra and the Butler Symphony Orchestra. She is a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh and plays regularly with Pittsburgh performing arts group, Resonance WorksWickesberg is experienced in teaching beginners through the collegiate level. She has maintained an active teaching studio in Pittsburgh since 2004 and previously was an Adjunct Professor of Violin at Seton Hill University. In 2019 she completed renowned violin pedagogue Mimi Zweig’s Violin Teacher Training Program. Since 2014 Wickesberg has been a member of the Artistic Staff of the Three Rivers Young People’s Orchestras (TRYPO) and Strings Co-coordinator for TRYPO’s Youth Chamber Connection.Raised in Wheeling, WV, Wickesberg earned a Bachelor of Music from Butler University and a Master of Music from Rice University. Her major teachers include Kenneth Goldsmith, Raphael Fliegel, Beth Newdome, and Larry Shapiro.