Paula Simmons received her bachelor's degree in Music Education from Viterbo College, a fine arts college in La Crosse, Wisconsin. And her Master of Music in Viola Performance from Florida State University in Tallahassee. Before moving to San Diego, she performed with the El Paso Symphony, the Pro Musica Chamber Ensemble in El Paso Texas, and the Jacksonville Symphony in Jacksonville Florida. Since moving to California, Ms. Simmons has freelanced extensively in the San Diego area and the Baja with a variety of orchestras, chamber ensembles and guest performers including Starlight Theatre, San Diego Comic Opera, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra de Baja, Camarata de Ensenada, the Bolshoi and San Francisco Ballet, The Moody Blues, Johnny Mathis, Smokey Robinson, Burt Bacharach, Dion Warwick, Natalie Cole, and Michael Crawford. Paula currently has a private teaching studio of 20 violin & viola students of all ages at The Violin Shop. In addition in November 2008, she became the founding conductor for the North Coast Strings, an adult beginners orchestra, sponsored by The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad. It is the goal of this nationwide adult program to welcome complete beginners to string performance as well as adults that have returned to their instruments after a number of years. She also is the director and host for The Violin Shop’s Summer String Quartet Program which offers students the opportunity to be coached by many of the best professional players and teachers in San Diego County. For several years Paula was also the primary orchestra conductor of the Civic Youth Orchestra Organization.

Born in Prague (Czech Republic), Ondrej Lewit graduated at State Conservatory of Music (BA) and at Academy of Performing Arts - HAMU (MA). As a member of Camerata Pragensis, Camerata Nova, concertmaster of J. Suk’s Chamber Orchestra and especially as a first violin of Cuartetto Cassoviae played in many cities of European continent and made recordings for the Czechoslovak Radio and Television, Italian RAI and recording companies such as Supraphon, Opus and Edigsa. In 1983 immigrated to Spain, where he became the concertmaster of Tenerife Symphony Orchestra (OST) and later also leader of OST Chamber Orchestra, playing in numerous occasions as a soloist. He was a violin teacher and chamber music coach at Santa Cruz Conservatory as well as at OST’s Academy of Orchestral Studies (Director and Chair of the String Department). As a guest concertmaster he played with orchestras in Barcelona, Sabadell, La Coruna, Bilbao and Valladolid. From 1988 to 1992 he was an Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra member, chamber music player and a faculty at Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC. In 2005 was appointed concertmaster of Baja California Orchestra and violin teacher at Conservatory of Music in Tijuana, positions he held until 2010. As a performer in Southern California area he played with California Consort and California Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster and assistant concertmaster), Hutchins Consort, Encore Trio, violin and piano duo recitals with I. Bendetsky and most recently with Quartetto Sorrento. He has his private violin and viola studio in San Diego.

Victoria Bietz studied with Mark Kaplan at University of California, Los Angeles where she received her B.A in Violin Performance. In order to explore life outside of sunny Southern California, she went to The Boston Conservatory for her Masters in Music. After two years enduring the cold, Victoria moved back to San Diego as a freelance violinist. She has played with San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Luscious Noise, Classics for Kids, Orchestra Nova, California Chamber Orchestra, Starlight Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, Opera Pacific, among others. Victoria grew up in the Eastern San Diego mountains of Jamul. Her musical family fostered her interest in the violin and she became heavily involved in San Diego Youth Symphony for ten years, and was Concertmaster for three. Victoria has been teaching in San Diego for the past six years and uses Suzuki and Mark O'Connor books combined with traditional teaching. She is currently accepting students of all ages and all levels. Contact Victoria to schedule a trial lesson, rates & other  information. 

Jisun Yang has been the Assistant Concertmaster of the San Diego Symphony since 2005.  Before coming to San Diego she was a violinist in the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.  She also held the position of Concertmaster of the Spoleto Festival and Opera Orchestra in 2003.  Jisun is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Oberlin College Conservatory where she studied with David Cerone, David Updegraff, William Preucil, and Almita and Roland Vamos.   
Ms. Yang grew up in Chicago, Illinois and began playing violin at the age of six.  In 1999 she was a recipient of a Nicolò Gagliano violin from the Stradivari Society which enabled her to appear as a soloist and chamber musician all over the United States and Europe.  She has been a finalist at the Carl Nielsen International Violin competition held in New York City.  The performance, held at Merkin Hall, was broadcast live on National Public Radio.  She has also won numerous competitions including the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition (2002), The American Opera Society (1997), American String Teacher's Association Competition (1996), G.D. Searle National String Competition (1996), and the Chicago Institute of Music Concerto Competition  (1995).  Festival appearances include La Jolla Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Festival Mozaic, Encore School of Music, Spoleto Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and Bowdoin Music Festival. Contact  Jisun  to schedule a trial lesson, rates & other  information. 

Ramón Negrón - Violin & Viola
ph: 787-567-5980
website: www.ramonnegron.com
email: rnp.viola@me.com

Ramón Negrón born and raised in Puerto Rico.  Mr. Negrón began his musical career at the age of nine with Guillermo Figueroa Sanabia. After graduating Cum Laude with his Bachelor of Arts in Viola from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, Ramón quickly moved into a position as a full-time musician.  
Recently appointed Conductor of the Debut Strings by the San Diego Youth Symphony Orchestra and Conservatory, where he collaborates as a community artist teacher of the Opus Project, inspired by the success of the El Sistema movement in Venezuela.  Currently a faculty member at the University of San Diego in the Department of Music, Mr. Negrón served as a faculty member at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and the School of Fine Arts in Carolina, Puerto Rico. In addition, Mr. Negron has served as principal viola of the Greater San Diego Community Orchestra, a member of the La Jolla Symphony Orchestra, the California Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of New York, the New Britain Symphony Orchestra, and the Yale Philharmonic.
A member of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra for sixteen years, Mr. Negrón performed under the direction of such conductors as Rafael Frubeck de Burgos, Sergiu Comissiona, Yoav Talmi, Giancarlo Guerrero, Guillermo Figueroa and Maximiano Valdez. Ramón Negrón has also had the pleasure of performing at numerous festivals throughout the world: Casals Festival Prades, France; Reina Sofia Summer Program in Santander, Spain; Luzerne Summer Festival in Albany, New York and the Festival of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Americas (FOSJA).

Victoria Eicher - Violin
ph: 858-442-0237
email: v.eicher@att.net

Victoria Eicher grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and began playing violin at the age of four in the Suzuki program at MacPhail Center for the Arts. Victoria is a graduate of the University of Minnesota's School of Music where she studied with Mary West, Young-Nam Kim and Lea Foli. A scholarship recipient to the National Orchestral Institute (Baltimore), she has played under the batons of Kenneth Jean, Yoel Levi and Catehrine Comet. Before moving to San Diego in 1993, Victoria was Assistant Concertmaster in the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Currently, Victoria serves as Assistant Principal 2nd Violin in the LaJolla Symphony and plays sonatas and chamber works with Pianist Nadja O'Hagan. She has performed with the Orquestra de Baja, Mariachi Champaña Nevin, Caprice Strings, and in chamber ensemble programs throughout San Diego. Victoria teaches violin students in an after-school session at Marshall Middle School and has recently joined the North Coast Strings staff as a violin coach for beginning adult students. As the Outreach Director for the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, Ms. Eicher performs in community and school music programs and coaches Mariachi violin students. Her husband Noel studies classical guitar and her three children enjoy playing drums, tennis, lacrosse and downhill biking.

Wendy Loeb - Violin
phone 858-271-8876 cell 804-357-4028
email: loeb.wendy@gmail.com

Wendy Loeb has just finished her inaugural year of violin teaching in San Diego. It was a strange but invigorating feeling to be starting over again after 25 years in Richmond, VA. She spent the last 13 years teaching violin at the Collegiate School grades K-12. Wendy holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in violin performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University where she studied with Berl Senofsky and Charles Libove. She has also completed the course work for her doctorate in violin pedagogy. Having completed Suzuki Violin courses, she is a registered Suzuki Violin Teacher, though she takes more of an eclectic approach. Wendy was an active performer in the Richmond music scene and played with the Richmond Symphony for 14 years. Many of her students played in the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra Programs and have held many principal positions, as well as in their county and regional orchestras. Several of her students have placed in the Richmond Symphony Concerto Competition. Though she loves to teach advanced techniques, she has a particular love for getting beginners off to a great start with a solid foundation.

Gregory Lawrence earned his Bachelor of Music in Performance (violin) at San Diego State University where he studied with Dr. Theodore Brunson (with a strong emphasis in the Suzuki Violin School) and Mr. Howard Hill. He then continued his post graduate studies with Eudice Shapiro at the University Southern California and later with Mr. Noumi Fischer at his studio in Glendale. Greg’s professional performing career has afforded him a wonderfully varied background in many different musical genres. He has worked with the San Diego Symphony, the San Diego Opera, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Starlight Opera and the San Diego Lyric Opera. Greg also worked three tours with the Montovani Orchestra, including a three week tour of Japan. More recently Greg has been working with Orquesta de Baja in Tijuana, Mexico, as a violinist and subcontractor. He also works with Mariachi Compana Nevin, a virtuoso mariachi ensemble directed by its founder and virtuoso trumpeter, Dr. Jeff Nevin. In January 2001, Greg founded the Cabrillo Chamber Orchestra (CCO), a professional 12-15 piece ensemble which specializes in the literature of the baroque, rococo and early classical periods. To date CCO has given 15 concerts at various venues throughout San Diego County, including two engagements at the California Center for the Arts Escondido, and two at the First Presbyterian Church (4th& Date, San Diego) concert series. In addition to performing, Greg also maintains a private teaching studio of 20 students.

With performances hailed as both “vivacious” and “highly polished and finely tuned,”violist Travis Maril is quickly gaining nationwide recognition as a chamber musician. With the Hyperion String Quartet he won top prize at the Fishoff National Chamber Music competition, had performances broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today and collaborated with chamber music luminaries including the Miró String Quartets and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Additional chamber music collaborators have included pianists Melvin Chen and Gustavo Romero, violinists Tai Murray and Timothy Fain and principal players of the Baltimore, Cincinnati and San Diego Symphonies. Mr. Maril plays frequently with the San Diego Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, and is currently on faculty at San Diego State University. Mr. Maril earned his B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Southern California’s Thorton School of Music, where he was a Trustee Scholar and selected as an Outstanding Graduate, and his masters’ degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.