Musicians

MaryBeth Schotting
Director &
Violin Coach
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Violinist, MaryBeth Schotting brings her extensive performing and teaching experience to life at Music With a Twist Summer String Festival. She believes in the value of motivating and inspiring students through summer camps, knowing these experiences can provide lifelong value for students.
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Ms. Schotting currently teaches violin to youth at Duquesne University's City Music Center and PYCO School of Music in Wexford. She is also on the faculty of the Music Extension Program at Carnegie Mellon University where she has taught music minors and non-majors since 1998. Ms. Schotting was on the violin faculty of the String Preparatory Division at Carnegie Mellon University until 2023 and Director of the String Division from 2000-2016. Ms. Schotting also created the Summer String Workshop at CMU, a one week summer program for strings she ran for over twenty years that brought students from all over the greater Pittsburgh area. Many of Ms. Schotting’s students have received recognition and held principal positions in the youth symphonies of Pittsburgh and placed in different competitions.
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Ms. Schotting is a tenured member of the Pittsburgh Opera and Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestras and Concertmaster of the Civic Light Opera. She has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, and Wheeling Symphony, among others. She has performed at music festivals around the world including the Sunflower Music Festival, Breckenridge Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, Spoleto Music Festival USA and Italy, and at music festivals in Austria and France.

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Ms. Schotting has a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Yale University, and a Performance Residency Certificate from Carnegie Mellon University. She has played solo and chamber music recitals in New York City, South Carolina with Chamber Music Hilton Head, Tuesday Musical Club in Ohio and for the Steinway Society in PIttsburgh.

Christian Howes
Improvisation Teacher
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Hailing from Asheville, NC, violinist, educator and composer, Christian Howes was voted #1 in the Downbeat Critics Poll (“Rising Stars/Violin”), named among the top three jazz violinists in the JazzTimes critics poll, and nominated for Violinist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. He received the Residency Partner Award through Chamber Music America, earned a USArtists grant through the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and was invited by the U.S. State department to teach and perform as a cultural ambassador twice, in Ukraine and Montenegro. His release on Resonance Records, “Southern Exposure” earned recognition in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Downbeat, Jazz Times, as well as a six-night run at Lincoln Center. His release, “American Spirit” was named among the Best Jazz Albums of the Year″ by the Huffington Post. Howes is the founder of “Creative Strings“, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to expand music education through the creation of online curriculum, conferences, and visits to schools teaching improvisation, contemporary styles, and related subjects. He endorses Yamaha violins and D’Addario strings. Connect with Christian on Facebook, YouTube, www.christianhowes.com, or www.creativestrings.org

Pierce Cook
Orchestra Conductor &
Lower Strings Coach
Pierce Cook is the proud director of orchestras at Mellon Middle School. Mellon’s orchestra program includes many opportunities for all students to get involved – a Cross-Aged Tutoring Program, a Cello Ensemble, a Chamber Orchestra, a Pops Orchestra, and student-formed and managed small ensembles. Mr. Cook also serves as the conductor for Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras (TRYPO) Symphonette Orchestra and Tutti Strings, where he also serves as a Youth Chamber Coach (YC2) coach and Music Theory instructor for Tryposphere.
Additionally, as an educator, Mr. Cook has provided private lessons out of his home studio since 2005. Last spring, Mr. Cook had the honor of collaborating with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for their program “Beethoven In Your Neighborhood: The Library Project,” an interactive presentation of the 16 Beethoven String Quartets in 16 different Carnegie Libraries. As a performer, Mr. Cook serves as the bassist for Gary Racan and the Studio E Band, known nationally for their Warriors Rock concerts and performs with the Civic Light Opera Orchestra.

Eric DeFade
Jazz Saxophone Soloist
Eric DeFade, with over thirty years of professional experience is in demand as a performing artist and studio musician. Few musicians enjoy a schedule as demanding or varied. For the past ten years Eric has been a featured performer for the ‘My Music’ series on PBS. This program is internationally broadcast and features such artists as Patti Labelle, Isaac Hayes, theTemptations, Robert Goulet, Wild Cherry, the Platters, and the Commodoresto name a few. Eric has played with music greats Rosemary Clooney, JoshGroban, the New York voices, Gary Burton, John Scofield, Dave Liebman, Ahmad Jamal, Benny Golson, and has toured internationally with The Artie Shaw Band, Patrizio Buane and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Eric has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show accompanying legendary jazz vocalist Nancy Wilson. Eric’s freelance schedule includes performances with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Civic Light Opera, The Pittsburgh Symphony Pops, the Manchester Craftsman’s Guild All-Star Big Band, the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, and Billy Price. Most recently Eric has been a featured soloist with Orcheste De Nile, which is a contemporary brass group formed by members of the Pittsburgh Symphony. With dozens of recordings to his credit, most notably with Nancy Wilson, and the New York Voices, Eric has played on two Grammy award winning projects and won an Emmy for his work on the music special, ”Live From Studio A”. In the fall of 2012, Eric was inducted into the Pittsburgh Jazz Hall of Fame. In addition to a year round performance schedule, Eric is a full time Resident Artist at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center, Artist Lecturer in Saxophone and Director of Jazz Ensembles at Carnegie Mellon University, Director of Jazz Studies in the CMU Pre-College Program, Music Chair of the Henry Mancini Arts Academy, and clinician for the Pennsylvania Arts on Tour program.

Louise Farbman
Viola Coach
Louise Farbman is the Assistant Principal Violist of the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestra. She also frequently plays with the Wheeling Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. A native Pittsburgher, she received viola peformance degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Minnesota and for three years was a member of the New World Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Besides performing, she also loves teaching and has taught hundreds of students at her private studio.

Jennifer Madge
Violin Coach
Jennifer Madge is an active and sought after violin teacher in the Pittsburgh area. Past positions include adjunct faculty of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, string coach of the Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestra, Assistant Director of the Greater Pittsburgh Suzuki Institute, and masterclass clinician at the Summer String Workshop. Ms. Madge is the owner and Academy Director of The Pittsburgh Music Academy, Inc. and certified in the Suzuki method. Her students have held principal positions in all Pittsburgh area youth music programs and many have gone on to successful musical careers of their own.
In addition to teaching, Ms. Madge has an active performing career. She has performed with orchestras around the Pittsburgh area including the Civic Light Opera, Johnstown Symphony (Associate Concertmaster), the Westmoreland Symphony (Principal Second), the Erie Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the Wheeling Symphony, as well as numerous summer festivals across the US. She is a tenured member of the Pittsburgh Opera and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra for more than 25 seasons, and has served as Acting Principal Second and Acting Assistant Concertmaster. Ms. Madge holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Duquesne University.