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.
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.
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Lucas Sherman, Composer
Exploration of Film Music
​Lucas Sherman, an award-winning composer, multi-instrumentalist, and educator, is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lucas has scored numerous short-films, animations, and documentaries with up-and-coming film directors, animators, and producers. With his background of Classical violin studies and improvisational saxophone, he is able to infuse traditional orchestral composition techniques with jazz harmony and rhythm.
He earned his B.F.A. in Music Composition with University & College Honors from Carnegie Mellon University in 2022. He was awarded first-prize in the Carnegie Mellon University Orchestra Composition Contest for his senior capstone orchestra piece titled "Violin Concerto No. 1: Alpha." This piece was premiered by Juilliard-graduate violinist Isabella Egawa and the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic under the direction of Maestro Daniel Curtis in April of 2022. During his time at Carnegie Mellon, Lucas wrote a series of chamber works while collaborating with many artists, film directors, costume designers, and animators. He studied conducting with Stephen Story and has music directed his own compositions. His compositions also won first-prize at the annual York Symphony Orchestra Songwriting Competition in 2016 and 2018. His works were premiered by the York Symphony Orchestra in one of their youth programs.
Sherman also had the monumental privilege to study media-scoring with Nathan Blume, one of the most dynamic composers in the industry today. It was under the guidance of Nathan Blume that Sherman found his love for film scoring. A short-film Lucas scored in collaboration with director Rebecca Wahls titled “Last” was premiered at Awesome Con 2023. Sherman also co-composed a feature film titled “WIRE,” scored multiple award-winning shorts for the 48-Hour Film Competition, and recorded live strings & saxophone for an array of musical artists. Sherman currently is a member of jam band Wild Blue Yonder. Not only is he working on original music as a songwriter, but co-composing an orchestral ballet set to be completed at the conclusion of 2026.
Click to listen to Sherman's Violin Concerto "Alpha": Violin Concerto
Click to listen to "A Night on Steel City", music by Sherman: https://youtu.be/zcDJb3ExdcY
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.