Starting viola late in high school was a big decision for me. My parents had told me I was not allowed to start violin as a child because it would be "too hard". Once I started playing, I hit the ground running. I decided about a year into playing that I wanted to teach music. I went to Susquehanna University and majored in Music with a Music Technology minor.  There, I participated in the string pedagogy program. This involved weekly teaching seminars and being paired with nearly 20 students throughout my time at Susquehanna. I participated in regular violin festivals by teaching group repertoire and theory classes. I also had the joy of being a counselor for the Williamsport Symphony Youth Orchestra Summer String Festival. Another fond memory is conducting for a new pilot project called SU strings. I have played for the Susquehanna University Orchestra, The Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, The Reading Pops orchestra, as well as countless quartets, a rock band for a nightclub gig, and as a solo artist for musicales, a recital, and on many, many other occasions. I absolutely adore teaching and teach students of all ages and backgrounds!

Justin is a freelance trombone player and teacher in the Philadelphia area. In addition to a busy performing schedule, Justin is a trombone teaching artist and also a faculty member at Temple University’s Community Music Scholars Program. Previously, Justin was second trombone of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra in Lafayette, Louisiana. He has also performed with other orchestras such as the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Great Hall Chamber Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Sinfonietta, and Brevard Music Center Orchestra.  Outside of the orchestral realm, Justin enjoys performing in a variety of situations. Justin has been a part of numerous jazz ensembles and big bands on both tenor and bass trombone and has performed at many notable venues including the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Blues Alley in Washington, D.C.  Additionally, Justin has performed with many theater orchestras at the professional, collegiate, and community levels around Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and more.

I am a guitarist and composer and just moved to New York from Philadelphia. I teach as an official guitar instructor at the University of Pennsylvania and work as a freelance musician in both cities. I also compose original music and have scored several short films and documentaries. I have been playing guitar for 15 years, and I listen to and play a very broad range of styles, from rock, pop, classical and jazz to Middle Eastern music. 

I started playing piano as a young child in a small beach town in Southwestern Michigan.  I was always involved in church choir, bell choir and school choirs.  From the time I was 15, I knew that I wanted to use music to help people.  I began pursuing a degree in Music Therapy at Western Michigan University, where I studied piano with Lori Sims.  Upon graduating with a degree in music therapy, I began working as a music therapist on an inpatient psychiatric unit where I worked for 9 years with adults. Simultaneously, I taught piano lessons, Kindermusik classes, and provided music therapy to children at a local music school in Michigan.  I also have experience in providing group music education and movement classes to homeschool students.  I pursued a Masters of Public Administration in Healthcare degree and moved to the Philadelphia area to pursue a new career in that field.  Still with a passion for music, I plan on teaching piano lessons and music education for many years in the future.

I am a passionate teacher that finds ways to motivate students while sharing my love for music. I have been teacher as long as I have been playing, and I am still finding new ways to talk about and teach music. I graduated from Temple University with my masters degree in clarinet performance in 2011 and have been continuing to pursue my love of performing and teaching since. Luckily I have had the opportunity of performing at many different concert halls in the Northeast, such as Carnegie Hall in New York City and Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, and also in various halls in Italy and China.