Faculty
Elizabeth Crute Cunha
New Orleans-based violinist Elizabeth Almond Crute Cunha enjoys an active career as a chamber musician, orchestral player, and music educator. Elizabeth was a member of the ARCO Chamber Orchestra and was involved in multiple performances and recordings of classical and contemporary music with the ensemble. She toured with ARCO in Italy, which included performing at the UNESCO Conference in Venice at Teatro La Fenice. Passionate about chamber music, Elizabeth is a member of the New Orleans-based Delachaise Ensemble and has been an invited artist at the Northern Neck Chamberfest and Crescent City Chamber Music Festival. She enjoys collaborating with New Orleans artists, composers, and organizations, including Lyrica Baroque, Melange Dance Company, and ELLEvate Dance Company. Elizabeth currently performs regularly for the Fever Events Candlelight Concerts series throughout New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
As an orchestral musician, Elizabeth has performed with orchestras including the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Rapides Symphony Orchestra, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Gulf Coast Symphony, Northern Neck Orchestra, Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Philharmonic, Augusta Symphony, Asheville Jazz Orchestra, North Georgia Chamber Orchestra, and Hendersonville Symphony Chamber Orchestra. In 2021, Elizabeth performed with Bell’Anima Productions in Recanto Maestro, Brazil. She has performed with popular artists including the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Sarah Brightman, and appeared in Showtime’s "On Becoming a God in Central Florida."
A passionate music educator, Elizabeth is the Co-Director of the Crescent City String Academy, where she teaches private lessons, group classes, and chamber music, and is the founder and artistic director of the Crescent City String Camp & Festival. She also teaches strings at the Homer Plessy School, an arts-integrated school located in the French Quarter. She has worked as a chamber coach faculty and the Director of the Children's Program at the Philadelphia International Music Festival, as well as worked with the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra. It is her aim to instill a life-long love of music and intellectual curiosity in her students through developing a strong technical foundation while focusing on music as artistic expression. In addition to graduating from the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia, Elizabeth also earned her BS in environmental engineering at UGA.
Marie Daniels, Artistic Director
Marie Daniels is a violist devoted to sharing her passion for music as a performer, teacher and entrepreneur. Currently Marie holds the position of Assistant Principal (Vorspieler) of the Bremer Philharmoniker in Bremen, Germany.
With a passion for teaching, in 2012 Marie founded The Woodlands ChamberFest, an annual week-long workshop teaching young students communication, collaboration and leadership through chamber music, which was adopted as an educational program of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in 2013. From 2016-17 Marie taught music to 3rd graders in the Bronx as a Teaching Artist for the New York Philharmonic. For over a decade Marie has enjoyed sharing her expertise through her Viola Tips with Violamad videos on YouTube, which continue to inspire viola fans around the world.
In addition to being seen and heard with the Philharmoniker in the concert halls and Theater of Bremen, Marie performs regularly in the Philharmoniker's chamber music series as well as with various orchestras, such as the NDR Radiophilharmonie and the Münchener Rundfunkorchester. Since the Bremen Philharmoniker's collaboration with Orchester des Wandels (OdW) in 2020, Marie has become an active member of her orchestra's "Climate Group", helping to plan events and concerts to raise awareness and funds for OdW's sustainability projects, as well as donating her time to maintain the OdW's website.
Marie was a 2015 recipient of Juilliard's Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant for demonstrating outstanding artistry and achievement in leadership, entrepreneurship, and breadth of engagement. Marie holds a Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School and currently resides in Bremen. She enjoys biking and running, training regularly for marathons and triathlons, and loves everything pink.
Luke Fleming
Praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer for his “glowing refinement,” violist Luke Fleming's performances have been described by The Strad as “confident and expressive...playing with uncanny precision," and lauded by Gramophone for their "superlative technical and artistic execution.” Festival appearances include the Marlboro Music School and Festival, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, Perlman Music Program, the Norfolk and Great Lakes Chamber Music Festivals, the Melbourne Festival, Bravo!Vail, and Festival Mozaic. Formerly the violist of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet, he has served as Artist-in-Residence for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and received the National Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award. He was awarded First Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and top prizes at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.
In 2015, Mr. Fleming became the Founding Artistic Director of both the Manhattan Chamber Players, a New York-based chamber music collective, and the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival. He is also a founding member of the Delaware-based Serafin Ensemble. He has performed as a guest artist with the Escher, Pacifica, Serafin, and Solera String Quartets, the Eroica, Lysander, and Gryphon Piano Trios, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Decoda, Ensemble Connect, Sejong Soloists, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the New York Classical Players, and has given masterclasses at UCLA, Louisiana State University, Ithaca College, Columbus State University, Syracuse University, Melbourne University, and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, among others. Mr. Fleming has served on the faculties of the Innsbrook Institute, Renova Music Festival, Festival del Lago, and Houston ChamberFest, and Fei Tian College and is Lecturer-in-Residence for the concert series Project: Music Heals Us.
Mr. Fleming holds the degrees of Doctor of Musical Arts, Artist Diploma, and Master of Music from the Juilliard School, a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, and a Bachelor of Music summa cum laude from Louisiana State University. He is represented with the Manhattan Chamber Players by Arts Management Group.
Photo credit: Sarah Fleming
Katie Hyun
A winner of Astral Artists’ National Auditions, Katie Hyun has been described as “a virtuoso by any measure” by The Berkshire Review. Her debut recital in Philadelphia showcased virtuosic works on both the Baroque and modern violins. She has appeared as a soloist with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Bay Atlantic Symphony, NOVUS Trinity Wall Street, and the Busan Sinfonietta and Incheon Philharmonic in South Korea, among others. She has appeared at numerous festivals including Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Festival, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Bravo! Vail, Tippet Rise Arts Center, Mostly Mozart, American Bach Soloists, OBX Chamber Music Series, Crescent City Chamber Music Festival, and NYinCC in South Korea. Katie currently serves as the concertmaster of NOVUS Trinity Wall Street while frequently appearing with the Manhattan Chamber Players, the Lenape Chamber Ensemble, Trinity Baroque Orchestra and Seraphic Fire.
Katie was a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet, which won the Concert Artists’ Guild auditions in 2011, and a spot on the roster of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two Program. The quartet’s debut CD was featured among The New York Times’ “Best of 2015.” Her collaboration with tenor Brian Giebler, "A Lad's Love", was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2021.
www.katiehyun.com
Photo: Shervin Laienz
Mitch Lyon
Cellist Mitchell Lyon approaches music making with a zeal for harnessing the unique power of musical experience. Mitch is a founding member of Empire Wild, a genre-bending crossover trio and Ambassador Prize Winner of the 2020 Concert Artist Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. Last season the trio delighted audiences with their signature mix of original songwriting and unique arrangements at venues across the country including a stop at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center and a concert on the Harriman-Jewell concert series in Kansas City as well as an extensive midwestern tour. Passionate about community engagement and education, Mitch has been on the Teaching Artist Faculty of the New York Philharmonic since 2014, visiting schools across all five boroughs of NYC and scripting and performing interactive concerts for thousands of students. He frequently leads workshops for students of all ages and abilities, most recently at The Juilliard School Extension Division and Peabody Preparatory Institute.Mitch regularly spends summers as an artist faculty member at the Preucil School of Music and the Charles Ives Music Festival at WCYO. In past summers, Mitch has performed at Caroga Lake, Fontainebleau, Finchcocks, and Norfolk. An alumnus of Juilliard (B.M., M.M.), Mitch’s primary teachers have included Bonnie Hampton and Timothy Eddy along with masterclasses with Steven Isserlis, Mark Kosower and Andres Diaz. Away from the cello, he can be found cooking, reading something geeky or plotting his next hike.