MCYO Conductor
Levine School of Music faculty
Georgetown Visitation School Faculty

Violinist Jorge Orozco is a faculty member at the Levine School of Music and the Georgetown Visitation School. He is also conductor of Chamber Strings and Preparatory Strings at Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras. Under Mr. Orozco’s tutelage, Chamber Strings has performed at Strathmore, the Kennedy Center concert hall, and Carnegie Hall. Mr. Orozco is an active chamber music performer in the Washington Metropolitan area with pianist Carlos Rodriguez and with his wife, violist Maria Montano. He is also the concertmaster of the Masterworks Music Festival Orchestra during the summer and a member of the National Chamber Ensemble. Mr. Orozco is a former member of the Vox Amadeus Ensemble in Philadelphia, Mobile Symphony Orchestra and Opera, and former associate concertmaster of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Orozco holds a Master’s Degree in Music Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Bachelor Degree in music performance from the Instituto Superior de Artes, Havana, Cuba. Mr. Orozco has participated in numerous Festivals and workshops including the Texas Music Festival, Victoria Bach Festival, Havana Contemporary Music Festival, Vicksburg Chamber Music Festival, the Sterling-Delay Seminar, and the Juilliard Conducting Workshop.

MCYO Viola Coach
Levine School of Music Faculty

Dr. Montano started her musical studies in the Youth Orchestra Network known as El Sistema, in her home country, Venezuela. She came to the United States to continue her music studies and has been actively involved in the musical scene in the Washington Metropolitan area in the past decade. She has established a studio as a Faculty member of the Levine School of Music and privately. She enjoys working with the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras (MCYO) and was involved for several years with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. Dr. Montano is a former faculty member of the Landon School and an active orchestra player with the National Philharmonic and the New Orchestra of Washington. She is also an active chamber musician with her husband, violinist Jorge Orozco, and with pianist Carlos Rodriguez. She is a former member of the Vox Amadeus Ensemble, Mobile Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Principal Viola of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Montano holds a Doctorate in Musical Arts and a Master in Music in Viola Performance from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor in Music in Viola Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Avanti Orchestra Conductor
Montgomery College Faculty

Pablo Saelzer has been Music Director and Conductor of FMMC’s Avanti Orchestra since 2005, when he made his Washington, DC, conducting debut at the orchestra’s yearly Kennedy Center performance. A Professor of Music at Montgomery College in Maryland, he also conducts the college’s Metropolitan Orchestra (metropolitanorchestramc.org). He served until May 2012 as conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of the Maryland Classical Youth Orchestras, with which he made his Carnegie Hall debut. As a guest conductor, Mr. Saelzer most recently appeared at Yale University’s Sprague Hall conducting the Elm City ChamberFest String Orchestra. Additionally, he has conducted the Orquesta Clásica and the Conservatorio Nacional orchestra, both in Santiago, Chile; at the Music on the Mountains Festival in Poços de Caldas in Brazil; the Festival Internacional de Cuerdas Ibague in Colombia; and in the United States the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the Southern Opera and Music Theatre, and at the Festival-South. Throughout his career, Mr. Saelzer has been active in music education as well as in orchestral and chamber music performance. He was a faculty member at the Music Conservatory of the Universidad Austral in Valdivia, and at the Levine School of Music, where he taught violin and viola. He also served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Mississippi Youth Symphony Orchestra program and taught chamber music and conducting at the University of Southern Mississippi. He was Music Director of the Mississippi Symphony’s Premier Orchestra Institute. An accomplished violist, he has performed with diverse professional ensembles in the DC/Baltimore area, including the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concert Artists of Baltimore. Mr. Saelzer studied at the Music Conservatory in Valdivia, Chile, and at the Kantorei St. Martini in Bremen, Germany. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Universidad Austral de Chile and a Master of Music degree from Columbus State University in Georgia.

Violin

Mari Carlson, violin, grew up in Rockville but has lived the last 25 yrs in the Minneapolis area where she directed the Young Fiddlers Association of Minnesota.  She plays in several Scandinavian and bluegrass ensembles as well as in classical chamber groups.

MCYO Violin/Chamber Music Coach

Ms. Chudacoff is currently in her second one-year full-time contract as a member of the violin section of the National Symphony Orchestra.  She is the concertmaster of both the National Gallery Orchestra and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, and last year retired from her position as concertmaster of the U.S. Marine Band’s White House Chamber Orchestra, in which she served during four Presidential administrations.  Prior to moving to Washington DC, she was the Assistant Concertmaster of the Louisville Orchestra.  She has appeared as soloist several times with all four of these groups, as well as with the Concert Artists of Baltimore, the Toledo Symphony, the Louisville Ballet and the Ann Arbor Symphony.

Ms. Chudacoff is a member of both the Sunrise Quartet and the National Gallery Quartet, and has performed regularly on several area chamber series, including the Embassy Series, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Musical Arts, the Contemporary Music Forum, and with the Fessenden Ensemble.  With the Sunrise Quartet, Ms. Chudacoff recently participated in the International Festival of Sacred Music in Quito, Ecuador and also appeared in a broadcast for West Virginia Public Television featuring the quartet.  She can be heard on many recordings and radio broadcasts, including several appearances on National Public Radio’s Performance Today program.

Ms. Chudacoff helped to found the College Park Youth Orchestra in 2006 and is the director of its Chamber Ensemble.  She also coaches the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra string quartet.  Ms. Chudacoff has served on the faculty of the University of Louisville, Indiana University (Southeast Campus), the DC Youth Orchestra Program and the Northern Virginia Youth Symphony Association.  She was also a teaching assistant to Sylvia Rosenberg while at the Eastman School of Music, where she earned both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees.  Her primary teachers were Michael Avsharian in Ann Arbor, and Sylvia Rosenberg and Zvi Zeitlin at Eastman.

MCYO Violin Coach

Hailing from North Carolina, Alice Ming-Yi Ju received her M.M. and B.M. in Violin Performance from the University of Maryland and M.A in Music Education from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She has attended the Killington Music Festival, Musicorda, Brevard Music Center and National Orchestral Institute. Her primary teachers include Kevin Lawrence, David Salness, the late Dr. Richard Luby and Eric Prtichard.

Ms. Ju has performed with many ensembles including the Ars Nova, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Avanti Orchestra, Apollo Orchestra, Inscape Chamber Orchestra, and Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she has soloed with the Raleigh and Durham Symphony Orchestras. She participated in masterclasses with Joseph Silverstien, Pamela Frank, William Preucil, Victor Danchenko, Ronald Copes, Roberto Diaz, Andrew Manze, Philip Setzer, Lisa Kim, James Buswell, Arnold Steinhardt, Nicholas Kitchen and Martin Chalifour. As a passionate chamber musician, she has performed the Brahms and Dvorak Piano Quintets, and most recently Shostakovich and Beethoven String Quartets with faculty members at the Levine School of Music and has worked closely with the Guarneri String Quartet, Miami String Quartet and the Left Bank String Quartet.

She was the Concertmaster of the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Concertmaster in the University of North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Concertmaster for the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. She has also been principal in the Avanti Orchestra as well as the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Ju has performed at world renowned venues such as the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, National Gallery, National Presbyterian Church, Taiwan and Italian Embassies, Lyric Opera House Baltimore, Strathmore Music Center, Taipei National Concert Hall, Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore and National Concert Hall for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China.

Before moving to Cary, NC last August, Ms. Ju was the Director of Orchestras at Farmington High School and Power Middle School in Farmington, MI. Prior to the position in Michigan, she was on faculty at the prestigious Levine School of Music, an Orchestra Director in Fairfax County Public Schools, a Violin Sectional Coach for Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras- working with Artistic Director Jonathan Carney and Violin Instructor for Vienna Summer Strings while maintaining a private violin studio and freelancing in the Washington D.C. area. Currently, Ms. Ju is the Director of Orchestras at Green Hope High School in Cary, NC, a chamber music coach for the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute, sectional coach for the Triangle Youth Orchestra as well as a Board member of the Philharmonic Association.

MCYO Violin Coach

Dr. Jennifer Lee maintains a diverse teaching and performing career with solo, chamber and orchestral engagements throughout the United States and abroad. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with the Portland and Baltimore Symphonies, and on international tours with Maestro Christoph Eschenbach and pianist Lang Lang. Recent collaborations include performances with the Dover Quartet at the Artosphere Festival, and with members of the Aeolus and Left Bank Quartets at the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society on the Stradivarius and Amati instruments of the Smithsonian Collection. Jennifer has recorded for the Naxos Label with the Post Classical Ensemble of Washington, D.C. and Hansler Classic of Germany with Rolf Beck.

Upon graduating summa cum laude at Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Music degree as a student of Almita and Roland Vamos, Jennifer received her Master of Music in Violin Performance at the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Lucie Robert. In 2015, she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Maryland while serving as teaching assistant to David Salness.

Jennifer currently serves as the Professor of Violin at Montgomery College, sectional coach at Georgetown University, and has given residencies and master classes at the University of Arkansas and State University of New York at Geneseo. She has also taught at Brooklyn College and Ithaca College’s Summer Music Academy, and is a former teaching artist for the Midori and Friends Foundation in New York City.

Violin

Leonid Sushansky is the violinist and Artistic Director of the National Chamber Ensemble. The Washington Post has hailed Mr. Sushansky for his “gorgeous tone, compelling musical personality…passionate intensity.” He began violin studies with his mother, a violinist and pupil of the legendary David Oistrakh. He also studied at the Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay and made his debut with the New York Philharmonic, at age 15. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Maryland with Daniel Heifetz. Prior to founding the NCE in 2007, he served as Concertmaster of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra from 2000-2007 and was on the Faculty of University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg , Virginia. Honors include: Leningrad Young Musician’s Competition, University of Maryland Concerto Competition, New York Philharmonic National Young Artists Competition, Bergen Philharmonic Competition and Inter-Cities Foundation Award among others. He maintains a steady schedule of recitals at prominent concert halls including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Phillips Collectio, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and has appeared as soloist with the Fairfax Symphony, The New York Philharmonic, Maryland Symphony, New Hampshire Symphony, Romanian State Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Windsor Symphony, Aspen Chamber Orchestra, Staten Island Symphony, Alexandria Symphony among others.

Levine School of Music Faculty
MCYO Cello Coach

Seth Castleton is a winner of the Brigham Young University Concerto Competition and has soloed with the BYU Philharmonic. He has also been a finalist in the University of Maryland Concerto Competition. He performs regularly with groups in the Washington D.C. area, such as the Apollo Chamber Orchestra and Alexandria Symphony. Mr. Castleton’s cello playing has taken him to several summer music festivals, including the National Orchestral Institute, Chautauqua, and Kent/Blossom Music. He teaches cello both in his private studio and at the Levine School of Music. Mr. Castleton has recently enjoyed collaborating with the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra (MCYO) as a cello section coach. Mr. Castleton is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Maryland, College Park. He holds a M.M. in Cello Performance from the University of Maryland, and a B.M. in Cello Performance from Brigham Young University. He has studied cello with Evelyn Elsing, David Teie, Kenneth Slowik, Peter Wiley, Julie Bevan, and Stephen Geber. Apart from his love for music and the arts, Mr. Castleton enjoys spending time with his lovely wife, two-year-old son James, and newborn daughter Laura.

MCYO Cello Coach

Dr. Alison Bazala Kim has performed in Miami Beach, Boston, the Embassy of Romania, the State Department and the Ambassador’s Club. She soloed with the National Repertory Orchestra and the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra. She toured in Macedonia, the Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Kosovo and Albania. She performed chamber music in Miami Beach, New York City and Boston, and locally at the Washington Arts Club, Frederick Community College, Hood College and the University of Maryland.

As a member of the New World Symphony she performed in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and the Kennedy Center. She toured with them in Brazil, Argentina, Monaco and Israel. She was Principal Cellist of the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra in Michigan. She was Associate Principal Cellist with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and performs with area orchestras.

Dr. Bazala Kim taught at Michigan State University CMS and was Director of the Chamber Music Program. Her students won the MASTA competition and were semi-finalists in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. She has taught at Anne Arundel Community College, the Naval Academy and Washington Adventist University. She teaches at Hood College and is President-elect of the MD/DC Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Dr. Bazala Kim maintains a private studio in North Potomac. Her students have been prize-winners, members of youth symphonies and leading members of their school orchestras.

Dr. Bazala Kim has coached sectionals and served on audition committees for both youth and professional orchestras. She has adjudicated competitions, ASTACAP, and Solo and Ensemble Festival.

Dr. Bazala Kim holds a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music, Master of Music from Rice University,  a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Maryland and studied at the Eastman School of Music.

Cello

Born in St-Petersburg, Russia into a musical family, Vasily started playing the cello at the age of seven. His teachers included Natalia Gutman, Anatoly Nikitin, Walter Nothas, Daniil Shafran and Elisso Virsaladze (chamber music). Vasily was an associate principal cello with the Soloists of St. Petersburg chamber ensemble, the chamber orchestra founded by violinist Michael Gantwarg and cello section St.-Petersburg Philharmonic orchestra under Maestro Yuri Temirkanov in the nineties. He served on the cello faculty of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia teaching cello and various classes helping the students to work on the orchestral excerpts. In 2000 he moved to Germany to complete his Artist Diploma in Munich Academy of Music. He performed chamber music frequently under Live Muisc Now and Villa Musica concert managements, maintained a small cello studio and played with the various chamber and symphony orchestras in Germany. Currently living in Washington DC, Mr. Popov serves on the cello and chamber music faculties of the Levine School of Music where he is also an associate chair of Chamber Music and is artistic director and conductor of the Levine Chamber Orchestras. Vasily’s passions are cello performance and teaching. He enjoys working with the young musicians and performs on stage with them frequently. Vasily’s cello and chamber students play in the youth, amateur and professional orchestras not only in the Washington DC area but also in Russia, Europe and Asia.

Vasily performs on a French cello made in 1870 presented to him by Stephen and Susan Low. Vasily also plays jazz, rock and contemporary music in on his Zeta electric cello. In the spare time Vasily enjoys working in his garden, composing music, reading, fixing the bowed string instruments as well as playing music and biking with his wife pianist Ralitza Patcheva and young sons violinist Yuri and cellist Vlad.

MCYO Double bass coach

John Park received his B.M. in Double Bass Performance from Eastman School of Music and M.A. in Arts Management from American University. He studied under James Vandemark.

Currently works as Operations manager of MCYO and freelances with various orchestras around DC Metro area.