ARTISTS
Violinist
Maureen Conlon-Gutierrez
Mexican-American violinist, Conlon has performed to much acclaim on stages throughout Latin America, Europe, Asia and the U.S. Countless of her performances have been aired live on radio and television including a special for the Telemundo channel in 2003. She has appeared as soloist with various orchestras and chamber ensembles through Mexico, Europe, and the U.S. Maureen has garnered first prizes and placed at competitions nationally and internationally including a first place at the National Violin Competition “Hermilo Novelo” in Mexico and the “Her milo Novelo” award at the International Henryk Szeryng Violin Competition. While studying at Penn State University she also won the Concerto Competition as well as first place at the Graduate Exhibition in 2005 and 2006. In 2005 she was a semi-finalist at the prestigious Sphinx Competition. Conlon was also a recipient of the CONACULTA scholarship for the performing arts from 2006-2007 allowing her to pursue further studies in the U.S. Maureen is also a recipient of the Sphinx Organization’s M Power Artist Grant.
Due to her passion for chamber music she co-founded the Trio Nova Mundi with whom she per-formed from 2001-2017 throughout various concert venues in Latin America, Africa, and the U.S. including appearances as soloists with the Atlanta Virtuosi orchestra in Atlanta, GA. While at Rice University they were awarded the Ralph A. Anderson music scholarship award.
As an avid orchestral musician, she is the Concertmaster of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra. Maureen served as Concertmaster with the Erie Chamber Orchestra, Guest Concertmaster of the Erie Philharmonic and the Sphinx Symphony, and is currently a member of the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra the Wheeling Symphony, Chamber Orchestra Pittsburgh and Resonance Works. She’s also been a member of the Erie Philharmonic, Sphinx Virtuosi, Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, Penns Woods Orchestra and Tangle wood Music Center Orchestra. She appears as a regular substitute violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Harrisburg Symphony and has played with the Virginia Symphony, Akron Symphony and National Philharmonic.
Her keen interest and devotion to music and especially the violin began at a very early age but it was several years later that she would begin lessons with Pedro Gasca in her hometown of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato Mexico and later with Gilberto Nunez and David Mallory. She holds degrees from Rice University, Penn State University, and Carnegie Mellon University studying with Kenneth Goldsmith, Jim Lyon and former Pittsburgh Symphony concertmaster, Andres Cardenes respectively.
Ms. Conlon served as Adjunct Professor of Violin/Viola at Grove City College from 2012-2017. She has served as faculty member at the Dali Quartet International Festival and at the Chamber Music Intensive Camp in Pittsburgh. Since 2021, Maureen has served as Co-Director of the Pittsburgh Perspectives Festival. She continues to actively perform as a soloist and chamber musician and calls Pittsburgh, PA home with husband, Michael Dorosh and daughter, Camila. When she isn’t making music, she is spending time with her family, watching movies, and enjoying great food.
Patricia Quintero
Patricia was born in Havana, Cuba and started playing the violin at the age of eight. She graduated in Music Violin Performance from the Superior Institute of Arts, University in Havana, Cuba. Since then, she has performed as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Havana and the Philharmonic orchestras of Caracas, Venezuela. Patricia worked as a Concertmaster at the Opera and Ballet Symphony Orchestra in Cuba, and Chamber Orchestra of Havana. She has played in orchestras conducted by renowned conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Gustavo Dudamel, and she founded the Havana String Quartet, and collaborated with artists such as Leo Brouwer, E. Gismonti, and Edin Karamazov. She has frequently played with the Houston Symphony, Grand Opera, and Ballet. Patricia as a member of the Sphinx Virtuosi has toured around the country at major venues including Carneige Hall. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Library of Congress. As a former member of the Vera Quartet, the 2016-2018 Graduate Quartet in residency at the Jacobs School of Music was prized at numerous competitions including Yellow Springs, Plowman, M-Prize, St. Lawrence Prize at the Wigmore Competition, and the Astral Artist 2018 National Audition. She has attended festivals such as Chamber Music Residency at the Banff Centre, Robert Mann Seminar, Aspen Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, McGill International String Quartet Academy. Patricia holds a Master of Music degree in Violin Performance from University of Southern Mississippi, as well as a Diploma in Solo Performance, and a Performers Diploma in Chamber Music from the Jacobs School of Music where she studied with Professor Mauricio Fuks and Pacifica Quartet. She is currently based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband Dr. Brett Crell who is a board-certified orthodontist creating smiles in the South Hills and neighboring communities.
Violinist
Gabrielle Faetini
Gabrielle Faetini is a Pittsburgh based violinist who holds a career as an orchestral musician and educator. While pursuing her Master’s Degree in 2019, Ms. Faetini won a section violin position with the Pittsburgh Opera. She is a member of and has performed with numerous orchestras including the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra, Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, and Butler County Symphony Orchestra. Gabrielle was also a violinist for Chamber Orchestra Pittsburgh where she was part of Andrea Bocelli’s symphony for his US tour, and last year she was able to collaborate with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra and perform on stage with Yo-Yo Ma. She is also a violinist for various summer music festivals including Buzzard’s Bay Music Festival and Berkshire Opera Festival both located in Massachusetts, and Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kansas.
In addition to her orchestral career, Gabrielle holds an extensive career as an educator. She maintains her own private violin and piano studio and loves to teach people of every age and ability. As of August 2022 she is also a private strings teacher at the Ellis School. Gabrielle also had the opportunity to serve as Assistant Orchestral Director at the Sewickley Academy, and had previously taught at the Environmental Charter School in Pittsburgh where she helped create a “Meet the Maestro” program so students could attend performances by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and talk with Maestro Manfred Honeck.
Gabrielle is a founding member of the Ferrum String Quartet. Her quartet has had the opportunity to perform in numerous festivals including the Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kansas and the Miami Music Festival in Miami, Florida. As of this fall, Gabrielle has been named one of the violinists for the Hot Metal Strings, an all-female professional chamber group based in the Pittsburgh region.
Ms. Faetini was a student of Charles and Rachel Stegeman at Duquesne University where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Performance in 2018 and Master’s Degree in Violin Performance in 2020.
In her free time, Gabrielle loves to bake, create cocktails, and ride her bike. She spends time in the city trying out new restaurants, but you can also find her enjoying the many beautiful Pennsylvania trails on horseback.
Katerina Istomin
Lauded for her “special artistry” Russian-American violist, Katerina Istomin, continues to establish herself as an international performer and educator. As principal of the Juilliard orchestra and the New World Symphony, Katerina has performed under notable conductors such as Michael Tilson-Thomas, Manfred Honeck, and John Adams. As soloist and ensemble musician, Ms. Istomin has toured throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Recognized for her powerful effect on young musicians, Ms. Istomin has developed a commitment to bringing music to underserved areas through music education and community outreach. She has worked as a fellow with the Music Advancement and Gluck Community Service programs at the Juilliard School and as a teaching artist in Medellin, Colombia with the New World Symphony. As section leader of the group Double Sens, led by violinist Nemanja Radulovich, Katerina recorded an all Bach album for the Deutsche Grammophon label. Katerina earned her Bachelors of Music degree from The Juilliard School and her Master of Music degree from the University of Montreal and the Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria. Katerina is currently pursuing a Doctorate degree in Counseling Psychology at Carlow University with an emphasis on Pediatric Neuropsychology and Family Therapy. Dedicated to holistic wellness on and off the stage, Katerina is also a certified yoga instructor.
Alisa Innocenti
Alisa Innocenti has played the viola for over thirty years. Her formal training was at West Virginia University with Philip Tietze (B.M.) and Carnegie Mellon University with Atar Arad (M.M.). Alisa has performed for many years around the Pittsburgh area and has played with groups such as the symphonies of Wheeling, Butler, Youngstown, Westmoreland, West Virginia, and Kingsport (TN). Alisa is also a professional photographer! You can view her work at:
Elisa Kohanski
Cellist Elisa Kohanski enjoys a diverse performing career, appearing regularly as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player, and championing unique collaborations with artists of other disciplines. A highly-regarded solo performer, Elisa was featured in the world premiere of Richard Danielpour’s Come Up From the Fields Father with the Wheeling Symphony in 2011. In 2012, she performed the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, her trio commissioned Spanish-American composer Elisenda Fabregas’ Triple Concerto, which had its inaugural performance with the Atlanta Virtuosi under the baton of Juan Ramirez in 2015.
A native Rhode Islander, Ms. Kohanski has a love of travel which, combined with her passion for music, has brought her to over 50 countries around the world. In Africa she has explored Tunisia, Egypt, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana. A love for Africa was the inspiration for a three-country tour of the Continent with Trio Nova Mundi, Ensemble-in-Residence at Grove City College. Ms. Kohanski, along with pianist Becky Billock and violinist Maureen Conlon Gutierrez, presented nine concerts over the course of two weeks, in addition to numerous workshops and performances for children. The African tour inspired the next international tour in 2014 to Mexico.
Ms. Kohanski has performed with dozens of top-billed artists, including the Miami String Quartet, Olivia Newton John, Robert Shaw, Garrison Keillor, Phil Keaggy and Harry Connick Jr., and has played in some of the most prestigious concert halls around the world. In addition to touring China and the US with the Mantovani Orchestra, she has performed in Carnegie Hall in New York City; Royal Albert Hall in London, England; Schlossfestspiele in Heidelberg, Germany; and the Stefaniensaal Concert Hall in Graz, Austria. She has performed at all of the major venues in Pittsburgh, including Heinz Hall, the Benedum Center and City Theater.
Described after a Pittsburgh Ballet performance by the Pittsburgh Tribune Review as “most superb,” Ms. Kohanski was appointed the position of Principal Cellist of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 2009. She holds the same position with the Wheeling Symphony and is a member of the cello section in the Pittsburgh Opera and the Erie Philharmonic. Elisa performs regularly with the Pittsburgh Symphony and has also played with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston, TX and the Columbus Symphony.
Each summer, Ms. Kohanski can be heard in performances with Music on the Hill, in which Rhode Island natives return to perform chamber concerts throughout the state. The festival repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach to Osvaldo Golijov, and regularly features world class artists such as William Preucil, James Dunham, Ronald Leonard and Daniel Gilbert. Elisa has performed in several summer festivals including the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and the Heidelberg Castle Festival. She is looking forward to being on the faculty of the Interharmony International Music Festival in Italy this summer.
A passionate educator, Ms. Kohanski currently serves as adjunct faculty at Grove City College. She also maintains a private studio (ranging in age from five to sixty) and is on the faculty for the Carnegie Mellon Summer Strings Program. She has served on the faculties of Westminster College, Seton Hill University, Westmoreland Suzuki School, and the Carlow College Campus String Program.
Ms. Kohanski earned her Bachelor of Music Degree from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Pamela Frame. She received her Master of Music Degree from Carnegie Mellon University where she studied with Pittsburgh Symphony cellists Anne Martindale Williams and David Premo. Other notable teachers include Timothy Terranella, Carol Pellegrino, and Elizabeth Reardon.
Jeanne R. Tupper
Jeanne (Strittmatter) Tupper began studying the cello at the age of twelve. She began performing professionally two years later. Ms. Tupper studied under the direction of Pittsburgh Symphony cellists Mikhail Istomin, David Premo, and Anne Martindale Williams, principal cellist with the PSO. She has participated in several masterclasses, including those with world renowned cellists Yo Yo Ma and Anner Bylsma. She attended Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for both undergraduate and graduate studies in performance and music education. An avid chamber musician, she performs regularly with The Strittmatter Trio, and Hot Metal Strings, as well as several orchestral ensembles in the Pittsburgh region. In addition to her active freelance work as a soloist, chamber and orchestral performer, she has devoted much of her career to educating young musicians. Ms. Tupper has been a member of the faculty at the Carnegie Mellon University Preparatory School and maintains a large private teaching studio. She is currently the vocal music teacher at St. Thomas More School in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh. Ms. Tupper enjoys spending time with her husband, Bob and her young children, Benjamin and Rebekah.
