Jordan was raised in West Olive, Michigan. He began playing violin at the age of six using the Suzuki method. A graduate of West Ottawa High School in Holland, Michigan, Jordan continued to play violin and study music throughout his formative years. Jordan has participated in the Illinois Chamber Music Festival at Illinois Wesleyan University, the Michigan All-State Orchestra, and the Holland Area Youth Orchestra.  He furthered his studies with the professor of violin at Hope College, Mihai Craioveanu. Jordan received his bachelor’s degree in violin performance at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan under the instruction of Professor Renata Artman Knific. He also received his master’s degree at the University of Denver under Linda Wang. Jordan plays a violin from famed maker Mario Miralles on loan from acclaimed violin soloist Tai Murray. He is also the recipient of the CSO Diversity Fellowship. Through this fellowship, he performed regularly with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Jordan is currently a graduate assistant of former Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concertmaster, Timothy Lees and is pursuing a DMA at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music. 

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, violinist Maalik Glover is an active orchestral musician and private teacher. He has received recognition at competitions such as winning Omega Psi Phi’s 2015 Talent Hunt, receiving an Honorable Mention at the 2018 Schwob School of Music Concerto Competition, as well being a winner of the 2021 CCM Violin Competition.

Glover has studied the violin since the age of 11. Glover’s first significant accomplishment was his acceptance into the Talent Development Program, an initiative launched by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra that targets gifted African-American and Latino music students to further develop their future careers as accomplished classical musicians. This has perpetuated his unyielding advocacy of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in classical music. Since then, he has held private studios of his own, collaborating with the Schwob Preparatory Division, LaGrange Symphony Orchestra’s Strings Attached, as well as Musicbuk.

Glover has performed in Italy, Canada and throughout the United States. He has spent two summers performing with the Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy in Powell River, British Columbia. During his graduate studies, Glover held a two-year fellowship with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He is a two-time fellowship recipient of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, as well as Spoleto Festival USA where he served as concertmaster. Glover has just completed a one-year appointment with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Rossen Milanov.

In 2019, Glover graduated summa cum laude from Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music. He later obtained his Master’s at University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music in 2022 upon completion of the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship. In his spare time, Glover loves exploring and traveling to new cities as well as composing film and video game music.

Venezuelan Violinist Gabriela Lara began her music studies in Barquisimeto, Venezuela at the age of 8. Ms. Lara was a member of the Latin American Violin Academy and a member of “El Sistema” in Venezuela until arriving to United States in 2017. Gabriela has toured with several orchestras through Europe in 2013, 2014 and 2017 with Gustavo Dudamel and Simon Rattle playing in prestigious European festivals and concert halls including the Salzburg Festival and the Berlin Philharmoniker.   

Ms. Lara has performed as a soloist with several orchestras, most recently, with the CCPA Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Center in Chicago. She won the 2019 Roosevelt University Concerto Competition, the 3rd International Violin Competition, in homage to Maestro Frank Preuss, and took 2nd place in 25th Sphinx Concerto Competition. Ms. Lara was the Project Inclusion Fellow of Grant Park Symphony Orchestra in 2022 and started her position as the first and only fellow of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last year. She is part of the studio of Almita Vamos, graduated this past as a Bachelor in Violin Performance at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and is currently doing her Master’s degree in at the same university.  

Violinist Jesus Linarez began his musical studies in Venezuela, at the Music Conservatory “Vicente Emilio Sojo.” Linarez worked with Maestro Jose Francisco del Castillo for 7 years at the Latin American Academy and was a member of the Venezuelan orchestra organization, “El Sistema”, serving as a principal with  the 2017 National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. Linarez participated in tours with three different Venezuelan orchestras: The National Youth Orchestra, the Teresa Carreno Youth Orchestra and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela, performing in important European cities including  Berlin, Munich, Barcelona, Toulouse, London, and prestigious symphony halls as Berlin Philarmoniker and the “Palau de la Musica Catalana” in Barcelona. 

Linarez has performed as a violin soloist with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela, the Lara Symphony Orchestra and the Caracas Symphony Orchestra.. He has also worked with world renowned  conductors including Gustavo Dudamel and Sir Simon Rattle.   

In 2023, Linarez was appointed as Concertmaster of the West Michigan Symphony. He is the winner of the first prize of the 2021 Chicago Violin Competition, winner of the Concerto Competition at Roosevelt University 2023 and recipient of the Evanston Music Club Competition Scholarship. Linarez currently studies with  Mrs. Almita Vamos at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, Chicago. 

Violist, Camila Berg is originally from Havana, Cuba.

Ms Berg is violist of Sarasota Orchestra in Florida since December 2022, previously was a fellow in New World Symphony.

Ms. Berg was Principal Violist of the Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra from 2018 to 2021, after spending a year in Japan as a fellow in Hyogo Performing Arts Center Program. She has attended international music festivals including the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, the Orchestra of the Americas, Academia de Frutillar in Chile and the Weimar Bach Festival In Germany.

Ms Berg, Recently won the Second Place in Sphinx Orchestra Partners Auditions, Excerpt Competition.

Pedro Mendez, is a violist and Violinist who was born in Venezuela, and began  his musical studies with  EL SISTEMA in Venezuela. He got his degree in Violin Performance Arts in Vicente Emilio Sojo Conservatory in 2015 and he also studied of Academia Latinoamericana de Violín, under the tutelage of Luis Miguel Gonzalez and José Francisco del Castillo. 

Pedro Mendez has served as Professor and Director of the Latin American Violin School professor at the Vicente Emilio Sojo Conservatory. During his last years in Venezuela, he was dedicated to teaching and he got the position as Professor and Director of the Latin American Violin School in his hometown and also obtained a position as professor at the Vicente Emilio Sojo Conservatory. He has played as a violin soloist with Pedro Leon Torres Youth Symphony Orchestra, Lara Symphony Orchestra and Youth Lara Symphony Orchestra. He has played with some orchestras in the Chicago Area as Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Philharmonic. Right now, he is also violist of the Soto String Quartet, he is the Assistant Principal Viola of Illinois Philharmonic, he is also 

Co-Principal Viola of the Chicago Civic Orchestra of Chicago and he is the viola fellow in Chicago Sinfonietta Symphony Orchestra as part of the project inclusion. 

Mr. Mendez  is currently a student at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University  in the studio of Almita and Roland Vamos and Li Kuo Chang. 

Costa Rican-born cellist Diana Flores is an active orchestral and chamber musician and educator based in Cincinnati, OH. She performs regularly with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Dayton Philharmonic and has performed with the Boston Pops, Grant Park Music Festival, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Sarasota Orchestra, among others. She was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and has participated in summer festivals such as Tanglewood Music Center and Pacific Music Festival in Japan. 

Diana has studied at the Longy School of Music (BM), the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University (MM), and the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati (AD). Her primary teachers include Mihail Jojatu, Richard Hirschl, and Ilya Finkelshteyn. She has performed in masterclasses for Yo-Yo Ma, and has studied chamber music with Emanuel Ax, Roger Tapping, and the Pacifica Quartet. This season Diana has been a member of Sphinx Virtuosi, with whom she recorded an album for Deutsche Grammophone.

When not behind her cello, Diana enjoys cooking, listening to podcasts, and yoga.  

Max Oppeltz started playing the cello at the age of four as a student of El Sistema in Caracas, Venezuela. As a part of the world-renowned music program, Oppeltz played in the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, the Chacao Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Caracas Municipal Orchestra. He studied with Cesar Noguera, Marek Gajzler and German Marcano. He also participated in numerous master classes with cellists such as Natalia Gutman and Phillip Muller. 

In 2014, Oppeltz moved to the U.S. to study at the Juilliard School with Professor Richard Aaron. As an undergraduate student, Oppeltz participated in several lessons and master classes with cellist Franz Helmerson and studied chamber music with musicians such as Roger Tapping, Sam Rhoades, Sylvia Rosenberg and Jerome Lowenthal. In 2016, Oppeltz was fortunate to attend the Music Academy of the West, the highlights of which were taking lessons with Lynn Harrel and performing alongside faculty Warren Jones and Kathleen Winkler. 

Following his time at Juilliard, Max pursued graduate degrees as a Neumann fellow at the University of Denver in 2018, and a fellow with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2022. He is currently playing with the New Jersey Symphony orchestra. 

Oppeltz is extremely grateful to be playing on a 1880 French cello from the Caussin School, generously loaned by the Virtu Foundation. 

Jordan was raised in West Olive, Michigan. He began playing violin at the age of six using the Suzuki method. A graduate of West Ottawa High School in Holland, Michigan, Jordan continued to play violin and study music throughout his formative years. Jordan has participated in the Illinois Chamber Music Festival at Illinois Wesleyan University, the Michigan All-State Orchestra, and the Holland Area Youth Orchestra.  He furthered his studies with the professor of violin at Hope College, Mihai Craioveanu. Jordan received his bachelor’s degree in violin performance at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan under the instruction of Professor Renata Artman Knific. He also received his master’s degree at the University of Denver under Linda Wang. Jordan plays a violin from famed maker Mario Miralles on loan from acclaimed violin soloist Tai Murray. He is also the recipient of the CSO Diversity Fellowship. Through this fellowship, he performed regularly with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Jordan is currently a graduate assistant of former Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra concertmaster, Timothy Lees and is pursuing a DMA at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music. 

Amy Nickler, an American-Cuban, began playing the violin at age six. Six years later she switched to the double bass and has loved it ever since. She would have never discovered her love of music without the help from the public magnet school programs. In recent years, Amy has participated in several festivals and orchestras such as the The Cincinnati Symphony, The Chautauqua Symphony, Sarasota Symphony, NuDeco Ensemble, Palm Beach Symphony, The Orchestra NOW, Oslo Kammerakademi, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and among many others. 

Aside from performing, Amy enjoys her time as a teaching artist for various programs that provide access to music education for children with the greatest need in a diverse environment. Organizations included are the Nat King Cole Generation Hope, Inc., The BoysNGirls Club of the Palm Beaches, and in 2018 she had the opportunity to teach in Cuba with the Volta Music Foundation. Amy received her Bachelor of Music Degree at Lynn Conservatory in 2017 with professor Timothy Cobb and she received her Master of Music Degree at Yale University with Professor Donald Palma in 2019. Amy recently participated as a Diversity Fellow at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Owen Lee.