A highly sought-after pedagogue, violinist Elizabeth Faidley has been hailed as an “amazing and inspiring teacher” by the New York Times.  She is the recipient of the American String Teachers’ Association 2011 “Studio Teacher of the Year” award for the state of New Jersey. She has also been honored with multiple teaching awards, including ones from the Union City Symphony and the Korean Radio Broadcast Network. In addition to being on the faculty of the Pre-College Division of the Manhattan School of Music, she has a large private studio in the New York City metropolitan area where she teaches violin performance to aspiring players from ages 3 to 23. Her students have won national and international competitions and have performed in such great halls as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the White House. They are routinely accepted, with scholarships, to the world’s premier music conservatories including The Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, the Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory, Rice University, the Royal College of Music, and The Cleveland Institute.  Her students routinely perform with orchestras around the NYC area.  The NY Times described Ms. Faidley as “…fiercely yet compassionately committed to her students, to her colleagues, and to the art of music.”

Ms. Faidley became adjunct faculty at the Hartt School before the age of 30, reflecting her devotion to the art of violin pedagogy. She has also served on the college conservatory faculties of Montclair State University's Cali School of Music and Hunter College's School of Music.  She holds a Master of Music degree in violin performance and pedagogy from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and was inducted into the professional music fraternity, Pi Kappa Lambda, which honors integrity, superior music performance, and academic success.

Ms. Faidley routinely brings in major concert artists and teachers to give private masterclasses to her studio.  The last four years have included Ray Chen, Stefan Jackiw, Charlie Siem, Dmitri Berlinsky, Ronald Copes, Lisa Batiashvili, Sarah Chang, and Katie Lansdale.

She won the prestigious Melissa Tiller Memorial Prize for graduate performance and while still a student at Peabody, joined the faculty of both the preparatory and conservatory divisions after serving as a teaching assistant to Shirley Givens. Besides Givens, her major pedagogical influences include Ivan Galamian, Joseph Gingold, Paul Rolland, and Shinichi Suzuki, and Rebecca Henry.  She also studied with such masters as Daniel Heifetz, Yuri Masurkevich, Christian Teal, and Qing Li.

Ms. Faidley has served on the faculty of the Summit Music Festival, New York’s premier summer chamber music institute. She has been invited to teach and give master classes in Italy, Germany, Spain, Russia, Norway, and Africa, and has provided private lessons in pedagogy to major violin performers and teachers throughout the United States.  In the summers, Ms. Faidley has specialized camps for her students. Ms. Faidley is a frequent presenter and master class clinician, and she has recently spoken at two national conferences for the American String Teachers’ Association. The first lecture focused on balance in violin technique and pedagogy. The second presented a series of unique technical etudes for every stage of violin playing.  Ms. Faidley has been invited to be the keynote speaker, along with Nobel Laureates at the 2018 World Education Day in Jinan, China.

Ms. Faidley currently employs fourteen violin and musicianship faculty members as part of her school, The Elizabeth Faidley Studio.  All students of any faculty member have access to recitals, masterclasses, private camps, and other performance opportunities.  Ms. Faidley works directly with each teacher in weekly consultations to ensure a balanced musical education for each student.

Ms. Faidley also shares her passion for teaching through her writing. She has completed work on the second edition of a book for children titled “Pre-Twinkling to the Stars: Your Joyful Journey Begins” which focuses on a strong technical foundation for beginning violinists. Her second book, a beginning theory workbook for beginning and intermediate violinists, is also available. She has also published several essays in the American Suzuki Journal and is currently writing a third book on the art of pedagogy entitled, “What Happened to the Nurture?”  The book reflects her teaching philosophy, which seeks to empower the entire, unique person as the foundation of the musician. She generously makes time to mentor her students through auditions, competitions, and performances and stays in touch with them between and beyond studio lessons.

Ms. Faidley’s violin, a generous gift from several patrons, was crafted by Lorenzo Ventapane in 1835 and is pictured in Four Centuries of Violin Making by Cozio Publishing.

Pala Garcia (she/they) is a critically acclaimed violinist, balancing performing, commissioning and recording with her work as an educator and advocate of socially conscious artistry. She was recently featured in the Washington Post’s “23 for ’23: Composers and Performers to Watch this Year,” and has also earned accolades from other notable publications as a contemporary music specialist and co-founder of Longleash, an “expert young trio” (Strad Magazine) with two highly acclaimed releases in its discography: a debut album, Passage, that earned them Sequenza 21’s Best New Recording Artist of 2017, and a work on the album Soft Aberration, named a Notable Recording of 2017 by The New Yorker. She was recently named a 2023-2024 Artist Fellow with the National Arts Club.

Her work in new music has been recognized and supported by Chamber Music America, the Alice K. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Amphion Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Puffin Foundation, the Atherton Family Foundation, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Grants from the Music Academy of the West.

Pala has performed as a featured artist throughout Asia, Europe and North America, and has also performed as a regular guest in some of the world’s most respected ensembles, including the the International Contemporary Ensemble, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, her longstanding involvement with Carnegie Hall’s social impact programs has led to meaningful artistic collaborations with New Yorkers from all walks of life, making music, celebrating creativity and building community in prisons, shelters and hospitals.

A debut solo album featuring the music of Peter Kramer will forthcoming this season on New Focus Recordings, with support from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

Pala serves on the violin faculties of the Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division and Hunter College, and was a Senior Teaching Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center. As co-artistic director of Longleash’s Loretto Project, Pala also leads its Pathways Initiative, a high-school composition workshop invested in addressing issues of gender justice and representation. She received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Juilliard School, was an academy fellow with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she was also recently granted a certificate in Women’s Studies.

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Laszlo Mezo gained national recognition as one of the top musicians of his generation when he won First Prize in the “Kertész Ottó Memorial Competition” at the young age of 18. Since then, he has won numerous other competitions which have brought him international recognition including the Fourth Prize in the “Antonio Janigro Junior International Competition” in 1998, Second Prize in the “International Dávid Popper Competition for Young Cellists” in 2000, the Special Prize in the “International Dávid Popper Cello Competition” in 2004, and First Prize in the “Ima Hogg International Competition” in 2008.

Mr. Mezo has forged a career as a soloist, recitalist, master teacher, and chamber musician. He has performed extensively in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. Always eager to pass on his knowledge, Laszlo has conducted master classes in Japan, Brazil, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, and the United States. Mr. Mezo was adjunct professor in cello at Chapman University 2012-2022 and he was Assistant Teacher at the University of Southern California between 2007 and 2008.

As a soloist, Mr. Mezo has performed with maestros Ádám Fischer, Thomas Wilkins, Grant Llewellyn, Zsolt Hamar. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated in recitals with pianists Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Steven Vanhauwaert, Gábor Farkas, Márta Gulyás, Piotr Folkert, and Balázs Szokolay, violinist Kristóf Baráti, cellist Philipp Muller, and the Bartók Quartet. He has also played under the direction of Zubin Mehta and Kent Nagano as a member of the Bayerische Staatsorchester in Munich, Germany.

Mr. Mezo holds two master's degrees from the Liszt Ferenc University of Music in Budapest and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. He graduated from the class of Ralph Kirshbaum at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Mr. Mezo is a member of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. He is a sought after soloist, and an active studio musician in Hollywood. He has played in many film scores, blockbusters including Star Wars, Super Mario, Ice Age, Life of Pi, Pirates of Caribbean, Wolverine, and The Lone Ranger.

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