Festival of Strings Soloists

Sophie Till, violin

Sophie Till is Associate Professor of Violin at Marywood University Pennsylvania, and Director of the Marywood String Project for children ages 4-18. In addition to her work with students of all ages, her teaching has become internationally known for solving playing-related injuries and for her work teaching professional orchestral players. Since 2013, she has given numerous workshops, lecture series and organized symposiums for professional orchestral players, teachers and students in the U.S, U.K, Singapore and Australia where she was also featured as a keynote speaker for the Australian String Teachers Conference. Since 2015 she has made annual visits to the U.K teaching and running workshops for members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Orchestras and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to her teaching, Sophie is an active performer as chamber musician and recitalist. She has given numerous television and radio broadcasts and produced two CDs. The combination of Sophie’s work as a performer and her teaching of children, young players and professionals has led to her development of the Till Approach and in 2022 she launched the Till Project, an organization to share her work. www.tillproject.com

Sophie studied with Dona Lee Croft at the Royal College of Music Junior Department in London from the age of 9. She completed her undergraduate studies with Zakhar Bron at the Royal Academy of Music, London and in Lübeck, Germany and her graduate studies with Charles Treger at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her studies took a different turn when in 2007, Sophie started studying with pianist Edna Golandsky, the foremost proponent of the Taubman Approach. It has been Sophie’s work with Edna that has inspired the creation of the Till Project.

Ester Man, viola

Esther Man, viola, is a rising senior at Lexington High School and has played violin and viola since age 5. She was awarded second place in the 2020 MMTA Bay State String Competition and attended Boston University Tanglewood Institute's Viola and String Quartet Workshop in 2022 and 2023. Esther has resided as Assistant Principal and Principal of the MMEA Senior Northeastern District and All-State Festivals. She has been a part of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras’ top orchestra, BYS, conducted by Federico Cortese, since 2018, and is currently the violist of BYS's Honor Ensemble Quartet.

Amber Sang, pipa