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Maya Shih completed dual degrees at the University of Maryland in both Music Performance and Psychology, and she also holds a Master’s degree from the University of Maryland in Music Performance and Pedagogy.
Her violin and viola studies were under the private tutelage of Daniel Heifetz, Ronda Cole, and Katherine Murdock as well as members of the Guarneri Quartet. As a current member of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Maya regularly performs locally and teaches private violin lessons in her home studio. During her college years she participated in the Heifetz International Music Institute for two summers. After college she devoted her time to teaching at the Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore and building a private studio. Ms. Shih has completed her Suzuki training and uses a holistic approach to teaching with both the Suzuki philosophy and music books in conjunction with other repertoire and teaching methods.
She has taught violin, viola and piano lessons over the past 25 years.
During her time as a Peabody faculty member, Maya was a founding member of the Classical Quartet and performed in multiple venues in the Washington DC metropolitan area, including a musical collaboration at An Die Musik in Baltimore.
Some additional performances include soloing with the Columbia Orchestra in Maryland and performing chamber music on the 2018 – 2019 season at The Trust. On July 25, 2020, the Shih family performed on a Facebook Live concert as part of their oldest daughter’s senior recital in the time of Covid. The family’s performance of Schumann’s piano quintet featured Maya playing the viola, her husband Christopher (a past soloist with the LSO) playing the piano and their three daughters filling the roles of two violins and a cello. Additionally, Maya has taught violin lessons for the nonprofit organization SWAN (Scaling Walls a Note at a Time), which provides music lessons for children of an incarcerated parent. This opportunity gives them a chance to learn an instrument of their choice and ultimately influences their future in positive ways. A member of the Board of Advisors for the Ware Center and the Trust Performing Arts Center, as well as a regular gardening volunteer at Conestoga House & Gardens, Maya strives to give back to the Lancaster community, as it has been a wonderful place to live and raise her three daughters.
Christopher Brooks was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He began studying the violin at PS 8 in Brooklyn Heights and at the Third Street Music School. Attending the New School of Music in Philadelphia, Mr. Brooks studied violin with Jascha Brodsky and Geoffrey Michaels. He studied the Suzuki Method with Lina Fiore and taught at the Academy of Children’s Music in Fort Washington, PA. He has played chamber music and been a member of numerous orchestras including Orquesta Bética Filarmónica de Sevilla (concertmaster), the Frysk Orkest in the Netherlands, and the Lancaster, Reading, York, and Harrisburg Symphonies (concertmaster). Currently, he plays with the Allegro Chamber Orchestra in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In addition to his broad experience in orchestral and chamber music, he has performed with many improvisation-based ensembles, including folk, rock, jazz, Klezmer, and freely-improvised accompaniments for modern dance. Christopher Brooks is also a professional acoustics consultant, working as a Senior Consultant with Acoustic Distinctions (Stamford, Connecticut, and New York). His specialty is music and acoustics and acoustical design for performance spaces. www.creativeviolinist.com has much more information on Christopher’s performing and teaching.
