Megan (Meg) Jones began her violin studies at the age of 7 with Irina Briskin and later with the late BSO violinist John Merrill.
Throughout high school, Meg participated in All State, All County and Baltimore Symphony Side by Side. As a senior, Meg performed a movement of Mozart’s 3rd Violin Concerto with her school orchestra.
While pursuing a BA at UMBC, where she studied with Dr. Airi Yoshioka, Meg performed in the UMBC Symphony Orchestra, various string ensembles, recitals and masterclasses-most recently for Daniel Heifetz.
In the summer of 2018, Meg attended UMBC based music festival, Festival Baltimore, where she and her quartet performed Tchaikovsky’s 2nd String Quartet.
In addition to teaching her wonderful students at Mike’s Music, Meg has been on the private string faculty at the Friends School of Baltimore since 2016. Aside from teaching, Meg enjoys performing with her Piano Trio.
Passionate about violin and music, Meg’s teaching philosophy centers around helping each and every student reach their fullest potential.
Mairead Alexander, from Greenbelt, Maryland, will graduate from UMBC in 2020 with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance, where she has studied under Dr. Airi Yoshioka.
During her time at UMBC, Mairead has enjoyed performing chamber music with her piano quintet, as well as UMBC Symphony Orchestra, while expanding her technique through baroque violin, and performing a number of contemporary works written by student composers. During the spring of 2019, Mairead’s string quartet was selected to perform for the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop. In October of 2019, Mairead was a soloist with the UMBC Collegium baroque ensemble, performing a double violin concerto with renowned Canadian baroque violinist, Aisslinn Nosky. Currently, Mairead is preparing to give her B.A. senior recital in May of 2020, with a program featuring the works of Saint-Saens, Bach, and Prokofiev.
To supplement the demands of her classical repertoire, Mairead also enjoys playing in the style of traditional Irish fiddle, and studied under Irish fiddle player and composer, Mr. Connie O’Connell at the University College Cork in Cork, Ireland during the spring of 2018. During her summers, Mairead has performed at multiple chamber and orchestra festivals in the United States as well as in Europe, including National Music Festival in Maryland, Catskill High Peaks chamber festival in upstate New York, and this past summer, Prague Summer Nights festival in the Czech Republic. In addition to her freelancing and performance career, Mairead is the primary violin and viola teacher at Wolfe Street Academy in Baltimore City, teaching elementary school classes through the Bridges Music Program since the fall of 2015. Mairead’s teaching is grounded in the joy of music-making, with the ultimate aim of fostering a lifelong love of music in her students.
Elizabeth Robbins began studying the viola at age 9 and the flute at age 10, and has experience performing and teaching strings and woodwinds. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Music Education at Ithaca College, where she studied flute with Kelly Covert. She spent one semester at the Ithaca College London Center, taking lessons with Susan Milan at the Royal College of Music. After completing her undergraduate degree, Elizabeth moved to southern Maryland, where she taught pre-k through fifth grade band, strings, chorus, and general music for four years at St. Mary’s County Public Schools. While in Maryland, she earned her Master of Music in Music Education from Boston University. In 2010 she played Griffes’s Poem for Flute and Orchestra with the Chamber Orchestra of Southern Maryland In Concert as the winner of the COSMIC Young Artist Competition.
Elizabeth earned her PhD in music education at Temple University in 2019. While at Temple, she worked as a TA in the music education department, which included serving as a graduate conductor of the Night Owls Community Band and teaching Woodwind Methods to undergraduate and graduate students. She also taught as an adjunct and supervised student teachers at West Chester University. During her doctoral studies, she was a member of the viola faculty for the Music Education Pathways program at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, PA and was a member of the flute faculty at Ferrwood Music Camp in Drums, PA. Elizabeth is happy to be back in Maryland, teaching 4th-6th grade band and orchestra in Prince George’s County Public Schools.