Janurary 2025 Cecelia Scholar: Shannon Merlino
Philadelphia-area native Shannon Merlino began violin lessons at nine years of age. Immediately upon receiving her rental instrument (and before having had a lesson), she declared that she would become a professional musician, and the rest, as they say, was history. Dr. Merlino completed her Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance at Rutgers University as a student of Matthew Reichert and Lenuta Ciulei. She received her Master of Music degree in violin performance as a scholarship student at the Mannes College […]
Faith Wasson is an international performing artist, having performed throughout Europe and North America as orchestral, chamber musician and soloist. She manages her own chamber music series, Flute with Faith & Friends, featuring an array of diverse repertoire and instrumentation. As classical music artist in residence, Faith presents the classical performance series at the Media Arts Council. She is the piccolo/3rd flutist with the Southeastern PA Symphony of which she is also the chamber music series curator. Faith teaches flute, piccolo and chamber music online 
Steven Heitzer, a native Philadelphian, is an active classical trumpet player in the tri-state area. He is a member of 
A Philadelphia native, Elena Kauffman maintains an active career as a performing and teaching artist. She is the cellist and manager of Blue Line Quartet, and she performs frequently with Fairmount String Quartet, Elysium String Quartet, and many other chamber ensembles in the Philadelphia area. She is the principal cellist and personnel manager of the Wayne Oratorio Society and Haverford-Bryn Mawr Chorale Orchestra, and she has performed with the Philadelphia Ballet Orchestra, Reading Symphony, Bay Atlantic Symphony, Riverside Symphonia, and West Jersey 
Hailing from Honolulu,