Summer String Academy Faculty 2026

Faculty
Mimi Zweig, Director – Violin
Brenda Brenner – Violin
Ching-Yi Lin – Violin
Pasha Sabouri – Violin
Sirena Huang – Violin (Weeks 1 and 2)
Nancy Zhou – Violin (Weeks 3 and 4)
Sarah Kapustin – Violin/Chamber Music
Roeland Jagers – Viola/Chamber Music
Andrew Braddock – Chamber Music
Megan Yip – Cello
Richard Aaron – Cello (Week 1)
Brandon Vamos – Cello (Weeks 2/3)
Peter Stumpf – Cello (Week 4)

Master Classes
Atar Arad
William Harvey
Grigory Kalinovsky
Susan Moses
Pacifica Quartet – Simin Ganatra, Austin Hartman, Mark Holloway, Brandon Vamos
James Przygocki
Sherry Sinift
Stephen Wyrczynski

Collaborative Pianists
Chih-Yi Chen
Melivia Raharjo
Malcolm Liu
Ting-Ting  Yang

Mimi Zweig is Professor of Music in Violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and Director of the Indiana University String Academy. She joined the Jacobs School of Music faculty in 1976. Zweig studied with Louis Krasner, Samuel Kissel, Raphael Bronstein, and Tadeusz Wroński. She has been a member of the Syracuse Symphony, American Symphony under Leopold Stokowski, and Indianapolis Symphony. She has developed pre-college string programs across the United States since 1972. Zweig has given master classes and pedagogy workshops in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Israel, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and throughout Europe. Her innovative web-based teaching tool, Mimi Zweig StringPedagogy.com, is accessed worldwide. American Public Television released the Emmy-nominated documentary Circling Around —The Violin Virtuosi, featuring IU String Academy students, in Spring 2006. In 2019, Zweig was the recipient of the American String Teachers Association Artist Teacher Award. Her students have won numerous competitions and teach and perform worldwide.

Brenda Brenner is Professor of Music Education and Director of the Jacobs Academy at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She specializes in string music education, teaching applied violin, as well as courses in violin and string pedagogy. Brenner received a BM and BME from Wichita State University and an MM and DMA in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music. In addition to her appointment to the Music Education Department, she serves as co-director of the IU String Academy, a position she has held since 1993. Her String Academy students have been featured in concerts in major venues throughout the United States and have presented tours throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. As director of the Fairview Project – a program in which every first and second grader in a Title I school learns violin as part of the curriculum – Brenner researches the cognitive, academic, and social outcomes of early instrumental music instruction.  An active performer of chamber music throughout the United States, Brenner partners with her husband, organist Christopher Young.  She also teaches and conducts at the IU Summer String Academy and is Assistant Director of the IU Retreat for Professional Violinists and Violists. Brenner is an active international clinician, is a Past President of the American String Teachers Association, and is on the board of the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.

Violist Roeland Jagers is a passionate (chamber) musician, teacher, and soloist. He was a founding member of the Rubens Quartet, laureate of several international competitions. The quartet enjoyed an active international career for 16 seasons in Europe, the United States and Israel. Since then, Roeland has performed in various formations and recital programs. His diverse chamber music recordings have been highly praised in the international press. Roeland was principal viola of the Noord Nederlands Orkest and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (National Opera) in Amsterdam. He is also a much sought-after guest principal with other orchestras, including the Residentie Orkest, the Belgian National Orchestra and Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and a substitute with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Roeland teaches viola and chamber music at the Indiana University Summer String Academy (Bloomington IN) as well as the University of Oklahoma Summer String Academy in Norman OK. He has extensive teaching experience, working regularly with all levels from amateurs and college students to young professionals. He wrote a brief chamber music method, in which subjects as score study, leadership and rehearsal techniques are addressed. Roeland studied viola with Gisella Bergman and Ferdinand Erblich. In 2001 he received his Bachelor of Music diploma with honors, and continued on to receive a Master of Music in 2004 with Vladimir Mendelssohn, also with honors, at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In addition to his activities as a violist, Roeland also studied piano, and received his Bachelor of Music diploma in 2003. As a member of the Rubens Quartet, Roeland studied for four years at the Dutch String Quartet Academy in Amsterdam, where he worked intensely with members of the Amadeus, Hagen, Juilliard and Borodin quartets, followed by two years at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Prof. Eberhard Feltz. Roeland plays a Giovanni Pistucci viola, on loan to him from the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds in Amsterdam.

Sarah Kapustin’s musical activities have taken her across North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia in performances as soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. A devoted and passionate chamber musician, Sarah has appeared at various international festivals, most notably Kuhmo, Giverny, Sitka, El Paso ProMusica, Peter de Grote, Chamberfest Cleveland and Marlboro, where she has performed with such distinguished artists as Claude Frank, Joseph Silverstein, David Soyer, and Kim Kashkashian. Sarah plays recitals regularly with pianists Jeannette Koekkoek and Shuann Chai, and her recordings of the Beethoven sonata cycle (with Koekkoek) and solo works by Bartók, Bach and Fulmer, among others, have received international acclaim. Sarah was the 1^st violinist of the renowned Rubens Quartet from 2008 until the group’s final season in 2016. Sarah received a Master’s degree in violin performance at The Juilliard School with Robert Mann in 2005. She previously received a Bachelor of Music and an Artist Diploma from Indiana University as a pupil of Mauricio Fuks, and formerly studied with Mimi Zweig and James Przygocki. Increasingly sought after as a teacher, she is professor of violin at ArtEZ Conservatorium and the Sweelinck Academie (preparatory division of the Amsterdam Conservatory), and a guest teacher at Forum Musikae in Madrid. She has given masterclasses in the US, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Brazil, Columbia and Hong Kong, and is a faculty member of the Indiana University Summer String Academy. Currently Sarah resides in Zwolle, the Netherlands, where she is active as a chamber musician, soloist and concertmaster. She also performs and tours regularly with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Sarah plays on the ”Nico Richter and Hetta Rester” G.B. Rogeri, Brescia, ca. 1690, on loan to her from the Nationaal Muziekinstrumentenfonds in Amsterdam.

Megan Yip currently teaches cello undergraduates at University of Michigan and serves on the faculty at Michigan Youth Performing Arts Pre-College Program. She previously taught undergraduates at Yale College and recently led a masterclass at Elly Bašić School of Music in Zagreb, Croatia. She is a guest artist with Versoi Ensemble, a collective of American and Finnish artists as agents of cultural diplomacy and was a member of Grammy-nominated ensemble, Yale Cellos. She continues to perform throughout the United States and internationally, with recent performances at Yellow Barn (Putney, VT), Prussia Cove (England), and Thy Chamber Music (Denmark). Ms. Yip recently returned after a year in Freiburg, Germany as a recipient of a Fulbright, and holds degrees from Yale School of Music and The Juilliard School. She is completing her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Michigan.

Pasha Sabouri is one of the most sought after and respected American violin pedagogues of the new generation. He has performed in recitals and concerts in Holland, Sweden, Austria, Germany, UK, throughout the United States and Canada. A passionate educator and a published author whose acclaimed book “Upbeat” guides middle and high school students and their families on the road to professional musical education and career. His students are competing and featured in such competitions and media outlets as Menuhin Competition, Sphinx Competition, Dallas Symphony’s Lynn Harrell Competition, ENKOR Competition, and NPR’s From The Top, winning the coveted “Jack Kent Cooke” Award. Pasha Sabouri is the founder and Artistic Director of the Texas Strings Festival, and it’s affiliate Master Series – a year-round educational initiative which provides the students with extraordinary opportunity to be guided and inspired by leading musicians of the day. Throughout the years the students of TSF have had the privilege to work with such luminaries as Miriam Fried, Vadim Gluzman, Paul Kantor, Ida Kavafian, Jan Mark Sloman, Jinjoo Cho, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, Robin Wilson, Grigory Kalinovsky and William Hagen. He is also the  founder and leader of Teachers’ Lounge – an online teachers collective designed to support and empower his colleagues with innovative ways of teaching and studio development.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, his primary focus is his highly successful private studio. Pasha Sabouri is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College. He has also had the privilege to serve as Adjunct Professor at Concordia College as well as Artistic Director at the Concordia College Music Academy in Austin, Texas. Prior to this position, he was appointed Lecturer Violin Professor at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana and has also been faculty at Encore Chamber Music Institute, Omaha Conservatory of Music Institute, the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program, and has adjudicated at Carnegie Hall NYO/2 program, Jack McGehee and UT Concerto Competitions.

Pasha Sabouri has appeared as a soloist at the opening of the Edinburgh Festival, performed with the Texas Chamber Orchestra, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Henderson Symphony and the Ottawa Sinfonette. He was awarded the first prize at the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Competition, was named National Finalist for Music Teachers National Association, The Texas Young Artist and the Coeur D’Alene Competitions. He is a graduate of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and the University of Texas Butler School of Music, studying with Won-Bin Yim, Naoko Tanaka and Brian Lewis. His violin is a Johannes Cuypers 1793.

Violist Andrew Braddock’s teaching and performing career has recently taken him to the Sejong Center in Seoul, South Korea, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, and the International Viola Congress in Rotterdam. A passionate educator, he has given masterclasses at Vanderbilt University, the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan, Bowling Green State University, and many others. He teaches at Western Kentucky University (WKU) and is the co-director of the WKU String Academy. In the summers, he teaches at the Indiana University Summer String Academy and directs the WKU Summer String Institute, an intensive summer camp for students ages 4 to 18 based around chamber music and orchestral performance. His creative teaching led him to co-found Bridging Cultures with Music, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports various pedagogical and outreach programs in his community and abroad.

Research, writing, and intellectual discovery are central to his artistic mission. His writings have appeared in publications such as The Strad and the Journal of the British Music Society. He is currently the editor of the American Suzuki Journal, a quarterly publication of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. From 2017 to 2021, Dr. Braddock was the editor of the Journal of the American Viola Society, the most prominent peer-reviewed publication for viola scholarship. The journal presents musicological and music theory research relating to the viola, in addition to pedagogical insights and current reviews. Most recently, Dr. Braddock spearheaded an issue devoted to the 40th anniversary of George Rochberg’s viola sonata, examining it from various musicological, historical, and theoretical perspectives. He previously served as the journal’s New Music Editor and on the board of the American Viola Society. He is the principal violist of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, and he regularly plays with the Nashville Symphony and the Nashville Opera. He holds degrees from Indiana University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Kentucky. His principal teachers are Atar Arad, Kathryn Plummer, and John Graham. He plays a viola made by Giovanni Pistucci, ca. 1920.

Sirena Huang made her solo debut with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra in 2004 at the age of nine, and, since then, has performed in seventeen countries across three continents. She has been featured as a soloist with more than fifty prestigious ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestras of Cleveland, Baltimore, Shanghai, Russia, Evergreen and Singapore, and the Staatskapelle Weimar in Germany. She has appeared as a guest artist at the Verbier Music Festival, Ravinia Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Sarasota Arts Series, Albuquerque Chamber Music Festival, “The Great Music for a Great City” series in New York City, and many others.
Motivated by a deep wish to inspire peace and harmony with her music, Sirena has performed before world leaders, thinkers and humanitarians. At age eleven, she gave a TED talk that garnered more than 2.5 million views. In 2006, she received the honor of playing for thirty Nobel Prize Laureates at the World Peace Conference held in Petra. In 2007, she played in the Opening Ceremony of the “Forum 2000 World Conference” in Prague. In 2008, she was invited to perform during the ceremony in which the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity presented its Humanitarian Award to President Sarkozy of France. Ms. Huang won the Gold Medal Prize at the 2022 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis.

Known for her probing musical voice and searing virtuosity, Nancy Zhou seeks to invigorate appreciation for the art and science of the violin. Her thoughtful musicianship and robust online presence resonate with a global audience in such a way that brings her on stage with leading orchestras around the world. More than 20 years since her orchestral debut, Nancy has collaborated with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, among others. A passionate soloist who cherishes chamber music collaborations and commits to the responsibility of education,Nancy has performed at festivals including the Verbier Festival, Tongyeong Music Festival, and Marvão Festival; she is a regular guest educator at various international summer festivals,holding not only masterclasses but also workshops on fundamental training and wellbeing for musicians. Over the years, the violinist’s interest in cultural heritage and the humanities resulted in a string of notable collaborations. In collaboration with the New Jersey Symphony and Xian Zhang, she presented Zhao Jiping’s first violin concerto at Alice Tully Hall; gave the US premieres of Unsuk Chin’s “Gran Cadenza” for two solo violins with Anne-Sophie Mutter; performed Chen Qigang’s “La joie de la souffrance” with the Rogue Valley Symphony; and, in partnership with the La Jolla Symphony, gave the West Coast premiere of Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto no. 1. In July 2025, Nancy embarks on a research trip with Vivian to Zhexiang, China, the hometown village of the violinist’s mother, who is a former professional folk dancer ; the result is a work for violin and electronics that explores the intersection of music as a cultural force and folk minority culture. The violinist’s critically-acclaimed debut album, STORIES (re)TRACED, is a response to these questions and features four seminal and inextricably connected works for solo violin, including Béla Bartók’s Sonata. The CD released in June 2025 with Orchid Classics. Born in Texas to Chinese immigrant parents, Nancy began the violin under the guidance of her father, who hails from a family of traditional musicians. She went on to study with Miriam Fried  at the New England Conservatory while pursuing her interest in literature at Harvard University. She now is an Associated Artist of the Queen Elisabeth Chapel.

Brandon Vamos is professor of practice (cello) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a member of the Pacifica Quartet, the school’s quartet-in-residence. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras worldwide and has collaborated with many distinguished artists, including Paul Katz, Michael Tree, Yo-Yo Ma, Menahem Pressler, and the Emerson Quartet, and has recorded for Cedille, Naxos, and Cacophony Records. Awarded a Performer’s Certificate at the Eastman School of Music, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree as a student of Paul Katz, Vamos has also studied with distinguished artists such as Tanya Carey in Macomb, Ill., and Aldo Parisot at Yale University, where he earned a Master of Music degree. As a member of the Pacifica Quartet, he won a 2009 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance and the Cleveland Quartet Award, in addition to being named Musical America’s 2009 Ensemble of the Year.

Richard Aaron is currently on the cello faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is professor emeritus of cello at the University of Michigan. Previously he also taught at The Julliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory. Aaron has given master classes in Spain, Germany, France, Korea, Japan, China, and Australia, as well as at many of the leading music schools in North America, including Rice University, Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Mannes, the Hartt School, and The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Since 2003, Aaron has been on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and has taught at many other summer music institutes including the Indiana University String Academy, Calgary Music Bridge, Peter the Great Music Festival (Groningen, Holland), Aria International Summer Academy (Massachusetts), Innsbruck Summer Music Academy (Missouri), Chautauqua Institution (New York), the Idyllwild Summer Program (California), Heifetz International Music Institute (Virginia), Marrowstone Music Festival (Port Townsend, Washington), and Encore (Ohio).

Many of Aaron’s students have won prestigious prizes at competitions around the world, including the Naumburg, Washington International, Johanson in Washington, Isan Yun in Korea, Cassado in Japan, and Klein in San Francisco. Aaron himself is a frequent competition judge, having recently served the Beijing International Competition, Isan Yun Competition (Korea), Cassado (Japan), Amsterdam Cello Biennale Competition, Schadt String Competition, and The Stulberg Competition. Former Aaron students have occupied principal positions in major orchestras such as Chicago, Saint Louis, Seattle, Portland, and the Metropolitan Opera to name just a few, as well as playing among award-winning ensembles, such as the Biava, Fry Street, American, Pandereski, Linden, Escher, and Aeolus string quartets. Aaron was a member of the Elysian Piano Trio at Baldwin Wallace College for 14 years; he continues an active chamber music performance schedule. For enjoyment and enrichment, Aaron studies and plays the viola da gamba and baroque cello.

Peter Stumpf is professor of cello at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and former principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Stumpf’s tenure in Los Angeles followed 12 years as associate principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. His professional orchestral career began at the age of 16 when he joined the cello section of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He received a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and an Artist’s Diploma from the New England Conservatory.

As a dedicated chamber music musician, he has has appeared on the chamber music series at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, the Boston Celebrity Series, the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Casals Hall in Tokyo, and at the concert halls of Cologne. He has performed with the chamber music societies of Boston and Philadelphia and at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico as well as the Festivals of Marlboro, Santa Fe, Bridgehampton, Ottawa, Great Lakes, Ojai, Spoleto, and Aspen. He has toured with Music from Marlboro, the Casals Hall Ensemble in Japan, and with pianist Mitsuko Uchida in performances of the complete Mozart Piano Trios. He has collaborated with pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Emmanuel Ax, Jorge Bolet, Yefim Bronfman, Radu Lupu, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Andras Schiff, Jean Yves Thibaudet, Mitsuko Uchida, and with the Emerson and Guarneri String Quartets. Most recently, the Johannes Quartet has collaborated with the Guarneri Quartet on tour in performances including commissions from composers William Bolcom and Esa Pekka Salonen. Concerto appearances have been with the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Philharmonic, the Virginia Symphony, the Vermont Symphony, the Connecticut String Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, the American Youth Symphony, and at the Aspen Music Festival. As a recitalist, he has performed at the Universities of Hartford, Syracuse, and Delaware, at Jordan Hall in Boston, and at the Philips and Corcoran Galleries in Washington, D.C. Most recently, he performed the Six Suites for Solo Cello by J. S. Bach on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Series and on the Chamber Music in Historic Sites Series in Los Angeles. His awards include first prize in the Washington International Competition, the Graham-Stahl Competition, and the Aspen Concerto Competition and second prize in the Evian International String Quartet Competition.