Stefan Petrescu, Artistic Director
Petrescu comes to MCYO as Artistic Director with over 35 years of chamber music, conducting, and teaching experience at schools such as the Tennessee Governor School of the Arts, Fisk University, Tennessee State University, MTSU, and others. In addition, he is a violinist and a composer having played with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, Murfreesboro Symphony, and others in the United States and Europe. Petrescu received a master's degree in solo violin and teaching from George Enescu Academy of Music in Romania.
Melanie Parobek, Associate Conductor
Melanie Joy Parobek, a contemporary violinist, composer, arranger, and teacher, found her passion for music at a very young age. She began her studies on the piano, but eventually found her calling on the violin. After many years of intensive classical training, Melanie Joy discovered her true passion for jazz and improvisation and moved to Nashville to pursue this passion. She has her undergraduate and masters from Belmont University in Commercial Violin Performance where she studied with Elisabeth Small, Tracy Silverman, Tammy Rogers, and Billy Contreras. For her master’s thesis, she researched the life and musical concepts of her teacher and mentor and Nashville Country legend, Buddy Spicher.
She has performed at the Bridgestone Arena, the Grand Ole Opry, and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. She recently performed with Rod Stewart for his Nashville appearance during his 2012 summer tour. Her Television appearances include: the 2010 Dove Awards with Natalie Grant, the 2010 CMA Country Christmas with Martina McBride, Darius Rucker, Kelly Pickler and LeAnn Rimes, the 2011 CMA Country Christmas with Vince Gill, Amy Grant, and Brad Paisley, and the 2011 CMA Awards with Rascal Flatts. She has and is currently performing locally with bands and artists such as Rodeo Pony, The Blair Band, Lindsay George, Sarah Williams, Lauren Homburg, Sharif Iman, and the Cumberland Tenderfoots.
She has recorded at Historic RCA Studio B, Ocean Way Studios, The Castle in Franklin, and The Tracking Room. She recorded on the trailer for the film Billy: The Early Years, and on the soundtrack of the independent film Make Out with Violence. In 2011, she was the composer for a short film, The Piano Man during the Student Scoring Initiative which was led by the Nashville Composers Association. She arranged the string parts on the song “She Goes By Lonely” from Adam Illami’s newest record The Truth.
Melanie Joy teaches in her private violin studio. She was director of the Academy Orchestra and the Chamber Ensembles within Nashville’s Music City Youth Orchestra (MCYO) for the 2011-2012 season. She has taught and worked at the Annie Moses Fine Arts Academy, Christian Howes’ Creative Strings Workshop, the Chamber Music Connection in Ohio, and the Belmont University Strings Crossings Camp.
Melanie Joy enjoys the art of composition and songwriting, and would love to share her original music. It can be heard on her facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/melaniejoyviolin
Tracy Silverman, Artist-in-Residence
Lauded by the BBC as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin”, Tracy Silverman has redefined the instrument with his instantly recognizable trademark sound. His groundbreaking work with the six-string electric violin has forever transformed violin playing, much as Hendrix redefined the electric guitar. A Juilliard graduate, Tracy performed the premier of John Adams’ electric violin concerto ‘The Dharma at Big Sur’ at the gala opening of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. The piece was written for Silverman and he recorded it in 2004 for Nonesuch Records with John Adams conducting the BBC Symphony. Tracy has toured and recorded with composer Terry Riley, was first violinist with the Turtle Island String Quartet, and has recorded and produced many CDs for Windham Hill Records. He has performed and recorded with major symphonies and has produced and toured extensively with pianist Jim Brickman. Tracy’s ‘Electric Violin Concerto’ has been choreographed by Henrique Rodovolho and the Bale Teatro Guaira in Brazil. Tracy has taught at Macalester College in St. Paul, and at the MacPhail Center for the Arts in Minneapolis and regularly gives workshops all over the world, including the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Jazz in July at Amherst, Oberlin Conservatory and many others. He is a favorite instructor at Mark O’Connor’s annual fiddle camp, and currently holds a teaching position at Belmont University in Nashville, where he teaches exclusively jazz and rock violin. An international touring artist, Tracy has performed at major concert venues all over the world, and is currently touring internationally with his solo concerts, with his rock band Eclectica, as a member of the Terry Riley Trio, The Great Big Piano Trio with Philip Aaberg and Eugene Friesen, and with the Quarteto Sao Paulo in Brazil. For more information see www.tracysilverman.com.
LeAnn Austin, Managing Director
LeAnn Austin joins MCYO as the new Managing Director. Her career highlights include developing diversified fundraising programs to secure funding, executing special events to enhance and solidify donor relations, promoting advocacy and education for ongoing initiatives within the community and developing data tracking systems and promotional materials for sales, advertising and services.
LeAnn’s degree in Marketing from Lipscomb University provided the understanding in business, and being naturally inclined to the non-profit industry, she began her work in hospice care. From hospice care she moved into grant writing, special events and funding development for Nashville’s Table, including donor relations and event fundraising for the Alzheimer’s Association, where she found she was able to truly blend her skills with the community’s needs.
LeAnn’s musical tastes are diverse, which excited her about the repertoire for which Nashville’s only Eclectic Youth Orchestra is known. Her passion for music and the arts started from early childhood as she was surrounded by multiple generations of musicians, each with their own unique and broad choice of instruments and musical genres.
With MCYO LeAnn is excited about the opportunity to tie her passion for music to her expertise in marketing, business and non-profit development. “Music and the arts move people toward positive living and creative learning, and MCYO’s unique approach to music education is unmatched by any other local youth orchestra.” LeAnn is thrilled to be a part of MCYO’s growth and to have the opportunity to enhance the lives of both students and the community through her efforts to keep MCYO a viable self-sustaining organization.
Walter Bitner, Founder
Veteran music educator Walter Bitner brought a multi-faceted background as a teacher and performer to his role as founder of MCYO Concert Orchestra - Nashville's eclectic youth orchestra. A multi-instrumentalist and singer, he is also a master teacher, composer, and conductor conversant with a wide variety of musical styles and traditions. Walter began his career as a boy soprano and has played piano since the age of seven. Through his teens and twenties he worked as a choral singer in a wide variety of ensembles ranging from chamber groups to symphony choruses, and as a pianist performing as both classical recitalist and jazz soloist. In 1992 he turned his energies to the study of early music and he performed renaissance and baroque music on lute and recorder extensively for a decade, especially as a soloist and as member of The Tampa Bay Early Music Consort 1996–2000. He conducted members of The Florida Orchestra in his first orchestral concert at the age of 21, and has directed dozens of student instrumental and vocal ensemble performances in his many years of teaching. Walter served as performing arts director at private schools in New York, Florida, and Nashville 1991–2007. His diverse experiences as a performer have contributed significantly to his eclectic approach to music programming and curriculum development and his programs have gained a reputation for artistic excellence and dynamic involvement on the part of his students. Walter holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Charter Oak State College, Connecticut, and he has performed with a wide array of musicians including Robert Shaw and Pete Seeger. In recent years his primary focus has been on his teaching activities and his work as an arranger and composer for his student ensembles. Walter is the Director of Choral Studies at Nashville School of the Arts, where he taught piano from 2008 – 2011 and where he also teaches classes in Music Understanding and AP Music Theory.
