Brooke Mahanes

Brooke has been playing violin since she was 11 years old, when she became an orchestra student in the Virgnia Beach City Public Schools.  Her violin teachers have included Betty Gross, Dr. Janet Orenstein, and Dr. John Fadial.  Her undergraduate degree is a B.M. in Music Performance on violin from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA.  There she studied with Dr. Wanchi Huang.  She has been a free-lance performing musician on violin and viola since high school, and has played with Roanoke Symphony, Shenandoah Symphony in Lexington, VA, Lynchburg Symphony, New Lyric Theatre, Heritage Repertory Theatre, Oratorio Society of Charlottesville-Albemarle, Virginia Consort, Virginia Glee Club, and Madison Choral Society.  She has been teaching private lessons for violin and viola since high school.  After graduating from JMU in 2005, she maintained a full studio in Charlottesville, teaching private lessons on violin, viola, and cello from home and as a teacher for the Boyd Tinsley Music Fund Program in the Charlottesville City Schools. She is a member of the Charlottesville Music Teachers Association, which is a division of Music Teachers National Association.  She currently has a smaller studio of 18 students in Charlottesville so that she can pursue a graduate certificate at Shenandoah Conservatory.  The degree of study is an Artist Diploma in Quartet Studies, and it is a two-year program.  She studies violin, viola, and quartet with Doris Lederer of the Audubon Quartet, and quartet with Tom Shaw, also of the Audubon Quartet.  She currently performs fequently in Winchester and surrounding areas with the Viandante Quartet and the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra.  She also continues to "gig" with other musicians around the state for weddings and other events.  The Virtu Foundation has graciously loaned her a contemporary American violin by Curt Wunderlich.