Career Path of Young Orchestral Musicians

Cellist Scott Lykins is Founder and Artistic Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival, a highly successful concert series held in his native Brainerd, MN since 2009. He received Bachelor ('09) and Masters ('11) degrees from the Eastman School of Music studying with Professors Steven Doane and Alan Harris, respectively. He has participated in the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the National Orchestra Institute, National Repertory Orchestra and the Summer Music Festival at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO. As an orchestral performer, he has served as principal cellist of the Classical Symphony of Chicago and the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra, and has played with the Syracuse Symphony and the New World Symphony in Miami. With a strong interest in arts administration, Scott received a Certificate from the Catherine Filene Shrouse Arts Leadership Program at Eastman. He has interned in the Artistic Department of the Rochester Philharmonic and serves as Managing Assistant of the inaugural season of the Mill City Summer Opera in Minneapolis, MN. In addition to working as a freelance cellist in Minneapolis, he was recently appointed piano accompanist for the One Voice Mixed Chorus in St. Paul, MN.

Brittney Stanton originally from upstate NY, holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education from Nazareth College of Rochester and is currently pursuing her Master's in Flute Performance at Arizona State University studying with Elizabeth Buck. This fall she will also start an internship with the Phoenix Symphony working with their educational outreach program.

Violist Drew Alexander Forde has performed extensively and with great acclaim throughout the United States and abroad. His solo engagements include a performance of the Walton Viola Concerto with both the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he has performed the Mendelssohn Octet alongside the world-renowned St. Lawrence String Quartet, and with great success. Recently, he was asked to perform in the Rome Chamber Music Festival for two summers, culminating with an electric performance of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet alongside exhilarating violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. In addition to the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Drew has performed at the Montecito International Music Festival, Brevard International Music Festival, Franklin Pond Chamber Music, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Colorado College Music Festival, and the Sejong International Music Festival.
Born in Atlanta, GA., Drew Alexander Forde began his viola studies at age twelve. He pursued undergraduate studies at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. During his years at Mercer, Drew studied with Mr. Paul Murphy, Associate Principal Violist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Lawrence Dutton, violist of the world-renowned Emerson Quartet, and Becca Albers, associate principal violist of the Minnesota Orchestra. Since graduating Cum Laude from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, Drew is pursuing his Master’s Degree at the Juilliard School where he studies with the legendary Heidi Castleman and the illustrious Hsin-Yun Huang.
Drew is extremely involved in community engagement, both live and via interactive social media. After attending the Otis Redding Singer/Songwriter summer camp and the DECODA Skidmore Chamber Music Institute, Drew realized his desire to educate, share, and immerse audiences in classical music through interactive performance. Using these skills, combined with his social media prowess, Drew is working fervently to tell the story of classical music and inspire audiences to see what all the fuss is about!

Born and raised in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Jason realized that he wanted to play the violin at age 3 after seeing Itzhak Perlman play for Oscar the Grouch on “Sesame Street;" at age 5, he started in the local Suzuki program. Although officially he only ever studied classical music, Jason got into alternative violin in his high school’s Strolling Strings group and in his jobs as a bluegrass fiddler at both Knoebels Amusement Resort and HersheyPark, and continued pushing the violin’s limits throughout college. Jason earned his degree in Music Education from the University of Miami where he was Homecoming King and President of the Beta Tau chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

Following graduation, Jason landed his dream job as a member of the cast of Barrage, the international high-octane touring alternative violin show. During his four years with Barrage, Jason was elected to the position of Performers' Representative, and, in this capacity, was responsible for all of the communication and contract negotiation between the cast, management, and the American Federation of Musicians.

Over the summer of 2010, Jason worked in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as the onstage electric violinist in the Cirque Productions show "Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy."

From September 2010 until August 2012, Jason was the Cultural Programs Coordinator at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College, where he managed two concert series -- a diverse performing arts series for kids and an adult music series.

During the summer of 2011, Jason interned at the Overture Center for the Arts (Madison, WI), primarily assisting the Transition Coordinator as the Center transitioned from being a public entity to a private not-for-profit. His responsibilities also involved projects in the finance, programming, and administrative departments. He has now returned to Overture as the Programming and Community Engagement Coordinator, a full-time position responsible for a variety of tasks within the Programming Department.

Jason earned his MBA from the University of Cincinnati's Lindner College of Business in June 2012, and has nearly completed his Master of Arts in Arts Administration (there's just a thesis standing between him and completion).

Steve Danyew is a composer, saxophonist, teacher, and arts administrator based in Rochester, NY. Danyew composes works for chamber ensembles, large instrumental ensembles, choirs and more, and currently serves as Managing Editor of Polyphonic.org. His music has been hailed as “startlingly beautiful” and “undeniably well crafted and communicative” by the Miami Herald, and has been praised as possessing “sensitivity, skill and tremendous sophistication” by the Kansas City Independent. Steve received a B.M. cum laude, Pi Kappa Lambda from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and holds an M.M. in Composition and Certificate in Arts Leadership from the Eastman School of Music.

Making her solo debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11, cellist Susie Yang has established herself as an avid soloist, orchestral musician, and chamber musician. In May 2004, Susie graduated with her Bachelors degree in cello performance at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Andre Emelianoff. Susie then went on to receive her Masters degree in 2006, at the New England Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of president emeritus, Laurence Lesser. She has received numerous scholarships from both The Juilliard School and New England Conservatory, including the Elaine Lambert Yearly Prize, Felix Salmond Scholarship, and the Marion Sunshine Scholarship. At the New England Conservatory, Ms. Yang was the recipient of the Beneficent Society Scholarship of $5000. Susie has won top prizes in numerous solo competitions including the New World Symphony Concerto Competition, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Skokie Valley National Young Artists Competition, and the ASTA National Competition. She has also been featured on PBS and 98.7 FM classical radio station in Chicago .
Ms Yang was a fellow at the New World Symphony and was a rotating principal under music director, Michael Tilson Thomas. In January 2009, Susie was invited to play with the Kansas City Symphony. She is now living in San Diego, playing with the San Diego Symphony and California Chamber Orchestra. She is also working on a project of forming a new chamber group that will put on concerts and outreach concerts in various kinds of venues in the Southern California area. In January 2010, she will be perform Schubert's Cello Quintet at the Wintermezzo Series for Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, CA.
Ms. Yang has worked with and played for many of the top musicians of the world, including Donald and Vivian Weilerstein, Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, The Peabody Trio, and The Borromeo Quartet. She has spent her summers at the Sarasota Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, The Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto , ITALY , Taos School of Music, Yellow Barn Summer Festival, and Festival Mozaic.