Prelude Music Faculty

Julia Cash, Prelude Director, and violinist

B.M. New England Conservatory. Diplomas from NEC, Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik (Trossingen, Germany) and Dutch Royal Conservatory (The Hague).

Julia Cash is an active freelance musician and teacher in the Boston Area. She has served as principal second and assistant concertmaster of Opera Boston, and she performs regularly with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Ballet, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Boston and as concertmaster of Alea III new music ensemble. She is also an active chamber musician, performing in venues across New England. Other recent performances include guest concertmaster with the Orchestra of the European Union on tour in Boston Symphony Hall last year.

Ms. Cash is also an avid teacher and music educator. Along with her private studio, she has taught at schools and festivals throughout the US. She is currently on the faculty at Nobles and Greenough School, Boston Latin School and the Boston Youth Symphony. Ms. Cash has served as Music Director of the Prelude since its inception at Point CounterPoint in 2010.

Ms. Cash’s primary teachers have been James Bushwell, Federico Agostini and Vera Beths. She has attended many world renowned , including Accademia Musicale Chicigiana, in Siena, Italy, the Conservatoire de Amercaines in Fontainbleau, France, Kneisal Hall, the Britt Festival and Musicordia. As a fellow at Tanglewood Music Festival, she received The National Music Clubs Award for outstanding performers.

Amelia Hollander Ames, violist

Violist Amelia Hollander Ames is passionate about bringing music to all audiences via performance, education and collaboration. She is the founder of Con Vivo Music, which presents adventurous and free chamber music concerts in her hometown of Jersey City, NJ. Principal Viola of the Orchestra of Indian Hill and Evan Ziporyn’s Ambient Orchestra, Amelia is a busy freelancer in the Boston area. Engagements include A Far Cry, American Repertory Theater, BMOP, BPO, Monadnock Festival String Quartet and Orchestra, Radius Ensemble, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Salem Classical. From 2004– 2007, Amelia was violist of the Israel Contemporary String Quartet and a member of Tel Aviv Soloists (“Solanei Tel Aviv”). Since 2008, Amelia has made several tours to Mexico as a guest of Cultures in Harmony and Cuerdas Oaxaca. She has taught at Hasadna Conservatory in Jerusalem, New Jersey City University, Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston, NYC’s Interschool Orchestras, where she conducted the Trinity Wall Street Orcheatra, and Third Street Music School, her alma mater. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory, Amelia currently teaches in the Public Schools of Somerville, MA, as well as at her home studio. She lives in Arlington, MA, with her husband, Christopher, their two sons, and two catahoula leopard dogs.

Liana Zaretsky, violinist

Liana Zaretsky, violin, appears regularly with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, and is former principal second violinst of the Portland Symphony (ME). Ms. Zaretsky holds a Master’s and Graduate Diploma degree in music from Northwestern and New England Conservatory respectively. She also teaches at the School of Continuing Education at the New England Conservatory.

Tina Lee Hadari, violinist

Tina Lee Hadari, violin, of New Haven, CT, is a founding member of the Vinca Quartet, recently hailed by the NY Times as “stunning…musicians worth keeping an eye on.” As a soloist and chamber musician she has performed in halls worldwide, including Merkin and Weill Halls in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Vienna Konzerthaus. Tina began studying violin in the public schools in Indiana at the age of nine. She received her B.M. and B.S. at the New England Conservatory and Tufts University, and upon graduation, she was awarded the Huntington Beebe Fellowship to study in Vienna, Austria. She earned her M.M at the Yale School of Music and earned her PhD at the University of Colorado.

John Kramer, pianist

John is a pianist and composer based in Boston, MA. He has performed and had his music performed in and around Boston, New York, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and throughout New England. John has worked extensively as a collaborative pianist, has conducted choirs and taught mostly in the Boston area, but also in southeast Michigan. He has written music for the piano, organ, choir, and orchestra, and has several chamber music pieces in his portfolio. He recently had his song “Variations on the Word Sleep” premiered in NYC, and his composition for chorus and orchestra, “The Poet’s Calendar,” was be performed in Arlington, MA in January, 2014. He has been the recipient of many commissions, including one by the great organist Marilyn Mason. This commission, a Chorale Partita on Greensleeves, was published by Morningstar Press in June 2006. In 2008 he received the Vincent Brown Silliman prize for his choral setting of the e. e. cummings poem “i thank You God.” His CD of original solo piano music “Orange Earth/Blue Ether” is available from CD Baby. He is the Music Director at the Winchester Unitarian Society and teaches at the Winchester Community Music School and at his home studio. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1998 with a Master’s degree in music composition and a Master of Fine Arts degree in piano performance.

Colleen McGary-Smith, cellist

Colleen has an active and varied freelance career on both modern and baroque cello as well as viola da gamba in the Greater Boston area. She is also a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher of cello students as young as 4 and up to the young at heart age of 95!  Colleen began her cello studies at the age of 5 in St. Catherines, Ontario Canada.  She was fortunate to have been born into a musical family. Both parents are professional musicians and educators.  Colleen attended classes at the Eastman Preparatory Department and went on to receive her Bachelor of Music Degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where her primary cello instructor was the acclaimed pedagogue, Alan Harris.  After graduation, Colleen continued studies with Alan Harris and Richard Aaron while teaching in the Preparatory Department of CIM. She received her Master of Music from Boston University where her primary instructors were Andres Diaz on modern cello and Alice Robbins on baroque cello and viola da gamba. Other influential instructors were Jane Hershey, Phoebe Carrai, Timothy Eddy, John Hsu and Suzanne Wijsman.

Michal Shein, cellist

Israeli-Mexican-American cellist Michal Shein is a performer and master educator
focused on curating cross-cultural performance projects and intensive
educational initiatives. She is the Artistic Director of Cellisimo, an intensive high
level cello festival for Spanish speaking cellists with limited resources which
includes masterclasses with world-class faculty, special lectures and wellness
sessions.
Michal is recognized for her pedagogical style that nurtures her students with
effective pedagogical methods for solid and positive musical advancement. Her
students have been winners in competitions, have received admission to top
festivals such as BUTI Tanglewood, Brevard, YOLA Festival, Greenwood, National
Symphony Summer Institute, and have played in masterclasses for cellists in top
conservatories in the U.S. She has also been in high demand in many music
programs such as New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Conservatory
Lab Charter School El Sistema, Brookline Music School, Boston Youth Symphony
Orchestra, and others. Currently, she teaches at the Boston String Academy, an
award-winning El Sistema inspired string program. Michal also serves on the
faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College and University of Rhode
Island.
Aside from her diverse educational work, Michal maintains a career as a soloist,
orchestral cellist and chamber musician. Some highlights of this past season
were collaborations with Celebrity Series of Boston, as well as a new recording of
the Vivaldi sonatas with guitarist Adam Levin. Michal also appears with many
orchestras and ensembles in Boston including the Rhode Island Philharmonic,
Portland Symphony, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and others.
Michal received her B.A. in Music from U.C. Berkeley and an M.A. at New England
Conservatory, studying with Natasha Brofsky. Michal lives in an intentional
cohousing community in Jamaica Plain, with her husband Jonas and her young
children Noam and Hadas.