Music
University of Memphis String Orchestra FestivalString Orchestra Festival NominationsStrings Festival Music2025 Schedule + Parking MapFestival Faculty
The 2025 String Orchestra Festival + All West Prep is a unique musical experience sponsored by the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. The String Orchestra Festival will be conducted by Professor of Orchestral Studies, Daniel Brier. Held on the campus of the University of Memphis, the festival runs for three days. Participating students will benefit from masterclasses, sectionals, and instruction led by University of Memphis string faculty members. The festival is a platform for talented string students to explore and develop their skills in a string orchestra setting.
Nominations open in early September.
The highlight of the Festival is the Concert Finale featuring the String Orchestra in addition to an All West Prep Session. Students will also enjoy a special performance by the University of Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
Students will also enjoy a special performance by the University of Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
Instruction will be led by The University of Memphis string faculty members:
- Marcin Arendt, Associate Professor of Violin + Area Coordinator of Strings
- Kimberly Patterson, Associate Professor of Cello
- Lenny Schranze, Professor of Viola
- Timothy Shiu, Associate Professor of Violin
The nomination period is now open! The String Orchestra Festival is comprised of select high school students nominated by their high school orchestra directors or private studio teachers. Students may self-nominate. However, a student may only nominate themself.
Nominations—Due by October 20, 2025
Eligibility Honors Orchestra Division:
- Nominated high school students in 9th-12th grade students must submit a nomination form.
- Chair seating will be based on auditions held on the Festival's first day, October 23rd.
- Participating students must submit a University of Memphis Parental Consent Form.
>> Submit Honors Orchestra Nomination
Fees and Payments
Once you have been notified that your nomination(s) have been accepted to the Festival, please submit the $40 payment by the October 20, 2025 deadline.
Click the button below and select “Honors String Festival” to submit payment.
Submit Payment >
Marcin Arendt (DMA), Violin
A native of Poland, Marcin Arendt is an active chamber musician, soloist, & teacher. He recently joined the faculty of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis where he is a member of the Ceruti String Quartet. Marcin is part of the violin faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp, and he plays with IRIS Orchestra under the baton of Michael Stern where he regularly holds the Isaac Stern Concertmaster Chair. He also works as the Community Involvement Coordinator for IRIS Orchestra.
Dr. Arendt was a member and frequent concertmaster of Colorado's premiere conductor-less
string orchestra, The Sphere Ensemble, & the featured violinist with the nationally
touring crossover-fusion band FEAST. The prize winner of several national & international
competitions,
He has performed alongside many renowned artists including Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham,
Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, Martin Short, Edgar Meyer, Clay Aiken, Dawn Upshaw, Joshua
Bell, & Harry Connick, Jr.
Marcin holds Bachelor degrees in both philosophy & music from Stetson University, a Master of Music & Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees at the University of Colorado at Boulder, as well as a post-graduate performance certificate from the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk, Poland. He plays on a Jan van Rooyen original violin modeled after the Guarneri "Carrodus," and uses a bow made by the award winning bow maker David Forbes.
Tim Shiu (M.M.), Violin
Timothy Shiu, Associate Professor of Violin and a member of the Ceruti String Quartet, received his principal training from the Juilliard School, the Peabody Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Yale University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English. Mr. Shiu brings together in his artistry a diverse lineage of influences from his various principal mentors. As a result of his early formative years of study with Louise Behrend, he traces a line through her teacher, Louis Persinger, to the Franco-Belgian school of Eugène Ysaÿe. In addition, his work under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein connects him to the highly influential school of Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay. Further study with Victor Danchenko has brought him into contact with the Russian school of David Oistrakh. Other major teachers include Sindey Harth and the late Joseph Fuchs, who himself was a pupil of the legendary Franz Kneisel.
An active recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Shiu has concertized extensively throughout the United States in venues including Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, the Aspen Music Festival's Harris Hall, the Interlochen Arts Institute's Corson Auditorium, the New School's Schneider Concert Series, and Chamber Music Northwest. International engagements have included performances in Italy, Japan, Korea, Canada, and Brazil. Mr. Shiu is currently a member of the Ceruti String Quartet and was also previously a founding member of the Maia Quartet, with whom he played for thirteen years. In addition, he has collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Muir, and Borromeo String Quartets, as well as with violist Roger Chase, cellist Patrick Demenga, pianist Ann Schein, and the late flutist Samuel Baron.
Mr. Shiu has previously taught on the faculties of the University of Iowa School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory; and his current summer teaching engagements include the Interlochen (MI) Arts Institute and the Five Seasons Music Festival (Cedar Rapids, IA), of which he is a founding member. He was formerly Coordinator of the Summer Chamber Music Fellowship Program the Garth Newel Music Center (Warm Springs, VA), and has taught as well at the Austin (TX) Chamber Music Festival, Conservatory Music in the Mountains (Durango, CO), the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts, and the Snowmass (CO) and University of Memphis Suzuki Institutes.
Lenny Schranze (M.M.), Viola
Violist Lenny Schranze is an award-winning chamber musician and educator. A native of Philadelphia, he is a member of the Ceruti String Quartet and professor of viola at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music of the University of Memphis. He is a Valade Fellow and coordinator of strings and the advanced quartet program at The Interlochen Center for the Arts. As a chamber musician, Lenny has performed in concert halls around the country, including Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in New York City, and has performed internationally in Switzerland, South Korea, and Brazil. His solo recordings include the works for viola and piano by Robert Schumann, and the sonatas of Johannes Brahms. Reviews describe Lenny's viola playing as "passionate and beautifully resonant." Mr. Schranze has garnered awards from Chamber Music America for "excellence in chamber music instruction," and is a recipient of the Dean's Creative Achievement Award from the University of Memphis. He earned his degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory, studying with Heidi Castleman, Heiichiro Ohyama, Dorothy Delay, Max Aronoff, and Evelyn Jacobs. Recent projects include the MSR Classics release of Quartets by Brahms and Debussy (http://www.msrcd.com/catalog/cd/MS1424), reviewed in the awards issue of Gramophone Magazine.
Kimberly Patterson (DMA), Cello
Hailed by the Chicago Sun Times as a "superb cellist," Dr. Kimberly Patterson has earned recognition for her artistry as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. Dr. Patterson was the founding cellist for the Tesla Quartet, winners of the 2012 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition as well as prizewinners of the 2012 London International Quartet Competition and the 2013 Bordeaux International Quartet Competition. She has given chamber recitals in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, London's Wigmore Hall and Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and has held chamber music residencies with Strings Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail Valley, Chamber Music Tulsa, and a quartet residency at the University of Colorado at Boulder with the Takács Quartet.
Dr. Patterson is the Assistant Professor of Cello at the University of Memphis and the cellist of the Ceruti Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Memphis. She is also the cellist of the Patterson / Sutton cello and guitar duo. Their debut album, "Cold Dark Matter: Music for Cello & Guitar," was released by MSR records in 2013. The Patterson / Sutton duo have presented lectures at the International Guitar Research Center in Surrey, UK and the Guitar Foundation of America National Convention. In addition, Dr. Patterson's lecture paper was published as the cover article in the February 2016 edition of Soundboard Magazine, an academic journal. Their performances have been broadcasted on American Public Media's, Performance Today, in addition to Radio New Zealand and South Africa's Fine Music Radio among others.
As a soloist, Dr. Patterson has appeared with the Manila Symphony of the Philippines, toured nationally with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Company performing a solo piece by David Lang, and presented solo recitals in the Netherlands, Afghanistan and throughout the United States. Festival appearances include the Verbier Festival, Strings Music Festival, Holland Music Sessions, Aspen Music Festival & School, Sarasota Music Festival & the Miyazaki Festival. In addition to her extensive chamber music career, Dr. Patterson was a member of the Colorado Symphony. She has performed as principal cellist with Verbier Orchestra in Switzerland and world tours and the Juilliard Orchestra. She has also performed with the Utah Symphony, Iris Orchestra, Central City Opera, the New Haven Symphony and was personally invited by Charles Dutoit to perform with the Miyazaki Orchestra in Japan. Dr. Patterson is a strong believer in the transformative power of music education. Kimberly was a graduate assistant to the renowned Takács Quartet at the University of Colorado at Boulder and has given chamber music masterclasses around the country at institutions such as the University of Denver, Colorado Mesa University, University of Utah, Ball State University, Colorado State University and University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg. In addition to collegiate teaching, she has instructed inner-city students as a fellowship recipient of her alma mater, the Juilliard School, as well as students of the Aspen Music Festival and School's M.O.R.E Program. With support from the United States' State Department, Dr. Patterson taught and performed as a guest artist at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul in early 2014. She has also instructed cellists of the Manila Symphony Orchestra in the Philippines. Dr. Patterson serves on the board of the Colorado Youth Symphony Orchestras.
Dr. Patterson's students have won positions with Orchestra Iowa and the Guangzhou Symphony. In addition, students have attended Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra, the Tanglewood Institute, All-National Youth Orchestra, and Colorado and Tennessee All State Orchestras. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music with academic honors, Dr. Patterson earned her Master's of Music Degree at the Juilliard School and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her teachers include Richard Aaron, Andras Fejer, Judith Glyde and Stephen Geber.
Robert Katz, (PhD) Double Bass
A native of Queens, NY, Dr. Robert Katz, has spent his career dedicated to music performance
and higher education. Retiring after a 30-year teaching career as professor of music
(history, double bass, music appreciation, popular music) and humanities, and as Chair
of Undergraduate Research at Tulsa Community College, he moved to Memphis in 2022.
Katz started playing double bass during his freshman year in college at SUNY Albany studying with David Cobb, former principal bass of the Albany Symphony. He returned to NYC to work with Julius Levine at Brooklyn College and then moved to St. Louis to study with Henry Loew at SIU Edwardsville where he received a degree in performance and music theory/composition. Katz also studied with Ralph Jones of the Atlanta Symphony and David Neubert at UT Austin. After winning a position with the Tulsa Philharmonic Katz earned a master’s in music theory and continued his academic work earning a Ph. D. in historical musicology with concentrations in 20th-century music and Medieval and Renaissance music theory, writing his dissertation on Stravinsky’s theater works under the direction of renowned Bartók scholar Dr. Elliott Antokoletz.
Combining performance with academic activities, Katz has worked as a professional double bassist for 40 years as part of such ensembles as the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra, Flagstaff Festival of the Arts, Chautauqua Festival, Inspiration Point/Opera in the Ozarks, Alabama Orchestra, Austin Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Tulsa Symphony, Tulsa Opera Orchestra, Shreveport Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. In addition to teaching and playing, Katz writes program notes for orchestras and chamber ensembles.
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Daniel Brier,Professor and Director of Orchestral Studies
Believing in the transformative power of music to bridge divides and celebrate the richness of the human experience, conductor Daniel Brier enjoys a dynamic career spanning symphony, opera, ballet, and live film performances. Since 2019, he has served as Music Director of Opera Wilmington. Beginning in 2025, he will join the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis as Director of Orchestral Studies, where he will conduct the University of Memphis Symphony Orchestra and lead the graduate orchestral conducting program.
He has conducted orchestras including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Monterey Symphony, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, and Toledo Symphony, among others. In recent seasons, he has collaborated with artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Pablo Sáinz Villegas, Rachel Barton Pine, and Jennifer Frautschi. As an opera conductor, he has led new productions of Don Giovanni, Tosca, La Traviata, Die Zauberflöte, La Bohème, and Le nozze di Figaro.
In 2022, he concluded an eight-season tenure with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, where he served as Resident Conductor and Interim Music Director. During his time, he conducted a wide variety of concerts, including annual appearances on the subscription masterworks, chamber orchestra, pops, family, education, and summer park series. Under his leadership, the orchestra diversified its programming, expanded community partnerships, launched innovative concert series, and inspired young audiences through imaginative educational programming.
For over twenty years, he has maintained an active teaching schedule, serving on the faculties of the University of Michigan String Preparatory Academy, Hope College, Andrews University, Biola Conservatory, and others. He has served as Music Director of Youth Music Monterey and has conducted the young musicians of the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra and the Orion Chamber Music Society.
Earlier in his career, he served as the founding Music Director of the Spectrum Orchestra and as Cover Conductor of the Lexington Philharmonic. His artistry has earned recognition including a prize at the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic International Conducting Masterclass and Competition, as well as an invitation to study with John Nelson at the Orchestre de chambre de Paris.
A graduate of the University of Michigan’s acclaimed conducting program, Mr. Brier holds degrees in orchestral and choral conducting, studying with Kenneth Kiesler and Dr. Jerry Blackstone. He contributed as an assistant to the GRAMMY®-nominated recording of Darius Milhaud’s L’Orestie d’Eschyle (Naxos) and has participated in masterclasses with Giancarlo Guerrero, Hugh Wolff, Jorma Panula, Alexander Polishchuk, Victor Yampolsky, Carl Topilow, and Ragnar Bohlin.