| MARY JO STILP Violin Mary Jo Stilp Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Mary Jo Stilp currently resides in New York City, where she is active as a freelance violinist, performing with such groups as the Manhattan Pops Orchestra, Lincoln Center's Family MusiK series, and the new music collective Anti-Social Music. In addition to being concertmaster of the BCCO, Mary Jo has also held that post with the Wichita Grand Opera, and has held positions with the Knoxville, Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence Chamber, St. Joseph, Kansas City Chamber Chorale, and La Crosse Symphony Orchestras. Other performing credits include the Spoleto Fesitval USA Orchestra, Sarasota Opera Orchestra, Heidelberg SchlossSpiele Orchestra, and the Opera in the Ozarks Orchestra. She has performed as soloist with orchestras in Missouri and Wisconsin, gives regular solo and chamber music recitals, and has held titled positions with many of the ensembles listed above. In addition to performing, Mary Jo is passionately committed to sharing her gifts with tomorrow's generation of musicians. Mary Jo is on the faculty of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and has taught violin at Southwestern College in Winfield, KS. She also maintains an extensive private violin studio. In 2002, Mary Jo founded the Southwestern String Festival, an annual summer chamber music festival for middle and high school students, the curriculum of which was expanded in 2004 to include a chamber orchestra. In the spring of 2005, she organized Strings con Stravaganza, a seminar for students ages twelve to twenty-six, offering instruction in a wide variety of musical techniques, including improvisation and the exploration of electronic instruments. For Mary Jo, these experiences are exceptionally rewarding, and also illuminating for her own creative process. Mary Jo holds degrees from the University of Kansas and Eastman School of Music where her primary teachers were Ben Sayevich and Lynn Blakeslee. While at KU, Ms. Stilp also studied with Eric Rosenblith of the New England Conservatory, a student and assistant to the legendary Carl Flesch. When Mary Jo's violin is in its case , she pursues her other passion as an amateur photographer. Click here to close this window |