STRINGS

CHAIR OF THE STRINGS DEPARTMENT

COLLEEN CHENAIL, originally from Massachusetts, started Suzuki violin lessons in first grade at her school, Whitinsville Christian.  After graduating in 1993 she headed to Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York where she majored in music education and performance.  She continued her academic studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a masters in Violin Performance, graduating in 2000.  Colleen has taught Suzuki violin at the Music Academy of North Carolina since 2001 and has received Suzuki training from books 1-6.  She has been the head of the string department and summer music camps at the Music Academy, received the Elizabeth King Brown Teaching Excellence Award and continues to be a Master Teacher.  Colleen has taught orchestra and chorus in the Forsyth County Schools and currently teaches preschool music in Headstart programs with the Greensboro Symphony Orkidstra program.  In addition, she conducts the Greensboro Youth Philharmonic with the Greensboro Youth Symphony.  Colleen has been the concertmaster of the Danville Symphony, performs regularly throughout Virginia and North Carolina and continues to perform with the Greensboro Symphony where she has been a member since 2001.  She lives in Greensboro with her husband AJ and three daughters.

DIANE BONDS, cello faculty, comes to MANC with extensive teacher training and many years of teaching and performing experience. After receiving a BM from UNC-Chapel Hill and MM from the University of Texas at Austin, she completed All-Level Music Certification at the University of Houston and Suzuki Cello training from teachers across the country. One of the highlights was participating in 1999 at the International Suzuki Teachers Conference in Matsumoto, Japan. Up until 2005, most of Diane’s teaching was centered in Houston, TX. She taught for over 20 years at Parker Music Academy, a music magnet school, building the program from just a few to over 55 cello students. During that time her students were honored with the invitation to perform in both 1996 and 1998 for the National Suzuki Teachers Conference in Chicago. Former students have gone on to major music schools and conservatories including Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, one student being a top prize winner in the 2001 Rostropovich Competition and the XII Tchaikovsky Competition in 2002. Returning to Greensboro in 2005, Diane first held an adjunct position at Greensboro College and now continues as teaching artist for the Community Music School at Appalachian Sate University. When not teaching in Texas or here in Greensboro, she freelances having performed in such orchestras as the Austin and Galveston Symphonies, Opera in the Heights in Houston, Opera Roanoke and Roanoke Symphony and the Greensboro Symphony.

ERICA COOPER began studying violin at age four and trained at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory and the University of Oklahoma. Early in her career, she was a core member of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and a founding member of the Crouse Quartet.

A dedicated educator with over a decade of private studio experience, Erica’s teaching philosophy is uniquely enriched by her time as a university teaching assistant and twenty years of homeschooling her five children.

Today, she maintains a vibrant freelance career in North Carolina, performing with the Greensboro Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Western Piedmont Symphony, NC Opera Orchestra, and DPAC, while also showcasing her versatility on the electric violin.

THERESA FOX, a native of Greensboro, studied violin and viola performance at UNCG. The viola mentor for the Danville Symphony Orchestra for the past ten years, Theresa has also played with several other orchestras and ensembles in North Carolina and Virginia: notably, she is a member of the Danville String Quartet. Theresa also plays violin on the praise-and-worship team at We Are One Christian Fellowship. Theresa performed chamber music with MANC faculty a few years ago and currently performs with a piano Quintet in Greensboro.

Described as “a listening experience fraught with imagery” that is both “severe and cinematic” and filled with “a general sense of hope” (CVNC, 2021), the music of composer and double bassist DR. STEVE LANDIS emphasizes extreme contrasts within musical materials and encourages a collaborative relationship between the score and performer. His work synthesizes the craft of Western art music and the energetic DIY spirit of underground punk and metal traditions through the integration of improvisation, performance space, and atmosphere. As a composer invested in telling the stories of our contemporary lived experiences, Landis’s music often strives to create non-linear or surrealistic narratives through a variety of mediums, including solo instrumental, mixed chamber groups, large ensembles, digital and mixed media, as well as film and theater. His works have been performed across the U.S., England, Ireland, Spain, The Netherlands, and Colombia.

Steve is the winner of the Black Bayou Composition Award, Best Award for Creative Scholarship by the Interior Design Educators Council, UMKC Gerald Kemner Prize for Orchestral Composition, and is a recipient of residencies at the Millay Colony, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Wildacres Artist Retreat. He has received commissions from the Eastern Music Festival, Albany Symphony Orchestra (Ga.), New Music on the Bayou Festival, Avimimus Duo, Wyvern Afinado Guitar Orchestra (UK), Posthuman Theatre and the London Butoh Dance Company (UK), Four Horseman Quartet, and a consortium led by tubist Chris Combest and Cimarron Publishing.

Steve’s works have been performed by the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, University of South Dakota Symphony, Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, Gainesville Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, South Carolina Youth Symphony, Trio Chymera, The Curiosity Cabinet (NYC), Sounding Board, Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, DePaul University Trumpet Ensemble, UNCG Tuba Ensemble, UMKC Wind Ensemble, and the PLUS-1 Quartet.

In addition to his freelance work, Landis is Part-time Lecturer at The University of North Carolina Greensboro where he teaches orchestration, applied composition, and computer music. Steve also serves as instructor of double bass and composition at the Music Academy of North Carolina. He is a founding member and double bassist for the eclectic new music group Winnfield Quartet, a section member of The Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, and electric bassist for the rock band, The Nonprofits.

Steve earned his DMA in Composition at The University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, an MM in Composition from The University of North Carolina Greensboro, and an MM in Double Bass Performance and a BM in Composition from The University of Florida.

DR. RACHAEL KEPLIN is a versatile violist, string educator, and free improviser. She is a member of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Opera. She is a dedicated chamber musician and is founding member of contemporary ensembles Chamber Brews and Sounding Board. As a committed advocate for new music and non-classical genres, she has performed on numerous high-profile stages with notable artists like Helen Sung, Michael Bublé and Josh Groban.

Rachael is passionate about fusing classical and electronic genres by creating her own music with her Boss RC-600 and recently released her debut album, mosaics (2025). She enjoys performing solo shows throughout North Carolina and is an active Artist Support grantee with the Arts Council of of Greater Greensboro. She is the creator for the free improvisation class “String Improv Lab” at the Music Academy of North Carolina and is an active researcher in the field at Wake Forest University and has presented her dissertation research, “Mindfulness and Free Improvisation,” at national conferences.

Rachael received her Doctor of Musical Arts in viola performance from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, a Master’s degree from The Ohio State University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Kennesaw State University. She is currently on the faculty at Wake Forest University, University of North Carolina Greensboro, and The Music Academy of North Carolina.

RUTH METHENY received her B.S. in Music Education on a full music scholarship in 1976 at Austin Peay State University, where she double majored in violin and piano. She and her husband, Gary, moved to Greensboro, where Ruth joined the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. After teaching strings in the Guilford County School System, she received an Assistantship to attend Graduate School at UNCG, studying under Dr. David Moskovitz. Ruth received her Master’s Degree in Violin Performance in 1983, during which time she won an audition with the Winston-Salem Symphony. She has been the lead violinist of the Greensboro Symphony and Winston-Salem Symphony string education ensembles, developing educational programs and concerts for third- through fifth-grade elementary students. In 1983 Ruth attended Suzuki training in Steven’s Point, Wisconsin, and began her home private teaching with a studio of 24 students. She has taught violin technique to students through Suzuki Book 10. 

Ruth joined the faculty of the Music Academy of NC in 2013 where she continues to enjoy teaching and has been awarded Associate and Master Teacher status. She developed and presented the Fiddle Fun Program for string quartet that is currently lead by her, and performed with MANC string faculty, introducing Pre-K through second-grade students to string instruments and music in Title One Schools. During the Winter of 2020, she designed and developed a Children’s Concert program to be performed virtually for ages 4-8. This program is unique in that it involves MANC faculty playing Bass, Banjo, and Piano, along with Ruth playing Violin. 

She has held a variety of titled positions, including Principal First Violin and Associate Concertmaster of the Winston-Salem Symphony. Ruth has performed with many chamber ensembles, such as the Greensboro Chamber Players, Greensboro Symphony Chamber Orchestra, and the Carolina Chamber Symphony. She has performed solo and ensemble recordings with several local professional recording studios, including Ovation Sound and Kindermusik International. She has been the ground floor violinist for the start-up and continuation of the GSO/Cone Health CaringSounds program, performing various types of music for children of all ages from infancy to 17 years in the Pediatric Unit at Cone Hospital.

For students who already play violin but are wanting to work on specific techniques such as refining intonation, vibrato control, shifting, and various bowing skills, Ruth would be happy to teach those techniques to improve overall performance levels. 

She and her husband, Gary, have two daughters who also live in Greensboro.

LOGAN STRAWN was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He began playing the viola at age eleven after being inspired by a high school orchestra concert. 

He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, then moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where he earned his Master of Music degree and Performer Diploma from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. While living in Indiana, he performed regularly with many orchestras and was a substitute with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and the New World Symphony (Miami). He served as Adjunct Viola Faculty at Indiana State University and was a member of the faculty string quartet. He also held the position of Assistant Instructor of Viola at Indiana University. 

Since moving back to North Carolina in 2022, he has performed with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, the Carolina Philharmonic, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, the Danville Symphony Orchestra, the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra, the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra, the Spartanburg Philharmonic, the Western Piedmont Symphony, and the Winston Salem Symphony. He has performed as a soloist with and teaches at the Wake Forest Community Youth Orchestra in Wake Forest, NC. He maintains a private studio in Burlington, NC. He completed a Professional Artist Certificate at the UNC School of the Arts in 2026. 

He teaches violin and viola students of all levels and delights in helping students discover the joy of making music. 

He lives in Greensboro with his wife and children.