Summer String Academy

Academy faculty

Mimi Zweig

Mimi Zweig is currently Professor of Violin at the Jacobs School of Music and Director of the Indiana University String Academy. Since 1972 she has developed pre-college string programs across the United States. She has given master classes and pedagogy workshops in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Israel, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Europe.  She has produced Mimi Zweig StringPedagogy.com, an innovative web-based teaching tool, which is being accessed worldwide. In the spring of 2006, American Public Television released the Emmy-nominated documentary, Circling Around — The Violin Virtuosi, featuring String Academy students. Her students have won numerous competitions and teach and perform worldwide.

Richard Aaron

Richard L. Aaron presently serves as professor of cello at the University of Michigan, The Juilliard School and The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. Previously he taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory.

Aaron has given master classes in Spain, Germany, France, Korea, Japan, China and Australia, as well as at many of the leading music schools in North America, including Rice University, Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Mannes, the Hartt School and The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Since 2003, Aaron has been on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and has taught at many other summer music institutes including the Indiana University String Academy, Calgary Music Bridge, Peter the Great Music Festival (Groningen, Holland), Aria International Summer Academy (Massachusetts), Innsbruck Summer Music Academy (Missouri), Chautauqua Institution (New York), the Idyllwild Summer Program (California), Heifetz International Music Institute (Virginia), Marrowstone Music Festival (Port Townsend, Washington), and Encore (Ohio).

Brenda Brenner

Brenda Brenner is Professor of Music Education in the IU Jacobs School of Music, Co-Director of the IU String Academy and the Jacobs School of Music Associate Dean. She recently completed her tenure as President of ASTA (American String Teachers Association). She specializes in the area of string music education, teaching applied violin and courses in violin and string pedagogy. Her String Academy students have been featured in concerts in major venues throughout the United States and Europe. Prior to her arrival at IU, Dr. Brenner was Assistant Professor of Music at Carleton College. Active as a performer, she received her Doctorate in Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Sylvia Rosenberg, Donald Weilerstein, and the Cleveland Quartet. A member of the award-winning Augustine Quartet, she was a finalist or prize winner in several competitions, including the Banff International Quartet Competition, Concert Artists Guild, Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and Cleveland Competition, and has worked with the Cleveland, Toyko, Juilliard, American and Emerson Quartets.

Roeland Jagers

Roeland Jagers is currently principal viola of the Noord Nederlands Orkest.  He is also a passionate chamber musician and was a founding member of the Rubens Quartet, laureate of several international competitions. The quartet enjoyed an active international career for 16 seasons in Europe, the United States and Israel. Roeland performs regularly in concert halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Philharmonie in Berlin.

He also appears as a guest in international festivals such as Mecklenburg Vorpommern and Schleswig Holstein (Germany), Larzac (France), Kuhmo (Finland), El Paso Pro Musica, Sitka Music Festival and Indiana University Festival of the Arts (US). Roeland plays a Giovanni Pistucci viola, on loan to him from the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds in Amsterdam.

Sarah Kupustin

Sarah Kapustin’s musical activities have taken her across North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia in performances as soloist, chamber and orchestral musician.

A devoted and passionate chamber musician, Sarah has appeared at various international festivals, most notably Kuhmo, Giverny, Sitka, El Paso ProMusica, Peter de Grote, Chamberfest Cleveland and Marlboro, where she has performed with such distinguished artists as Claude Frank, Joseph Silverstein, David Soyer, and Kim Kashkashian. Sarah plays recitals regularly with pianists Jeannette Koekkoek and Shuann Chai, and her recordings of the Beethoven sonata cycle (with Koekkoek) and solo works by Bartók, Bach and Fulmer, among others, have received international acclaim. Sarah was the 1st violinist of the renowned Rubens Quartet from 2008 until the group’s final season in 2016.

Sarah received a Master’s degree in violin performance at The Juilliard School with Robert Mann in 2005. She previously received a Bachelor of Music and an Artist Diploma from Indiana University as a pupil of Mauricio Fuks, and formerly studied with Mimi Zweig and James Przygocki.

Currently Sarah resides in Zwolle, the Netherlands, where she is active as a chamber musician, soloist and concertmaster. She also performs and tours regularly with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Megan Yip currently teaches cello undergraduates at University of Michigan and serves on the faculty at Michigan Youth Performing Arts Pre-College Program. She previously taught undergraduates at Yale College and recently led a masterclass at Elly Bašić School of Music in Zagreb, Croatia. She is a guest artist with Versoi Ensemble, a collective of American and Finnish artists as agents of cultural diplomacy and was a member of Grammy-nominated ensemble, Yale Cellos. She continues to perform throughout the United States and internationally, with recent performances at Yellow Barn (Putney, VT), Prussia Cove (England), and Thy Chamber Music (Denmark). Ms. Yip recently returned after a year in Freiburg, Germany as a recipient of a Fulbright, and holds degrees from Yale School of Music and The Juilliard School. She is completing her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Michigan.

Pasha Sabouris

Pasha Sabouri is one of the most sought after and respected American violin pedagogues of the new generation. He has performed in recitals and concerts in Holland, Sweden, Austria, Germany, UK, throughout the United States and Canada. A passionate educator and a published author whose acclaimed book “Upbeat” guides middle and high school students and their families on the road to professional musical education and career. His students are competing and featured in such competitions and media outlets as Menuhin Competition, Sphinx Competition, Dallas Symphony’s Lynn Harrell Competition, ENKOR Competition, and NPR’s From The Top, winning the coveted “Jack Kent Cooke” Award.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, his primary focus is his highly successful private studio. Pasha Sabouri is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College. He has also had the privilege to serve as Adjunct Professor at Concordia College as well as Artistic Director at the Concordia College Music Academy in Austin, Texas. Prior to this position, he was appointed Lecturer Violin Professor at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana and has also been faculty at Encore Chamber Music Institute, Omaha Conservatory of Music Institute, the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program, and has adjudicated at Carnegie Hall NYO/2 program, Jack McGehee and UT Concerto Competitions.

Audition requirements

Audition requirements for 2024 coming soon!

Fees and deadlines

Fees and Deadlines for Summer 2024 Coming Soon

Schedule

2023 Schedule
DateEvent
June 22Summer String Academy begins
July 19Final Gala Concert
July 20Last day of Summer String Academy

Weekly student concerts and Summer Festival Concerts will be scheduled.

Learn more about the Summer String Academy

Visit our blog