Strings Faculty

LEONID FRIDMAN
Cello
M.M., St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia. Mr. Fridman was formerly the principal cellist of Opera and Ballet Orchestra, director and music instructor of chamber orchestra, and cello teacher at the Music School in Petrozavodsk, Russia. In addition to his present position at GSM, he has performed with the Palo Alto Symphony Orchestra, CA.

STEPHANIE HOLMES
Violin
Stephanie Holmes was most recently the Director of Orchestras at Lake Braddock Secondary School for the past 13 years. Under Ms. Holmes baton the orchestra program grew from 170 students to 350. She received both her undergraduate degree in Biology and Masters of Music Education degrees from Virginia Tech, where she studied with Dr. Joseph Kennedy, Jr. specializing in Jazz Studies. Before pursuing a second master's degree at James Madison University, she was a string educator in Virginia Beach for four years. At JMU she was the graduate conducting assistant with the orchestras while she studied Orchestral Conducting with Dr. Robert McCashin. As a violinist she has had a variety of performing and recording experiences including classical, jazz, and alternative musical styles. As a conductor she has served as guest conductor to many of the Junior and Senior Regional Orchestras across Virginia, the South Carolina All State Orchestra, and the JMU Spring String Thing for the past fifteen years. Ms. Holmes participated in several concert tours across Europe with American Music Abroad; last summer was her sixth tour. Ms. Holmes is the past president of the Virginia chapter of the American String Teachers Association and is also a member of both the Music Educators National Conference and the Virginia Band and Orchestra Director's Association. Ms. Holmes served as an adjunct professor at George Mason University. In 2004 she was the recipient of the Wolf Trap Foundation Scholarship for Performing Arts Teachers and performed on the Kennedy Center's Millennium stage with her middle school Chamber Orchestra in 2004. The Lake Braddock Symphony Orchestra performed at the Virginia Music Educators State Conference in 2008. Ms. Holmes looks forward to working with musicians in her new home in the Bay Area.

TRU VU
Violin, Viola
B.M. and M.A. in Violin Performance, San Jose State University, CA; Studies in Violin and Chamber Music, Saigon Conservatory of Music, Vietnam, studied conducting and chamber music with Barbara Day Turner and the late Marina Grin, respectively. Mr. Vu has performed and instructed for many years at the Saigon Conservatory of Music, and he has taught music and violin in the United States for over ten years. He is currently the Associate Music Director of the Saigon Chamber Ensemble, San Jose.