Lucille Ginther
Violist and conductor Lucy Ginther enjoys a performing career filled with variety. She has been a guest artist nationally and internationally, from chamber music in Santa Fe and the Cottonwood Festival (Kansas), to the Biblioteca Vasconcelos, Mexico City, DF and has worked with youth orchestras in Hong Kong and Macao. Regionally, Ginther has been a frequent guest artist, notably with the College-Conservatory of Music Faculty Artist Series and Miami University Guest Artist Recital Series. She recorded with well-known pianist Earl Wilde as a member of the American Strings; and as principal violist of Orchestra de Mineria in Mexico City, she recorded with EMI. Ginther has held six principal viola posts, including the Oklahoma Symphony, Orchestra de Mineria, DF, and the Ohio Chamber Orchestra (Cleveland). Some of the most enjoyable moments in her career have been in the Broadway pit and on the jazz stage, most recently performing weeks-long runs of Phantom of the Opera and sharing the stage with the Jazz Arts Group of Columbus and the inimitable Carmen Bradford.
Dr. Ginther studied viola with Jeffrey K. Irvine, Masao Kawasaki and Robert Vernon; her conducting mentors are Harvey Felder and Diane Wittry. She received her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the College-Conservatory of Music. Ginther currently serves as director of orchestras and violin instructor at Ohio Wesleyan University, and is assistant conductor of the Butler Philharmonic Orchestra in Hamilton, Ohio.
Marilyn Seelman
Violist and conductor Marilyn Seelman has been a faculty member at Trinity University (San Antonio, TX), The University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM), Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA) and Clayton State University. She has performed with the Atlanta Opera and Ballet Orchestras, San Antonio Symphony, The New Mexico Symphony, The Florida Philharmonic, The Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston plus numerous other arts organizations including The University of Miami Faculty String Quartet and Trinity University String Trio. She has presented viola master classes nationally and internationally along with sessions on viola pedagogy. Members of her viola studio have been accepted into some of the leading music schools and have been awarded major scholarships in the United States and Europe including The Curtis Institute of Music, The New England Conservatory, The Juilliard School, The Eastman School of Music, and The Guild Hall School (United Kingdom). In addition, her students and former students have been finalists or first-prize winners in major solo competitions including the Primrose Viola Competition, the Munich Competition, the Max Rostal Competition (Berlin), the Johansen International Competition, and the ASTA Solo Competition. She is a past president of the Georgia American String Teachers Association chapter and served on the national board of ASTA for four years. She serves on the advisory board of the Atlanta Music Project and was music director of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta for twenty years. Dr. Seelman is committed to the unique sound of the viola and its emerging voice as a solo instrument.
Dr. Seelman studied with Rolf Persinger, then-principal violist of the San Francisco Symphony; and later received her MM degree from Boston University, where she studied viola with Walter Trampler and chamber music with Eugene Lehner and Leslie Parnas. She received her DMA in conducting from the University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL) where she also studied viola with David Becker and guest artist Heidi Castleman.