Hannah Sorrells-Tyler
Hannah Sorrells-Tyler is a violinist from Asheville, North Carolina, and now resides in Nashville. She received her bachelor degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and performed in the the St. Olaf Orchestra under Steven Amundson. She earned her master’s degree from Belmont University while serving as concertmaster of the Belmont Symphony. Sorrells-Tyler has performed in venues all over the world including the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, St. Thomas’s Church in Leipzig, Germany, and the Kennedy Center. She is first violinist in La Vie Quartet, a chamber ensemble she founded in 2017, which performs the highest caliber repertoire of classical string quartets, current Top 40's arrangements, and beyond. Sorrells-Tyler started the Opus Project, which attempts to connect classical music to common human experience. Through music-making and performing, she desires to allow people to be in touch with themselves, and with something much greater.
Gabija Žilinskaitė
A native of Fort Mill, South Carolina, Gabija Žilinskaitė attended Vanderbilt University where she earned a double major in violin performance and psychology. She received the Linde B. Wilson Scholarship and the Jean Keller Heard Prize for musical excellence. Under the instruction of Stephen Miahky, she enjoyed many performance opportunities, including appearances with the Vanderbilt Symphony Orchestra and the Vanderbilt Opera. A resident of Nashville, Žilinskaitė frequently plays as a substitute section violinist in the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared with the Nashville Chamber Music Society and regularly performs in the greater Nashville area. Žilinskaitė works full time at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders as a research analyst. She hopes to attend graduate school for child psychology and enjoys sharing music with children at the Vanderbilt Acorn and at the W.O. Smith Music School.
Samuel Bender
Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee, violist Samuel Bender attended Vanderbilt University where he earned a double major in music and computer science. A recipient of the Dean's Honor and the Laura Kemp Goad Scholarships. While at Vanderbilt, Bender used his time to further realize his aspirations as both a musician and tech nerd. His former primary teachers include Kathryn Plummer, Daniel Reinker, and John Kochanowski. Bender has spent multiple summers at both the Brevard Music Festival and the Eastern Music Festival, where he had the opportunity to work with Maestros Gerard Schwarz, José-Luis Novo, Grant Cooper, Keith Lockhart, and Ken Lam. His private instructors included Erika Eckert, Jenny Snyder Kozoroz, and Peter Chun. Currently a full time software engineer at a Nashville-based global technology firm, Bender indulges his ardor for music by pursuing as many performance and recording opportunities as his schedule will allow.
MaryGrace Bender
Cellist MaryGrace Bender is a performer, teacher, and believer in the beauty of music and the important impact it has on how we see the world. She earned an undergraduate degree from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University and a master's degree in cello performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and she is versed in the Suzuki Method. Bender founded the Nashville Chamber Music Society and performs with the group on a regular basis in a variety of spaces for diverse audiences. She performed with the McDuffie Center for Strings in Carnegie Hall, as a Young Artist for the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Italy, and has recorded with orchestras under Philip Glass’s Orange Mountain Music label which the Wall Street Journal called, “impeccably polished.” Bender regularly records in Nashville and currently lives in Huntsville, Alabama. As a Suzuki teacher, she leads a full studio of cellists in the Nashville area, as well as a studio in Huntsville.