Lauren Culver has been studying the violin since she was four. She is an alumnus of the Merit School of Music as well as the Western Springs School of Talent Education. Throughout high school, Lauren traveled around the world to locations like Cuba and Iceland with the Chicago Consort violin ensemble. Lauren graduated from the Chicago College of Performing Arts with a double major in violin performance and music education in 2023. She studied with world-renowned pedagogue Almita Vamos and held the position of Principal second violin in the CCPA Chamber and Symphony Orchestras. Lauren has a passion for teaching and has maintained a private violin studio since she was in high school. She spends her summers working and volunteering at music camps for orchestra students. Outside of performing and teaching, Lauren is also an avid composer and arranger.

Emma Bruno graduated from the Chicago College of Performing Arts with a major in Classical Violin Performance and a minor in Psychology in the Spring of 2024, and has since then continued onto her Master’s degree in Violin Performance. A native of New Lenox, IL, Emma began studying the piano at age 8 under Joan Rieter for several years. She soon picked up the violin in her middle-school orchestra at age 10, which is now her primary instrument. In high school, she studied privately with Carl Johnston, the former Concertmaster/member of Mozart Sinfonia, Illinois Philharmonic, and a current member of the Chicago Sinfonietta. During her undergrad at CCPA, Emma studied with Jasmine Lin, graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and prizewinner in the International Paganini Competition. During her Master’s degree, she is studying with MingHuan Xu, graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and current member of Duo Diorama with her husband, pianist Winston Choi. Emma is a current member of CCPA’s Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Pit Orchestra, and String Chamber Music Program. She is a recurring Teaching Assistant for Naperville’s OPUS Chamber Music Camp and is CCPA’s Teaching Assistant for their music theory program. She has played in pit orchestras for The Little Mermaid, Chicago, Shrek, West Side Story, Wonderful Town, and Puccini’s Suor Angelica. Emma has participated in masterclasses taught by world-renowned musicians Almita Vamos, Liba Schacht, and MingHuan Xu, and has performed with Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Principal clarinetist, John Bruce Yeh.

Nicolette Cheauré is the tenured Associate Principal violist of the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic. She also holds positions with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Albany, Carmel, Akron, South Bend, Danville, and Owensboro Symphonies. Nicolette received her Master of Music degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she majored in Viola Performance with a concentration in Violin/Viola Pedagogy under the direction of Li-Kuo Chang, the former Principal Viola of the Chicago Symphony. She also holds a B.M. degree in Performance and a music history minor from Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with Dr. Kirsten Docter. 

In Fall 2025, she began her Master of Arts degree in Arts Administration at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, with concentrations in orchestral operations, arts strategy, nonprofit management, and stewardship. She currently works in the Jacobs School of Music’s Office of Development, focusing on prospect research and writing grants for the Jacobs Academy division. 

She has worked closely with Roland Vamos, Almita Vamos, Lynne Ramsey, Stephen Wyrczynski, Mark Holloway, and Dimitri Murrath, along with other members of the Chicago Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the Verona Quartet. She has performed under the batons of renowned conductors Marin Alsop, Robert Spano, David Alan Miller, Cliff Colnot, James Ross, Arthur Fagen, and Thomas Wilkins as a Principal. 

Summer studies include two fellowships to the National Orchestral Institute, where she was part of their inaugural cohort with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to perform chamber music on the museum’s historic 1695 “Axelrod” Stradivarius and 1762 Gagliano violas. She has also attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival, ENCORE Chamber Music Institute, and Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, as well as the Jacobs School of Music Academy precollege program for three years.

Outside of performing, Nicolette is a private viola/violin teacher, as well as a Teaching Instructor for the OPUS Chamber Music Camp (Naperville, IL), the Indiana University String Academy program, and Through the Staff – which aims to provide lessons to students nationwide that could otherwise not afford their musical education. She also serves as the Music Education Chair for the Downers Grove Music Club, and works as a music critic and researcher, frequently highlighted on the performing arts blog Cleveland Classical. Her most recent project, “The Rise of the Viola, Made Possible by Nineteenth-Century Programmaticism” is expected to be published by the Journal of the American Viola Society later this year. 

Cellist Somyong Shin is a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and performs regularly with the Evansville Philharmonic, Owensboro Symphony, and the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra. Her recent summer highlights include invitations to the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) Mentorship Program in Canada, and the Taipei Music Academy and Festival (TMAF).

Somyong previously served as the Principal Cellist of the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic (NOI), where she performed Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 at the Washington National Cathedral under renowned conductor Marin Alsop. Her performances have brought her to notable stages such as Carnegie Hall, the National Concert Hall in Taiwan, and the Seoul Arts Center. She holds a Performer Diploma from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, a Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Bachelor’s degree from Sungshin Women’s University in South Korea.