MaryBeth Schotting, Violin Teacher:MaryBeth Schotting joined the violin faculty of PYCO School of Music in the fall of 2024. She also teaches at City Music Center at Duquesne University and college students at Carnegie Mellon School in the Music Extension Program. She has taught at CMU since 1998 and was Director of the String Preparatory Division for sixteen years, a program she was asked to create and develop, which included the inception of the CMU Young Artists Orchestra and the Summer String Workshop. She is now the founder and director of the Music With a Twist Summer String Festival, a one week summer program with a different musical theme each year which features different guest artists according to the theme.
Many of Ms. Schotting’s students receive recognition and have held principal positions in the youth symphonies of Pittsburgh, including the Carnegie Mellon Young Artists Orchestra, Three Rivers Young People’s Orchestras, and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, as well as the PMEA honors orchestras at the local, regional and national levels. Her students have also placed in
competitions including the Duquesne Young Artist’s Competition, Westmoreland Young Artist’s Competition, and the Lois Streator/ Louis Smith Young Artist’s Competition, Her students also participate in the Pittsburgh Youth Concert Orchestra.
Ms. Schotting also has extensive orchestral experience. She is a tenured member of the Pittsburgh Opera and Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestras and performs with the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, Civic Light Opera, and Wheeling Symphony, all of which she has performed in principal or assistant principal positions. Ms. Schotting has also performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and participated in music festivals around the world including the Sunflower Music Festival, Breckenridge Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, Spoleto Music Festival USA and Italy, and at music festivals in Austria and France.
Ms. Schotting has a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Yale University, and a Performance Residency Certificate from Carnegie Mellon University. Her renowned teachers include Alan Bodman, Linda Cerone, Syoko Aki, and Andres Cardenes. She has played solo and chamber music recitals in New York City, South Carolina with Chamber Music Hilton Head, for the Tuesday Musical Club in Akron, Ohio and in Pittsburgh for the Steinway Society. She has received awards for her chamber musicianship from the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France, as well as performing for former President Clinton. Ms. Schotting has won numerous violin competitions, including the Tuesday Musical Club in Akron, Ohio, and has soloed with local orchestras including the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra and Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic.