Laura Roelofs, Project Director
Dr. Laura Roelofs is Assistant Professor of Violin/Viola at Wayne State University, where she also coordinates the chamber music program and teaches string methods classes. She serves as Assistant Concertmaster of the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra, and appears both regionally and nationally in chamber music and solo recitals. Before moving to Michigan in 2004, Dr. Roelofs was Assistant Concertmaster of the Richmond Symphony; she was also a founding member of the Oberon String Quartet, artists-in-residence at Virginia Commonwealth University and at St. Catherine's and St. Christopher's Schools in Richmond.
Dr. Roelofs has served on the violin faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University and as Artist-Teacher of Violin at Georgia State University in Atlanta, where she also performed with the Atlanta Chamber Players. She was a member of the Eakins String Quartet, winner of the 1987 Baltimore Chamber Music Awards Competition, and performed for several years with Currents, a Richmond-based contemporary music ensemble. She has appeared as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, the Richmond Symphony, and the Washington Sinfonia, as well as festival orchestras throughout the country. Dr. Roelofs holds performance degrees from Boston University's School of Fine Arts and the Catholic University of America. Her major teachers have included Robert Gerle and Roman Totenberg. She is proud to count String Project master teacher William Starnes as her first violin instructor and a lifelong musical influence.
William Starnes, Master Teacher
Mr. Starnes, a Georgia native, grew up in El Paso, Texas. While still in high school, he became a member of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra. He won a position with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra in 1964. Two years later, he was drafted and spent four years with the United States Air Force Strings in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Starnes has taught for the San Antonio (TX) Public Schools and the Prince Georges County (MD) Public Schools. He has been adjunct professor of violin at Catholic University, American University, and the Academy of Musical Arts in Washington, D.C. He served as Assistant Director for Music and Instruction at the D.C. Youth Orchestra Program for 12 years, where he supervised four orchestras and three bands, and a faculty of 70. In addition to conducting student ensembles, he served as Concertmaster and Assistant Conductor of the DCYOP Faculty Orchestra, the Washington Philharmonia and the Washington Lyric Opera.
More recently, Mr. Starnes has been a member of the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestras and the Civic Light Opera of Pittsburgh. He has also performed with the orchestras of Wheeling, Erie, Westmoreland, McKeesport, and Youngstown. From 2005-2007, he served as Music Director of the Westmoreland Youth Symphony Orchestra in suburban Pittsburgh.
Mr. Starnes holds a B.A. in Philosophy and studied violin with Dorothy DeLay of Juilliard, Robert Gerle at Peabody, and Oscar Shumsky of Curtis and Yale. Over the years, many of Mr. Starnes’ own violin students -- including Project Director Laura Roelofs -- have attended America’s foremost conservatories and schools of music and have found careers in music education, music administration, professional orchestras and chamber ensembles.