Amelia (Amy) Christian(96)(3rd year)(Dean)  has been recognized as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. She was a member of the former Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and is a founding member and Acting Principal 2nd Violin of Symphoria in Syracuse.  She is also the principal second violin of the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra and has recently appeared with the Skaneateles Festival Orchestra and Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra.  Amy has served as concertmaster of Tri-Cities Opera, the Carousel Cities Youth Ballet, Marywood Orchestra, and the BC Pops Orchestra as well as assistant concertmaster of the Catskill Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared as a featured soloist in the Scranton Bach Festival. Also in Scranton, she performed the world premiere of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” by Richard Wargo and was praised in the for handling the technical hurdles with aplomb. Always having an eclectic flair, she has also recorded CD’s featuring new age and contemporary works.  She is a founding member of the Novo4tet, a string quartet with an avid interest in the performance of standard repertoire juxtaposed with contemporary works. As a part of the Symphoria quartet, she recently took part in the celebration of the anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage movement with several performances of quartets by prominent women composers. Dr. Christian earned her Bachelor of Music degree with Distinguished Professor Franco Gulli at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her Master of Music degree is from The University of Rochester, Eastman School where she studied with Professor Charles Castleman. Her Doctoral degree was conferred by the City University of New York, where she studied in the studio of Daniel Phillips. The subject of her dissertation is the pedagogical techniques of eminent violinist and teacher, Otakar Sevčik.

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Amy has a deep passion for teaching as well as performing. She is currently a visiting lecturer on the violin faculty at Cornell University and is on the faculty at SUNY Broome. She has been a faculty member at Binghamton University and was Assistant Professor of Music at Marywood University for over a decade. She conceived and oversaw the String Project at Marywood, an extensive outreach program designed to train undergraduate string teachers and provide string instruction to the underserved youth in the area. Many of her students have received awards and accolades worldwide in both music and other fields of study.