Shellie Brown Kemp
a violinist from Jackson, Mississippi. She earned an undergraduate degree from Belhaven University and a Master of Music degree in Violin Performance at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Shellie grew up studying with various violin and fiddle teachers of the Jackson area and Mississippi Symphony Orchestra starting at the age of five, including Tammy Mason, Tim Avalon, Mickey Davis, and Song Xie. At a young age, Shellie was a member of the Mississippi Youth Symphony Orchestra when they performed in China, London, Paris, Vienna, and Salzburg. She has attended a variety of summer music festivals in the U.S. and has experienced a wide range of chamber and orchestral repertoire with musicians and coaches from around the world. These festivals include Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, The Masterworks Festival, The Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Summer Music Institute at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. which she attended as a recipient of a National Trustee’s Fellowship. She is also the recipient of a generous grant from Performing Arts Consortium of Hilton Head. Shellie is the first place winner of the high school and collegiate divisions of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, a finalist in the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Concerto Competition in Spokane, Washington, and received honorable mention at the MTNA 2014 Southern Division competition in Kentucky. During her undergraduate studies at Belhaven University, Shellie received various Music Excellence awards and was selected into Who’s Who Among American Colleges and Universities. Upon graduating from college, Shellie won a contract with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (MSO) as a core section violinist during the years 2012-2014. Upon her return to Jackson in 2018, the MSO again hired her as a first violinist. Shellie has played in masterclasses for renowned artists and faculty including Augustin Hadelich, Peter Slowik, and Stephen Redfield. Shellie studied violin with Paul Kantor at the Shepherd’s School of Music at Rice University.
Shellie plays on a 2009 Gary Rickman violin on generous loan from the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation.
Veronica Parralas
a highly accomplished cellist and sought after teaching artist. She received training at Manhattan School of Music and Purchase Conservatory before obtaining a Master's degree at Hunter College, and completed the course work for the Doctorate of Musical Arts at Rutgers University while studying with Jonathan Spitz. Growing up in New York City, Veronica was exposed to many wonderful musical resources and had the opportunity to coach with David Geber, Peter Wiley, Timothy Eddy, and Alan Stepansky.
Veronica recently won the position of Principal Cello for the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and continues to serve as Assistant Principal Cello for the Baton Rouge Symphony. She has collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Paquito D’Rivera, Renee Fleming, and Branford Marsalis in venues including Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and Lincoln Center. She is versed in a variety of styles including jazz, Latin, and improvisation.
Until her relocation to Jackson, Veronica was a faculty member of the New Jersey Symphony education initiative, the Princeton String Academy, and the Rutgers University Mason Gross School of Music.
Dr. Stephen W. Sachs
Retired Music Chair and Professor Emeritus of Music at Belhaven University, regularly performs as a piano soloist, duet/duo-pianist, chamber musicians and accompanist. Dr. Sachs is a founding member of the Diamond Piano Trio and the Sachs Piano Duo performing with his pianist wife Mrs. Carolyn R. Sachs. He has appeared as a soloist several times with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (MSO), the Jackson Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra of Jackson, MS, the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony, the Cumberland Valley Chamber Orchestra, the Ohio University Symphony Orchestra, and the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.
Well known in Mississippi, Dr. Sachs has offered countless performances at Belhaven University, Mississippi College, Tougaloo College, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Chamber Music Series in Meridian, MS, the MS Museum of Art for the “Music in the City” series of Jackson, the University of Southern Mississippi, the University of New Orleans, for the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series, for the MacDowell and Chaminade Music Clubs, and as an orchestral pianist for the MSO.
He earned the D.M.A. degree in piano performance from the Catholic University of America studying with Dr. Thomas Mastroianni, the M.M. degree in piano performance from Ohio University studying with Richard Syracuse, a B.A. degree in music and a B.S. degree in music education from Lebanon Valley College and additional study with Dr. Donald Isaac at Arizona State University. Sachs has also coached with Dr. Bela Nagy, Horatio Gutierrez, Lili Kraus, Raymond Lewenthal, Garrick Ohlsson, Gyorgy Sebok, Eugene Jennings, and chamber music with cellist Leighton Conkling.