Josephine Liu Moerschel, DMA
Executive and Artistic Director, Viola Coach
Josephine Liu Moerschel is highly sought-after as a performer and teacher. She received a doctorate in viola performance from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003. Following graduation, she moved to Los Angeles and has quickly became one of the leading teachers on the west side. Josephine is a member of the New West Symphony, and has performed with many other groups in LA, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Pacific, Pacific Symphony, Los Angeles Master Chorale and Long Beach Symphony.
Josephine has performed around the world. In the United States, she has played in the Victoria Bach Festival in Texas, the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado, the Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kansas, and Buzzard’s Bay Music Festival in Massachusetts. In 2006, Josephine traveled with the Pacific Symphony on their first international tour to Europe to great acclaim. She has also performed in Taiwan and Mexico.
In addition in her busy performing schedule, Josephine is a strong advocate for music education. She is on the faculty of Long Beach City College. Josephine is a leading figure in the Santa Monica music community, both through her large private studio of violin and viola students, and through her work in the middle schools of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Currently, Josephine serves as the new executive director of Elemental Strings, a youth orchestra for elementary school students in Santa Monica. Josephine also serves as co-director of the Los Angeles branch of Junior Chamber Music and ViolaFest Los Angeles. She sits on the boards of the Southern California Viola Society and the Greater Los Angeles Area branch of the American String Teachers’ Association.
Her students have been heard performing in leading youth orchestras in Los Angeles, as well as conservatories and music festivals across the country.
Kirsten Bersch
Program Director, Violin Coach
Kirsten Bersch is an elementary music teacher in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, where she has been teaching since 1999. She holds a BA in Music Education from California State University, Northridge, and an MA in Music History and Literature from California State University, Fullerton. She has been a violin coach for Elemental Strings since its inception in 2004, and Program Director for the orchestra since 2009.
Jason Aiello
Cello Coach
Jason Aiello is currently in his fourth year of teaching orchestra and piano at Santa Monica High School. Jason graduated with honors from UCLA in 2006, as the recipient of the Joyce Fahlman Fellowship. While at UCLA, Jason studied music education with Dr. Frank Heuser, cello with Antonio Lysy, and did his student teaching at Santa Monica High School. Currently, Jason is serving as president-elect on the board of the California Orchestra Directors Association, where his primary responsibilities have included creating and maintaining the CODA website and auditioning high school cellists for the CODA Honor Orchestras and the CMEA All-State Orchestra. This will be Jason’s second year coaching the cello section for Elemental Strings.
Robert Anderson
Violin Coach
Robert Anderson has been performing, recording, and composing in the Los Angeles area since graduating from the University of South Carolina in 2000. He was a founding member of the jazz string quartet Supernova from 2002-2005 and is currently performing with pioneering electric jazz trio Eartha Austria, Composers Ensemble Los Angeles, country artist Angela Wood, pop/rock band Uncle Daddy, and Bear McCreary's Battlestar Galactica Orchestra. Other notable performances include stage and television appearances with Katie Melua, Paul Oakenfold, Rhianna, and Pink. He can be heard playing baritone violin on the soundtrack to Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles", and violin on the Sci-Fi network's "Battlestar Galactica."
As co-founder and music director of String Project Los Angeles, established in 2006, Robert enjoys teaching the art of improvisation and encouraging musical creativity in young string players. An active clinician for Yamaha strings, Robert travels throughout the US to educate teachers and students about creative string playing. He is co-director and arranger for the Electric Chamber Orchestra at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, CA, and is a violin coach for the Santa Monica High School orchestras and the Elemental Strings program.
Robert is a faculty member of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in the new Popular Music program, teaching jazz and alternative violin.
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Rachel Fabulich
Viola Coach
Rachel Fabulich received a masters degree in viola performance and string pedagogy from Northwestern University. Her bachelor degree in viola performance with a concentration in music in education was acquired at the New England Conservatory of Music. She was a student of Roland Vamos, Marcus Thompson, Lewis Rosove and Ann Montzka-Smelser. She is a Suzuki clinician and teacher on the violin and the viola. As a performer, she has appeared on stages across North America, Europe and Japan. In 2007 she joined the faculty of the Pasadena Conservatory as a violin and viola instructor and Westridge School in Pasadena as the strings teacher. Prior teaching experience includes faculty positions at the Music Institute of Chicago and Creative Arts for Kids in Reading, Massachusetts.
Grace Hsu
Cello Coach
Cellist Grace Hsu is a graduate of The Juilliard School Pre-College Division and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Cello Performance from Carnegie Mellon University. She won first-place in the 1996 Aaron Silberman Chamber Music competition. Ms. Hsu pursued graduate studies in Music Education at Teacher's College, Columbia University and is a certified Suzuki Cello Instructor. As as dedicated music educator in New York, Ms. Hsu is a former faculty member of The School for Strings in New York City, The Henry Street Settlement Abron Arts Center, The Music School of Westchester, The Portledge School, The Waldorf School of Garden City, Gemini Youth Orchestra and The Children's Orchestra Society. Ms. Hsu performed with the New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony and the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra, and was a founding member of the Tedesca String Quartet. In 2003, Ms. Hsu joined the SMMUSD music faculty as a String Specialist at Malibu High School and as a cello coach for the Dreamstrings program in the elementary schools. In addition to coaching cello at John Adams Middle School, Ms. Hsu maintains a private cello studio.
Anna Kostyuchek
Violin Coach
Anna Kostyuchek has graduated from UCLA with her Master’s Degree and has been teaching for over fourteen years. Anna recently toured Europe with the Stuttgart Bach Academy Festival Ensemble under world renown conductor Helmuth Rilling. Anna plays professionally throughout Los Angeles with groups ranging from chamber and symphonic to pop and studio sessions. Anna has performed with Pasadena Symphony, Los Angeles Masters Choral Orchestra, Riverside Philharmonic, Center Stage Opera, and Santa Cecilia Orchestra. Currently, she is the concertmaster of the Orchestra Unleashed. In 2008 Anna toured Holland, Germany, Sicily and Canary Islands with Philarmonie der Nationen under Justus Franz . Anna has also performed in the orchestras for Tony Bennet, Burt Bacharack, Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick, Jr., and TV show American Idol. She has played on various TV and motion pictures soundtracks including Boston Legal, Survivor, Final Season, Batman Return, Grey’s Anatomy and Dexter. She has also appeared in the Elton John “The Heart of Every Girl” music video and the new TV show Big Bang Theory.
Jody Rubin
Violin Coach
Jody Rubin has been an active free lance musician since moving to Los Angeles in 1990. She has appeared with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera, Long Beach Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Glendale Symphony and LA Master Chorale and can also be heard in numerous movie soundtracks. For the last ten years she has been the violin/viola coach at Paul Revere Middle School in Brentwood and has also coached strings at Palisades and Mira Costa High Schools. She holds a degree in Viola Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. She is looking forward to joining the Elemental Strings team this year!