Strings
CASEY BOZELL
VIOLIN Instructor/Chamber Music Lead
Casey is the concertmaster of the Newport Symphony and is also a member of the Portland Opera Orchestra and Oregon Ballet Theater. Recent solo engagements include appearances with the Newport Symphony, Beaverton Symphony, Linfield Chamber Orchestra, and the Central Oregon Chamber Orchestra as well as guest artist recitals at the University of Northern Colorado, Eastern Oregon University, and Linfield College. An adept chamber musician, Casey is a founding member of the Hammers and Bows piano trio and Element String Quartet. Since May of 2020, Casey has been the host of the podcast “Keep Classical Weird,” which has expanded its listenership to over 40 countries. Casey’s greatest mentors include Gerardo Ribeiro, Richard Fuchs, and Harold Wippler. She received her Bachelors of Music Performance from the University of Northern Colorado, and her Masters of Music Performance from Northwestern University. She plays on an 1874 Frederic Diehl violin.
MEGUMI LEwis
violin Instructor - NEW IN 2026!
Raised in Portland, Oregon, Megumi Stohs Lewis started playing the violin at age three. She has soloed with orchestras throughout the US and Japan, and has toured with ensembles throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Now residing in Boston, she is a co-founder of A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, has been a guest with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the Radius Ensemble, the Boston Pops, and plays regularly with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Odyssey Opera, and the Sheffield Chamber Players. Starting in 2008, Megumi picked up the baroque violin and quickly fell for the gut strings and a variety of period bows. This love has led to performances with Boston Baroque, the Handel and Haydn Society, Les Bostonades, and the formation of Antico Moderno, a period instrument ensemble actively commissioning contemporary works. She also loves to fiddle and play rock and has regularly toured with Britain’s Jethro Tull. In the summers, Megumi can be found in Oregon wine country playing at the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival. Megumi’s primary influences include her teachers Kathryn Gray and Bette Boyer in Portland, Lucy Chapman at the New England Conservatory and Camilla Wicks and Ian Swensen at the San Francisco Conservatory. Especially in chamber music and period performance, Roger Tapping, Martha Katz, Phoebe Carrai, Manfredo Kraemer, and Mark Sokol have been significant mentors.
CAitlin Lynch
Viola instructor - NEW In 2026!
Violist Caitlin Lynch has performed across the globe in collaboration with artists from Itzhak Perlman to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. She is violist of the Aeolus String Quartet, violist and co-Artistic Director of the Grammy-nominated conductorless chamber orchestra A Far Cry, and founder and Artistic Director of Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley. Praised for her “deep, chocolate-rich voice” (Washington Classical Review) and “lush sound and splendid advocacy” (Boston Music Intelligencer), Ms. Lynch’s “effervescent...stellar” (Oregon ArtsWatch) performances as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist with orchestra, and recitalist have spanned fourteen countries across five continents - including performances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, the Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts, and the United Nations. Her performances frequently appear on PBS Great Performances: Now Hear This, Performance Today, NPR, WQXR, and American Public Media. Festival appearances include performances at Caramoor, Halcyon, Methow Valley, Mozaic, Perlman Music Program, Ravinia, and Yellow Barn Music Festivals. She performed on the Experiential Orchestra’s Grammy Award winning album featuring Dame Ethel Smyth’s “The Prison”. As a pedagogue, she has served on the faculty at the Perlman Music Program, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program. Ms. Lynch performs on an 18th century viola made by English luthier William Forster, and thanks to the generosity of the Five Partners Foundation, a 2020 viola by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.
ashley peck
CELLO Instructor - new in 2026!
Ashley Peck is a freelance cellist and cello teacher in Portland, OR. She has appeared with many ensembles in the Portland area including Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Melegari Chamber Players, and Broadway Rose Theater. A founding member of the Luna String Quartet from 2017-2020, Ashley performed in many recitals across New England, earned a fellowship residency at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, and appeared as a semi-finalist at Coltman Chamber Music Competition. Other notable performances include performing in Dutch Harbor, Alaska and in masterclass for Janos Starker.
As an educator, Ashley enjoys helping students develop their musical sensitivity and ensemble presence while building excellent technique with a spirit of curiosity and joy. She is a registered Suzuki teacher and has taught in several Suzuki programs, community based organizations, and schools such as the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Sonido Musica, and Lake Oswego School District.
She holds a Masters degree in cello performance from The Hartt School and a Bachelors from Portland State University. She had many inspiring teachers including Blake Brasch, Hamilton Cheifetz, Ann Grabe, and Mihai Tetel.
Jason Schooler
BASS INSTRUCTOR
Mr. Schooler has been an active orchestral and chamber musician since 1992. Currently he performs as a string bassist with the Oregon Symphony, the Oregon Bach Festival, 3rd Angle New Music Ensemble, 45th Parallel, Classical Up Close, Lewis and Clark Chamber Players, the Sunriver Music Festival, and others. Past experience includes performing with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the West Virginia Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic, and others.
Jason is also an active teacher, having his own private teaching studio and holding music faculty positions at Lewis and Clark College and the University of Portland. He is also a music instructor with Portland Youth Philharmonic, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Chamber Music Camp of Portland, and several Portland area schools.
Mr. Schooler received a degree in Music Performance and Music Education at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and for six years attended the Aspen Music Festival and School.