Elly Suh, violin “Sensitive and engaging performer,” according to the U.S. classical music magazine Musical America, violinist Elly Suh has received numerous awards in relevant international competitions including Naumburg, Moscow David Oistrakh, Paganini Prize, Indianapolis and Leipzig Bach Competition. Recent and forthcoming highlights include performances with the Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestra della Magna Grecia, Berliner Symphoniker, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Leipzig Pauliner Ensemble, NY Classical Players, and the Lviv Philharmonic. She has appeared on such stages as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Seoul Arts Center, Lotte Concert Hall, and performed at the Salzburger Festspiele, Al Bustan Festival, and Lerici Festival. Elly Suh studied at The Juilliard School in New York and the Mozarteum University of Salzburg under the guidance of Pierre Amoyal, Robert Mann, Joel Smirnoff, and Sally Thomas. She plays on a Guarneri del Gesù violin, through the kind assistance of Florian Leonhard Fine Violins.

Marina Quasha resides in Switzerland, where she is pursuing a degree in business management and administration. She studied conducting under Oliver Hagen, which brings her immense joy and a deep sense of purpose. In addition to her conducting studies, Marina has been playing classical piano for 14 years under the guidance of Catherine Glennon.

Giuseppe Stillitano, director
Class of 1998, was introduced to music at the age of 7 thanks to his mother. Choral training, which has always been active since childhood, is complemented by violin and singing studies at the Liceo Musicale. At the same time, at the “F. Cilea” Conservatory of Music in Reggio Calabria, he obtained his Level I and II Academic Diploma in Pianoforte with highest honors under the guidance of M° Roberto Giordano, and at the same institution he studied Composition with M° Massimo Donadello. In 2022, as a student of Maestro Donato Renzetti, he graduated from the Academy of Orchestra Conducting in Saluzzo (CU) in synergy with the Philharmonic of the Teatro Regio in Turin. He recently obtained a Diploma in conducting from the “G. Verdi” Conservatory of Music in Milan, where he studied with Maestro Daniele Agiman and in collaboration with the Milan Symphony Orchestra. High Musical Perfection Courses include Masterclasses in Pianoforte with André Gallo and Andrea Lucchesini; in “Conducting” with Marco Boni, Francesco Di Mauro, Silvio Gasparella, Marcello Bufalini, Neeme Järvi, Lior Shambadal and Robert Trevino; of “Choral Conducting” with Lorenzo Donati, Luigi Marzola and Walter Marzilli; of “Conducting for Children’s Voice Choir” with Roberta Paraninfo; of “Choral Vocality” with Dan Shen; of “Analysis of Composition and Concertation” with Johan De Meij; of “Gregorian Chant” with Licia Di Salvo; and of “Early Music” with Attilio Cremonesi. He also studied Russian Literature and Drama with Margarita Smirnova at the Petrolini Theater in Rome. As a conductor, he has collaborated with the Imola Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Conservatory “A. Peri” of Reggio Emilia, the String Orchestra of the “Società del Quartetto” of Palermo, the Orchestra of the Conservatory “F. Cilea” of Reggio Calabria, “Obiettivorchestra” of Saluzzo, the Orchestra “Ludi Sonores” of Rome, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Sicily, the Orchestra “Ariadimusica” of Rome, the Orchestra “I Musici” of Parma, the “Wiener Festspiele Ensemble” of Vienna, the “Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra” of London. He has worked alongside maestros Francesco Di Mauro and Donato Renzetti in a number of opera productions and is currently assistant to Maestro Gianluca Marcianò, with whom he has already worked in productions of Manon Lescaut at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari (October 2022), Tosca at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville (May 2023), the Ljubljana Music Festival and the Lerici Music Festival (July/August 2023). He was a guest in the television studios of ReggioTV for the program “The Editor’s Parlour” and in the radio studios of RadioLiberty for the program “The Classical Music Corner.” Awards include two Culture Scholarships (2007 and 2013), the 2018 “Mick Bagalà” Culture Prize, the 2019 “Calabria-America” Special Prize, and the “First Marcello Abbado Prize 2021.” In 2019, Prof. Franco Gallo – former Minister of the Italian Republic – awarded him the title of “Patron of Culture.” In 2021 he was awarded the highest level of scholarship from the Vienna Opera Academy to study and perform Mozart’s opera “Così fan tutte.” In June 2023 he appears in the fifth volume of the international Opera Charm Magazine with an interview for the column “Conductors of the Future” by Cristina Fieraru. As a conductor, he took part in a conference on musical interpretation as part of the National Festival of Law and Literature 2024, led by Magistrates Antonio Salvati and Ilario Nasso. He was recently admitted, out of two available places, to the Royal College of Music in London-the world’s most prestigious institution for music and the performing arts-which offered him a scholarship for a Master of Performance in conducting.