Conductors

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Shelley Livingston has long pursued a wide-ranging and successful musical career as conductor, violinist, chamber music coach, and master teacher.   

Ms. Livingston served as  Principal Second Violin and Assistant Conductor of the Durham Symphony.  She worked for over twenty years in the Duke University String School (DUSS) as Artistic Manager of Orchestras where she conducted the DUSS Youth Symphony, taught violin, and coached chamber music in collaboration with the members of the Ciompi Quartet.

Ms. Livingston attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of North Texas, where she received both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Performance.  She has studied conducting with Prof. Tonu Kalam, at UNC-Chapel Hill with the assistance of a grant from Duke University and has served as Assistant Conductor of the UNC Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Livingston has guest conducted for various prestigious organizations including the North Carolina Summer Opera.

She maintains a full studio of accomplished violin and viola students from her home in Hillsborough. Because of her demanding and dedicated teaching approach, many of her students have won competitions and awards.

Ms. Livingston started conducting at the Lamar Stringfield Music camp in 2012.

Matthew Stutzman is the Intermediate String Orchestra conductor at the Duke University String School where he also teaches music theory. Stutzman has 10 years of orchestral teaching experience in the North Carolina Public Schools. Though he specializes in string education, he also composes, arranges, and produces music professionally. He runs an independent recording studio where he engineers, mixes, and masters audio, as well as performs as a studio session musician. In 2017 Matt founded American Home Studio, a company dedicated to quality instrument retail and educating musicians on building and using home studio equipment.

Born and raised in North Carolina to musical parents, Ashley Martin Kovacs was immersed in music as a child. Her mother played viola in the North Carolina Symphony and her father was a school band director as well as strolling clarinetist and saxophonist. Ashley began studying the violin at age seven and advanced quickly. As a teenager she had the opportunity to attend numerous music festivals around the country, including North Carolina's Brevard Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music in New York, and the Kennedy Center Summer Music Institute in Washington, D.C.  

She won various competitions in Raleigh and in Michigan, including 2nd place in the Musical Society for the Arts Competition, 1st place in the Robert C. Young String Competition. She was the first and youngest string player ever to win the Raleigh and Durham Symphony and Triangle Youth Philharmonic Concerto Competitions as a high school student.  She was also chosen to represent the School of Music in Michigan’s “Conservatory Project” which enabled her to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  

Ashley graduated in 2012 from the University of Michigan earning a bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance.

Though classically trained, she is equally as passionate about Irish/Scottish, Bluegrass, Blues, and Swing music. In 2013 she performed in the International Bluegrass Music Association as part of a Bluegrass Band called "Swift Creek," a professional group she played with for two years. She has been recorded on 5 CD’s.  

Ashley has a strong passion for teaching music.  Currently, she runs a private violin and piano studio in Wake Forest. Ashley has four young children, two of whom are homeschooled and play both violin and piano.  

Ashley attended The Lamar Stringfield Music camp as a camper and has worked as a counselor, teacher, coach and conductor.  

Christina Wohlford has been teaching and performing professionally both violin and viola for over 10 years. She began playing the violin at age 7 in a Suzuki program at a public magnet elementary school she attended and soon decided to become a music teacher. Christina Wohlford received her Bachelor of Music Education degree and Master of Music in Performance from East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. 

While at ECU, Wohlford studied under teachers Ara Gregorian and Hye-Jin Kim while also completed long term teacher training in the Suzuki method under teacher trainer, Joanne Bath. She has had a wide range of experience in teaching violin and viola in the Suzuki approach including private and group lessons for children ages 4 and older. Christina continues to broaden her education skills by becoming certified in programs such as Every Child Can!, Suzuki Principles in Action, Music Mind Games, and Suzuki Early Childhood Education.