Meet Our Musicians
Where Music Meets Health
Soprano
Lilly Abreu
One of Brazil’s greatest cultural assets, a versatile artist with numerous appearances as recitalist and soloist with orchestras and chamber ensembles in France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, the United States and Brazil. Among her many honors, Ms. Abreu has performed at the world ecological conference in Rio de Janeiro. Ms. Abreu is on the roster of the Pittsburgh Opera and had been in recent productions of Faust, Carmen, The Flying Dutchman, Street Scene, Turandot, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Falstaff at the Benedum Center.
Clarinet
Ethan Carter
Ethan is a Clarinetist/Bass Clarinetist and private teacher in the Pittsburgh and Murrysville area, currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Music Performance (Clarinet) with a minor in Conducting at Carnegie Mellon University. Ethan has studied with Thomas Thompson (Former Pittsburgh Symphony Clarinetist), Jack Howell (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Bass Clarinetist), Victoria Luperi (Pittsburgh Symphony Clarinetist) and Eddie Daniels (Legendary Jazz and Classical Clarinet Virtuoso). Ethan is a recipient of the Silver Lei Award (Honolulu International Film Festival), the Henry Archer Award (Concerto Competition), the Tuesday Musical Club Scholarship (3rd place), and the Army Minuteman Scholarship (Army ROTC). Outside the realm of music, Ethan is also a Cadet with the Three Rivers Battalion and serves in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Upon graduating CMU, he will commission as a Second Lieutenant (2LT) in the United States Army.
Violin
Cassandra May
Cassandra (Cassie) May is currently a first year at Carnegie Mellon University, where she is pursuing a bachelor’s degree (BXA) in Decision Science and Violin Performance.. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Cassie has been studying with Patricia Burnham for the past fourteen years, David Chernyabsky for the last two years, and William Van der Sloot as of this year. Cassie served as concertmaster of the Golden State Youth Orchestra (GSYO) and assistant concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO). Cassie also studied chamber music in Susan Bates’ Young Chamber Musicians Program. Locally and regionally, Cassie is a four-time winner of GSYO's annual concerto competition, two-time winner of the Junior Bach Festival, winner of the Palo Alto Philharmonic Concerto Competition, and first prize winner of the Peninsula Symphony Young Musicians Competition. Internationally, Cassie was a prizewinner of the KAMSA competition and ENKOR competition. Cassie’s musical pursuits have taken her to summer festivals including the Bowdoin International Festival, the Eastman School of Music Program, and most recently, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute on a scholarship. Additionally, Cassie has performed for non-profit volunteer organizations including twice for the Tahirih Justice Center fundraiser. Cassie has also participated in masterclasses with teachers including David Kim, Mark Kaplan, Janet Sung, and Peter Zazofsky; she has also been in masterclasses with the Daedalus Quartet, Kronos Quartet, and Muir Quartet.
Piano
Henry Liu
Henry is a senior piano performance major at Carnegie Mellon University studying under Professor Dimitri Papadimitriou. He has been performing across the east coast since he was 15 years old, at venues such as the Weill recital hall at Carnegie Hall, New York City. He is a member of the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary ensemble, and has performed with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic as well. Currently active as both a chamber musician and soloist, he intends to pursue his music career within the city of Pittsburgh, as well as continue to perform at local venues.
Accordion
Frank Pusateri
Frank originally studied guitar as a child, but later gravitated to the accordion and never looked back! He currently plays with a German band, Alpen Glow, at the Pittsburgh Hofbrauhaus once a month, and also with a Polka Band, Grkmania. He has met the most wonderful people through his music here in the Pittsburgh area, and enjoys entertaining them through MWAM. Frank plays several genres of music, including French, Italian, Greek, Polka, Latin and American Standards. A little something for everyone!
Piano
Jacob Ujhazy
Jacob is a University of Pittsburgh Class of 2023 student majoring in Neuroscience and History & Philosophy of Science (HPS) with a minor in Chemistry and a certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine. Jacob was a 2018 Pittsburgh Concert Society Young Artist Winner, a two-time 2017 and 2019 PMEA (Pennsylvania Music Educators Association) All-State Pianist, and a 2017 NAfME (National Association for Music Education) All-National Pianist.
Double Bass
Sruti Bapatla
Sruti is a second year double bass performance major through the BXA program at Carnegie Mellon University, studying under Micah Howard. She has been participating in various state and national orchestras since childhood, and is interested in classical, jazz, and traditional Indian music. She is especially passionate about chamber music, and is currently working with rising composers to combine traditional elements of classical and jazz music with unconventional instrumentation. She is the bassist for the jazz quartet Fourth Grade Sweethearts, who have performed in numerous venues across the tri-state area. Apart from playing music, her interests include biomedical engineering, luthiery, and surgical robotics. She is looking forward to working with many talented musicians in the future, and further exploring the Pittsburgh music scene!
Piano
Michael Hammer
Michael earned his Bachelors of Musical Arts in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and his Masters and Doctoral degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where his teachers included Robert McDonald, Marian Hahn, and Leon Fleischer. As a pianist he has appeared in recital from New York’s Carnegie Hall to the National Recital Hall in Taipei. The winner of several piano competitions, he has also appeared with orchestras and as accompanist, sometimes premiering new works. After graduate school he turned his attention to the organ; recent concerts in the Pittsburgh area include Heinz Chapel in May and November of 2018, Westminster Presbyterian Church, and St. Paul Cathedral. He is the organist at Third Presbyterian Church in Shadyside.
Soprano
Rosemary Pavlovsky
Rosemary has been featured with such groups as Undercroft Opera, The Pittsburgh Savoyards, Tuesday Musical Club, The Austrian American Cultural Society and the Crittenden Opera Studio in Washington, D.C. Her operatic credits include Madame Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor, Micaëla in Carmen (in concert), Stella and Antonia/Giulietta (cover - scenes performed) in Les Contes D'Hoffmann, Celestial Voice in Don Carlo and Lady Ella in Patience. Favorite partial roles include Princess Eudoxie in La Juive, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and the title roles in The Ballad of Baby Doe and Semiramide. Ms. Pavlovsky is an alumna of the prestigious AIMS in Graz opera studio and has since returned to Austria as a featured recitalist at Schloss Greillenstein in Horn with pianist Pierre El-Doueihi. In the United States, she has concertized with the pianist Gerald Jennings and has also been a guest soloist with the Clarksburg Symphony, performing arias by Puccini and Dvořák under the baton of John Collins. As a sacred soloist, she has performed the soprano solos in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem and Schubert's Mass in G. Ms. Pavlovsky received her BM and MM in Vocal Performance from Shenandoah Conservatory. She is a frequent soloist with various churches in the Pittsburgh area where she has performed with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Violin
Brian Curtin
Brian is a senior at Carnegie Mellon University, currently studying with Professor Andres Cardenes. He has won several competitions including the Duquesne Young Artist National Competition, Williamsport Young Artist competition, Nittany Valley Young Artist Competition, and various others. He has soloed with the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, the Nittany Valley Symphony orchestra, and twice with the Centre Pennsylvania Youth Orchestra, where he played as concertmaster for a year. Brian has also performed as a section violinist in Resonance Works (opera), the Nittany Valley Symphony, the Pennsylvania Chamber Orchestra. He attended the Tanglewood String Quartet Workshop 3 years in a row with merit scholarships, the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival twice in a row, and the Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves international chamber festival in Bordeaux, France. He has played for master classes for James Ehnes, Nicola Benedetti, and Gary Levinson. Recently he won first place in the Tuesday Music Club Scholarship Competition.
Violin
Nora Navid
Nora Navid is studying music performance and biology at Washington University in St. Louis. She was a violinist in the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra from 2018-2021 and currently plays Violin with the Washington University in St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She has performed at Chicago’s Symphony Center with the Oberlin Conservatory of Music’s Credo String Orchestra featuring Rachel Barton Pine and at a Side-by-Side Concert with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She graduated with First Class Honors with Distinction in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music. She received three Young Artist Awards from Duquesne University in violin solo, piano solo, and chamber ensemble. She has played extensively at Pittsburgh’s First Lutheran Church on Grant Street. Nora provides music therapy for Alzheimer’s patients, under-served elementary school students, and cardiac rehab patients in the St. Louis area. She is pursuing her board certification in music therapy while continuing her undergraduate pre-med studies.