Cleveland Musicians

City Six Strings works with a network of professional Cleveland musicians who work with orchestras and ensembles across Ohio. Our violinists, violists, and cellists regularly perform with organizations such as the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Akron Symphony, Canton Symphony, and more.

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Sarah Becker, Co-Founder, Violin

City Six Strings co-founder Sarah Becker is an active violinist living in Cincinnati, Ohio. She holds a Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where she studied with former Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Timothy Lees. Prior to her time in Cincinnati, she received her Bachelors in Music studying with First Assistant Concertmaster Peter Otto at Cleveland State University School of Music.
An active music performer in Ohio, Sarah began studying the violin at age six through the Suzuki method. Recently, Sarah has performed with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic Orchestra, and Springfield Symphony Orchestra. She has also served as Assistant Concertmaster for the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra and Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. During her time studying at Cincinnati Conservatory, she had the honor of sitting both Concertmaster and Principal Second. She has enjoyed a variety of collaborations with incredible talent, most notably Andrea Bocelli, The Beach Boys, and Trans Siberian Orchestra.
While classically trained, Sarah enjoys exploring a wide variety of genres and interests, both inside and outside of music. You can catch her in music videos alongside Rome Music and Jim Duff, two multi genre bands, and can also find her performing as a soloist at venues throughout Ohio. You can also listen to her podcast “Sarapy” for a deeper dive on life, music, and personal development.

Performance Credits: Columbus Symphony Orchestra (Columbus, OH), Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (Cincinnati, OH), Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra (Lexington, KY), Erie Philharmonic Orchestra (Erie, PA), Springfield Symphony Orchestra (Springfield, OH), Mansfield Symphony Orchestra (Mansfield, OH), Kentucky Symphony Orchestra (Northern KY).

McKinley Glasser, Co-Founder, Cello

City Six Strings cellist and co-founder McKinley Glasser is a Cleveland-based freelancer. She holds a Master's degree from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a Bachelor's degree from Cleveland State University.

As an orchestral player, she regularly appears with the Canton and Youngstown Symphonies, and has filled in as acting principal for the Mansfield Symphony, the Ashland Symphony and the Vienna Light Orchestra. She has performed internationally as a member of the AIMS Festival Orchestra in residence in Graz, Austria, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Symphony Orchestra, and the Kelvin Ensemble in Glasgow, Scotland. An experienced pit musician, she has played in dozens of opera and musical theatre productions from Cleveland’s Near West Theatre to the West End's Prince Edward Theatre.

A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Preparatory Program, her primary teachers include Alison Wells and The Cleveland Orchestra's Charles Bernard, Bryan Dumm, Brian Thornton and Cathy Meints. She has also studied under Lynn Harrell, David Watkin, Melissa Kraut, Joela Jones, and members of the Cavani String Quartet.

McKinley is the music librarian, arranger, web designer, and resident spreadsheet enthusiast at City Six Strings. Outside of the business, she devotes her time to learning and promoting new music, and has premiered several new works for solo cello and small ensemble. When not near her cello, she is usually hiking in beautiful Northeast Ohio or working on freelance writing projects.

Performance credits: Canton Symphony Orchestra (Canton, OH), Youngstown Symphony Orchestra (Youngstown, OH), Akron Symphony Orchestra (Akron, OH), CityMusic Cleveland (Cleveland, OH), Mansfield Symphony (Mansfield, OH), Ashland Symphony (Ashland, OH), Near West Theatre (Cleveland, OH), Rabbit Run Theatre (Madison, OH)

Yejee Kim, Violin

Yehji Kim, born in South Korea, earned her Master's Degree and pursued Advanced Music Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, where she graduated with honors.

Ms. Kim currently serves in the Akron Symphony Orchestra as 4th chair in the first violin section, and in the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra in the first violin section. She has also appeared with Canton Symphony Orchestra as the Assistant Principal second violin. Ms. Kim
also appears with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as a substitute violinist.

Currently, she is studying Music Education at Cleveland State University in a post-
baccalaureate program.

Vicki Hamm, Cello

Vicki Hamm is a cellist currently performing throughout Northeast and Central Ohio. She is a proud graduate of Cleveland State University (MM, 2017), studying under Bryan Dumm, and Baldwin Wallace University (BM, 2011), studying under Regina Mushabac. She has also studied under Alan Harrell, Richard Weiss, and Stephen Geber; members of the Cavani, Miami, and Turtle Island String Quartets; acclaimed string trio Time for Three; Trans-Siberian Orchestra violinist Mark Wood; improvisation expert Julie Lyonn Lieberman; and legendary saxophonist Ernie Krivda.

Joining her first ‘gigging’ string quartet at age 15, Vicki brings years of wedding and event
experience to the table. She enjoys transcribing and arranging music, writing original music, and has a rich performance background spanning classical, contemporary, pop, jazz, and rock music. She performed vocals, keyboard, and cello with Cleveland rock group The Rainbow Emergency (2015 – 2017), has performed with Cleveland Beatles cover band The George Martins (2019), and legendary rock band Styx (2005).

Vicki has attended the Kent Blossom Music Festival (2016) and the Eastern Music Festival
(2009), where she sat as principal cellist under Gerard Schwarz. She has performed with the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, the Blossom Festival Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Chagrin Falls Studio Orchestra, and l)a contemporary ensemble.
She has been awarded scholarships and performance opportunities by the Tuesday Musical Association and the Three Arts Club of Lakewood. She was the winner of the 2015 Daniel Rains Concerto Competition, performing Elgar's Cello Concerto with the Cleveland State University Orchestra.

While not thinking about or playing music, Vicki develops software and likes learning about anything and everything. She enjoys being outside and snuggling with her cats.

Ryan Kearns, Violin

Violinist Ryan W. Kearns received his Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied under Juliana Athayde, Concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Kearns also studied with Peter Otto, First Associate Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, during his undergraduate violin performance degree at Cleveland State University. In October 2020, Kearns served as Acting Concertmaster of the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra. Kearns is also a member of the Canton Symphony Orchestra and substitutes with the Akron Symphony and the Erie
Philharmonic. During the summer of 2019, Kearns was invited to perform in the Blossom Festival Orchestra with Brian Wilson which featured the Pet Sounds album and other notable Beach Boys hits.

As a member of the Eastman Philharmonia, he performed at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in premieres with Renée Fleming. Kearns also served as a Rotating Concertmaster in the Eastman Conducting Orchestra, where he was selected as a Department Assistant. While studying in Cleveland, he appeared as a featured soloist with the Cleveland State Symphony Orchestra after receiving first prize in the Daniel Rains Annual Concerto Competition. Previously attended summer festivals include the Texas, Bowdoin International, National, and Eastern Music Festivals.

Committed to community engagement, Kearns collaborates in his home state of Ohio as an instructor, clinician, and guest performer at Rainey Institute (Cleveland), Lake Erie College (Painesville), the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Suburban Symphony Orchestra. Kearns received the highly selective Arts Leadership Certificate, an Institute for Music Leadership
program that provides mentorship and resources for musicians interested in entrepreneurship, arts advocacy, and audience engagement. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Kearns founded Glissando
Strings (www.glissandostrings.com) which provides high – quality live music performances at weddings and special events. In addition, Kearns is an advocate for the composers and musicians affected by the World Wars, promoting and performing the solo and chamber music works of
Bacewicz, Ullmann and Weinberg.

Performance credits: Canton Symphony Orchestra (Canton, OH), Erie Philharmonic (Erie, OH), Akron Symphony (Akron, OH)

Megan Sullivan, Violin

Megan Sullivan, violin, is an active freelancer residing in Cleveland Ohio. Accomplished as both a classical and contemporary performer, she has played hundreds of concerts, weddings, and events with repertoire varying from classical to rock, with a little bit of everything in between. Megan has professional experience performing, improvising, sight-reading, transcribing, arranging, singing and studio recording. A few of her most notable performances include playing with Grammy award winners Michael Bublé & Josh Groban, as well as the Trans Siberian Orchestra and the Playhouse Square Orchestra. She is currently the violinist-in-residence at the beautiful Marble Room in downtown Cleveland.

Orchestrally, she has performed with The Firelands Symphony in Sandusky Ohio, the Playhouse Square orchestra, was a member of the Ohio Light Opera pit, and has been a substitute with many orchestras such as the Mansfield Symphony (Ohio), the Kentucky Symphony, and more. Specializing in weddings, Megan has played over 200 ceremonies! She can play any song request you may have; either as a soloist, duet, trio or quartet.

Equally passionate about contemporary music, she has played with many bands and ensembles. Most recently, she performed with Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Wesley Bright & the Honeytones, and served as the vio-cellist with the Cleveland rock-band, Seafair. She has also been seen with bands such as Remember Jones (pop/soul), The Dan Varner Band (country), The Rainbow Emergency (neo-soul), multiple wedding bands, and more. She also enjoys performing her own songs using a loop pedal to loop vocals and violin, creating a unique contemporary-classical sound.

In 2014, Megan graduated from the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music where she was a student of Dr. Julian Ross as a violin-performance major. While at BW, she was grateful for many prestigious opportunities, such as performing in masterclasses with renowned artists such as Takako Masame and Stephen Rose of The Cleveland Orchestra, working directly with acclaimed composer Christopher Theofanidis, and playing in the BW Bach Chamber Orchestra all four of her years at BW. This auditioned festival experience entails performing alongside faculty and Cleveland Orchestra members. During the 2013-2014 year, Megan also served as the concertmaster of the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra.

Megan is originally from Cincinnati, where she studied with Ms. Dorothy Han and Mr. Gabe Pegis. She has attended various prestigious summer music festivals such as AIMS - the American Institute of Musical Studies (Graz, Austria), Interlochen Arts Camp, Brevard Music Center, and The Boston University Tanglewood Institute. In these settings, she worked one-on-one with many acclaimed teachers and performers such as Dylana Jenson, Timothy Christie, Maria Sampen, the Attacca Quartet, and more.

Megan is always searching for new ways to expand her musical knowledge, experiences, and repertoire.

Virginia Ashley, Viola/Violin

Virginia Ashley, violist, graduated with her master’s degree in Viola Performance from Kent State University. During this time, she served as the graduate assistant for viola. Throughout her time at Kent State, she performed in the Kent State University Orchestra, and is the former principal violist for the Stow Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed as the principal violist in theater productions such as Oklahoma!, Little Women, Cinderella, Into the Woods and Beauty and the Beast during employment with the Kent State University School of Theatre and Dance and Porthouse Theatre. Her masterclass performances include those at the Ohio Viola Society Day in 2010, 2012 and 2013, as well as with Jeffrey Irvine, faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, in 2016.

Virginia is an active freelance musician and has performed and recorded in numerous locations around Ohio. Most notable of those are the 2018 North American Saxophone Alliance alongside saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio, recording work on the Kent State University Stark campus in 2018, Severance Hall in Cleveland, and many more. She also performs frequently with the Tuscarawas Philharmonic, Mansfield Symphony and Legacy Scoring Orchestra. Along with freelancing, Virginia is a teacher. She is currently the violin and viola instructor for Lakewood City Schools and the Beck Center for the Arts.

Virginia graduated from Lakewood High School in 2014, and subsequently went on to receive her bachelor’s and master’s in viola performance in 2018 and 2020, respectively. Her viola instructors include Lisa Whitfield, principal violist for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Yu Jin and Cleveland Orchestra violist Joanna Patterson Zakany.

Dana Plank, Violin/Viola

Dana Plank played her first wedding gig in 2002 with her high school string quartet, and has remained reverently in awe of the power of music to transform life's most special events ever since. She earned her BA in violin performance and music history with a minor in Japanese from Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music and her MM in violin performance from Cleveland State University, and she holds a PhD in historical musicology from The Ohio State University, with a dissertation on representations of disability in early video game soundscapes. She has a passion for chamber music and for transcribing and arranging music for a variety of ensembles and venues, and her repertoire expands far beyond the classics to include Renaissance love songs, early 20th century standards from the Great American Songbook, and video game music.

As an academic, her research interests include the sacred music of Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, minimalist and post-minimalist opera, Egyptology, ludomusicology (the study of video game music), and music and identity with a particular emphasis on disability, gender, and sexuality. She has published on the music of Tetris, uses of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in 8-bit video games, Mario Paint Composer and participatory culture on YouTube, exoticism in depictions of ancient Egypt in games, and the cognitive and physiological effects of game sound on the player. She sits on the boards of the North American Conference on Video Game Music, Game Sound Con, and the editorial board of the Journal of Sound and Music in Games. She is a co-editor for two forthcoming volumes: one on intersections of video games, animation, and music, and a second on game sound, gender, and sexuality. She also streams on Twitch most Thursday evenings from 9-11pm EST at twitch.tv/bardicknowledge with a team of other video game music scholars, discussing the soundscapes of the games they play in real time.

Micaela Murphy, Viola/Violin

Micaela Murphy, Violin and Viola, is a dynamic artist and dedicated instructor deeply rooted in the vibrant community of Cleveland, Ohio. With a career spanning over 20 years in performance and over 12 years in teaching, Ms. Murphy exudes a profound passion for imparting her love of music to others.

Ms. Murphy earned her Bachelor's in Viola Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied under the guidance of Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey of the Cleveland Orchestra. As an active performer, Ms. Murphy has won concerto competitions for solo performances with orchestras across the Midwest Region. She held the principal position at the Suburban Symphony Orchestra and holds section/substitute positions with the Snowbelt Symphony and Akron Symphony Orchestra. Her musical journey also includes participation in and recognition from the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Encore Chamber Music Festival, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the National Orchestral Institute.

As an dynamic artist, Ms. Murphy has performed numerous times at prestigious venues such as Severance Hall and Playhouse Square, and has collaborated with other creatives such as Ill Divo, The George Martins, Carl Topilow, Frank Cohen (former principal clarinet of The Cleveland Orchestra), Michael Stern (Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony), and has performed on live on the Radio Station on 91.9 Classical KC and WRUW in Cleveland.

In addition to performing, Ms. Micaela is the owner of 'The Viola Studio,' providing a dedicated space for aspiring Viola students, and also the co-director of Lakewood Suzuki Strings, a comprehensive Suzuki Program tailored for young beginners and their families.

When not teaching or performing, Micaela loves running, working out, exploring local coffee shops, and spending time with her friends, family, and her sweet dog, Eleanor.

Olivia Clark, Cello

My love for cello music began when I was 5 years old, watching Yo-yo Ma play on Sesame Street. I began playing three years later, and my love and curiosity for music continued to grow. I've studied and played many other instruments, but cello has always been at the center of my musical life.

I am based in the Cleveland area and have played all over Northeast Ohio. I specialize in providing music for wedding ceremonies and cocktail hours, working with the bride to create her desired atmosphere and ambiance. I am here to make your vision come to fruition, and provide the soundtrack to the happiest moment of your life!

I hold a BME from Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music, where I majored in Music Education. I have over 7 years of experience as a contract musician, playing for weddings, church services, pit orchestras, events, receptions, parties, recitals, and more. I would love to work with you to fill your musical needs!

Abigail McLaughlin, Violin

Abigail McLaughlin is a violinist and music educator in northeast Ohio. She is a violinist in the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra and the Youngstown Scoring Stage, and is also a regular substitute violinist with the Youngstown Symphony and Cleveland Pops Orchestra. From 2015 to 2017, Abigail was violin faculty at Thiel College, Pennsylvania, where she was the adjunct professor of the strings program. Currently Abigail maintains a large violin studio at Aurora School of Music.

Abigail received her Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Performance in 2015 from Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University, and her Master’s Degree in Music from Cleveland State University School of Music in 2019. In 2020 Abigail completed her Professional Studies in Music Performance Certificate at Cleveland State University.
Abigail’s favorite activities include studying and performing chamber music, teaching her students and researching violin pedagogy, reading classic literature and philosophy, and spending time in nature.

Marla Gigliotti, Cello

Marla Gigliotti is a native Clevelander and loves her city! She started playing cello at the age of 5 at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Preparatory Program. She continued her studies, obtaining a BA in Music and an Arts Management Minor from Miami University (2016) and her MA in Music Performance from Cleveland State University (2018). She has studied with Pansy Chang, of “Pink Martini,” and members of the Cleveland Orchestra including Bryan Dumm, David Alan Harrell, and Charles Bernard.

Marla’s performances range from birthday parties, weddings, charity events, corporate parties, religious services, studio recordings, and formal orchestra and chamber concerts. She has performed internationally for film composer AR Rahman alongside the Sunshine Orchestra and Global Rhythms. In addition to performing, Marla also teaches privately and conducts for the non-profit Rainey Institute for the Arts.

Marla’s favorite aspects of making music are collaborating with other artists and other artforms, crafting a sound to evoke emotion, and understanding the cultural importance of a piece. When Marla is not freelancing, practicing, or teaching she enjoys running, petting dogs, and drinking coffee.