Linda Fiore began violin lessons at age 5 with her mother Louise Wear, a Suzuki violin teacher. She earned a Bachelor of Music in violin performance at the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, CT and studied with violinist Raphael Bronstein in New York City. later, she studied with Dr. Suzuki at the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan for 18 months. She performed her graduation recital and earned her Japanese teaching certificate.

In 1983, she and her husband Domenick founded DaCore Talent Education in Glenmore, PA where, for 14 years, she taught violin and directed her own workshops. She has presented student performing groups in Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Europe, and throughout the United States. In 1997 she accepted a teaching position at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford. She was a Suzuki Teacher trainer in the graduate degree program there and also taught college students as well as young students in the school’s Community Division.

Having returned to PA, Linda and Domenick are currently continuing the development of DaCore Talent Education Academy and Fiore Performing strings in the Lehigh Valley area. They continue to co-direct the Ogontz Suzuki Institute, a four-session Summer Institute in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Linda has done extensive orchestra, chamber orchestra, and chamber music performing over the course of her career with groups such as the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra and the Northeastern PA Philharmonic and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia. She trains teachers and students nationally and internationally and is the mother of two sons, Michael and Christopher.

Violinist Rachel Harmatuk Pino was born and raised in New Bern, North Carolina and is a professional concert violinist and violin teacher. She is Principal 2nd Violinist for the Long Bay Symphony Orchestra, Executive Director of Trent River Chamber Players, and Concertmaster of New Bern Civic Strings. She performs with the Carolina Chamber Music Festival (New Bern, NC) and directs the CCMF Educational Family Concert. In 2006, Rachel founded New Bern Suzuki Strings, which now has nearly 50 private violin students ages 3+. Rachel appears as a clinician at the NC Suzuki Institute at East Carolina University, the STAHR Workshop (VA), and the Greenville Suzuki Association’s Suzuki Saturdays (NC), and has taught at Craven Community College. She is registered with both Long-Term and Short-Term Suzuki violin training in Every Child Can! and Volumes 1-10 from Teacher Trainers Joanne Bath, Joanne Martin, Enid Cleary, James Hutchins, and Vera McCoy-Sulentic.

Rachel is a Suzuki Violin student from the age of 5 and studied with Andrea Smith and Joanne Bath. She earned her undergraduate degree in Violin Performance with Lucy Chapmann at The Boston Conservatory (2005) where she won first place in the 2002 Chamber Music Competition. She earned two Masters degrees from East Carolina University (2007),  in Suzuki Pedagogy with Teacher Trainer, Joanne Bath and also in Violin Performance.  

Born and raised in Albany, NY, Mary Ann Tortolano began the violin at age 6 as part of the first wave of Suzuki method instruction hit the United States. After receiving a BM from Oberlin College, where she studied violin with Stephen Clapp and viola with Katherine Plummer, she became a certified Suzuki teacher, studying with the Preucil family in Iowa City. Later she became a Suzuki “parent” and sent all three of her children to Institutes. 

As Principal Second Violin of both the Spoleto and Graz Festivals, she toured the U.S. and Europe before accepting a position as Principal Viola with the Whitewater and Sorg Opera companies. While teaching in Richmond, Indiana, she hosted the 1991 Suzuki Talent Education Tour from Japan at Earlham College.

A former member of the New England Conservatory of Music Prep Division, Newton Music School and the Levine School of Music (Georgetown, DC), she is a freelance violin/violist in the DC area and performs with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, the Manassas Ballet and the American Festival Pops Orchestra at George Mason University. She teaches at various workshops and Institutes and is on the faculty of New England Music Camp in Sydney, Maine. She has maintained a private studio in Alexandria, VA for 25 years. 

James Hutchins lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wonderful and gorgeous wife and his fabulous and entertaining son. He grew up in the Suzuki Method, has been a Suzuki teacher for over 25 years and is a proud Suzuki dad. James is a registered teacher trainer who has taught at workshops, institutes and classes around the world, including South Korea, Iceland, Peru, Lithuania, Singapore, Malaysia, Bermuda, the Bahamas and throughout the States. His studio has performed for former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton at the White House, at the National Zoo, the U.S. Capitol, the Maryland State Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Aquarium and on the Millennium Stage and with the National Symphony at The Kennedy Center. They have also played the National Anthem for the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Wizards and Nationals. James also had the honor of performing for Dr. and Mrs. Suzuki at their home in Japan.