VIOLINS
JONATHAN DAITCH, MD, Concertmaster, has been playing the violin since age 6. He grew up in Westfield, NJ and studied with Steven Wolosonovich. He spent summers at Julliard summer string camp Meadowmount and attended the Aspen Music Festival while in medical school. He has performed the Beethoven, Brahms and Bruch violin concertos with orchestras during his career. He is an active chamber musician. Trained as an anesthesiologist, he presently works as a full-time Interventional Pain Physician in Fort Myers. He serves on the board of the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra.
MARY ANNE FARESE, Principal Second, is a native of Bayonne, NJ. Mary Anne played the violin with the New York Philharmonic at age 15 under the direction of Maestro Wilfred Pelletier in Carnegie Hall and is proud to name Dorothy DeLay among her teachers. She holds four degrees in music, including two in musicology. At New York University her dissertation topic was “First Performances of Wagner’s Operas in America.” She served as associate professor and Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Fairleigh Dickinson University, teaching Italian, photography and a variety of music courses. At the Chapin School in Manhattan, she was Choral Director and Head of the Music Department. After moving to Cape Coral in 1999, Mary Anne taught music at Seacrest Country Day School in Naples where she directed many musicals including HMS Pinafore, Fiddler on the Roof and The Wiz . In 2001, she and her husband Ron, also a faculty member, received Seacrest’s first Teaching Excellence awards, giving them the opportunity to visit Greece and Turkey. The school’s yearbook was dedicated to them in 2004. The couple has traveled extensively and Mary Anne has studied Latin, French, German, Italian and Hebrew. Now retired, she continues to pursue a variety of musical endeavors.
SALLIE ATKIN is from Endicott, NY and is a seasonal resident of Fort Myers. She is an accomplished orchestral violinist and has been a member of the Tri-Cities Opera Company Orchestra in Binghamton, NY since 1993. She was also a long term member of the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed with other orchestras including the BC Pops, the Bermuda Philharmonic and the Schenectady International Touring Orchestra. She is a graduate of the Crane School of Music of the State University College at Potsdam, NY. She has studied with Professor Janet Brady at Binghamton University, Charles Libove of the Beaux Arts String Quartet and Sanford Reuning, founder of the Ithaca Talent Education Suzuki School. She is a trained Suzuki violin instructor and has taught privately and in the public school system.
HEATHER CAPITANIO, a retired San Diego business woman, played the violin throughout her youth and has resumed her playing in recent years, primarily in several different community orchestras. Brought up in Wichita, KS, she played in the United States Youth Symphony, which included performances on television and an appearance at Carnegie Hall. After completing her education, she moved to Los Angeles where she made appearances in TV commercials and the print media. After relocating to San Diego and subsequently raising her family, she became owner of and built the “Bridal Bazaar”, now the largest bridal convention show in the United States. She has represented the Inland Valley Symphony in the San Diego area as part of their Chamber Ensemble quartet, playing alongside the conductor and concert master. Since moving to Florida in 2004, she has played in local community orchestras and several chamber groups.
MARCIA KORWIN played violin in high school and college and then stopped for 40 years to raise children, be a township clerk and have an insurance agency. When her husband passed away in 1997, Marcia found there was suddenly time for things left undone and came back to the violin. She began taking lessons from an excellent teacher Rosemary Malocsay, as well as playing in quartets and orchestras. Each summer for the last 6 years, she has gone to chamber music camp at Interlochen in Michigan. For the past two years, Marcia has served on the Board of the Sanibel Music Festival and on the Community Advisory Board for WIAA (classical music radio). Music and the people associated with it form a large part of Marcia’s new life. Meanwhile, golf, gardening and reading take care of her idle hours. “Retirement is a very special time.”
PHILLIP LEFTON is a retired NYC high school principal (public and private schools), social studies teacher and supervisor who career spanned 40 years. He is an amateur and semi-pro violinist and has been married to his beautiful wife Charlotte for 53 years. Phillip and Charlotte are parents of three adult children (an engineer and two physicians). They enjoy gardening and other physical activity, as well as all the cultural opportunities in Fort Myers.
MONIKA LINDMAYER originally from the Washington, D.C. area, began her study of the violin at age eight. She is also a member of the Naples Orchestra and Chorus, as well as serving as their Treasurer. She is a licensed C.P.A. and holds a B.A. degree in theoretical mathematics from Brown University, as well as a M.S. degree in accounting from American University in Washington, D.C. She joined the Gulf Coast Symphony in 2007.
DR. DAVID MILLER, prior to retirement, held the position of Director of Orchestras and String development at Fort Myers Senior High School and the Cypress Lake Center for the Arts. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from The Ohio State University, his Master of Arts degree in Music from The American University in Washington, D.C. and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Education and Television from The Ohio State University. He is the recipient of awards in teaching strings and orchestras and has had string and orchestra articles published. In addition to composing music, Dr. Miller plays violin in the Gulf Coast Symphony and flute in the Lee County Community Band.
CLIVE OWENS, TD, B.Eng, M.Sc, C.Eng, MIEE, was born and raised in Liverpool, UK, and trained as an electrical and control engineer. He pursued a career in consumer goods manufacturing with M&M/Mars Inc. and Cadbury Schweppes, plc in the UK and USA. In parallel, he has also pursued a lifelong interest in music, with 40 years experience playing the violin in a wide range of musical environments. Orchestral experience includes both amateur and professional groups and has played with orchestras in the UK and USA including: University of Liverpool Orchestra, Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, City of Chester Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, D’Oyly Carte Opera, Royal Festival Ballet, Capistrano Valley Symphony (California) and Naples Orchestra. He recently retired as Group Operations Director with Cadbury Schweppes. He and his wife Elizabeth have a home in Gloucestershire, England, and also in Naples FL where they spend the winter season.