Ruben Camacho, Founder & Director
He has been invited to perform in recitals, with orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and also to teach in New York, Paris, London, Buenos Aires, Bogota, and Caracas, among other cities. In 2002 Mr. Camacho was invited to perform in the Cervantino Music Festival, (Mexico). He has also participated in the Tanglewood Music Festival (USA) and Montpellier Music Festival (France).
He obtained his BM in Music from Juilliard School under Margaret Pardee, Felix Galimir, Jonathan Feldman, and members of the Juilliard String Quartet. In 1993 he moved to Paris and began to study violin with Professor Jacques Ghestem and conducting with maestro Jean Sebastien Bereau from the Conservatoire National Superior de Musique de Paris. In 2002 the government honored him with the gift of French nationality. Born in Venezuela, his musical ability read more
Christine Arroyo, Violin
Christine Arroyo began playing violin in 6th grade in middle school. A native of Columbia, South Carolina she continued enthusiastically to be a part of the public school orchestra program from middle to high school in Richland 2 (Columbia, SC). Inspired by her strings teachers (Mrs. Becky Leonard and Mr. Phillip Pagal), Ms. Arroyo remained very resolute in her quest as an Orchestra Director.
Ms. Arroyo earned a Masters of Music in Music Education with a Conducting Specialization from Colorado State University (Ft. Collins, CO) under conducting teachers Professor Wes Kenney (master teacher), Dr. Rebecca Phillips, and Dr. James Kim. For her undergraduate study, Ms. Arroyo attended the University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC) where she earned a Bachelor of Music Emphasis in Education, Summa Cum Laude. During this time, she participated actively as a member of the University of South Carolina String Project under the direction of Dr. Gail Barnes.
Ms. Arroyo is currently the orchestra director at Moultrie Middle School. Ms. Arroyo has taught in Charleston County School District (Haut Gap Middle School, Johns Island, SC) and Greenville County School District (Ralph Chandler Middle School). Under the direction of Ms. Arroyo, her orchestras have received Superior Ratings at SCMEA Concert Performance Assessment.
Ms. Arroyo is the conductor for the Charleston Symphony Youth Sinfonietta (CSYS). She has also served as a conductor for the Greenville County Youth Orchestras (GCYO) and has served as the conductor of the Honors Orchestra and Lead Teacher for the Charleston County District Orchestra. In addition to teaching, Ms. Arroyo has served as a clinician for Region Orchestra and All-County Orchestras. She has also shared presentations at the South Carolina American Teachers Association (ASTA) and has had the opportunity to co-present at the National ASTA Conference.
Clara Camacho, Piano, Choir & Theory
Clara Camacho is a young and brilliant Franco-Venezuelan pianist born in a family of musicians. She started studying the piano at the age of three with Carlo Urbaneja at the Mozarteum School in Caracas. At the age of ten, she was accepted at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris (CRR). She obtained her Diploma of Musical Studies in 2019 from CRR in the class of David Saudubray. In 2012 and 2013, Clara won for two consecutive years the National Piano Competition of Chatou with a unanimous "Mention Très Bien" with congratulations from the jury.
In 2020, she received a scholarship to study for her undergraduate degree in the class of the prestigious Ukrainian pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky at the College of Charleston. In her sophomore and junior year, Clara Camacho was awarded the Edwin Davis Peacock award for excellence in piano, and performed multiple concerts for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. She is currently pursuing her senior year at the College of Charleston.
In April 2023, she performed as a soloist the Schumann Piano Concerto with conductor Yuriy Bekker and the College of Charleston Orchestra. In the past five years, Clara has been performing several solo piano recitals as well as chamber music concerts in France and the United States, performances she often concludes with an improvisation.
Karen Mendes, Violin
Karen Mendes was born in Caracas, Venezuela. She started learning music in El Sistema, a transformational movement and cutting-edge program to inspire children with music integrated throughout the school curriculum. Throughout her childhood and early teenage years, she has been part of several orchestras and ensembles in Venezuela and the United States. She has performed with renowned musicians like Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Michael Morgan, among others.
In 2013, she performed at the Salzburg Festival with the National Children’s Orchestra of Venezuela. In 2014 she moved to the United States, where she continued her music education at the Charleston County School of the Arts, while taking lessons with Ruben Camacho. In 2017 she started her studies at Furman University as a Music Performance major, studying with Dr. Thomas Joiner and Dr. Andrew Carlson.
In 2019, she participated in Furman’s Music Abroad program in Italy, where she attended clinics with Markus Stockhausen, while receiving lessons with Marna Fumarola. Karen currently holds a master’s degree from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, where she held a Graduate Assistant position while studying with Blair Milton.
Yun Hao Jiang, Cello
Born in Shanghai, he began his cello studies at the Shanghai Conservatory and continued on to the Municipal School of Music in Montevideo, College of Charleston and Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. He has performed in Venezuela, Spain and the U.S., including the prestigious Meadowmount Music Festival in New York.
