St. Louis & Chicago Wedding String Quartet

Shannon Merciel is a cellist and teacher based in St. Louis, Missouri. She is a dynamic performer appearing as an orchestral and chamber musician in the US and abroad. She serves as principal cello for the Missouri Symphony’s annual summer festival in Columbia, Missouri and was recently appointed to the cello section of the Omaha Symphony. She will join the MUNY Orchestra in St. Louis for the 2023 summer season. She also performs with the Saint Louis Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, and St. Louis Chamber Soloists. She was recently a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and has performed with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Shannon is the cellist of Trio Doyenne, an international piano trio founded in Glasgow in 2017, who appears in concert regularly in the UK and Europe and has been broadcasted on the National Radio of Lithuania. Shannon enjoys mentoring younger generations of music students and maintains a private studio at Webster University's Community Music School and Suzuki Harmony in St. Louis. Shannon received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri-Columbia and Master of Music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has been lucky to study with incredible teachers including Darry Dolezal, Alison Wells, and Edward Arron. Shannon plays on a c.1980 cello made by Harry J. Reeve in St. Louis, Missouri.

Graham Woodland received his Bachelor of Music Degree in violin performance from the University of Missouri, where he was a student of Eva Szekely and studied chamber music with Julie Rosenfeld and Peter Miyamoto. He went on to receive his Master of Music Degree from the Hartt School, where he studied with Katie Lansdale and completed long-term Suzuki Teacher Training with Christie Felsing.

Additionally, Graham has completed Suzuki Teacher Training with Teri Einfeldt, Edward Kreitman, and Thomas Wermuth. He has appeared as soloist with the Missouri Symphony Orchestra, University of Missouri Philharmonic, Hartt Contemporary Players, and the MU Chamber Soloists. He is currently Assistant Concertmaster of the Missouri Symphony Orchestra and performs with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra.

Previously, Graham was Principal second violin of the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and performed with the New Britain Symphony and Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. He has been a winner and finalist in many competitions including the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist, Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA), and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

He has participated in masterclasses with Paul Biss, Pinchas Zukerman, Robert Lipsett, Lawrence Dutton, and members of the Berlin Philharmonic. Summer festivals attended include the Innsbrook Institute Academy and Festival, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Texas Music Festival.

A dedicated teacher, Graham’s students have earned leadership positions in the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Missouri All-State Orchestra, and have had success in local and state level competitions. He recently joined the Suzuki violin faculty at the Community Music School of Webster University in St. Louis.

A St. Louis native, cellist Nathan Hsu began his studies playing the violin at the age of three. At four, he made the decision to switch to cello due to his intense jealousy of cellists’ ability to sit while performing. He then went on to study at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and received both his Bachelor’s (2021) and Master’s degrees (2023) under the tutelage of Norman Fischer and Desmond Hoebig. He formerly held the cello chair on the North American tour of the Broadway musical Les Miserables from 2023-2025. During the summers, Nathan is the principal cellist at the Muny in St. Louis.

Mc Kayla Talasek performs on both viola and violin as an orchestral and freelance musician in St. Louis, Missouri. Receiving her MM in Viola Performance at University of Nevada, Reno, and BA in Violin Performance at University of the Incarnate Word, provided her with opportunities to perform with orchestras located in Texas, Nevada, California, Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri. She currently performs on a “Wojtyszyn” viola from 1978 and a “Talasek” violin from 2014, working with these groups in Nevada and Missouri regularly:
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Project String Quartet, St. Louis Chamber Soloists, Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis, Chamber Project St. Louis, Webster University Orchestra, Union Ave Opera and Reno Chamber Orchestra.

Along with performing, Mc Kayla enjoys having a home lesson studio and teaches privately and as a chamber music coach with these St. Louis organizations, too: Webster University: Community Music School, GreenHouse Studio, Gateway Music Outreach, MStrong Studio, and Forsyth School.

Grace Eunhey Park, began playing cello at 10 years old. She is a cellist with a passion for ensemble performance. She is a member of Ensemble Secreta, Ariel Concert Series, and Project String Quartet.

She was a member of Peoria Symphony Orchestra and an associate member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. She holds substitute positions with in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Huntington (WV) Symphony Orchestra, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

In 2012 Grace won first prize in the Indianapolis Matinee Musical Competition, graduate string/woodwind level, and she received honorable mention in the Graduate Concerto Competition at Ball State University in 2011. She is a native of the Republic of Korea where she won the Catholic University of Daegu Competition in 2003, and her ensemble was awarded first prize in the Fringe Festival of the Tongyeong International Music Festival (TIMF) in 2006. Grace took second prize in the string division of Daesin University in 2013 in Korea. She was previously a member of the Daegu Opera Festival Orchestra in Korea. Grace was a cellist in the Orchestre de la Francophonie in Montreal, Canada, in 2013 and in 2008 attended the Festival Ensemble of the TIMF Academy in Korea on a full scholarship.

She earned an Artist Diploma from Ball State University, where she studied with Peter Opie with a full assistantship. Prior to entering Ball State, she completed her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Yeung-nam University in Korea, where she studied with Seungzhin Lee.

Matt Pickart is Director and Co-founder of Clazz International Music Festival in Arcidosso, Italy, and Assistant Professor of Music at Webster University in Saint Louis, where he serves as Director of Chamber Music and teaches violin, viola, improvisation, and music entrepreneurship.  

He has the distinct honor and privilege of having performed at both Jazz at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Music Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Other career highlights include performances with The Who, Barry Manilow on tour, The Vogues as concertmaster, and as principal violist for Bernadette Peters and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras in the USA, Canada, Italy, and the Netherlands. As the former violinist and vocalist of the Hot Club of Pittsburgh and a featured artist of Jazzstadt Stuttgart, Pickart has performed and recorded in multiple genres internationally.

Active in the Saint Louis area, Pickart has performed with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Bach to the Future, Ariel Concert Series, and Chamber Project Saint Louis.

Mr. Pickart is lucky to count some of the great luminaries of the music world, among his teachers, such as: Sidney Harth (legendary American concertmaster); Yuri Gandelsman (former principal violist of Israel Philharmonic and violist with the Fine Arts Quartet); and Rodney Whitaker (bassist of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.)

Prior to coming to Webster University, he served on the faculty of Beloit College, Michigan State University Community Music School, Duquesne University’s City Music Center, and University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Summer Music Clinic among numerous other programs. He is also currently on the faculty of Webster University’s Community Music School and Jazz Saint Louis Jazz Academy.

For further information, please visit www.mattpickart.com.

Amy Greenhalgh studied at Oxford University and went on to postgraduate education at the Royal College of Music. After college, Amy performed chamber and orchestral music throughout Europe with various ensembles including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and recorded for labels such as Decca and Deutsche Grammophon. A founding member of the Symposia String Quartet, Amy toured across Britain, France, and Spain.

Following a European career, Amy moved to Chile, South America, after winning the principal viola position with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Santiago. The role involved leading operas, ballets, and symphony concerts. Additionally, Amy taught at the University Mayor, was violist and arranger of the Ensamble Filarmónico, and served as principal viola of the Chilean-German Chamber Orchestra.

Amy is a skilled arranger, working across various genres. Their arrangements have been performed by groups including the Crystal Palace String Quartet in London and the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus of Chile. Amy also arranged music for cumbia band and orchestra, and created and designed outreach concerts for the Municipal Theater in Santiago, Chile.

Amy relocated to St. Louis in 2015, is the Director of Strings and Lecturer at Washington University in St. Louis, and regularly substitutes with the St. Louis Symphony. Amy is passionate about creating a diverse and inclusive learning environment and has collaborated with local organizations to bring cultural experiences to the community. Amy is a doctoral candidate in higher education leadership at Maryville University.

Asako Kuboki began her violin studies at the age of five in Japan. She received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, studying with Sylvia Rosenberg and Victor Danchenko. Kuboki performed extensively with the New Horizons Chamber Ensemble in Baltimore, a contemporary music group that worked in collaboration with composers, poets, and visual artists, for five seasons. She has also played with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, and the Key West Symphony Orchestra.

n 2001 Kuboki joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Since relocating to St. Louis she has continued performing chamber music and solo recitals throughout the U.S., and at international music festivals such as Credomatic International Music Festival in Costa Rica, American Institute for Musical Studies in Austria, and the Pacific Music Festival in her hometown, Sapporo, Japan. Kuboki’s interest in music of many different styles along with her love for chamber music has lead her to collaborate with St. Louis’ innovative jazz, world, pop, and electronica artists to release a number of CDs, and to perform at the Whitaker Jazz Festival, as well as at benefit concerts for nonprofit organizations such as Jazz St. Louis, Play It Forward, and Live Feed. In recent years, she was commissioned to compose and perform the original soundtrack for a HEC-TV documentary film, Wallace Herndon Smith: Artist Without Boundaries.