Meet Our Lesson Teachers
Maren Flechsig
Violin/Viola
Maren Flechsig is currently enrolled at UT Arlington as a music performance major in her senior year. She has played and studied the violin for 15 years. While at UTA she has earned awards for outstanding music freshman, scholarships for her performance, and orchestra. She performs currently with the McKinney Philharmonic and looks to perform with other orchestras this year. She loves music of all kinds and performs classical, folk, and modern/improv. Her studio has included diverse interests and playing levels, and she loves instilling a love of music in each of her students!
Daniel Gonzalez
Violin/Viola
Daniel Alejandro Gonzalez is a private violin/viola instructor and performer based in the DFW area. Originally from El Paso, TX, Daniel relocated in order to complete his Bachelor’s in Music Education at Texas Woman’s University and study with Dr. Anna Bard-Schwartz. During his time at TWU Daniel earned many awards and scholarships including the Presser Scholar award and was even a teaching assistant for the music theory department.
Even though his first priority is violin and viola pedagogy, he takes every opportunity to perform as a freelance musician in the area, playing for events at schools, churches, assisted living centers, his own string quartet or even community orchestras. The vast wealth of performance knowledge informs his teaching so he can prepare students to be prepared for whatever confronts them on their musical journey.
Currently, Daniel maintains his own private studio and also teaches private lessons in Prosper ISD and Denton ISD. He really values his work as a pedagogue and looks forward to working with all the wonderful students in his private studio.
Esther Tran
Violin/Viola
Esther Tran began her violin studies at age eight in Germany and is an avid chamber musician and soloist, performing in Wintergreen, Virginia, Saratoga Springs, New York, and Vidin, Bulgaria. She has been teaching privately for a decade with her youngest students being three years old, and her oldest students being UNT undergraduate music majors. In 2020, she released More Than Blue on all media platforms including Spotify. A faithful self-portrait on navigating through the pandemic, the album is composed of all original piano pieces.
She earned her B.M. in music performance at the University of North Texas in 2018, and her M.M. in music performance at the University of North Texas in 2020.
She has been an orchestra section violinist for Milal Orchestra Fall 2018, Irving Symphony Orchestra Fall 2016, Plano Civic Chorus Orchestra Fall 2016, Dallas Pops Symphony Orchestra Fall 2016 and Fall 2015, and San Angelo Symphony Orchestra Spring 2016 and Spring 2015.
Russell Thompson
Double Bass
Hailey Choi
Cello
Hailey Choi began playing the cello at the age of 10. She has won various competitions and performed as a soloist with Saddleback College Symphony and University of California Irvine Symphony Orchestra. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in cello performance at UCI where she studied under Margaret Parkins of Eclipse Quartet. There, she was the principal cellist for two years and received the prestigious Marjorie Rawlins Scholarship for four years. Then, she moved to USC to study under Ronald Leonard, the principal cellist of LA Philharmonic and earned her Master’s degree in cello performance. Hailey moved to Texas in 2018 with her husband and two children and continues her passion for both performing and teaching from beginner to advanced.
Dr. Irmak Sabuncu
Double Bass
Russell Thompson is a classical double bass performer and teacher based in Denton, Texas. He has maintained a small private studio since beginning graduate school in 2015.
Please visit Russell's website to sign up for private lessons.
Born in 1981 in Germany, Irmak Sabuncu began music at the age of 10 with piano lessons. He then began double bass training in 1996 at Çukurova University, Turkey in Prof. Tahir Sümer’s class. He continued his education in 1998 in Dokuz Eylül University, State Conservatory, Turkey. In 2005, he graduated from Prof. Tahir Sümer’s double bass class. Irmak was accepted to Zurich University of the Arts (Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) in 2006. For the years of 2009 and 2010, he pursued his Konzert Diplom and CAS (Certificate of Advanced Studies in Music Performance) diplomas, respectively in the class Prof. Duncan McTier. Subsequently, he was accepted to the class of Prof. Bozo Paradzik in 2010 for pursuing Orchester Diplom in Musikhochschule Luzern, Switzerland and he completed this degree in 2013. Irmak also completed his practical training in Bern Symphony Orchestra (Switzerland) in 2011. He participated in Prof. Zakhar Bron’s chamber orchestra.
In 2010, he attended to Sion Festival in Zhdk Strings Chamber Orchestra with Prof. Rudolf Koelman and Shlomo Mintz also participated “Herbst in der Helferei” (Zürich) Festival with Zürich Stringendo Chamber Orchestra throughout the four years (2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011). He took part in Winterthur Musikkollegium, Collegium Novum Zürich, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Berner Kammerorchester as well as Musikkollegium Basel orchestras. He attended workshop and master classes of Prof. Tahir Sümer, Prof. Bozo Paradzik, Franco Petracchi, Gary Karr, and Massimo Giorgi. During 2012-2017, he worked as a double bass lecturer at the Mersin University, State Conservatory, and teaching fellow in the University of North Texas from 2017 to 2020.
Irmak obtained his D.M.A. from the class of Professor Jeff Bradetich at the University of North Texas in May 2021.