Brent Price was formally appointed Assistant Concertmaster of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra in 2024 after previous years playing in the first violin section. Mr. Price has held prior positions with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and served as Concertmaster of the Savannah Philharmonic.
All Musicians
Magaly Rojas Seay
Petr Skopek
Petr Skopek was born in Prague, Czech Republic, where he began his musical studies at the National School of Music at the age of six. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Frederick, MD, and received his Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance degree from the University of North Texas, College of Music. He received his Maryland state professional teaching certificate in 2006.
Mr. Skopek is currently a member of The Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra, Two Rivers String Quartet, Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, and Shippensburg Festival Orchestra. In the past, Mr. Skopek has performed with orchestras and chamber groups in Texas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Washington DC, including East Texas Symphony, Richardson Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, Alexandria Symphony, Concert Artists of Baltimore, National Philharmonic, Washington Concert Opera, and The Choral Arts Society of Washington DC.
From 1996-2002, Mr. Skopek worked as a private lesson violin and viola instructor for the Texas independent school districts of Plano, Richardson, and Lewisville. From 2002 to 2022, he served as a band and orchestra director in the Frederick County (MD) Public Schools system, where his orchestras, bands, and jazz bands consistently received awards, superior ratings, and recognition at county and state music festivals and adjudications. In 2023, Mr. Skopek became the orchestra director at Barbara Ingram School for the Arts, an arts magnet high school in Washington County, Maryland. Mr. Skopek also serves as a clinician, conductor, adjudicator, and string coach. He has worked with many festival ensembles in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, as well as youth orchestras including the Frederick Regional Youth Orchestra, Academy of St. Cecilia, the Maryland Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Shepherd University Preparatory Orchestra.
Brandon Smith
Todd Thiel
Alice Tung
Jessica Siegel Weaver
Kat Whitesides
Susan Copeland Wilson
Patricia Wnek-Schram
Elena Yakovleva
Elena Yakovleva is the principal Piccoloist with the United States Navy Band since 2015. She also holds Piccolo/3rd Flute chair position with the Delaware Symphony since 2008 and the Maryland Symphony Orchestra since 2010.
Elena has performed with the Baltimore, Cleveland, and Annapolis Symphony Orchestras, the National Orchestra Institute, and the Kent-Blossom and Sun Festival in Singapore. Elena is also on the Flute faculty at the International School of Music in Bethesda.
Elena Yakovleva graduated from the Rachmaninoff Music College with Honors in Kaliningrad, Russia. She continued her studies at the Hochschule für Music Detmold and at the Folkwanghochschule Essen, Germany, studying under Prof. Wegner and Prof. Ott, and later, under renown Jeanne Baxtresser as a Performance Residence Program student at the Carnegie Mellon University on full scholarship.
Elena Yakovleva has received her Master of Music, GPD in Flute and Graduate Performance Diploma in Chamber Music with Marina Piccinini at Peabody Conservatory on full scholarship.
A scholarship recipient from the Russian Ministry of Culture, she was selected for the artist roster of Yehudi Menuhin’s Foundation “Live Music Now”, in 2006 she was a prizewinner in the New York Flute Club Competition and in 2011 prizewinner in the Baltimore Music Club Competition. Elena was chosen to perform solo with the United States Navy Band at the Military Tattoo in Norway in 2022.
