About Us

MICHELE MARIAGE VOLZ, VIOLIN

Michele Mariage Volz is a founding member of Kazanetti and a core member of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra. She performs regularly with orchestras across the southeast including the Atlanta Symphony, the Atlanta Ballet, the Savannah Symphony, and serves as concertmaster of the award-winning Aurora Theater. During her studies with the renowned Robert Billups and Oliver Steiner, she was a member of the Colorado Philharmonic. In addition, Michele is constantly in demand as a studio musician in the Atlanta area and has recorded for Usher, Goodymob, and Tasha as well as R&B and commercial sessions.

Michele maintains a popular and rigorous teaching studio that prepares students for Atlanta Youth Orchestra, Metropolitan Youth Orchestra, DeKalb Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Georgia All-State Orchestras. Her students have gone on to attend colleges such as Indiana University, Pepperdine, N.Y.U and North Carolina School of the Arts. She has lived in the Atlanta area since 1989 where she is an active chamber musician and a mentor for young chamber musicians.

ELIZABETH ALVAREZ, VIOLIN & VIOLA

A native of the South, Elizabeth Alvarez, violinist & violist, received her Bachelor's degree in Music with Honors from Indiana University and later earned a Masters of Music in Music Theory. Her major teachers and mentors include Yuval Yaron, Dr. Charles Knox, Dr. Susan Tepping, and Oliver Steiner. An avid chamber musician, Elizabeth is a founding member and co-director of the Kazanetti String Quartet, is the second violinist of the Vermont Summer Quartet, a seasonal string quartet that performs in Vermont and Maine, and performs with orchestras and chamber groups throughout the southeast as both violinist and violist. She teaches violin & viola, music theory, and coaches chamber music, though in recent years she has focused her energies on orchestration and was appointed Artist-in Residence at Wildacres Retreat (NC). In addition, she was awarded a Fulton County Arts Council Fellowship, and named a Fellow at The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences (GA).

JULIE ROSSETER, VIOLA & VIOLIN

Violist Julie Rosseter enjoys a multifaceted career as a performer, and as a teacher. She is a core member of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra, a founding member of the Kazanetti String Quartet, and she frequently performs with local orchestras including the Atlanta Ballet and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. A diverse musician, Julie appears regularly with the Celtic rock band Mickle-a-Do, and has released several CD's with the indie folk band The Renters.

Julie is a devoted teacher, and, in addition to maintaining a highly sought-after private studio in Atlanta, has presented masterclasses for Ohio State University and for numerous other colleges and universities across the country. In 2011, Julie started the first strings program in Forsyth County, GA where she is currently the director of orchestras at Lambert High School. Julie holds a Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University School of Music, a Masters degree from Wichita State University where she was a Blumfield Fellow, and an Artist Diploma in Chamber Music from Duquesne University. Her teachers include Abraham Skernick, Georges Janzer, and Randolph Kelly.

GEORGE BUTLER, VIOLONCELLO

George Butler is a graduate of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati (CCM) and has studied additionally at the Westminster Choir College and the Cincinnati Christian University. At seventeen, he was chosen to perform in a national youth symphony orchestra at Carnegie Hall under the direction of the late great maestro Leopold Stokowski. While a student at CCM, he studied with renowned cellists Arthur Bowen and Lynn Harrell and the famed La Salle Quartet. In addition to his cello studies, he also received formal piano instruction from the head of piano pedagogy, Miss Ilona Voorm, a protege of Bela Bartok.

George joined the Kazanetti String Quartet in 2000 and continues to perform in orchestras and chamber groups across the country. He maintains a private studio in the Atlanta area and is on the faculty of the First Redeemer Conservatory of Music. He is the Minister of Music at the St. John United Methodist Church in Atlanta where he originated and directs the St. John Concert Series.