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Taiwanese-American violinist Pei-Ju Wu enjoys a musical career both as a performing artist and as a teacher. She accepted the position of section first violin of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra in 2013 and is recently appointed Principal Second Violin of the Des Moines Metro Opera in 2018.
Pei-Ju's experience in symphonic orchestra has taken her to perform with the Nashville Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera, Fort Worth Symphony and Dallas Chamber Symphony. She has served as the concertmaster for the Woodlands Symphony (TX), Opera in the Heights (TX), interim concertmaster for the Huntsville Symphony (AL), and is the principal second violin of Des Moines Metro Opera. Her love of chamber music has inspired her to found several chamber music ensembles and series in the past. Most recently, she co-founded Iron City Strings.
Pei-Ju studied with Kathleen Winkler at Rice University, Roman Totenberg at Boston University, Shirley Givens at the Juilliard Pre-College, and Rodney Friend at the Royal College of Music. She graduated magna cum lauda from Boston University and has a Master's Degree in Violin Performance from Rice University. Pei-Ju is a registered Suzuki violin instructor and has studied the Suzuki methods with Ed Kreitman, Terry Durbin, and Kathleen White. She is a teacher at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, a teacher and artistic advisor at STEP Birmingham, and also teaches at her private studio in Hoover, AL.
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Troy Bast, Violin, currently performs regularly with the Alabama Symphony, the Chattanooga Symphony, the Huntsville Symphony, Mobile Symphony, and the Tuscaloosa Symphony. He is the former assistant principal 2nd violin in both the Huntsville Symphony and the Chattanooga Symphony.
Troy began his violin studies in Pennsylvania, where he was a student at Temple University Preparatory Division. Mr. Bast received his Bachelor of Music degree from New York University, and his Master of Music degree from The Peabody Conservatory of Music. His teachers have included Marie Griffith, Davyd Booth, Mark Steinberg, Shirley Givens and Laura Kobayashi.
Mr. Bast is also on the violin faculty and the director of the Birmingham Suzuki music program STEP Birmingham.
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Zak Enikeev has been Assistant Principal Viola of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra since 2011. Zak graduated from the Rachmaninoff Conservatory in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. On receiving a full scholarship from the Juilliard School, he moved to the U.S.
As a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist, Zak Enikeev has performed in the most prestigious concert halls of New York City, including Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Bargemusic and Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall.
Zak received his Bachelor of Music at Juilliard and his Master's Degree at Manhattan School of Music. He studied viola with Samuel Rhodes and Karen Dreyfus; chamber music with Charles Neidich, Seymour Lipkin and members of the Juilliard String Quartet and the Emerson String Quartet.
When he isn't performing with the ASO, Zak is active as a studio musician in Nashville and New York. Mr. Enikeev enjoys teaching both violin and viola. He has been on the faculty of the Birmingham-Southern College and the Alabama School of Fine Arts.
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Lauren Peacock joined the Alabama Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal cellist in 2022. Prior to her time in Alabama, she was a fellow with The Orchestra Now (TŌN) at Bard College where she received advanced orchestral training and was also assistant principal cellist of the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra.
She began her musical studies at the age of three and spent most of her youth studying with Gilda Barston at the Music Institute of Chicago. She went on to complete a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Michigan with Richard Aaron and a Master of Music degree at the University of Texas at Austin with Bion Tsang. Lauren also holds a Master’s degree in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies from Bard College.
Lauren has performed at numerous summer festivals including Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, and Caroga Lake Music Festival. In addition to performing, Lauren also has a passion for music education. She serves on the cello faculty at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and the Suzuki Talent Education Program of Birmingham.