About Us

Kazanetti has been performing and teaching together since 1996 and has performed across the USA and in Europe. This award-winning group has distinguished itself across the country through its diverse programming and its commitment to excellence. Kazanetti has been honored with a Chamber Music America Rural Residency Grant in 2002. Concurrent with that grant, Kazanetti toured the Great American West – performing in colleges, schools, festivals and concert halls in Kansas and Colorado. The quartet has been invited to study and perform at the annual Kent Music Festival sponsored by the Manhattan String Quartet, and in 2003, Kazanetti was the opening act at the nationally renowned Silverton Folk Festival. More recently, Kazanetti returned from the Czech Republic as one of the selected quartets to perform at the Smetana Conference in Prague and has expanded its classical programs through collaboration with the Celtic band Mickle-a-do, and Atlanta’s OperaSouth, making it a highly sought after group in the Southeast.

Michele Mariage-Volz, Violin

Michele R. Mariage-Volz attended Indiana State University and Georgia State University where she studied with the renowned Robert Billups and Oliver Steiner, respectively. Over the years Michele has performed regularly with regional orchestras in Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, and Alabama. At one time she was a member of the Colorado Philharmonic and has been a core member of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra since 1992. She regularly substitutes with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and serves as Concertmaster of OperaSouth in Atlanta, Georgia. 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 has lived in the Atlanta area since 1989 where she has been an active chamber musician, a mentor of chamber musicians and performer. She also 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 lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and her two daughters.

Elizabeth Alvarez, Violin & Viola

A native of the South, Elizabeth Alvarez, violinist and violist, is a founding member of Kazanetti. She received her Bachelor’s degree with honors from Indiana University. Upon returning to Atlanta she continued her education with a teaching assistantship at Georgia State University where she earned a Masters of Music in Music Theory and later continued with doctoral studies in Musicology at the University of Maryland. Her major teachers and mentors include Yuval Yaron, Dr. Charles Knox, Dr. Susan Tepping, and Oliver Steiner.

Ms. Alvarez has performed across the Southeast with orchestras including Columbus, Alabama and Charleston Symphonies as both violinist and violist. She has performed at Piccolo Spoleto and is active in the Charleston chamber music scene on both violin and viola. Ms. Alvarez has taught violin and viola privately and music theory both privately and in the classroom for over twenty years. She also enjoys transcription work and is currently at work on a number of projects. Her home is in Charleston, SC with her husband and two young children.

Julie Rosseter, Viola

Julie Rosseter is an award winning violist, a core member of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra since 1994, and a founding member of the Kazanetti String Quartet. She is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Music where she studied with the renowned violist Abraham Skernick. After receiving her degree in music performance, Julie won the prestigious Blumfield Fellowship and completed her Masters degree at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. While at WSU, Julie began her orchestral career as Assistant Principal Violist of the Wichita Symphony.

In 1992, she was awarded an Artist Diploma Fellowship at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During her years at Duquesne, Julie was a member of the Pittsburgh Opera and the Keystone Chamber Players, and was named Young Artist in Residence at Penn State University’s Penn’s Woods Festival. In 1993, Julie returned to Atlanta, where she served for a number of years as violist with the Columbus Symphony, the Alabama Symphony, and the Atlanta Virtuosi. Her chamber music career has spanned more than 25 years. A diverse performer, Julie appears regularly with the Celtic rock band Mickle-a-do and recently released a CD with the Gypsy jazz band Kamayacha.

A highly sought-after teacher in the Atlanta area, Julie has prepared students for numerous Atlanta youth orchestras and for acceptance into top music conservatories across the country. Active in her church and community, she lives in Suwanee, GA, with her husband and their two children.

George Butler, Violoncello

George Butler is a graduate of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and has studied additionally at the Westminster Choir College and the Cincinnati Christian University. At seventeen, George was the only instrumentalist from the state of Ohio chosen to perform on cello in a national youth symphony orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall under the direction of the late great maestro Leopold Stokowski. He went on to earn the Bachelor of Performing Arts degree at the College-Conservatory, studying with renowned cellists Arthur Bowen and Lynn Harrell. In addition, he was fortunate to receive instruction in chamber music from members of the famed LaSalle Quartet. As a young boy he received his piano lessons from the head of piano pedagogy at the same Conservatory, Miss Ilona Voorm, a protégé of Bela Bartok.

George has been a professional musician for over thirty-five years. In addition to performing on the cello, he has directed church music full time for much of that time. He founded his first choir at the age of 19 and has conducted thousands in choirs, orchestras, concerts, national conventions and worship services ever since. George now teaches many students in private lessons in the Atlanta area. Besides performing as cellist for the string quartet Kazanetti String Quartet, he is director of private lessons at The Lovett School in Atlanta, is a sought-after free-lance musician in Atlanta, and is the minister of music at Epiphany Lutheran Church of Suwanee, Georgia.