About

Throughout her conducting studies, Liu has been an avid participant in conducting festivals and competitions. She became a semi-finalist in the 8th International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest, conducting in the Romanian Athenaeum in Budapest as part of the George Enescu Festival. She recently participated in a conducting masterclass with Sir Donald Runnicles of Deutsche Oper. She has attended festivals including Oregon Bach Festival, Wintergreen Music Festival, Nordic Masterclass for Conductors, and the November Peabody Conducting Institute, in which she was one of eight active participants to work under Marin Alsop.

Liu first came to the United States to study piano performance at New England Conservatory. She discovered conducting shortly thereafter, when she embarked on an intensive independent study of the choral and orchestral repertoire with the late Robert Page. This unique apprenticeship led her to a life of conducting diverse genres of music, ranging from choral to symphonic to opera repertoire. Her principle conducting teachers have included Christian Ehwald, Hans Dieter Baum, Victor Yampolsky, and Jorma Panula. She has previously held positions as the Music Director of Santa Monica Youth Orchestra and the Assistant Conductor for Lyric Opera Theatre in Arizona. In 2023, Liu was appointed as the Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Orchestral Studies at Connecticut College. Aside from her academic position, Liu is the Artistic Director for New England Chamber Orchestra, and the Music Director for Narnia International Opera Academy in Umbria, Italy as part of the prestigious Narnia Music Festival.

With a passion for exploring the chamber music literature, Marshall has been a participant at esteemed chamber music festivals internationally, including ClasClas Chamber Music Festival in Galicia, Spain, under the direction of former Berlin Philharmonic concertmaster Guy Braunstein and the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival’s Winter Workshop under the direction of Ara Gregorian. In addition to her passion for chamber music, Florrie Marshall has distinguished herself as an accomplished orchestral musician. In summer 2025, she will perform for the third consecutive season at the PAAX Festival in Cancun, Mexico, with the Impossible Orchestra under Maestra Alondra de la Parra. She is the Principal Violist of the Paragon Philharmonia in Washington, DC, frequenting the Kennedy Center. Marshall is also a founding member and Principal Violist of the conductor-less Philly Street Strings Chamber Orchestra in Indiana, PA. Previously, she served as Principal Violist of the Yale Philharmonia under Maestro Peter Oundjian and held leadership positions, including concertmaster, principal second violin, and principal viola, with the East Carolina University Symphony Orchestra and the conductor-less Virginia Beach Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.

Florrie Marshall is the Founder and Artistic Director of Sound Bridges International Company, a non-profit organization that builds bridges of cultural understanding through music and the performing arts. Sound Bridges operates around three pillars: performing relevant concerts, commissioning new music, and curating an interview series with leading industry experts. Since its inception in 2019, Sound Bridges has explored diverse projects such as Music to Save Lives (a partnership with Doctors Without Borders supporting children in war-torn Gaza), the International Masterclass Series (connecting displaced pedagogues with university students), and the Chamber Music Program (offering immersive study for pre-college students). Current programming focuses on its latest initiative, Notes of Hope, which uses music to build support for cancer communities.

The inaugural Sound Bridges commission, The Hopper String Quartet by Liliya Ugay, premiered at Yale University’s Hopper College in 2018, reflecting the historic renaming of Calhoun College. The composition won the 9th Molinari Quartet International Competition in 2024, followed by its Canadian premiere and an upcoming Rhode Island performance by the Newport String Quartet, where Marshall is a member. Marshall also premiered a second Ugay commission, A Tale of One Viola, at the 2022 festival co-hosted by the International Viola Congress and the American Viola Society in Columbus, Georgia, followed by its Canadian premiere at Dalhousie University in November 2022.

The Sound Bridges Conversation Series, hosted by Florrie Marshall, features conversations with innovative artists and arts leaders such as composer David Lang, conductor Peter Oundjian, Lewis Prize CEO Dalouge Smith, and Studio Elsewhere Founder Mirelle Philips. In a special edition of the series, Marshall was a featured guest on Yale President Peter Salovey’s podcast, Yale Talks, where she discussed “utilizing music to connect people, communicate shared experiences, and mark historic moments.” Sound Bridges has collaborated with a diverse range of organizations and individuals to present performances, including the United Nations Chamber Music Society, Yale Smilow Cancer Center, the American Viola Society Festival, the 47th International Viola Congress, Yale University's Hopper College, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Towson University, the Yale Music in Schools Initiative, and the Newport String Project.

Under the tutelage of renowned violist Ettore Causa, Marshall earned her Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music in 2018 and is currently a candidate for the Yale Doctor of Musical Arts degree. During her studies at Yale, Marshall received the Dean-nominated 2017 “Graduate Music Award” sponsored by the Presser Foundation, the 2017 “Interdisciplinary Arts Award” through the Yale Center of Collaborative Arts and Media, the 2018 “Philip Nelson Prize” recognizing her “talent and entrepreneurial spirit,” and the 2022 “Plank Foundation Artist Residency” in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Marshall served on the faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for two years and Towson University in Baltimore, MD, for one year. During this time, she cultivated dynamic studios of violin and viola students while teaching applied lessons, music theory, music history, and arts entrepreneurship courses. Now based in Newport, RI, Florrie Marshall is the Resident Violist for the Newport String Quartet. Beginning in Spring 2025, Florrie is thrilled to serve the Connecticut College Orchestra as an Orchestra Coach, in New London, CT, working closely with the string section of the college’s orchestra program. In this role, Florrie provides regular coaching sessions, enhancing and refining the ensemble’s work under the direction of Maestra Shou Ping Liu.