Encore Strings Birmingham
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Encore Strings Birmingham is a professional string quartet specializing in weddings, receptions, cocktail hours, graduations, corporate events, holiday parties, and more. In addition to quartet, Encore Strings also offers trio, duo, and solo performances. Based in Birmingham, Encore Strings brings decades of experience to special occasions in Alabama. They are also sought-after instructors with students achieving high-levels of success at the local and national levels.
Caroline Nordlund
Caroline Nordlund is a lecturer at Samford University where she teaches string methods, instrumental pedagogy, and performs in the faculty Samford String Quartet. She teaches violin at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and is a member of String Theory Birmingham, an instrumental pop group that plays an eclectic mix of originals and modern music arranged for string quartet, bass, and drums. As an orchestral musician, Caroline has performed with the Alabama Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Northwest Indiana Symphony, Augusta Symphony, and SC Philharmonic, among others. She has taught at the Lutheran Summer Music Festival and the Samford University Piano and Chamber Music Institute. She is the former director of the Scrollworks Youth Music School in Birmingham and has also served as the President of the Alabama chapter of the American String Teachers Association. In addition to teaching and performing, Caroline is an active adjudicator and presenter, giving sessions at the Alabama Music Educators Conference and the National American
String Teachers Association Conference. Her article on teaching group violin classes was featured in the “Ask the Experts” column of The Strad. Caroline earned a Master of Music in violin performance and pedagogy from Northwestern University as a student of Gerardo Ribeiro. She has attended the Meadowmount School of Music, Aspen Music Festival and School, Spoleto U.S.A. and Sewanee Summer Music Festivals. Originally from Hartsville, South Carolina, Caroline graduated summa cum laude from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance.
Angela Marshall Flaniken
Angela Marshall Flaniken, a native of Alabama, is an active freelance musician and violist in the Samford String Quartet. She has been on the roster of many orchestras, including the Cincinnati Symphony, Columbus (Ohio) Symphony, Boston Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, and the Louisville Orchestra. Flaniken received her training from the University of Louisville and Boston University, completing the bachelor and master of music degrees. Her teachers included Walter Trampler, Masao Kawasaki, and Eugene Lehner. She is an enthusiastic and devoted teacher, maintaining a roster of violin and viola students of all ages.
Jeffrey Z. Flaniken
Jeffrey Z. Flaniken is enjoying a multifaceted vocation as teacher, soloist, recitalist, orchestral player, and chamber music performer. He began his performing career by winning a chair in the Louisville Orchestra at the age of seventeen. He has also played with the Alabama, Cincinnati, and Atlanta orchestras; the Tanglewood and Aspen Festival orchestras; the Cincinnati Ballet and Opera orchestras; the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and many others. Locally, Mr. Flaniken has performed on the Birmingham Chamber Music Society Series, BAMA, Artburst, City Stages, The Festival of Arts, and the Gerhart Chamber Music Festival. He studied with Dorothy Delay, Hyo Kang, Masao Kawasaki and Kurt Sassmansshaus at Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts and at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has also studied with Simon Fischer in London. He enjoys playing in the Samford String Quartet with his wife Angela, and Samuel and Caroline 
Nordlund. The quartet has performed and given masterclasses in many states. They also have performed in England, France and Carnegie Hall. In January of 2010, Professor Flaniken in conjunction with his wife Angela, Donald Sanders, Kevin Kozak and Sarana Chou released a recording of 21st-century chamber music presenting music of Lansky, Jensen and Chou. He has also participated on recordings of the Alabama Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, a National Geographic television show and the John Denver Christmas Special. He has been a faculty member at Samford University since 1994.
Samuel Nordlund
Samuel Nordlund is instructor of cello and chamber music coordinator at Samford University in Birmingham, AL, where he is also the cellist in the Samford Quartet. He frequently performs with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and has been a member of the Huntsville Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony (MI), and Illinois Philharmonic, among others. Samuel is Immediate Past-President of the Alabama Orchestra Association, and he teaches cello at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and the Samford Piano and Chamber Music Institute. He earned his DMA from The University of Alabama, a MM from Northwestern University, and has had additional studies at summer festivals including the Music Academy of the West, the Meadowmount School of Music, the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, and the Brevard Music Center. Primary teachers were Hans Jørgen Jensen and
Carlton McCreery. Prior to moving to Alabama, Samuel was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and a substitute player with the Chicago and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras. He also served as Assistant Director of Performance Activities at the Music Institute of Chicago. For several summers, he taught cello and directed the Early Music Ensemble at the Lutheran Summer Music festival. He is a previous Music Director of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestras of Central Alabama, and currently serves on their Board of Directors. Samuel and his violinist wife, Caroline enjoy playing in String Theory Birmingham. They have two gregarious children.
