After watching her big brother play for 2 years Margaret Soper Gutierrez was thrilled to receive a violin on her 5th birthday. Playing duets with him and joining in her large family’s musical gatherings (as one of 6 siblings) sparked in her a lifelong love of music making. She couldn’t imagine her life without it, and decided to pursue music as a career, graduating from the Eastman School of music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Having followed her husband-to-be-to Washington DC, Margaret played and toured with the National Baltimore symphony orchestras. As they began a family and her now-husband pursued his orchestra management career, Margaret was a happy dandelion – moving wherever his next position took them, blooming where planted. Along the way, she got to play with the San Antonio and Memphis symphonies, was a violinist in the Maia Quartet and taught at the University of Iowa and the University of Memphis. Now numbering 4 people, the family ended up in Denver, where Margaret currently teaches privately and at the University of Northern Colorado, plays with the Colorado Chamber Players, Opera Colorado and – very happily – as a member of the Highlands Square Ensemble. The family enjoys camping and hiking in the Rocky Mountains and is thrilled to call Colorado home.