Ted Smeltz is a Buffalo, New York native and has violin performance degrees from Baldwin-Wallace College and Fredonia State College. He has attended music festivals from Bay View, Michigan, to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he was featured on NPR's Performance Today. Ted is a lifelong string quartet player, performing with the Con Brio Quartet, Lake Erie Quartet, Premier Quartet, and is the founder of the Queen City Strings. He also performs with the Erie Chamber Orchestra, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, Clarence Summer Orchestra, Buffalo Opera Unlimited, and has played violin and viola for theater and musical productions from Pirates of Penzance to Young Frankenstein. When not playing, he is an avid reader of classic science fiction, does card tricks, and is a black belt in several Filipino and Southeast Asian martial arts.