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WILKES-BARRE — For some, watching “Sesame Street” was all about learning the ABCs and 123s.

For violinist Jessica Nataupsky Kang, the iconic show is what helped foster her passion for music.

Nataupsky Kang, 34, explained that she has been playing since she was 3 or 4 years old. It was during that time she saw violinist and conductor Isaac Stern perform on the show.

“I asked my parents if I could play the violin, and the rest is history,” she said.

Nataupsky Kang is the founder of AVIVA Strings, which she started in June 2015. Nataupsky Kang explained that her business provides musicians and entertainment for private events and celebrations.

Since its inception, Nataupsky Kang said her organization has performed for over 150 events in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley and beyond.

“At this point, our clients are booking our services well into 2018,” she said.

Her company has also won numerous industry awards, including The Knot’s “Best of Weddings” and Wedding Wire’s Couples’ Choice Award, and has been featured in multiple national publications, including “Style Me Pretty” and “Borrowed & Blue.”

Nataupsky Kang explained that she wanted to wait until her and her husband, Chris, settled down in Northeastern Pennsylvania before she started her business.

“It has always been important to me to not just be successful, but to find success doing what I love,” she said. “I feel extremely lucky to be able to say that I have that.”

Along with managing her own company, Nataupsky Kang is also the personnel manager, music librarian and co-coordinator of the student mentorship program for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic.

In addition to performing with the organization, Nataupsky Kang is responsible for the hiring and management of the orchestra, distribution of music for each performance and aspects of the organizations’ mentorship program.

She started working with that organization in 2013.

“I’ve always been passionate about music education and got involved with the philharmonic’s mentorship program, which was founded by our wonderful principal clarinetist, Pascal Archer, a few months after I started playing with the orchestra,” Nataupsky Kang said, adding she officially took the role of personnel manager and musician librarian this past summer. “Juggling personnel, library, the mentorship program while also playing with the philharmonic is a unique challenge and I love tackling it.”

Nataupsky Kang also has a passion for giving back to her community.

She said her company is a vendor participant with Wish Upon a Wedding, a nonprofit organization made up of wedding industry professionals who donate their time, talents and expertise to create dream weddings for couples that have endured great challenges.

She is also very active with her synagogue, Temple Israel of Wilkes-Barre. Nataupsky Kang also added that being animal lovers, she and her husband support of number of local animal shelters, such as Blue Chip Animal Farm in Dallas and The Lands at Hillside Farms in Shavertown.

Outside of Northeastern Pennsylvania, the couple also supports City Kitties Rescue in Philadelphia and Nabiya Cat Shelter in Seoul, Korea, which is Nataupsky Kang’s husband’s hometown.

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Jessica Nataupsky Kang performs. Photo courtesy of Nicole Du Mond Photography.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_JessicaCropped.jpg.optimal.jpgJessica Nataupsky Kang performs. Photo courtesy of Nicole Du Mond Photography.

By Travis Kellar

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Biography

Name: Jessica Nataupsky Kang

Age: 34

Company: AVIVA Strings

Job Title: Founder

Quote: “It has always been important to me to not just be successful, but to find success doing what I love. I feel extremely lucky to be able to say that I have that.”