Established in 2011, and led by director, cellist, and music educator Sharon Rizzo, MountainTop Strings of California is a strings program that is made up of young musicians from the communities of the Big Bear Valley and Lake Arrowhead, and is a non-profit organization under the Lighthouse Project of Big Bear. This very talented group performs locally in Southern California, as well as in having been invited to perform in Carnegie Hall and even overseas. MountainTop Strings has performed throughout Italy and Austria in such places as the Duomo in Orvieto, the Pantheon in Rome, The Schönbrunn Palace Chapel in Vienna, the St. Andraekirche in Salzburg, and the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, among many others.