AMES ASBELL enjoys a dynamic and varied career as a performer and pedagogue. She has performed in 35 countries on six continents, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to rock clubs, and in genres including classical, pop, and tango. A fixture in the Austin music scene for over 20 years, Ames has shared the stage and studio with artists such as David Byrne, The Chicks, Andrea Bocelli, Harry Connick, Jr., Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, Bernadette Peters, Cassandra Wilson, Sufjan Stevens, The Arcade Fire, and many others. She appears both onscreen and on the soundtrack to Richard Linklater’s iconic film Waking Life, as well as international television broadcasts including the Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Later...with Jools Holland, and eight appearances on PBS’s Austin City Limits. Her recent classical performances include appearances in Mexico, South Africa, Australia, and across the United States, as well as at International Viola Congresses in New Zealand, Poland, and the US.

Ames is founding violist of the Tosca String Quartet – Austin’s original classical crossover quartet and longtime champions of new music, Tosca is often referred to as part of “Austin’s house band.” Currently Principal Violist of Austin Opera and a member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, she performs with colleagues from across the country in the Victoria Bach Festival and Arizona Musicfest orchestras, in addition to previous performances with organizations including the North Carolina Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Breckenridge Music Institute, National Repertory Orchestra, and numerous regional orchestras in Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina.

A passionate educator, Ames is currently Associate Professor of Viola at Texas State University, where she also coordinates the String Area and coaches the Texas State Graduate String Quartet. In 2010 she founded the Texas State String Project, serving as its Director and a Master Teacher for a decade. Since 1995, she maintains a vital pre-college studio with two former students placing first in Texas (TMEA) state-wide All-State Orchestra competition and others going on study viola at schools such as Rice, Eastman, Peabody, Interlochen and Idyllwild, and festivals such as The Quartet Program, Aspen, and Round Top. Sharing pedagogical ideas and collaborating with fellow teachers is one of her greatest joys, and she is a frequent presenter at events such as the American String Teachers Association National Conference and Texas Music Educators Association Convention.

Originally from Columbus, Georgia, Ames studied with Lenny Schranze at Furman University, Fritz Gearhart at East Carolina University, and Roger Myers at the University of Texas at Austin, where she served as Viola Teaching Assistant when the University of Texas hosted the 1997 International Viola Congress. That formative experience inspired her service to the viola community, and today Ames is very honored to serve the American Viola Society as President-Elect.

A member of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, PHILIPPE CHAO is the Assistant Professor of Viola at the Texas Tech University School of Music, a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival, and a faculty member of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. He is a frequent guest musician with the Pittsburgh and Baltimore Symphonies.

He has been featured as a concerto soloist with orchestras including the Virginia Symphony and the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra.

As a chamber musician and recitalist, he has performed with renowned international artists James Buswell, Simone Porter, and Julian Rachlin and with chamber music societies including the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Series at the United States Holocaust Museum, and the Czech and Ukrainian Embassies' series. Other appearances have included performances at the Supreme Court and NPR Broadcasts for Performance Today hosted by Fred Childs. He performed on Broadway in Steve Martin and Edie Brickell's Tony-nominated musical, Bright Star and can be heard on Naxos.

He premiered a new work (Centaurs for solo viola) dedicated to him by acclaimed composer, Sergey Akhunov at the American Viola Society 2021 Virtual Festival and recently commissioned and premiered a new work for solo viola from the celebrated American composer, Adolphus Hailstork.

His teachers include the renowned pedagogues Roland and Almita Vamos, the Boston Symphony's Michael Zaretsky, international soloists Gérard Caussé and Donald McInnes, and the Cleveland Orchestra's former Principal Violist, Robert Vernon.

JAMES FELLENBAUM enjoys an extraordinarily diverse career as a conductor, equally at home with Symphonic music, Chamber Orchestra repertoire, Pops, Ballet, Opera, Choral-Orchestral, and Film with Live Orchestra. In 2018, James began a new chapter in his orchestral life, as he assumed the position of Artistic Director and Conductor of the Brevard Philharmonic, NC.

James is the Resident Conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, now in his 14th season with the organization. He conducts a variety of concerts with the KSO, and has led the orchestra in a wide array of repertoire, ranging from the complete Brandenburg Concerti to orchestral music from Wagner’s The Ring Cycle. His performances on the Masterworks and Chamber Classics series have garnered such praise as “…a remarkable performance, one that was clean, focused, and razor-sharp in its control, yet passionate and warm in its display.” and “one of the most compelling performances of a Beethoven symphony I have yet heard in Knoxville.” As a frequent conductor on the Knoxville News-Sentinel Pops series, he has collaborated with such renown artists as Kenny G, Chris Botti, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Jim Witter, Ann Hampton Calloway, Steve Lippia, The Indigo Girls, and The Midtown Men, along with tributes to Bob Denver, The Beatles, Elvis, as well as the popular Cirque de la Symphonie. He also excels in Film with Live Orchestra concerts, including recent presentations of The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. As part of the KSO’s Education and Community Partnership Program, James conducts performances throughout the city of Knoxville, as well as regional communities in east Tennessee and southwest Virginia. He also conducts the educational programs, including Side-by-Side concerts with local high school orchestra programs, as well the KSO’s annual Young People’s Concerts, which are seen by 10,000 elementary students each year.

Since 2010, James is also the Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association. The KSYOA consists of 6 orchestras, lead by the Youth Orchestra, which he conducts. In March of 2018, the Youth Orchestra was selected to compete in the National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta, sponsored by the American String Teachers Association, where they won 1st Prize in the Youth Orchestra Division. The Youth Orchestra was also awarded 3rd Prize in The American Prize competition–Youth Orchestra division, for their 2017-2018 season. He has been a guest Music Director of the Symphony of the Mountains Youth Orchestra, and was previously the Music Director of the Suburban Youth Symphony in Illinois. He has conducted the American Youth Philharmonic, Texas Honors Orchestra, and has led many regional and all-state orchestras, as well as hundreds of workshops and clinics.

James is the Director of Orchestras at the University of Tennessee, a position he has held since 2003. He oversees and conducts the Orchestra Program, which includes the Symphony Orchestra – the most prominent collegiate ensemble in the state – the Chamber Orchestra, founded in 2004, the Contemporary Music Ensemble, founded in 2006 and dedicated to music written since 1950, and UT Opera Theater, where he oversees orchestral administration, and has conducted past productions such as Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Turn of the Screw, Sweeney Todd, Susannah, Cosi fan tutte, Little Women, and more. Orchestral performances at UT have grown in both size and quality of performances, resulting in invitations to perform in state-wide and regional concerts, and receiving critical acclaim such as “With the arrival of James Fellenbaum…the UT Symphony has developed, at an amazing pace, into an ensemble that rivals the professional orchestras in many communities.” Additionally, the Orchestra Program has been chosen for two different PBS recording projects, performing as the classical soundtrack for Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People, narrated by Sissy Spacek, and the upcoming The Truth about Trees.

James has conducted orchestras nationally and internationally, including recent guest conducting engagements with the Amarillo Symphony (TX), Erie Philharmonic (PA), Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA), Asheville Symphony Orchestra (NC), the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra (OR), Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Orange County Symphony (CA), American Youth Philharmonic, the Symphony of the Mountains (TN), the Satu-Mare State Philharmonic and Sinfonia Bucharest Orchestra of Romania, and the Russe Philharmonic and Vidin Philharmonic of Bulgaria. He was invited to the 2006 First International Gennady Rozhdestvensky Conductors Competition, where he was one of 20 conductors chosen to compete out of 112 applicants from 26 countries around the world, and finished as a Finalist – the only American to reach that round.

James Fellenbaum holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violoncello performance from James Madison University, and holds a double Masters degree in violoncello performance and orchestral conducting from Northwestern University. His primary conducting teachers were Victor Yampolsky and Cliff Colnot in Chicago, David Zinman and Murry Sidlin at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, and Pinchas Zukerman and Jorma Panula as part of the Conductors Programme with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada.

HILLARY HERNDON has earned a national reputation for her brilliant playing, insightful teaching and creative programming. She has been heard on NPR and PBS and has collaborated with some of the world's foremost musicians, including Carol Wincenc, James VanDemark and Itzhak Perlman, who described Hillary as "having it all… a gifted teacher and an excellent musician."

Ms. Herndon teaches at The University of Tennessee, Montecito Music Festival and the Viola Intensive Workshops. She has recently been elected to serve on the American Viola Society Executive Board and has published teaching articles in the American String Teacher Association Journal and the Journal of the American Viola Society. Ms. Herndon's 2-CD set of recordings by women composers, La Viola, is on the MSR Classics label. Ms. Herndon holds degrees from Eastman and Juilliard.

ALICIA KEENER is a member of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and enjoys teaching a lively studio of young musicians. She began playing violin at age five as a Suzuki student and picked up the viola in high school. Alicia went on to earn degrees in viola performance from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (B.M.) and the University of Colorado Boulder (M.M.), as well as studying string pedagogy at Texas Tech University (M.M.).

Alicia has performed at numerous music festivals, including the Britt Music & Arts Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Brevard Music Center, Round Top Festival Institute, and Orford Arts Centre, among others. As a chamber musician, she was mentored by the Takács Quartet at the University of Colorado Boulder and served as Instructor of Chamber Music at Texas Tech University.

Outside of the classical genre, Alicia has collaborated with the Indigo Girls, Natalie Merchant, and the WannaBeatles. She also enjoys learning traditional and old time tunes, and she can sometimes be caught playing the fiddle.

Taiwanese pianist BERNADETTE LO is Visiting Professor of Music at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN, and leads an active career as a collaborative pianist, chamber musician and music educator. Dr. Lo has extensive knowledge in both vocal and instrumental music. She has served as studio pianist for renowned artists such as Martina Arroyo, Cynthia Haymon and Carol Vaness, and has also worked closely with academic opera institutions such as Illinois Opera Theater and University of Tennessee Opera Theatre. In addition, Dr. Lo has been engaged by professional organizations such as Sugar Creek Opera, Opera Illinois, El Paso Opera and most recently, Knoxville Opera. And since 2008, she has served as an official collaborative artist for the Orpheus Nation Vocal Competition in Murfreesboro, TN.

Equally at ease with instrumental repertoire, Dr. Lo has served as an official accompanist for numerous festivals such as Tennessee Cello Workshop, UT Viola Celebration and Western Kentucky University Violin Fest, performed in masterclasses given by Mauricio Fuks, Heidi Castleman and collaborated with festival guest artists such as Victoria Chiang,Melissa Kraut and Ivo-Jan van der Werff. She has appeared in recital with acclaimed instrumentalists such as violinist Yuri Mazurkevich, David Griffin (of the Chicago Symphony), Ronald Barron (of the Boston Symphony) and flutist Tadeu Coelho. Dr. Lo has served as conference pianist for the 41st International Horn Symposium, the Southeast Regional Tuba-Euphonium Conference, and the 2016 International Tuba Euphonium Conference.

Dr. Lo has concertized regularly with violist Hillary Herndon, which whom she recorded the album “La Viola: Music for Viola and Piano by Women Composers of the 20th Century,” receiving critical acclaim. She is the recipient of Sewanee Faculty Development Grant and Tennessee Arts Commission “Arts Build Community” Grant, which she used to support the commission of a new trio for viola, clarinet and piano by Libby Larsen. Dr. Lo is one of the founding members for the Waldland Ensemble, a group commissioned and premiered five new works, including Larsen’s new trio in Carnegie Hall, New York in April, 2015.

Dr. Lo holds degrees from the University of Illinois – Champaign-Urban, and the Peabody Conservatory. Her mentors include Ellen Mack, Gustavo Romero and Timothy Ehlen. Prior to her appointment at the University of the South, she was the staff pianist for Western Illinois University. Dr. Lo also serves on the faculty for Viola Winter Intensive in both Columbus, Ohio and Greenville, South Carolina and American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.

“In the hands of an outstanding artist like Taylor, the instrument seems almost heaven-sent,” wrote John Lambert in the Spectator of GEORGE TAYLOR, violist. Taylor is active in practically every aspect of performance as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, and his playing has been praised for its eloquence, warmth and sensitivity.

Mr. Taylor is currently Professor of Viola at the Eastman School of Music. Before joining the Eastman faculty, he was a member of the Ciompi Quartet of Duke University, a position he held from 1979 through 1986. A dedicated, sought-after and beloved teacher, he has served on the artist faculties of The Castleman Quartet Program, Le Dormaine Forget, the Chautauqua Institution, Musicorda, The Encore School for Strings, the Meadowmount School, the Manchester Music Festival, and the Elan International Music Festival, among others. Mr. Taylor is also the inspiration for and collaborator in a series of highly successful workshops called “Viola Intensive’ and presents a summer technique workshop for violists at Eastman. With faculty colleagues Carol Roland and Phillip Ying he co-hosted the highly successful 40th International Viola Congress at the Eastman School of Music. He has also served as a juror for international competitions in Europe and the United States, and has served on the boards of the American Viola Society and the Sphinx Organization.

George Taylor has given numerous solo recitals and appeared as a chamber musician in concerts throughout the United States and at the Tainan Cultural Center in Taiwan. He is a frequent collaborator with the Ritz Chamber Players, and has performed as guest artist at the Skaneateles Music Festival, Lake Winnipesaukee Music Festival and with ensembles such as the Triple Helix Trio, The Society for Chamber Music in Rochester and the Ying Quartet. His recording with guitarist Nicholas Goluses titled “Night Strings” has received wide critical acclaim. Carlos Maria Solare reviewer for the Journal of the American Viola Society states, “Frequent excursions into the instrument’s higher register are beautifully mastered by Taylor, who also enjoys playing the guitar in a plucked cadenza half-way through. Indeed Taylor’s dark, beautifully expressive tone is a constant joy throughout the recording”. Robert Schulslaper of Fanfare magazine writes: “This is an enjoyable recital of diverse, not often-encountered repertoire,

performed by accomplished musicians whose intuitive gifts enable them to reveal the essential qualities of each selection.”

Mr. Taylor can also be heard in a landmark recording of the complete chamber music of the African/American composer William Grant Still by the Videmus Ensemble. He has also recorded music by composers such as Frederick Jacobi, John Zorn, Ernst Toch, Jan Radzynski, Ezra Laderman among others for the Milken Foundation. He was co-founder and conductor of the St. Stephens Chamber Orchestra (Durham, NC), an ensemble that has continued to perform and record together to date as the Orchestra of The Triangle. An active advocate for the performance of music by African/American composers, Taylor was a participant in the National Black Arts Festival held in Atlanta, GA and the Gateways Music Festival. He was also a member of the Black Music Repertory Ensemble, which presents music of African/American composers in concerts throughout the country, and is currently a member of The Ritz Chamber Players. Mr. Taylor has performed and premiered works written for him by many composers, including Bill Dobbins, Michael Kimber, Ron Carter, Noel DaCosta, George Walker, David Liptak and Carmen Moore.

A native of New York City, Mr. Taylor attended the Manhattan School of Music where his teachers included Jaime Laredo, Raphael Bronstein and Burton Kaplan. Further studies on viola were with Michael Tree and Abraham Skernick. Mr. Taylor’s chamber music mentors include such notables as Arthur Balsam, Joseph Seiger, Lillian Fuchs, Joseph Gingold, Mischa Schneider, and members of the Guarneri Quartet. He made his recital debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1979. Joseph Horowitz of the New York Times wrote: “He is already an unusually accomplished player, with a secure command of the instrument, and an ardent, refreshingly direct style.”