Romanian violinist Constantin Adrian Pintea has performed throughout Europe and the United States as a soloist and chamber music player. He began his musical studies with Ștefan Gheorghiu, a former David Oistrakh pupil, and was featured as a soloist with the Romanian National Symphony Orchestra and the Bucharest Philharmonic. Mr. Pintea won his first national prize at the age of 12 and was a prize recipient at the Jeunesse Musicales and Remember Enescu international competitions. In 2000 he was selected to appear as a soloist and chamber player at the World Exposition Summit in Hannover, Germany, followed by a tour through France and Italy with the Lyceum Strings chamber symphony, both as a soloist and principal player.

He was accepted at The Juilliard School for his undergraduate studies under the tutelage of Masao Kawasaki and Lewis Kaplan. After completing his Bachelor’s Degree, he was awarded the Eugenia and David Ames Concertmaster Fellowship at the Mannes School of Music and performed as part of the Intermezzo Piano Trio in major halls such as Alice Tully, The Morgan Library and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Pintea also participated in several music festivals, including the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg and the Texas Music Festival, where he was a prize recipient of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition. Most recently, he became a member of the Breckenridge Music Festival where he performs as an orchestral and chamber player during the festival’s summer series. 

After completing his studies, Mr. Pintea joined the New World Symphony where he had the opportunity to serve as concertmaster under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others. He is currently serving as the assistant concertmaster of the Richmond Symphony. 

Violinist Audrey Pride enjoys a varied career performing both chamber and orchestral music. She joined the Richmond Symphony in their 23/24 season, and before this, held core positions with the Grand Rapids Symphony and Knoxville Symphony, and was also a member of the Dayton Philharmonic.

Audrey attended Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and received her bachelor’s degree in violin performance studying with Mark Kaplan. She completed her master’s degree with fellowship at Northwestern University, studying with Blair Milton, and at the same time, was a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. Additional studies include the Aspen Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Maestro Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Music Festival, and the National Repertory Orchestra. Audrey has also performed with the Nashville, New World and Utah Symphonies, Louisville Orchestra, and has been a featured artist at the Torrey Chamber Music Festival (Torrey, UT), and Appalachian Chamber Music Festival (Harpers Ferry, WV).

Violist Jocelyn Smith grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she began string and piano studies at the age of nine. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in viola performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Chauncey Patterson, former violist of the Miami String Quartet, and Lisa Boyko of the Cleveland Orchestra. While Ms. Smith has been a member of the Richmond Symphony since 2009, she became a full-time member in 2023. Prior to 2023, she was a core member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra for twenty years. Ms. Smith was a founding member, along with husband and cellist Peter Greydanus, of the Clivia String Trio, which was named Performing Artists of the Year by Young Audiences of Virginia in 2008. From 2001 to 2016 she was a member of the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado. During that time, Ms. Smith and Mr. Greydanus formed the Sally Miner String Quartet in the Gunnison Valley of Colorado and additionally spearheaded the creation of an afterschool strings program for the students of Crested Butte. Whether it be onstage, in the classroom, or through private instruction, Ms. Smith is passionate about creating and fostering connection through music.

Cellist Schuyler Slack has performed in orchestral, chamber music, and recital settings across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. The Alexandria, VA native was appointed to the Richmond Symphony’s Kenneth and Bettie Christopher Perry Foundation Cello Chair in 2016. Previously he held the joint position of Artist in Residence at the University of Evansville and Principal Cellist of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra, Williamsburg Symphony, and is on the music faculty at Randolph-Macon College. He performs frequently in the cello sections of major orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra and the Baltimore and National Symphonies. His primary teachers were Cleveland Orchestra principal cellists Mark Kosower and Stephen Geber at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

A devoted chamber musician and lover of string quartets, Schuyler has studied with and performed alongside members of the Tokyo, Orford, Cleveland, Brentano, Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets, Alban Gerhardt, Nadia Sirota, and Donald and Vivian Weilerstein. He has performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, including Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall; as well as given recitals at some of the countries top music schools, such as the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan.

In 2017 he was granted artist sponsorship by the Virginia Commission for the Arts to perform recitals alongside pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute. Equally committed to the music of living composers and crossover musical endeavors, Schuyler has commissioned new compositions for the cello by composers Douglas Boyce and Steven Snowden. He was praised by the Washington Post for his “excellent” contribution – noted for his “pluck and scrape effects!” – to a new music-theatre adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis that was taken to the Prague Fringe Festival in 2015.