Wesley Baldwin

Cellist Wesley Baldwin holds degrees from Yale College, the New England Conservatory, and the University of Maryland. He performs throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist with orchestras, he has recently appeared with the Laredo Philharmonic, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Symphony of the Mountains, and the Aberdeen, Bemidji, Bryan, Chattanooga, Florence, Germantown, Johnson City, Hot Springs, Knoxville, La Porte, Oak Ridge, Manchester, New River Valley, Salisbury, Wintergreen, and Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestras, among others. His passionate and charismatic performances have been widely lauded.

An advocate for great music from all eras, Mr. Baldwin is one of the only performers of several little-known and new concerti for cello, including recently those by Sollima, Wagenseil, Jacob T.V., Behzad Ranjbaran, and Alan Shulman. His recording of music for cello by Alan Shulman, released by Albany Records, enjoyed widespread critical acclaim. He has also recorded for the Naxos, Zyode, and Innova labels. His most recent CD release, his fourth on the Centaur label, features the chamber music of Arthur Honegger.

Wesley was the founder of the Plymouth String Quartet, with whom he was a top prize-winner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition. He was also cellist of the James Piano Quartet for five years, with residencies at both Sweet Briar College and the Wintergreen Festival. He is currently the cellist for the Edison Piano Trio. Solo and chamber music performing honors Baldwin has received include the Prix Mercure, Homer Ulrich Awards, and a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Performing Artist Fellowship.

As a member and principal cellist of the New World Symphony, Baldwin performed with many of the world’s great conductors and toured Japan, Scotland, England, Argentina, and Brazil. His orchestral colleagues there selected him as the recipient of the New World Symphony’s Community Board Award for artistic integrity and leadership. For many years Wesley served on New World Symphony regional audition committee panels throughout the U.S.

Dr. Baldwin has performed chamber music at the Aspen, Cazenovia, Hot Springs, Ojai, Sandpoint, Mainly Mozart, May in Miami, Skaneateles, and Sub-tropics Music Festivals, and internationally in Italy, France, Monte Carlo, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and Costa Rica. In 2017 and 2018, he had extended tours performing and teaching in China. In January of 2020, Wesley performed in a series of chamber concerts with the Ensemble D’Amici in South Korea.

In the summers, he performs and teaches at the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival, the ARIA International Academy, and at the Wintergreen Festival, where he is the principal cellist of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, and serves as the chair of strings of the Wintergreen Festival Academy.

Currently Professor of Cello at the University of Tennessee, where he received the Chancellor’s Award for Professional Promise, Wesley previously taught at the University of Maryland and at Florida International University, where he was artist-in-residence with the Plymouth Quartet. His former students play and teach throughout the United States and Malaysia and have received honors, including a 2021 Marshall Scholarship for graduate study a the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Dr. Baldwin’s commitment to string education extends beyond his work at the University of Tennessee. He founded and directs the Tennessee Cello Workshop, an annual three-day gathering of more than 170 cellists of all ages from throughout the United States held each February. After serving as conductor of the Knoxville Youth Chamber Orchestra for 15 years, he now serves as Director of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association Chamber Music program. In Knoxville, he also serves as Co-Director of the Knoxville Suzuki Academy.

Wesley lives in Knoxville with his wife, soprano Melisa Barrick Baldwin, and four wonderful children.

www.wesleybaldwincello.com

Violist Hillary Herndon has earned a national reputation for her brilliant playing, “sweetly soaring tone” (Time Out New York), creative programming, and insightful teaching. She has been heard on NPR and PBS and has collaborated with some of the world’s foremost artists, including Carol Wincenc, James VanDermark, and Itzhak Perlman, who described Hillary as “having it all… a gifted teacher and an excellent musician.” Ms. Herndon’s first recording, La Viola, a 2-cd set of works for viola written by women of the early 20th century is available on MSR Classics.

Passionate about teaching, Ms. Herndon has published papers in the journals of the American String Teacher and American Viola Society Her recent appearances include performances and masterclasses at Carnegie Hall, the Sibelius Academy in Finland, Juilliard, Eastman, the University of Michigan, and the International Viola Congress.  Ms. Herndon teaches at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, the Viola Winter Intensive, and at the University of Tennessee, where she is the founder of the annual Viola Celebration.  Herndon holds degrees from the Eastman and Juilliard Schools of Music and serves as Secretary for the American Viola Society. For more information, please visit www.hillaryherndon.com.

Alicia Keener joined the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in May 2018. She began playing the 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. 2013) and the University of Colorado Boulder (M.M. 2016), as well as studying string pedagogy at Texas Tech University (M.M. 2018).

Ms. Mary Pulgar is currently a member of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Professor of Strings at Carson-Newman College, and Instructor of Violin at the Community School of the Arts. Since beginning her position at Carson-Newman, Ms. Pulgar has contributed considerable time and effort towards building a string program. Her students have played for such prestigious teachers/performers as Dylana Jenson and David Kim. Over the last few years, Ms. Pulgar has been invited on several occasions to be an adjudicator, working side by side with educators and musicians from all over the U.S at such events as the Sonata Festival at Milligan College in Tennessee. She has appeared as soloist with Orquesta Sinfónica del Delta Amacuro in Venezuela where she also gave a number of masterclasses and coachings. Ms. Pulgar has also served as Professor of Strings at Walters State Community College.

Ms. Pulgar is a member of the first violin section of the Knoxville Symphony. Prior to moving to Tennessee, she played with several professional orchestras including Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Ballet Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra and Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. She has also played on a regular basis with Greater Lansing, Saginaw, Altoona and Youngstown Symphony Orchestras.

Ms. Pulgar has served as Assistant Principal Second Violin of Battle Creek Symphony and Principal Second Violin with the Southwest Michigan Symphony and the Ohio Light Opera Orchestra for several productions. She spends her summers performing at music festivals and since 2006, has been a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra. While completing her undergraduate studies, she attended National Orchestral Institute, Crested Butte Music Festival and participated in chamber music at Sunflower Music Festival in Kansas.

Ms. Pulgar holds a Master in Violin Performance from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Duquesne University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She is the loving mother of two daughters, Ana Cristina and Claudia, and married to violinist, Edward Pulgar.

Before she graduated from the University of North Carolina Charlotte with a Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance, Kelsey Sexton had performed as a chamber artist at some of the most distinguished music conferences around the world, including the 2015 Music Learning Revolution, the 2016 International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, and the 2016 International Society of Music Education biennial. Her invited teaching activities before graduation included local and international work with major outreach programs. During her graduate work, Kelsey was invited to serve as a guest clinician for the Arts Plus Suzuki Workshop in Charlotte, NC, as well as Guest Principal cello for the Kay Meek Center Young Orchestras Encounter.

Kelsey holds a Master's degree in Music Education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where she studied under Dr. Wesley Baldwin. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant, she directed the Farragut Intermediate School Orchestra Initiative, a program dedicated to the growth and support of string education in Knoxville public schools. Kelsey has maintained private teaching studios of twenty or more students, which has afforded her opportunities to work with students of all ages and playing levels. She is presently a private instructor and freelance performer in and around the Knoxville area and works extensively with the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra as a rehearsal assistant, sectional coach, and chamber coach.

Daniel Zellers is originally from Cosby, Tennessee, where he began studying music at the age of eight. He continued his violin studies under the direction of Edward Pulgar, attending Carson-Newman University. In 2017, Daniel graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Theory. Daniel became a member of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2017.

Along with his endeavors as a violinist, Daniel enjoys composing original scores as well as arranging both popular and sacred music. He also enjoys investing in the lives of young students through his private studio. His other musical interests include an active involvement in the musical setting of his church and community.