Sheila Browne has concertized in many of the world's major halls as a soloist, chamber musician, and as principal violist of several orchestras. She has been a member of the Arianna and Gotham String Quartets, and has collaborated with such artists as James Buswell, Nicholas Chumachenko, Paul Katz, Gilbert Kalish, Ruth Laredo, Richard Stolzman and the Vermeer Quartet. As principal of the New World Symphony she was featured by Michael Tilson-Thomas in the PBS documentary "Beethoven Alive!" She has been soloist and principal of the Mainz, Freiburg, German-French, and Madrid's Queen Sofia chamber orchestras. Working closely with Krystof Penderecki on his solo music at the Banff Festival, she was broadcast on CBC radio throughout Canada, and has been heard on radio stations in South America, Europe, and the United States as well. Other festivals in which Ms. Browne has appeared include Evian, Great Lakes, Jeunesses Musicales, Music Academy of the West, and Tanglewood.

A proponent of new music, Sheila Browne has premiered many new works, a number of which have been recently released on CD, including Arthur Gottshalk's "Politically Correct," written for the Gotham Quartet and soprano, and the clarinet quintet of Anthony Iannoccone. Her playing may also be heard on a Arianna Quartet recording of the Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets, on the Urtext label.

Ms. Browne was Karen Tuttle's teaching assistant at The Juilliard School, and was awarded a German Academic Exchange Grant (DAAD) for studies with soloist Kim Kashkashian at the Freiburger Hochschule. She was also Karen Ritscher's teaching assistant at Rice University's Shepherd School, where she participated in Paul Katz's quartet residency program as a member of the Gotham Quartet. She taught at the University of Missouri-St. Louis as part of the Arianna String Quartet's full-time residency, at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and in 2006, was appointed to the faculty of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

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Matthew Daline enjoys an international career as a chamber musician and viola soloist. He began his studies on violin with Michele Auclair of the Paris Conservatory, and continued his studies as a violist with Martha Strongin Katz and Marcus Thompson of the New England Conservatory. He received his bachelor's degree from The Juilliard School, where he was a teaching assistant for Karen Tuttle, and his master's degree from Yale University, where he studied with Jesse Levine. While pursuing the Doctorate of Musical Arts at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, Daline worked with Katherine Murdock and served as a teaching assistant.

Matthew Daline has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and principal violist in most of the major concert halls of North America including recent performances in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall, where his debut recital was sponsored by the Artists International Competition. An avid chamber musician, he has performed at numerous international festivals including Banff Center for the Arts in Canada, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, The Verbier Academy in Switzerland, the Tanglewood Festival, the Music Academy of the West, the New York String Seminar and the Sarasota Music Festival.

Daline is now on the faculty of the School of Music at Louisiana State University. During the summer he has been a faculty member of Rencontres Musicales Internationales Des Graves in Bordeaux, France and the Marrowstone Music Festival in the USA.

Susan Dubois was the sole viola winner of Artists International's 23rd Annual Auditions and was presented in her solo New York recital debut at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. She also was selected as a prizewinner and recitalist at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in the United Kingdom. Dubois has extensive experience as a chamber musician, performing and coaching throughout the Australia, South America and the United States as a faculty member of the American Festival for the Arts and a former member of the Rackham String Quartet. Through appearances at music festivals such as Marlboro and La Jolla, she has performed with such notable artists as Lynn Harrell, David Soyer, David Finkel, Donald Weilerstein, Menahem Pressler and Carter Brey.

Susan Dubois holds bachelor and master of music degrees from the University of Southern California, and a doctorate of musical arts from The Juilliard School. A former viola teaching assistant for Karen Tuttle at Juilliard, she is currently professor of viola at the University of North Texas in Denton.

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Lockwood moved from her homeland of Australia to the United States in 1991, and soon after her arrival, captured some of the most sought-after awards in the country including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, Grand Prize at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, Concert Artists Guild Management Award, and awards at solo competitions such as the Primrose Competition, Washington International Competition, and the Pasadena Instrumental Competition. Before relocating to New York in 2001, Lockwood had been the founding member of the Pacifica Quartet, with whom she was heard live on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" and on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Ravinia's Bennett Gordon Hall, Corcoran Gallery, St. Lawrence Center, and University of Thessaloniki in Greece. She collaborated with violist Michael Tree on an all Dvorak CD, and with composer Easley Blackwood on recordings released by Cedille Records. Other collaborations include such artists as Cho-Liang Lin, Inessa Zaretsky, Branford Marsalis, and the St. Lawrence Quartet.

Currently on faculty at University of Massachusetts/Amherst and the Concordia Conservatory in Bronxville NY, Kathryn Lockwood taught previously at Rutgers University, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Interlochen Academy, Music Institute of Chicago, and National Music Camp in Australia. She earned her Master of Music Degree at the University of Southern California as a student of Donald McInnes, and her Bachelor of Music Degree from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, studying with Elizabeth Morgan. She performs on a Belgian viola made in 1690 by Gaspor Borbon.

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A devoted and much sought-after teacher, Ms. Rodland was appointed to a tenured viola professorship at the Eastman School of Music, beginning in the fall semester 2008. Since 2002, she has been on the New England Conservatory viola faculty and was recognized there in 2005 with the "Krasner Award for Excellence in Teaching". Prior appointments have included professorships at the Hochschule fuer Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin, Germany, and at Arizona State University. She has also taught as guest faculty at the Juilliard School. Her former students hold prominent positions worldwide as performers in orchestras and chamber ensembles and as teachers. In demand as a master class clinician, she has been engaged recently in this capacity at the Musikhochschule Saar in Germany, at Boston University, Boston Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, and for the Ohio and Rocky Mountain Viola Societies. She has also been on the faculty of the "Karen Tuttle Co-Ordination Workshop" since 2004. Additional summer festival engagements have included the Bowdoin International Music Festival, California Summer Music, the Heifetz International Music Institute, and the Cactus Pear, Mimir, and Portland Chamber Music Festivals.

Ms. Rodland made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a teenager and subsequently won first prizes at the Washington International Competition, the Artists International Auditions, and the Juilliard Concerto Competition, as well as the Universal Editions Prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. She has also been the recipient of Fulbright and Beebe Fund grants and Juilliard's Lillian Fuchs Prize. She has served on the Executive Board of the American Viola Society since 2003 and has served on the juries of the 2005 and 2008 Primrose International Viola Competitions.

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George Taylor performs as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the United States. Prior to his appointment as professor of viola at the Eastman School he was a member of the Ciompi Quartet of Duke University. He has served on the artist faculties of the Encore School for Strings, the Meadowmount School, the Manchester Music Festival, and the Elan International Music Festival; he has also served as a juror for several international competitions in Europe and the US.

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. He is also a member of the Black Music Repertory Ensemble, which presents music of African American composers in concerts throughout the country. Taylor has performed and premiered works written for him by many composers, including Ron Carter, Noel DaCosta, George Walker, David Liptak and Carmen Moore.

A native of New York City, Taylor attended the Manhattan School of Music where his teachers included Jaime Laredo, Raphael Bronstein, and Burton Kaplan. Further viola studies were with Michael Tree and Abraham Skernick. His chamber music coaches include such notable musicians as Arthur Balsam, Joseph Seiger, Lillian Fuchs, Joseph Gingold, Mischa Schneider, and members of the Guarnari Quartet. On the occasion of 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."

Born in Toronto, Canada, of Estonian parentage, Ms. Veskimets received both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was a student of Robert Vernon. She is a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music's Preparatory Department and Young Artist Program, the Cleveland Music School Settlement and the Encore School for Strings. She has also served as a chamber music and section coach for the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and has given master classes at the Baldwin-Wallace College (OH) and the University of Oklahoma.

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