Viola

Carrie Dennis entered the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 16 as a violin student of Victor Danchenko and took viola lessons with Joseph de Pasquale, occasionally playing viola in chamber music ensembles. She received her B.A. in violin performance in 1999. She returned to Curtis in 2000 to study viola with Michael Tree. Halfway into her second year she earned a position in the Philadelphia Orchestra as Associate Principal Viola. During her time in Philadelphia Orch, she was invited by Simon Rattle to audition for the Berlin Philharmonic, and served as Solo Viola for the Berlin Philharmonic for two years. Following Berlin she joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Principal Viola from 2008-2016.

In addition to her orchestra career, Dennis is an avid chamber musician and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro. She has also participated in the Verbier Festival and been a Tanglewood Fellow. She has appeared at the Grand Tetons Music Festival and the Barga Chamber Music Festival in Italy, and has given master classes at Northwestern University and the Juilliard School. She played with the Musiche Quartet in Berlin, and she still performs with the ambient electronic music group Mico nonet.

Born in 1995 in Montreal, Canada, violinist Eva Aronian is a winner of the 2018/19 Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, and has been awarded 2nd prize and Aspen Prize at the 2016 OSM (Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal) Manulife Competition; other awards include 1st prize in the Canadian Music Competition, 1st prize in the 2015 “Città di Barlassina” Soloists and Orchestra Competition, and the Borromeo String Quartet’s Guest Artist Award. She has performed extensively across Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, and Norway.

An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Laurence Lesser, Robert McDonald, Anthony Marwood, Lucy Chapman, Hsin-Yun Huang, the Borromeo String Quartet, and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), among others, as well as being invited to perform at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, ChamberFest Cleveland, Ottawa Chamberfest, and Yellow Barn. Other festivals attended include IMS Prussia Cove, Four Seasons Chamber Music, Pablo Casals Festival, the Kronberg Academy, and the Perlman Music Program. She has performed numerous premieres (including the North American premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Oktett), and in such halls as Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Montreal’s Maison Symphonique, Milan’s Teatro dal Verme, and the Kimmel Centre.

Having earned her undergraduate degree from the New England Conservatory studying with Donald Weilerstein, Eva is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at NEC as Prof. Weilerstein’s teaching assistant. She plays on a 1714 Francesco Gobetti violin on generous loan from the Colburn Foundation.