Meet Our Performers
Principals:
Emily ChaoViolin
Emily Chao, originally from Edison, NJ, made her solo debut at age 13, performing the Kabalevsky violin concerto with the Union Symphony Orchestra in Union, NJ. She graduated in 2013 with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University, where she studied with Lynn Chang and completed a dissertation on Karol Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto, op 35. She also holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from New England Conservatory, where she studied with James Buswell. Emily has played in master classes for violinists Erick Friedmann, Sally O’Reilly, Peter Zazofsky, and Pamela Frank.
As first violinist of the Iris Quartet, Emily has given recitals at venues in Boston, Atlanta, and Park City, UT. The quartet was invited by the Muir Quartet in 2011 to the Emerging Quartets and Composers Program in Deer Valley, UT, where they gave recitals and coached chamber music at the nearby Lyceum Music Festival for high school students. From 2009-2011, Emily was also regular 2nd violinist of ALEA III, contemporary ensemble in residence at Boston University. Emily’s orchestral experience includes performances with the New Haven Chamber Orchestra, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Marsh Chapel Collegium, and Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. In non-classical genres, Emily has performed as a member of the Irish band Spotty Dog, piano rock band Sean Rainey Band and the bluegrass band Picnic on the Fourth of July. As a new Tucson resident, she currently plays viola for the Sierra Vista Symphony, while active as chamber music coordinator for Tucson Repertory Orchestra and organizer of Tucson Classical Outreach. |
Loren MitchelPiano & HarpsichordLoren Mitchel currently works as studio and rehearsal pianist through the University of Arizona. He plays most frequently for the studio of soprano Elizabeth Futral, among those of many other professors, and is also a frequent collaborative pianist for university and city wide rehearsals of opera and music theater.
In February of 2017, he played alongside singers for certain events at the Tucson Desert Song Festival. Last season he performed with orchestra and soloists in the Frederic Fox School of Music's production of "L'enfant et les Sortilèges" (Ravel) and "Beauty and the Beast" (Giannini) at the University of Arizona. He also holds the post of organist at St. Bede's Episcopal Church. |
Clara SalomonSoprano
Clara is excited to have begun her doctoral degree at the University of Arizona under the tutelage of soprano Elizabeth Futral. She has performed in recitals, chamber ensembles, and operas, overseas in Italy, Germany, Israel, Trinidad, and Jamaica,. Recently settled in Tucson, she has been featured as the soloist for concerts with the Santa Cruz Summer Winds, the Jazz Collective of Southern Arizona, and at the Tucson Country Club. This coming spring, she'll play the role of Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's "Dialogue of the Carmelites."
She has also performed in a concert-style presentation of excerpts from the roles of Mignon (Mignon, Thomas) and Micaela (Carmen, Bizet) in downtown Chicago. In 2011 she received a foreign grant to become a resident of Germany with a visa for performance. Other engagements have included solo vocal concerts with pianists from the International Piano Academy in the Lake Como region of Italy, a recording of Gonoud’s Ave Maria made with a Milanese company for commercial use, a role in the Operafestival di Roma under Maestro Stefano Vignati, and the position of soloist and choir director for St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Silicon Valley. She holds an undergraduate degree in music from Rice University and the Shepherd School of Music, and a master's in Vocal Performance completed under full scholarship and fellowship from the University of Utah. She also holds a master's in Italian literature from Stanford University, where she received many grants for teaching and performance. Apart from music, she has spent many years studying posture, meditation, and psychology, having an equal passion for the topics of health and well being which are inseparable from singing. |