Meet Our Viola Fest Clinicians
Assistant Professor of Viola at DePaul University, violist Ann Marie Brink served as Associate Principal Viola of the Dallas Symphony from 1999-2019. Ms. Brink has performed in solo and chamber music recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Aspen Music Festival, Library of Congress, Severance Hall, Rockport Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Chamber Music Chicago, and the Bravo Vail Valley Music Festival, and has been a featured soloist with the Dallas Symphony. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Brink’s performances with the Amernet String Quartet were praised by the New York Times as “an accomplished and intelligent ensemble. Their fine performances were most notable for the quality of unjaded discovery that came through so vividly.” She has coached and performed in residencies for Chamber Music America with the Cavani String Quartet, has twice been a fellow at the Aspen Center for Advanced Quartet Studies and was invited by Isaac Stern to perform in his Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall as violist of the Cambiata String Quartet. First-prize winner in the Nakamichi Foundation Concerto competition at the Aspen Music festival she was also awarded Florence Allan Award at the Carmel Chamber Music Competition as a member of the Cambiata String Quartet. First introduced to the viola at the age of ten in a public school strings class, Ann Marie became one of the youngest members of the Pensacola Symphony, performing in the viola section while a freshman in high school. She later enrolled at Interlochen Arts Academy, where she was a featured soloist with the World Youth Symphony, received a Fine Arts Award, and graduated with high honors. Ann Marie received her Bachelor of Music with academic honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and was awarded the Jim Hall prize for achievement and leadership in music. She received her Master of Music from the Juilliard School, where she was awarded the prestigious William Schuman Prize, the single graduate prize given at commencement exercises. Her principal teachers were Karen Tuttle, Heidi Castleman and David Holland, and her chamber music mentors include the Emerson, Juilliard, Cleveland, Orion, and Cavani String Quartets. Ms. Brink teaches and performs at Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and has served on the faculties of Baylor University, Southern Methodist University, University of North Texas, Interlochen Arts Camp, Wintergreen Academy,Hot Springs Music Festival, and Music in the Mountains Conservatory.
Music Educator and Violist Rose Armbrust Griffin received her Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School, her Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, and her Masters of Music from Indiana University. During her time at The Curtis Institute of Music, she held the James and Betty Materese Annual Fellowship. Most notably, Rose was awarded a Performers Certificate at the conclusion of her Masters for “recognition of her outstanding musical performance.” Her teachers include Heidi Castleman, Hsin-Yung Huang, Roberto Diaz, Michael Tree, and Atar Arad.
As an active chamber musician, Rose has collaborated with renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Vadim Gluzman, Peter Wiley and the Amernet String Quartet. Her chamber music performances include concerts at The Kennedy Center, Avery Fischer Hall, Music from Angelfire, Zankel Hall, Ravinia’s Steans Institute and The Musica Bella Concert Series. She has been guest artist at The North Shore Music and the Kingston Chamber Music Festivals and has performed with The Chicago Ensemble, The Jupiter Chamber Players, The Pilgrim Chamber Players, The Chicago Chamber Musicians, The Rembrandt Chamber Players and the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW series.
Rose was the viola teacher for The Juilliard School’s summer program in Shanghai, China. Currently, she performs with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, substitutes with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and enjoys performing chamber music with the Omnibus Quartet. Additionally, Rose is the viola instructor at Wheaton College and teaches Introduction to Music History, Introduction to Music Theory, and Viola Literature courses. Her private students have attended The Juilliard School, CIM, DePaul University and Wheaton College. They have also been prizewinners in Chicago-area competitions.
Rudolf Haken is a Professor of Viola and Electric Strings at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also active as a composer and regularly performs his electric and acoustic viola concertos with orchestras throughout the world. As a recording artist and composer, he is a recipient of the American Record Guide “Critics’ Choice” award. Haken frequently serves on the faculties of international chamber music festivals, in addition to his work as an orchestral violist with the Houston Symphony and on tours of China and Korea. In August 2022 he brought the University of Illinois Electric Strings Ensemble and Hip-Hop Collective to Germany for performances at the Bayreuth Young Artists’ Festival. Read more about Rudolf Haken and his viola / electric strings studio at www.rudolfhaken.com
Named Artist Teacher of the Year (2020) by the American String Teachers Association, Jeffrey Irvine joined the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music as the Fynette H. Kulas Professor of Viola in September of 1999. During the summer Irvine is on the Artist Faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and the Interlochen Viola Workshop. His students have gone on to major orchestral, teaching and chamber music posts across the country and around the world. His students have often been First Prize Winners in major viola competitions, including the Primrose Competition, the ASTA National Solo Competition, and the Washington International Competition. Mr. Irvine previously taught at the Eastman School of Music and Wichita State University. His teachers have included Heidi Castleman, Charles Castleman, David Cerone, Dorothy DeLay, Martha Katz, William Primrose, Margaret Randall, Karen Tuttle, and Donald Weilerstein.
Violist Katherine Lewis enjoys a multifaceted career as a teacher, and as a chamber, solo, and orchestral musician. Since 2006 she has taught courses on viola performance and technique, viola pedagogy, string pedagogy, and chamber music at Illinois State University where she is Associate Professor of Viola and Master Teacher for the ISU String Project. As a performer, she is a member of the ISU Faculty String Quartet and principal viola in the Peoria Symphony and Peoria Bach Festival Orchestras and gives numerous solo performances each year throughout the U.S. During the summer she is an Artist-Faculty member at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Sewanee, Tennessee. Dr. Lewis has recently appeared as soloist with the Peoria Symphony, the Peoria Bach Festival Orchestra, and the ISU Symphony Orchestra. She premiered Libby Larsen’s viola duo “In Such a Night,” written for her and violist James Dunham for a performance at the 38th International Viola Congress. She has also recorded chamber music by composers Karim Al-Zand and John Allemeier for recordings on the Naxos Record Label. As an orchestral musician, her previous orchestral experience includes appointments in the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston, TX and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as well as frequent work with the Houston and New World Symphonies.
Dr. Lewis is active in the viola community at both a local and national level. As an elected member of the American Viola Society Executive Board, she serves as chair of the Education Committee, working to broaden educational offerings through media and programming. She also hosts annual Viola Days at Illinois State in order to provide students of all ages with opportunities to work with nationally recognized artists and teachers. Additionally, Dr. Lewis is in her second term as Secretary of the Illinois chapter of the American String Teacher’s Association.
Dr. Lewis earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she was a Brown Foundation Scholar. She holds a Bachelor degree from Lawrence University and a Master’s degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music. Her principal teachers include Jeffrey Irvine, James Dunham, Karen Ritscher, and Matthew Michelic.
Violist Claudia Lasareff-Mironoff graduated from the University of Denver with a Bachelor’s of Music Degree. She later earned her Master’s in Music, and a Certificate in Performance from Northwestern University. She has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Grant Park Music Festival, Music of the Baroque, the Chicago Philharmonic and the Santa Fe Opera. Claudia has also served as the principal violist of the Cape Town Symphony in South Africa, the Colorado Music Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, the English National Ballet in Chicago, the American Ballet Theater in Chicago and the Joffrey Ballet.
Claudia has served as a respected guest artist with appearances at Northwestern University, Bowling Green State University, Cal State Sacramento, Wheaton College, DePaul University, Roosevelt University, San Francisco State University and the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music. She was the guest artist for the viola master class at the 2011 Stulberg International String Competition and a judge for the 2018 and 2022 Samuel Thaviu String Scholarship Competitions at Northwestern University.
Claudia now performs with the Chicago Philharmonic, Present Music, Music of the Baroque, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, the Pyrenean String Quartet and the Peninsula Music Festival. She is currently teaching as the Adjunct Professor of Viola at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Teaching Associate at the University of Illinois- Chicago in Viola and Artist Chamber Music Faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy.
Christine Rutledge began her life-long love of viola in the 3rd grade in the Detroit Public Schools and had the good fortune of studying with several of the world’s greatest teachers, including Karen Tuttle, Michael Tree, William Preucil, Sr., and David Holland.
Rutledge is a devoted and passionate pedagogue. Her teaching career began at the University of Notre Dame, where she was also a member of the critically acclaimed Notre Dame String Trio. Since 1998 has taught at the University of Iowa, where she is Professor of Viola
Rutledge founded Linnet Press Editions for Viola in 2007, which is devoted to scholarly-based performance editions and transcriptions of baroque works for viola. Her most recent publication is a transcription of Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello, based on a decade of research and manuscript comparisons.
She lives with her husband, son, and three darling dogs.
Juliet White-Smith is an accomplished violist, an engaging and dynamic teacher, and an expert string pedagogue. With performing and professional teaching careers spanning over three and a half decades, she has performed in solo, chamber, and orchestral settings throughout the United States and in Europe, Asia, and Africa. As an orchestral musician, she has performed in the viola sections of the Texas Chamber Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera, the Grand Rapids and Columbus Symphony Orchestras, and as a two-year fellow with the Rochester Philharmonic. She is regularly engaged as an invited presenter for music organizations around the country and across the globe including as a featured presenter and master class clinician at the American String Teachers Association annual conference, for the 75th Anniversary Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, and as a recitalist and presenter for conferences of the American Viola Society and International Viola Congresses in Montreal, South Africa, and Thailand. She has served on several occasions as adjudicator for prominent career-advancing competitions including the William Primrose International Viola Competition and the Yellow Spring Chamber Music Competition.