Lauded for his “engaging” performances and his “expressive and intense” playing (American Record Guide), Jacob Adams is Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Alabama. Since making his solo debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at age 17, he has recorded on the Centaur label and performed at major venues throughout the United States and across four continents. He has premiered new works by celebrated composers, including William Bolcom and Caroline Shaw. Jacob is a regular performer with numerous orchestras, chamber ensembles, and festival series, appearing with A Far Cry (Boston), Camerata Pacifica (Southern CA), Manchester Summer Chamber Music (MA), Brevard Music Center (NC), and the symphony orchestras of Mobile, Birmingham, Huntsville, Charleston, and Tuscaloosa.

A dedicated teacher, Jacob maintains a full studio of undergraduate and graduate violists at the University of Alabama. He regularly presents and performs at national and international conferences, gives masterclasses and pedagogical workshops throughout the country, and has had articles published in the Journal for the American Viola Society and Stradmagazine. He serves on the faculty of the Tennessee Valley Music Festival and has taught at the Brevard Music Center and Festival. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Jacob holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, Yale School of Music, and University of California - Santa Barbara. His principal teachers include Helen Callus, Jesse Levine, Roger Chase, Roland Vamos, Masao Kawasaki, and Catharine Carroll Lees. He lives with his wife, Shannon McCue, and their two sons, Isaac and Jesse, in Tuscaloosa. For more information, visit www.jacobviola.com .

Hailed as “particularly outstanding” (Chattanooga Times Free Press), violinist Josh Holritz enjoys an exciting and varied career spanning the gamut of performing and teaching.

Recently appointed as Concertmaster of the Hunstville Symphony Orchestra, Josh began his tenure with the HSO in September of 2022. Josh also serves as the Associate Concertmaster of the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, a position he has held since 2014. Previous memberships include the Glens Falls and Greensboro Symphony Orchestras. Josh has performed as guest Concertmaster for the Peoria and Bryan Symphony Orchestras and Macon Pops. He also regularly substitutes with the Charleston, Nashville, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras and Nashville Opera.

An avid chamber musician, Josh performs weekly with the CSO String Quintet in their effort to bring classical music to local schools and the greater Chattanooga community. Josh also performs as part of the duo Schaafritz with his wife, CSO principal flutist, Kristen Holritz. Other recent collaborations include performances of the complete Beethoven Sonatas for Piano and Violin with Lee University professor Dr. ChoEun Lee.

Josh is an advocate for contemporary music and improvisation. His doctoral dissertation, entitled “A Player’s Guide: Lera Auerbach’s 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano, Op. 46”, includes a complete recording of Auerbach’s Op. 46 preludes. Josh’s free improvisation work can be heard on Spotify under the album title Blow- Fi. Recent world premiers include chamber works by Chattanooga composers Douglas Hedwig (Moveable Borders*2017)and Jonathan McNair (All a-Cryin’2017)*. Josh has also collaborated on multiple projects with the Nashville based contemporary ensemble Intersection. As an active studio musician in Nashville, Josh has played on numerous soundtracks for many of today’s popular films, television shows, and video games.

Josh is dedicated to training the next generation of musicians and currently serves as Adjunct Instructor of Violin and Viola for The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Adjunct Instructor of Violin at Southern Adventist University, and Adjunct Professor at Covenant College where he teaches violin, viola, and chamber music. He has also served on faculty for the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts and is currently a faculty artist for the Bay View Music Festival.

Josh holds a B.M. from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, a M.M. from the University of Minnesota, and a D.M.A. from the University of Georgia.

Heralded for her “thoughtful, attentive” playing (Alabama Entertainment), cellist Laura Usiskin enjoys a versatile career as a soloist and chamber musician. Her playing has taken her to concert halls throughout the United States and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, Palazzo Chigi Saracini (Siena, Italy), Symphony Hall (Boston), and New York venues including Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theatre, Barge Music, Steinway Hall, Klavierhaus, and more.

She has received such awards as the Prix d’Instrument at the Écoles d’art Americaines (France), the Aldo Parisot Prize at Yale University, and was a finalist for the Pro Musicis International Award. She completed the nationally acclaimed Artist In Residency with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra as well as a fellowship with the Yale Baroque Ensemble. Usiskin has held tenured orchestral appointments with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra Iowa, where she served as Principal Cello.

Usiskin has performed chamber music with such renowned artists as Richard Stolzman, Ani Kavafian, and Emanuel Ax. Recent solo performances include concerts of the complete J.S. Bach solo suites in Los Angeles and Connecticut as well as concertos of Dvoràk and Shostakovich with the Montgomery Symphony and Orchestra Iowa respectively. Usiskin is a member of multiple chamber groups including the Bayberry String Quartet and ensemble vim.

In 2011, Usiskin founded the Montgomery Music Project, an El Sistema strings program for school students in Montgomery, Alabama. Under her direction, the program gave intensive string instruction to hundreds of low-income children across three counties. She served as the Executive Director of the program from its inception through 2013. For more information, visit www.montgomerysymphony.org/mmp

Usiskin serves on the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, through which she founded the concert series Chamber Music @ AEIVA. She also teaches at Birmingham-Southern College, the Alabama School of Fine Arts, and STEP Birmingham. Usiskin’s cello studies began at age five with Gilda Barston of the Music Institute of Chicago and continued with Richard Hirschl of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She graduated from Columbia University cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Behavior, The Juilliard School with a Master of Music, and Yale University with a Doctor of Musical Arts. She currently lives in Atlanta, GA.

Yasmina Spiegelberg is the laureate of several international and national competitions including the Rotary International Competition Madrid Velazquez, the Frances Walton Seattle Competition, and the USC Concerto Competition. She was the winner of the Beverly Hills National Auditions 2019 with the Tandru Trio and an Ensemble Forward Grantee through Chamber Music America with her woodwind quintet, ConnectFive. Yasmina is a guest soloist with a.o. the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Nomad Symphony Orchestra (France), the String Ensemble Rapsodia (Switzerland), and has appeared in many renowned concert halls including the Oslo Concert Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Carnegie Hall. She is a current fellow at Ensemble Connect of Carnegie Hall, which features extraordinary young musicians committed to community engagement, education, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Yasmina has appeared at Avaloch, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Caramoor, Festival POTE (France), International Ensemble Modern Academy (Austria), Yellowbarn, and as a guest principal clarinet with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has been broadcasted live as a soloist on KUSC and KING-FM and recorded an album in Switzerland featuring concertos and other works for clarinet and orchestra. Her chamber music collaborations have included Peter Frankl, Mark Steinberg, Roger Tapping, and A Far Cry. An experienced educator, Yasmina has appeared as a clarinet teacher at Juilliard Pre-College and has been on the clarinet and chamber music faculty at the Young Artist Program at Yellowbarn. She has given masterclasses at the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, and is a clarinet faculty at Riverdale Country School. She holds degrees from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and the University of Southern California where she completed an Artist Diploma in the studio of world-famous Professor Yehuda Gilad.

Do-it-all percussionist Sean Ritenauer’s multi-genre fluency has led to an all-encompassing performance career. Particular highlights include on Broadway (Something Rotten!, Pippin), television and film (The Marvelous Ms. Maisel, Moonrise Kingdom, A Dog’s Purpose), on tour with the New York Philharmonic, and even playing congas with Aretha Franklin. In performance, Ritenauer has been hailed for “mesmerizing dexterity” in a performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto that earned “an immediate standing ovation” (The Huntsville Times). The Ohio native was named Principal Percussion of the Huntsville Symphony (AL) in 2016, and is the Percussion Instructor at Hofstra University, where he directs the Hofstra Percussion Ensemble. Alumni of his private studio in Manhattan have been admitted to the country’s top music programs, including Juilliard, Eastman, and the New England Conservatory.