Family Concert: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Audrey Wright

Violin

Audrey Wright is a multifaceted artist across solo, chamber music, and orchestral realms. She joined the New York Philharmonic in 2022 and has been the concertmaster of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra since 2018. She previously served as associate concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Wright has performed across the globe in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, and the Vatican, and has been a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, and Cape Symphony Orchestra. With a passion for innovative programming and juxtaposing a wide range of musical styles, her repertoire spans the early 17th century to the modern day, and her performing experience includes the full spectrum of these musical styles, from period performance practice to the premiering of new and personally commissioned works. Her debut album, Things In Pairs, with pianist Yundu Wang, was released on Navona Records in 2022.

Originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Wright developed a love of ensemble and collaborative playing from a young age. During her high school years, she went on several international tours with youth orchestras in the Boston area, attended the prestigious Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts, and was on the national radio program From the Top. As a recurring participant in the Verbier Festival since 2012, she has performed with the Verbier Festival Orchestra and Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, and has been concertmaster under the direction of Gábor Takács-Nagy, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kent Nagano, Iván Fischer, and Charles Dutoit. Wright was a Violin Fellow in the New World Symphony from 2013–14, and a member of the Excelsa Quartet from 2014–16. As the Fellowship String Quartet at the University of Maryland, Excelsa Quartet performed and competed internationally, working closely with members of the Guarneri, Emerson, St. Lawrence, and Juilliard quartets.

Wright has performed on such chamber music series as Meeting House Chamber Music, Jackson Hole Chamber Music, Manchester Summer Chamber Music, Great Lakes Summer Chamber Music Festival, and in many concerts in the mid-Atlantic area, including Chiarina Chamber Players, Community Concerts at Second, Pro Musica Rara, Hood College Chamber Music, and the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, where she has performed on a number of the exquisite instruments in the Smithsonian Instrument Collection. She has worked closely with musicians Mayron Tsong, Paul Watkins, Roberto González-Monjas, Russell Hartenberger, Roger Tapping, John Heiss, John Gibbons, and Yundu Wang, as well as chamber ensembles such as the Axelrod String Quartet, Borromeo String Quartet, Boston Trio, and NuDeco Ensemble. Having worked extensively with artists across other disciplines, she also regularly collaborates with multidisciplinary artist and husband Geoff Robertson on innovative projects that often incorporate dazzling displays of light and sound.

In addition to performing, Wright is a passionate teacher and chamber music coach, and has developed a specialty in coaching and giving masterclasses on orchestral audition excerpts. In 2020 she released a YouTube series of excerpt tutorial videos that has become a widely used resource for musicians worldwide. She was the Director of the Homewood Chamber Music Seminar at Johns Hopkins University from 2017–18, has coached chamber music at the University of Maryland, and maintains a small studio of private students.

Wright holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and a doctoral degree from the University of Maryland. Her primary teachers have included David Salness, Lucy Chapman, Bayla Keyes, and Magdalena Richter. She plays on a 1753 J.B. Guadagnini violin generously on loan from the Alsop Trust.

Anna Harwell Celenza

Narrator Anna Harwell Celenza is a professor at Johns Hopkins University, where she holds a joint appointment in The Writing Seminars (Krieger School of Arts & Sciences) and Musicology Department (Peabody Conservatory). She has published several scholarly books, including The Nightingale Revealed: Hans Christian Andersen and Music, Jazz Italian Style, and On the Record: Music that Changed America. She is also the author of eight award-winning children’s books, including Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite and Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony.

Derek Powell

Violin

Derek Powell joined the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in 2020, appointed by Music Director Gianandrea Noseda. Each summer since 2018, Powell has performed in the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in Jackson, Wyoming and has previously performed in the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra in Verbier, Switzerland.

Powell is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of musicians. He coaches and leads masterclasses with students from around the country for both the NSO’s Youth Fellowship program and the highly selective orchestral training program, Summer Music Institute. As a member of the Last Stand String Quartet, Powell co-created and performed “Math x Music,” a concert-length performance for grade school–age audiences and their families that explores the intersection of math and music. It premiered in the Kennedy Center’s Family Theatre in 2025.

As a versatile and sought-after musician, Powell frequently collaborates with esteemed chamber ensembles including the 21st Century Consort, National Chamber Players, Inscape, and Sound Impact, a pioneering music collective harnessing music’s transformative power to drive positive social change. Powell’s work with Sound Impact includes multiple transformative residencies with incarcerated youth combining music and youth driven artistic self-expression culminating in emotional collaborative performances.

Prior to joining the NSO, Powell served his country with distinction as a Staff Sergeant violinist in the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” where he performed at high-profile events, including White House state visits and congressional functions. Before his military service, Powell won a coveted position as a fellow in the New World Symphony, the nation’s most prestigious orchestral training program, under the guidance of visionary music director and founder Michael Tilson-Thomas.

Powell earned a Master of Music from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he was awarded the coveted Distinguished Fellowship in Violin. He also attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he earned a Bachelor of Science with honors in both neurobiology and music. Powell’s primary pedagogues include Kathleen Winkler, David Perry, Felicia Moye, and Eugene Purdue.

Meredith Riley

Violin

Meredith Riley is a Canadian-American violinist from Ithaca, NY, currently residing in Alexandria, VA. She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Music from the University of Texas at Austin, and completed her graduate studies under violinist Andrés Cárdenas at Carnegie Mellon University. Riley studied with Linda Case, Laura Bossert, and Margaret Pressley during her pre-college years.

For five years, Meredith was Associate Principal second violin for the Richmond Symphony in Richmond, VA. While in Graduate school, she was Principal second of the Erie Philharmonic, and she performed as acting concertmaster for the Johnstown Symphony. In recent years, she has free-lanced with Pittsburgh Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philly pops!, Richmond Symphony, Williamsburg Symphony, and the National Symphony Orchestra. She has been a member of Sphinx Virtuosi for six National tours, recently serving as principal second. Meredith was also excited to join the Gateways Music Festival in 2022, participating in GMF's Carnegie Hall debut with Jon Batiste in 2022, and still continues to collaborate with the Gateways Festival. She joined the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC for a one year contract in the ‘22-’23 season, and will be joining the NSO on their upcoming European tour in 2024.

Riley’s solo performance experiences include solo appearances with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, New England String Orchestra, University of Texas Symphony Orchestras, and in 2022, the Wintergreen and Sunflower Festival Orchestras. Other awards include Young Artist for the Starling Delay Symposium at the Juilliard School, junior semi-finalist in the National Sphinx Competitions, second place in Young Texas Artists Competition. In 2022, and again in 2023, Meredith won first place in the strings division of the Sphinx Orchestra Partners for Auditions [SOPA] competition.

Meredith plays chamber music whenever she can and has appeared twice on the Smithsonian Chamber Players series, as well as on numerous CMSCVA events in Richmond. Her intensive chamber experiences include Wintergreen Music Festival, the Sunflower Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music Festival, NewPark Chamber Music Festival, Domaine Forget’s intensive chamber music program, Music by the Sea in Bamfield, BC, Steamboat Strings Music Festival Heifetz International Music Festival, Chautauqua MSFO, the International Music Academy of Plzen in Czech Republic, St. Lawrence String Seminar, the International Musical Enghien Encounters in Belgium, the Boston Festival Orchestra, and Encore School for Strings,

In 2021, Meredith was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Violin at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. She also teaches a small number of private students in Alexandria and Richmond. She will be joining the faculty of the 2023 Gingold Festival in Miami as part of the Artistic Advising team.

In her free time, Meredith loves to spend time with her husband, family, and dogs. She is constantly sampling new hot sauces, singing and laughing loudly, and improvising vocally or on her violin.

Philip Kramp

Viola

Philip Kramp is a versatile performer and teacher whose playing has been heard worldwide. Praised by the New York Times for his “impressive” performances, he has participated in chamber music festivals at Marlboro, Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Sarasota and many others.

Based in Washington, DC, Phil is a former violist in the Kansas City Symphony and a former faculty member of the University of Kansas. Currently, Phil is on the faculty at the University of Maryland and he plays regularly with the National Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony. He has performed on tours worldwide with many orchestras and can be heard on recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Metropolis Ensemble and The Roots. Phil can also be heard on many motion picture soundtracks and television shows.

In chamber music settings, Phil plays regularly with the Chiarina Chamber Players, as well as in concerts with members of the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra. He is a past participant of the Marlboro Music Festival and has performed on several tours with Musicians from Marlboro. He is also a regular participant and the Twickenham Music Festival and the Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, Colo. Phil has also enjoyed collaborating with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has performed alongside many of the world’s greatest artists, such as Richard Goode, Peter Wiley, Michael Tree, Arnold Steinhardt, Marcy Rosen, Miriam Fried and many others.

In competitions, Phil has won prizes in the Irving Klein String Competition, Chicago Viola Society Competition, NEC Concerto Competition and has participated in the Stulberg Competition and the HAMS Viola Competition. Phil received his formal training at the Curtis Institute and the New England Conservatory. His primary mentors include Michael Tree, Roberto Diaz, Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Joe DePasquale, Peter Wiley and Steven Tenenbom.

Carrie Bean Stute

Cello

Cellist Carrie Bean Stute is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Washington, DC-based Chiarina Chamber Players, a chamber music series and flexible ensemble that has won critical acclaim for its artistry and innovative programming. Carrie’s chamber music performances have been broadcast on Classical WETA’s Front Row Washington. In DC, she performs with the National Symphony Orchestra, has served as an adjunct professor of music at George Washington University, and is currently assistant principal cellist of “The President’s Own” Marine Chamber Orchestra, where she performs in such diverse settings as the White House, area public schools, and for events hosted by the United Nations and State Department.

A performer who seeks out the voices of today, she collaborates with a growing set of composers, including Reinaldo Moya, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Juhi Bansal, and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon. Carrie authored a doctoral dissertation on the cello works of Pēteris Vasks and in 2021 performed as soloist in the North American premiere of his Cello Concerto No. 2. She took part in the Carnegie Hall workshop “New Voices, New Music” and has performed chamber music at such venues as the Phillips Collection, Zankel Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and an in-house educational residency at the 92nd Street Y.

Carrie holds degrees from The Graduate Center at the City University of New York (Doctor of Musical Arts), Indiana University, and the Eastman School of Music. She was a fellow at the New World Symphony and Tanglewood Music Center. Forthcoming in 2024-25 are recordings of chamber music by Carlos Simon (with Domenic Salerni, Efi Hackmey, and Carl DuPont) and clarinet trios by Brahms and Beethoven (with Robert DiLutis and Rita Sloan).

Aaron Clay

Bass

Aaron Clay distinguishes himself regularly as a uniquely versatile double bassist. He commands great respect as a performer in both the classical and jazz worlds of bass playing, but it was The Washington Post that observed, "What sets [Clay] apart is elegant bowing ....His melodic lines have a cello-like glow and flexibility...."

A native of Fairmont, West Virginia, Mr. Clay began his musical training at the age of 10 when he taught himself to play jazz on the electric bass. He later pursued classical training on the upright double bass prior to attending West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he studied with Richard Manspeaker. After graduating in 1989, he was selected to join the United States Navy Band in Washington, DC. Upon completing one enlistment with the Navy, Mr. Clay auditioned for "The President's Own" United States Marine Band where he has been a member since 1993.

Mr. Clay is a founding member of the highly acclaimed string duo, Bridging the Gap, in which he performs with violinist Peter Wilson. Hailed by The Washington Post for "superior arrangements and uncommon musicianship," the unique duo performs works covering a wide range of musical styles. They released their first CD in 2003. Mr. Clay enjoys performing with Bridging the Gap for educational and community outreach programs throughout the United States.

Mr. Clay is also developing a reputation as a composer and arranger of works for the violin and bass duo as well as larger ensembles. Mr. Clay serves as Principal Bassist of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, and performs with other Washington area jazz and pop groups. Mr. Clay resides in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife, Cindy.