About the Rodland Viola Studio
The Rodland Viola Studio strives to be a joyful learning environment, where we explore myriad aspects of viola playing and music making while adhering to the highest standards of musical and personal integrity. An individual course of study is created for each student, with the goal of developing each unique artistic voice, while simultaneously cultivating a sense of camaraderie and mutual support and inspiration within the studio. Fostering a commitment to service within the community at large is also part of the Rodland Viola Studio ethos.
Developing work habits that include curiosity, flexibility, creativity, deep listening, musical analysis, and mindful ease and presence with the instrument forms the core of our work as we strive to grow as musicians. Students are encouraged to develop and foster healthy physical and psychological selfcare routines and ever-evolving creative practice strategies, so that they can thrive in their lives and careers as violists. Knowledge is indeed power; the more clearly we understand how the various aspects of technique work for us as individuals with vastly different physiques, the more musically, colorfully, and convincingly we can express ourselves via our unique and gloriously chameleon-like instrument! Inspired by the great Karen Tuttle, we are committed to the exploration of musical interpretation together with ergonomically advantageous physical habits, so that we can express ourselves with the deepest conviction and ease. Simply put, we want to uncouple the expression of musical tension from unnecessary physical tension. It goes without saying that understanding and analyzing the music itself on a deep theoretical, structural, and emotional level is essential as we explore the physicality of our musicality.
As part of our weekly studio classes, we often have group technique sessions. We usually begin with some combination of flowing motions, breathing, grounding, and stretching without our violas; basic warmups which are inspired by my many years of Feldenkrais, Alexander Technique, Pilates, Yoga, and mindfulness meditation practices. After warming up our bodies and focusing our concentration, we address general ergonomic concepts that are helpful for viola playing, including flow, balance/alignment, posture, and specific left-hand and right-hand techniques. When working on technique as a group, we often use scales as a forum for discussion and practice. In individual lessons, we work together to create practice strategies and technical workouts that help to support the musical structures within the repertoire, as we develop convincing and unique interpretations based on deep knowledge and understanding of those musical structures.
In the Rodland Viola Studio, we are committed to a mutually supportive, non-competitive, and nurturing environment for learning, where everyone feels respected, cared for, and inspired, whatever their stage of development. Learning happens best for everyone in different ways and at different rates of speed, and it is important that we respect our own and each other’s learning styles and needs in this regard, in a non-judgmental and mutually supportive manner. Of course, we hold ourselves and each other to the very highest standards, but sometimes things need to “percolate”, and we need to allow and nurture that “safe space” for ourselves and each other. I encourage my students to be in constant dialogue with themselves, me, and each other regarding when to persevere through a challenge and when to allow the percolating!
Rodland Viola Studio News
Sofia Basile (MM Juilliard): Sofia was appointed to the viola section of the New York Philharmonic in 2023. She was a member of Colorado Symphony from 2019-2023
Colin Belisle (MM, Graduate Diploma New England Conservatory): Colin is currently living in San Francisco where he performs regularly with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and various other groups. He’s been a guest clinician at San Francisco Conservatory and has a small teaching studio. He’s also a tenured section player with the Hawaii Symphony, having been a member for fifteen seasons. He co-resides in Honolulu throughout the year. Previously while in Hawaii full time, Colin was the violist of the Galliard String Quartet, which performed through Chamber Music Hawaii, Hawaii’s premiere chamber music presenter. While a member, GSQ collaborated with pianists Wu Han, Joyce Yang, and John Kimura Parker. From 2013 to 2020 he was on the viola and chamber music faculty for the Solo and String Quartet Program at Pacific Music Institute, which partners with National Orchestral Institute + Festival.”
Carolyn Farnand (MM Juilliard): Carolyn was appointed to the viola section of Symphony Nova Scotia in 2023 and was a fellow at New World Symphony from 2021-23
Mary Ferrillo (private pre college studio, Boston): Mary was appointed to the viola section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2020
Ashleigh Gordon (MM New England Conservatory): Described as a “charismatic and captivating performer,” Ashleigh Gordon has recorded with Switzerland's Ensemble Proton and Germany's Ensemble Modern; performed with Grammy-award winning BMOP and Grammy-nominated A Far Cry string ensemble; and appeared at the prestigious BBC Proms Festival with the Chineke! Orchestra. Comfortable on an international stage, Ashleigh has performed in the Royal Albert and Royal Festival Halls (London), Konzerthaus Berlin and Oper Frankfurt (Germany), Gare du Nord and Dampfzentrale Bern (Switzerland), Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Lee Hysan Concert Hall (Hong Kong), and throughout Sofia, Bulgaria as part of the multi-disciplinary 180 Degrees Festival. She is co-founder, Artistic/Executive Director and violist of Castle of our Skins, a Boston-based concert and educational series devoted to celebrating Black Artistry through music. In recognition of her work, she has presented at IDEAS UMass Boston Conference and 180 Degrees Festival in Bulgaria; has been featured in the International Musician and Improper Bostonian magazines as well as the Boston Globe; and was awarded the 2016 Charles Walton Diversity Advocate Award from the American Federation of Musicians. She is a 2015 St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award recipient, a 2019 Brother Thomas Fellow, a nominee for the 2020 "Americans for the Arts Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities,” and named one of WBUR’s “ARTery 25”, twenty-five millennials of color impacting Boston’s arts and culture scene. Ashleigh attended the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt, a year-long program in Germany focused on the study and performance of contemporary music. Along with receiving a Master of Contemporary Music degree from IEMA, Ashleigh received degrees in viola performance from the New England Conservatory and Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music, studying with Carol Rodland and Louise Zeitlin respectively. For more information, please visit: www.violashe.com
Sarah Greene (BM Eastman): Since moving to the UK in 2022, Sarah Greene Constantine has been performing with orchestras such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the BBC Philharmonic, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Additionally, she completed a Master of Music degree at the Royal Northern College of Music in July 2023. Sarah was recently appointed as the full-time Sub Principal (No. 3) Viola in the BBC Philharmonic and enjoys life in the North West of England with her husband, Peter, and their cat, Chewy.
Gor Hovhannisyan (BM Musikhochschule “Hanns Eisler”, MM Arizona State University): Gor is the violist of Ensemble St. Machar (founded in 2009) based in Yerevan, Armenia and consisting of members of the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Since February 2023, Ensemble St Machar has a contract with Tilt Music Corporation, a company based in Rome, for releasing the recordings of Gor’s own compositions. https://www.n1m.com/gorhovhannisyan
Sean Juhl (BM, Pre College Juilliard): Sean was appointed to the viola section of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2022, and while studying at Juilliard, he was the winner of the 2019 Juilliard Concerto Competition
James Kang (BM Juilliard): James is the violist of the Abeo Quartet, which was recently awarded the grand prize at the 2023 Concert Artists Guild Competition. As a soloist, James won the 2nd prize at the 2021 American Viola Society Young Artist Competition and 2nd prize at both the 2018 and 2019 Juilliard Concerto Competitions
David Kim (BM, MM New England Conservatory): David is a tenured member of the San Francisco Symphony. While a student at NEC, he won first prize at the 2006 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and 2nd prize at the 2005 Primrose International Viola Competition
Janice Leung (Pre College, BM Juilliard): Janice won first prize at the 2022 American Viola Society Young Artist Competition
Katrin Meidell (MM New England Conservatory) Violist Katrin Meidell, DMA, enjoys a prolific career as a performer, pedagogue, and lecturer. She is Associate Professor of Viola at the Schwob School of Music, Columbus State University, in Georgia. She has been published in American String Teacher and the Journal of the American Viola Society (AVS). She was highly involved in the AVS for eight years— first as a volunteer, then a board member— culminating in her organizing and hosting the 2022 American Viola Society Festival & 47th International Viola Congress (June 2022). Thanks to her incredible teachers, Michelle LaCourse, Carol Rodland, and Susan Dubois, she is a Karen Tuttle Coordination pedagogue. She is also interested in musician’s health and wellness, both physical and mental. Without the keen and personalized instruction she received from her tremendous teachers, she would not be where she is today, and she is immensely grateful to each of them.
Sergio Muñoz Leiva: (MM Eastman, DMA Juilliard): I met Ms. Rodland the summer between my second and third years of undergrad in 2012. I studied with her at a festival that no longer exists, California Summer Music. After that festival, I knew I wanted to work with her again, so I went on to study with her at Eastman for my master’s. Then I followed her to Juilliard for my DMA, where I was her teaching assistant for four years. Since graduating in May of 2022, I have relocated to Boston. Here I teach music theory fundamentals to the youngest students (6-10 years old) at Project STEP, a comprehensive string training program for Black and Latino children. I am also the Interim Director of Chamber Music at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. I coach 4–6 chamber music ensembles per semester and coordinate student and faculty chamber music performances in the Department of Music and the College. As a performer, I have been a member of the Providence Baroque Orchestra since the fall of 2021 (I lived in Providence, RI during the last two years of my DMA while I was writing my dissertation). I also perform with my colleagues and students at Holy Cross and I freelance in the Boston area. Below are some highlights of my 2022–2023 season:
I played concerts with self-conducted chamber string orchestras A Far Cry and Palaver Strings, with clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, composer Dinuk Wijeratne, bandoneón player Juan Pablo Jofré, and Grammy Award winner soprano Estelí Gómez as featured soloists.
I curated a chamber music concert titled When Cultures Clash: Synthesis and Destruction, featuring music by Kinan Azmeh, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Nebal Maysaud, in response to the art exhibition Bringing the Holy Land Home: The Crusades, Chertsey Abbey, and the Reconstruction of a Medieval Masterpiece curated by Prof. Amanda Luyster at Holy Cross.
I played the Brahms G major Viola Quintet op. 111 with the Portland String Quartet.
With other NEC alums, we curated, organized, and performed a concert that featured the Schubert Cello Quintet for Music for Food Boston. We raised over $800!
I am currently playing in the revival of the musical Evita at the American Repertory Theater. The title role is sung by Shereen Pimentel, also a Juilliard alumna (BM ‘20). She was Maria in the 2020 Broadway revival of West Side Story when the pandemic started.
I recently got my artist visa to continue working in the US for three more years. I will continue my teaching jobs at Project STEP and Holy Cross and I will continue freelancing in the Boston area. I already have some concerts booked with Palaver Strings and more are in the works.
Yuchen Lu (MM Juilliard): Yuchen won First Prize at the 2021 Irving M Klein International String Competition and is a Marlboro Music Festival Fellow 2022-23. Yuchen has been Ms Rodland’s Teaching Assistant at Juilliard since 2021.
Kyle Miller (BM New England Conservatory and Eastman): I'm living in NYC with my wonderful partner Laura Lutzke, and I've been freelancing since I finished school. I spend most of my time playing on gut strings, which is a blast. Many cheers to all my studio mates, and I hope you're all doing great!
Sonny Oram (BM Oberlin): Studying with the renowned Carol Rodland in high school gave me a voice and taught me that with persistence and hard work, I can achieve amazing things. After college I founded the world’s first queer fashion incubator, qwearfashion.com. I now work in communications at MIT. I recently began writing poetry and incorporating the viola into my poems. It was an honor to design this website for Carol.
Samuel Pang (BM Eastman): Samuel Pang is the Director of Orchestras and Assistant Professor of Music Instruction at Hope College, Holland, MI. Sam studied viola performance with Professor Carol Rodland and orchestral conducting with Professor Neil Varon at the Eastman School of Music. First prize winner of the Eastman Viola Concerto competition, Sam made his concerto debut at the Eastman Theatre as a freshman. Subsequently, Sam was awarded every viola and chamber music scholarship and award at the Eastman School during his Bachelor of Music degree program. As a conductor, Sam served as the Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Festival Orchestra from 2009 to 2011. From 2012 to 2015 and 2017 to 2020, Sam served as the Orchestra Director of the DBS Symphony Orchestra. Radio Television Hong Kong broadcasted several of his award-winning performances on television, including Mahler Symphony No. 5, Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, Brahms Symphony No. 2, and Richard Strauss’ Don Juan. Sam has performed in conducting masterclasses for Carl St.Clair, David Zinman, Marin Alsop, Christoph Koncz, and Kristjan Järvi, amongst other world-renowned artists. Inspired by Leonard Bernstein’s belief in the importance of “inter-disciplinary values—that the best way to ‘know’ a thing is in the context of another discipline,” Sam began studying theology at Regent College in Vancouver, BC, from 2021 onwards, where he is currently working on his Christianity and the Arts project for his Master of Theological Studies degree. As a professor, Sam seeks to integrate his calling as a conductor, teacher, and theologian and further develop the education and music work he has been doing globally to help communities find greater commonality with one another in countering an increasingly dehumanizing and divided world.
Verona Rapp (MM New England Conservatory): Verona resides in Norway and holds a combined position with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and the Trondheim Soloists, in the latter often as principal viola. She also enjoys playing regularly in several Norwegian baroque ensembles as well as with the Camerata Salzburg.
Stephen Upshaw (BM New England Conservatory): London-based violist Stephen Upshaw regularly appears in festivals around the world including the BBC Proms, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Lucerne, Huddersfield, Aix-en-Provence, Wien Modern and the Salzburg Chamber Music Festival. Much in demand as a chamber musician, he is a member of the award-winning Solem Quartet – praised for their '“immaculate precision and spirit” (The Strad) and recognized as one of the most innovative and adventurous quartets of its generation. He has also shared the stage with artists such as Tai Murray, Gary Hoffman, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Philippe Graffin, Jennifer Stumm and Garth Knox. Recent engagements have taken him to Boston’s Jordan Hall, London’s Barbican and Wigmore Halls, Tokyo Opera City, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. A noted interpreter of contemporary music, Stephen is also a member of London’s Riot Ensemble, winners of the Ernst von Siemens Foundation Ensemble Prize, whose disc ‘Speak Be Silent’ was selected as one of New Yorker Magazine’s ‘Best Recordings of 2019’. He has worked closely with many of today’s leading composers, including Max Richter, Chaya Czernowin, John Adams, Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and Helmut Lachenmann. Expanding the repertoire of the viola through the commissioning of new music has always been a feature of Stephen’s work. He has taken part in over 300 world premieres including chamber music of Georg Haas and Sally Beamish (alongside the composer) and solo works of Mark Simpson, Simon Holt, Michael Finnissy and Errollyn Wallen. Stephen has always been passionate about education and currently serves on the faculties of both the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Junior Department. In recent years, he has given masterclasses at institutions including the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University, Royal College of Music, Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music (Poland), Royal College of Music Stockholm, Cardiff University, Wells Cathedral School, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Vanderbilt University, Liverpool University, University of Georgia and University of Michigan, among others.
Rose Wollman (MM and Graduate Diploma, NEC): Rose released an album in October on Acis called Loop: Ligeti's Inspiration & Legacy , a program centered around Ligeti's Solo Sonata which pairs each movement with a baroque piece and a commission. Rose spent the 22-23 season performing the program, giving 12 concerts around the country. Here is a link to The Strad review of her project: https://www.thestrad.com/reviews/rose-wollman-loop/16421.article. Rose also recently won the Athens Philharmonia Prize in the Piazzolla Music Competition https://www.piazzollacompetition.com/winners/ In 2023, Rose was voted in as an executive board member of the American Viola Society.
Lawrence Wong (MM Juilliard): Since I have graduated from New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School as a student of Ms. Carol Rodland, I have been hard at work trying to improve on making music and playing the viola. Through one of my recent performing engagements, I was able to meet with the head of marketing of 'Parsons Music', a local chain music academy and retail store in Hong Kong and China, which gave me the opportunity to teach and perform. I have organized the first ever NEC alumni concert in Hong Kong sponsored by Parsons Music! Thanks to Ms. Rodland's guidance, I was able to be selected as one of the awardees of the 2023 Musicus Society Young Artist Award, which would give me the opportunity to perform at the Hong Kong Cultural Center which I have been to as an audience for so many times! Lately, my quartet from Boston has been preparing for a 2024 tour around China in collaboration with 'Parsons Music', through these performances, we aim to reach audiences which have less opportunities of interacting with classical music and also to share our thoughts on how to appreciate the performing arts.
Tairan (Randy) Zhen (BM Eastman): In 2023, Randy was appointed assistant principal violist of the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra in China. He has also held a professorship at Harbin Conservatory of Music in China and served as principal violist of the Harbin Conservatory Chinese-Russian Orchestra. In 2019, Randy won the First-Class Award of the Viola Open Class at the Hong Kong International String Competition. While studying at Eastman, he was the winner of the Eastman Concerto Competition and performed the Bartok Concerto with the Eastman Philharmonia. In 2021, Randy served as a judge at the Hong Kong International String Competition and at the Artists International String Competition in the USA. Randy also enjoys arranging music for viola quartets. Recent arrangements include Japanese folk music (his Viola Quartet entitled Furusato has been performed widely), Stephen Foster “Old Folks at Home”, and Yellow River’s Horn, a Chinese folk song about boatmen singing.