The master teachers and performances in Puget Sound's string department trace their musical roots to the celebrated artists and traditions of Europe while embracing the music of today. The faculty includes prize winners in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and Pablo Casals Competition in Budapest; collaborators with major contemporary composers including Pierre Boulez and William Bolcom, and performers with major symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles. Students work closely with these active and accomplished professionals in weekly lessons, classes, the symphony orchestra, the string orchestra, and chamber music.
Graduates of the string program regularly go on to music careers with major symphonies, as educators at universities and public schools, or to graduate studies at the nation’s top universities and conservatories. Recent professional destinations for string players after Puget Sound include such organizations as the Seattle Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony and Oregon Symphony, graduate studies at Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music and Yale University, and music faculty at public schools and youth symphonies throughout the northwest.
STRING FACULTY
- Maria Sampen, Director of Strings
- Anna Wittstruck, Conductor, Orchestra
- Alistair MacRae, Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel Artist in Residence, Cello & Chamber Music
- Tim Christie, Violin
- Joyce Ramee, Viola
- Stephen Schermer, Double Bass
- Catherine Case, Harp