The Philadelphia Orchestra announces the addition of three violinists to its roster: William Polk has joined the first violin section; Noah Geller, joins the first violins in January 2008; and Amy Oshiro joins the second violin section in July 2008. In addition, violinist Richard Amoroso has been named acting assistant concertmaster for the 2007-08 season.
Seven musicians joined the Orchestra earlier this year: José Maria Blumenschein, associate concertmaster; Dara Morales, assistant principal second violin; Marc Rovetti, violin; Kirsten Johnson, associate principal viola; Kerri Ryan, assistant principal viola; Marvin Moon, viola; and Jeffrey Lang, associate principal horn/horn.
Violinist William Polk joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in October 2007. He previously served as associate principal second violin of the Minnesota Orchestra beginning in 2005. Prior to that, he was guest principal second violin of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Polk has also performed as an orchestral musician with the San Francisco Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony.
Mr. Polk has participated as a chamber musician in the Mainly Mozart Summer Festival in San Diego, California, in 2006 and the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society in Madison, Wisconsin. In January 2007, he and his wife, Kerri Ryan, assistant principal viola of The Philadelphia Orchestra, performed as soloists in Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante with the Minnesota Orchestra. Together, they founded and performed with the Minneapolis Quartet from 2002 to 2007, and they won a McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2006. Mr. Polk attended Louisiana State University and the University of Minnesota, and his teachers have included Sally O’Reilly and Camilla Wicks.
Violinist Noah Geller joins The Philadelphia Orchestra’s first violin section in January 2008. As an orchestral musician, he has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has served in concertmaster and principal positions for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Juilliard Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra.
Mr. Geller is a laureate of the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition and has received top prizes in the 2006 Corpus Christi International String Competition, the Young Artists’ Competition, and Wisconsin Public Radio’s Neale-Silva Young Artists’ Competition, among others. Mr. Geller has also won competitions at the Music Academy of the West and the Chicago Youth Symphony. He has received Tanglewood’s Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize. Mr. Geller has appeared in recital as part of the Chicago Youth Symphony’s Distinguished Alumni Recital Series.
Mr. Geller is enthusiastically involved in new music and has performed the world premiere of Eugene O’Brien’s Two Inventions for Violin and Cello, broadcast on Chicago’s WFMT radio. He has commissioned a piece for solo violin and digital acoustics from composer William Neil. As a chamber musician, Mr. Geller has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, Alice Tully Hall, the Sejong Center in Seoul, and the Taos School of Music in New Mexico. Previously a student of Jennifer Cappelli and Hyo Kang, Mr. Geller is currently completing his Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School, where he studies with Donald Weilerstein and Cho-Liang Lin.
Amy Oshiro joins The Philadelphia Orchestra’s second violin section in July 2008; she is currently assistant concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony. She previously held the associate concertmaster chair of the Colorado Symphony and was assistant concertmaster of the Grant Park Orchestra (IL). She has also performed as a guest musician with the New York Philharmonic.
Ms. Oshiro made her debut with the Chicago Symphony at the age of 12 and has appeared numerous times as a soloist with the Saint Louis Symphony, the Napa Valley Symphony, the Minnesota Sinfonia, and others. She has collaborated with such artists as Vadim Repin, Alban Gerhardt, Jason Vieaux, and Gil Shaham. Ms. Oshiro began violin studies when she was three years old. She studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at Oberlin Conservatory, where she received the Dean’s Talent Award scholarship. She continued her studies at the Juilliard School with Robert Mann, the founder and former first violinist of the Juilliard Quartet.
In the summers, Ms. Oshiro has been a guest artist at the Sun Valley Summer Symphony (ID), the Cactus Pear Music Festival (TX), the Grand Teton Music Festival (WY), the National Orchestral Institute (MD), and the Innsbrook Institute (MO), among others. Aside from music, Ms. Oshiro enjoys hiking and running and has completed the Chicago Marathon and the New York City Marathon.
Violinist Richard Amoroso joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1998 after serving as a member of Concerto Soloists (now Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia), Peter Nero and the Philly Pops®, and as a substitute violinist with the Orchestra. He also performed with various local music groups, including Pro Musica, the Mendelssohn Club, the Philadelphia Singers, the Academy of Vocal Arts, and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. He has performed as soloist with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, the North Penn Symphony, and in a trio recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. He returned to Carnegie in 2004 to perform a solo recital.
Mr. Amoroso’s relationship with The Philadelphia Orchestra began in 1984 at the age of 14 when he won the Orchestra’s Student Competition and subsequently performed as a soloist with the Orchestra. A native Philadelphian, he attended Settlement Music School on scholarship, and also studied with Philadelphia Orchestra retired Concertmaster Norman Carol, as well as with former Orchestra Co-Concertmaster William de Pasquale, Rafael Druian, and retired Orchestra Associate Concertmaster David Arben. Mr. Amoroso holds a bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College, from which he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. -- www.philorch.org
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