The Viola Winter Intensive returns for its sixth season!

Registration for the Sixth Annual Viola Winter Intensive is now closed. Please check back in October 2020 for information about next year's event! 

If you are interested in receiving an email notification when registration opens, please click here.

This innovative, three-day workshop presents numerous sessions addressing artistic growth and technical mastery, solo master classes, small group instruction with sought-after faculty, as well as performance and audition practice opportunities in an inspiring and supportive environment. Additional sessions will cover yoga and modern movement techniques to round out the weekend.

The Viola Winter Intensive has five specially tailored tracks for violists with varying skill levels and performance goals. 

  • Middle school or high school violists looking to expand their technical skills and artistic voice for the next concert or audition
  • College violists looking to solidify and refine advanced skills to prepare for the “real world”
  • Professional violists or string orchestra teachers already busy in the “real world” who desire to spend an intensive weekend working on personal playing for a change! 
  • Beginning viola players excited about their new journey, looking to refine the basics, and move into intermediate playing
  • Amateur violists who just want to spend a few days immersing themselves in playing and learning their instrument in a supportive environment with experienced teachers

Choose Your Track!

Prelude Afternoon Track - For Beginners  

Suitable for those with one year or less of viola instruction

  • Date: Saturday, January 4, 2020, 1-5 p.m.
  • Registration fee:  $10 for South Carolina residents, $15 for non-residents. 
  • Deadline to register: REGISTRATION CLOSED

Financial assistance is available for eligible students. Please see registration form for details.

Review and refine the basics of playing the viola, as well as add to your playing skills in this fun and challenging four-hour workshop for new violists. Separate classes offered for left-hand techniques and bow techniques, with a fun movement class in the middle for a refreshing break. Finish the afternoon performing in a viola choir alongside the advanced students and faculty in Smith Recital Hall!

Allegro Day Track - For Middle School Students 

Suitable for those with 2 or 3 years of viola instruction

  • Date: Saturday, January 4, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
  • Registration fee:  $15 for South Carolina residents, $40 for non-residents. Includes All State Orchestra Audition Intensive
  • Deadline to register: REGISTRATION CLOSED

Financial assistance is available for eligible students. Please see registration form for details.

Spend the whole day working on every aspect of your viola playing! Classes will cover shifting, vibrato, treble clef, advanced bow strokes, and three octave scales. An All State Orchestra Audition workshop will be offered for eligible students.  

Vivace Weekend Track - For High School Students

Suitable for those with three to five years of viola instruction 

  • Date: Friday, January 3, Saturday, January 4th and Sunday, January 5th* 
  • Registration fee:  $35 for South Carolina residents, $85 for non-residents. Includes All State Orchestra Audition Intensive
  • Deadline to register: REGISTRATION CLOSED

Financial assistance is available for eligible students. Please see registration form for details.

Spend three whole days working on every aspect of your viola playing! Classes will cover fingerboard geography above third position, advanced shifting techniques, artistic vibrato, advanced bow strokes, trills, professional tone production, double stops, three octave scale and arpeggio variations and sight reading. An All State Orchestra Audition workshop will be offered for eligible students as well as a special session for all Vivace Track students entitled Conquering Stage Fright Forever. Additional sessions introducing yoga and physical movement will highlight relaxation and kinesthetic awareness strategies. Bring an etude and solo piece to perform in the Repertoire and Technique master classes.    

Cadenza Weekend Track - For College Students and Pre-professionals
 
  • Date: Friday, January 3, Saturday, January 4th and Sunday, January 5th* 
  • Registration fee:  $35 for South Carolina residents, $85 for non-residents
  • Deadline to register: REGISTRATION

Spend three whole days working on every aspect of your viola playing so you are ready for your next concert or audition! Six different technique classes will review essential basics at the advanced level, while numerous master classes and small group lessons will offer the opportunity to work closely with faculty on advanced technical and interpretive ideas. Additional sessions introducing yoga and physical movement will highlight relaxation and kinesthetic awareness strategies. A roundtable discussion on 21st music careers will help participants plan the next steps on their viola journey. Bring three etudes and two (or more) solo pieces to perform in the Repertoire and Technique master classes.    

Revive Weekend Track - For Teachers and Adults
  • Date: Friday, January 3, Saturday, January 4th and Sunday, January 5th* 
  • Registration fee:  $50 for South Carolina residents, $85 for non-residents
  • Deadline to register: REGISTRATION CLOSED

Put down your device and pick up your viola for three whole days! Whether you are a seasoned alto clef reader or simply a curious string/orchestra teacher with a cello background - this track will provide information and experience for violists at every level. Technique classes will cover foundation elements at all stages and performance master classes will offer an opportunity to work on your dream pieces with an accompanist. A roundtable discussion entitled Finding Balance In Art and Life will provide strategies for busy teachers and adults to find time regularly to love their viola.

*Note to all weekend track participants:  
Weekend Tracks will begin Friday, January 3 at 4 p.m. and end Sunday, January 5 at 4 p.m. A detailed daily schedule for all three weekend tracks will be provided in late December.  

Faculty Bios

Caroline Coade

Caroline CoadeAmerican violist Caroline Coade is a passionate educator who was named Assistant Professor of Viola at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance (SMTD) in 2016. Her prize-winning students include the 2019 Sphinx Competition 3rd prize winner, a 2019 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition semi-finalist, the top prizewinner of the Society of Musical Arts 2019 Young Artist Competition, and a finalist of the 2018 Anton Rubinstein International Viola Competition. Previously, she was a Lecturer in Viola at SMTD since 2005 and was Adjunct Professor of Viola at Detroit’s Wayne State University from 1998-2015. Equally at home performing on the concert stage as she is teaching, Ms. Coade is the 3rd chair violist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and was the Acting Assistant Principal Violist of the DSO for 2013-2016 seasons. Prior to her appointment with the DSO, Ms. Coade performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. She has also held positions with Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra (Philadelphia) and the opera companies of Philadelphia and Santa Fe. As a judge, Ms. Coade was one of nine international adjudicators for the live rounds of the Primrose International Viola Competition in 2014. In 2018, she was one of five judges for the prescreen round of the Primrose Competition. Continuing her advocacy for the arts and education, Ms. Coade spends her summers as artist faculty at summer music festivals. She has been artist faculty at Center Stage Strings/MPulse Institute at the University of Michigan for summers 2016-2019. She is artist faculty at the Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute in South Carolina since Summer 2018. For Summer 2019, Ms. Coade will join the faculty of Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in VT. Previous artist faculty roles include the Chautauqua Institution Music Festival in New York (summers 2012-15), the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine (summers 2012-15) and at the National Music Festival in Chestertown, MD (summers 2011-13). Ms. Coade has given master classes at the Oberlin Conservatory (OH), Boston University (MA), Longy School of Music (MA), Baylor University (TX), and Colburn Conservatory (CA). Her students have won coveted spots in the major music schools including The Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, Rice University, Indiana University, Oberlin Conservatory, Boston University, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Michigan, New England Conservatory, and Yale University.

In 2016, Ms. Coade was named the Artistic Director for WRCJ 90.9FM Classical Brunch chamber music series at the Community House in Birmingham, MI. In this role, Ms. Coade curates the programs, does radio voice over work to advertise the series, and performs. She regularly plays chamber music with her colleagues at the Detroit Symphony and the University of Michigan, and with her colleagues at summer music festivals. Ms. Coade has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival (MI), Laurel Festival of the Arts (PA), and the Marlboro Music Festival (VT). As violist with the Woodland Trio (flute, viola, harp), she concertized around the U.S, Canada, and at the Printemps Musicale des Alizes of Morocco. A San Diego native, Ms. Coade began taking Suzuki violin lessons at age 6 and switched to the viola at age 14. She graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy (MI) and went on to receive a bachelor of music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory, an artist diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, and a master of music degree from The Juilliard School. Her principal teachers include Karen Tuttle, Joyce Robbins, Jeffrey Irvine, David Takeno, David Holland, and Eugene Becker. Ms. Coade plays on a Domenico Busan viola c. 1750 on generous loan from The Mandell Collection of Southern California.

Kathryn Dey

Katie DeyCommitted to using music as a tool for social justice, violist Kathryn Dey is active as a performer and educator in innovative venues reaching new audiences and students. Ms. Dey is a Surdna Foundation fellow and was awarded a grant from that organization to study and perform works for unaccompanied viola by Lillian Fuchs. Ms. Dey performs regularly with organist David Turner as The Lila Duo. Together the duo founded the Haiti Music Project, an outreach program connecting musicians in the United States and the Central Plateau region of Haiti. Through this program, over 2000 instruments have been donated to the École Bon Saveur music program and performing ensembles. Ms. Dey has also served as a program consultant and guest artist at the Palotti School of Music in Belize City, Belize.  

An innovative and committed educator, her teaching has been recognized by the American String Teacher Association, Strings Magazine, Music Teachers National Association, the American Viola Society, the South Carolina Alliance for Arts Education, and the South Carolina Music Educators Association. Students from her studio are now performing and teaching around the world. Ms. Dey has given workshops to teachers and students throughout the United States and is especially committed to building and sustaining rural string programs throughout South Carolina, including Chester, Fairfield, Jasper, Laurens, and Pickens Counties. She is a frequent presenter at music teaching conferences and has been recognized nationally for her interdisciplinary work linking the fields of music, creative writing and acting. Ms. Dey is on the faculty of the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts, the Eastman Viola Workshop and the Swannanoa Chamber Music workshop. She earned degrees in viola performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a student of Sally Chisholm, and at the Eastman School of Music, where she served as teaching assistant to John Graham. Ms. Dey speaks fluent German, practices hatha yoga daily and together with her husband cellist Robert O’Brien, has been renovating a historic home in downtown Greenville, SC for the past nineteen years.     

Austin Johnson

Austin JohnsonAustin Johnson is a graduate of the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and holds a bachelor of music from the University of South Carolina, where he graduated with Leadership Distinction. He is now an elementary school teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia where he teaches over 200 students in the NAME SCHOO 4th-6th-grade orchestra program. Austin has taught and performed internationally and recently received a grant to teach in Haiti. Last summer Austin co-wrote and co-directed a video tutorial in Haitian Creole on how to teach beginning recorder. Austin has served as SCSGAH Summer Program Assistant for three years.  

Daniel Sweaney

Daniel SweaneyDaniel Sweaney made his New York debut in Avery Fisher Hall at the 1999 Mostly Mozart Festival. Strings Magazine said about him “...extremely talented and highly trained...poised and accomplished...” Mr. Sweaney began his musical studies in his public school’s string program at age eleven and has since had a diverse education in the United States and Europe and performed across the globe.

Daniel Sweaney has won prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Down Beat Magazine Chamber Music Competition, was a two time recipient of the Interlochen Arts Academy Fine Arts Award for Outstanding Performance in Viola, and was the recipient a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant and the Elizabeth Hamner Grant. He was a teaching assistant and a chamber music coach at The Perlman Music Program and participated in their exchange trips to Tel-Aviv and Shanghai.

Mr. Sweaney has held faculty positions at the Cleveland School for the Arts, Rice University Preparatory Department, The Boulder Arts Academy, Sewanee Summer Music Center, the Interlochen Viola Institute, the North American Viola Institute at the Orford Arts Centre, the Rocky Ridge Music Center, and the University of Alabama. He has given master classes at the University of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Bowling Green State University, Louisiana State University, Texas Tech University, Brandeis University, the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana Cuba, and the National Orchestra Festival. His students have received fellowships to the Aspen Music Festival and scholarships to the Quartet Program, Brevard Music Center, Eastern Music Festival, Kent Blossom, Hot Springs, National Music Festival, and the AIMS Graz Festival. They have been awarded the McElroy Scholarship, Most Outstanding Senior at the University of Alabama, a Narramore Fellowship, Presser Scholarship, and the Emily Searcy Rogers Scholarship.  

Mr. Sweaney has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Ani Aznavoorian, Ron Leonard, Stefan Milenkovich, Merry Peckham, and Peter Sellers. While living in Austria, he performed regularly with the Camerata Salzburg under Sir Roger Norrington, Leonidas Kavakos, Walter Weller, and Heinrich Schiff. Recent venues and festivals include, Salzburg Mozarteum Grossersaal, Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, KKL Lucerne, Bilbao and Madrid, Spain, Athens Megaron, Camerata Salzburg’s Beethoven and Haydn Begegnung, Vienna Festwochen, Salzburg Mozart Woche, Bergen Norway Festspiel, Schubertiad Bezau, Austria, Würzburg Mozart Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, The Best of the Nordrhein-Westfalen series, The Beethoven House in Bonn, SUNY Purchase, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Symphony Hall in Chicago. He has recorded with the Camerata Salzburg for Universal the complete works for flute and orchestra with soloist Andrea Griminelli and works by Mozart with pianist Sebastian Knauer and violinist Daniel Hope. His first CD Violin and Viola Duos Through the Centuries with Annette-Barbara Vogel was released in 2013.  

Daniel Sweaney studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy, The Cleveland Institute of Music, Rice University, the Universität Mozarteum, Salzburg, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has participated in many summer festivals such as The Sewanee Summer Music Center, The Quartet Program, The Aspen Music Festival and School, and The International Musician’s Seminar, Prussia Cove. His teachers include Heidi Castleman, David Holland, Thomas Riebl, Martha Strongin-Katz, Roger Tapping, Erika Eckert, and Geraldine Walther. 

George Taylor

George Taylor

George Taylor is active in practically every aspect of performance as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, and his playing has been praised for its eloquence, warmth and sensitivity.  Mr. Taylor is currently Professor of Viola at the Eastman School of Music. Before joining the Eastman faculty, he was a member of the Ciompi Quartet of Duke University, a position he held from 1979 through 1986. A dedicated, sought-after and beloved teacher, he has served on the artist faculties of The Castleman Quartet Program, Le Dormaine Forget, the Chautauqua Institution, Musicorda, The Encore School for Strings, the Meadowmount School, the Manchester Music Festival, and the Elan International Music Festival, among others.  With faculty colleagues Carol Roland and Phillip Ying he co-hosted the highly successful 40th International Viola Congress at the Eastman School of Music. He has also served as a juror for international competitions in Europe and the United States, and has served on the boards of the American Viola Society and the Sphinx Organization.

Mr. Taylor has given numerous solo recitals and appeared as a chamber musician in concerts throughout the United States and at the Tainan Cultural Center in Taiwan. He is a frequent collaborator with the Ritz Chamber Players, and has performed as guest artist at the Skaneateles Music Festival, Lake Winnipesaukee Music Festival and with ensembles such as the Triple Helix Trio, The Society for Chamber Music in Rochester and the Ying Quartet. His recording with guitarist Nicholas Goluses titled “Night Strings” has received wide critical acclaim.  Mr. Taylor can also be heard in a landmark recording of the complete chamber music of the African/American composer William Grant Still by the Videmus Ensemble. He has also recorded music by composers such as Frederick Jacobi, John Zorn, Ernst Toch, Jan Radzynski, Ezra Laderman among others for the Milken Foundation. He was co-founder and conductor of the St. Stephens Chamber Orchestra (Durham, NC), an ensemble that has continued to perform and record together to date as the Orchestra of The Triangle. An active advocate for the performance of music by African/American composers, Taylor was a participant in the National Black Arts Festival held in Atlanta, GA and the Gateways Music Festival. He was also a member of the Black Music Repertory Ensemble, which presents music of African/American composers in concerts throughout the country, and is currently a member of The Ritz Chamber Players. Mr. Taylor has performed and premiered works written for him by many composers, including Bill Dobbins, Michael Kimber, Ron Carter, Noel DaCosta, George Walker, David Liptak and Carmen Moore.

A native of New York City, Mr. Taylor attended the Manhattan School of Music, where his teachers included Jaime Laredo, Raphael Bronstein and Burton Kaplan. Further studies on viola were with Michael Tree and Abraham Skernick. Mr. Taylor’s chamber music mentors include such notables as Arthur Balsam, Joseph Seiger, Lillian Fuchs, Joseph Gingold, Mischa Schneider, and members of the Guarneri Quartet. He made his recital debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1979. Joseph Horowitz of the New York Times wrote: “He is already an unusually accomplished player, with a secure command of the instrument, and an ardent, refreshingly direct style.” 

For more information on George Taylor, please visit his website at www.georgetaylorviola.com.

Juliet White-Smith

Juliet White-SmithJuliet White-Smith, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has performed as soloist and chamber musician in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. She has appeared as soloist with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Fort Collins and Denver Philharmonic Symphonies. She has also performed in the viola sections of the Rochester Philharmonic, the Columbus (OH) Symphony, Grand Rapids (MI) Symphony, and the Houston Grand Opera orchestras.

In demand as a master teacher and clinician, White-Smith has presented master classes at music conservatories around the US and the world including the Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, the Eastman School of Music and Mahidol University’s College of Music in Thailand. She has been a featured guest artist at viola events in Arizona, Iowa and Ohio, and was the 2012 Pre-College Viola Clinician at the annual conference of the American String Teachers Association in Atlanta. In December 2016, she was an invited presenter for the 70th anniversary celebration of the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. She was featured in “Ask the Teacher” in the April 2010 issue of The Strad. Her views on talent and effective practice techniques have appeared in articles in Strings and American String Teacher. She is a frequent adjudicator for many competitions including the William Primrose International Viola Competition, the annual Juanita Miller Concerto Competition in Dallas and the Young Artist Concerto Competition of the Fort Collins Symphony.

White-Smith began her college teaching career at age 25 at Western Michigan University. She joined the faculty at The Ohio State University in 2012 after serving for 21 years as professor of viola at the University of Northern Colorado. She joined the Artist Faculty at the Brevard Music Festival in 2018 and continues to enjoy an illustrious teaching and performing career.

White-Smith earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from Louisiana State University and a Master of Music degree in viola performance from the University of Houston. Her CD, Fashionably Late: Juliet White-Smith Debuts!  features premiere recordings of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker’s Viola Sonata and appears on the Centaur Records label.

CONTACT:

Katie Dey
kdey@scgsah.org

 

 

 

George Taylor in circle with students
Instructor with Students
Intensive Alumni at UT