People - 2024 staff (2025 coming soon...)
Guest Artists
Emerson Millar 2024 Guest Clinician
Emerson Millar currently plays in the first violin section of the Seattle Symphony and serves as the Second Assistant Concertmaster.She began her tenure as the Co-Concertmaster of the Naples Philharmonic in Naples, Florida, in 2018. Millar attended the New World Symphony and is a graduate of the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where she studied with Robert Lipsett. As an orchestral musician, Millar has appeared as guest Concertmaster with the Nashville Symphony and she served as the Concertmaster of the New World Symphony, the Debut Orchestra of the Young Musicians Foundation and as the Associate Concertmaster of the American Youth Symphony. A recipient of the New Horizons Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival, she performed as the Assistant Concertmaster of the Aspen Festival Orchestra in the summer of 2015. She has been a participant at the Verbier Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center, where she performed Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 as Concertmaster with Giancarlo Guerrero conducting.
In March 2018, as a winner of the New World Symphony concerto competition, she performed the Barber Violin Concerto with conductor Edwin Outwater. Originally from Ithaca, New York, Millar grew up on a 100-acre organic farm. She currently plays on a French violin made in 1897 by H.C. Silvestre.
Katherine Audas 2024 Guest Clinician
Katherine Audas is a current member of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. She holds a bachelor's degree, a masters degree, and an artist diploma in cello performance from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where she studied with Norman Fischer from 2014-2018 and Brinton Smith from 2018-2023. While at Rice, she was the recipient the Annette and Hugh Gragg Principal Chair in Cello. She was awarded first prize at the Ann and Charles Eisemann International Young Artists Competition in Dallas in 2020 and she won the silver medal at the IX Concurso Internacional Violonchelo Carlos Prieto in Michoacan, Mexico in 2019.In recent years, Katherine has appeared as a soloist with numerous symphonies, including the Houston Symphony at the Ima Hogg Competition, the Northbrook Symphony, the Michoacan Symphony, the Shepherd School of Music Symphony Orchestra and the Boise Philharmonic. She is the founding member the Houston Cello Quartet and an active performer in the non-profit Classical C.A.R.M.A. (Concerts Aiming to Raise Money & Awareness).
Wes Dyring 2024 Guest Clinician
Wes Dyring joined the Seattle Symphony viola section in 1986, after serving as principal violist and soloist with the Orquesta Filarmonica of Santiago, Chile. He has also been a member of the Columbus Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and Aspen Festival orchestras.Wes composed his first piece when he was nine, and he has been creating scores ever since. His numerous transcriptions, arrangements and orchestrations encompass five hundred years of music and include a wide diversity of composers, styles and cultures. He has had a long-term interest in world music and holds a special love for the music of Latin America. His work has come to focus on intercultural collaborations.
As a student of Francis Tursi, Wes earned a Master of Music and Performers Certificate in Viola from the Eastman School of Music. He did his undergraduate studies at Michigan State University, receiving a Bachelor of Music in Viola as a student of Lyman Bodman, and also studied viola with Karen Tuttle at the Aspen Music School. His violin teachers have included Lyman Bodman, Walter Verdehr and Alfio Pignotti.
Jesse Ahmann 2024 Guest Clinician
Jesse Ahmann is a professional cellist and composer and has over 15 million views on his YouTube channel - Montana Cellist.Jesse has performed as principal cellist for numerous symphonies across the Northwest, and also performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Jesse was a featured artist on National Public Radio's (NPR's) "All Things Considered." His musical credits include performances throughout Europe, Asia, Central, and South America.
Being surrounded by music his entire life, he always dreamt of being a composer. He has since learned multiple instruments and frequently uses them in compositions, realizing that dream, working as a film composer, meditative music writer, and as a successful YouTube musician.