4:30p-6:00p // location: Queen City Bistro, 23 E Beverley St, Staunton, VA
Danielle Wiebe Burke is a Mexican-Canadian violist who began her musical studies on violin at an early age. At 15, she discovered her love for the viola, performing her solo debut with the Calgary Civic Symphony the following year. A prize-winning finalist in the 15th Sphinx Competition and in the Yale Concerto Competition, she has performed as a soloist throughout Europe and North America, most recently as a quarterfinalist in the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition. Wiebe is a distinguished chamber musician. Her past festival appearances include Chamberfest Dubuque, where she was a guest artist, Wintergreen Music Festival, Staunton Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, and Yellowbarn Music Festival. Among her past chamber collaborators are members of the Brentano, Borromeo, and Takacs quartets, and soloists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Emmanuel Ax, Donald Weilerstein, Roger Tapping, and Gil Shaham. She has premiered works by Tracy Rush, Christopher Luna Mega, Ethan Braun, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Gilbertson. She holds the John C. Jamison Principal Viola Chair in the Williamsburg Symphony. A former student of Kim Kashkashian and Ettore Causa, she has a Bachelor of Music from New England Conservatory and both Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University. Danielle plays a 2009 Stefan-Peter Greiner viola.
Sam Suggs is acknowledged for his "precise technique, interpretive vision, and impeccable musicianship" (Boston Globe), Suggs cultivates a versatile career as a collaborative and creative double bassist. On the faculties of the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival and James Madison University, Sam is one of Strad Magazine's "five up-and-coming bass players" and a winner of the International Society of Bassists and Concert Artists Guild competitions. As a bassist-composer, he breaks boundaries with "brilliant and compelling programming" (The Strad) and execution that "quite simply boggled the mind" (Oregon Arts Watch). He has guest performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, and Eighth Blackbird. As a recording artist, he is the featured bass soloist/arranger in the soundtrack for Netflix’s Oscar Award-winning documentary The Only Girl in the Orchestra and his solo in the 2024 video game Pacific Drive "had a haunting and yearning quality that beautifully conveyed the concept of isolation" (Polygon). Son of birdwatchers and an alum of the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra, he has a doctorate from the Yale School of Music and has taught masterclasses all over the world including at the Curtis Institute, Colburn School, New England Conservatory, and Juilliard Shanghai Summer Strings. This summer, he released the premiere recording and edition of Melodic Etudes produced and composed by jazz legend Rufus Reid, became a sponsored Thomastik-Infeld Artist, and received the biennial Special Recognition Award for Composition from the International Society of Bassists. @s3suggs
Reservations can be made closer to the event date here.
THIS IS AN NON-TICKETED EVENT