The appointments include four violinists and a violist
The Cleveland Orchestra (TCO) has announced the appointment of four new string players, and the promotion of an existing first violinist. Violinist Elizabeth Fayette takes up the role of first associate concertmaster, violinist Philip Marten joins as associate concertmaster, while current orchestra member Zhan Shu has been promoted internally to assistant concertmaster. Dustin Wilkes-Kim joins the second violin section, and Gabriel Napoli joins the viola section.
Fayette is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, studying with teachers including Pamela Frank, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Arnold Steinhardt, and Sylvia Rosenberg. She was previously first violinist of the Vega String Quartet, serving as quartet-in-residence at Emory University, and partook in a two-year fellowship with Ensemble Connect. She has performed as a soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and as guest concertmaster with orchestras including the Milwaukee and Princeton symphony orchestras.
Marten studied at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music with Cho-Liang Lin and at the University of Southern California with Glenn Dicterow, and has been a founding member of chamber ensembles including the Red Door Quartet, the Rodin Trio and the Fairway Quartet. He has previously performed as first assistant concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, as acting associate of the Kansas City Symphony, as well as guest concertmaster of the Kansas City and Kentucky symphony orchestras. Marten also serves on the faculty of the Brevard Music Festival.
Shu joined the TCO first violin section in 2018. He has studied at institutions including Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music, the Mannes College of Music, the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, and at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. His teachers included Xiao-Zhi Huang, Lucie Robert, Emmanuel Borok, Mauricio Fuks and Alexander Kerr. Shu has taught as adjunct assistant professor at the Jacobs School of Music, and currently teaches Orchestra Repertoire for Violin at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Wilkes-Kim is a graduate of Mercer University’s Robert McDuffie Center for Strings and the Yale School of Music, and has attended programs including the Meadowmount School of Music, the Encore Chamber Music Festival, and the Madeline Island Chamber Music Fellowship Program. He competed in the semi-final round of the 2013 Fischoff Competition as part of the Jia ensemble, and has most recently performed in the first violin section of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.
Napoli studied at Northwestern University with Almita Vamos and Robert Hanford, and at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Robert Vernon and Mark Jakobs. He has previously performed with the New World Symphony, as associate principal violist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, as well as a substitute with the Atlanta and San Diego symphony orchestras.
The orchestra shared the news on social media:
‘We’re thrilled to welcome four new musicians to our violin and viola sections and to celebrate Zhan Shu’s promotion within our violin section. Join us in congratulating their amazing achievements!’
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