Viola

Chad Kaltinger

Principal

Sponsored by Tom and Pegi Ard

Chad Kaltinger is an active freelancer in the San Francisco area and maintains a busy schedule as orchestral violist, chamber musician, soloist, and recording artist.  Principal violist for Opera San Jose and the Santa Cruz Symphony, he is a frequent guest principal at the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. Chad has performed in many festivals around the U.S. including Music in the Mountains, Arizona Musicfest, South by Southwest, the Monterey Jazz Festival, and the Mendocino Music Festival. He is an active proponent of new music and performs regularly with the Cabrillo Music Festival, the University of California-Santa Cruz New Music Works Ensemble, and the Worn Chamber Ensemble.  He was the soloist in the  2012 U.S. premiere of Noam Sheriff’s Canarian Vespers, for solo viola and strings, with the Cadenza Chamber Orchestra in Santa Cruz, California.

Chad hails from Chicago where he began his studies at age 9.  He studied at the Music Institute of Chicago in Wilmette, Ill. with Peter Slowik, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Emanuel Vardi.  As a fellowship student at the Aspen Music Festival he studied with Heidi Castleman and Victoria Chiang.  Chad was the winner of the 1994 E. Nakamichi Viola Concerto Competition at the Aspen Music Festival.  He joined QSF in December 2012.

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Elyse Ader

Hailing from Colorado, Elyse began playing the viola at 9 in her elementary school orchestra. Since then, she has gone on to perform throughout the U.S.,Spain, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Australia and New Zealand.

An active orchestral and chamber musician, Elyse has performed with numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the U.S, including the Berkeley Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, the New World Symphony, the Mendocino Festival Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Curious Flights Orchestra, Delgani String Quartet and Andronica String Trio.  Elyse is currently a member of the Santa Cruz Symphony, and is principal violist of the Peninsula Symphony.

Elyse earned her Artist Diploma in orchestral studies from the San Francisco Academy Orchestra, under the tutelage of Joy Fellows and Matt Young. As a winner of the Academy’s annual concerto competition, she had the opportunity to perform as a soloist with the orchestra in its 2016 season finale concert. Elyse holds an M.M from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a B.M from the University of Denver. Elyse enjoys sharing her love of music with the next generation and maintains a private teaching studio in San Mateo.

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SARAH LEE

Sarah Lee is an avid performer and a native of the Bay Area. Sarah is a member with the Monterey Symphony and Santa Cruz Symphony. She also performs with Stockton Symphony as well as performs with other Bay Area ensembles such as Opera Parallele and the Lucky Devils Band. She led as Principal Viola at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, National Music Festival, and the Orchestra Institute of Napa Valley. Other festivals she participated in include National Repertory Orchestra, Kent Blossom Music Festival, and Aspen Music Festival. In 2015, she co-founded the Verismo Duo with her sister Jennifer Lee: a duo comprised of piano and viola. She has a Master's of Music degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), where she studied with Jodi Levitz. Sarah received her Bachelor’s of Music degree from Indiana University under the tutelage of Stephen Wyrczynski where she received high awards: the Premier Young Artist, A.W. Mason Music Scholarship, Recipient Friends of Music IUF Scholarship, Premier Young Artist Award, Faculty Award, and Recipient of SFCM Phyllis Wattis Scholarship.  

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Alexandre LEE

Alexandre Lee