UNCSA and the Winston-Salem Symphony announce first class of Orchestral Strings Fellows

UNCSA and the Winston-Salem Symphony welcomed the first class of a prestigious graduate orchestral fellowship earlier this month, strengthening a vital bridge between two major cultural institutions in the region and providing invaluable opportunities for UNCSA student musicians to perform with a professional orchestra and engage in community outreach activities as part of a robust program providing full scholarships and stipends.

The two-year, graduate-level Orchestral Strings Fellowship offers five outstanding string players the opportunity to perform in concert with the Winston-Salem Symphony, to receive mentorship from Winston-Salem Symphony Music Director Michelle Merrill and symphony musicians, and to participate in the symphony’s P.L.A.Y. (Piedmont Learning Academy for Youth) Music program for underserved youth. They will also have the opportunity for administrative internship roles with the symphony. The Fellows’ first performances with the symphony will be Sept. 21-22 in a program of Gershwin, Strauss and Brahms, conducted by Merrill.

Funded by an anonymous donor, the fellowship provides full scholarships and stipends for the five participants, all of whom are enrolled in a two-year Master of Music (M.M.) program at UNCSA, studying with the university’s renowned strings faculty, and will perform both as an ensemble and as a part of the Winston-Salem Symphony.

Of the fellowship program, Winston-Salem Symphony President & CEO Merritt Vale said, “The Winston-Salem Symphony is proud to join with our friends and colleagues at UNCSA in welcoming the inaugural class of Orchestral Strings Fellows. This is an exciting opportunity to play our part in helping to encourage and train the next generation of professional musicians and music educators. We look forward to welcoming the Fellows into the Winston-Salem Symphony, into P.L.A.Y Music classrooms where they will inspire young musicians, and into the world of arts administration.”

The Orchestral Fellowship is the most recent example of a long history of collaboration and partnership between the university and the symphony. A number of current and former UNCSA faculty and staff members and alumni are also members of the Winston-Salem Symphony, including UNCSA School of Music Dean Saxton Rose, who serves as the orchestra’s principal bassoonist.

“We are deeply grateful to have the Winston-Salem Symphony as neighbors and partners in the continued artistic growth of our city and region,” said UNCSA Chancellor Brian Cole. “The Orchestral Fellows we are welcoming this year hail from two U.S. states and three foreign countries and bring with them extraordinary talent and experience. I am excited to see what they will accomplish through this unique opportunity.”

The members of the inaugural class of UNCSA/Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestral Strings Fellows are:

Ryan Bell

Ryan Bell: Double Bass, from Bountiful, Utah.
Bell began his musical journey as a Suzuki violinist, and eventually played the role of second violin in the family string quartet, the Bell Tones. In high school, he was selected to be the bassist in Utah's All-State Jazz Band, and he went on to graduate from Snow College & Weber State University with a bachelor’s in music pedagogy, double bass studies. Professionally, he has performed for Ogden Chamber Orchestra, Boise Philharmonic Orchestra, Helena Symphony, Bozeman Symphony Orchestra, Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, Utah Symphony, and Ballet West. 

Maria Paula Casas

Maria Paula Casas: Cello, from Ibagué, Colombia.
Casas attended both the Allegro Casa Musical Academy and the Conservatory of Ibagué, and continued her studies in Bogotá at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, earning her degree in 2022 as a student of Iván León of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Colombia. The following year, she received a diploma in chamber music in a joint degree program offered by the University of Cartagena and the Conservatory of Bologna. She has performed with the Obregon and Atula string quartets, the Youth Philharmonic of Colombia, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s Premier Orchestra, the Hattiesburg Concert Association’s interdisciplinary arts celebration FestivalSouth, and the Orchestre de la Francophonie 2023 in Montreal. She won the 2024 Young Performers Series competition sponsored by the Banco de la República, resulting in a solo recital in the Sala de Conciertos de la Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango in August.

Lior Grunwald

Lior Grunwald: Violin, from Beer Sheva, Israel.
Grunwald began his violin studies at the Beer Sheva Conservatory of Music at the age of 7. He studied with Professor Roi Shiloah at the Conservatory of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music. He has received scholarships through the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and has played regularly since 2012 as a soloist at the Eden-Tamir Music Center, the Israel Museum of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Music Center. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Beer Sheva Israel Sinfonietta Orchestra, the Ashdod Symphony Orchestra, and Thelma Yellin Symphony Orchestra, and has been a member of the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the David Goldman program, and the Ilona Feher program.

Sage Guice

Sage Guice: Viola, from Tampa, Florida.
An avid music lover since birth, Guice studied violin for eight years, receiving many titles, accolades and experiences, most notably being named concertmaster of the 2018-19 Florida Honors All-State Orchestra. They were also the featured concertmaster in a collaborative concert between Gaither High School Chamber Orchestra and world-renowned fusion violinist Lindsey Stirling in 2018 at the Straz Performing Arts Center. Guice switched instruments to viola in 2020 and received their bachelor’s in music studies at the University of South Florida and performed in master classes led by renowned musicians Lauren Burns Hodges and Derek Mosloff. In the summer of 2022, they also attended the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in the studios of Sheila Browne, Ann Marie Brink and Susan Dubois.

José Sequeira Martínez

José Sequeira Martínez: Violin, Limón, Costa Rica.
Originally from the Caribbean province of Limón, Martínez traveled regularly through the rainforest mountains of his home country to obtain his musical education at the National Institute of Music, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music with honors in performance and education in 2024. He has attended Sewanee Summer Music Festival (2017), National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute at the Kennedy Center (2018 & 2019, performing as concertmaster and associate concertmaster), International Music Festival of SIFAIS & Sound Impact (2019), Curtis Summerfest’s Young Artists Summer Program (2020), and Huilo Huilo Music Festival (2022 & 2023), where he was selected winner of the Huilo Huilo Young Soloists Competition and was awarded a custom-made violin by luthier Anton Ibacache. 

Upcoming Performances

The Orchestral Fellows are scheduled to perform in three Winston-Salem Symphony concerts during the upcoming season:

Rhapsody in Blue
Sept. 21 & 22, 2024
Strauss: Suite from “Der Rosenkavalier”
Gershwin: “Rhapsody in Blue”
Brahms: Symphony No 2

"Jurassic" Park in Concert
Oct. 13, 2024
Complete film with live orchestra

Expansive Soundscapes
Nov. 16 & 17, 2024
Dvořák: Cello Concerto
Nielsen: Symphony No. 3, “Espansiva”

Titan
May 10 & 11, 2025
Sarah Kirkland Snider: “Something for the Dark”
Mahler: Symphony No 1, “Titan”

For more information on any of these performances, visit wssymphony.org/season2425.

About the Winston-Salem Symphony 

Proud to be one of the Southeast's most highly regarded regional orchestras, the Winston-Salem Symphony named Michelle Merrill as its Music Director in June 2023, making her the first female principal conductor of a professional orchestra in North Carolina. Now in its 78th season, the Symphony seeks to fulfill its mission to "Bring Music to Life" by inspiring listeners of all ages throughout North Carolina's Piedmont Triad with various concerts, education programs, and community engagement initiatives each year. The Symphony’s education arm includes four youth orchestra ensembles and the P.L.A.Y. (Piedmont Learning Academy for Youth) Music program, an El-Sistema-inspired initiative dedicated to offering instrumental music instruction primarily to underserved school students from Kindergarten through Grade 12. Visit www.wssymphony.org for more information.

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