Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute
843-842-2055
June 12 - June 22, 2024 at SoundWaves
Our Faculty
Vanderbilt University
Florida State University
Vanderbilt University
Carolyn Huebl – Violin, Vanderbilt University
Violinist Carolyn Huebl enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. She is currently Professor of Violin at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and violinist of The Blakemore Trio. Prior to her appointment at Blair, she was Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Assistant Professor of Violin at Carnegie Mellon University. Critics have called her performances “unfailingly sensitive,” “utterly fearless” and “pristine,” and STRAD magazine declared that she “possesses a beguilingly warm sound and highly responsive expressive personality.”
Since her appearance as soloist with the Detroit Symphony at the age of 17, Huebl has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Argentina, Europe, and Canada. She is an enthusiastic and convincing interpreter of contemporary music, and has commissioned several new works. Together with pianist Mark Wait, she gave the world premiere of Zwischen Leben und Tod, written for them by American composer Michael Hersch. They have also performed this important work at the new music venues National Sawdust in Brooklyn and The Icebox in Philadelphia. The duo also released recordings of the works for violin and piano by Igor Stravinsky, and the complete sonatas by Alfred Schnittke, both of which received critical acclaim.
Huebl is a founding member of The Blakemore Trio with cellist Felix Wang and pianist Amy Dorfman. Engagements have taken the trio to chamber series across the country, including a New York debut concert at Merkin Hall in 2010. The trio recently released its first recording of trios by Beethoven and Ravel on the Blue Griffin label. American Record Guide gave special note to the Ravel recording as “Impressionism at its best.” In 2013, they released Susan Botti’s Gates of Silence on the Albany label.
Huebl often performs as concertmaster of the IRIS orchestra, under the direction of Michael Stern. During the summer, Huebl has been featured on chamber series throughout the country, including the Walla Walla Chamber Festival. In 2018, she and her husband, cellist Felix Wang, founded the Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute. She is also on the faculty of the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and the Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, and has previously taught at Brevard Music Center, Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, National Music Camp at Interlochen, Intermountain Suzuki Institute, and the Killington Music Festival. She has presented master classes at leading schools of music across the country, and her students have been prize-winners and finalists in national competitions, and hold orchestral and teaching positions throughout the United States and South America.
Huebl received her DMA from the University of Michigan and Bachelor and Masters of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her primary teachers include Andres Cardenes, Paul Kantor and Donald Weilerstein.
Felix Wang – Cello, Vanderbilt University
Mr. Wang has been the winner of several esteemed competitions, including the National Society of Arts and Letters Cello Competition, where he appeared with the Phoenix Symphony. Judges included Mstislav Rostropovich, Raya Garbousova and Laszlo Varga. Frequently invited to perform at festivals, recent engagements include the Portillo International Music Festival, the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains Festival, the Highlands Chamber Music Festival and the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival. He has been heard live on NPR stations across the country and has recorded for the Albany, Blue Griffin, Centaur, Innova and Naxos labels.
Already established as a well known pedagogue, Mr. Wang is Professor of Cello at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. During the summer, he is on the faculties of the Chautauqua Music Festival and Madeline Island Chamber Music, and is co-artistic director of the Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute. In previous summers he has served on the faculties of the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Brevard Music Center, Banff Centre Youth Arts Festival, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, the National Music Festival and the Killington Music Festival. With his wife, Carolyn Huebl, he founded and serves as co-artistic director of the Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute.
Mr. Wang received a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan, a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Wang was also a recipient of the prestigious Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for study abroad, using it to study in London with William Pleeth. His teachers have included Erling Blondal Bengtsson, Laurence Lesser, Stephen Kates, Jeffrey Solow and Louis Potter, Jr.
Shannon Thomas – Violin, Florida State University
A Tennessee native, violinist Shannon Thomas has garnered a reputation for exciting, thoughtful performances as a chamber musician, soloist, and in recital throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Recent performing engagements have taken her to the Kennedy Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium, Bolivia’s Centro Sinfonico in La Paz, and the Banff Centre where she has collaborated with distinguished artists such as the St. Lawrence String Quartet, David Halen, Richard King, Wendy Chen, Anita Pontremoli, and Midori.
As a chamber musician, Shannon has performed at the Innsbrook Summer Music Festival, Garth Newel Music Center, Sarasota Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, ENCORE School for Strings, Aspen Music Festival, Stony Brook University, the International Clarinet Association National Conference (Belgium), Northwestern University, Brancaleoni International Music Festival (Italy), and with the Bryant Park Chamber Players in New York City. In addition to concerts with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra where she serves as principal second violin, Shannon performs regularly with the IRIS Orchestra under the direction of Michael Stern. Shannon has recorded for the Blue Griffin Records, and her CD celebrating the music of women composers Lera Auerbach, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and Jennifer Higdon was released in 2018.
Interested in sharing her enthusiasm for the arts through teaching, Shannon is in demand as a pedagogue. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Violin at Florida State University and gives master classes throughout the United States and abroad. She also teaches at Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Luby Violin Symposium, and Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute. Previously on the faculties of University of Southern Mississippi, the Cleveland Institute of Music Preparatory Division, and Interlochen Arts Camp, her students have been prizewinners and finalists at national competitions, including MTNA and the Sphinx Competition. She has also taught at the Kinhaven Music School, Stony Brook University Chamber Music Camp, and the Innsbrook Institute Summer Music Academy and Festival, where she served as Education Director. Shannon has presented educational sessions at the National ASTA conferences, Florida Music Educators Association annual conference, and the Luby Violin Symposium. In addition, she has served as an adjudicator and clinician for the Seattle Young Artists Music Festival Association in addition to regional All-State orchestral auditions.
Shannon earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was Paul Kantor’s teaching assistant. She received a Master of Music at Yale University and a Bachelor of Music at Vanderbilt University, and also pursued graduate work at Arizona State University, where she was the first student to be accepted into the Artist Diploma program. She studied chamber music with Peter Salaff, Merry Peckham, George Sopkin, Christopher von Baeyer, Laurie Smukler and members of the Juilliard, Blair, Tokyo, and Cavani String Quartets. Her principal teachers have included Paul Kantor, Cornelia Heard, Jonathan Swartz, Robert Lipsett, and Ani Kavafian. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with her husband, violinist Frank Trem, and their Yorkiepoo Techo. For more information, visit shannonthomasviolin.com.
Caroline Coade – Viola, University of Michigan and The Detroit Symphony Orchestra
American violist Caroline Coade is a passionate educator who was named Assistant Professor
of Viola at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance (SMTD) in 2016. Her prize-winning students include the 2019 Sphinx Competition 3rd prize winner, a 2019 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition semi-finalist, the top prizewinner of the Society of Musical Arts 2019 Young Artist Competition,and a finalist of the 2018 Anton Rubinstein International Viola Competition. Previously, she was a Lecturer in Viola at SMTD since 2005 and was Adjunct Professor of Viola at Detroit’s Wayne State University from 1998-2015. Equally at home performing on the concert stage as she is teaching, Ms. Coade is the 3rd chair violist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and was the Acting Assistant Principal Violist of the DSO for 2013-2016 seasons. Prior to her appointment with the DSO, Ms. Coade performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. She has also held positions with Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra (Philadelphia) and the opera companies of Philadelphia and Santa Fe.
As a judge, Ms. Coade was one of nine international adjudicators for the live rounds of the Primrose International Viola Competition in 2014. In 2018, she was one of five judges for the prescreen round of the Primrose Competition. Continuing her advocacy for the arts and education, Ms. Coade spends her summers as artist faculty at summer music festivals. She has been artist faculty at Center Stage Strings/MPulse Institute at the University of Michigan for summers 2016-2019. She is artist faculty at the Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute in South Carolina since Summer 2018. For Summer 2019, Ms. Coade will join the faculty of Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in VT and the Hilton Head Chamber Music Institute. Previous artist faculty roles include the Chautauqua Institution Music Festival in New York (summers 2012-15), the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine (summers 2012-15) and at the National Music Festival in Chestertown, MD (summers 2011-13).
Ms. Coade has given master classes at the Oberlin Conservatory (OH), Boston University (MA), Longy School of Music (MA), Baylor University (TX), and Colburn Conservatory (CA). Her students have won coveted spots in the major music schools including The Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, Rice University, Indiana University, Oberlin Conservatory, Boston University, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Michigan, New England Conservatory, and Yale University.
In 2016, Ms. Coade was named the Artistic Director for WRCJ 90.9FM Classical Brunch chamber music series at the Community House in Birmingham, MI. In this role, Ms. Coade curates the programs, does radio voice over work to advertise the series, and performs. She regularly plays chamber music with her colleagues at the Detroit Symphony and the University of Michigan, and with her colleagues at summer music festivals. Ms. Coade has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival (MI), Laurel Festival of the Arts (PA), and the Marlboro Music Festival (VT). As violist with the Woodland Trio (flute, viola, harp), she concertized around the U.S, Canada, and at the Printemps Musicale des Alizes of Morocco. A San Diego native, Ms. Coade began taking Suzuki violin lessons at age 6 and switched to the viola at age 14. She graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy (MI) and went on to receive a bachelor of music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory, an artist diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, and a master of music degree from The Juilliard School. Her principal teachers include Karen Tuttle, Joyce Robbins, Jeffrey Irvine, David Takeno, David Holland, and Eugene Becker.
Ms. Coade plays on a Domenico Busan viola c. 1750 on generous loan from The Mandell Collection of Southern California.