2027 Masterclass Series

Pala Garcia is a critically acclaimed violinist whose artistic practice explores the variable nature of interpretation, embodied knowledge, and memory. Praised for her “immaculate, lustrous tone” (The Strad), Garcia brings a unique violinistic sensibility to her creative projects, ensemble work, and contemporary music practice. Garcia was recently named a 2024 National Arts Club Fellow, and was also featured as a leading innovative artist in the Washington Post’s “23 for ’23: Performers and Composers to Watch.”

Garcia is a member, co-founder, and co-director of Longleash, a “fearlessly accomplished” trio (Arts Desk UK) internationally recognized for their artistic excellence, new music advocacy, and “tight, lucid interpretations” (Tempo) of complex and compelling contemporary chamber works. Their artistic imprint can be defined through a love for sonic beauty and a spirit of experimentation, combined with a finely calibrated ensemble performance practice rooted in traditional chamber music values. Their unique creative projects range from recording and performance projects, multimedia creative collaborations, and commissioning endeavors that expand the keyboard trio’s instrumentarium. The group’s achievements in new music have been recognized by granting institutions including Villa Albertine, Chamber Music America, New Music USA, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Music Academy of the West, the Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of Congress, and others. Trio performance highlights include featured appearances at the Noguchi Museum, Kennedy Center, TIME:SPANS Festival, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), Princeton University, National Sawdust, the Ecstatic Music Festival, Kaufman Center, and the Americas Society. Their recordings, which have been recognized on “best-of” year-end lists by The New Yorker, Bandcamp, and I Care If You Listen, can be heard on New Focus Recordings, New Amsterdam Recordings, Innova, and archived broadcasts on WQXR, Classical WUOL, WSMR, and other outlets. The trio has commissioned, funded and premiered dozens of new chamber works, and directs The Loretto Project, an annual creative residency that gathers an international cohort of artists in central Kentucky every summer.

A debut solo album featuring the music of Peter Kramer will forthcoming this season on New Focus Recordings, with support from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

Garcia has enjoyed playing as a regular guest with many celebrated and world-class ensembles, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and A Far Cry chamber orchestra. Garcia was an academy fellow with the renowned Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra during the artistic directorship of Mariss Jansons, and performed regularly with this orchestra and its self-conducted chamber orchestra on multiple seasons of subscription concerts and international tours.

As a dedicated and expert educator, as well as longtime proponent of socially responsive artistry, Garcia maintains these vital components of her artistic practice through her work on faculty at The Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division (Music Advancement Program) and as a teaching artist with Carnegie Hall’s social impact programs. Garcia has served on the violin and chamber music faculty of Hunter College, and was a Senior Teaching Fellow at The Graduate Center, CUNY, where she was also the recipient of the Provost’s Fellowship and studied with Mark Steinberg. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she received undergraduate and graduate degrees with the guidance of her primary teachers, Naoko Tanaka and Joel Smirnoff. Garcia is grateful to her earlier teachers, the late Dame Camilla Wicks and the late Elise Christianson, for guiding the beginning of her path in music.

Joyce A. Ramée, Affiliate Artist Faculty, Viola,  has enjoyed a long and varied
musical career in the Pacific Northwest. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of
Music in Philadelphia, as a student of Max Aronoff and Joseph DePasquale,
Ms. Ramée was also a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. As a student,
she performed under conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa,
Robert Shaw and Kurt Masur. In 1987, Ms. Ramee moved to Seattle and
joined the School of Music Faculty as viola professor at the University of
Puget Sound, a position she has held ever since. Her studio at Puget Sound
includes all college violists and a broad range of Community Music students
of all levels and musical ambitions. In 1990, she founded the Max Aronoff
Viola Institute, a nationally recognized music festival, and served as its
director for its 28 years of operation. This Institute trained more than 900
string players and sent many aspiring violists into colleges, conservatories,
graduate schools and professional careers in music.

Joyce Ramée is an active performer in recital work and solo engagements
with local orchestras, having appeared with the Everett Symphony and
Tacoma Youth Symphony (Paul Elliott Cobbs), Lake Union Civic Orchestra
(Christophe Chagnard), Philharmonia Northwest (Roupen Shakarian), Grays
Harbor Chamber Orchestra (Bill Dyer), Tacoma Community College Orchestra
(John Falskow) and the University of Puget Sound Symphony (Edward
Seferian and Christophe Chagnard). Ms Ramée recently gave two North
American Premier performances of José Aranda’s viola concerto, Cuatro
Escenas de Sur, in collaboration with Maestro Paul Elliott Cobbs. Recent
recitals at Puget Sound include George Walker’s epic Viola Sonata in 2019
and a 2024 Jacobsen Series Artist Recital with pianist Karen Ganz. Ms.
Ramée is a founding member of both the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra
and the Auburn Symphony. Outside of professional activities, she is a
member of the choir and a music volunteer at St. Luke’s Church in Renton
and a member of the Dante Alighieri Society of Washington. Joyce lives in
Seattle with her husband, French hornist Rodger Burnett, and their cat. 

John Popham, “a very fine artist” (Fanfare), is a critically acclaimed cellist and educator based in Brooklyn, NY.  A versatile and dynamic performer, Mr. Popham has collaborated with a wide-range of composers, musicians, and performing artists both within the United States and abroad. His  “brilliant” and “virtuosic” (Kronen Zeitung) playing can be heard on numerous solo and chamber music releases on Tzadik, Carrier, New Focus Recordings, Albany, and Arte Nova record labels. Critics have noted Mr. Popham’s “velvet tone,” “remarkable technique” (Fanfare), and “warm but variegated,” and “highly polished” artistry (The New York Times).

Mr. Popham is a founding member of Longleash, an “expert young trio” praised for its “subtle and meticulous musicianship” (Strad magazine). The trio has performed at venues including the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (Troy, NY), San Francisco’s Center for New Music, National Sawdust, (le) poisson rouge, Florentinersaal (Palais Meran), Aula Maxima (UCC Cork) as well as concert series with the Metropolitan Museum, the Kaufman Center (Ecstatic Music Festival), the Green Music Center (Sonoma), Scandinavia House (New York City), Open Music (Austria), and FUAIM (Ireland). Their debut album Passage earned wide critical acclaim, praising the trio’s performance as “fearlessly accomplished, the most outré effects realised with confident ease” (The Arts Desk) and “vividly maximizing the musicality and accessibility of uncompromisingly experimental pieces” (Textura). In 2017, they were named Best New Recording Artist by Sequenza21, and were included in The New Yorker’s  list of “Notable Recordings and Performances.”

In addition to his work with Longleash, Mr. Popham is a current member of Either/Or Ensemble, and has performed with Klangforum Wien, Talea Ensemble, the Wet Ink Ensemble, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, and ECCE. Recent festival appearances include Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), reMusik (St. Petersburg), Beijing Modern Music Festival (China), Brücken (Austria), Internationales Musikfest Hamburg (Germany), Open Music (Austria), Wiener Festwochen (Austria), Bay Chamber (Maine), and the Contemporary Classical Music Festival (Peru).

He has appeared as soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, the Red Light Ensemble, and the Kunstuniversität Graz Chorus, and has worked with celebrated composers including Pierluigi Billone, Pierre Boulez, Beat Furrer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Klaus Lang, Fred Lerdahl. Tristan Murail, Steve Reich, Rebecca Saunders, Nils Vigeland, and Walter Zimmermann. A champion of young composers, he has collaborated with many of his generation’s most compelling voices including John Aylward, Richard Carrick, Anthony Cheung, Christopher Cerrone, Suzanne Farrin, Francesco Fillidei, Ashley Fure, Reiko Füting, Erin Gee, Ted Hearne, Mauro Hertig, Clara Iannotta, Zesses Seglias, Caroline Shaw, Kate Soper, Johan Svensson, Christopher Trapani, Yukiko Watanabe, and Scott Wollschleger.

As an educator and arts advocate, Mr. Popham is committed to a holistic and socially engaged approach to musical instruction. In 2016, he joined the cello faculty of the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, a program dedicated to nurturing the talents of students from backgrounds typically underrepresented in classical music. From 2018-21, Mr. Popham also served as the Juilliard School’s Artistic Administrator for Community Engagement, where he mentored Juilliard teaching fellows; produced interactive, multidisciplinary educational programs; and curated the school’s Young People’s Concert series.  Mr. Popham co-directs The Loretto Project, an annual composition seminar and new music festival held at the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Kentucky.

Mr. Popham began his musical instruction in his hometown of Louisville,  studying with cellist Wayne Krigger at the University of Louisville’s Preparatory Division. He received his BM and MM from the Manhattan School of Music where he was a student of David Geber and David Soyer and was awarded the Manhattan School of Music Full Scholarship. In 2013, he received a Fulbright Research Grant to study the performance practice of Austrian contemporary music ensemble Klangforum Wien. He received his DMA from the CUNY Graduate Center where he was awarded a dissertation distinction for “Sonorous Movement: Cellistic Corporealities in Works by Helmut Lachenmann, Simon Steen-Andersen, and Johan Svensson.”

Seattle Symphony Associate Principal Bass Joseph Kaufman became a member of the Seattle Symphony in the 2006/2007 season. Kaufman studied with David Yavornitzky at the University of Utah and Jeff Bradetich at the University of North Texas. After graduating, Kaufman joined the New World Symphony; he has also served as Principal Bass of the Colorado Music Festival, the Verbier Chamber Orchestra and as Assistant Principal of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony.

Zarthohi Domburian-Eby retired from the Seattle Symphony in 2025 after 43 remarkable years with the Seattle Symphony.

Zart was born and raised in New Orleans and says that music was a constant presence in her home; her father was a conductor and highly respected music educator. After attending Louisiana State University, she moved to Chicago to earn a doctoral degree in flute performance. It was there that she worked with Walfrid Kujala, the renowned Chicago Symphony flutist and professor of flute at Northwestern University, who ignited her desire to play music professionally. She joined the Seattle Symphony in 1982.

After thousands of concerts, it’s difficult for Zart to choose from the many highlights of her time here, but some of her fondest memories include performing the West Coast premiere of Gunther Schuller’s Concerto for Flute and Piccolo (1991), the opening concert and Day of Music festival at Benaroya Hall (1998) and Richard Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration with Hermann Michael (2003), as well as performing music by John Williams with Williams himself at the podium (2017) and in the concerts that featured the U.S. premiere of South African cellist Abel Selaocoe’s Four Spirits (2023). “And of course, playing with the Seattle Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 2004 and 2014 was the experience of a lifetime!”

She has also spent decades as a teacher, passing on her wisdom and the passion she’d learned from Kujala. In addition to being on the faculties of the University of Washington and Pacific Lutheran University, she has given private lessons and masterclasses to hundreds of flutists and piccoloists of all ages around the world. Among her students over the years? Seattle Symphony Board Chair Emerita Leslie Jackson Chihuly and Seattle Symphony Associate Principal Flute Jeffery Barker. Barker began lessons with her while he was in high school and ultimately joined her in the orchestra. “Performing with Jeffrey over the last 10 years has been a wonderful and fulfilling experience, a real circle of life.”

A firm believer in volunteerism and in giving back, Zart has served on dozens of Symphony board and union committees, including the committee that selected the site for Benaroya Hall. She has served on its board since before the doors opened. “Choosing downtown as the site for Benaroya showed the Symphony’s deep commitment to the health of downtown,” she shared. “Our role changes, but we will always be a cornerstone of the cultural life of Seattle.”

She has been a passionate advocate for musician involvement on every level. She chaired the committee made up of 15 musicians who were empowered to help shape the backstage area of Benaroya Hall, making it one of the most musician-friendly backstages in the country. And she headed up the “Welcome Wagon” committee, which takes first-year musicians out to lunch in their first month in Seattle, to help show them the ropes and navigate life at the orchestra. Other important work she has done for the orchestra has included negotiating a multitude of collective bargaining agreements, serving as treasurer of the union, and chairing the trustees of the musicians’ pension plan for 34 years.

She has also been involved in many outreach projects with the Education and Community Engagement team over the years, playing in a woodwind quintet that visited schools and participating in the Merriman-Ross Family Young Composers Workshop. She has found great delight in the Symphony’s Side-by-Side concerts. “I did a similar side-by-side when I was in high school; I was playing both flute and cello at the time, and I was sitting next to my cello teacher, who was in the New Orleans Philharmonic. It’s a big learning encounter for both the students and the professionals. I’ve seen my fellow musicians crying afterwards, because it is so moving, especially for those who don’t teach much and aren’t regularly exposed to talented kids who have this real interest.”

Her favorite outreach, however, was her work in the Lullaby Project. Since 2013, the Symphony has partnered with Mary’s Place, which shelters families experiencing homelessness, to present this workshop series, in which Seattle Symphony musicians and students from Seattle Pacific University’s (SPU) Music Therapy program are partnered with mothers and children in crisis situations to create personal lullabies. “It has been a privilege to bring joy and hope to all these women. The lullabies that they write are about their hopes and dreams for their kids, which are the same as the hopes and dreams we all have for our kids. It was a moment where you see how music can really connect so many different kinds of people.”

Zart has been a member of the National Flute Association (NFA) for many years, serving as both its President and chair of its endowment committee, among many other roles. In August of 2025, she will be awarded the NFA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, given annually to recognize significant and lasting impact to the flute world, honoring accomplished luminaries in flute-related fields. Zart is also being honored with the NFA’s Distinguished Service Award, presented to an individual who has demonstrated profound, dedicated service and commitment to the NFA. She is the first person to receive both awards.

Zart has made a significant impact on the orchestra and our community during her tenure here. She treasures the deep connections she’s nurtured with audiences and supporters. “People have told me going to the Symphony allows them to unplug and just get lost in the music,” she said. “But it’s a two-way street — music brings people joy or helps them in their sorrows, and it gives me purpose. It’s been an amazing thrill and privilege to get to have a job doing something that you truly love — in my case, making music. Thanks to you all for making my 43 years here an incredible ride.”

Dan Williams is one of Seattle’s most sought-after performers, as soloist, orchestral musician, teacher and recording artist. He is principal oboist of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, and has also served as principal oboist of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. He held the same positions in the Harrisburg (PA) and Binghamton (NY) Symphonies. He has also played principal oboe with the Seattle Symphony and the Seattle Opera. Of his 1996 performance of Bach’s Double Concerto with Joseph Silverstein and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Times reported that “oboist Dan Williams poured out waves of beautiful tone with considerable musicality.” In a 1999 review of the Vaughan-Williams Oboe concerto, the Bellingham Herald described Williams as “a consummate player, in easy command of those subtle shades of color and phrase that can let the oboe approach the expressive range of the human voice. It was a performance to melt your heart.”

Mr. Williams currently teaches oboe at the University of Puget Sound, and has served on the faculties of Western Washington University and the University of Washington School of Music.

A native of Seattle, Dan Williams received his musical training at the Juilliard School and at Western Washington University, where he was voted most Outstanding Graduate by the music faculty.

Jennifer Nelson received her undergraduate degree in Music Performance from USC as a student of Mitchell Lurie, and continued her clarinet studies at Temple University where she was a student of Anthony Gigliotti. Jennifer plays Principal Clarinet with Pacific Northwest Ballet and Auburn Symphony Orchestras. She also has a very active freelance career, including playing Broadway-style shows at the Fifth Avenue and Paramount Theaters, occasional extra with Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera orchestras, and records for various television and motion picture scores. Jennifer is an Affiliate Artist in Clarinet at the University of Puget Sound, and maintains a very busy private teaching studio in her home in north Seattle. Ms. Nelson has also traveled throughout the United States with the national touring companies of Phantom of the Opera and New York City Opera. In addition to her stateside concerts, orchestral and recital performances have taken her to Mexico, Japan, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Honduras, Sweden, and India.

A member of the Seattle Symphony since 1992, bassoonist Paul Rafanelli has been a familiar face on that orchestra’s Chamber Series. He has also been a frequent guest artist with the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival and the Orca Concert Series as well as performing with the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the Seattle Chamber Players. Earlier in his career, Rafanelli was a member of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina, and has played in the Festival dei Due Mondi in Italy and the Spoleto Festival USA. He has been a concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra. In addition to his duties with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, he is a prominent teacher in the Seattle area. From 1998 to 2014, he served on the faculty of the University of Puget Sound, where he was the Affiliate Artist in bassoon. In October of 2021, he joined the faculty of the University of Washington as Artist in Residence. Rafanelli was born in Seattle in 1963 and received his training at the University of Washington, Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School. He is fluent in Italian and welcomes any chance to speak it, preferably with fine wine and food. His bassoon was custom made by the Wilhelm Heckel Co. in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1986.

John Turman became a member of the Seattle Symphony in 2015, the same year he was awarded the position of principal horn of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. During the 2013/2014 season, Turman performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as acting third horn. Additionally, he has performed with the Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony, Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Symphony. Turman received his degree in Horn Performance from Rice University, where he studied with William VerMeulen.

In addition to performing music, Turman provides guidance, production chops and expertise to music educators via his media company, Horn Hippie Media.

Sarah Viens is Principal Trumpet of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and Symphony Tacoma, and is an active performer in the Pacific Northwest. Sarah frequently performs with the Seattle Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Auburn Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theater, and the Seattle and Portland Operas. She is Second Trumpet with the Sunriver Music Festival, and has performed with the Britt Festival Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Sarah has performed at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle and also with various chamber and recording ensembles, broadway shows, jazz ensembles, alternative, funk and rock bands, and has performed with the Oregon Bach Collegium as a cornetto and recorder soloist.

Sarah is co-founder, general manager, and principal trumpet of Orchestra Next- the resident orchestra with the Eugene Ballet Company. Sarah is a widely sought after teacher, has fifteen years of experience in higher education and has previously taught at the University of Oregon and Willamette University.

Sarah has extensive experience serving in the role of principal trumpet. She previously served as Principal Trumpet with the Newport Symphony and Salem Chamber Orchestra and has performed as guest Principal Trumpet with the Seattle Symphony, Oregon Bach Festival, Britt Festival, Kaleidoscope (L.A.), Oregon Ballet Theater, Portland Opera, Oregon Mozart Players, Eugene Opera, Sunriver Music Festival, 45th Parallel, Astoria Music Festival, Yakima Symphony, Chintimini Music Festival, Portland Summerfest Opera, Corvallis Symphony, and assistant Principal Trumpet with the Oregon Symphony. Sarah has performed as principal trumpet with esteemed conductors such as John Williams, Marin Alsop, Helmuth Rilling, Giancarlo Guerrero, Carlos Kalmar, Teddy Abrahms, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya.

Sarah has performed with various chamber ensembles, broadway shows, jazz ensembles, alternative, funk and rock bands. Sarah has experience in Historically Informed Performance and has performed with the Oregon Bach Collegium as a cornetto and recorder soloist. Sarah studied Historically Informed Performance with members of Piffaro, The Renaissance Ensemble at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Under the Innova record label, she served as principal trumpet, producer, and manager for Kenji Bunch’s The Snow Queen, a full-length ballet co-commissioned by Orchestra Next and Eugene Ballet. Under Cantaloupe, you can hear her alongside trumpeter Joshua Silva, on the track titled Involuntary, for David Lang and Molly Barth’s album titled Thorn. She was a featured musician in Oregon Art Beat’s 2011 documentary titled “Marin Alsop returns to the Eugene Symphony”.

As co-founder of Orchestra Next- the resident orchestra with the Eugene Ballet Company, Sarah was involved with its initial concept to its full incorporation. As the Artistic Administrator, she serves as its librarian, personnel manager, operations manager, and oversees annual auditions for student members. Sarah also serves as an ex-officio board member for Orchestra Next.

Sarah holds trumpet performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, B.M., Temple University, M.M., and the University of Oregon, A.B.D. Sarah was a student of Michael Sachs, James Darling, Brian McWhorter, Jeffrey Curnow, David Bilger, Rick Pressley, and John Falskow. Sarah performed in masterclasses for Mark Gould, Kevin Cobb, Bernard Adelstein, Christopher Martin, David Zauder, Dale Clevenger, Wayne DuMaine, Bob Earley, Jay Friedman, Bob Sullivan, Russell Campbell, Larry Knopp, Jon Nelson, and the American Brass Quintet.

Sarah is a member of the International Guild of Symphony, Theater, Opera, and Ballet Musicians.  She is a Selmer-Bach performing artist, a member of the International Trumpet Guild, and the International Women’s Brass Conference.

Eden Garza became a member of the Seattle Symphony in the 2022/2023 season. Born and raised in South Texas, he received a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with Dr. Nathaniel Brickens, and his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University Kingsville, where he studied with Dr. Oscar Diaz. As a soloist, Garza has been featured with TAMUK’s Jazz Band I, South Texas Trombone Sound, TAMUK Trombone Choir, TAMUK Wind Symphony at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference, University of Texas Trombone Choir at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference, ITF with the University of Texas Trombone Choir, TAMUK Trombone Choir at the Midwest Clinic and at the ITF’s Composers Workshop. Garza was awarded first prize for various competitions, including the Edward Kleinhammer Orchestral Bass Trombone Competition, the Big 12 Bass Trombone Competition, the Donald Yaxley Solo Bass Trombone Competition, the ITA Trombone Quartet Competition and the Hungarian Online Trombone Competition. Garza also serves as a faculty member for the University of Washington School of Music.