2024 Primrose International Viola Competition & American Viola Society Festival Program Book

2024 American Viola Society Festival Artists

Dwight Pounds, Ph.D. Dwight Pounds received his Ph.D. from Indiana University where he studied viola with William Primrose and Irvin Ilmer and is Professor of Music (Emeritus) from Western Kentucky University. Consultant to JAVS, he is a frequent contributor of articles, reviews and photographs. He is author of The American Viola Society: A History and Reference and a pedagogical book, Viola for Violinists. The Dwight Pounds AVS Service Award was inaugurated in 2014 in his honor. He retired as colonel following 30 years with the U.S. Air Force Reserve Forces. His PowerPoint presentations include The Dalton Primrose Collaboration and Five Decades of the PIVC, among many Kathy Reilly Kathy Reilly owns and operates Vermont Violins, a full-service violin shop with locations in Vermont and New Hampshire. In addition to its other activities, Vermont Violins is the maker of the V. Richelieu line of violins and violas, creator of the GaiaTone fittings and North American distributor for Sonowood. In Vermont, Sonowood and GaiaTone are crafted into fingerboards, tailpieces, nuts, and saddles using these sustainable, alternates-to-ebony, petroleum-free, materials. Her interest in using sustainable, eco-friendly, materials stem from work done early in her career. Having studied Environmental Studies (in addition to Viola Performance) at Oberlin College, she launched her

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career at Friends of the Earth in Washington DC working on issues relating to the tropical timber trade. She returned to Vermont to study Field Science at the University of Vermont where, as a Switzer Fellow, she continued her environmental work with the Vermont Chapter of The Nature Conservancy where she designed and managed wilderness preserves as part of the science team. She returned to music, launched Vermont Violins and thirty years later is now making instruments, the V. Richelieu violas and violins, using woods and materials that are sustainably sourced and eco friendly. Bringing her career full circle, she now serves as Governor of the International Alliance of Violin and Bow Makers for Endangered Species. She lives with her husband, dog, cat, and a random selection of donkeys on her sometimes farm in the Green Mountains of Vermont. Kristian Schembri is a composer, conductor, and percussionist from the Republic of Malta. His music has been performed by orchestras such as the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and the University of Delaware Symphony Orchestra, and has been featured at the Symphonic Middle East Festival and the Victoria International Arts Festival. Schembri studied percussion with Gene Koshinki and Tim Broscious and performed for nine years with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. Schembri is the Donald Erb Scholar in Composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music where he is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate. Kristian Schembri Duo Schembri-Gallagher

Sami Seif Sami Seif is a Lebanese composer and music theorist praised as “a distinctive compositional voice” who creates “intoxicating and fascinating soundworld[s].” His music is inspired by the aesthetics, philosophies, paradigms and poetry of his Middle Eastern heritage. His work has been described as “very tasteful and flavorful” with “beautiful, sensitive writing!”. His latest musical concerns center around the phenomenology of time. Originally from the town of Ashkout in Lebanon and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. Seif’s music has been performed by world-renowned

artists and has been recognized internationally by numerous institutions.

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