Our Musicians

 

Violinist Jacqueline Audas joined the Seattle Symphony’s First Violin section in the 2024/2025 season. In recent years, she has performed as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician across the United States and internationally in Israel, Germany, Italy, Spain, and New Zealand. A laureate of several competitions, Audas was awarded first prize in the 2017 North International Violin Competition and was a quarter finalist in both the 2019 Michael Hill International Violin Competition and the 2020 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition. She was also selected as a recipient of the Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund in 2017. Her recent engagements include performances with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, the Baltimore Symphony, the North Shore Chamber Music Festival, the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, and the Aspen Music Festival.

Jacqueline Audas holds a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins’ University, where she studied with Vadim Gluzman. Previously, she studied with Paul Kantor at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she earned both a Bachelor’s degree, conferred Summa Cum Laude, and a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance. Prior to university college, she studied with the late Arkady Fomin.

Jacqueline Audas is the founder and artistic director of the non-profit Classical C.A.R.M.A. (Concerts Aiming to Raise Money and Awareness), which organizes benefit concerts to fundraise for, and bring awareness to, other nonprofit organizations and their missions.

  Praised for the “inviting, vocal quality” of her tone by the Chicago Classical Review, Katherine Audas is a passionate cellist who enjoys performing in orchestra, chamber music ensembles and as a soloist. She holds a bachelor's degree, a master’s degree, and an artist diploma in cello performance from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she studied with Norman Fischer from 2014-2018 and Brinton Smith from 2018-2023. While at Rice, she was the recipient the Annette and Hugh Gragg Principal Chair in Cello. She was awarded first prize at the Ann and Charles Eisemann International Young Artists Competition in Dallas in 2020 and she won the silver medal at the IX Concurso Internacional Violonchelo Carlos Prieto in Michoacán, Mexico in 2019. In recent years, Katherine has appeared as a soloist with numerous symphonies, including the Houston Symphony at the Ima Hogg Competition, the Northbrook Symphony, the Michoacán Symphony, the Shepherd School of Music Symphony Orchestra and the Boise Philharmonic. She is the founding member the Houston Cello Quartet and an active performer in the non-profit Classical C.A.R.M.A. (Concerts Aiming to Raise Money & Awareness). In her free time she enjoys running half marathons, cooking new recipes and spending time with her family and friends.

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Katherine has been a member of the Seattle Symphony cello section since 2023.

 

Hailed for “her expressive and sensitive sound,” Dr. Kyung-A Yoo, Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano joined the faculty of the Townsend School of Music (TSM) in 2021. As a distinguished artist at Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, Dr. Yoo coaches and performs with string players and guest artists.

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Before joining TSM, she served as an Artist Collaborator at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music for nine years. Working closely with such renowned musicians and pedagogues as Leone Buyse, Paul Kantor, Richie Hawley, and Stephen King, she played for numerous master classes and recitals every year. Her performances and interviews were featured on The Front Row, hosted by KUHF Houston Public Radio, collaborating with flutists Leone Buyse, Jean Ferrandis, and Sergio Pallottelli. Throughout her career, Dr. Yoo collaborated with many distinguished artists and the list includes Ralph Kirshbaum, Steve Doane, Tim Eddy, Mark Kaplan, Barbara Butler, Jean Ferrandis, and Richie Hawley.

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Her professional career started at Manhattan School of Music where she received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Collaborative Piano under the tutelage of Dr. Heasook Rhee and worked as a staff pianist and vocal coach. As a collaborative pianist, she frequently performed with new music ensemble the New York Composers Circle, the Joy in Singing Art Song Competition, New Triad for Collaborative Arts, and the Korea Music Foundation, presenting debut recitals and annual concerts at Carnegie and Merkin Halls. 

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After serving as a visiting Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University, Dr. Yoo continued her work as a collaborative pianist at Oberlin Conservatory. She also worked as faculty member of the Heifetz International Music Institute and joined Aspen Music Festival and School in 2014 as a collaborative pianist.

Australian Mezzo Soprano, Susan Lorette Dunn enjoys a vibrant and dynamic career as a performer and educator. She studied at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane, Queensland, graduating with both a Bachelor of Music Degree (performance and teaching) and a Graduate Diploma of Opera. 

 

Miss Dunn has performed on the operatic and concert stage globally, with engagements throughout  the USA, Europe, and Australia. In Australia Ms. Dunn has performed with Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, Queensland Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, The Queensland Ballet, The Really Useful Company, ABC Australia, 4MBS, major Australian orchestras, and other performing arts companies. 

 

Since moving to the USA in 2002 Miss Dunn has sung concert performances with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Chicago Philharmonic, Charlotte Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, El Paso Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Spokane Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony, Camerata of San Antonio, Grand Rapids Symphony, Context, and the Martinu Philharmonic in the Czech Republic. Miss Dunn has performed regularly in prestigious summer music festivals including the Grand Teton Music Festival, Connecticut’s Summer Music Festival, Interlochen Music Festival, Sunflower Music Festival, Cactus Pear Music Festival, Chautauqua Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, and the International Conductor’s Workshop in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. 

 

Miss Dunn has won many major Australian singing competitions including the State and Commonwealth Finals of the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition, an Opera Foundation Scholarship for study in Israel, Australia Council Grant for study in London, Arts Queensland Personal Development Grant, and in 2000, a prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship where she worked with the New York Festival of Song in New York City. As a result of her Churchill Fellowship, Miss Dunn performs a series of concerts at The Shepherd School of Music, dedicated to the revitalization and re-invention of the song recital. 

 

Susan Lorette Dunn has held positions as an educator in both Australia and the USA. In Australia she was a lecturer at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and the Queensland University of Technology, where she also devised programs in music theatre skills. Since 2002, Miss Dunn has had the titles of Artist Teacher of Voice and Artist Teacher of Opera Studies within the Voice and Opera Faculty of the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. 

 

Miss Dunn is internationally recognized for her teaching approach toward developing presence on stage. In her work with singers, instrumentalists and conductors, she employs a protocol that embodies a neurophysiological approaching for attaining peak performance. She has served on the faculty of Brevard Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Miami Music Festival, and the International Conducting Workshop and Festival. She has taught master classes at the Aspen Music Festival, Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Music Academy of the West, and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Australia.

Cellist David Dietz has performed across the US and Europe and is experienced in a variety of settings as both a performer and a teacher. He currently resides in Houston, Texas. David received his Bachelor’s Degree and Performer Diploma at Indiana University and recently completed his master’s degree at Rice University in 2022. This summer he was a teaching fellow at the Encore Chamber Music Festival in Cleveland, Ohio where he performed chamber music alongside the Verona Quartet and Sibbi Bernhardsson. In the 2022-2023 season, David will make appearances with MUSIQA, Monarch Chamber Players, Classical C.A.R.M.A., the Klangspuren Festival in Innsbruck, Austria, Dacamera Young Artists, the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and the Houston Cello Quartet.

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