Artists

Kyle Stachnik

Executive and Artistic Director of Viridian Strings, Cellist Kyle Stachnik is the newly appointed Professor of Cello at Sacramento State University. He is also the Fourth Chair Cellist of the Santa Rosa Symphony and the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Bay Philharmonic. He holds a Master’s degree in Chamber Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Jennifer Culp, and a Bachelor of Music from the Frost School of Music, where he studied under Ross Harbaugh. He is an alumnus of Interlochen Arts Academy, where he studied with Crispin Campbell.

An active performer in the Bay Area, Stachnik has played with ensembles such as the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, Opera San José, Vallejo Festival Orchestra, and SF Broadway. He has recorded at Skywalker Sound and recently appeared on a Deutsche Grammophon release with the New Century Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to his position at Sacramento State, he is also Professor of Cello at Pacific Union College in Angwin, CA, and maintains a private teaching studio. Stachnik is the co-director of Viridian Strings, a summer chamber music series in Northern Michigan, now in its eighth season in 2025. He performs on a 2018 Raymond Schryer cello and a John Greenwood bow.

Joseph Skerik

Co-Artistic Director of Viridian Strings, violist Joseph Skerik is a member of the Vega String Quartet, holding a permanently-endowed residency at the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta and serving on faculty at Emory University.

As a member of the Vega Quartet, Joseph has recently made recordings of commissions by Emily Koh and David Gardner for PBS and collaborated with artists such as the Juilliard Quartet, Zuill Bailey, Jon Kimura Parker, Aloysia Friedman, Mark and Maggie O’Connor, David Coucheron, Ettore Causa and Amy-Schwartz Moretti and has appeared at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, The National Gallery in Washington D.C. in venues in Charlotte, Raleigh, San Miguel, Atlanta and at festivals such as the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Series and Sitka Summer Music Festival.

Joseph is also invited as guest violist on series and festivals such as the Highlands-Cashiers Festival, LaJolla Summerfest, Montecito International Music Festival, Tallgrass Chamber Music Festival, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, Vivace Foundation International Music Festival and the Lake George Music Festival and has also appeared on numerous tours for the Heifetz Institute, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. His chamber collaborations have included performances with artists such as Ani Kavafian, Ilya Kaler, Edward Aaron, Boris Slutsky, Erin Keefe, Nathan Meltzer, Umi Garrett, Shannon Lee, Margaret Batjer, Leslie Robertson, Colin Carr and Dimitri Berlinsky.

Before his current appointment Joseph attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, Cleveland Institute of Music, Paris Conservatory and the Yale School of Music, studying with Renee Skerik, David Holland, Jeffrey Irvine, Jean Sulem, Marc Desmons and Ettore Cause. His solo and chamber music accolades include the Yale School of Music’s Broadus Erle Prize in Chamber Music, 3rd Prize in the Oskar Nedbal Viola Competition in Prague, 2nd Prize in the American Viola Society Competition in Los Angeles and a National YoungArts Merit Violist award.

Committed to presenting high-quality chamber music performances in his home-region of Northern Michigan, Joseph serves alongside cellist Kyle Stachnik as the co-founder and co-director of Viridian Strings, a chamber music series in Northern Michigan. The series has presented venerable rising chamber musicians to a variety of venues around the Grand Traverse region.

Joseph was also a long-time attendee of the Perlman Music Program and has completed additional studies at the festivals of Aspen, Ravinia, Kronberg Academy (Chamber Music Connects the World,) Schiermonikoog, Four Seasons Chamber Music Workshop, and was also recently invited to the Open Chamber Music series (OCM) in Prussia Cove for performances.

As a teacher, Joseph maintains an undergraduate viola studio at Emory University, where he also coaches chamber music on the college level and at the high-school level through the Vega Youth Chamber Program. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Claire Wells

Claire Wells captivates audiences with a sound that speaks straight from her heart. Unique in her sparkling imagination and original, honest interpretations, Wells brings a profound presence to the stage with a transparency that touches her listeners.

Solo concert engagements have brought her to halls like the Wigmore Hall, the Meyerson Symphony Center, Bass Performance Hall, Teatro Degollado, and Konzerthaus Berlin, and the American violinist has collaborated with major symphonies such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Jalisco Philharmonic, among others.

Having taken major prizes from several international competitions such as the Indianapolis and Mirecourt competitions, Claire Wells is the Mendelssohn-Prize First Prize and Commission Prize winner at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition 2021 along with the 2nd Prize award winner at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition 2023. Most recently, she has received 3rd Prize in the Sibelius International Violin Competition 2025. Claire is also the 2023 violin scholarship winner of the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund.

Having always held a special place in her heart for chamber music, Claire has been invited to perform at several international festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Connects the World, the Gstaad Festival, Krzyzowa Festival and the Verbier Festival. Claire has the pleasure of frequently collaborating with some of the worlds’ top young musicians, as well as sharing the stage with world renowned musicians such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Anders Tomter, Steven Isserlis, Enrico Pace, amongst others.

Born in 2001 to a family of musicians, Claire Wells began playing the violin and piano at the age of 3. Growing up, Claire studied with a myriad of violin pedagogues; namely Emanuel Borok, Sandy Yamamoto, Gary Levinson and Brian Lewis. From the age of 16, Claire began at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Lutsia Ibragimova, and followed with studies at the Köln Hochschule für Musik und Tanz with Mihaela Martin. Claire has since 2022 continued her studies with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy, made possible by the Opel/Dr. Schaefer patronage.

Claire Wells plays on a Nicolo Amati and a Grand Adam bow, on loan from a generous donor.

Oliver Leitner

Violinist Oliver Leitner is a versatile performer equally at home in solo, chamber, and orchestral settings. He has appeared in orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, performed at leading chamber music schools such as Taos, and made his professional solo debut in 2019 with the Reno Philharmonic with Chausson’s Poème.

A graduate of Yale College in Chemistry and the Yale School of Music in Violin Performance, he was a student of Soovin Kim and Wendy Sharp with additional studies in chamber music with the Brentano Quartet. While in New Haven he was a member of the New New Haven Symphony Orchestra, winner of the 2024 Yale Chamber Music competition, and recipient of other performance accolades such as the 2023 Yale Wrexham Prize.

In addition to Taos, he has been a fellow at the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, Music Academy of the West, the Tanglewood Music Center, Domaine Forget, and the Thy International Chamber Music Festival. At Music Academy he was a winner of the Keston MAX competition and at Tanglewood led the orchestra in Ligeti’s Violin Concerto with soloist Anthony Marwood.

As an undergraduate Oliver also received recognition for his work in science, completing an internship at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and serving as a co-author on research published in JACS and Angewandte Chemie. Now based in the Chicago area, he continues to stay active as a chamber and orchestral performer while pursuing a PhD in Materials Engineering at Northwestern University.

This is Oliver’s third year with Viridian Strings.

Umi garret

Umi Garrett is a highly accomplished solo and chamber pianist, having performed numerous recitals in the United States and internationally. Most recently, she performed Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with principal members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra including Danny Jin, John Sharp, and Stephen Williamson at the University of Chicago, and performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall in collaboration with double bassist Nina Bernat. She has performed regularly through presenters such as the Clark Art Institute, the Dame Myra Hess Series, and the Chopin Foundation of the United States. Umi has performed and toured with orchestras such as the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony and Pops, Symphony Boca Raton, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Wuhan Symphony Orchestra, and the New Mexico Philharmonic. Umi was awarded first prize at The Juilliard School's Concerto Competition, fourth prize at the 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition, and awarded the John Newmark Prize for Best Collaborative Pianist for her performances with finalist Nathan Meltzer at the 2023 Montreal International Violin Competition. She has also collaborated with prize-winners at renowned competitions such as the Queen Elisabeth Competition for Violin, Primrose International Viola Competition, the Naumburg International Cello Competition, and the Sphinx Competition. During the summers, Umi is a Staff Collaborative Pianist for the Program for Piano and Strings at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, under the leadership of Artistic Director Midori. Umi has released three solo albums and released her debut chamber album in 2024 of the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas under PARMA Recordings. Umi has received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance at the Juilliard School where she was a recipient of the Kovner Fellowship, and previously served as a Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Yale School of Music. She is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School with Hung-Kuan Chen and Shai Wosner. Umi is a Young Steinway Artist.

Nathan meltzer

Winner of the 2023 Concert Artist Guild Competition, major prize winner at the 2022 Sibelius and Singapore International Violin Competitions, recipient of the Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and youngest ever to win the Windsor Festival Competition, violinist Nathan Meltzer is establishing a holistic and multi-faceted career as both a soloist and chamber musician, with passions for both standard and contemporary repertoire. Nathan has performed as a soloist with major orchestras around the world. He has performed with the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Finnish RSO, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Aalborg, Charlotte, Concepción, Indianapolis, Medellín, Montréal, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, among others, performing across Europe and North and South America. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Nathan has performed at celebrated series including the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, the Dresden Musikfestspiele, the Hawaii Concert Society, Heidelberger Frühling, the Honolulu Chamber Music Series, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Kallos Chamber Music Series, Parlance Chamber Concerts, Princeton Sound Kitchen, Midori’s Partners in Performance, and the Terezin Music Foundation, and at festivals including ChamberFest Cleveland, IMS Prussia Cove, Krzyzowa Music, the Montreal and Moritzburg Chamber Music Festivals, Music@Menlo’s International Program, the Ravinia Festival Institute, the Perlman Music Program, Verbier’s Festival Academy, and Yellow Barn. He is also the co-Founder and Artistic Director of The Green Room Ensemble, an non-profit chamber music organization dedicated to new music and historically unexplored works by composers from a variety of backgrounds and heritages. Nathan is a graduate from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Li Lin and Itzhak Perlman. He plays on a violin by Lorenzo Storioni on generous loan from the Rin Collection.

suni norman

Suni Norman, a violinist from Tooele, Utah, is a laureate of multiple competitions, including the Stradivarius Competition. She was awarded Utah’s Best of State Instrumentalist in both 2014 and 2021. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across the U.S. and has appeared at festivals such as the New York String Orchestra, Music Academy of the West, Colorado College Festival, Heifetz, and Kneisel Hall. Norman has collaborated with distinguished artists including Ben Beilman, Robert McDonald, Marcy Rosen, and Shai Wosner, as well as renowned quartets such as the Borromeo, Miro, Takács, and Fry Street. Currently, Norman is a supernumerary with the San Francisco and Utah Symphony orchestras. She is also featured in the PBS series Now Hear This (Copland: Dean of American Music).

Brian Isaacs

American violist Brian Isaacs is based in Berlin as a member of both the class of Tabea Zimmermann (Konzertexamen, Frankfurt HfMDK) and the Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker (mentored by Sebastian Krunnies).

Brian has received awards and prizes from institutions such as the Verbier Festival Academy, Yale University, Frank Huntington Beebe Fund, and international competitions including Grunewald, Nedbal, and Rubinstein. He has advanced to the semi-finals of major competitions such as ARD, Primrose, and Prague Spring. Brian has benefited from working in masterclasses with violists such as Misha Amory, Yuri Bashmet, Noemie Bialobroda, Ettore Causa, Nobuko Imai, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Steven Tenenbom, Lars Anders Tomter, and Tabea Zimmermann.

An avid chamber musician, Brian has participated in numerous festivals and concerts in the USA, Europe, and Asia. Recent festival appearances include Four Seasons, Gstaad String Academy, La Jolla SummerFest Fellowship, Methow Valley, NUME, Taos, Thy, Verbier Festival Academy, Viridian Strings, and Yellow Barn.

A native New Yorker and graduate of Yale University, Brian received his MM in Viola Performance, studying with Ettore Causa, and his BA in Sociology. He plays on a modern viola made by Douglas Cox in Brattleboro, VT.

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