Scott Rawls, viola

Kimberly Sparr, viola
James Douglass, piano

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Violist Scott Rawls has appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Europe.  Recent chamber music endeavors include performances with Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Branford Marsalis, Sergey Antonov, Michelle Cann and the Reynolda Quartet.  With the Nikkanen/Rawls/Bailey string trio, he has played tours in Alaska, Washington, Arizona and Texas.  His solo and chamber music recordings can be heard on the Centaur, CRI, Nonesuch, Capstone, and Philips labels.  

A strong proponent of new music, Rawls has premiered dozens of new works by prominent composers.  Most notable, he has toured extensively as a member of Steve Reich and Musicians.  As the violist in this ensemble, he performed the numerous premieres of Daniel Variations, The Cave and Three Tales by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot, videographer. And under the auspices of presenting organizations such as the Wiener Festwochen, Festival d’Automne a Paris, Holland Festival, Berlin Festival, Spoleto Festival USA and the Lincoln Center Festival, he has performed in major music centers around the world including London, Vienna, Rome, Milan, Tokyo, Prague, Amsterdam, Brussels, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.   

Under the baton of maestro Christopher Dragon, he plays principal viola in the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra.  During the summer season, Rawls plays principal in the festival orchestra at Brevard Music Center where he also coordinates the viola program.  He was also recently appointed principal viola of the Palm Beach Opera orchestra, David Stern artistic director. 

Dr. Rawls currently serves as Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He holds a BM degree from Indiana University and a MM and DMA from State University of New York at Stony Brook. His major mentors include Abraham Skernick, Georges Janzer, John Graham and Julius Levine. 

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Kimberly Sparr is Associate Professor of Viola at Louisiana State University. Equally skilled as a soloist, chamber and orchestral violist, she has garnered praise for her versatility and virtuosity across the United States and beyond. She is a founding member of the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble and is on faculty at the Brevard Music Festival. Sparr has also taught at the National Music Festival and the Summer Strings Academy for Girls.  

As an orchestral violist, Sparr was the assistant principal violist of Virginia’s Richmond Symphony from 2008-13 and has performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, and the Washington National Opera, among others. Her festival participation includes Jackson Hole Chamber Music; New Hampshire Music Festival; Tanglewood Music Center; the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland; Festival Mozaic and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in California; Sarasota Music Festival; and the Lake George Music Festival in New York. Recently, she has been an invited guest with Agarita and the Harrington String Quartet. 

Sparr has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Amarillo Virtuosi, the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, the Texas Tech University Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. An enthusiastic educator, Dr. Sparr has previously served on the faculties of Texas Tech University, The College of William and Mary, and University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She also performs with the trio, Scabaret.  

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As a collaborative pianist, James Douglass has performed across the United States, Europe, and China, in genres as diverse as opera, choral arts, vocal arts, chamber music, jazz, musical theater, and cabaret. His performances have been heard on public radio and television broadcasts in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Nashville, Mississippi, and Alabama, as well as the Welsh Television network in Great Britain, and in venues such as Carnegie Weill Hall and the Liszt Academy (Budapest). Dr. Douglass has taught at Mississippi College, Occidental College (Los Angeles), the University of Southern California, and Middle Tennessee State University where he was director the of collaborative piano degree program. In the summer of 2004 he began teaching in the summer study program AIMS (American Institute of Musical Studies) in Graz, Austria where has served variously as the instructor of collaborative piano and a vocal coach in the Lieder studios. He joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2005 and is currently the Professor of Collaborative Piano, director of the collaborative piano degrees program, coordinator of chamber music activities, and vocal coach. Dr. Douglass holds degrees in piano performance from the University of Alabama (BM, MM) and the DMA in collaborative piano from the University of Southern California. He is also active as a clinician, adjudicator, and recording artist, having released internationally (among other recordings) two CDs with soprano Hope Koehler of the songs of John Jacob Niles, and most recently a recording of Othmar Schöck’s song cycle Das Stille Leuchten with the late mezzo-soprano Clara O’Brien.