Jonathan Bagg is Professor of the Practice at Duke University and violist with the Ciompi String Quartet. His career with the Ciompi includes hundreds of concerts across the U.S. and around the world, as well as dozens of recordings. He is a founding Artistic Director of Electric Earth Concerts in New Hampshire, and he directed the Monadnock Music festival from 2007-2011. As an orchestral player he appeared often with the Boston Symphony, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony, and the New Hampshire Symphony, where he was principal viola. Currently Chair in the Department of Music, Bagg has directed the chamber music program at Duke, and he has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Performance.

Samuel Gold began studying the viola at the age of four with Sherida Josephson of the Des Moines Symphony. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where he studied primarily with Martha Strongin Katz and Roger Tapping, and the University of Iowa, where he studied with Christine Rutledge and Elizabeth Oakes. Gold is currently the principal violist with the North Carolina Symphony. He has performed at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Taos School of Music, and the Montreal International String Quartet Academy.

Scott Rawls has appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Europe. 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. 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.

Violist Suzanne Rousso serves as artistic and the executive leader of Mallarmé Music, based in Durham. The ensemble is known as one of the region’s most diverse collective of musicians.
Her previous administrative and educational engagements included service as Director of Operations and Education of the Portland (Maine) Symphony and Director of Education for the North Carolina Symphony. In 2009, she received a Regional Artist grant from the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County and later a Durham Arts Council’s Emerging Artist grant that enabled her to acquire a baroque viola and enter into the field of historically-informed performance. She has participated in both Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, is a member of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra and a regular player with Duke Chapel’s Bach Cantata Series in which Mallarmé is a musical partner. Her service to the arts extends beyond performance and administration. She has served on the boards of the American Federation of Musicians Local #500 and Arts North Carolina, an advocacy organization for arts and arts education in NC.