John Geisel, a graduate of Indiana University, has been a member of the Dallas Symphony viola section since 1984. He has also performed with the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Dallas Bach Society, Fine Arts Chamber Players, Voices of Change and the Walden Piano Quartet.
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Valerie Dimond is a graduate of The Juilliard School and former Assistant Principal Viola of the New Jersey Symphony. While in New York, she also played with the New York Chamber Symphony, the New York Pops and the Mostly Mozart Orchestra.
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Tom Demer learned to play viola in southern Arizona. Earlier in his life he played in lesser orchestras, but in 1985 he was hired by Maestro Eduardo Mata to round out a 12-person viola section in the Dallas Symphony.
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Pamela Askew has performed as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, the Philadelphia Bach Society and Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute and has served on the faculties of Georgia State University, Emory University and Agnes Scott College.
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Sarah Kienle began her viola studies at age seven in her hometown of Kalispell, Montana. After graduating in 2007 from the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, Massachusetts, she received her Bachelor of Music from the Colburn School in Los Angeles, California, in 2011, where she studied with Paul Coletti.
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Meredith Kufchak joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as principal viola in 2019. Prior to her move to Dallas, she spent one season as a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
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Born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1975, violinist Lilit Danielyan began music lessons at a young age. Her father, Eduard Danielyan, a historian and head of The Institute of Foreign Languages, recognized young Lilit’s talent for music and taught her to play the piano.
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Mariana Cottier-Bucco is originally from Venezuela and came to the United States at six years old. It was then that she started to the play the violin, under the instruction of Irina Schuck.
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Bruce Patti has been a violinist in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 1982. He has violin performance degrees from Indiana and Yale Universities, while studying with Josef Gingold, Jaimie Laredo and Broadus Erle.
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Motoi Takeda joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1977 and became Associate Concertmaster in 1987. He studied violin in Japan and at the Moscow Conservatory, where he received his music diploma.
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