Harp and Viola Duos: Violetta and Jay play Bax and Kay

Arnold Bax - Fantasy Sonata
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Ulysses Kay - Viola Sonata

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Violetta Maria Norrie is a harpist, performer, and improviser of diverse range and ability. She began playing the harp at the age of 6, after falling in love with the instrument at a Renaissance Faire. Since then she has performed orchestral, solo, and chamber music at venues including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, the Dimenna Center, and Symphony Space. Violetta has played as a member of many ensembles including Opera Theatre of Montclair and Park Avenue Chamber Symphony. She has been featured on The Today Show on NBC, MTV's Silent Library, and the Harmony ad campaign for Emirates Airlines. In addition to her classical repertoire, Violetta is interested in contemporary music, jazz, poetry, linguistics, performance art, and improvisation. She regularly performs experimental music and improvisations as a solo artist, as a member of DUO for Saxophone and Harp, and as a founding member of Yale’s student-run new music ensemble Versicolor. She is a passionate advocate for those underrepresented in the arts, and seeks to combat their erasure through inclusive programming and artist promotion. Violetta is a former faculty member of the Turtle Bay Music School, a current teaching artist at Virtu.Academy, and student teacher at Yale School of Music. She attended Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris as part of their year-long ERASMUS program with Isabelle Moretti and Sivan Magen and holds a B.M. from Manhattan School of Music. She is currently completing her M.M. with Dr. June Han at the Yale School of Music.

Originally from Uniondale, New York, first-generation Filipino-American Jay Julio is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and composer-arranger currently based in Harlem. They look forward to a change of scenery soon, beginning a new chapter as one-fourth of the 2020-2023 LA Orchestra Fellowship. They have recorded on United Common Records, Captured Tracks, Fiendish Endeavor, and Broadway Records, and most recently appeared in the official collaborative music video for Major Lazer & Marcus Mumford’s single, Lay Your Head On Me, released as a fundraiser for COVID-19 research efforts. Jay has received fellowships to attend the Music Academy of the West, Orpheus@Mannes, and the Aspen, Manchester, and Lake Tahoe music festivals; they have also spent summers at the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute as a Young Artist of Color, and have been invited to the Spoleto and Pacific Music Festival. After taking their first viola lesson at age 14 at the Mannes Preparatory Division, Jay graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy at 16 studying with Renee Skerik with their highest musical honor, the Young Artist Award, received their BM in Viola Performance from the Manhattan School of Music under Karen Ritscher on full scholarship, and received their MM at the Juilliard School on a full-tuition Susan W. Rose Fellowship under the tutelage of Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Matthew Lipman. Through the LA Orchestra Fellowship, they are receiving a GC (Graduate Certificate) at the University of Southern California as a student of Yura Lee. Other important mentors include Anne Lanzilotti and Lina Bahn. For rhythm, Jay studies poetry.