DIANE PHOENIX-NEAL (viola) is Associate Professor of Viola at James Madison University and serves as principal violist of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. She performs nationally and internationally as a collaborative chamber musician and as a soloist. Distinguished performances include concerts in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, with New York String Orchestra Seminar, at Bowdoin International Music Festival, and in Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. In France, she served as principal solo violist of Orchestre de Picardie and as violist of Quatuor Joachim. She toured internationally with the quartet, including performances at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Phoenix-Neal received her training from the Juilliard School as a student of William Lincer and of the Juilliard String Quartet. She is an alumna of UNC School of the Arts and received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from UNC Greensboro. A champion of new music for viola and of music by underrepresented composers, her recitals and commissioning projects have been presented at James Madison University’s Contemporary Music Festivals, the Northwestern University New Music Conference, the University of Wyoming, Drake University, International Viola Congresses in Australia and Poland, and at the 50th Anniversary American Viola Festival. Phoenix-Neal is a principal guest violist with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. An EMF alumna, she has served on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival since 1998.
Photo credit – Ben Freedman