Walden Musicians

Christopher Adkins, ‘cello, principal cellist of the Dallas Symphony, received his musical training at the University of Northern Texas and Yale University where he studied with the distinguished pedagogue Aldo Parisot. During his tenure at Yale, Mr. Adkins held the position of principal cellist with the New Haven Symphony. Upon receiving his Master of Music degree, he assumed the duties of assistant principal cellist with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. However, after two seasons in the Rockies, Mr. Adkins’ longtime dream of being a major symphony principal chair was realized with the offer of the post with the Milwaukee Symphony, and then in 1987, he returned to his native Dallas, to occupy the chair once held by his former teacher, Lev Aronson.
In addition to his duties with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Adkins serves on the faculty of Southern Methodist University. He was cellist with Voices of Change, Modern Music Ensemble from 1988 to 1990 and with the Walden Piano Quartet from 1993 to 2006. He remains an active recitalist and chamber musician and as a member of a large musical family has, with his six brothers and sisters, formed the Adkins String Ensemble.
Mr. Adkins enjoys gardening, songwriting and woodworking, but most of all spending time with his wife, Dallas Symphony Orchestra violinist Alexandra Adkins, and their six children. Chris Adkins has been with Walden since 1993.

Jo Boatright, piano, Artistic Director for Walden Chamber Music Society, studied with Max Lanner at Colorado College, received her Master of Music from the New England Conservatory in Boston, and worked extensively with the great Hungarian pianist Lili Kraus whom she assisted at Texas Christian University. She co-founded Voices of Change in 1974 and the Walden Chamber Music Society in 1981. She is the pianist for the Walden Chamber Music Society, Artistic Director Emerita of Voices of Change and Music Director Emerita of the First Unitarian Church of Dallas. She has won four Adventuresome Programming Awards given by ASCAP and a Grammy Nomination in 1999 for the CD Voices Americanas. Ms. Boatright has toured Europe, Russia, and the Americas and has served music professorships at Texas Christian University, the University of Texas (Arlington and Dallas), and Southern Methodist University. She has appeared as concert soloist with many orchestras including the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and in Colorado with Music in the Mountains (Durango). She may be heard on CRI, Redwood, Crystal, Odyssey, Albany, Centaur, and Music & Arts recording labels. Ms. Boatright directs the annual Princeton Peak Piano Retreat in Buena Vista, CO where she lives with her husband, Harvey Boatright, flutist.

Camilla Bonzo began her cello studies in 1974 and performed her first “gigs” at age twelve, playing for her supper at her cousin’s restaurant. Over the years, she has had plenty of wonderful experiences as a musician, including performing in Moscow, Prague, St. Petersburg and at the White House, lending her musical talent in support of hundreds of couples getting married, and performing with the Walden Chamber Music Society as much as possible. Camilla is also a licensed attorney; in 2018 she created her own law practice, Bonzo Law, PLLC. She is currently based in Alamosa, Colorado, where she lives with her husband, Joel, who is a resident doctor at the Southern Colorado Family Medicine Residency Program.

Violinist Aaron Boyd has established a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, recording artist, lecturer and teacher. Since making his New York recital debut in 1998, Boyd has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, Russia and Asia and has collaborated with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, Orion, Tokyo and Emerson Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio, Phillippe Entremont, Mitsuko Uchida, Lynn Harrell, Cho-Liang Lin, and David Finckel. As a violinist of the Escher Streing Quartet, Boyd appears at prestigious venues throughout the world and is an artist member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a concertmaster, Boyd has led numerous ensembles, including the Kansas City and Tucson Symphonies. A recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Martin E. Segal prize from Lincoln Ceenter, Boyd has also been a prizewinner in numerous competitions including the Ecoles D’art Americans de Fontainebleau, the Klien Violin Competition, the Tuesday Musical Society and the Pittsburgh Concert Society and was also awarded a Proclamation by the City of Pittsburgh for his musical accomplishments. A passionate advocate for new music Boyd has been involved in numerous commissions and premieres in concert and on record. He can be heard on the BIS, Music@Menlo Live, Naxos, Tzadik, North/South and Innova labels. Born in Pittsburgh, Boyd began his studies with Samuel LaRocca and Eugene Phillips and graduated from the Juilliard School where he studied with Sally Thomas and coached extensively with Paul Zukofsky and the legendary cellist Harvey Shapiro. Formerly on the violin facilities of Columbia University and the University of Arizona, he now serves as director of chamber music and professor of practice in violin at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. Boyd makes his home in Dallas, Texas with his wife Yuko, daughter Ayu and son Yuki. Boyd performs on the “ex topak” Matteo Gofriller violin, created in Venice, 1700.

Matt “Diek” Diekman, viola, After learning violin at a young age along side his musical siblings, Diek was convinced to try viola by Wayne Crouse (former principal violist of the Houston Symphony), and it was a natural fit with no turning back! Since then Diek has performed professionally with many orchestras and arts organizations including the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Tulsa Philharmonic, Dallas Opera, Sarasota Opera, San Antonio Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic, Colorado Springs Philharmonic, and has served as Principal Violist of the Tucson Symphony, Principal Violist of the Colorado Chamber Orchestra and Principal Violist of the Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio. He was a founding member of the Crouse Quartet (Oklahoma), is a member of the Walden Chamber Music Society (Colorado) and has participated in many summer festivals across the country such as the Colorado Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Round Top Music Festival, Brevard Advanced Chamber Music Program, and has been the principal violist of the Utah Festival Opera Company. As a chamber musician, he’s been invited to perform with the Cactus Pear Music Festival, Olmos Ensemble, Musical Offerings, Austin Chamber Music Society, and others. Diek has studied with the principal violists of many of our nation’s top orchestras, and he has a Masters of Music in Performance from the University of Oklahoma and an Artist Certificate in Viola from Southern Methodist University. As professor of viola at Regis University and regular guest artist at Denver School of the Arts, he is an active and enthusiastic music teacher to all ages and enjoys a healthy freelance career as well. Perhaps his greatest musical honor is to own and perform on the very instrument on which his former teacher (Crouse) built his illustrious career.
Outside of music Diek has a slew of passions: As an outdoor enthusiast he enjoys hiking, climbing, snowshoeing, and anything involving mountains and has summited many of Colorado’s 14,000 ft. peaks. Also an avid adventure motorcyclist, he explores the back roads and trails of our fantastic country, specifically the Wild West, often carrying along a special “all-terrain” carbon fiber viola on his back to perform for unsuspecting people in unlikely places. Diek is a talented, prolific photographer and independent film-maker. His comical “Viola-Matic” series on Youtube has garnered over 100,000 views. His Western film, ‘Upon the Awful Tree’, has premiered on both the big screen and internationally, as performance art. His upcoming action-drama ‘States of Contention’ is now nearing completion, but Diek always has another project up his sleeve!

Maria Schleuning, violin. Maria Schleuning, violinist, has been a member of the Voices of Change Modern Music Ensemble since 1996 and Artistic Director since 2009. An advocate of new music, she has worked with many of the leading composers of our day including the legendary Witold Lutoslawski, George Crumb, Aaron Jay Kernis, John Corigliano, Augusta Read Thomas, Sebastian Currier, Bright Sheng, Samuel Adler, Donald Erb, David Dzubay, Pierre Jalbert, and David Amram. She has premiered many new works, including Dream Catcher, a solo violin work written especially for her as a gift by Augusta Read Thomas and Partners, a double concerto written for her and cellist Jolyon Pegis by David Amram; the world premiere was December 9, 2018 in Ann Arbor Michigan.
An active chamber musician, Ms. Schleuning has performed in venues such as New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Museum of Modern Art as well as at numerous festivals throughout the United States and Europe. She has been a faculty member and performer at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Idyllwild Arts, Bennington Music Festival, University of North Texas, and the Blackburn Academy. She has recorded with Continuum, modern music ensemble in New York, and in Dallas with grammy-nominated Voices of Change and the Walden Piano Quartet; the most recent entitled “all music has a perfect memory” featuring the music of David Dzubay, to be released by INNOVA in October 2019.
In addition, Ms. Schleuning has served as principal second violin of the New York Women’s Ensemble and with the Classical Tahoe Orchestra. A member of The Dallas Symphony since 1994, she has been featured as soloist with the orchestra on many occasions. Other solo highlights include appearances with the Oregon Symphony, Seattle Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Abilene Symphony, Laredo Philharmonic, Bozeman Symphony (MT), Las Cruces Symphony(NM), and with the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra on a tour of Eastern Europe including concerts at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and the Rudolfinuum in Prague, in addition to a tour of China in 2015. She studied with Josef Gingold at Indiana University, where she was awarded a Performer’s Certificate; with Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall School in London with a grant from the Myra Hess Foundation; and with Joel Smirnoff at the Juilliard School where she received her Master’s Degree.

Haerim Elizabeth Lee, Violin. Korean violinist, Haerim Elizabeth Lee captivates audiences by “leaving them breathless with impeccable phrasing and relevant musicality.” (El Norte, Mexico). Elizabeth has developed a playing style indicative of the very essence of her personality: passionate, deliberate, and often witty.  In 2015, Elizabeth performed as the concertmaster with Yo-Yo Ma at the Kennedy Center Honors concert in Washington, D.C. to recognize Maestro Seiji Ozawa, which was attended by former President Barack Obama. Following Elizabeth’s solo debut with orchestra at nine years old, she has been a guest soloist with the Winston-Salem Symphony, Symphony of the Mountains, New Amsterdam Symphony, Chelsea Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de la Unal, Seoul Virtuosi, Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Olimpia and Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinu. As a performing artist and scholar, Lee has established herself as a visionary and was the first recipient of the Tarisio Young Artist Grant as the Artistic Director of MoKo Musik for promotion and commission of Korean music. She is also the Co-Artistic Director of the Innsbrook Music Festival in Missouri and is a co-founder of Texas Chamber Music Institute. Performing within the intimate setting of chamber music is one of Elizabeth’s most cherished experiences. As a part of Evita String Quartet, she received Bronze Medal Award from the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and she has also collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Robert McDuffie, Stephan Picard, Barry Shiffman, David Halen, Christopher Rex, and Todd Palmer. Elizabeth has performed in numerous music venues and festivals including John F. Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Rackhum Auditorium, Prussia Cove International Music Seminar, Banff Centre, Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, Heifetz International Music Festival, Spoleto Music Festival USA, Schleswig-Holestein Musik Festival, and Sarasota Music Festival. Elizabeth possesses a progressive philosophy when it comes to exploring and premiering works by living composers.  She has worked with Thomas Adès and has performed the Canadian premiere of Bright Sheng’s piano quintet at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Elizabeth recorded the premiere recordings of pieces by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Michael Daugherty and has also performed the North American premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Double Bind?. Her deep-rooted love for collaboration has resulted in some innovative relationships with complementary, but also unconventional art forms such as exhibits with the Boston Architecture School, New York Fashion Show and performances with choreographers and dancers. Elizabeth immigrated from Daejeon, South Korea, at the age of eight to pursue scholarship in music at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.  She went on to obtain her Bachelor of Arts from the New England Conservatory and, subsequently, her Masters in Music from Rice University Shepherd School of Music. While pursuing her Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Michigan, Elizabeth also studied at the Paris Conservatoire with support from the ERAMUS program. Elizabeth’s debut album, My Time is Now (INNOVA), the first ever recording to feature George Gershwin’s recently restored Steinway piano from his New York apartment has been received with critical acclaim. “No one can do justice to this music without swagger and swing and (Elizabeth) has plenty of it. After three hearings, this album continues to enchant me; it’s a keeper. (Performing Arts Monterey Bay).  As a passionate educator, Elizabeth mentors the faculty at an El-Sistema inspired program in New York, the Harmony Program and is currently an Assistant Violin Professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.