MEMBERS

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, 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 “Voces 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.

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 tThe 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 Stopak” Matteo Gofriller violin, created in Venice, 1700.

Pianist Kārlis Bukovskis has performed in concert in his native Latvia, as well as in Lithuania, Estonia, France, Russia, Uzbekistan, and the United States. He has been a soloist with the Pskov (Russia) and Kaunas (Lithuania) Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Lithuanian and Uzbekistan National Symphony Orchestras. He has won several international competitions and was proud to be awarded with the Latvian Ministry of Culture Prize in 2014 and 2016.

He is a second-year undergraduate student at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he is a John J. Medveckis Fellow and studies with RobertMcDonald.

Joshua received his Bachelor’s in Voice Performance from the University of Wyoming and his Master’s degree in Voice Performance at Oklahoma City University. Joshua teaches private voice, and he often performs around the South East Wyoming and Norther Colorado area. Notable credits include Featured Tenor soloist for the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra Holiday Magic Concert, first place senior men’s classical division for Colorado/Wyoming NATS 2014, Candide from Leonard Bernstiens Candide (University of Wyoming), the Prince from Roger’s and Hamerstien’s Cinderella (Cheyenne Little Theatre Players), Jamie from The Last Five Years (CLTP), The Beast from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (CLTP), and multiple performances with the Opera Colorado chorus.

Vincent Garcia-Hettinger is currently a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studies with Peter Wiley and Gary Hoffman. He was a recent prize winner in the International Klein Competition and Sphinx Competition. He has studied and performed with the Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival Steans Music Institute, and the Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop. He previously studied with Ken Freudigman for seven years, as well as under Steve Doane and Johannes Moser.

Vincent began his cello studies at the age of five and made his soloist debut with the San Antonio Symphony at age thirteen. He has since performed as a soloist with the Ann Arbor Symphony, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Sinfonietta, and South Texas Symphony Orchestra. He is a recipient of From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Award, the Sphinx MPower Grant, and the Texas Young Masters Scholarship.

A native of Wyoming, Byron Hitchcock has performed across the United States, Latin America, and Asia to critical acclaim. Praised by the Boston Globe for his “fearlessly expressive” playing and his “finely honed tone,” he has established himself as a dynamic and versatile artist, appearing on the concert stage as a concertmaster, soloist, and chamber musician.

Mr. Hitchcock currently serves as Concertmaster of multiple professional orchestras across the Front Range. He currently serves as Concertmaster of Opera Colorado, which features highly acclaimed productions each season at Denver’s Performing Arts Center, as well as Central City Opera Orchestra, a summer festival held in Central City’s 19th century historic jewel box opera house. He is also Concertmaster for Denver’s Inside the Orchestra, the country’s only professional orchestra focused solely on educational programming for Children. He recently accepted an appointment as Concertmaster of the Fort Collins Symphony.

Previously, Mr. Hitchcock acted as Concertmaster of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, and the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra. He has appeared as a guest concertmaster with Opera in the Heights in Houston, Texas, and with the Arizona Opera Orchestra in Phoenix, Arizona.

As a soloist, Mr. Hitchcock’s “brilliant” and “uninhibited” playing has won him prizes in numerous competitions, including the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project Concerto Competition. He is an active recitalist, and recently completed recording Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Upcoming projects include recording Beethoven’s complete Sonatas for violin and piano, and performing live on the St. Michael Concert Series in Chicago.

Mr. Hitchcock has studied with members of the Juilliard, Takacs, Cavani, Emerson, and Cleveland Quartets. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, a Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, and an Artist Diploma from SUNY Purchase. His teachers include David Updegraff, Lucy Chapman, and Laurie Smukler.

Mr. Hitchcock performs on a 1998 Stanley Kiernosiak violin from Chicago.

Praised as “especially impressive” and “a thoughtful, sensitive performer” who “balanced lyrical warmth and crisp clarity” (Tommasini–The New York Times), pianist Zhu Wang was awarded First Prize in the 2020 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, Gold Medalist at 2024 New Orleans International Piano Competition. Zhu was one of the finalists in the 2019 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, and one of the prizewinners of 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition. The world-renowned pianist Fou Ts’ong recognized Zhu as an “excellent pianist with a natural sense of harmony and imagination,” whose sensitive and engaging performances exhibit a remarkable depth of musicianship and poise beyond his age. Recent performances include appearing as soloist with Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium, Columbus, Kansas City, Spokane, Memphis, and Richmond Symphony Orchestras, and solo recital for Hilton Head International Piano Competition. And highlights of the upcoming season include Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Brevard Philharmonic Orchestra, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.3 with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Solo recital for Ashmont Hill Chamber Music Series and Animato Foundation in Paris, chamber music concert with members of Orchestra of St Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, and concert tour in Europe and North America with violinist Randall Goosby in the spring of 2025.  Celebrated for his “technical mastery and deep sense of lyricism,” (The Durango Herald), Zhu has appeared in recital at Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Southampton Rising Stars, Music at Dumbarton Oaks, The Morgan Library & Museum, Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Salon de Virtuosi, and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, which made The New York Times’ “Best of Classical Music 2021” list.  An avid chamber musician, Zhu has appeared on series such as Chamber Music Detroit, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Vancouver Recital Society, La Jolla Music Society, Stanford Live, Hamilton College, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Howland Chamber Music Series, Chesapeake Music, Clarion Concerts, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Zhu is an alum of Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School, Bravo! Vail, Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars, Music@Menlo International Program, and he regularly appears in chamber music recitals with violinist Randall Goosby. A native of Hunan Province, China, Zhu started learning piano at the age of five following his grandfather’s love of music. He graduated from Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School and received Gina Bachauer Scholarship, Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship, and Mehlin Prize. Zhu is pursuing his Master of Music degree at Juilliard, under the tutelage of Emanuel Ax and Robert McDonald. He gratefully acknowledges the support of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts. Zhu currently lives in New York City with his wife Chloe and their beloved two cats, Chaz and Tùzi. 

Keith Williamson, a Colorado native, is a thirty-one year veteran of the Opera Colorado chorus, and sang for twenty-one years with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Chorus.  Mr Williamson has also performed solo roles in several Opera Colorado productions, including Gianni Schicci, Macbeth, Sweeney Todd, The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale.  In addition, Mr. Williamson has performed regionally in staged productions of Copeland (The Tender Land), Menotti, (Amahl and the Night Visitors), and Purcell (Dido & Aeneas).  His solo concert repertoire includes both Mozart’s and Verdi’s Requiems, Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions and Orff’s Carmina Burana.  He performed in the 2004 regional premier of Tan Dun’s Water Passion, conducted by the composer.  From 1995 through 2016, Keith performed annually in a Madrigal Dinner production, in which he portrayed the Lord of the manor.  Keith has also performed Bach’s Coffee Cantata, Menotti’s The Telephone, and Purcell’s La Serva Padrona with the Walden Chamber Music Society of Colorado.

Keith has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursery and Landscape Management from CSU and works for Little Valley Wholesale Nursery in Brighton, Colorado.

Chloe Chuyue Zhang is an accomplished pianist known for her profound passion and technical mastery. She has received accolades from prestigious institutions such as The Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music. She has also been recognized in various competitions, including the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition and the Wideman Piano Competition.Chloe Chuyue Zhang’s main instructors include Natalya Antonova and Jerome Lowenthal.

Chloe’s career includes notable performances as a soloist with orchestras like the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra and the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra. She has also been featured on PBS’ Classical Pianists of the Future series. In the past season, Chloe Chuyue Zhang performed at Piano on Park, the Scarsdale CC Concert Series, and Klavierhaus.

As an ensemble pianist, Chloe Chuyue Zhang played in the Eastman Wind Ensemble for three years, collaborating with esteemed conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Mark Scatterday, and Neil Varon. Her contributions to the ensemble highlighted her versatility and ability to blend seamlessly within a group setting.

In addition to her performance career, Chloe is dedicated to music education, inspiring and nurturing the next generation of musicians. She was the teaching assistant and piano instructor at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School.