Patrice Calixte:

Canadian violinist Patrice Calixte did most of his studies with Claude Richard at Université de Montréal, where he obtained Undergraduate and Master’s degrees in music performance. He has worked with many orchestras in Canada, including the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He then moved to Austin where he completed his Artist Diploma at the University of Texas with Daniel Ching as his mentor. He currently serves as Associate Concertmaster of both the Austin Symphony Orchestra and the Austin Opera as well as the first violin of the Austin-based Artisan Quartet. Patrice performs on a violin made in 1910 in Florence by Valentino di Zorzi, kindly on loan from Lorraine and John Wang.

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Alexander Smith:

Alexander Smith has appeared on four continents as an orchestral musician, recitalist, and chamber musician. He is currently a member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra and has previously worked with the Kansas City Symphony and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist, he has been featured in performances of works by Rolla, Walton, Hindemith, Dale, and Krieger. Recent chamber performances include the Mozart C Major Quintet with Sandy Yamamoto and John Largess. Additionally, Mr. Smith has appeared in chamber music with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Glenn Dicterow, Martin Chalifour, and David Radzynski. A recent doctoral graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Alexander served for three years as the Teaching Assistant to Professor Roger Myers. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a student of Stephen Wyrczynski, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and Yuval Gotlibovich.