Audition Cafe

Introduction

24 year-old, GABRIELLE SKINNER, from Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States, is enrolled in the Master’s program at Rice University as a viola student of Ivo Van der Werff. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a Viola student of Kirsten Docter. Ms. Skinner has played with the Governor’s School for the Arts, Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, the Shepherd Symphony Orchestra, The Virginia Symphony, as well as Hampton Roads Chamber player’s. Her debut performance was in the Spring of 2011, when she performed Paul Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher at the beautiful Sandler Center of the Arts. Ms. Skinner placed second in the regional Bland competition, and she placed first in the John Marshall competition sponsored by Symphonicity. In the past, she has attended the Aspen Music Festival, Sphinx Performance Academy, the North American Viola Institute, and the Meadowmount School of Music. Gabrielle has also had the pleasure of performing at the International Viola Congress 2012. In 2017, she was fortunate to be an alumni attending the Sphinx Connect Conference, where she worked with other musicians of color advocating for diversity in todays music society.

Ms. Skinner has performed in Master classes for Heidi Castleman, Jeffrey Irvine, Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot, David Holland, Mark Jacobs, Sabina Thatcher and Roger Tapping. She has also performed in Chamber Master Classes for David Geber, Mark Steinberg, the Cavani String Quartet, The Miami String Quartet, The Brooklyn Rider Quartet, The American String Quartet and The Jupiter Quartet. In 2016, Gabrielle became a founding member of the Kamila Quartet at the Shepherd School of Music. With them she attended the Robert Mann Institute in January 2017, and had a summer residency planned in Steamboat Springs, working with members of prominent orchestras from around the country. Gabrielle plays a custom made, modern viola by Geoffrey Ovington.