Emerson Avenue Salons is a 501(c)(3)! More Information Here

DONATE ! Watch Salonline 7:30 Join Zoom Discussion ~8:30 PM Previous Salonlines

If you’re looking for Alex Hassan putting up his Vernon Dukes,
please click “Previous Salons”, above

Sunday, October 25 2026, 7:30 PM

Erica Schwartz and Friends

Erica Schwartz, Becca Barnett, Julia Clancy, and Austin Simmons

viola, viola, viola & viola!

Erica says: “My viola section at the army band has a viola quartet program prepared that is really fun! We mostly play arrangements for 4 violas that were written by my colleague Julia Clancy wrote, and they are excellent. We would love to play if you’d be interested! We would come and play as an “Erica Schwartz and Friends” type group, not affiliated with the Army.”

About the Artists

AFC Erica Schwartz is originally from Albany, New York. She holds a B.M. from the New England Conservatory, B.A. in Political Science from Tufts University, and a Master of Music from Rice University. An active orchestral musician, she has appeared as a substitute violist with the National, Houston, and Baltimore Symphonies, as well as the Washington National Opera. She was the winner of a contract with the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra prior to joining “Pershing’s Own”. Career highlights include performances of the solo viola role in Strauss’s Don Quixote at Rice University and participation in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Program, which allowed her to perform as a substitute with the New York Philharmonic. Schwartz has appeared at festivals such as the Pacific Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Kneisel Hall, Bowdoin, and the Banff Centre Chamber Music Residency. In addition to performing, Schwartz has held several administrative positions, including internships with the early music ensemble Handel and Haydn Society and at the Massachusetts State House. She maintains a private studio in Northern Virginia. Her primary teachers include Roger Tapping, Dimitri Murrath, Ivo-Jan Van der Werff, and Joan DerHovsepian. In her free time, Schwartz enjoys hiking, reading, photography, and cooking with friends.

SSG Julia Clancy joined The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in 2024 after serving as acting section violist in the San Diego Symphony. Prior to this appointment, she performed as a regular substitute in the Nashville Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, and Dallas Symphony. As a member of the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, she performs across the globe under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. Prior to the 2020 pandemic, she was serving a two-year contract at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin, performing opera, ballet, symphonic and chamber music. She can be heard on multiple albums with the Boulez Ensemble, Konzerthaus Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, and Aldeburgh Ensemble.
As a soloist, she has performed at 92Y, TheGreene Space, National Sawdust, LACMA, and venues across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Spain. After winning the Cleveland Institute of Music’s concerto competition, she performed with the school’s orchestra as a soloist. She has acted as principal violist in Krzysztof Penderecki’s festival orchestra, Britten-Pears Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, Moritzburg Festival Orchestra, and Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival Orchestra.
Julia’s early musical education began at the Juilliard School’s Pre-College program. She holds a degree in medical anthropology from Case Western Reserve University and a degree in music from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Jeffrey Irvine, Lynne Ramsey and Robert Vernon. Julia received her master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University, where she was a two-time winner of the Georgina Lucy Grosvenor Memorial Prize.

Rebecca Barnett, from Baltimore, Maryland, joined the U.S. Army Strings in 2022. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2018, and her master’s Degree from Rice University in 2020. Her primary teachers were Katherine Murdock and Ivo Jan van der Werff. Barnett has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician at concerts all over the United States. Barnett maintains an active private teaching studio from her home studio in Maryland.

SSG Austin Simmons grew up in Arlington, Texas, so he is both pleased and amused that fate led him to a career in Arlington, Virginia. Before joining The U.S. Army Strings in 2022, Simmons earned both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in viola performance from Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he studied with Ivo-Jan van der Werff. Throughout his musical education, Simmons enjoyed a number of artistic collaborations. Most notably, as a seasoned string quartet musician, he was invited to join Madeline Island Chamber Music’s Quartet in Residence program in 2018, where he performed the works of Hadyn and Britten across the Twin Cities. Additionally, with musical interests branching outside the realm of classical music, Simmons has played alongside artists such as Hungarian pianist Balázs Havasi and Colombian singer Fonseca. When he isn’t making music, Simmons enjoys cooking, lifting weights, and dabbling in game design.

---

If you’d like to receive Emerson Avenue Salon invitations, you can add yourself to the invitation list HERE.

---