National Symphony Orchestra Appoints New Associate Principal Viola

Dana Kelley will step into the role

The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Washington, D.C. has announced that violist Dana Kelley has won the audition to be its new Associate Principal Viola.

Kelley has received top prizes in a number of notable competitions, including the Sphinx Music Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, and the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition.

A member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (and one of its Artistic Directors), she has also previously played in the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble.

She has appeared in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Recital Hall at New York’s Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts, the Ravinia Festival, and Bravo! Vail, and collaborated with artists such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Nobuko Imai, and Miriam Fried, pianists Leon Fleisher, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Misha Dichter, and Astrid Schween of the Juilliard String Quartet.

Kelley studied violin with Cornelia Heard and viola with Kathryn Plummer at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University,  before completing her master's degree at the New England Conservatory with Kim Kashkashian. As a member of the Argus Quartet, she was part of the Graduate Quartet in Residence at The Juilliard School, where she received her Artist Diploma.

She was also a 2014-2016 Fellow in Ensemble Connect — a performance and teaching program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute.