The Houston Symphony has announced the addition of violinist PATRICIA QUINTERO GARCIA and violist ALEXA SANGBIN THOMSON to its Community-Embedded Musicians initiative. They succeed violist Anthony Parce and cellist Hellen Weberpal, who left in August for positions with the Nashville and Atlanta symphonies, respectively. Garcia and Thomson join cellist Rainel Joubert and bassist David Connor in the Community-Embedded Musicians program, in which participants are members of the symphony’s Education and Community Engagement Department as well as frequent substitute musicians in the orchestra.
A native of Havana, Cuba, Patricia Quintero Garcia graduated from the Superior Institute of Arts, University in Havana and obtained her master’s degree in violin performance from the University of Southern Mississippi and performance diplomas from Indiana University School of Music. She has performed as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Havana and the Philharmonic orchestra of Caracas, Venezuela, and has served as concertmaster at Cuba’s Opera and Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of Havana. She joined the Vera Quartet in the Spring of 2016, and recently toured as part of the Sphinx Virtousi.
Alexa Sangbin Thomson is a dual citizen of New Zealand and the United States. After playing violin through high school in the U.S., she studied viola at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, later pursuing a master’s degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, finishing in May of 2018. She has performed with members of the Silk Road Ensemble, appeared as a soloist New Zealand’s Nelson Symphony and Capitol Performing Arts Orchestra, and won a fellowship with the Auckland Philharmonia. Thomson has developed two musical outreach programs, supported by the Sviatoslav Richter Award for musical outreach, one focusing on New Zealand viola music and another inspired by non-classical music for the viola.
Posted December 5, 2018
