Presenter:
Julia Clancy

The violists in Pershing’s Own, the President’s Own, and the Air Force Strings serve a unique roll in the orchestral, chamber, pedagogical, and solo music ecosystem in Virginia and beyond. We would like the chance to present on the path to becoming a performing artist through the military. Pershing’s Own, specifically, employs the most violists out of all the military ensembles (4 total). We perform as a viola quartet as well as in trios and duos. Julia Clancy is our arranger and has created custom arrangements for different occasions. Due to the nature of our job and how “missions” are assigned, we will only be able to guarantee how many of us can perform (including possibly our pianist) once we go through official channels to make this a government mission on the books, however, we would like to plan for 4 of us, along with a pianist to present (depending on approval from our command). We would like to dedicate a portion of the recital to playing our original arrangements for viola quartet as well as original compositions for four violas, and part of the recital to speaking about life as a military musicians and answer questions about the audition process and going through military recruiting.