Award Winning Violist To Join Ocean City Pops

OCEAN CITY —Violist Russell Wilson, a distinguished and versatile chamber, solo, and orchestral musician, has successfully auditioned to join the Ocean City Pops orchestra for its 83rd season this summer, music director William Scheible announced.
Last fall Wilson was appointed Principal Violist of the Vermont Symphony, and can often be heard elsewhere in New England with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and Portland Symphony Orchestra.
In 2010 he took part in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess 75th Anniversary National Tour, and the First National Tour of the Emmy award-winning contemporary oratorio, Handel’s Messiah Rocks.
Wilson has appeared in collaboration with the Miami String Quartet, Eugenia Zukerman, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Melvin Chen and as a member of Lyrica Chamber Music and the Casavi String Quartet in Boston’s Symphony Hall.
A prizewinner in the Mosha Paranov Competition, he made his orchestral solo debut with the Hartt Symphony Orchestra, playing Alan Shulman’s Theme and Variations.
The violist has participated in several competitions, including the Primrose and Corpus Christi International Solo Competition. He received First Prize in the Miami String Quartet Competition, winning the opportunity to perform with the Quartet.
Wilson has also made numerous appearances at such festivals as Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, the West End String Quartet, The Castleman Quartet Program, Spoleto USA, Henry Mancini Institute, LyricaFest, Domaine Forget, and Las Vegas Music Festival.
He completed his studies at the Longy School of Music and The Hartt School of Music, where he was a member of its 20/20 Chamber Music Program.
He can be heard on Tullen Sound Recordings available at lyricachambermusic.org, and on an upcoming Hartt School recording that includes the Shulman Variations. Wilson’s teachers include Laura Bossert, Steven Larson and Andrzej Grabiec.