Charismatic violinist and presenter Casey Bozell offers performances and music experiences which engage and inspire audiences across the Pacific Northwest. Her bold and colorful playing “draws out strong emotions” (The Linfield Review) and casts new light on traditional repertoire. As a presenter, Casey shares a magnetic enthusiasm for music which, when coupled with her approachable and cheerful personality, widens and deepens audiences and their connection to classical music.
Casey is the concertmaster of the Newport Symphony and Orchestra Nova Northwest, and is also a member of the Portland Opera Orchestra and Oregon Ballet Theater. Recent solo engagements include appearances with the Newport Symphony, Orchestra Nova Northwest, Tualatin Valley Symphony Orchestra, Beaverton Symphony, Linfield Chamber Orchestra, and the Central Oregon Chamber Orchestra. An adept chamber musician, Casey is a founding member of the Hammers and Bows piano trio and Element String Quartet. Committed to exploring new possibilities for her instrument, Casey has premiered several compositions by talented local composers. Among her world premiere performances are compositions by Thomas Barber, Ames Bierly, NIcole Buetti, Douglas Detrick, and Nora Ryan.
Since 2020, Casey has been the creator and host of the podcast Keep Classical Weird, which focuses on the quirks and oddities of the world of classical music. The podcast has enjoyed tens of thousands of downloads in over 100 countries. Her new series, The Breakdown, releasing this fall, goes even further into specific classical works and offers listeners a closer, more constructive view on both standard and unconventional works of the repertoire.
Passionate about developing creativity and musical literacy in young people, she serves on the faculty of the Young Musicians and Artists summer camp (since 2010), and teaches at Portland State University as the String Tech professor in the education department. Casey served as Violin and Viola Instructor at Concordia University for ten years where she directed the Concordia University Chamber Ensemble. Past positions also include teaching at Corban, Pacific and Marylhurst Universities. Her students have participated in the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Pro-Arte Youth Orchestra, Oregon All-State Orchestra, and have won college scholarships and concerto competitions across the Pacific Northwest region.
Casey’s greatest mentors include Gerardo Ribeiro, Mitchell Newman, Richard Fuchs, and Harold Wippler. She received her Bachelors of Music Performance from the University of Northern Colorado, and her Masters of Music Performance from Northwestern University. She plays on an 1874 Frederic Diehl violin. When Casey isn’t on the stage or behind the podcast microphone, you can find her relaxing with her partner, her daughter, and her three objectively ridiculous cats.
Cellist Eric Schatz Alterman has led a varied musical life that has spanned continents and roles as a chamber musician, orchestral performer, soloist, and composer. Residing in Rio de Janeiro, he performed for 5 years as a section cellist and assistant principal in the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, where he performed with Brazilian musical legends including Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento, and Gal Costa. Currently based in Oregon as cellist of the Delgani String Quartet, considered by Oregon Arts Watch “the state’s finest chamber ensemble,” he curates a season of string quartet programs in Portland, Eugene, Corvallis, and Salem. Known regionally for his heartfelt, expressive playing, Eugene Scene writes that Alterman, “revealed the cello’s achingly soulful side.”
Alterman’s creative passion for music and improvisation has made him a frequent collaborator of all types of artists. He has created music for dancers, sat in with numerous bands, performed improvised solo sets, and composed an original cello suite based on the Bach suites. An experienced orchestral performer, Alterman continues to serve as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Eugene Symphony and Acting Principal Cellist of the Oregon Mozart Players, and is a frequent substitute with the Oregon Symphony.
Alterman grew up in New York City, where he began music studies at a young age at the Mannes College of Music. Going on to receive Bachelors and Masters degrees at Brandeis University and Boston University, he studied cello with former and current Lydian Quartet members, Rhonda Rider and Joshua Gordon, and the late Vermeer Quartet cellist, Marc Johnson.
Robert Wakeley is a flutist and teacher based in Portland. He performs as 2nd flute with the Rogue Valley Symphony, 2nd flute/piccolo with the Eugene Concert Choir and Orchestra, and as a regular substitute with orchestras around the Pacific Northwest, including the Vancouver and Helena Symphonies, Orchestra NOVA Northwest, and the Boise Philharmonic. He has also performed as 3rd flute/piccolo with Orchestra NEXT, the resident orchestra of the Eugene Ballet Company. He was awarded the Thelma Hunter Schubert Club Award at the 2018 Schubert Club Scholarship Competition in Minneapolis, was runner-up in the 2016 Coeur d’Alene Symphony National Young Artist Competition in Spokane, Washington, and has been a finalist in both the solo and chamber music categories of the Frances Walton Competition in Seattle.
In addition to the traditional repertoire, Robert is a dedicated performer of new and lesser-known works for the flute. He has performed live on Minnesota Public Radio in a concert that featured world premieres by two young Minnesota composers. He has also performed as guest flutist and piccoloist with the Balkanicus Contemporary Ensemble in Minneapolis in a program of world and North American premieres of works by Balkan composers. In 2015, as a performance fellow at Hong Kong’s Modern Academy, he played in the Asian premiere of Edgard Varese’s Etude pour Espace for orchestra, chorus, and spatialized sound diffusion with the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart. He has also collaborated on numerous world premieres with members of the Oregon Composers Forum and was invited to perform with his Pierrot ensemble at the 2016 Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium.
In addition to his work with MYS, Robert teaches for the Rogue Valley Symphony’s education programs and teaches private lessons at his home in Southwest Portland. His students have successfully auditioned into local and state honor bands as well as the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies in Minnesota and MYS in Portland. He has also been a section coach for the Minnesota All-State band and a flute coach and chamber music clinician for the University of Minnesota Honor Band, the Complete Flutist workshop at the University of Minnesota, and the Festival of the Oaks in Prior Lake, Minnesota.
Robert received his doctorate in Flute Performance from the University of Minnesota and previously studied at the University of Oregon, Carleton College, and the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina.
