Garth Newel Music Center announces Piano Quartet’s newest member

Garth Newel Music Center has announced the appointment of Fitz Gary as the new violist of Garth Newel Piano Quartet, the center’s resident ensemble.

Gary, a native of Charlottesville, will also serve as co-artistic director of the center along with the other members of the quartet.

Gary has toured across the United States, Europe, and Asia, performing in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Japan’s Suntory Hall. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Jeffrey Irvine, and graduate studies at The Juilliard School with Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang.

Selected as a 2013-2014 Fulbright Scholar, he studied with Barbara Westphal at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck, Germany. The school subsequently awarded him the DAAD prize for an outstanding international student, as well as his second master’s degree.

While in Germany, Gary also performed with the Grammy-Award-winning NDR Sinfonieorchester (Elbphilharmonie) in Hamburg as a member of their Academy. Fitz has served as a clinician ambassador for the string company D’Addario, as well as the president of the Feldman Chamber Music Society in Norfolk.

In 2012, Gary started a project called Music Feeds Us, a chamber music series that ran for seven seasons. The concerts, featured on Performance Today, raised over 175,000 meals for partner food banks in Virginia.

As an avid orchestral musician, Gary has had the opportunity to perform with some of America’s most prestigious ensembles, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center.

Of his new position, Gary says that he is “so thrilled to be joining the Garth Newel Piano Quartet as violist and Co-Artistic Director! The Garth Newel Music Center offers such exceptional and charming experiences, and it is truly an honor to become a part of its acclaimed history.”

“We are really excited to welcome Fitz as our new violist,” says Jeannette Fang, Garth Newel Piano Quartet’s pianist. “He’s a vibrant and sensitive chamber musician, and an absolutely genuine person!”

Founded in 1973, Garth Newel Music Center is a year-round chamber music venue situated in the heart of Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains. As its artists-in-residence and artistic directors, the acclaimed Garth Newel Piano Quartet program and perform over 50 concerts each year, engaging with audiences through conversational and interactive programs.

Concerts at Garth Newel Music Center are year-round, with Summer Festival performances every Saturday and Sunday afternoon from the July 4th weekend through Labor Day, Fall Foliage Music Holidays through the month of October, Thanksgiving and New Year’s events, and Spring Music Holidays in April and May.

Information available online at www.garthnewel.org.