UVA Chamber Music Series - Cody Halquist, Horn
Cody Halquist has served as the Lecturer in Horn at the University of Virginia and Principal Horn of the Charlottesville Symphony since Fall 2021. Originally from Rochester, NY, Cody has worked for several years as an active freelancer both in the New York City area and Virginia, where he has frequently performed with the Richmond Symphony. He has played with the New Haven Symphony and is 3rd Horn of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. He has also performed internationally as an orchestral musician in Germany and South Korea. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, as well as in New York City with Ensemble Echappé and the Frisson ensemble.
He served as the Adjunct Instructor of Horn at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut from 2019-2021. A dedicated teacher for students of all levels, he was a teaching artist through the Yale Music in Schools Initiative and Morse Summer Academy for three years, which provides tuition-free music lessons and mentorship for students in the New Haven public school system.
Cody received his Bachelor of Music in Horn Performance at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance where he was a student of Adam Unsworth. While at Michigan, he was also a Stamps Scholar which funded a summer of study in London in 2013. He earned both a Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts in Performance at the Yale School of Music, studying under William Purvis. He has spent summers at the Lake George and Crested Butte Music Festivals, as well as the Collegium Musicum Summer Academy.
Alexander Davis, Bassoon
Alexander Davis is a New York City based freelance bassoonist whose artistic practice centers healing, connecting, and building community within classical music. He has played with orchestras and series such as Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, CityMusic Cleveland, Harlem Chamber Players, Symphony in C, Symphoria, and Sherman Chamber Ensemble to name a few. He has performed in summer festivals such as Tanglewood, Ensemble Evolution, Banff Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Maine Chamber Music Seminar, and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. In addition to performing, Alexander is founder of Sugar Hill Salon Chamber Music in Harlem, bassoon faculty at Montclair State University, administrative manager for the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, and a teaching artist at the Park Avenue Armory.
Lauren Williams, Oboe
Oboist Lauren Williams is a performer and teaching artist passionate about connecting with others through music. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and New York City Ballet, and has played as a chamber musician in the Helsinki Festival, Kyoto International Music Festival, and most recently in São Paulo, Brazil, at the Brazilian British Centre. She holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, and a Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale School of Music. Upon graduation from Juilliard, she received the John Erskine Commencement Prize, presented to one undergraduate for outstanding scholastic and artistic achievement.
Lauren is committed to working towards equity and accessibility in classical music. She has worked extensively as a teaching artist with students in the New Haven and New York City public school systems, and partnered with community organizations to design/present music workshops for individuals of all backgrounds — for example, with Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) in New Haven, and at healthcare facilities across New York City as a Gluck Community Service Fellow at Juilliard.
Of Armenian descent, Lauren is keenly interested in researching/arranging works for oboe by Armenian composers and was the recipient of the Mike and Mary Papazian Prize for the Performance of an Armenian Work in 2014. A 2010 Presidential Scholar in the Arts, she has spent summers at Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival USA, and was Acting English Horn/Oboe III of the Britt Festival Orchestra this year.
Shelby Sender, Piano
Shelby Sender received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of Maryland in 2013. She is active as both a solo and collaborative pianist. In March 2012, she performed in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as a part of the Adamant School of Music’s 70th Anniversary Concert. Shelby was featured in a 2011 festival at Ithaca College commemorating the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt’s birth, and she recently gave world premieres of works by Walter Gieseking at the American Musicological Society’s 2009 annual conference. She was the concert accompanist for the Washington Youth Choir from 2008-2009, and has appeared on multiple occasions with the Annapolis Chamber Players. Shelby can be heard on an upcoming Centaur recording of unpublished works by Walter Gieseking, playing both solo and chamber music.
As an alternate for a Fulbright Grant to Hungary, she studied during the 2010/2011 academic year under Kálmán Dráfi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. In Hungary, she gave performances in Bartók Hall at the Institute for Musicology, and the Régi Zeneakadémia at the Franz Liszt Memorial House and Museum. In 2011, she was invited to perform at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the Universität der Kunste and as a part of the European Fulbright Conference.
Shelby received her Master of Music degree from the University of Maryland and her Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College. Until recently, she was the coordinator for the class piano program at the University of Maryland, where she also taught class piano and gave private lessons to piano minors. She currently maintains a private studio in Central Virginia and works as the choral accompanist at St. Anne’s-Belfield in Charlottesville. She is also on faculty at the Crescendo Summer Institute in Tokaj, Hungary. Recent teachers include Bradford Gowen, Read Gainsford, and Jennifer Hayghe.
CONCERT PROGRAM (word document)
All programs are subject to change.
For more information please contact the Department of Music at 434.924.3052 or music@virginia.edu.