Simone Porter & Blake Pouliot, violin

Violinist Simone Porter has been recognized as an emerging artist of impassioned energy, interpretive integrity, and vibrant communication. In the past few years she has debuted with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and with a number of renowned conductors, including Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, and Donald Runnicles. Born in 1996, Simone made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony and her international debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London at age 13. In March 2015, Simone was named a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. 

With the cessation of live concerts Simone continued to record streamed events with Seattle, Pittsburgh, Charlotte and Greater Bridgeport Symphonies. Subsequent seasons included extensive US touring with debuts and return visits to orchestras such as Colorado, North Carolina, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Omaha, Quebec, Princeton, Monterey, Bakersfield, Marin, Ridgefield, Wyoming, Winston-Salem, Virginia, Marin, Lexington, Modesto, New Haven, Bozeman, Portsmouth and Jacksonville symphonies, Erie Philharmonic and Florida Orchestra. Recent recital highlights include a tour in Spain with pianist Pallavi Mahidhara and debuts at Celebrity Series in Boston and NY92, both of which featured the newly commissioned piece by composer Reena Esmail. 23/24 season is starting with Domaine-Forget and Moab Music Festivals, followed by orchestral performances in Shreveport, Burlington, Columbus, Hawaii, Greenville, Mobile and Rockford symphonies as well as a debut with Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia de la Fundacion Excelentia in Madrid. In recital, Simone can be heard in Kentucky, California and Aspen, CO. 

At the invitation of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Simone performed his work ‘Lachen verlernt’ (‘Laughing Unlearnt’), at the New York Philharmonic’s “Foreign Bodies,” a multi-sensory celebration of the work of the composer and conductor. In recent seasons, she has also appeared at the Edinburgh Festival performing Barber under the direction of Stéphane Denève, and at the Mostly Mozart Festival performing Mozart under Louis Langrée.  She has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl with both Nicholas McGegan and Ludovic Morlot, and at Walt Disney Concert Hall with Gustavo Dudamel. 

Internationally, Simone has performed with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra with  Gustavo Dudamel; the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro; the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica; the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong; the Royal Northern Sinfonia; the Milton Keynes City Orchestra in the United Kingdom; and the Opera de Marseilles.

Simone made her Carnegie Zankel Hall debut on the Emmy Award-winning TV show From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall followed in November 2016 by her debut in Stern Auditorium. In June 2016, her featured performance of music from Schindler’s List with Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and members of the American Youth Symphony was broadcast nationally on the TNT Network as part of the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute to John Williams.

Raised in Seattle, Washington, Simone studied with Margaret Pressley as a recipient of the Dorothy Richard Starling Scholarship, and was then admitted into the studio of the renowned pedagogue Robert Lipsett, with whom she studied at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. Summer studies have included many years at the Aspen Music Festival, Indiana University's Summer String Academy, and the Schlern International Music Festival in Italy.

Simone Porter performs on a 1740 Carlo Bergonzi violin made in Cremona Italy on generous loan from The Master’s University, Santa Clarita, California.

Described as “immaculate, at once refined and impassioned,” (ArtsAtlanta) violinist Blake Pouliot (pool-YACHT) has anchored himself among the ranks of classical phenoms. A tenacious young artist with a passion that enraptures his audience in every performance, Pouliot has established himself as “one of those special talents that comes along once in a lifetime” (Toronto Star). Described as “immaculate, at once refined and impassioned,” (ArtsAtlanta) violinist Blake Pouliot (pool-YACHT) has anchored himself among the ranks of classical phenoms. A tenacious young artist with a passion that enraptures his audience in every performance, Pouliot has established himself as “one of those special talents that comes along once in a lifetime” (Toronto Star). 

Blake Pouliot’s 2023/24 symphonic highlights include Shostakovich 1, Bruch 1, Tchaikovsky, Korngold and Sibelius concerti across the US and Canada with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Roderick Cox, Artis-Naples and NAC Ottawa with Alexander Shelley, and Quebec City Symphony with Clemens Schuldt, among others. 

In Europe this season, Pouliot makes his Spanish debut with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Spain at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid, performing the Tchaikovsky concerto with Rossen Milanov alongside which Pouliot will also play-direct Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons in a separate chamber program. 

During his time as Soloist-in-Residence of Orchestre Métropolitain in 2020/21, Pouliot and Yannick Nézet-Séguin performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons which led to Pouliot’s 2022 debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center, performing John Corigliano’s The Red Violin (Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra) with Nézet-Séguin. Highlights elsewhere include Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in 2022/23, with Angela Hewitt and Bryan Cheng, as well as performances of the Paganini, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns concerti and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy in subscription series across North America. 

As a chamber musician, Pouliot returns this season to NAC Chamber Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and La Jolla Summerfest where he performed the festival-opening concert last year with conductor Alan Gilbert, and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada for his third consecutive year as Artist-in Residence. He will also make his chamber debut with Festival Napa Valley at the San Francisco Conservatory. Previous recitals include Koerner Hall in Toronto, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the world premiere of Derrick Skye’s God of the Gaps for violin and electronics at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. 

Pouliot released his debut album of 20th century French music on Analekta Records in 2019. Featuring Ravel’s Tzigane and Violin Sonata in G, Debussy’s Violin Sonata in G minor and Beau Soir, the recording received critical acclaim including a five-star rating from BBC Music Magazine and a 2019 Juno Award nomination for Best Classical Album. 

Since his orchestral debut at age 11, Pouliot has performed with the orchestras of Aspen, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Madison, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, and Seattle, among many others. Internationally, he has performed as soloist with the Sofia Philharmonic in Bulgaria, Orchestras of the Americas on its South American tour, and was the featured soloist for the first ever joint tour of the European Union Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Canada. He has collaborated with many musical luminaries including conductors Sir Neville Marriner, David Afkham, Pablo Heras-Casado, David Danzmayr, JoAnn Falletta, Marcelo Lehninger, Nicholas McGegan, Alexander Prior, Vasily Petrenko and Thomas Søndergård.

Pouliot has been featured twice on Rob Kapilow’s What Makes it Great? series and has been NPR’s Performance Today Artist-in-Residence in Minnesota (2017/18), Hawaii (2018/19), and across Europe (2021/22). Prior to that, he won the Grand Prize at the 2016 Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Manulife Competition and was named First Laureate of both the 2018 and 2015 Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank. 

Pouliot performs on the 1729 Guarneri del Gesù on generous loan from an anonymous donor.

Quickly becoming recognized as today's most sought after pianist, Hsin-I has worked with many artists such as Chee-Yun Kim, William Hagen, Simone Porter, Blake Pouliot, Steve Erdody, Jacob Braun, The Calidore String Quartet,  and members of the LA Philharmonic. She also enjoys working with film composers, Marco Beltrami, Ramin Djawadi, Aaron Zigman, Geoff Zanelli, Torin Borrowdale and Siddhartha Khosla.  

In September 2017, she recorded her first album with violinist Blake Pouliot for the Canadian label Analekta Records, which was nominated for "Classical Album Of The Year" at the JUNO awards in 2019 and received 5 stars from BBC Music Magazine.  In 2019, Hsin-I toured North America with the"Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience" serving as Assistant Conductor in addition to Solo Keyboardist.

Hsin-I has made guest appearances at the Hollywood Bowl, LA Philharmonic Chamber Music Series, Aspen Music Festival, Phila Chamber Music Society, Celebrity Series of Boston, Ravinia BGH Classics Series, Grand Teton Winter Music Festival, La Virée Classique OSM, Fête de la Musique Mont Tremblant, NPR’s Performance Today, Sundays Live at LACMA, South Bay Chamber Music Society, Sounding Point Academy and the Innsbrook Institute.  

Hsin-I is also an accomplished cellist, winning many National competitions in Taiwan before completely focusing on piano.