JMU faculty members Diane Phoenix-Neal and Paulo Steinberg will perform works for viola and piano from the United States and Brazil.

Diane Phoenix-Neal performs nationally and internationally as a collaborative chamber musician and as a soloist. She also enjoys her roles as a clinician and educator nationwide. Originally from North Carolina, she is a longstanding performing faculty member of the Eastern Music Festival and holds the position of principal violist of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. In France, she served as both the principal solo violist of l’Orchestre de Picardie and as violist of Quatuor Joachim for nearly a decade. Her recent recitals and projects featuring contemporary music for viola have been presented at the Northwestern University New Music Conference, The 36th Annual JMU Contemporary Music Festival, and at the Academy of Music in Kraków, Poland. Phoenix-Neal received her training from The Juilliard School as a student of William Lincer, Paul Doktor and of the Juilliard Quartet, and earned her doctorate from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Paulo Steinberg has performed as a soloist and as a collaborative pianist across the United States, Canada, South America and Europe. A native of Brazil, he is Professor of Piano at James Madison University and teaches at the Saarburg Chamber Music Festival in Germany in the summer. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University where he studied with Belgian pianist Evelyne Brancart. Steinberg often serves as an adjudicator and offers master classes, lectures, workshops and performances in the U.S. and abroad. He has had three CD albums released recently: The Recital Clarinetist, in collaboration with clarinetist Dr. Janice Minor; Time Place Spirit, in collaboration with flutist Dr. Beth Chandler; and his solo CD Alma Brasileira. www.paulosteinberg.com