Monticello Strings consists of James Madison University professors Wanchi (violin), Diane Phoenix-Neal (viola), Carl Donakowski (cello) and Sam Suggs (double bass). Collectively, the four have performed worldwide as soloists, chamber music and orchestral musicians. The group members actively work with students in community and university events.

Featuring an “incisive technique and an exceptionally rich and beautiful tone,” Wanchi is an active performer at venues including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and numerous music festivals around the world. She joined “Curtis on Tour” for the 2017-2018 season. Her fourth CD under Centaur Records, which presents music by William Walton and Benjamin Britten in a collaboration with longtime friend and pianist Robert Koenig, was released in May 2019. Full bio

Violist Diane Phoenix-Neal performs nationally and internationally as a collaborative chamber musician and soloist, most recently in France, Poland and Brazil. Her sound is described as “rich and sumptuous” (Classical Voice of North Carolina) with “an admirable combination of precision and fire” (The New York Times). Phoenix-Neal is principal violist of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Orchestra, and received her training from The Juilliard School, the UNC School of the Arts, and UNC Greensboro. Full bio

Cellist Carl Donakowski pursues an international career in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Early in his career, he was a finalist in the Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin. Since then, his recital performances have been enjoyed at the Kennedy Center and Merkin Hall in New York City, and aired on WQRS Detroit and Südwestrundfunk Baden-Baden. Donakowski is a professor of cello in the James Madison University School of Music where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award. Full bio

Through “brilliant and compelling programming” (The Strad), Sam Suggs gathers musical materials through composition, re-composition and improvisation, melting barriers of genre and style with fresh interpretations and deft transitions between old and new worlds of sound, colored by the unique physicality and haunting resonance of the double bass and guiding audiences through unfamiliar territory with the soft palette of his voice. Suggs is the first solo bassist in 36 years to join the Concert Artists Guild roster. www.samsuggs.com