Wednesday, January 15, 2024, 7:00-8:30 p.m., The Great Hall. Dvořák Piano Quintet, No. 2.

Experience the beauty of the historic Howey Mansion with an intimate salon concert featuring five musicians from The Florida Orchestra.

Wesley Ducote, piano
Natalie Yu, violin
Vivek Jayaraman, violin
Sebastian Stefanovic, viola
Victor Minke Huls, cello

The program features Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor, op. 1 by Ernő Dohnányi, an encore of Dr. Eric Heumann's Whispers of Ethereality, and Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, op. 81, B. 155 Antonín Dvořák.

About the musicians:

Noted for his "elegant and brilliant pianism" (South Florida Classical Review), Wesley Ducote is a pianist/arranger based in St. Petersburg, Florida who has led a diverse musical career pursuing an extensive range of interests.

As a collaborator, Mr. Ducote has been featured with many of today’s brightest stars including composer/vocalist Kate Soper, Emmy Award-winning composer and Vietnamese folk musician Van Anh Vo, flutists Leone Buyse and Carol Wincenc, clarinetist Evan Ziporyn, soprano Ana Maria Martinez, and many others. He has served as principal\guest principal keyboardist with the Houston Grand Opera, Naples Philharmonic, The Florida Orchestra, and the Britt Festival Orchestra, and recently completed a piano fellowship at the New World Symphony.

An enthusiastic performer of new and contemporary music, Mr. Ducote has premiered over 40 new works and worked with faculty at institutions in China, South Korea, Canada and all over the United States. His new music experience includes works for solo piano, chamber ensembles, orchestra and even a piano concerto written for him. Mr. Ducote is the recently appointed Assistant Artistic Director of the Louis Moreau Institute in New Orleans and has also been a guest artist at MIT, Rocket City New Music, and the Great Falls Symphony.

Violinist Natalie Yu is the 2nd Assistant Concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra, and has appeared numerous times as a soloist on the concert stage. Most notable performances include a performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with members of the Oregon Symphony and Oregon Ballet Theater, the Vivaldi Four Seasons with the Oregon Symphony, and most recently Wieniawski’s Fantasia on a Theme with ‘Faust’ with the Florida Orchestra. Ms. Yu has also served in leadership positions with the American Youth Symphony, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Colburn Orchestra, Portland Youth Philharmonic and the Young Musician Foundation’s Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles, California. Ms. Yu holds an Artist’s Diploma and Bachelor of Music from the Colburn Conservatory of Music as well as a Master’s of Music from The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where she studied with Robert Lipsett and Kathleen Winkler respectively.

Vivek Jayaraman is a violinist with The Florida Orchestra and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland. He has performed in the string sections of several major U.S. orchestras, including The Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and New York Philharmonic. Additionally, he has served as concertmaster for symphonies in Shreveport, Canton (OH), Knoxville, Jacksonville, and Vancouver. During the summer, Vivek performs with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and the Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra. A former Fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami, Vivek holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Violist Sebastian Stefanovic joined The Florida Orchestra in the fall of 2022. He is a Baltimore native and completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Rice University’s Shepherd School while studying with Ivo-Jan van der Werff. 

Stefanovic is a passionate advocate for new music and the expansion of the viola repertoire, and he has commissioned, premiered and recorded a variety of solo and ensemble works, including the winning composition of the American Viola Society’s Gardner Prize, as well as participated in the 2020 and 2021 Composers’ Conference.

As a chamber musician, he has received quartet fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival and the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar. He enjoys inventive and multifaceted programming, frequently curating interdisciplinary collaborations for the Houston-based conductorless string orchestra Kinetic. He spent three years as a Young Artist for DACAMERA Houston, performing and teaching in schools, museums and galleries.

Since moving to Tampa Bay, Stefanovic has helped create and co-teach a seven-week Community Strings Summer Program in Ridgecrest, now in its second year, as TFO’s first community embedded musician. He is also the director of the Pinellas Youth Philharmonic.

Victor Minke Huls is a cellist, conductor, and pianist. He joined the Florida Orchestra as associate principal cellist in 2023, and will be a featured soloist in February 2025, playing the Saint-Saëns cello concerto. Previously, Dr. Huls served as the principal cellist of the Amarillo Symphony (2019-23), and was a cello fellow at the New World Symphony (2021-23). He has also performed with the Jacksonville Symphony, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Toledo Symphony, Saint Augustine Music Festival, Lincoln Center Stage, Nu Deco Ensemble, and in 2015 he was prominently featured in the NAXOS recording project at the National Orchestral Institute.

Dr. Huls completed his doctorate of musical arts degree in orchestral conducting at Northwestern University with Victor Yampolsky in 2022, where he conducted many ensembles, and premiered music by student composers. He previously earned dual-Masters degrees from the University of Michigan in cello performance with Richard Aaron and orchestral conducting with Kenneth Kiesler (2017). During his time in Michigan, Dr. Huls was music director of a chamber orchestra known as the Ann Arbor Camerata, and recorded an album with Dr. Nancy King titled, “IllumiNation: New American Concertos for Oboe,” released by Equilibrium Records.

Dr. Huls has been a guest teacher in many festivals and workshops, including the Iberacademy of Medellín, Colombia, Prelude Chamber Music Camp (FL), the Walker Family Band Camp (NC), an El Sistema program in Venezuela, and the Trentino Music Festival in Italy. He is also an alum of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, FL.

Tickets: $45/person, $50 at the door. Tickets are general admission. A cash bar will be available. Doors open 30 minutes before the concert.