\t\t\t\tMark Debski,\u00a0Paul Hafley, Samantha Bennett,\u00a0SaiSai Ding,\u00a0Christian Luevano, and\u00a0Alexander Heather\u00a0will join the orchestra<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Dallas Symphony Orchestra\u00a0<\/strong>(DSO) has appointed six new players, all of whom will join the orchestra for the beginning of the 2025\/26 season. They are\u00a0Mark Debski\u00a0<\/strong>(Interim Principal Oboe),\u00a0Paul Hafley\u00a0<\/strong>(Associate Principal and E-flat Clarinet),\u00a0Samantha Bennett<\/strong> (interim second violin),\u00a0SaiSai Ding\u00a0<\/strong>(cello),\u00a0Christian Luevano\u00a0<\/strong>(Associate Principal Bass), and\u00a0Alexander Heather\u00a0<\/strong>(section bass).<\/p>\n Oboist\u00a0Mark Debski\u00a0<\/strong>has recently held positions as Principal Oboe in The Florida Orchestra and the Richmond Symphony, and he was also a fellow at the New World Symphony. In addition, he has appeared as a guest player with the Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and The Cleveland Orchestra.<\/p>\n Clarinetist\u00a0Paul Hafley<\/strong> has served in the United States Navy Band since 2021. Prior to this, he was Principal Clarinet with the Corinth Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as a guest with the Washington National Opera, Washington Opera Society, and Sunflower Music Festival. He studied at the University of Memphis, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the University of Texas at Austin.<\/p>\n Violinist\u00a0Samantha Bennett<\/strong> studied with Donald Weilerstein<\/strong> and Malcolm Lowe<\/strong> at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has previously played in the Dallas Opera Orchestra and was Principal Second Violin of the Sarasota Orchestra between 2016 and 2022.<\/p>\n Cellist\u00a0SaiSai Ding\u00a0<\/strong>is a recent graduate of Southern Methodist University and also attended the Curtis Institute of Music. His accolades include winning the Collin County Young Artists Competition, the Vernell Gregg Young Artist Competition, the Fort Worth Symphony Young Artist Competition, and the Schoenfeld International Competition Best Commission Prize.<\/p>\n Bassist\u00a0Christian Luevano\u00a0<\/strong>is currently studying at the Curtis Institute with Hal Robinson<\/strong> and Edgar Meyer<\/strong>. He has received accolades or reached the finals in every major competition open to double bassists in the United States, including the\u00a0Sphinx, Stulberg, and Klein Competitions.<\/p>\n Bassist\u00a0Alexander Heather\u00a0<\/strong>also studied with Hal Robinson<\/strong> and Edgar Meyer\u00a0<\/strong>at the Curtis Institute, where he earned his master’s degree. His undergraduate study was undertaken in London at the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music, and he is a graduate of Wells Cathedral School, a specialist music high school.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Debski,\u00a0Paul Hafley, Samantha Bennett,\u00a0SaiSai Ding,\u00a0Christian Luevano, and\u00a0Alexander Heather\u00a0will join the orchestra \u00a0 The\u00a0Dallas Symphony Orchestra\u00a0(DSO) has appointed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":162439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-162438","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-tx","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115063939906777296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}