Wistaria Quartet Member Bios
Sarah Briggs, violin
Sarah Briggs teaches at Amherst and Smith colleges, and performs regularly with the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at the Eastman School, and received a MM at the University of Texas at Austin. She was a fellow for two summers at Tanglewood, participated in the Heidelberg Opera Festival, the Bach Aria Festival, and Tafelmusik seminar, and has been coached by members of the Juilliard and Cleveland Quartets. Sarah began her career in the Charlotte Symphony, and was next tenured with the Colorado Symphony in Denver. She moved to Chicago in 1994 and performed with the Chicago and Milwaukee Symphonies, Concertanti di Chicago, and toured Japan with the Chicago String Ensemble. Before moving to Massachusetts, she lived in Ketchikan, Alaska, where her son was born, and then lived in Germany for two years. Sarah is an avid yogini and Zen meditator. She lives in Northampton, MA. |
Kaila Graef, violin
Kaila Graef has performed with a diverse range of groups, including a swing band in Baltimore, the Springfield Symphony, and Washington D.C.'s Inscape Chamber Music Project. Kaila holds a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance from Peabody Conservatory, where she was a student of Shirley Givens and studied chamber music with Earl Carlyss of the Juilliard Quartet. She completed her masters at UMass Amherst, where she was a member of the Graduate String Quartet and studied with Marylou Speaker Churchill. A dedicated teacher, Kaila has served on the faculty of the Vermont Youth Orchestra’s summer music festival, Strings at Amherst, and the Northampton Community Music Center. Kaila currently teaches at her private studio in Amherst, MA. |
Gregory Diehl, viola
Gregory Diehl is a native of central Vermont and studied at the Eastman and Manhattan Schools of Music. He is an avid chamber musician and has studied chamber music with members of the Cleveland and American String Quartets. He has spent summers at the Spoleto Festival and Musica Orvieto in Italy, as well as the Estherwood Music Festival in England. For several years he lived and worked in Japan, playing in the Gunma Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Gion, as well as smaller chamber ensembles in the Tokyo region. In addition to performing, he is an active teacher and recently completed a long-term training course in Suzuki pedagogy at the Hartt School of Music. He is currently based in western Massachusetts and continues to teach and perform with ensembles throughout the region. In addition to his musical training, Greg holds an MA in Japanese Language and Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. |
Wayne Smith, cello
A highly sought-after chamber musician, cellist Wayne Smith has appeared with the New Jersey Chamber Music Society, the Ritz Chamber Players, the Manhattan Chamber Players, among others. He has performed with the National Chamber Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonic of New Jersey, the Princeton Chamber Symphony, and the Heidelberg Castle Festival Orchestra in Heidelberg, Germany, and was a featured soloist on the PBS Series “Musical Encounters." Wayne gave his recital debut at the Kennedy Center in 1996 to critical acclaim and made his concerto debut at the age of 20 with the Philharmonic of New Jersey. He has recorded and performed with such artists as the Moody Blues, Joe, Richard Smallwood, Anthony Krizan of the Spin Doctors, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Wayne completed his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music with Steven Doane and pursued his graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with Astrid Schween. |