Elizabeth Masoudnia, english horn &
Friends

Violinist Mitchell Newman retired from the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2020. During his 34-year career, he worked with many of the world’s great conductors including music directors Andre Previn, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel and guest conductors Simon Rattle, Kurt Sanderling, Herbert Blomstedt, Thomas Wilkins, Eric Leinsdorf, Zubin Mehta, Emmanuelle Haim, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Simone Young and Valery Gergiev.

A passionate advocate for bringing music to underserved communities, Newman founded “Harmony: Music for Mental Health,” a chamber music/fundraising concert for Mental Health America Long Beach. In 2010 he was named a mental health hero by the California State Senate. In 2015 he started “Coming Home to Music” which brings concerts of classical chamber music and jazz concerts to people who were experiencing homelessness, now living in apartment complexes built by People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). Through his close friendship with MacArthur Grant Awardee and Street Symphony founder Vijay Gupta, Newman has played many concerts for people living in Los Angeles’ Skid Row and those in incarcerated communities.

Also a dedicated teacher, Newman was deeply involved in the LA Phil’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program providing its students private lessons, master classes, and conducting string sectionals. For more than a decade he planned, curated, conducted, and hosted, in English and Spanish, an annual concert featuring YOLA students and LA Philharmonic members playing side-by-side. Newman occasionally travels to Mexico to give master classes and perform fundraising concerts for the Benning Academy. The Academy builds outstanding music conservatories and provides free lessons and instruments to Mexico’s most needy children in their neighborhoods. Newman has also taught at the Colburn School and conducted the string ensemble at the Pascale Music Institute, leading the ensemble in a concert at Carnegie Hall in 2017.

Newman is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, studying violin with Aaron Rosand, David Cerone and Yumi Ninomiya. He studied chamber music with Karen Tuttle, Felix Galamir and Mischa Schneider. At the Meadowmount School for Strings, he studied violin with Ivan Galamian and chamber music with Josef Gingold.

Currently, Newman resides in Philadelphia. He teaches an orchestra repertoire class for violinists at the Curtis Institute of Music, directs the Center for Gifted Young Musicians Chamber Players Orchestra at Temple Music Prep, and is working for Play On Philly and the Settlement Music School. He looks forward to playing chamber music and teaching in the diverse communities of the city.

Gloria dePasquale, Cellist for The Philadelphia Orchestra (1977-2022) was hired by Eugene Ormandy and served four and a half decades under ensuing artistic leadership, including Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, Charles Dutoit, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The public-school music system in Evansville, Indiana, provided Mrs. dePasquale’s early introduction to the cello and classical music, with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra providing her entry into the professional world when she won her first orchestral position with the EPO at age 15.

Attending New England Conservator of Music on a full scholarship, Mrs. DePasquale earned her BM and MM degrees (both with honors distinction) in cello performance in 1971 and 1973, as a cello student of Stephen Geber. While in Boston, Mrs. dePasquale also performed as a substitute cellist for the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops.

From 1974-77, Mrs. dePasquale was Associate Principal Cellist of the Buffalo Philharmonic, under the music directorship of Michael Tilson Thomas.

After joining The Philadelphia Orchestra cello section in 1977, Ms. dePasquale became a tireless advocate for music education and community engagement. Along with The Philadelphia Orchestra cello section, she helped to design, spearhead, and popularize The Philadelphia Orchestra PlayINs, convening hundreds of student, amateur, and professional musicians on the stage of Verizon Hall for casual performances with Philadelphia Orchestra musicians. Mrs. dePasquale and her late husband, Philadelphia Orchestra Co-Concertmaster, William dePasquale, were instrumental in forging the PYOMI-Philadelphia Orchestra Side by Side events. The dePasquales also initiated the relationship between Philadelphia Orchestra Musicians (many who are PYOMI alums) and PYOMI for the sectional masterclasses for PYO and  PYAO.

In 2006, at the invitation of PYOMI President and CEO, Louis Scaglione, Mr. and Mrs. dePasquale founded Prysm Strings, which has grown over 16 seasons to three ensembles offering a unique model of teaching string playing techniques and music making for string students K-12. Mrs. dePasquale is the Director of Prysm Strings and Conductor of the senior ensemble, Prysm. In August of 2022, Ms. dePasquale designed and launched PYOMI Summer Strings Program, a 2 week day camp for string students across all the PYOMI ensembles.

In 2013, Mrs. dePasquale designed a curriculum of classes for PYOMI, College and Conservatory Audition Preparation (CCAP), offered to all students of PYOMI, and presented each year as a series of six seminars, including adjudicated mock auditions, with a panel of professional musicians and educators.

As a soloist, Mrs. dePasquale has appeared with PYO in Verizon Hall performing Haydn’s C Major ‘Cello Concerto and Elgar’s ‘Cello Concerto. Mr. and Mrs. dePasquale appeared as soloists, performing the Brahms Double Concerto with many community and regional orchestras in the Philadelphia area, as well as a performance in Verizon Hall with PYO. The dePasquales also appeared with PYO in Verizon Hall performing Saint-Saëns’ La Muse et le Poète. And Mrs. dePasquale appeared as soloist in Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante with PYO, along with violinist, Francesca dePasquale; oboist, Peter Smith; and bassoonist, Angela Anderson Smith.

For a decade, Mrs. dePasquale was cellist in the New Philadelphia Quartet, and for more than two decades, the cellist in the dePasquale Quartet. In residence for more than two decades at Villanova University, the dePasquale Quartet featured guest collaborations with well-known artists including, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Andre Watts, Yefim Bronfam, Christoph Eschenbach,
and Wolfgang Sawallisch.

Mr. and Mrs. dePasquale also performed as the dePasquale Trio, alongside daughter, Francesca-PYO Concertmaster Alum-Professor of violin Oberlin Conservatory, faculty at Juilliard Pre-College, appearing in such venues as the Perleman Theater, The Reading Musical Society, and Villanova University.

Mrs. dePasquale’s past board service includes several terms on The Philadelphia Orchestra Board of Directors, and two decades of service as a board member for the League of American Orchestras. Currently Mrs. dePasquale serves on the President’s Council for New England Conservatory of Music.

Mrs. dePasquale continues to maintain a large private cello studio. Her students consistently gain admission to the nation’s most highly regarded academic institutions and music conservatories.