Yoonshin Song was appointed as Concertmaster of the Houston Symphony in August 2019. Prior to that, she held the same position with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. In Europe, Yoonshin has served as guest concertmaster of the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer for several years, and she has led the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra under numerous top-tiered conductors, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Klaus Mäkelä, Daniel Harding, Mikhail Pletnev, and Antonio Pappano. She also served as guest concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the KBS Symphony Orchestra.

Beyond her first chair duties, Yoonshin has performed as a soloist with many orchestras around the world, including the Houston Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Paul Constantinescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the KBS Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

She has also participated as a soloist and a chamber musician in various roles in leading music festivals, including the ones in Verbier, Lucerne, Samos, and Bayreuth in Europe; and the Marlboro, Great Lakes, and Deer Valley in the United States.

Yoonshin has earned many prestigious prizes throughout her career, including top prize awards in the Lipizer International Violin Competition, the Lipinski and Wieniawski International Violin Competition, the Henry Marteau International Violin Competition, and first prize at the Stradivarius International Competition in the United States.

She studied under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory and with Robert Mann, Glenn Dicterow, and Lisa Kim at the Manhattan School of Music.

Yoonshin Song, Concertmaster, is holder of the Max Levine Chair.

A native of Moscow, Russia, Sergei Galperin began studying violin at the age of 5 and shortly thereafter gave his first public performance in the Concert Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Galperin comes from a family of musicians – a choral conductor mother, a recording engineer father, and a younger sister who plays the piano.

After studying at the Moscow Conservatory with professor N. Boyarsky, Galperin received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where he was a full-scholarship student in the class of Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang. He later earned Artist Diplomas from Indiana University and Peabody Conservatory in the class of Z. Gilels, N. Shkolnikova, and H. Greenberg.

Galperin made his American solo orchestral debut in May 1982 at the age of 16, playing the Wieniawski Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. He has also performed as a soloist with the Houston Symphony in their Educational and Pops Series, as well as with the Indiana University, Aspen Symphony, and Dallas Festival orchestras.

As a winner of Artist International auditions, Galperin made his New York solo recital debut in March 1988 at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. After winning New York’s National Arts Club Competition in 1987, he was featured in recital on live ABC and PBS news shows. Subsequently he appeared in recital at Alice Tully and Merkin Concert Halls at Lincoln Center. In May 1993, he won an honorable mention award as a finalist of a prestigious Concert Artist Guild competition.

Currently a first violinist of the Houston Symphony, Galperin has also been invited to serve as Concertmaster with the Rochester Philharmonic for the 2004–05 season, as well as with the Adelaide Symphony in Australia. Prior to his current position, Galperin was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony first violin section from 1999–2002. He has also worked with the Chicago and Baltimore symphony orchestras, as well as the Grant Park, Aspen, and Grand Teton festival orchestras, A. Schneider String Seminar, and Taos Chamber Music Festival. As a member of chamber and symphony orchestras Galperin has toured internationally in Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina, Israel and Europe.

Sergei Galperin teaches privately and has served as a faculty member at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in 1999–2003, as well as a Professor of Violin at the University of St. Thomas in Houston in 1998–99 and teaching assistant at the Indiana University School of Music from 1990–1994.

Violinist Alexandros Sakarellos has performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician across five continents and in 25 countries.

A native of Greece, Sakarellos received his early musical training at the Athens Conservatory, Greece's leading musical institution. While in Greece he enjoyed a satisfying performing career from a very early age. Before turning 20 he was already appearing frequently as a soloist and recitalist, serving as Concertmaster of the City of Athens Symphony Orchestra and as a first violinist with the Athens State Orchestra.

In 2005 Alexandros moved to New York. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music with New York Philarmonic's Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, Assistant Principal Lisa Kim and Professor Isaac Malkin.

During his years in New York, his activities included performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Concertmaster appearances under renowned artists such as Kurt Masur and Pinchas Zuckerman, performances in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Museum Of Modern Arts, the Onassis Foundation and other such venues.

Sakarellos is a leading violinist with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Gabor Takacs Nagy and has worked closely with artists such as Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov and Yuri Bashmet.

Other appearances include the Festivals of Ravello in Italy, Miyazaki in Japan, Bellerive in Switzerland and Santo Domingo. In 2009 he was privileged to be invited by the prestigious Athens-Epidaurus Festival to give the Greek premiere of several works by the awarded American-Greek composer George Tsontakis.

Before joining the Houston Symphony, Sakarellos has been a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 2014. Prior to that he played for two years in the 1st Violin section of the San Francisco Opera.

Since 2022 he has been working very closely with world renowned violinist Leonidas Kavakos as part of the ApollΩn Ensemble , under the leadership of the great artist.

He is playing on violins by Joseph Gagliano (made in 1760) and Stephan von Baehr (made in 2020).

Joan DerHovsepian serves as Principal Viola of the Houston Symphony. She first joined as section viola hired by Christoph Eschenbach, moved to Associate Principal for thirteen seasons, and was named Principal Viola with current Music Director Juraj Valčuha in 2023. She has appeared as guest principal viola with the Chicago and Cincinnati symphonies and was formerly Principal Viola of the Charleston Symphony. Recent solo performances with the Houston Symphony include Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with Concertmaster Yoonshin Song, Bruch Double Concerto with former Principal 2nd Violin MuChen Hsieh and Strauss Don Quixote with Principal Cello Brinton Smith.

In fall 2025 DerHovsepian began as violist of the Axelrod String Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., playing on the museum’s collection of Nicolò Amati and Stradivari instruments. Other recent festival and chamber music performances include the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Mainly Mozart Orchestra, Grand Teton Music Festival, Mimir Chamber Music Festival (Ft. Worth TX and Melbourne Australia), Music in Context, Peninsula Music Festival, New Canaan Chamber Music, Fabbri Chamber Concerts and Musica Tra Amici.

She has passionately taught the viola orchestral repertoire course at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music for over 20 years, coaching students to win positions in major orchestras across the US and around the world. DerHovsepian is regular guest faculty for the New World Symphony and National Orchestral Institute. She was featured as Artist-in-Residence for the American Viola Society in 2023.

DerHovsepian was the violist of the award winning Everest Quartet, top prize winners at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and she was the second place recipient of the Primrose International Viola Competition. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and pursued graduate study at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg Germany. Her teachers have included James Dunham and Kim Kashkashian. She has studied chamber music with Michael Tree, Eugene Lehner, Joseph Silverstein, Felix Galimir and members of the Cleveland, Emerson and Juilliard Quartets.

Samuel Pedersen joined the Houston Symphony viola section in 2022 under Maestro Orozco-Estrada and was appointed Assistant Principal in 2024 by Maestro Valčuha.

Pedersen was raised in Batavia, IL. He holds a master’s degree from Rice University and a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University. Principal teachers include Ivo van der Werff and Rami Solomonow, with additional instruction from Lawrence Neuman and Joan DerHovsepian.

As a student, he was a fellow of the New World Symphony and a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He spent summers performing and studying at the Tanglewood Music Center and Madeline Island Chamber Music.

Pedersen is a regular collaborator with other Symphony colleagues for chamber music performances facilitated by Third Space Music.

Outside of Jones Hall, Pedersen enjoys cycling, frisbee, grilling, and spending time with his brother, Andrew, Houston Symphony’s Assistant Principal double bassist.

James (Jimmy) Cunningham IV was born in Pittsburgh, PA, and recently moved to Houston to study with James Dunham at Rice University. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan where he studied with Yizhak Schotten, and an Artist Diploma from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings where he worked with Victoria Chiang and Rebecca Albers. During his Artist Diploma, he also worked closely with mentors Lawrence Dutton and Annie Fullard, and performed in numerous chamber ensembles alongside Amy Schwartz Moretti, Cho-Liang Lin, Andy Armstrong, Ettore Causa, and others.

During summer of 2024, Cunningham was a member of the New Fromm Quartet at the Tanglewood Music Center. In addition to working with student composers to premier brand-new compositions, the quartet presented a wide variety of contemporary chamber works under the direction of curators Tania León and Steven Mackey. During summer 2023, Cunningham was an orchestral fellow at Tanglewood; and from 2018 to 2022, he spent four summers at the Aspen Music Festival as an orchestral fellow. While at Aspen, he performed as Principal Viola of the Aspen Opera Orchestra and Assistant Principal Viola of the Aspen Chamber Symphony.

In 2016, Cunningham performed with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA at Carnegie Hall conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and Valery Gergiev. That fall, Cunningham debuted with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performing the Telemann Double Concerto with his teacher at the time, Marylène Gingras-Roy. He hopes to have a viola studio of his own in the future, and at home he enjoys making pasta from scratch and exploring manual espresso.

Louis-Marie Fardet was appointed cellist with the Houston Symphony in January 2015. Previously, he served as assistant principal cellist for the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet. Prior to moving to Houston, he was a tenured member of L’Opéra de Paris Orchestra for five years. Born in Rochefort, the south-west coast of France, Fardet moved to Paris to pursue his cello studies at the prestigious Paris Conservatory and then came to Houston in 1999 to study with Paul Katz at Rice University.

Fardet has won top prizes at several international competitions, including the Antonio Janigro Cello Competition in Zagreb, Croatia and the Ima Hogg Competition in Houston, and has participated in numerous international music festivals such as the Ravinia Festival, Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall, and Chamber Music Encounters in Jerusalem.

Logan May joined the Houston Symphony bass section in 2025, under the baton of Juraj Valčuha. Prior to joining the Houston Symphony, Logan was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach for three seasons. This past year, Logan won the second prize at the Sphinx SOPA competition in Detroit, one of the first double bassists to have been awarded this prize. He has also had the honor of performing with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and most recently A Far Cry, a conductorless chamber ensemble based in Boston.

He spent this most recent summer at the Verbier Festival, as a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and other festival appearances have been as a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Wabass Institute, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar. Logan was also the second prize winner of the 2021 ISB Orchestral Competition.

Logan graduated with his Master’s degree from The Juilliard School in 2022 where he studied with Timothy Cobb and Harold Robinson, and with his Bachelor’s from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Mr. Cobb. While at Juilliard, he took baroque bass lessons with Doug Balliet, and performed with Juilliard’s historical performance department, Juilliard415, including a tour of the Netherlands in 2022. In May of 2025, Logan was part of the concert series that reopened The Frick Collection in New York, where he performed works by Handel, and a world premier by Nico Muhly, with the Jupiter Ensemble led by Thomas Dunford and Lea Desandre.

Outside of the orchestra, Logan watches and plays soccer, basketball and baseball, and especially loves to cook for his friends. He definitely can’t wait to explore the Houston food scene.

Anne Leek was educated at Juilliard where she received her bachelor of music, master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees. During her time in New York, she performed on a recital in Carnegie Hall sponsored by the Artists International Contest, which she won. During the 1980s, Leek was Solo Principal Oboe of the Mannheim Orchestra in Germany.

Before joining the Houston Symphony, she played a two year position as principal oboe in the Pittsburgh Symphony, under the baton of Lorin Maazel. Along with her career as an orchestral musician, Leek has taught at Indiana University, Arizona State University and has taught at the University of Houston. As a recital soloist and chamber musician, she has appeared in numerous major cities across the world.

Alexander Potiomkin joined the Houston Symphony as Bass Clarinet/Utility in October 2012. A native of Ukraine, he moved with his family to Israel in 1991, where he attended the Rubin Jerusalem Academy of Music, while appearing as a regular substitute clarinetist with Israel Philharmonic. He came to Houston in 1995 to study at Rice University, where he earned his Master of Music Degree in 1997.

He has appeared as substitute Principal Clarinet of the Alabama Symphony on their Carnegie Hall tour in spring 2012. He has also performed as guest principal clarinet with the Kansas City Symphony and as a soloist with the Tel Aviv Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He has participated in the Mozart, Bellingham, Blossom, and Tanglewood music festivals.

Equally committed to teaching, he maintains a large, private studio. His main teachers include David Peck and David Weber, with additional studies with Michael Wayne and Mark Nuccio on clarinet and Chester Rowell and Ben Freimuth on Bass Clarinet.