RITA PORFIRIS, violist, has performed in major concert halls and music festivals worldwide both as a chamber musician and as a soloist. She has been on the faculties of New York University, the University of Houston Mooresʼ School of Music, Florida International University, and the Harlem School for the Arts in New York. In her former 20 year-long career as an orchestral musician in top American and German orchestras, 15 of which were spent with the Houston Symphony, she worked under some of the most recognized conductors of the 20-21 Centuries, including Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Celibidache, Kurt Masur, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Christoph Eschenbach. Rita received both her BM and MM in Viola Performance from The Juilliard School, studying with William Lincer. She is currently the Associate Professor of Viola and Chair of Chamber Music at the Hartt School.