Viola

NORIKO FUTAGAMI, PRINCIPAL VIOLA

Violist Noriko Futagami performs with some of the area’s most celebrated ensembles. She is a member of the Radius Ensemble, voted “Boston’s Best Classical Ensemble of 2016” by the Improper Bostonian, as well as working with the Boston Musica Viva, Emmanuel Music, Cantata Singers and Winsor Music on a regular basis. She is principal violist for Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and section violist with Rhode Island Philharmonic and Portland Symphony Orchestra.

As principal violist for Albany Symphony, she has participated in several Grammy nominated recordings, winning in 2014 John Crigliano’s Conjurer/Vocalise.
Since moving to Boston in 2011, she has become a fixture of the freelance scene, performing regularly with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Odyssey Opera Orchestra and Monadnock Festival Orchestra, as well the Boston Pops, Boston Ballet and Boston Landmarks Orchestras. She is a faculty member at Brown University.

Sharon Bielik, Assistant Principal

Sharon Bielik, a native of New York, completed her undergraduate studies at Brandeis University, where she studied viola with Mary Ruth Ray of the Lydian String Quartet. Sharon completed her master’s degree at Boston University, where her principal studies were with Ed Gazouleas of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She is the Assistant Principal Viola of the Albany Symphony in New York, and is a member of the viola section of the Portland Symphony in Maine. She also plays with the Rhode Island Philharmonic and other orchestras around New England.  Sharon has subbed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida. Her experience has allowed her to perform globally, most recently for the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Rendsburg, Germany. From 2007-2009, Sharon spent her summers as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was Principal Viola under the direction of James Levine and Sir Andrew Davis. In addition to performing, Sharon currently holds teaching studios at the Wayland School of Music and in the Brookline Public Schools.

Daniel Brye

A native of Pennsylvania, Daniel Brye joined the faculty of Dickinson College in the fall of 2010, teaching viola and violin. Daniel was a member of the Erie Philharmonic from 2009-2014, was appointed Associate Principal Viola in 2010, and served as acting principal for the greater part of his time with the orchestra. He also began his first season as a member of the Albany Symphony in 2010 and in 2013 earned the position of Stationary Viola. In part due to this position, he enjoys the opportunity of performing from time to time with the symphony’s new music ensemble, the Dogs of Desire.

From the summer of 2015 into the fall of 2017, Daniel served as the Personnel and Operations Manager of the Reading Symphony Orchestra, with which he has continued to perform regularly since 2009. During the summer season, Daniel has performed with the Berks Opera Company and Allegro: The Chamber Orchestra of Lancaster, and has attended the International Musical Arts Institute in Fryeburg, ME, as well as Kinhaven Music School in Weston, VT.

Daniel holds a B.M. in Viola Performance from The Pennsylvania State University where he studied with Tim Deighton and a M.M. and G.P.D. in Viola Performance from The Hartt School where he studied with Steve Larson. As a member of the Albany Symphony, he has recorded for Naxos Records, Albany Records, and Broadway Records. Daniel appears as the violist on the recording The Wild & Whimsical Worlds of David Mallamud, featuring the Albany Symphony’s Dogs of Desire.

In his spare time, Daniel enjoys cooking, tinkering with computers, and exercising (including Yoga and Tai Chi).

Anna Griffis

Equally at home on steel and gut strings and with new and old music, Boston-based violist & violinist Anna Griffis has performed in Mexico, Turkey, Austria, Slovenia, Czechia, Taiwan, and across North America. She is a principal viola with the New Bedford Symphony and the Boston Festival Orchestra, a member of the Albany Symphony, and performs with the Portland Symphony, Emmanuel Music, Blue Heron, A Far Cry, Odyssey Opera, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and Boston Lyric Opera. She co-founded Chicago-based Trio Speranza, prize winners at the Early Music American Baroque Competition, and performs with and is executive director of the new music group Ludovico Ensemble.

Anna studied at Lawrence University, The Hartt School of Music, Tanglewood Music Center, and Boston University and now teaches and coaches chamber music at The New School of Music (Cambridge) and Tufts University, and is a teaching artist in the Emerson/Harris program at MIT. In addition to her playing and teaching, she oversees communications for the Tufts Music Department and is a freelance graphic designer specializing in concert programs and arts marketing. Originally from Annapolis, MD, Anna is the proud product of her public school music program. She now lives in the great neighborhood of Lower Allston with her bassoonist husband and their cat, Pig, and gets excited about fonts, road trips, and diners.

Hannah Levinson

Violist Hannah Levinson is an active performer in the New York City area, devoted to performing traditional classical repertoire as well as music from the past 50 years. In addition to being a member of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, she is a founding member of the violin/viola duo andPlay, an ensemble that works to commission new works and perform lesser-known works for their instrumentation. She has worked with contemporary music groups such as ACME, ensemble mise-en, Talea Ensemble, North/South Consonance, and The Rhythm Method Quartet. As an orchestral musician she has played under the baton of Pierre Boulez, David Robertson, and Robert Spano. 

Hannah is an active teacher, and is on faculty at Western Connecticut State University.  She completed her Master of Music in contemporary performance at the Manhattan School of Music, and graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory with degrees in both Russian and East European Studies and Viola Performance.  Hannah is currently pursuing a PhD in performance at New York University, but spends her free time baking and watching reality cooking shows on television.

Tina Chang-Chien

Tina (Ting-Ying) Chang-Chien joined the viola section of the Albany Symphony in 2010. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, she moved to New York City at the age of 12 after being accepted into the Pre-College Program at the Juilliard School. Chang-Chien holds a master of music degree and an orchestral performance master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Issac Malkin and Irene Breslaw. 

Based in New York City, Chang-Chien is regularly seen on stages at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. She has also collaborated with some of the most celebrated musicians and artists beyond classical music concerts, including her recent performance with Wayne Shorter’s Quartet and Esperanza Spalding at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA in 2021 for their jazz opera, “Iphigenia”, and with Regina Carter’s Quintet at Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY in 2023 for her project, “Gone in a Phrase of Air.”

Passionate about teaching young musicians, Chang-Chien serves as the music director and conductor for the Lucy Moses School String Ensemble program at Kaufman Music Center in New York City.

CARLA BELLOSA

Carla Koehler Bellosa grew up in San Diego, California where she began studying viola in the public school and credits her early training to wonderful professional musicians there, and in the local youth orchestra, conducted by members of the San Diego Symphony. 

She attended the Eastman School of Music, studied with Heidi Castleman, and received her Master of Mu sic in performance. She also met Kevin Bellosa, cellist, there and they married in 1979. Kevin and Carla have three children and ten grandchildren! The Bellosas currently reside on a lovely lake at the foothills of the Adirondack Park.

Carla’s favorite thing about  the Albany Symphony is the wonderful energy and sincere musical drive that the members have, especially in promoting and presenting the music of gifted living composers.