On this week's Cleveland Ovations, we brought you a faculty recital from Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. Lembi Veskimets, viola, was joined by pianist Hyunsoon Whang. Recorded September 9, 2015.
At intermission of the broadcast, host Jacqueline Gerber interviewed Lembi.
Lembi Veskimets is a member of the viola section of the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra and Professor of Viola at Baldwin-Wallace University’s Conservatory of Music. She previously held the positions of Principal Viola of the Ohio Chamber Orchestra and of the National Repertory Orchestra (CO).
She received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she was a student of Robert Vernon, Principal Viola of the Cleveland Orchestra. An enthusiastic chamber musician, she has participated in the Aspen Center for Advanced Quartet Studies, the Taos School of Music, the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Sarasota Music Festival, the EXPO in Osaka, Japan, Chamber Music Encounters in Paris, France and the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Veskimets also performs in the public schools as an Artist-Teacher in the Cleveland Orchestra’s Learning Through Music program and has served as a board member of the American Viola Society and contributed to its journal.
Born in Toronto, Canada of Estonian parentage, she has been featured on the gala concerts of several international Estonian festivals, as well as appearing in recital at the International Viola Congress. In addition to her position at B-W, she is also on the faculties of the Cleveland Institute of Music\'s Preparatory Department and the Cleveland Music Settlement, as well as having taught and performed at the Encore School for Strings (OH) and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival (VT) in the summers.
Ms. Veskimets and Dr. Whang have previously collaborated on many recitals and chamber music programs including performances in Boston, Cleveland, Lawton, Princeton, Winston-Salem and Toronto. Lembi Veskimets is married to clarinetist Daniel McKelway and the proud mother of four-year-old twin girls, Kaja and Kiili, and a nine-year-old boy, Rein.