New Faces at the Newport String Project - Gillian and Zan

It is our great pleasure to introduce our two new Associate Musicians who will be joining the Newport String Quartet this season!

Gillian Gallagher - Associate Musician and Violist with the Newport String Quartet

Violist Gillian Gallagher grew up in Saratoga Springs, NY, and attended the Juilliard School where she received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees studying with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang. Gillian made her Weill Recital Hall debut in 2007 as founding violist of the Attacca Quartet, with whom she was awarded the Alice Coleman Grand Prize in the 60th annual Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition in 2006. Gillian performed with the Attacca Quartet for six years, during which time the quartet studied with the Guarneri, Juilliard, Emerson, Vermeer, Tokyo, and St. Lawrence string quartets. She went on to tour the United States from 2007 to 2014 with violinist and composer Mark O'Connor and cellist Mike Block as violist of the Appalachia Waltz Trio and, later, the O'Connor Quartet. Deeply committed to music education, Gillian has been on the faculty of Boston University's Tanglewood Institute, the Berklee College of Music Summer String Program, Mark O'Connor's Fiddle Camps, Point Counterpoint Chamber Music Camp and New York's Center for Arts Education. Highlights from recent seasons include performances at Carnegie Hall and the NY Phil Biennial as violist of the new music ensemble Hotel Elefant, fiddling in Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music, and performing the music of composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone as a member of the house band for the dance company BalletCollective. This season’s concerts include performances with the Newport String Project, the Cardamom Quartet, and a premiere of a new work by composer Mary Kouyoumdjian at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with string trio Triune.

Zan Berry - Associate Musician and Cellist with the Newport String Project

Zan Berry, is a passionate and creative musician who weaves together diverse musical interests in his work as a performer and teacher. While he enjoys playing different genres of music, one of Zan’s main focuses is contemporary classical music, and he tries to perform the works of living composers as much as possible.

Zan performs regularly with Verdant Vibes, a new music collective in Providence that brings together artists and musicians creating new work in a variety of genres, acoustic and electronic. He has participated in music festivals, including Bang on a Can, New Music on the Point, and Fresh Inc and has played with members of the JACK Quartet, Bang on a Can All Stars, and Fifth House Ensemble. Additionally, Zan enjoys exploring new sound worlds and mixing genres through experimental folk songs that he writes for cello and voice.

Zan’s creative journey as a performer has also informed his teaching philosophy, making the cultivation of a student’s creative voice a top priority. He has designed several experimental music and improvisation classes for kids and was a featured artist and workshop presenter at the 2018 SPIKE Alternative Cello Festival in Dublin, Ireland. Zan recently completed the Urban Musical Fellowship at Community MusicWorks, a community based non-profit organization in Providence, RI and he is excited to get to know the community at the Newport String Project this fall!