Ellen Rose, a J uilliard School graduate, has served as Principal Violist of the Dallas Symphony since 1980, where her orchestral viola solos can be heard on many DSO recordings. She has performed viola concerti with the DSO and other orchestras. Miss Rose has performed as recitalist throughout the U.S., Europe, and South America. In 1991, she and Katherine Collier performed at The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. She has appeared in chamber music performances with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell and Ralph Kirschbaum. She has performed with Yo Yo Ma on the Silk Road Project.

Miss Rose was a faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival where she collaborated in a viola team teaching project with Heidi Castleman and Victoria Chiang. In 1991, she and Katherine Collier, pianist, recorded a contemporary composition for Centaur Records. In january, 1995, she and Miss Collier recorded Spanish Treasures that was released by Centaur 1997. She is on the Viola Faculty at Southern Methodist University and teaches professional musicians throughout the country. She is on the Advisory Council for the DSO'S Young Strings Project. Some master classes include The J uilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, University of Michigan, and The Manhattan School of Music. In June, 1995, she was a guest artist and speaker at the International Viola Congress. In 1999, she was guest speaker in Sweden in the International Viola Congress.

She has written several transcriptions and arrangements, magazine articles, and has written two books, Viola Excerpts PLUS, and a scale book called EXTREME VIOLA. She was the recipient of Aspen and Tanglewood Fellowships and a specialjuilliard School Naumberg Award in viola.

As a fund raiser, her annual "Ellen Rose and Friends" chamber music concerts has raised funds for the cancer unit at Children's Medical Center of Dallas and her group is currently benefiting The Nelson Center, a home for abandoned, abused and neglected children .. She is also a bilingual volunteer counselor at the Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center.

Students to perform are from the studio of Ralph Fielding, artist­ faculty at Lynn University Conservatory of Music.