Principal Viola
Caroline Gilbert, born in Bloomington, IN, grew up playing the violin in the pre-college program at Indiana University. After a little soul searching at Vanderbilt University, where she double majored in music and pre-med, she transferred to Indiana University where she completed her Bachelor of Music degree with Atar Arad. While at the University, she won the concerto competition and performed Hindemith's Der Schwanendreher as a soloist with the Indiana University chamber orchestra. She was then asked to represent the school at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., performing in the "Conservatory Project” concert series.
For her Master of Music degree, she attended The Juilliard School where she studied with Samuel Rhodes and Rodger Tapping. After participating in the Keshet Elion summer mastercourse in Israel, where her performance was broadcast on the radio in New York, she went on to play with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; worked with Michael Tilson Thomas as a member of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra in Sydney, Australia; toured Turkey, Spain, and Germany with the Schleswig-Holstien Festival Orchestra; played alongside the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Music Festival; and spent the last three summers in Switzerland playing with the Verbier Festival Orchestra. After completing her degrees, she moved to Miami Beach to join the New World Symphony until winning the Principal Viola position with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017.