Mikela Witjes, violin

Violinist Mikela Witjes hails from Kingston, Ontario and is thrilled to be performing with London Symphonia. She holds a Bachelor of Music and Masters Degree in Violin Performance from Western University where she studied with Prof. Annette-Barbara Vogel. A freelance violinist and teacher, Mikela has performed in a variety of orchestral and chamber ensembles across Southwestern Ontario on both modern and baroque violin. She has twice toured the country with the National Youth Orchestra and has attended summer music festivals including Orford Arts Academy, Scotia Music Festival and Domaine Forget.
She is a founding member of local chamber ensemble Magisterra Soloists both as a violinist and administrative coordinator. Mikela is passionate about teaching and keeps an active private studio while continuing to perform regularly.

James Waldo, cello

Cellist James Waldo is an avid chamber musician, recitalist, and educator. Currently serving as Lecturer in Cello at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, James concertizes around the U.S. and beyond as cellist of cello-piano team A. W.Duo, and performs regularly with local and regional ensembles such as the Madison Bach Musicians, Midsummer's Music, the LunART Festival, Edgewood College Chamber Orchestra, the Just Bach series, and the Madison Festival Choir. James recently completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the tutelage of Uri Vardi. Prior to his time in Madison, James worked as a freelance musician in New York City, where he received a Master of Music degree from Mannes College under the tutelage of Timothy Eddy and served as principal cellist of the Cecilia Chorus of NY from 2015-2019. While in NYC, James co-founded the Listen Closely Chamber Music Initiative, a collective of locally-based musicians giving free live chamber music performances in the public gathering spaces of uptown Manhattan. James was the founding cellist and arranger of the orchestral folk ensemble Spirits of the Red City, and was a founding member of LeStrange Viols. His playing can be heard in the soundtracks of numerous independent films. A passionate educator, James has worked with cello students of all ages and levels of experience for over 20 years. For contact information and events calendar, visit jameswaldo.com.

Alicia Marie Valoti, viola

Alicia Marie Valoti has held an internationally fruitful music career as a young violist. Beginning as a pianist at Indiana University Bloomington, she eventually came to study the viola and later completed a performance degree at McGill University in Montréal. Following her time in Canada, Dr. Valoti continued her studies of viola and chamber music in Italy at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, the Scuola APM di Saluzzo and the Conservatory of Florence “Luigi Cherubini”, where she received a Master’s degree in viola performance with the highest honors as well as a Performance Diploma in Viola and Chamber Music. Her residency in Europe allowed for much experience as an orchestral player, and Ms. Valoti consequently served as principal and in section orchestral positions, also completing tours in places such as Italy, Egypt, Montecarlo, and Switzerland. As a chamber musician, she participated in competitions and recitals throughout Italy and Europe. In 2009 Alicia Valoti began further graduate studies at Rice University with James Dunham, where she received the Cheri and Andy Fossler Award. Her participation in masterclasses and festivals includes the Accademia Chigiana of Italy, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival of Finland, International Meisterkurse Bratsche of Germany and Le Domaine Forget in Canada, among others. She has been fortunate to study the viola with incredible artists such as Lawrence Dutton, Bruno Giuranna, Garth Knox, Nobuko Imai, Hatto Beyerle and Atar Arad. Dr. Valoti was selected in 2013 as an orchestral fellow for the Castleton Festival, where she played under the direction of the late Maestro Lorin Maazel. Dr. Valoti has been an integral part of both past and present genres in music. In Florence, Italy, she gave the premiere performance of “SorellaViola”, composed in 2005 for viola sola by Gaetano Giani-Luporini, and in 2009-2010 toured the United States with the chamber music group Astraios, also making a premiere recording of a Sally Beamish work. Also in 2010, Ms. Valoti gave a premiere of Sergio Mesa’s String Quartet in affiliation with Aperio, Music of the Americas. As a member of Ars Lyrica and the Houston Bach Society, Dr. Valoti has performed, toured and recorded as principal viola, using true baroque instruments and bows. She can be heard, as Principal Viola, on the World Premiere Giovanni Paolo Colonna CD with the Houston Chamber Choir and Orchestra. Dr Valoti has a special interest in the scores and performance of original Italian viola compositions from the 19th century, and has given lectures and recitals highlighting the music of Giorgetti, Campagnoli and Cavallini. As a member of New Music for Strings, Ms Valoti has also performed alongside Emerson String Quartet colleagues in Denmark, Iceland and New York. She served as the violist for the world premiere in Copenhagen of Suite for String Quartet, a 12 movement quartet work written by Eugene Drucker. A committed educator, Dr. Valoti served on the faculty of Lone Star College and Sam Houston State University School of Music, where she was a member of the Kolenneh String Quartet. In addition, Dr. Valoti was an Affiliate Artist at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston and an Artist-Teacher at the Schlern International Music Festival in Italy and Saarburg International Music Festival in Germany. Her masterclasses have been held in places such as Brazil, Ecuador, Jordan, Italy, Ireland, New York, Colombia, Puerto Rico and Texas. In China in 2010, Ms. Valoti received a distinguished guest professorship at the Wuhan Conservatory, and held a month-long residency at Liaocheng University as a violin and viola professor. Ms. Valoti also served on the string faculty at the Interlochen Summer Academy in 2014. She has a passion for El Sistema programs, and recently worked and performed with students in Soweto, South Africa. After initial doctoral studies and research at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, Ms. Valoti completed a doctorate in viola performance at Stony Brook University in New York, where she also served as an instructor. Recently, she was the first prize winner of the “David Dalton” American Viola Society Competition, and performed as a “Rising Star of the Viola” in the American Viola Society Congress in Oberlin. Additionally, she has performed as a member of the Associazione Italiana della Viola, and gave the premiere of her own “Sonata per viola sola (2019)” in Siena, Italy. Further lectures were given for the International Viola Society Congress in Italy, Holland and New Zealand. Dr. Valoti serves as Associate Professor of Viola at Central Michigan University since Fall 2016, where she won the Provost Award in 2019.