The San Marco Chamber Music Society

Introducing the performers…

Clinton Dewing (violin)
Aurica Duca (violin)
Ellen Olson (viola)
Nick Curry (cello)
Eric Olson (oboe)
Les Roettges (flute)

The San Marco Chamber Music Society was formed in 2008 by two long-standing members of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, husband and wife Eric and Ellen Olson, to play benefit concerts for diabetes research at St Mark’s Lutheran Church in the Florida city. The group performs a season of concerts annually at the church, featuring a flexible line-up of musicians from the symphony orchestra according to the programme. SMCMS performs a varied and eclectic mix of music featuring tuba, harp, double bass and percussion as well as its core instrumentalists.

SMSMS co-founder Eric Olson has been the principal oboist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1986. A Northwestern University graduate, where his teachers included Ray Still and Louis Rosenblatt, Eric has served as guest principal oboist with the Baltimore Symphony, and is currently principal oboist at the Peninsula Music Festival. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Colorado Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Peninsula Music Festival, and frequently with the Jacksonville Symphony. He has participated in the Marlboro, Tanglewood, and Aspen music festivals and has served as principal oboist at the Eastern Music Festival.

Violist Ellen Olson earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Hofstra University where she was taught by Olga Bloom. Other teachers include Barry Lehr, Rebecca Young and Patricia McCarty. Ellen has participated in the Colorado, Eastern, and Peninsula Music Festivals. She plays in the St Augustine Music Festival each June and is on the faculty of the Prelude Chamber Music Camp. Before joining the Jacksonville Symphony in 1985, she was a member of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra.

Holder of a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory and a Master of Music from the Juilliard School, Les Roettges is the principal flautist of both the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and the Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra. Les also works as the chamber music programme coordinator for the Eastern Music Festival and features regularly in the festival’s chamber music and orchestra series concerts. In 2012, Les joined the newly formed All-Star Orchestra as second flute under the direction of conductor Gerard Schwarz. The orchestra comprises selected musicians from other groups throughout the United States, and records and films shows for broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television stations across the United States. All-Star Orchestra series have won three EMMY awards and have been nominated for the GRAMMYs. Les has also been principal flautist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Mexico City, guest principal flautist with the Florida Orchestra, and flautist with Solisti New York. He is a regular participant in the chamber music societies and festivals of San Marco and Saint Augustine in Florida and is the Adjunct Professor of Flute at Jacksonville University.

Violinist Clinton Dewing received a Bachelor of Music from the Juilliard School as a student of Joel Smirnoff. His summer festival credits include the Spoleto Festival USA and Italy; Festival Mozaic; Pacific Music Festival; National Repertory Orchestra; Sarasota Chamber Music Festival; Aspen Music Festival; National Orchestral Institute; and the Tanglewood Music Center. Clinton has performed with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra; New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; Boston Symphony Orchestra; and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has been a member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 2006.

A native of Moldova, Aurica Duca began playing the violin at the age of seven, going on to take first prize both in the Cornelia Bronzetti Violin Competition and the International Violin Competition of Brasov. Aurica was also the grand prize winner at the Paul Constantinescu International Competition in Romania. She was awarded the Mayor’s Scholarship of Chisinau, Moldova as well as a scholarship from the Foundation of Beneficence. She has performed in solo engagements with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Chisinau and the National Youth Orchestra of Holland, and has studied at the A Casella Conservatory in l’Aquilla, Italy. Aurica has participated in the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina and features every summer in Festival Mozaic’s chamber music series in San Luis Obispo, California. In 2006 she joined the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and became principal second violin in 2015.

Dr Nick Curry is Associate Professor of Cello at the University of North Florida. Nick was awarded Bachelor of Music, cum laude, at Vanderbilt University, where he studied with Grace Mihi Bahng. He served afterwards as Hans Jorgen Jensen’s teaching assistant at Northwestern University, where he earned both his Masters and Doctorate as well as performing as soloist with the Northwestern Philharmonic Orchestra and winning the Northwestern Chamber Music Competition. Nick’s chamber music training includes master classes with the Emerson String Quartet, the Pacifica String Quartet, and the Blair String Quartet. His private studies have included summers in Canada and Italy with Harvey Shapiro of the Julliard School. Nick has played concerts in Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In April of 2006, he performed as a soloist on the King Amati cello (ca 1538) for Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio. In the summers of 2012 and 2013, Nick was visiting faculty at the Meadowmount School of Music and will join the faculty at ARIA this summer. In early 2015, he joined fellow SMCMS musicians Aurica Duca and Clinton Dewing to found the Lawson Ensemble to play and promote chamber music in the Jacksonville region.