Viola
Carrie Holzman Little
Carrie Holzman-Little has been a busy free-lance violist and contractor here in Southern California for the past 20 years. Born and raised in Long Beach, a Wilson High School graduate, she received a Bachelor of Arts from University of California at Santa Barbara. She has been fortunate enough to study with many illustrious music teachers such as William Primrose, Hechiiro Ohyama, Ron Copes, Louis Kievman and others. Carrie was chosen to attend Tanglewood Music Festival, the Blossom Music Festival and The Music Academy of the West. She also attended The Banff School of the Arts. Presently she attends the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene Oregon. Carrie is a viola coach for the Verdugo Young Musicians Association. She also has been a viola coach and performer at the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival for the past 3 years. Carrie has been the Assistant Principal violist of the Pasadena Symphony for 20 years and is a member of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra since its inception. She was also the assistant principal violist of the Long Beach Symphony for 10 years. Carrie has been the acting music contractor for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for the past two years and is the permanent contractor of the Santa Monica Symphony. She also contracts All Saints Church in Pasadena, Pasadena Presbyterian Church, the Los Angeles Children’s Choir, Our Lady of Angels Cathedral, Westwood Presbyterian, First United Methodist Church in Glendale and more. Being a busy performer has allowed Carrie access to a huge array of players she can use in her contracting. In her spare time she likes to do triathlons. Carrie lives in a 100 year old house in Pasadena with her cellist husband, Dane Little, two teenagers and five large male cats.
Andrea Whitt
Andrea Whitt received her Master of Music degree in viola performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In Los Angeles Andrea performs with many ensembles of different genres including the Los Angeles Master Chorale and her nationally touring rock band, JayaR. Other performances and appearances include the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, Deep Purple, Far East Movement, Snoop Dogg, Harry Connick Jr., The Ellen Degeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Andrea is the orchestra director at Sierra Canyon School, an independent school in Chatsworth where she started the instrumental music program. She has also directed the orchestra at Harvard-Westlake Middle School as a long-term substitute. For the past four years she has run an after-school violin program at Shenandoah Elementary and has been an instructor at String Project Los Angeles since 2008. Along with the String Project faculty she travels throughout the country as a Yamaha Strings clinician to educate teachers and students about creative string playing.
In 2010 Andrea was commissioned to write two pieces for the International Viola Congress in Cincinnati, Ohio. Also a clinician at the congress, Andrea instructed young violists on improvisation and creative string playing.
