Artists’ Profiles

Benjamin Manis

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Conductor

Conductor Benjamin Manis will join the Utah Symphony as Associate Conductor in September 2022. Manis just completed his third season as Resident Conductor of the Houston Grand Opera (HGO), and returns to Houston to conduct Tosca and El Milagro del Recuerdo in the 2022–23 season. He made his HGO debut with Verdi’s Rigoletto, and this season conducted Carmen, Roméo et Juliette, and The Snowy Day.

Manis was winner of the 2019 Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award, as well as the Richard S. Weinert Award from Concert Artists Guild. He has served as cover conductor for the St. Louis, Dallas, and National Symphonies, working with conductors David Robertson, Stéphane Denève, and Gianandrea Noseda. After three years in the Aspen Conducting Academy, Manis returned to Aspen in the summer of 2021 as Assistant Conductor, where he conducted two programs with the Aspen Chamber Symphony.

Benjamin Manis studied cello and conducting at the Colburn School, and in 2019 he completed his Master of Music degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

Kathryn Eberle

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Violin

Acclaimed by the Salt Lake Tribune as “marrying unimpeachable technical skill with a persuasive and perceptive voice,” violinist Kathryn Eberle is the Associate Concertmaster of the Utah Symphony and the Concertmaster of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Los Angeles. Eberle has also served as Guest Concertmaster with the Kansas City, Omaha, and Richmond Symphonies.

Eberle performs annually as soloist with the Utah Symphony with whom she’s performed over 10 works as a featured artist. She made her subscription series debut in 2014 performing Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade. Most recently, she performed Edgar Meyer’s Violin Concerto in January 2020. Other solo appearances include performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Nashville Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, and the Bahia Symphony in Brazil.

An avid chamber musician, Eberle has collaborated with such artists as Arnold Steinhardt, Edgar Meyer, Jaime Laredo, and Ricardo Morales. She has been a guest artist at numerous music festivals including Yellow Barn, Banff, Aspen, Missillac, Sewanee, Laguna Beach, Fairbanks Summer Arts, Innsbrook Institute, and Festival Mozaic.

A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Eberle began her violin studies on her third birthday. She received a Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School studying with Sylvia Rosenberg. She previously studied with Robert Lipsett and Cornelia Heard at the Colburn School, Blair School of Music and the University of Southern California where she received the String Department and Symphony awards upon graduation. Eberle performs on a 1754 Gennaro Gagliano violin, the ex “Von Vecsey.”

Yuan Qi

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Viola

Yuan Qi joined Utah Symphony | Utah Opera as Associate Principal Viola in September of 2020. Prior to joining Utah Symphony, Qi was the Assistant Principal Viola of the Delaware Symphony and a fellow at the New World Symphony, serving as Principal Viola under the batons of Michael Tilson Thomas and others. She has also made regular appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and performed with the New York Philharmonic as a Global Academy Zarin Metha Fellow.

As a soloist, Yuan is a 2nd prize winner of the Hugo Kauder Competition for Viola. Ms. Qi is a dedicated performer whose passionate artistry has been heard and embraced by many music festivals including Seiji Ozawa Music Academy, serving as co-principal viola, Seiji Ozawa International Chamber Music Festival in Okushiga Japan, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Chamber Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, principal viola.

Ms. Qi holds a graduate performance diploma from Peabody Institute where she studied with the Choong-Jin (C.J.) Chang, a master’s degree from Yale School of Music as a student of Ettore Causa and a Bachelor’s degree from Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing under the instruction of Changhai Wang. Yuan was a first prize winner for an amateur cooking competition, and she enjoys spending her spare time cooking and reading.