Charles Noble, viola
Charles has been Assistant principal violist of the Oregon Symphony since 1995. He has appeared as soloist with the Oregon Symphony on five occasions. His other solo appearances have included the Cascade Festival of Music, Chico Symphony (CA), Rose City Chamber Orchestra, Vermont Youth Orchestra, Tacoma Youth Symphony, Tacoma Young Artists Orchestra and Portland Youth Philharmonic. Prizes and awards received include the C.D. Jackson Award at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Israel Dorman String Prize at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and first prize at the Seattle Ladies Musical Club Competition. He holds degrees from the University of Puget Sound, the University of Maryland, and the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Charles was a member of the faculty at the inaugural 1998 National Youth Orchestra Festival, and is co-founder of the Max Aronoff Viola Institute serving on its faculty since 1990. He has conducted master classes in orchestral audition preparation at the University of Nevada at Reno and as a writer he has published two articles in the The Strad magazine. Mr. Noble was one of three American violists invited to tour Japan with an orchestra whose roster included members of the Vienna and New York Philharmonic orchestras, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. He was principal violist with the Ernest Bloch, Cascade and Sunriver Music Festival and a featured performing artist at the 2002 and 2004 International Viola Congresses. Charles was a founding member of the acclaimed Ethos Quartet. Charles is currently a member, along with three other crazed violists, of “The Four Violas”, founded in 2002.