New Performance Faculty

Ian Zook (left) and Ayn Balija (right)

The McIntire Department of Music welcomes two new performance instructors to its ranks.  Ian Zook took the Johanna & Derwood Chase & Chase Investment Counsel Corporation Chair.  He graduated from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan and is currently completing his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in French Horn Performance at Rutgers University.  In the meantime, he is also an active orchestral and solo performer, serving as a substitute hornist for the Vermont and Philadelphia Orchestras, as well as principal for the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra.  Having just completed a 2006 tour as principal horn of the Pacific Music Festival in Japan and residency in 2007 with the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, Ian brings an international approach to horn sound and pedagogy.  His strong interest in period performance also heavily informs his teaching style.  If you are not fortunate enough to have him as a teacher or to see him in concert, you can hear him perform on Naxos’ Grammy Award-winning recording of Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Bolcom under the baton of Leonard Slatkin.

Ayn Balija is not only a skilled violist but an exuberant educator as well. She joins the University of Virginia through the Elizabeth W. Gatewood Chair and has an extensive background in education.  Upon finishing her undergraduate at Oberlin Conservatory, she helped establish the Oberlin Community Music School, where for four years she helped bring the Suzuki method to Lorain County, Ohio.  In 2006, she received the Aspen Mentor Fellowship for her outstanding work with aspiring orchestral musicians.  Ayn is also a gifted musician, having performed with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Chicago, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.  She finished her Masters of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music and still heralds Jeffrey Irvine and Peter Slowik as her principal mentors.