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Saturday, December 7th at 7PM
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Meet the Musicians
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Dr. Quinton morris DMA, violinDr. Quinton Morris enjoys a multifaceted career as concert violinist, educator, entrepreneur and filmmaker. He is the founder of Key to Change, a nonprofit with the mission of inspiring underserved youth and students of color through world-class music instruction and supporting their development as self-aware leaders. Key to Change operates two violin and viola studios in South King County, Washington which serve middle and high school students who may not otherwise have access to classical music instruction.
Key to Change was born out of Dr. Morris’s BREAKTHROUGH World Tour, which paired recitals and concerto performances with lectures, master classes and educational outreach in over 25 cities across five continents. The tour also featured Dr. Morris’s short film The BREAKTHROUGH, which premiered at the Seattle Art Museum and the Louvre Museum in Paris, among other distinguished venues worldwide. He directed and starred in the film, which tells a modernized story of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges: a violinist of African origin who, against all odds, rose to become one of the most prolific and forgotten figures of the 18th century. Dr. Morris received top prize at the European Independent Film Awards, and was recognized as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Movers & Shapers and the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. Additional career highlights include concerto appearances with the Seattle Symphony, three consecutive years of sold-out recitals at Carnegie Hall, eleven years as Artistic Director of The Young Eight String Octet and a TEDxSeattle talk on “The Age of the Artist Entrepreneur.” Dr. Morris is a Seattle native and earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the Seattle University faculty in 2007 as Director of Chamber and Instrumental Music and Associate Professor of Violin and Chamber Music. He is the first tenured music professor at Seattle University in over 35 years and the second living African-American violinist in United States history to receive such a distinction. |
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Joseph Williams, Piano
Pianist and educator Joseph Williams was born and raised in Tacoma, WA. He is a passionate advocate for accessible, high-quality music education in South King County. He is founder and director of Tukwila Kids Make Music, a free after-school music instruction program offering piano, guitar, and violin lessons to 50 children every week, year-round. He also serves on the Community Music faculty of the University of Puget Sound, where he instructs children and adults of varying levels and musical genres.
He began playing piano at 10 years old. By age 17, he was awarded 1st place in Washington state for solo piano in the 2010 WIAA/WMEA State Solo and Ensemble Contest. He subsequently pursued a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Ohio. Upon graduation, he received the Piano Faculty Prize in Accompanying and was hired on the faculty as a full-time Instrumental Collaborative Pianist for the 2015-2016 academic year. Mr. Williams earned a Master of Music in Piano Performance from Cleveland State University and launched Music From Home, a concert series at Lakewold Gardens which celebrates the live musical expression of women and people of color. He has enjoyed performing at numerous venues across the United States, including The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and abroad in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. |
