Seth Van Embden is a first-year Viola Fellow at the New World Symphony. Prior to moving to Miami Beach, he enjoyed a diverse career in chamber and orchestral playing in Chicago. He was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Illinois Symphony, and frequently performed with the Milwaukee Symphony. Additionally, Mr. Van Embden was the violist for Crossing Borders Music, a chamber music group devoted to performing diverse works from underrepresented composers from around the globe.

Mr. Van Embden is an enthusiastic proponent for historical performance and has attended the Dartington Baroque festival, Berwick Academy of the Oregon Bach Festival and most recently the Valley of the Moon Festival in Sonoma, California, where he performed Mozart’s Kegelstatt trio with acclaimed clarinetist Eric Hoeprich and fortepianist Eric Zivian. He is a founding member of Ensemble Affect, a non-profit dedicated to making period performance practice accessible and approachable to Chicago residents. In 2019 he was the recipient of Bourbon Baroque’s Nicolas Fortin scholarship, which has led to many happy collaborations with the Louisville-based group since.

In addition to performing, Mr. Van Embden is a devoted pedagogue. While in Chicago, he was adjunct professor of violin and viola at Joliet Junior College and upper strings faculty for the Oak Park School of Music, where he enjoyed a studio of 30 students. Prior to this, he was an elementary orchestra director for the Princeton, New Jersey public schools system.

Mr. Van Embden received degrees from Northwestern and Rutgers universities, studying with Helen Callus and CJ Chang respectively. His other principal teachers include Li-Kuo Chang of the Chicago Symphony and Lynne Ramsey of The Cleveland Orchestra.