Born in Chicago, Rachel Harding Klaus studied violin with David and Linda Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where the faculty awarded her the coveted Joseph and Elsie Scharff Prize in Violin and the Dr. Jerome Gross Prize. Previous teachers have included Michael Avsharian, Steven Shipps, and Sonja Foster.

In the fall of 2004, she won the concerto competition at the Cleveland Institute of Music and performed the Bartók Concerto with the CIM Orchestra. In June of 2005, Harding Klaus was a prizewinner in the International Irving M. Klein String Competition, the Kingsville Performers Competition, and the Stulber International String Competition. She was also the grand prize winner of the Corpus Christi International String Competition. She has soloed with various orchestras including the Asheville, Kalamazoo, Corpus Christi, and Colorado symphonies.

Harding Klaus is an avid chamber music player and was a violinist for many years in the Harding Piano Trio along with her two sisters. The Harding Trio won prizes in the Fischoff, Coleman, and ASTA chamber music competitions. In 2009, Harding Klaus won a position with the Colorado Symphony as Assistant Concertmaster. In 2012, Harding Klaus joined the DSO as a member of the second violin section, moving to the first violin section the following year.

A native of Athens, Greece, Russian violinist Alexander Volkov joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2020.

Volkov studied with Professor Atis Bankas and Peter Seminovs at the Phil and Eli Taylor Academy for Young Artists as well as the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Ontario. He was a recipient of the Ihnatowycz Emerging Artist Scholarships, receiving a full scholarship for his degree.

During the pursuit of his degree in violin performance, Volkov participated in a variety of festivals, competitions, and training programs. He won first prizes in the Kiwanis, Leons, and North York festivals and was a three-time first prize winner of the Canadian Music Competition, winning the grand prize in 2013. The following year, he won the Glenn Gould Concerto Competition where he performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Leon Fleisher. He also frequently performed as a soloist with the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony, the York Symphony, the Aurora Chamber Ensemble, and the Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra.

Volkov participated in prestigious orchestra training festivals such as the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, twice at the Leonard Bernstein’s Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, and three times at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. These training programs led him to perform as a fellow in the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Most notably, he trained at the Institute for Orchestral Studies at the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada.

Prior to joining the symphony, Volkov held section violin positions at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and the Canada and Quebec symphony orchestras in Quebec City, Montréal. He was also a frequent substitute violinist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He owes his achievements to his parents, who are graduates of the Moscow Conservatory and have extensive musical backgrounds.

David LeDoux joined the DSO in 2012, coming to the orchestra from the Syracuse Symphony where he previously served as Principal Cello.

LeDoux has appeared as a soloist with the Syracuse Symphony, the Skaneatelas Festival Chamber Orchestra, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Oklahoma State University Symphony, the Louisiana Sinfonietta, and the Mid-Texas Symphony.

LeDoux is an active and avid chamber musician, performing for many years with the Syracuse Society for New Music. As a committed private teacher, he previously served as a cello instructor for Imagine Syracuse—a music program in an inner-city school that was modeled after the El Sistema program in Venezuela.

Past professional engagements for LeDoux include serving as Principal Cello with the Baton Rouge (LA) Symphony, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Symphony, and the Louisiana Sinfonietta.

LeDoux has studied with Ronald Leonard, Dennis Parker, and Kari Padgett Caldwell. A resident of Madison Heights, LeDoux’s hobbies include reading, running, and watching movies.