Detroit, (September 30, 2024) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and Music Director Jader Bignamini are pleased to announce the appointment of two new orchestra musicians. Following successful auditions last fall, Alyssa Katahara has joined the DSO as Principal Harp (Winifred E. Polk Chair) and James Vaughen as Assistant Principal Trumpet beginning with the start of the 2024–2025 season. Additionally, Jack Walters, a DSO musician since 2017, assumes a new role this season as Assistant Principal Clarinet and E-flat Clarinet following a successful audition.
The DSO is also pleased to welcome five musicians with one-year contracts to this season’s roster including Acting Principal Horn (David and Christine Provost Chair) Patrick Walle, Acting Clarinet Jocelyn Langworthy, Acting Bassoon Jaquain Sloan, and Acting Horns Kristi Crago and Ben Wulfman.
A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, Katahara recently served in the Principal Harp role with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Canada) and Venice Symphony (Florida). Also a dedicated music educator and avid chamber musician, she aims to make the harp more accessible. Vaughen is a prizewinning solo performer who previously served as Principal Trumpet with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Principal Trumpet with the Chicago Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra. He is eager to continue to explore and create new music and arrangements for the trumpet in chamber music settings and in venues outside of the concert hall.
About Alyssa Katahara
Alyssa Katahara joins the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as Principal Harp (Winifred E. Polk Chair) beginning in the 2024–2025 season. Before moving to Detroit, Katahara held the Principal Harp position in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Canada) and Venice Symphony (Florida). Additionally, she has performed alongside the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and New World Symphony. Her previous summer festival engagements include Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival and School, Orchestra of the Americas, Music Academy of the West, and National Repertory Orchestra.
As the grand prize winner of the Hennings-Fischer Young Artist competition, Katahara appeared as a featured artist with the Burbank Philharmonic. She has also performed as a soloist with the Colburn Conservatory Orchestra, Pasadena Community Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, National Philharmonic, and Interlochen Arts Camp Philharmonic.
A dedicated music educator and avid chamber musician, Katahara hopes to make the harp more accessible. While living in Los Angeles, she taught in the Colburn School’s Jumpstart Program, an initiative where students are provided tuition-free music instruction and instruments. During her time in Canada, she served on the faculty of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music and PRISMA Festival. Katahara is also part of a harp duo eager to expand audiences’ perception of the harp’s capabilities. The duo’s innovative mission won them the Audience Choice Award for the Colburn School’s New Venture Competition. Most recently, they commissioned a new work by Gilad Cohen (Trailheads), sponsored by CORETET.
Katahara began her musical journey at age two playing the violin. These aspirations were soon diverted when she became captivated by the harp at age five. During her childhood, she moved throughout the world, spanning eight various states and countries from Hawaii to Germany. With each move, her parents ensured she was able to continue her harp studies with caring and devoted teachers. Katahara spent her final two years of high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy, where she studied with Joan Holland. She continued her education at the Colburn Conservatory of Music with JoAnn Turovsky. There, she earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in harp performance with an emphasis in pedagogy.
About James Vaughen
James Vaughen joined the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as Principal Trumpet for the 2023–2024 season and serves as Assistant Principal Trumpet of the Chicago Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra. Vaughen has performed throughout Europe with the London Symphony Orchestra, spent four months on tour with the Canadian Brass, and most recently won first prize and audience award at the 2023 Aeolus International Competition for Wind Instruments. Vaughen is excited to join the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for the 2024–2025 season as Assistant Principal Trumpet.
Passionately pursing as many solo performance opportunities as possible through competitions, Vaughen took first in all three divisions of the 2021 International Trumpet Guild Gyan Anthony Memorial Competition and won the 2020 Roger Voisin Memorial Trumpet Competition. Vaughen placed third in the 2021 Ellsworth-Smith International Trumpet Competition and was awarded Special Jury Prize at the 2022 Maurice André International Trumpet Competition.
Vaughen performed across four continents with Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra from 2015 through 2017 and joined their All-Star reunion concert in Carnegie Hall in March 2024. He was a member of the Pacific Music Festival Academy in 2018 and a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow in 2020 and 2021.
Vaughen graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2023 and misses roaming the streets of Philadelphia in search of new food. Vaughen began playing piano at age six and trumpet at age ten, and often finds himself improvising poorly on the piano when avoiding other work. His teachers include David Bilger, Tom Rolfs, Ronald Romm, and Sal Percoco. Vaughen enjoys visiting family in his hometown of Champaign, Illinois and feels extremely lucky to have a world-class pianist as his mother, coach, and collaborator. He is eager to continue to explore and create new music and arrangements for the trumpet in chamber music settings and in venues outside of the concert hall.
Prior to his studies at Curtis, Vaughen spent a year working as an AmeriCorps Intern for Spring Initiative, a nonprofit transformative afterschool program in the Mississippi Delta. When Vaughen is not making music, he enjoys cooking, running, playing soccer or tennis, or finding some other activity to procrastinate posting on social media.
About the DSO
The acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra is known for trailblazing performances, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and a deep connection to its city. Led by Music Director Jader Bignamini since 2020, the DSO makes its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, offering a performance schedule that features the PVS Classical, PNC Pops, Paradise Jazz, and Young People’s Family Concert series. In addition, the DSO presents the William Davidson Neighborhood Concert Series in metro area venues, as well as eclectic multi-genre performances in its mid-size venue The Cube, constructed and curated with support from Peter D. & Julie F. Cummings. A dedication to broadcast innovation began in 1922, when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a live radio broadcast of a concert and continues today with the groundbreaking Live from Orchestra Hall series of free webcasts.
Since its first school concerts a century ago, and particularly since the founding of the Civic Youth Ensembles in 1970, the DSO has been a national leader in bringing the benefits of music education to students, teachers, and families in Detroit and surrounding communities. The DSO remains committed to expanding its participation in the growth and well-being of Detroit through programs like its Detroit Neighborhood Initiative—cultural events co-created with community partners and residents—and Detroit Harmony, a promise to provide an instrument and instruction to any student in the city who wants to learn. With unwavering support from the people of Detroit, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact lives through the power of unforgettable musical experiences.