National Park Compositions Project

The National Parks project includes commissioning works written for solo violin & violin & accompaniment, creating a professional audio recording, and then filming a music video of each piece in its prospective National Park. Vanessa hopes to eventually create a collection of compositions and videos featuring all the National Parks.

The project encourages innovative interactions between music, art, and nature, providing a platform for creative collaboration between newly written compositions and the beauty of the National Parks.

In addition, Vanessa plans to actively introduce these pieces into the classical violin recital repertoire. She hopes that they will forge a close connection with the audience when performed live at recitals in concert halls by violinists everywhere.

About Vanessa

A versatile musician, Vanessa combines years of formal classical training (Butler University, University of Nevada, Reno), with effortless charisma and rare artistic fluidity.  Transitioning seamlessly from the classical and folk repertoires, she is as capable and captivating a fiddler and improvisor (www.fiddlers2.com) as she is an interpreter of the greatest works of Western Classical music.  Her performances are, in a word, serendipity. 

Vanessa has performed to rave reviews in over seventy-five house concerts and recitals in northern Nevada, northern California, the Mid West & the East Coast, including a multimedia performance of Beethoven’s complete violin sonata cycle, streamed live via the Internet to her ever – expanding, international fan base. 

Vanessa has participated in several music festivals including the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado and the Sunriver Music Festival in Oregon.   As an orchestral musician, she has performed with many orchestras including the Indianapolis Symphony, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Reno Philharmonic, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Las Vegas Symphony, Monterey Symphony and the Fresno Philharmonic. 

She has always been passionate about teaching and loves connecting with young people through music.  Vanessa has been teaching violin lessons for over 25 years and has built large studios in Indiana and Nevada as well as creating and directing the annual Reno Violin Camp and Audition Boot Camps, helping students prepare for youth orchestra auditions. 

Apart from her demanding performance and teaching schedule, Vanessa remains a tireless supporter of the arts. She is always putting together creative projects. Currently, these include performing and recording with her band Fiddlers2, learning and performing all the Mozart Concertos and of course the National Parks Commissioning Project.

With Reno as her base, in her spare time Vanessa enjoys driving scenic roads, visiting National parks, and hiking in the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains.

“The mountains are calling and I must go.” ~John Muir