Charleston, South Carolina-based violist Seth Van Embden is a dynamic performer equally at home in a symphony orchestra, chamber ensemble, or historical instrument group, never one to be limited to a single genre or style. Seth was most recently a fellow with the New World Symphony in Miami, and has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Illinois Symphony, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and Charleston Symphony. Seth was the violist for Crossing Borders Music, a Chicago-based group devoted to highlighting underrepresented composers and music, for which he recorded and performed pieces indigenous to Haiti, Palestine, the Balkans, Taiwan, as well as works created by composers from diverse backgrounds such as the LGBTQ and differently-abled communities. He most recently performed the Brahms Piano Quintet, Op. 34  on the Piccolo Spoleto festival in Charleston this spring.
 

Seth’s passion for historical performance has led him to perform across North America, including for the San Francisco Early Music Society, the Valley of the Moon Music Festival in Sonoma, and at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C, performing Haydn quartets on the museum’s collection of Stradivari and Amati instruments. He is a founding member and director of Ensemble Affect, an historically-inspired group devoted to making period performance practice meaningful and accessible to communities in Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area. The group’s concerts highlight cross-discipline collaboration with dancers and visual artists, as well as providing an introduction to classical music for young listeners with interactive children’s shows.

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