Protea String Quartet

Matthew Olson has studied and taught violin since age 3. At 18 he was concertmaster of the Kansas City Ballet Orchestra, the youngest ever and is currently a studio recordings musician in Seattle. Jeanette Wickell played 10 seasons with the Whatcom Symphony. In 2012 she obtained her Masters in Violin with Walter Schwede and Grant Donnellan at Western Washington Univ., where she is now an instructor. Studying with Walter Schwede, Whitney Wynn finished a double major in Environmental Studies and Violin at WWU in 2014. Lisa Humphrey has a Masters in Viola from the Indiana U. School of Music, studying with Alan deVeritch, and others. As an undergraduate at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticutt, she won both the Paranov Concerto and Chamber Music competitions and sat in with the internationally renowned Emerson and Leontovitch String Quartets. She has played several seasons with the Whatcom Symphony and Bellingham Music Festival and teaches at WWU, while maintaining a large private studio of more than 50 violin and viola students. Cellist Ray Kamada is a PhD Meteorologist with over 70 research publications, mostly in turbulent boundary layer physics. As a youth he studied for 10 years with Cesare Pascarella of the Roth String Quartet. At 16 he joined the Pasadena Symphony and was principal or co-principal cellist of the All-Southern Calif., All-Calif., and All-Western States High School Orchestras, as well as the UCLA and UC Davis Symphonies. He founded the Davis Community Orchestra and while a research professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, he played with the Ribera String Quartet and Monterey Bay Symphony, while serving on the Board of Chamber Music Monterey and Monterey's History and Arts Commission.

From Bach to Rock, Seattle to Semiahmoo, we play it all. Handel, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven wedding tunes and on to Adele, Avril, Cold Play, Enya, Lady Gaga, The Verve; pop from the Beatles to Bruno Mars; tangos from Por Una Cabeza to El Choclo; jazz from Gershwin to Brubeck. Add a little Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, and Smokey Robinson. Yes, we play about two dozen hymns, Scott Joplin rags, tons of TV, movie, video game themes, as well as traditional and jazz styled Christmas tunes. Our 450+ tune repertoire is listed at:
https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0#folders/0B9rGuWD5Gx2VNkYtMmtHRkdkOFE

With a few audio samples at:
https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0#folders/0B9rGuWD5Gx2VSGFPQWFQWXVobEk

And some of our concert performances at:
https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0#folders/0B9rGuWD5Gx2VZXIxdF91RHdxTmM

Also mp3s of our original arrangements for pop string quartet are available at:
https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0#folders/0B9rGuWD5Gx2VaVBZR01vVV9OMG8

Back on the classical side, our last concert at the Whatcom Museum of History and Art, with guest pianist and concert soloist, Dan Solo, aired the Brahms Piano Trio, opus 114; Faure Piano Quartet, opus 15; along with the prodigiously difficult Ysaye sonata #3 (Ballade) for solo violin. Protea members have played with the Emerson and Leontovitch string quartets, Seattle Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Ballet, and Whatcom, Pasadena, and Monterey Bay symphonies. Several have Masters degrees in music performance. Note that wedding ceremonies rarely need it, but for dinner and dancing involving 100 or more guests, then for $60/hr (with a 2 hour minimum) we can now bring AMPLIFICATION. So, rather than a DJ, you can add LIVE music!