Meet the Team

  • Katie Kennedy

    DIRECTOR & CELLO FACULTY

  • Anna Washburn

    VIOLIN & VIOLA FACULTY

  • Aaron Westman

    VIOLIN & VIOLA FACULTY

  • Sarah Irish & Micheal Dusik

    CASTELLO PARENTS

  • ERIC DAHLIN, was a cello faculty and director of Music Adventure for many years. Eric was an avid chamber musician, teacher and the assistant principal cellist of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Eric played principal cellist with Sarah Chang and the HSO in Vivaldi “Four Seasons.” The Hartford Courant praised his solo passages as “extraordinary” and noted that “Chang frequently turned to fix upon principal cellist Eric Dahlin creating high-intensity exchanges and precise rhythmic co-ordinations.”

    A native of Minneapolis, Eric began his musical training with long-time Minnesota Orchestra member Cynthia Eddy Britt. He continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Derek Simpson, acclaimed cellist of the Aeolian String Quartet. He received his B.M. from the Hartt School where he studied with David Wells and received an M.M. from the Yale University School of Music where he studied with Aldo Parisot and was a recipient of the George Houpt Knight Award for Excellence in String Playing.

    Eric performed chamber music regularly on the HSO’s Sunday Serenades series at Hartford Wadsworth Atheneum, with the Hop River Chamber Player, and on Sundays at the Parlor on Park with Gary Chapman, pianist, and long-time chamber music partner. Eric was on faculty at the Hartt School Community Division and was frequently invited to host master classes and adjudicate competitions.

    From the Hartford Courant, Extraordinary Life: Hartford Symphony Fueled Cellist’s Passion For Music article.