Adina Vallandingham
Violin

Adina was born in Romania and began her musical education at the Music School for gifted children at age of 6. She travelled and played concerts throughout Europe from age 14. Later, she won a full scholarship to “Gheorghe Dima” Conservatory of Music in Cluj-Napoca, where she studied violin with Professor Maior Valeriu, a student of legendary violinist Leonid Kogan. At 18, she was one of the youngest violinists to win a position with a professional orchestra in Romania. After Conservatory, she moved to the United States where she was accepted as a full scholarship recipient to the Artist Diploma Program at the University of Washington where she served as the concertmaster of the Orchestra.
 
She has been a member of well-established groups such as the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra, the International Orchestra of Holland, Spokane Symphony, Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, Florida Philharmonic in South Florida and the Florida Orchestra in Tampa. Her teachers included Maria Larionoff, Robert Davidovici, Erick Friedman, Kelly Farris and Maestro Stefan Ruha. She has performed internationally at numerous venues including; Filarmonica Transilvania Hall, Academia de Muzica Dima Hall, Romanian Opera Cluj, The Met in Spokane where she was radio broadcast performing solo, Stuttgard Academy, Lyon Conservatory Music Hall, Kravis Center for the Arts, Miami Center for the Arts, Gusman Center for the performing Arts, Strathmore Music Center, Kennedy Center and many others. She has performed with well-known conductors such as Peter Eros, Marco Armiliato, Emil Simon, Joseph Silverstein, Stefan Sanderling, Cristian Mandeal, Fabio Mechetti and Roberto Brignoli among many others.
In addition to playing with Kassia, she serves on the faculty at the College of Southern Maryland, play in the Langgaard Quartet, and runs a small private studio.

Bernard Vallandingham
Violin, Viola, & Composition

Bernard was a National Orchestra Youth Fellow before attending Oberlin and Manhattan School of Music. For years he played as concertmaster and in sections of various orchestras and chamber ensembles up and down the East Coast and was a member of the Florida Philharmonic and the Naples Philharmonic. He has also played in numerous chambers groups and has performed with many leading contemporary chamber musicians including David Geber, Julia Lichten, Anat Malkin, Bracha Malkin, Emmanuel Borok among many others. Bernard has participated as both a violinist and violist in many chamber music festivals. 

Bernard has performed all over the States—Carnegie Hall, the Gusman Center, the Kennedy Center—but his central passion has been music composition. He was fortunate enough to study music theory, counterpoint and composition with Warren Darcy, Allen Cadwallader and Mark Stambaugh (some of the greatest music theorists alive in his opinion) and subsequently continued a strict autodidactic regimen of renaissance counterpoint (following Knud Jeppesen) and musical form. Bernard has written pieces for many ensembles including recent premieres at the Academy of Music Summer Festival in New York and the Kennedy Center in DC.

Elizabeth Oka
Viola

Elizabeth is thrilled to be a part of Kassia because she has always loved the intimacy and versatility of chamber music. She has premiered new works in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, founded and performed with Sodam and the All-Stars throughout Miami Beach, and presented programs at various museums, correctional facilities, hospitals, bars, and retirement communities. She began playing violin at age 3 but switched to viola in high school. After completing a fellowship at the New World Symphony, Elizabeth joined the Washington National Opera/ Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra as assistant principal violist. She currently play with the Des Moines Metro Opera as principal violist. She has spent summers as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Round Top Festival-Institute.
Elizabeth attended Tufts University and the New England Conservatory. She also served as the Associate Instructor in Viola while pursuing a performance diploma at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Her many wonderful teachers include Ed Gazouleas, Martha Katz, and Lenny Matczynski. Outside of the viola, she enjoys hiking, reading, and finding new things to eat.

Lauren Geist
Clarinet, Accordion, & Soprano

Lauren graduated from St. Olaf College in 2009. During her time there, she spent two summers working in the New York Philharmonic Archives, where she led a project preserving the score collection of Leonard Bernstein. After graduating, she attended Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, where she received a Master of Music degree clarinet performance. In 2010, Lauren was a founding member of the Chicago-based wind quintet, The City of Tomorrow, which won a gold medal at the 2011 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Later that year, her life took an exciting turn when she accepted a job as clarinetist in The U.S. Navy Band. As an accordionist, Lauren has been a guest artist at the Wintergreen Music Festival, with the Children’s Chorus of Washington, in the pit for Cabaret at Signature Theatre, and at the U.S. Capitol. She has always had a passion for singing and has remained active in the local choral community. Lauren has served as President of the Grammy Award–winning Washington Chorus been a soprano in the choirs at the Washington National Cathedral. She has sung with the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Rolling Stones.

Sam Post
Piano & Composition

Sam has played piano since he was five but did not seriously explore music composition until he was twenty-five. He used to consider it my mission to bring the world capital-g capital-m Great Music (Bach, Mozart, etc.), and he still loves playing the Greats. He can even bring them something new, on a good day. But after hearing Beethoven’s 5th Symphony on the radio approximately 100 million times, Sam thought, maybe it’s time for something fresh! In writing his own music, Sam does not try too hard to make it sound this way or that, specifically. It does not all fit into a single category or check off any set of boxes. He just tries to write the best music he can, music that you want to hear again, and that sounds better when you do.
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In his non-Kassia time Sam serves on faculty at Levine Music in DC, hosts a podcast called the Music Post and plays soccer and table tennis. See more about him and his soloist life on his website or facebook.

Susanna Mendlow
Cello & Soprano

Susanna was born to a family of music-lovers and sang my way through childhood. She discovered cello at the age of 6 and has been attached to it since. She plays in a wide variety of styles, including classical, world music, contemporary, and improvisation. Her unconventional musical interests have ushered her through the United States, Canada, Mexico, and across Europe. In 2011 she ventured to Central Asia as a member of Moyindau - a quartet that integrated experimental jazz, free improvisation, modern classical, and ethnic folk music. During her travels she broke bread with semi-nomadic Kyrgz tribes in the Pamir Mountains, danced the night away with children of an orphanage in Shymkent, and improvised with a Tajik didgeridoo player in Almaty. Upon returning to the States, Susanna pursued her DMA at SUNY Stony Brook, where she further nurtured her eclectic musical tastes, presenting a lecture-recital on the technique and art-form of singing while playing the cello. Susanna moved to DC in 2015, and she now serves on the faculty of Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Maryland in addition to free-lancing in the DMV area.

Susanna also plays in QuinTango and the world music duo Cello, World. You can learn more about her at her website.