Cultures in Harmony

ASHLEY BUCKLEY, VIOLIN
Pictured: Ashley receives a lesson in Turkish music
from Orhan Sevsar on an island near Istanbul

ashley_buckley Ashley Buckley is currently pursuing her Masters of Music degree in Violin Performance at Carnegie Mellon University with Cyrus Forough. She graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Music degree from Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with David Updegraff. Ashley is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At the age of ten, she appeared with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Bach Double Violin Concerto. Ashley has been a prize recipient of the Phoenix Symphony Guild and the Music Teachers National Association competitions. She has participated in several music festivals, including Idyllwild, the Interlochen Arts Festival (as an Emerson scholar), National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute, ENCORE School for Strings, and the National Repertory Orchestra. Ashley is an active performer. Most recently, she has given recitals in Arizona and Colorado. Ashley is a member of the Parnassus String Quartet, with whom she has given recitals in Colorado for the past two years, and this year will be performing in the Grand County Concert Series in Tabernash, Colorado.

Ultimately, Ashley hopes to establish an orchestral career, but she has other interests as well. She spent the past summer in Ghana, where she volunteered in a small community. While the main focus of her stay in Ghana was to work in a local school, she integrated her interest in music into the program. Ashley is currently volunteering with a hospice organization in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ashley believes in the importance of making classical music tangible for all listeners. She also believes in the importance of relations between people, striving to make connections with others, and in utilizing music as her vehicle of outreach.