The Langroise Trio
David Johnson won a position in the viola section of the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic as a high school senior. Awarded a scholarship to attend Butler University (Indianapolis), he transferred after two years to Indiana University, where he completed, with high distinction, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees in viola performance. While a student at Indiana, he performed a series of concerts in New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall with the Indiana University Doctoral String Quartet.
After graduating from college, David was appointed Principal Viola of the Iceland Symphony, where he was featured as soloist numerous times with pianist Debra Gold on the Iceland National Radio. David then returned to the Ft. Wayne Philharmonic, serving as Principal Violist for 9 years. While there, he was a founding member of the Freimann String Quartet and the Northeastern Indiana Chamber Music Festival. David was also appointed Assistant Principal Violist of the Grant Park Symphony in Chicago for 12 years, soloing with that orchestra in 1994.
In 1992, David joined the newly formed Langroise Trio, Artist in Residence at The College of Idaho, and is the principal violist of the Boise Philharmonic. He has performed concertos by J.C. Bach, J.S. Bach, Bartok, Berlioz, Mozart, Ranjbaran, Stamitz, Vaughn-Williams, and Walton with such orchestras as the Grant Park Symphony, Ft. Wayne Philharmonic, Atheneum Orchestra (Indianapolis), and the Boise Philharmonic, In addition, he has been a member of the South Bend Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Owensboro Symphony, Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the Northwest Indiana Symphony. He has been a member of the Sun Valley Orchestra and taught at the Sun Valley Summer Music Workshops, and since 2007 has served as the Artistic Director of the Sun Valley Symphony Summer Workshops.
Philip Kettler is the newly appointed Principal Cellist of the Boise Philharmonic Orchestra. A passionate chamber musician and teacher, he also serves as the cellist of the Langroise Trio and Lecturer/Artist-in-Residence at The College of Idaho. He began his positions in Boise after three seasons with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, where he served as Second Cellist and the orchestra’s youngest member. Philip also regularly performs with the Indianapolis
Symphony and Sarasota Orchestra, and previously held principal positions in orchestras including the Terre Haute Symphony, Carmel Symphony, and Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, among others. In recent seasons, Philip has been featured as a soloist and chamber musician at the Chevy Chase Concert Series (Washington, DC), Blair Concert Series (Nashville, TN), Concerts at Bradley Hills (Bethesda, MD), and Chamber Music Evergreen (Evergreen, CO). In the summer, Philip is the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, and has spent previous summers performing with the National Repertory Orchestra and at the music festivals of Aspen, Bowdoin, and Aix-en-Provence (France). Philip is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Music degree at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he also earned his Masters degree. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Vanderbilt University and also completed studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the Netherlands. His principal teachers include Eric Kim, Felix Wang, and Dmitry Ferschtman. Philip is regularly invited to serve as an adjudicator and clinician for competitions and festivals throughout the Northwest and Mountain West.
Brendan Shea is an award-winning violinist and chamber musician. His chamber music awards were won when he played with the Wasmuth Quartet and include the Bronze Medal at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, Gold Medal and Audience Award at the Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition, and Grand Prize at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition. As a founding member of the Wasmuth (now Verona) Quartet, he performed across the United States, Germany, and Japan.
As a soloist, Shea has performed with orchestras in Washington D.C, Brussels, Sendai, Indianapolis, and South Bend. His award-winning duo, the Shea-Kim Duo, has competed internationally and performed recitals in Asia, Europe, and North America. Their awards include the Ackerman Chamber Music Award and Gold Medal at the Manhattan International Music Competition. Their second CD, The Sound, and the Fury, was released by Blue Griffin Records in November of 2021. He premiered Frederic Rzewski’s Night, Death, and Devil with the Emmy Award-winning 8th Blackbird. He has been a finalist and semi-finalist at Queen Elisabeth, Isang-Yun, Seoul, Sibelius, and Carl Nielsen, and has taken first place with Honors at the Glazunov International Competition in Paris. He became a Langroise Fellow in 2022.