Musician Bio
Lisa Dempsey
Lisa Dempsey is the Associate Concertmaster of the Chattanooga Symphony, and moved to Tennessee from Boston in 1998. Her parents are both violinists and still have significant influence in her musical life. Her father, John Dempsey, recently retired as Professor of Music at the University of Rhode Island and for many years served as the Concertmaster of the Westerly Chorus and Orchestra. Her mother, Karen Jackson Geary, taught as a string teacher in the Cranston Public School system. Both parents were members of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and were very active freelancers. Having such successful role models shaped Lisa's future from an early age, and she is so grateful for all of their guidance.
She holds a Bachelor of Music degree (summa cum laude) from the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut and a Master of Music (with honors) from Boston University, where she also completed her Doctoral coursework. She was a member of the New World Symphony (Miami) under the direction of Michael Tilson-Thomas, and was a part of their PBS special "Beethoven Alive." She has also played with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Huntsville Symphony, the Nashville Chamber Orchestra and the Vermont Symphony. She has been a substitute with the Alabama, Memphis, Charleston and Richmond Symphonies, and the Flemish Radio Orchestra in Belgium under the direction of Yoel Levi. She has held faculty positions with the Sewanee Summer Music Festival and the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. Her teachers include Bayla Keyes, Mitchell Stern, Eduard Grach, Marylou Speaker-Churchill, Jonathan Sturm, and Machie Oguri-Kudo.
This summer marks Lisa's third year with Music on the Hill, and she is very excited to be returning. In July 2007, Lisa served as the concertmaster of the Bard Conductors' Orchestra in New York, and during the summer of 2006, she worked in an orchestra in Fontainebleau, France. She also served as the Concertmaster of the Ohio Light Opera for two seasons, in 2004 and 2005, and received a mention in "Fanfare Magazine". In August 2004 Lisa spent a month in New York City as one of ten musicians chosen nationally for the John Cage Festival. In June 2003 she was one of twelve violinists selected to perform in a series of master classes with William Preucil, and was featured in both "Strings Magazine" and the "American String Teachers Association Journal." Twice Ms. Dempsey has participated in the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, where she performed in concerts with Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Other festivals she has participated in include the Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp (Nashville), Hot Springs Music Festival, Graz (Austria), Tanglewood, Aspen Music School, the Henry Mancini Institute in LA, Meadowmount School for Strings, Aix-en-Provence (France), the Istanbul Festival (Turkey), the Scotia Festival (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and the Moscow Conservatory International Summer School. Lisa has recorded for the Chandos, Concord and Albany labels. In addition to playing, Ms. Dempsey is a professional Orchestral Librarian, serving as Co-Librarian for the Chattanooga Symphony and Head Librarian for the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Lisa feels honored to play on her grandfather's violin, an 1875 Pasquale Ventapane, which he passed on to her when she was 17 years old.
Lisa was born and raised in North Kingstown, RI where she graduated from North Kingstown High School.