School of Music

Bio

Constance Whitman Gee, is viola professor at the University of South Carolina, where she maintains an active viola studio, coordinates string chamber music and is Director of the Community Music School and Suzuki Strings program. She has performed extensively across the US and Europe as an orchestral and chamber musician and soloist. She lived and worked in Spain for several years as the Principal Violist with the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife.

Gee has appeared as soloist with orchestras, including the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, the Charlottesville Symphony, and Piccolo Spoleto Festival among others. An avid supporter of New Music, she has collaborated with such composers as Luciano Berio, Luis Andriessen, Henry Brant, David Jaffe, and others. She has premiered several works written expressly for her; most recently Reginald Bain's “Tiling” for viola and piano.

Upcoming projects include the recording of the works for viola by Henry Brant to be included in the collected works of the composer. Her recordings include the Sonata per viola I piano by Salvador Brotons, and Heaven and Earth: Chamber Music with Harp.

A proponent of all things viola, she founded and served as president of the Virginia Viola Society and now serves as president of the South Carolina Viola Society. Her major teachers included Jesse Levine, Stuart Canin, James Dunham and Emanuel Zetlin. She holds degrees from the University of Maryland, the Yale School of Music and California Institute of the Arts.