AVS Greenroom with Social Media Violists 

Please join Greenroom series host Steven Tenenbom as he welcomes Drew Forde, Rebecca Young and Kathryn Brown! 

Violist Drew Forde, known online as ThatViolaKid, has a reputation not only as an accomplished performer but also as one of classical music’s most recognizable online brands. Profiled in outlets like Thrillist, WNYC, the Detroit Free Press, and Strings Magazine, he was named “one of the titans of Classical Music Instagram” by National Sawdust Log, and was called “the future of our field” by Sphinx Organization president Afa Dworkin. Alongside Juilliard friend Trevor Bumgarner, Drew co-hosts the Faking Notes Podcast, a podcast for artist entrepreneurs touted by Sam Walder, CEO of Trala, as the “door to the music community.”

Rebecca Young joined the New York Philharmonic in 1986 as its youngest member and became associate principal viola in 1991. She can currently be seen leading the viola section of the All-Star Orchestra, a popular televised educational series about classical music. Rebecca was first introduced to music at the age of two when her parents took her to the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts led by Leonard Bernstein. Today, she is the host of the Philharmonic’s popular "Very Young Peoples Concerts," intimate chamber music concerts where she has tap-danced, played drums, ridden a scooter around the stage, and even sung Gilbert & Sullivan. Her philosophy is less to educate than, as she puts it, “to make the audiences have so much fun they want to come back!”

Kathryn Brown graduated from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with George Taylor. Kathryn received her degree in Music Education from Illinois State University where she studied viola with Dr. Katherine Lewis. Kathryn has performed and presented lectures in cities around the world including Wellington, Pozna, Seoul, Nashville, and Salt Lake City. An advocate for access to quality music education for aspiring musicians of all backgrounds, Kathryn teaches in the El Sistema inspired programs RocMusic and Bravo Buddies. Aside from playing and teaching, Kathryn is co-host of the Classically Black Podcast, a classical music podcast that discusses classical music from the Black perspective.