Diane Phoenix-Neal

Diane Phoenix-Neal is Associate Professor of Viola at James Madison University, and principal violist of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival since 2003. Her sound is described as “rich and sumptuous,” and she enjoys a vibrant teaching and performing career. She performs nationally and internationally as a collaborative chamber musician and as a soloist. Her performances have taken her to music festivals throughout the world to four continents, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Spoleto Festival. In France, she served for nearly a decade as both the principal solo violist of Orchestre de Picardie and as violist of Quatuor Joachim. 

Originally from North Carolina, Phoenix-Neal received her training from the Juilliard School as a student of William Lincer and the Juilliard Quartet, from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro after a ten-year career as a performer and teacher in Europe. 

An active member of the American Viola Society, she is passionate about teaching, and enjoys exploring a broad kaleidoscope of viola repertoire to perform and introduce to her students. Most recent performances have been at James Madison University’s Contemporary Music Festivals, 50th American Viola Festival, International Viola Congresses in Australia, Poland and Brazil, and at the 50th International Viola Congress in Paris, France.