The Perfect Dialogue: Préludes of Life explores music as conversation, reflection, and transformation. At its heart is Brahms’ sweeping Double Concerto, featuring two young sister soloists studying at the University of Georgia, a real-life musical partnership that gives the work’s dialogue between violin and cello an especially meaningful dimension.
Dan Forrest’s luminous Three Nocturnes turns toward the mystery of the night sky, while Joe Hisaishi’s beloved Merry-Go-Round of Life brings a touch of cinematic wonder. Liszt’s Les Préludes closes the program with a powerful meditation on life’s loves, struggles, storms, and triumphs.
Available November 13
Rachel McClellan, Violinist
Violinist Rachel Leigh McClellan has developed an international presence through performances and competitions across the United States and abroad. Winner of the 2024 PRISMA Music Festival Concerto Competition, she performed with the PRISMA Festival Orchestra in British Columbia and has also received top prizes in the Leopold Auer International Violin and String Quartet Competition, Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Collegiate Scholarship Competition, Atlanta Music Club Scholarship Competition, and John H. Head Scholarship Competition. She has appeared numerous times as a soloist with orchestra, most recently with the IU Jacobs Concert Orchestra as winner of the Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto Competition.
McClellan has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player at festivals including the International Festival of Winter in Brazil, PRISMA Festival and Academy in Canada, MasterWorks Music Festival, Chamber Music Athens Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Colorado College Summer Music Festival.
Her orchestral experience includes leadership roles as concertmaster, co-concertmaster, assistant concertmaster, and principal second violin. She earned her bachelor’s degree in performance from the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music and her master’s degree from the IU Jacobs School of Music, where she is currently pursuing a doctorate under Simin Ganatra. McClellan performs on an Antonio Guadagnini violin, c. 1850, on loan from the Jacobs School.
Gabriella McClellan, Cellist
Gabriella McClellan is a first-year master’s student at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia, pursuing a degree in cello performance under the instruction of James Kim. In 2025, she was the first prize winner of the Atlanta Music Club Scholarship competition, winner of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival Concerto Competition, and prize winner in the Atlanta Festival Academy Young Artist Competition.
Gabriella won both the UGA Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition and the MasterWorks Festival Concerto Competition in 2023. She was a finalist in the PRISMA Festival Concerto Competition in 2024 and a prize winner in the Atlanta Music Club Scholarship competition in 2023. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and served as principal cellist in the Colorado College Summer Festival Orchestra, the UGA Symphony Orchestra, the PRISMA Festival Orchestra, and the ARCO Chamber Orchestra.
As a soloist and chamber musician, she has coached with artists such as David Finckel, Paul Watkins, Raman Ramakrishnan, Bion Tsang, Mark Kosower, David Ying, Mark Schumann, Henry Shapard, Joseph Lin, Alan Harrell, the Parker Quartet, Trio con Brio Copenhagen and Orli Shaham. She has also collaborated with notable artists such as Itamar Zorman and Amy Yang. Gabriella is a recipient of the Hodgson School of Music and Fantona Fowler Bisson Scholarships and is on faculty at the UGA Community Music School.