SIDE BY SIDE RESIDENCY

                                                             Originally from Dublin, Ohio, SSG Allison Smith                                                                     joined The U.S. Army Strings in the fall of 2025 after                                                               completing one year as a violin fellow at the New                                                                   World Symphony. She received her bachelor’s and                                                                 master’s degrees from the Shepherd School of                                                                       Music at Rice University under the tutelage of Paul                                                                 Kantor. She has served as Concertmaster of the                                                                      Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and New                                                                        World Symphony, as well as Principal Second at the                                                              Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany under the baton                                                                of Andris Nelsons for the inaugural Shostakovich                                                                    Festival. She has also performed with the Houston,                                                                Atlanta, and Fort Worth Symphonies.

A Chamber Music Connection alumna, Allison began participating in CMC in sixth grade and was an active member of the program throughout her time as a young musician in Central Ohio. At CMC, she performed with the Suavé Quartet, and numerous other chamber ensembles. Her time at CMC also included side-by-side performances with professional string quartets, making her return to CMC as a member of The U.S. Army Strings a special full-circle moment.

Passionate about chamber music and connecting with her community, she received funding from New World Symphony to create a performance titled Chocolate and Chamber Music, featuring works by living female composers paired with flavors of chocolate from a Miami-based chocolate shop. While studying at Rice University, she received the Sviatoslav Richter Fund Grant for Music Outreach which she used to perform concerts at Houston senior living facilities. She enjoys teaching young musicians and sharing her love of chamber music with students.

She has spent summers as a fellow at Tanglewood, Sarasota, Lancaster, Aspen, and Madeline Island music festivals and has performed alongside esteemed musicians such as Laufey, Caroline Shaw, Gabriel Kahane, and James Dunham. Outside of music, she enjoys lifting, running, reading, cooking, and exploring DC with her husband Nic.

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                                                                          SFC Patrick Lin was born in Buffalo, NY, and grew up in                                                                            Fargo, ND, where he began studying violin at the age of                                                                              7 with Mary Weisser and Jane Linde Capistran.                                                                                              He continued his studies at The Florida State University                                                                              (Bachelor of Music 2015) with Dr. Benjamin Sung and                                                                                the Cleveland Institute of Music (Master of Music 2018)                                                                            with William Preucil. Patrick joined The U.S. Army                                                                                      Strings in February of 2019. Previously, he lived in                                                                                          Honolulu, HI, where he was a member of the Hawai'i                                                                                  Symphony Orchestra and performed with Hawai'i                                                                                        Opera Theatre and Ballet Hawai'i. Patrick has also                                                                                         performed with the Baltimore Symphony, Charleston Symphony, and Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestras and has attended festivals around the country, including the Britt Music and Arts Festival (OR), Lexington Bach Festival (MI), National Repertory Orchestra (CO), and Spoleto Festival USA (SC).

                                                                               A native of Western New York, MSG Benjamin Wensel                                                                                earned degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music                                                                                and Eastman School of Music, where he served as                                                                                         assistant to renowned pedagogue Alan Harris. Equally                                                                                important to his musical education were performances in                                                                               seminars and master classes for members of the                                                                                           Cleveland, Guaneri, Juilliard, Miami and Ying quartets;                                                                                chamber music studies with Peter Salaff and members of                                                                              the Audubon and Cavani Quartets; and solo master                                                                                       classes with David Soyer, Clemens Michael Hagen, Steven                                                                           Isserlis and Michel Strauss. Wensel has performed with                                                                                 the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Syracuse Symphony, and has been a member of The U.S. Army Strings, Orchestra and String Quartet since 2003. Additionally, Wensel appears with many of the fine local ensembles in the National Capital Region. Dedicated to the creation and promotion of new music, Wensel performed the world premieres of more than 20 works written by established and emerging American composers as a founding member of the Tarab Cello Ensemble and participated in the ensemble’s residencies at Princeton University, Stetson University, and the University of South Florida. He currently coaches for the 9th Street Chamber Music, Quartet Intensive program as well as maintaining a private studio in Fairfax, Virginia. Grateful to be an active member of the innovative arts community of the Capital region, Wensel performs regularly as the cellist of the Mellifera Quartet. He can be heard on recordings produced by Bridge, Delos, Harmonia Mundi, RM Records, and Summit.

                                                                          SSG Julia Clancy joined The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s                                                                            Own” in 2024 after serving as acting section violist in the                                                                            San Diego Symphony. Prior to this appointment, she                                                                                    performed as a regular substitute in the Nashville                                                                                            Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, and Dallas                                                                                                Symphony. As a member of the West Eastern Divan                                                                                      Orchestra, she performs across the globe under the                                                                                         direction of Daniel Barenboim. Prior to the 2020                                                                                           pandemic, she was serving a two-year contract at the                                                                                     Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin, performing opera, ballet,                                                                               symphonic and chamber music. She can be heard on                                                                                     multiple albums with the Boulez Ensemble, Konzerthaus Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, and Aldeburgh Ensemble.
As a soloist, she has performed at 92Y, TheGreene Space, National Sawdust, LACMA, and venues across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Spain. After winning the Cleveland Institute of Music’s concerto competition, she performed with the school’s orchestra as a soloist. She has acted as principal violist in Krzysztof Penderecki’s festival orchestra, Britten-Pears Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, Moritzburg Festival Orchestra, and Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival Orchestra.
Julia’s early musical education began at the Juilliard School’s Pre-College program. She holds a degree in medical anthropology from Case Western Reserve University and a degree in music from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Jeffrey Irvine, Lynne Ramsey and Robert Vernon. Julia received her master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University, where she was a two-time winner of the Georgina Lucy Grosvenor Memorial Prize.