MET Orchestra Musicians Masterclasses

Violin Masterclass with MET Orchestra Associate Principal Second Violin Sylvia Danburg Volpe

October 5, 2025

Sylvia Danburg Volpe joined the orchestra as Associate Principal Second Violin in the year 2000. A native of Houston, Texas, she began her undergraduate studies with Ken Goldsmith at the Shepard School of Music at Rice University, and completed her Bachelor of Music at Juilliard with Glenn Dicterow. She made her New York solo debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1996, where she was praised by the New York Times for “beautiful tone — both lyricism and virtuosity”. Sylvia plays with the MET Chamber Ensemble concert series at Carnegie Hall, and has performed a wide variety of classical and cross-over music both here and abroad. In addition to this, for several weeks a year she actively dedicates herself to the pursuit and refinement of the perfect Christmas cookie.
 

Horn Masterclass with MET Orchestra Third Horn Javier Gándara

February 1, 2026

Javier Gándara has been a member of the Met Opera Orchestra since 1999. He began his professional career at age sixteen, when he won a position in the Puerto Rico Symphony while attending high school at La Escuela Libre de Música in San Juan. Javier later graduated from The Juilliard Schoo,l where he studied with Ranier De Intinis. He has held positions with the Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta de Euskadi, and the Oregon Symphony. He is on faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard Pre-College.
 

Cello Masterclass with MET Orchestra Principal Cello Rafael Figueroa

May 10, 2026

Principal cellist with the Metropolitan opera since 1995, Rafael Figueroa has appeared as a soloist and as a chamber musician throughout the U.S., Europe, South and Central Americas, Korea and Japan. He is the winner of many distinguished competitions and awards including the First Prize at the Gregor Piatigorsky Competition in Boston, The Bronze Medal at the International Pablo Casals Competition in Budapest and winner of the concerto competition at the Third American Cello Congress. Rafael Has been a frequent soloist with the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico as well as the Casals Festival in Tokyo, The Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Aspen Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, the Musique et Vin Festival in Burgundy and the Cape Cod Chamber music Festival. Rafael made his Carnegie Hall solo debut together with concertmaster David Chan and The Met Orchestra in the Brahms Double concerto led by James Levine to critical acclaim. He completed his studies at Indiana University under Janos Starker and Gary Hoffman.
 

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA ORCHESTRA

Thrilling audiences with more than 200 performances each season, the MET Orchestra is one of the world’s great performing ensembles, both on stage and in the opera pit. Since its founding in 1883, the MET Orchestra’s performances have encompassed not only the entire opera repertoire, but symphonic and chamber programs at Carnegie Hall, international tours, and countless musician activities outside of the Metropolitan Opera House. The MET Orchestra has grown in the past four decades into an ensemble noted by singers, critics, conductors, and audiences as one of today’s most stylistically versatile and musically satisfying orchestras.