Dallas Symphony Orchestra Announces New Musicians for the 2023/24 Season

DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES NEW MUSICIANS FOR THE 2023/24 SEASON
FIVE PLAYERS JOIN THE ROSTER IN SEPTEMBER 2023

Dallas, Texas (August 23, 2023) — The Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Fabio Luisi (Louise W. & Edmund J. Kahn Music Directorship) announce five new musicians joining the DSO starting in the 2023/24 season.

“I am thrilled to welcome these new musicians to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and to our musical family,” said Fabio Luisi. “I look forward to getting to know them and working together to build our unique DSO sound.”

DANIEL HAWKINS will join the ensemble as Principal Horn (Howard E. Rachofsky Chair). Since 2017, Hawkins held the position of Utility Horn with the San Francisco Symphony, and, in the 2019/20 Season, held the position of Associate Principal Horn with the SFS. Prior to this appointment, Hawkins served with the San Antonio Symphony, Houston Symphony, Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, Meadows Symphony Orchestra and Southern Arkansas Symphony. Daniel Hawkins won First Place in the International Horn Competition of America in 2022, was the award winner of the Music Teacher’s National Association Young Artist Competition in 2014 and won the Meadows School of the Arts Undergraduate and General Concerto Competition in 2012 and 2015.

A native of Chandler, Texas, Hawkins began playing the horn at age eleven and took lessons with Dr. Charles Gavin at Stephen F. Austin State University at age fifteen. Hawkins studied at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University from 2012-2015, receiving a Bachelor of Music, and continued his studies at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where he received his Master of Music. Hawkins’s teachers include DSO Second Horn Haley Hoops (Becky & Brad Todd Chair), former DSO Principal Horn Greg Hustis and William VerMeulen at Rice University.

SARAH SUNG will join the DSO as Associate Principal Viola (Third Chair). Australian-Korean violist Sarah Sung is the First Prize winner of the 2023 Musicians Club of Women Competition in Chicago. Together with Timothy Chooi and Drake Driscoll, Sarah is a cofounder of VISION Collective — an initiative that builds meaningful relationships with and among refugees by sharing and exchanging music between diverse communities. In recognition of their work, the VISION Collective received the $20,000 McGraw Family Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach in 2020.
Sung’s passion for chamber music led her to attend prestigious festivals including Music@Menlo, Ravinia Steans Institute, Yellow Barn, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop and Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music. She has performed with distinguished artists such as Natasha Brofsky, Catherine Cho, Itzhak Perlman, Marcy Rosen, Roger Tapping and Vivian Weilerstein. Sung has been a guest violist with the Jupiter Chamber Players, Minnesota Orchestra and Delirium Chamber Orchestra, and has served as Principal Violist of the Juilliard Orchestra in venues such as Alice Tully Hall and David Geffen Hall.

Sarah Sung received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Paul Neubauer and Cynthia Phelps on a full scholarship. Sarah has recently completed her first year of Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Northwestern University.

ROBERT O’BRIEN joined the DSO in January 2023 as Assistant Principal Timpani/Section Percussion. Before coming to Dallas, O’Brien was the Principal Percussionist of the Omaha Symphony for four seasons and spent one season as a member of the Houston Ballet Orchestra. He has been a Global Academy Fellow with the New York Philharmonic and has performed with the St. Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony and the Hawaii Symphony. His summer engagements have included fellowships at the National Repertory Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center.

Originally from Fairfield, Connecticut, Robert O’Brien holds degrees from Boston University, New England Conservatory and Rice University. His teachers include Tim Genis, Will Hudgins, Matthew Strauss, Sam Solomon and Richard Flanagan. O’Brien is a proud endorser of Zildjian Cymbals. In his spare time, he enjoys playing piano, golfing, fishing, reading and cooking.

JIMIN LIM joins the DSO in the Second Violin section this season. Lim has been a member of the Nashville Symphony since 2017, and she held the position of Acting Associate Principal Second Violin this past season. Lim was also a part of the Nashville Symphony’s chamber music series. As winner of the Korean National University of Arts Concerto Competition, Lim performed with the KNUA Symphony. She has also soloed with the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, Busan Symphony Orchestra, Moldova National Symphony Orchestra and the Conductors Orchestra at Indiana University. Jimin Lim has garnered top prizes from the Kloster Schontal International Violin competition, Hankook-Ilbo Competition, Korea Germany Brahms Competition and the Korean Chamber Orchestra competition. During her summer months, Lim has participated in many festivals, including the Britt Music and Arts Festival. She has also spent her summers at the Aspen Music Festival, where she was recipient of the Dorothy and Richard Starling Foundation Scholarship.

A native of Busan, South Korea, Jimin Lim received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Violin Performance from Korean National University of the Arts, where she studied with the late Nam-Yun Kim. She holds Performance Diplomas in both solo and orchestral studies from Indiana University, where she studied with Alexander Kerr.

The DSO also welcomes CALEB QUILLEN to the bass section in the Fall of 2023. Caleb Quillen was a member of the Kansas City Symphony for seven seasons. He has also performed with the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. Quillen studied at Rice University with Paul Ellison and Tim Pitts. He also attended New England Conservatory, where he studied with Lawrence Wolfe of the Boston Symphony and Donald Palma, co-founder of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He was a Tanglewood Fellow in 2015 and 2016. When not performing with the symphony, Quillen likes to rock climb, run, read and cook.