The Richmond Symphony School of Music is excited to announce two new additions to the team this season: Dr. Julie Bemis, Vice President of Education and Community Engagement, and Davey Van Beveren, Assistant Director of Education and Community Engagement!
Dr. Julie Bemis is the Vice President of Education and Community Engagement at the Richmond Symphony, where she thrives in collaborating with both staff and musicians. Passionate about connecting the community to music, Julie believes in its transformative power to inspire, unite, and uplift people of all ages and from all backgrounds. She is particularly dedicated to creating opportunities for young people to engage with music. Most recently, Julie worked at the Colorado Symphony as Manager of Orchestra Personnel and at the University of Northern Colorado as Assistant Professor of Percussion.
A Chesapeake, Virginia native, Davey Van Beveren’s musical journey began in elementary school with a plastic recorder. He holds a bachelor’s degree in oboe performance from Oberlin College & Conservatory and a master’s degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Davey has a deep passion for youth orchestras, and previously worked as the Orchestra Manager at the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestras. Most recently, Davey worked at the Colorado Symphony as their Community Education Manager, where he oversaw the development and implementation of award-winning educational programming that engaged over 30,000 community members each year. Davey also worked as the Orchestra Manager of the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestras.
To learn more about our new staff members, visit the leadership page on our website. Keep an eye out for Julie and Davey at YOP rehearsals and community events later this spring to meet and get to know them.
![Congratulations to the YOP class of 2026! This year, twenty students graduated from the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra Program. The next senior we’d like to recognize is cellist Grayson Ebinger! 🎶
Grayson has performed with Youth Concert Orchestra for three years. Following his graduation from high school, Grayson will pursue a degree in aviation maintenance and technology, with his end goal to one day become a commercial pilot. His favorite memory from his time in YOP was “playing amazing songs with the orchestra,” and in his senior survey, he wrote “Thank you Dr. Goldie for teaching so much about not just playing notes but making music [too].” Congratulations, Grayson! 🎉
@rvasymphony #cello #youthorchestra #orchestra #musiced #classicalmusic](https://richmondsymphonysom.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
