CORE MUSICIANS
Wesley Ducote
Wesley Ducote is a third-year Piano Fellow at the New World Symphony. Hailing from Houston, he has led a versatile musical career pursuing a diverse set of interests.
As a collaborator, Mr. Ducote has been featured with many of today’s brightest stars including composer/vocalist Kate Soper, Emmy Award-winning composer and Vietnamese folk musician Van Anh Vo, flutists Leone Buyse and Carol Wincenc, soprano Ana Maria Martinez, and many others. He has served as principal keyboardist with the Shepherd School Symphony and the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. As a chamber musician he has been a featured artist with MUSIQA and the Nantucket Rossini Club, and in 2017 was selected by the Shepherd School of Music to perform with the Gyldfeldt quartet from Leipzig. Mr. Ducote has even worked as a keyboardist/composer in his own jazz-fusion sextet Steve Cox’s Beard.
An enthusiastic performer of new and contemporary music, Mr. Ducote has premiered over 40 new works and worked with faculty at institutions in China, South Korea, Canada and all over the United States. His new music experience includes works for solo piano, chamber ensembles, orchestra and even a piano concerto written for him. He is currently working on an upcoming commissioning project of new solo piano music.
Mr. Ducote is an Artist Fellow with the Louis Moreau Institute and was a Young Artist Fellow with Da Camera of Houston, Resident Piano Fellow with the Cortona Sessions for New Music, and a fellow with CPI at the Composer’s Conference, SICPP, Encore Chamber Music, Round Top Festival Institute and Aspen Music Festival. Mr. Ducote holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in music from Rice University, where he studied with Brian Connelly, as well as an undergraduate degree in mathematics.
Valerie Sly
Valerie Sly currently serves as principal horn of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. She previously held positions as principal horn of the West Virginia and Adrian (Michigan) Symphony Orchestras, and in summer 2021, joined the Des Moines Opera Orchestra as third horn. Ms. Sly has also frequently performed with the Virginia, Richmond, Colorado, and Memphis Symphonies, as well as the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Sly has appeared twice as a featured soloist for the Vermont Mozart Festival, performing concerti with the festival’s chamber orchestra in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, her chamber ensemble, Izula Horns, appeared as featured artists in the Boulanger Initiative’s inaugural Women Composers festival.
Summer orchestra fellowships include Spoleto Festival USA, Lucerne Festival Academy, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and Colorado College Summer Music Festival. In September 2021 she returned to Lucerne as a member of the festival’s alumni ensemble.
Ms. Sly is currently completing a DMA degree at the University of Colorado Boulder under the tutelage of Michael Thornton. She also holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music where she studied with William Purvis, and a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Roland Pandolfi.
