Medina ’18 Wins Assistant Principal Position with Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra

Gerson Medina ’18 (Bachelor of Music in Performance) recently won an assistant principal position with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra.

Medina started his musical education when he was 10, through El Sistema in Venezuela. He began playing the violin at age 12. Between the ages of 14 and 15, he had the opportunity to be part of the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, which was conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and Simon Rattle.

Medina was accepted to Shenandoah University when he was 17 to study violin performance with Victor Brown Endowed Chair in Violin and Professor of Violin Akemi Takayama, D.M.A. During his time in Virginia, Medina had the opportunity to play for John Corigliano and tour Argentina with the Symphony Orchestra, as well as be awarded a Virginia String Teachers Association (VASTA) Scholarship and serve as the Virginia representative at the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA).

After Medina graduated from Shenandoah, he was accepted into Lynn University in Florida to start his master’s degree in violin performance and to study with Guillermo Figueroa. In Florida, he frequently taught in public and private schools. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he had to finish the degree online and then moved to Texas.

Being in Texas, he applied and was accepted to Michigan State University to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts program in violin performance with Dmitri Berlinsky.

While in Michigan, he continued playing with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra and San Antonio Symphony Orchestra and Ballet, and some orchestras in the Michigan area such as Flint and Jackson Symphony Orchestras.

Two years into the program, he ventured into the viola and decided to dedicate his last two years of higher education to the viola – eventually fully switching to viola performance. He took multiple auditions in part-time orchestras in the area, winning a position with the viola section of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra Viola section and principal viola position with the Midland Symphony Orchestra.