Assistant Principal Viola Kerri Ryan joined The Philadelphia Orchestra at the beginning of the 2007-08 season. She came to Philadelphia from the Minnesota Orchestra, where she was assistant principal viola for seven seasons. Following her graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1998 she served as associate concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony. Ms. Ryan and her husband, violinist William Polk, are founding members of the award-winning Minneapolis Quartet.
In Philadelphia, while pursuing a violin performance degree at Curtis, Ms. Ryan began studying viola with Karen Tuttle. Ms. Ryan also studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a member of its Young Artist Program. Her violin teachers include Lee Snyder, Jascha Brodsky, Rafael Druian, and Arnold Steinhardt.