Christopher Jenkins, viola The newest member of Invert, Chris Jenkins brings to the group his extensive training in classical music with some of the best violists and musicians in the world. At Harvard, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree, he studied viola with Michelle LaCourse, chair of Boston University's string department, and received coachings in chamber music from the famed pianist Robert Levin, Lydian Quartet violinist Daniel Stepner, and the composers John Harbison and Yehudi Wyner. His quartet reached the semifinal round of the Fischoff Competition in 2001. In 2003 he earned a masters degree at New England Conservatory with Martha Katz, founding violist of the internationally recognized Cleveland Quartet. In 2004, he finished a Professional Studies degree at the Manhattan School of Music, where he worked with Karen Dreyfus, former winner of the Naumburg and Tertis Competitions, and Michael Tree, violist of the Guarneri Quartet. In addition, he has studied in Austria with Thomas Riebl of the Vienna String Sextet, and with Heidi Castleman of Juilliard. As a Fellow at the Perlman Music Program, he was coached by Itzhak Perlman and traveled with the program to Shanghai, where he played with and coached Chinese students. He has also been a three-time semifinalist of the Sphinx Competition, becoming the Competition's Third-Place laureate in 2005. For several years, he peformed with the Sphinx Quartet and with The Young Eight String Octet, a group of African-American string players. Mr. Jenkins' background has not been confined to classical music. He began his studies in jazz violin with Julie Lyonn Lieberman in 1993. In 2003, he traveled to England with George Russell and his Living Time Orchestra, a group composed of some of the best jazz players in Europe and America. There he performed Russell's "Dialogue With Ornette," for three keyboards and solo violin, at The Royal Northern Academy of Music in Manchester, and in London's Barbican Hall. He has served as a substitute player with the New York Philharmonic, and is beginning his first season with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic.