DSO Announces New Principal Flute, Assistant Principal Oboe, and Violin Appointments

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) has welcomed two new full-time musicians to its ranks beginning in January, and has announced that a current DSO musician has won a vacant assistant principal position.

Hannah Hammel will join the DSO as Principal Flute (Women’s Association for the DSO Chair). Hammel joins the DSO after two and a half seasons as principal flute of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, and others.

Current DSO second oboe Sarah Lewis (Maggie Miller Chair) won the vacant Assistant Principal Oboe position. Lewis joined the DSO oboe section in 2017 after five seasons with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.The Assistant Principal Oboe position was vacated this summer, when DSO musician Brian Ventura announced his retirement after 30 seasons with the orchestra.

And Alexander Volkov joins the DSO’s violin section from Canada, where he was most recently a member of the Canadian Opera Company (Toronto) and the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. Volkov has also performed as a substitute with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and as a fellow with the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

All three musicians begin performing in these capacities with the DSO in January.