Violist Lydia Grimes joined the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2022. A native Minnesotan, Grimes grew up as a violinist and began studying the viola at 16 under the instruction of Sabina Thatcher. She recently received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Hsin-Yun Huang, Misha Amory and Cynthia Phelps.

Violinist Sarah Grimes joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 2016, where she is a member of the first violin section. Prior to her appointment, she performed as a guest musician with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Lukas Goodman joins the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2023 for select concerts and will begin his tenure full-time as assistant principal cello at the end of December. In 2016 he began his studies at the Rice University Shepherd School of Music with Desmond Hoebig, where he was awarded the Shepherd Society award. While at Rice, he won first prize in the Shepherd School Concerto Competition, as well as a gold medal at the 35th annual Young Texas Artists Music Competition.

In 2019, Goodman made his concerto debut with the Missouri Symphony, performing Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, which he performed again in 2020 with the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra. He was named a finalist in the 2022 Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, and in 2023 was awarded first prize at the George Gershwin International Competition.

Born and raised in Reykjavík, Iceland, Herdís Guðmundsdóttir joins the Minnesota Orchestra’s second violin section in fall 2025. She has previously been a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and a frequent substitute with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. She played as concertmaster for Yale Philharmonia and was a member of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble during the 2023 and 2024 summer seasons.

Illinois native Sonia Mantell joined the Minnesota Orchestra cello section in September 2020, and in fall 2024 took on the role of acting co-associate principal cello as well as making her debut as soloist performing James MacMillan’s Kiss on Wood in March 2025.  She studied at New England Conservatory and DePaul School of Music under the tutelage of Natasha Brofksy and Brant Taylor, respectively.  While attending DePaul, she won the Concerto Competition with violinist Ari Urban and performed the Brahms Double Concerto with the DePaul Symphony.  She is a Civic Orchestra of Chicago Alumni (2014-16) and has attended summer festivals at Aspen, National Orchestral Institute, Music Academy of the West and Tanglewood Music Center.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, violinist Sophia Mockler earned her master’s degree from the Yale School of Music with Ani Kavafian. Her previous teachers include Catherine Cho at the Juilliard School, Carmit Zori and Itzhak Perlman. She has attended multiple summer music festivals including the Verbier Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Program, the Lakes Area Music Festival and the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop. Recently she made her debut on the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society. In 2020 she toured throughout Europe with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under the direction of Iván Fischer, performing at the Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie and Carnegie Hall. She has served as the concertmaster for the Verbier Festival Orchestra as well as the Yale Philharmonia Orchestra. In addition to playing violin, she enjoys singing opera and sang the titular role in Dido and Aeneas at Princeton University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature.

Ben Odhner joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 2017, and won an audition to move to the first violin section in 2022. He previously held the position of fixed 4th chair in the first violin section of the Colorado Symphony. He has appeared as a soloist with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Ashland Symphony, Warminster Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles. In 2008 and 2009, he was selected to participate in the New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall. A fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival and School, he has been concertmaster of the Aspen Sinfonia and the Aspen Concert Orchestra. He was also a member of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which performed at Carnegie Hall in April 2009 as a part of the first international classical music summit brought together through the internet.

Dallas native Marlea Simpson joined the Minnesota Orchestra’s viola section in September 2022, and was appointed associate principal viola in February 2024. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “Grant Park Orchestra’s new 21-year-old wunderkind” in 2016, she most recently held the principal viola position with the Chicago Sinfonietta in addition to a section position with the Grant Park Orchestra after completing their Project Inclusion Program in 2014. Simpson has also performed as a substitute musician with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Sarasota Orchestra.

Alan Snow won the position of associate concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra in 2022. He was previously the second associate concertmaster with the Omaha Symphony. Since his first performance with the Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra at age 13, Snow has performed solo and chamber works internationally, including appearances at Chicago’s Symphony Center, London Symphony Orchestra St. Luke’s, Sala Manuel M. Ponce in Mexico City and others. Previous concertmaster appointments include the Evansville Philharmonic, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, Terre Haute Symphony, Festival Napa Valley Music Academy, Britten-Pears Young Artists Program, Indiana University’s top orchestras, Carmel Symphony and Music Academy of the West. In spring 2026, Snow will sit as guest concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. He currently serves as concertmaster of the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra as well as concertmaster and faculty at Birch Creek Summer Music Academy.

Violinist Emily Switzer is a 2019 graduate of the Yale School of Music and 2017 graduate of Yale University. Former co-concertmaster of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, she is a winner of the 2015 Friends of Music Recital Competition, the 2016 William Waite Competition and a recipient of the 2016 Sharp Prize for Music. She has performed with numerous orchestras including the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Lakewood Symphony, Denver Philharmonic, Littleton Symphony and Yale Symphony Orchestra. In January 2022, she performed with the Yale Philharmonia as a winner of the 2019 Woolsey Concerto Competition. Switzer joined the second violin section of the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2019.

Violist Sarah Switzer joined the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2022 and served as acting assistant principal viola for the Orchestra’s 2023-24 season. She earned her master’s degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music as a student of Ivo-Jan van der Werff. She holds a bachelor’s degree in the History of Art from Yale University, where she studied with Wendy Sharp. Recipient of the Yale Wrexham Prize for Music, the T. Whitney Blake Prize and the Sharp Prize for Music, Switzer served as principal viola of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and performed Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the symphony orchestra in 2018 as a winner of the William Waite Concerto Competition. Her undergraduate thesis on French medieval manuscript illumination earned her the A. Conger Goodyear Fine Arts Award in 2019.

Houston-born cellist Erik Wheeler began his musical studies with Diane Bonds at age 5, and subsequently studied with Steve Laven, Lynn Harrell and Brinton Smith. He earned his undergraduate degree from Rice University, where his principal teacher was Desmond Hoebig, after which he spent a year at the Juilliard School with Richard Aaron. While at Rice, he performed Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra as the winner of the school’s concerto competition and served as principal cellist for the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra. A member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 2019, he served as acting co-associate principal cello for the 2024-25 season.