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Dr. Phillip W. Serna (double bass and viola da gamba) is an active and enthusiastic performer of early music, as well as the contemporary, solo, orchestral, and chamber repertoires. He earned his Bachelor of Music studying with San Francisco Symphony member Stephen Tramontozzi at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1998. He later completed his Master of Music & Doctor of Music degrees at Northwestern University School of Music in 2001 and 2007, respectively. At Northwestern University, he studied double bass with Chicago Symphony Orchestra member Michael Hovnanian and international soloist DaXun Zhang. Additionally, he studied viola da gamba with Newberry Consort founder Mary Springfels. His doctoral project, ‘Original Crossover? Popular Ballad-Tunes as Art-Music for Viols in Seventeenth-Century England’ focused on solo and ensemble settings of ballad-tunes for viola da gamba as well as lyra viol transcriptions for double bass.

On double bass, Dr. Serna has performed under the baton of conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Christoph Eschenbach, Neeme Järvi and David Robertson as a member of Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He has performed with other orchestras including the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Northbrook Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, New Philharmonic Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and many others. In his role as an Early Music specialist, Dr. Serna regularly performs on violas da gamba (treble viol, tenor viol and bass viol), period double bass/ violone and vielle with period instrument ensembles as the Chicago Early Music Consort, the Newberry Consort, the Spirit of Gambo - a Chicago Consort of Viols, Ars Antigua, the Oriana Singers, the Second City Musick, the Third Coast Viols and many others. Dr. Serna was a recipient of a Viola da Gamba Society of America Grant-in-Aid to Young Artists, and was a featured soloist at the Gamba Gamut, a concert hosted by the Viola da Gamba Society of America at the 2007 Boston Early Music Festival.

In 2007, Dr. Serna’s article ‘Early Strings in the Classroom/ Introducing Students to Renaissance and Baroque String Repertoire on Period Instruments’ on classroom outreach advocacy was published in the American String Teachers Association String Teacher's Cookbook - Creative Recipes for a Successful Program. He has contributed articles to the Bass World - the Official Magazine of the International Society of Bassists, the American String Teacher, Illinois ASTA’s the Scroll, and is an active contributor to the Arts Addict Blog, the Contrabass Conversations podcast and the online bass resource www.DoubleBassblog.org. In Early Music publications, Dr. Serna is outreach editor for the Viola da Gamba News, where he has edited and written numerous articles, and has contributed to Early Music America magazine. An active podcaster in his own right, he produces the ‘Viols in Our Schools’ GambaCast video podcast brings high-quality performances of music for viols to the larger internet community at www.theGambaCast.org.

Dr. Serna is instructor of double bass at Valparaiso University and is director of the Music Institute of Chicago Early Music Department’s viola da gamba education and outreach program ‘Viols in Our Schools.’ Visit the website at www.ViolsinourSchools.org.  Dr, Serna is an in-demand adjudicator and clinician in the Midwest on double bass and viola da gamba and has appeared as double bass faculty at the Whitewater Winter Bassfest, as viola da gamba faculty at the Music on the Mountain Winter Workshop, Whitewater Early Music Festival and as Ad Hoc Consort Coordinator at the Viola da Gamba Society's Summer Conclave. He currently maintains an active teaching studio on double bass, viola da gamba, bass guitar and guitar students at Buffalo Grove High School in School District 214, Carl Sandburg High School in School District 230, Glenbard East High School and Glenbard South High School in School District 87, Willowbrook High School in DuPage High School District 88, Naperville North High School in Naperville School District 203 and Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville's Indian Prairie School District 204. Dr. Serna formerly taught privately at the Illinois Math and Science Academy, Maine Township West High School, Maine Township East High School, Maine Township South High School in School District 207, Wheeling High School in School District 214 and the Sherwood Conservatory of Music in Chicago, IL

Dr. Serna is a member of the International Society of Bassists (ISB), the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), Early Music America (EMA), the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music (SSCM) and is president of the Viola da Gamba Society Third Coast, the Chicago chapter of the Viola da Gamba Society of America (VdGSA). He lives in Plainfield, IL with his best friend and wife, Magdalena along with their daughter Natalia. For more information on Dr. Serna, please visit www.PhillipWSerna.com.