Photo by Natalie Gaynor
Recognized by Rice University for her “outstanding achievement and promise,” Vaughn Fellowship recipient Molly Wise is a violist who uses performance to inspire and educate audiences. In Fall 2026, she joined the faculty of the University of Iowa School of Music as Visiting Assistant Professor of Viola. Upcoming performances include a duo recital with Dr. Ting-Ting Yang and a performance of Joan Tower’s viola concerto, Purple Rhapsody, with the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra, both in September 2026. Before moving to Iowa, she performed extensively throughout Houston, Texas with classical and contemporary organizations including Musiqa Houston, Kinetic Ensemble, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and more, in art museums, concert halls, classrooms, and beyond. Additionally, she has performed around the United States and Canada as a chamber and solo artist, sharing the Kennedy Center stage in Washington, D.C. alongside Emmy Award-winning Vietnamese instrumentalist Võ Vân Ánh, presenting her original transcriptions of Florence Price and Amy Beach as a lecture-recitalist at the 2024 American Viola Society Festival in Los Angeles. In her own programming, pedagogy, and research, Molly highlights works composed by historical and living women. She has taken part in countless world premieres, including works by Rice University composition professors, up-and-coming peers, and internationally recognized artists.
Molly is a dedicated educator and sought-after teaching artist. Before teaching viola at UI, she coached chamber music in downtown Houston at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and to students of all ages through the AFA Texas program. She was also a judge for the 2026 American Viola Society Festival Junior Solo Competition.
Molly is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. She was one of five recipients of the Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellowship across the university, demonstrating “outstanding achievement and promise.” Her doctoral recitals highlighted lesser-known solo viola and chamber music by female composers including Gabriela Lena Frank, Joan Tower, Chen Yi, and Nicky Sohn, and original transcriptions of works by Nadia Boulanger and Florence Price. At Rice, she served as James Dunham’s teaching assistant for five years, as a master’s and doctoral student. At CIM, she double-majored in viola and music theory, received a minor in Dalcroze eurhythmics, and was a recipient of the Isada-Stillman-Varma Award for excellence in music theory, given by the late Dr. Richard Nelson.
Photo by Natalie Gaynor
From “New Dimensions in Sight and Sound,” presented by Musiqa Houston at the MATCH, Houston on April 29, 2023.
Photo by Lynn Lane
A passionate leader, Molly served as Lead Graduate Ambassador for the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice, working to further the leadership skills of music students and representing the Shepherd School of Music to the university. Previously, during her time as a Young Artist of Da Camera of Houston, she designed and led “Project Reconnect: Social and Musical Collaborations for Post-Pandemic Reconnection” in collaboration with Girls, Inc. of Greater Houston. She served girls ages 11-14 in Northeast Houston through creating socially collaborative musical activities, providing a space to process the isolation, loss, and loneliness of the Covid-19 pandemic, and reconnect with one another after over a year of school on Zoom. Besides Project Reconnect, she has worked in Houston public and private schools with students from pre-kindergarten through high school as a teaching artist and mentor.
Da Camera storytelling lesson for first-graders
Thank-you note from a Houston Independent School District kindergarten student
Da Camera Young Artists Kelsey Sham and Molly after one of many duo performances
As winner of the CIM Concerto Competition, Molly made her solo debut performing Penderecki’s Viola Concerto with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra. Since then, she has won second prize in the Ruth Burr Competition of the Houston Tuesday Musical Club, was a finalist in the American Viola Society Solo Competition, and has enjoyed orchestral leadership in the Amarillo Symphony, and the Shepherd School, Sarasota Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and CIM Orchestras, including in the Cleveland Orchestra’s Severance Hall. She was awarded the Cleveland Music and Drama Club scholarship for demonstrating outstanding musicianship, and she was also a prizewinner in the Ohio Viola Society competition.
Molly and conductor Bill Eddins after performing the Penderecki Viola Concerto in Kulas Hall, Cleveland OH. Photo by Quinn Price.
Photo by Caroline Barbier de Reulle
Photo by Chris Greenwood