Meet the Musicians: Mara Gearman

By Leilani Polk

Assistant Principal Viola Mara Gearman knew from note one that she wanted to play music professionally. “My mom was a very patient Suzuki violin teacher and I started on the cutest little violin,” she explains. She was 2. In her fourth-grade music class, at age 9, when it came time to choose an instrument and it appeared her class lacked viola players, her mother thoughtfully suggested she switch to viola and Mara concurred. 
 
While attending Garfield High School, Mara studied with Susan Gulkis Assadi, the former Principal Viola of the Seattle Symphony who retired in the 2022/2023 season, aiding Mara as she applied to Curtis Institute of Music. Mara spent five years in Philadelphia attending Curtis. Shortly after graduating, she began her professional career with the Oregon Symphony. She’d played there a few seasons when positions opened up in the Seattle Symphony. She won a seat and started in 2004, ultimately auditioning and winning the Assistant Principal Viola position. “After all of these seasons, I feel really lucky to be in Seattle.”  

Outside of the Symphony, she’s been rather busy lately. This month, she joins the Federal Way Symphony and Music Director Adam Stern (the Seattle Symphony’s Assistant and then Associate Conductor from 1992–2001) to play two double concertos with longtime collaborator and University of Washington Associate Violin Professor Rachel Lee Priday: Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and the U.S. premiere of Ruth Gipps’ Concerto for Violin and Viola with Small Orchestra. In addition, she accepted a position with the viola faculty of Key to Change studio, a Seattle nonprofit and Symphony partner that provides music instruction to youth from underserved communities. “It’s super rewarding and well organized, and the students are empowered, wonderful kids.” She also started a new role coaching the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra’s (SYSO) youth viola section. “I was in SYSO when I was in high school. It’s nice to have motivated high school students and a supportive youth symphony program for them.” 

Mara is busy, but she also takes full advantage of her free time, whether it’s hopping a ferry to Whidbey Island or hanging at home with husband (and Charles Simonyi Principal Horn) Jeffrey Fair, stepkids Iris and Henry, and pets Chico the dog, tuxedo cat Griffey and newest feline family member, Honey-Marie, who first hobbled up for some scritches while they were vacationing in Greece last summer. “The highlight of that trip was rescuing our little girl.” 

She loves cooking, although she admits her limitations. “If it’s a recipe that requires more detailed directions, then maybe Jeff will take the lead. I tend to look at two or three versions of a recipe and then mix them together, see what happens.” The most common household dish, borne out of Mara’s own special been-to-Italy recipe-improvising flair, is her trademark “Cheesy Pasta,” which brings everyone to the table.  
 
On November 4, Mara leads a performance of two works with her Symphony colleagues, Oboe Chengwen Winnie Lai and Violin Wayne Lee, plus violinist Rachel Lee Priday and pianist Carlin Ma in the first Chamber Series program of the season: Loeffler’s Two Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola and Piano; and Dvořák’s Terzetto. The program also includes Bartók's String Quartet No. 1 in A minor.