Olive Fretts Howard is a violist, violinist, and music teacher based in Washington Heights, NYC. She earned a Bachelors of Music in Viola Performance from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College in May 2023. In her time there, Olive studied under Shmuel Katz, Deborah Buck, and Cong Wu. Particularly passionate about chamber music, Olive’s quartet won first place in the 2022 and 2023 Molnar-Harris chamber music competitions at the Purchase Conservatory. She has a love for collaboration and improvisation and has made works with performance artist Emily Coates as well as electronic musicians and dancers. Olive has also worked as a session musician and arranger and will soon appear on “Songs about Buildings and Moods” on PBS. She is currently in her second year performing with the Symphony of Westchester.