Violinist Alexandros Sakarellos has performed as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician across five continents and in 25 countries.

A native of Greece, Sakarellos received early musical training at the Athens Conservatory—Greece's leading musical institution. While in Greece he enjoyed a fulfilling performing career from a very early age. By the age of 20 he was appearing frequently as a soloist and recitalist; serving as Concertmaster of the City of Athens Symphony Orchestra; and as a first violinist with the Athens State Orchestra.

In 2005 Sakarellos moved to New York where he studied at the Manhattan School of Music with New York Philarmonic's Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, Assistant Principal Lisa Kim, and Professor Isaac Malkin.

During his time in New York, his activities included performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Concertmaster appearances under renowned artists such as Kurt Masur and Pinchas Zuckerman; and performances in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Museum Of Modern Arts, the Onassis Foundation, and more.

Sakarellos has also appeared at the festivals of Ravello in Italy, Miyazaki in Japan, Bellerive in Switzerland, and Santo Domingo. In 2009 he was privileged to be invited by the prestigious Athens-Epidaurus Festival to give the Greek premiere of several works by the awarded American-Greek composer George Tsontakis.

Prior to joining the DSO, Sakarellos played for two years in the first violin section of the San Francisco Opera.

He is currently playing on a very fine J.B. Vuillaume violin made in 1856.

A native of Athens, Greece, Russian violinist Alexander Volkov joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2020.

Volkov studied with Professor Atis Bankas and Peter Seminovs at the Phil and Eli Taylor Academy for Young Artists as well as the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Ontario. He was a recipient of the Ihnatowycz Emerging Artist Scholarships, receiving a full scholarship for his degree.

During the pursuit of his degree in violin performance, Volkov participated in a variety of festivals, competitions, and training programs. He won first prizes in the Kiwanis, Leons, and North York festivals and was a three-time first prize winner of the Canadian Music Competition, winning the grand prize in 2013. The following year, he won the Glenn Gould Concerto Competition where he performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Leon Fleisher. He also frequently performed as a soloist with the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony, the York Symphony, the Aurora Chamber Ensemble, and the Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra.

Volkov participated in prestigious orchestra training festivals such as the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, twice at the Leonard Bernstein’s Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, and three times at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. These training programs led him to perform as a fellow in the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Most notably, he trained at the Institute for Orchestral Studies at the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada.

Prior to joining the symphony, Volkov held section violin positions at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and the Canada and Quebec symphony orchestras in Quebec City, Montréal. He was also a frequent substitute violinist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He owes his achievements to his parents, who are graduates of the Moscow Conservatory and have extensive musical backgrounds.

Mike Chen received a Bachelor and Master of Music from Northwestern University studying violin with Blair Milton. In 1999 he began playing the viola and studied with Li-Kuo Chang. His other teachers included Michael Strauss, Peter Slowik, Keith Conant, and Baird Dodge.

Chen was a member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from 2012 to 2018, a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2012, and prior to that, a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 1992 to 1995. He has performed with the Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony. In 2017, Chen joined the Cincinnati Symphony on its European Festivals Tour.

He received a master’s degree in conducting at Northwestern University in 1999, studying with Victor Yampolsky and Mariusz Smolij. His other conducting teachers include Gilbert Varga, David Zinman, and Murry Sidlin.

Chen was a conducting fellow at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen, Colorado in 2008. He has also served as Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, Guest Conductor of the Webster University Community Music School’s Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, and Guest Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Side-by-Side Orchestra.

David LeDoux joined the DSO in 2012, coming to the orchestra from the Syracuse Symphony where he previously served as Principal Cello.

LeDoux has appeared as a soloist with the Syracuse Symphony, the Skaneatelas Festival Chamber Orchestra, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Oklahoma State University Symphony, the Louisiana Sinfonietta, and the Mid-Texas Symphony.

LeDoux is an active and avid chamber musician, performing for many years with the Syracuse Society for New Music. As a committed private teacher, he previously served as a cello instructor for Imagine Syracuse—a music program in an inner-city school that was modeled after the El Sistema program in Venezuela.

Past professional engagements for LeDoux include serving as Principal Cello with the Baton Rouge (LA) Symphony, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Symphony, and the Louisiana Sinfonietta.

LeDoux has studied with Ronald Leonard, Dennis Parker, and Kari Padgett Caldwell. A resident of Madison Heights, LeDoux’s hobbies include reading, running, and watching movies.

A native of Rhode Island, Joseph Becker was appointed Principal Percussion of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2012. Prior to his appointment with the DSO, he was a member of the Jacksonville Symphony in Florida. He has appeared as a guest musician with many orchestras including the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, and the Kansas City Symphony.

Becker completed his bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory studying with Frank Epstein and Will Hudgins; and his master’s degree from Boston University, studying with Tim Genis. A fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center from 2008 to 2009, he is an active chamber musician and a member of New Music Detroit.