Douglas Temples
Douglas Temples is a chamber, orchestral, and new music performer fluent on both the viola and violin. As a chamber musician and advocate for new music, he has performed across the United States at festivals and venues including the Spoleto Music Festival, the American Viola Society Festival, the Southeastern Composers Symposium, and as guest violist with the Durward Contemporary Music Ensemble. Internationally, he has appeared at the Steinway Gallery in Paris and the Festival de Les Nuits Pianistiques in Aix-en-Provence. Temples is the co-founder and director of the “…and friends” chamber ensemble.
As an orchestral musician, Temples has performed extensively across the United States. He currently serves as Assistant Principal Viola of the Aiken Symphony and as a member of the South Carolina Philharmonic, where he was appointed to the viola section in 2023 following a successful audition after three seasons as a substitute. He has also performed with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Peoria Symphony, Greenville Symphony, Augusta Symphony (GA), and Sinfonia da Camera, where he held a section viola position for five seasons. He has served as principal viola for the NorCal Music Festival Orchestra, Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Midwest Institute of Opera Orchestra.
A dedicated educator, Douglas maintains a private studio in Columbia, SC, serves as co-director of the Carolina Academy of Music Chamber Music Workshops and the SC Philharmonic’s Soda City String Intensive, and is a Suzuki teacher at the Columbia Suzuki Academy. He has held artist faculty positions at the Augusta University Conservatory Program and the Carolina Academy of Music, and was previously on faculty at the Conservatory of Central Illinois. He has presented masterclasses and recitals at the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York City and at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. Additional guest clinician work includes engagements with the Oldham County Arts Center (KY), Vivace Orchestra Camp (GA), Youth Music Illinois, SC Philharmonic Youth Orchestras, and the USC String Project. In 2020, he directed the Itsy Arts Program, a music-and-emotions initiative sponsored by the Illinois Symphony Orchestra. A Suzuki-trained instructor, he draws pedagogical inspiration from Mimi Zweig, Paul Rolland, and Karen Tuttle.
Temples earned his Bachelor of Music with honors from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, his Master of Music from Illinois State University, and is currently a DMA candidate and teaching assistant at the University of South Carolina, studying with Dr. Daniel Sweaney.
When not teaching or performing, Douglas enjoys cooking for friends, reading a good book, writing his kitchen-adventure blog, or exploring new places with his favorite beagle good boy, Tucker.