Inaugural Summer Festival
July 8-10, 2026
Highline Performing Arts Center
Burien, WA
The Unbound Symphony’s Inaugural Summer Festival is a three-day summer gathering of approximately fifty professional musicians in the pacific northwest. Our goal is to celebrate and empower women and female-identifying musicians and use music as a way to express ourselves artistically and uplift the community.
Participants rehearse orchestral repertoire, take part in wellness and reflection sessions, engage in community service, and conclude with a public, family-friendly performance.
About the festival
❋ Connection and community among musicians
❋ Community engagement and service
❋ Mental health and wellbeing
❋ Culminating public performance
Our values
Festival Repertoire
Unbound Symphony Inaugural Festival will feature our resident composer Dr. Sarah Bassingthwaighte’s Concerto for Double Bass. The orchestra will collaborate closely with Dr. Bassingthwaighte in bringing the concerto to life, drawn from her award-winning album Orchestrating the Wild.
The program will also feature a dynamic and diverse selection of works by women composers, including Starburst by Jessie Montgomery, Kauyumari by Gabriela Ortiz, selections from the Montgomery Variations by Margaret Bonds, and including a world premiere titled Spider Boots by Dr. Sarah Bassingthwaighte and Tessa Brinckman, incorporating audience participation as part of the performance experience.
Meet our Double Bass Soloist, Rebecca Lawrence
Rebecca Lawrence grew up in Seattle, and following studies in Los Angeles, Paris, and Frankfurt, moved to Berlin in 2025. Her work with the double bass draws on more than four centuries of musical practice, bringing together historical awareness, contemporary experimentation, and a deep curiosity for sound.
Influenced by interests ranging from social movements and feminism to anthropology, ritual, and natural systems, she collaborates closely with leading composers in today’s European music scene. At the same time, a search for simple musical truth and harmony led her to study early music, which evolved into endless experimentation with the sonic possibilities of early instruments in contemporary contexts.
Rebecca is a member of the Berlin-based Ensemble Kollektiv, and plays often as as a guest with a wide range of ensembles and orchestras, including Ensemble Modern, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Basel Sinfonietta, the Folkwang Kammerorchestra, Klangforum Wien, Deutsche Kammerorchester Bremen, and others.
In 2026, she’ll record her first solo album with producer Weston Olencki, supported by a grant from the Deutscher Orchesterstiftung, exploring the possibilities of contemporary improvised pieces and arrangements on historical instruments.
Photo by Jörg Baumann
Meet our Conductors
Dr. Anna Edwards
ANNA EDWARDS’ musical career progression as a violinist, educator, and symphony conductor has inspired her mission to encourage and promote musical diversity at the highest level from professional, educational, and collaborative music organizations across the country. She is a passionate advocate of music from underrepresented composers on the concert stage. The 2025-26 season marks the thirteenth season for Edwards as Music Director of the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, eleventh season as Music Director of the Saratoga Orchestra, and eighth season as Music Director of the Pacific Northwest Conducting Institute. Currently, Edwards balances her time between conducting in the Pacific Northwest, serving as a guest conductor/clinician across the country.
As a recognized leader for the promotion of musical diversity in symphonic orchestral music, Dave Beck, of Seattle Classical KING FM wrote, “The Seattle Collaborative Orchestra under Dr. Anna Edwards’ excellent musicianship, inspired vision, and creative leadership, is doing everything a modern orchestra should be doing to insure the future of the art of symphonic music. The spirit of collaboration among these professional, gifted amateur and excellent student musicians fosters innovation, diversity, and new possibilities in the life of the 21st century symphony orchestra. SCO is showing the way forward like no other orchestra in our region.” Along with her passion for diversity on the concert stage, in 2022 Edwards launched Anna’s Composer Database; a curated list of underrepresented composers that provides ideas for excellent, well-rounded, and interesting concert programs.
Edwards continues to follow her commitment to program innovative music, which balances traditional classical music with music by women, underrepresented composers, and Northwest artists. Commissioned premieres include works by Joe Jaxson, Sarah Bassingthwaighte, Leanna Primiani, Julian Garvue, Brendan McMullen, Andy Clausen, David Lien, Tim Huling, Angelique Poteat, and Victoria Bond. Anna additionally offers lectures concerning music, gender, and leadership to up-and-coming musicians and community leaders in public schools, community businesses, Colleges, and Universities.
Edwards’ dedication to quality musical performance started with her early career as a professional violinist, performing with prestigious ensembles such as the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Northwest Sinfonietta, Auburn Symphony, and multiple Seattle area chamber ensembles. As she has turned her career towards conducting, Edwards has attended numerous festivals and workshops, with mentors such as Ludovic Morlot, Michael Jinbo, Diane Wittry, Neil Thomson, and Gustav Meier. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Washington, and holds a Bachelor of Music Education and Masters in Violin Performance.
In 2013, 2014, and 2018, Edwards received 2nd place and then two - 1st place honors (respectively) for conducting in The American Prize, a national competition for conductors and musical ensembles. Seattle Collaborative Orchestra received two - 2nd place and then 1st place honors for The American Prize orchestra performance division. In SCO’s performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra, American Prize described Edwards’ conducting as “strong and committed” and “…always ‘in the moment,’ showing clarity of beat, intensity and focus.…the conductor’s face is alive to each musical gesture and the nuance.”
Hsing-Hui Hsu
Hsing-Hui Hsu is the music director and co-founder of the Emerald City Chamber Orchestra, a Seattle-based ensemble specializing in string repertoire. She has been a guest assistant conductor with the Seattle Symphony, and has also guest conducted the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, Saratoga Orchestra, Seattle Festival Orchestra, and Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra. She was a founding member of the Amazon Symphony Orchestra and served as Music Director, collaborating with other arts organizations in the Seattle area as well as charitable organizations such as Mary’s Place. Hsing-Hui is currently in her second season as assistant conductor of Harmonia Orchestra and Chorus.
In addition to conducting, Hsing-Hui is an active clarinetist. Last season, she served as acting principal clarinetist with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, where she also serves as bass clarinetist. She has performed with the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Opera, Sustain Music Project, Tacoma Opera, Seattle Philharmonic, Philharmonia Northwest, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, and Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra. She received her Bachelor of Music in clarinet performance from Rice University, where she also served as Music Director of the Rice Light Opera Society.