Joy Plesner, born to a musical family, was a member of the first violin section of the Honolulu Symphony at age 15.  She is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory with degrees in violin and piano.  She also studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.  She was a violist in the Houston Symphony for over forty years, sharing a music stand for a good many of those years with Hugh Gibson.  She has taught extensively in Houston--first at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts, and later as the viola instructor at Sam Houston State University, in Huntsville, Texas.  Now living in San Luis, Colorado, Ms. Plesner currently teaches violin and viola at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado.  Ms. Plesner has two daughters--Delise, who is autistic and lives in a group home near her mother; and Sharman, a concert violinist who lives in France and who is performing in January 2008 Soundscapes concert.