Salt City Strings
Meet the quartet
Two violins, a viola, and a cello — and the people who play them.
Violin
Emily Rice
Emily found her passion for quartet playing during high school in Northern California, where she grew up the oldest of four violin sisters before coming to study in Utah for college. Her social nature is a perfect fit for the intimacy of quartets, not to mention a wide musical taste which is satisfied in the flexibility quartets offer. This is her happy place!
Emily is mom to six, a grandmother to four, and has a rockstar husband, Michael, who proudly gives her wings to fly. You can watch her on Sunday mornings in the orchestra with the Tabernacle Choir, sitting right next to Jules from the viola section. Her other great loves are traveling, writing, kayaking, and a good deep dish pizza.
Violin
Emily Aamodt
Emily has played the violin since she was 4 years old, yet chose a different focus for her college education: she graduated from the University of Utah in psychology with an emphasis in family consumer science. She has always loved talking with people and has a desire to make a difference in their lives.
She has many friends, but her boyfriend Koby and her 3 cats are at the top of her list. If she's not reading a fabulous book, you'll find her outside walking her dog Dozer, doing yoga, or finding a great sushi spot!
Viola
Jules Aamodt
Jules loves everything colorful and warm — so it's fitting that the viola is her main instrument, adding harmony and depth to any quartet or orchestra. She majored in viola performance at BYU and came to highly respect her renowned professor, Dr. Clyn Barrus. After teaching viola and violin for almost 30 years, her favorite thing is still the friendship she has made with each one of her students.
Jules is the mother of five, and one of her biggest dreams came true when they started playing music together as a family. Even her amazing husband Bob loves to sing — he's a member of the Tabernacle Choir, and Jules is thrilled to be living the experience of the Choir and orchestra together. As much as she loves music, vegetables, and anything '80s, her greatest passion is hiking. You will find her on top of any mountain and peak she can find — look out, Machu Picchu!
Cello
Jill Plumb
Whether it's singing, teaching piano, accompanying choirs, playing her cello, composing, or arranging, music has always been in Jill's blood, going back for generations. She fostered her love for chamber music at BYU, balancing her cello performance studies with the demands of playing on the volleyball team. Jill is thrilled to keep the family music tradition alive by playing alongside her sister, Julie, her niece, Emily, and new soul-sister, Emily, in the Salt City Strings quartet — as the group's cellist and in-house arranger.
Jill and her husband, Terry, have five children and four grandkids, and when she's not at the cello or the keyboard, you'll find her camping, reading, knitting, cooking, and then camping some more.