Violist Ashley Stanfield is a chamber musician, orchestral player, and educator based in Kansas City. A founding member of The Opus 76 Quartet, she spent nearly a decade performing and recording the string quartet repertoire, including a recorded cycle of the complete Beethoven string quartets. Her chamber music career has included a Carnegie Hall debut, described by Gramophone as “a fine reflection of their five-year journey from regional emergence to national recognition.” Her performances have also received recognition from the Financial Times, The Strad, and Slipped Disc. 

Ashley’s musical education began at Interlochen Arts Academy and Idyllwild Arts Academy, where she studied during her high school years, and continued at the Royal Academy of Music in London. There, she was a member of the Hampden String Quartet and received the Sir John Barbirolli Prize for chamber music. 
Alongside her chamber work, Ashley maintains an active orchestral career. She spent the 
2022–23 season with the Kansas City Symphony and has performed with the Des Moines Symphony, Kansas City Ballet, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and other ensembles throughout the region. She has served as Guest Principal Viola with the Sioux City Symphony for the 2025–26 and 2026–27 seasons.

 
Education has long been a natural extension of Ashley’s life as a performer. She has taught viola at Drake University, Harmony Project Kansas City, Kansas City Public Schools, and the Youth Symphony of Kansas City, working with musicians from their earliest years of study through advanced pre-professional training. Her interest in how musicians learn, develop, and perform has also led her beyond the traditional conservatory path: she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in psychology through Harvard Extension School, with particular interests in learning and performance.

 
At the heart of Ashley’s musical life is chamber music and the intimacy, spontaneity, and shared conversation of the string quartet. As violist of the Liatris String Quartet, she brings to the ensemble a lifelong love of the repertoire and a desire to create performances that are both artistically ambitious and genuinely inviting—bringing audiences closer to the music and contributing to a vibrant chamber music community in Kansas City.

 
Ashley performs on a 2018 viola by Guy Rabut.