Winner of the UNT Chamber Competition, violist Gaven O'Connell hails from a small town called Florence, Alabama. Gaven began his musical studies at the young age of 4 with the guitar. However, it wasn't until he was age 10 that he decided to choose the viola. From then he was accepted into the highest skill level groups of Alabama All-State and went on to study with a prominent violist in the southeast, Noriko Shimura. He later received a full tuition scholarship for his Bachelor's degree at the University of Alabama and was the recipient of the Xeros Music Scholarship at the University of North Texas in which he studied with highly sought-after viola professors, Dr. Wendy Richman and Dr. Susan Dubois.

In addition to these studies, Gaven participated in both the Sewanee and Green Mountain summer music programs where he studied with some of the best string pedagogues in the country. He has played with the Chattanooga Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Monroe Symphony, and Shoals Symphony.