This is a list of Wikipedia articles on notable viola players. In cases where a violist has also achieved fame in another musical area, such as conducting or composing, this is noted.
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The viola ( vee-OH-lə, Italian:[ˈvjɔːla,viˈɔːla]) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the violin family, between the violin (which is tuned a perfect fifth higher) and the cello (which is tuned an octave lower). The strings from low to high are typically tuned to C3, G3, D4, and A4.
William Primrose CBE was a Scottish violist and teacher. He performed with the London String Quartet from 1930 to 1935. He then joined the NBC Symphony Orchestra where he formed the Primrose Quartet. He performed in various countries around the world as a soloist throughout his career. He also taught at several universities and institutions. He authored several books on viola technique.
The Takács Quartet is a string quartet founded in Budapest, Hungary, and now based in Boulder, Colorado, United States.
The Juilliard String Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York by William Schuman. Since its inception, it has been the quartet-in-residence at the Juilliard School. It has received numerous awards, including four Grammys and membership in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. In February 2011, the group received the NARAS Lifetime Achievement Award for its outstanding contributions to recorded classical music.
The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory is a musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. The conservatory offers various degrees including Bachelor of Music Performance, Master of Music and PhD in research.
Kim Kashkashian is an American violist. She has spent her career in the U.S. and Europe and collaborated with many major contemporary composers. In 2013 she won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. She is recognized as one of the world's top violists.
Yuri Abramovich Bashmet is a Russian conductor, violinist, and violist.
Joseph de Pasquale was an American violist.
Anthony Heald is an American character actor known for portraying Hannibal Lecter's jailer, Dr. Frederick Chilton, in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Red Dragon (2002), and for playing vice principal Scott Guber in David E. Kelley's Boston Public (2000–2004). Heald also had a recurring role as Judge Cooper on Kelley's The Practice and Boston Legal. He had a prominent role as a troubled psychic in The X-Files episode "Closure".
Roberto Díaz is a Chilean-American violist, and the president/director of the Curtis Institute of Music, of which he is an alumnus.
The Clinton String Quartet is a string quartet based in the Syracuse, New York area. Active for over 15 years, their most prominent works have been the debuts of many 20th century classical recordings with the Syracuse Society for New Music. All four members are also members of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.
The LaSalle Quartet was a string quartet active from 1946 to 1987. It was founded by first violinist Walter Levin. The LaSalle's name is attributed to an apartment on LaSalle Street in Manhattan, where some of its members lived during the quartet's inception. The quartet played on a donated set of Amati instruments.
The Cleveland Quartet was a string quartet founded in 1969 by violinist Donald Weilerstein, at the time an instructor at the Cleveland Institute of Music, whose director Victor Babin had secured funding for an in-resident quartet to be headed by Weilerstein. Weilerstein formed the group that summer at the Marlboro Music School and Festival with violinist Peter Salaff, violist Martha Strongin Katz, and cellist Paul Katz. The group was initially called the "New Cleveland Quartet." In 1971, the group left the Cleveland Institute because of disagreements over teaching loads and took up residency at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York; they dropped the word "New" from their name at this time. In 1976, the quartet made their final change of residency and moved to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
Roger Chase is a British violist who currently teaches at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.
The Capitol Theatre was a movie palace located at 1645 Broadway, just north of Times Square in New York City, across from the Winter Garden Theatre. Designed by theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, the Capitol originally had a seating capacity of 5,230 and opened October 24, 1919. After 1924 the flagship theatre of the Loews Theatres chain, the Capitol was known as the premiere site of many Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) films. The Capitol was also noted for presenting live musical revues and many jazz and swing bands on its stage.
The Dubois String Quartet was a Canadian string quartet that actively performed for 28 consecutive seasons from 1910 to 1938. The ensemble was founded and led by cellist Jean-Baptiste Dubois who was the only member of the group to play in every season. The other original members were violinists Albert Chamberland and Alphonse Dansereau and violist Eugene Schneider. Later members included violinists Eugène Chartier, René Gagnier, and Lucien Martin. Later members included violist Joseph Mastrocola and violinists Eugène Chartier, René Gagnier, Lucien Martin, Maurice Onderet, and Lucien Sicotte. The quartet was disbanded upon Dubois' death in July 1938.
Fiddler's neck is an occupational disease that affects violin and viola players.
Isabelle van Keulen is a Dutch violinist and violist, performing principally as a chamber musician but also as a concert violist. She founded the Isos Quartet in 1995. For more than 20 years, she collaborated with the pianist Ronald Brautigam and the mezzo-soprano singer Christianne Stotijn. In 2012, she became an educator at the Lucerne School of Music. Since 2017, she has been artistic director at Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss in Germany.
The Dover Quartet is an American string quartet. It was formed at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008 and its members are graduates of both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Rice University Shepherd School of Music. Its name is taken from the piece Dover Beach by Samuel Barber, who also studied at Curtis. The Dover Quartet was appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music as the Penelope P. Watkins ensemble-in-residence in 2020. Additionally, they hold a teaching residency at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.
Danilov, the Violist is a 1980 urban fantasy novel by Soviet Russian author Vladimir Orlov. It revolves around the misadventures of a half-demon violist named Danilov. It is considered to be Orlov's most famous work.