Violist

Notable violists

• Julia Rebekka Adler
  Julia Rebekka Adler
  Viola player Julia Rebekka Adler, née Mai, was born 1978 in Heidelberg, Germany. In 2004 she was rated best German violist in the ARD International Music Competition, receiving the Theodor Rogler Prize...
  
   (b.1978)
• Sir Hugh Allen
  Hugh Allen (conductor)
  Sir Hugh Percy Allen was an English musician, academic and administrator. He was a leading influence on British musical life in the first half of the 20th century.-Early years:...
  
   (1869–1946), conductor
• Steven Ansell
  Steven Ansell
  Steven A. Ansell , is an American violist whose versatile career involves work as a chamber musician, solo artist, and orchestral musician. Ansell is currently principal violist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since September 1996. Prior to his appointment, Ansell had...
  
   (b.1954)
• Atar Arad
  Atar Arad
  Atar Arad is an Israeli-born violist, professor of music, essayist and composer residing in the United States.He has performed in top venues around the world both as a featured soloist with orchestras in and as a member of the distinguished Cleveland Quartet from 1980 to 1987, taking the seat...
  
  
• Cecil Aronowitz
  Cecil Aronowitz
  Cecil Aronowitz was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.-Biography:Cecil Aronowitz was born in 1916 in South Africa...
  
   (1916–1978)
• Dino Asciolla
  Dino Asciolla
  Edoardo Asciolla June 6, 1920, Rome, Italy – 9 september 1994, Siena, Italy) was an Italian violin and viola solo player...
  
   (1920–1994)

• Johann Sebastian Bach
  Johann Sebastian Bach
  Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
  
   (1685–1750), composer
• Michael Balling
  Michael Balling
  Michael Balling was a German violist and conductor. He served as principal conductor of The Hallé, Manchester, England from 1912 to 1914.-References:...
  
   (1886–1925)
• Rudolf Barshai
  Rudolf Barshai
  Rudolf Borisovich Barshai is a Soviet/Russian conductor and violist.Barshai studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Tseitlin and Vadim Borisovsky...
  
   (b.1924), conductor
• Yuri Bashmet
  Yuri Bashmet
  Yuri Abramovich Bashmet is a leading Russian conductor and violist.-Biography:In 1971, he graduated from the Lviv secondary special music school. From 1971 till 1976, he studied at the Moscow Conservatoire. His first viola teacher was Professor Vadim Borisovsky; after whose death in 1972 was...
  
   (b.1953)
• Cathy Basrak
  Cathy Basrak
  Cathy Basrak is one of the most prominent young violists today. She was a winner of several important viola competitions such as the 1995 Primrose International Viola Competition, Irving M. Klein Competition, and others. Basrak studied with Michael Tree, Joseph de Pasquale, and Roland and Almita...
  
   (b.1977)
• Natalie Bauer-Lechner
  Natalie Bauer-Lechner
  Natalie Bauer-Lechner was a viola-player who is best known to musicology for having been a close and devoted friend of Gustav Mahler in the period between the break-up of her marriage in 1890 and the start of his to Alma Schindler in 1902...
  
   (1858–1921)
• Ludwig van Beethoven
  Ludwig van Beethoven
  Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
  
   (1770–1827), composer
• Sviatoslav Belonogov
  Sviatoslav Belonogov
  Sviatoslav Belonogov is a Russian violist who is active in Tenerife, where he is mainly the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife's viola soloist. He is also a viola d'amore player....
  
  
• Mitrofan Belyayev
  Mitrofan Belyayev
  Mitrofan Petrovich Belyayev was a Russian music publisher, outstanding philanthropist, and the owner of a large wood dealership enterprise in Russia...
  
   (1836–1904)
• František Benda
  Franz Benda
  Franz Benda was a Bohemian violinist and composer. He was the brother of Georg Benda, and he worked for much of his life at the court of Frederick the Great....
  
   (1709–1786), composer
• Jiří Antonín Benda
  Georg Benda
  Jiří Antonín Benda, also Georg Benda was a Czech kapellmeister, violinist and composer.Born in Staré Benátky, Bohemia, he studied at the Piarist Gymnasium in Kosmonosy and at the Jesuit Gymnasium in Jičín from 1735 to 1742...
  
   (1722–1795), composer
• Daniel Benyamini
  Daniel Benyamini
  Daniel Benyamini was an Israeli violist.He served as the Israel Philharmonic's principal violist , a chair he also held at the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim...
  
   (1925–1993)
• Yehonatan Berick
  Yehonatan Berick
  Yehonatan Berick is a violin and viola virtuoso and pedagogue.Born in Israel, he started his musical education at the age of six. His principal violin teachers were Ilona Feher, Henry Meyer, Kurt Sassmanshauss, and Dorothy Delay...
  
   (b.1968), violinist
• Franz Beyer
  Franz Beyer
  Franz Beyer is a German musicologist who is best known for his revising and restoration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's music, in particular his unfinished Requiem , which he restored in the early 1970s. His revision of the Requiem was in keeping with Mozart's actual musical style, not his own...
  
   (b.1922)
• Alexandre Pierre François Boëly
  Alexandre Pierre François Boëly
  Alexandre Pierre François Boëly was a French composer, organist, and pianist. Born into a family of musicians, Boëly received his first music lessons from his father, Jean François, who was a countertenor at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and a composer and harp teacher at the court of Versailles...
  
   (1785–1858)
• Vadim Borisovsky
  Vadim Borisovsky
  Vadim Vasilyevich Borisovsky was a Russian violist.Born in Moscow, Borisovsky entered Moscow Conservatory in 1917 studying the violin with Mikhail Kress. A year later, on the advice of violist Vladimir Bakaleinikov, Borisovsky turned his attentions to the viola. He studied with Bakaleinikov and...
  
   (1900–1972)
• York Bowen
  York Bowen
  Edwin York Bowen was an English composer and pianist. Bowen’s musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a talented conductor, organist, violist and horn player...
  
   (1884–1961), composer, pianist
• Máximo Arrates Boza
  Máximo Arrates Boza
  Máximo Arrates Boza was a Panamanian composer. He also played viola in the national symphony orchestra, and was a professor at the Conservatorio de Música y Declamación de Panamá....
  
   (1859–1936), composer
• Frank Bridge
  Frank Bridge
  -Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others. He played the viola in a number of string quartets, most notably the English String Quartet, and conducted, sometimes deputising for Henry Wood, before...
  
   (1879–1941), composer
• Benjamin Britten
  Benjamin Britten
  Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, violist and pianist.-Life:...
  
   (1913–1976), composer
• Sheila Browne
  Sheila Browne
  Sheila Browne is an American violist, recording artist, and professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Ms. Browne has given solo and chamber music concerts in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Australia...
  
   (b.1971)
• Peter Bucknell
  Peter Bucknell
  Peter Wentworth Bucknell is an Australian-born classical violist and filmmaker residing in Manhattan in the United States.-Performance:...
  
   (b.1977)

• John Cale
  John Cale
  John Davies Cale is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
  
   (b.1942)
• Bartolomeo Campagnoli
  Bartolomeo Campagnoli
  Bartolomeo Campagnoli was an Italian violinist and composer.Campagnoli was born at Cento di Ferrara. He was a virtuoso violinist who toured Europe propagating the popular 18th Century Italian violin style...
  
   (1751–1827), composer, violinist
• David Aaron Carpenter
  David Aaron Carpenter
  David Aaron Carpenter is a US-american violist and was the first Prize Winner of the 2006 Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition. In June 2007, David was selected as the new Music Protégé in the , sponsored by Rolex...
  
   (b.1986)
• Henri Casadesus
  Henri Casadesus
  Henri Casadesus was a violist and music publisher. He was the brother of Marius Casadesus, uncle of the famous pianist Robert Casadesus, and granduncle of Jean Casadesus. He founded the Society of Ancient Instruments with Camille Saint-Saëns in 1901...
  
   (1879–1947)
• Gérard Caussé
  Gérard Caussé
  Gérard Caussé is a violist. He gave the first performance of the celebrated Ainsi la nuit quartet by Henri Dutilleux. The first movement of Gérard Grisey's celebrated work, Les Espaces Acoustiques , is inscribed "à Gérard Caussé." His close association with the classical repertoire has earned him...
  
   (b.1948)
• Roger Chase
  Roger Chase
  Roger Chase is a British violist who currently teaches at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University....
  
   (b.1953)
• Franck Chevalier
  Franck Chevalier
  Franck Chevalier graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 1996 with a First Prize in Viola and became a member of the Orchestre National de France in the same year. He is violist in the Diotima String Quartet which is based in Paris. As a soloist he gave the...
  
   (b.1973)
• Rebecca Clarke
  Rebecca Helferich Clarke
  Rebecca Clarke was an English classical composer and violist best known for her chamber music featuring the viola...
  
   (1886–1979), composer
• Eric Coates
  Eric Coates
  Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric Coates was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire, the son of a doctor, and studied music at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1906, receiving viola lessons from Lionel Tertis...
  
   (1886–1957), composer
• Paul Coletti
  Paul Coletti
  Paul Coletti is a prominent viola soloist and chamber musician. He has performed throughout the world, making solo appearances at the Sydney Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Teatro Colón...
  
   (b.1959)
• Wayne Crouse
  Wayne Crouse
  Wayne Crouse was the viola professor emeritus at the University of Oklahoma and principal violist of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic from 1982 until his death from cancer at the age of 75. Wayne Crouse graduated from the Juilliard School in 1951 where he studied with Milton Katims, Ivan Galamian,...
  
   (1924–2000)

• Steven Dann
  Steven Dann
  Steven Dann is a prominent Canadian violist, based in the United States.-Early years:Dann was born in Burnaby, British Columbia. He played the violin until 1970, when he switched to the viola. He began studying with Lorand Fenyves in Toronto in 1972, and continued his studies until he graduated...
  
   (b.1953)
• Gyula Dávid
  Gyula Dávid
  Gyula Dávid was a Hungarian composer who studied with Kodály at the Liszt academy. He had a folk song period and a more chromatic, 12 tone serial second period. One of the most famous compositions of his first period is his Viola Concerto...
  
   (1913–1977)
• Tania Davis
  Tania Davis
  Tania Davis is the violist of the British/Australian classical crossover string quartet Bond. She was educated at SCEGGS Darlinghurst in Sydney before acquiring a first-class Bachelor of Music honors degree from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and then moving on to gain a postgraduate diploma in...
  
   (b.1975)
• Brett Dean
  Brett Dean
  Brett Dean is a contemporary Australian composer, violist and conductor.-Life:From 1985 to 1999, Dean was a violist in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2000, he decided to pursue a career as a freelance artist and returned to Australia...
  
   (b.1961)
• Jack Delano
  Jack Delano
  Jack Delano was an American photographer for the Farm Security Administration and a composer noted for his use of Puerto Rican folk material.- Biography :...
  
   (1914–1997), composer
• Roberto Díaz (b.1960)
• Viacheslav Dinerchtein
  Viacheslav Dinerchtein
  Viacheslav Dinerchtein is among the prominent violists of the new generation, and an active promoter of little-known viola repertoire. Born in Minsk, he immigrated to Mexico in 1991, where he began an array of different musical activities...
  
  
• Napoleon Distelmans
  Napoleon Distelmans
  Napoleon Distelmans was a violist with the Antwerp Conservatory in the early 1900s.Distelmans's father was a shoemaker who dreamed of training his children to be musicians. Distelmans's mother died while giving birth to her sixth child, and the children's father raised them to play in a string...
  
  
• Paul Doktor
  Paul Doktor
  Paul Doktor was a notable violist and orchestra conductor.The son of singer-pianist Georgine and violist Karl Doktor, at the age of five, Paul began violin studies with his father, and received his diploma from the State Academy of Music in 1938...
  
   (1917–1989)
• Karen Dreyfus
  Karen Dreyfus
  Karen Dreyfus is world-renowned violist who currently teaches at the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Dreyfus has distinguished herself as a recipient of many prizes, including the Naumburg Viola Competition , the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition , the Washington International...
  
  
• Fyodor Druzhinin
  Fyodor Druzhinin
  Fyodor Serafimovich Druzhinin, also Fedor, was a Russian violist, composer and music teacher....
  
   (1932–2007)
• Matthias Durst
  Matthias Durst
  Matthias Durst was an Austrian violinist, violist and composer.-Biography:Born in Vienna, he studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Georg Hellmesberger, Sr. and Joseph Böhm. He was a member of the Vienna Burgtheater. From 1841 he was appointed at the Vienna Court Orchestra. He was professor at...
  
   (1815–1875), violinist, composer
• Charles Dutoit
  Charles Dutoit
  Charles Édouard Dutoit, OC, GOQ is a Swiss conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of French and Russian 20th century music...
  
   (b.1936), conductor
• Lawrence Dutton
  Lawrence Dutton
  Lawrence Dutton is an American violist, and is currently a member of the Emerson String Quartet. He earned a Bachelor and Master's degree from the Juilliard School of Music where he studied with Lillian Fuchs....
  
   (b.1954)
• Antonín Dvořák
  Antonín Dvorák
  Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of Romantic music, who employed the idioms and melodies of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. His works include operas, symphonic, choral and chamber music...
  
   (1841–1904), composer

• Sila Eser
  Sila Eser
  Sıla Eser Turkish violist. A seasoned performer as both a solo and chamber musician Sila Eser was a prizewinner of the British Council String Competition 2000 and was awarded a full scholarship at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester UK where she studied with Roger Benedict.At the...
  
   (b.1979)

• Ralph Farris
  Ralph Farris
  Ralph Farris is an American violist, violinist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He specializes in new music and is a founding member of the string quartet ETHEL....
  
   (b.1970)
• Cecil Forsyth
  Cecil Forsyth
  Cecil Forsyth was an English composer and musicologist. He was born in Greenwich on November 30, 1870, and he died in New York on December 7, 1941. He studied at Edinburgh University and at the Royal College of Music , and played viola in various London Orchestras...
  
   (1870–1941), composer
• Lillian Fuchs
  Lillian Fuchs
  Lillian Fuchs , an American violist, teacher and composer, is considered to be among the finest instrumentalists of her time. She hailed from a musically talented family: her brothers, Joseph Fuchs, a violinist, and Harry Fuchs, a cellist, performed with her on numerous commercial recordings...
  
   (1901–1995)

• Carlo Maria Giulini
  Carlo Maria Giulini
  Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor, and violist.-Biography:Giulini was born in Barletta, Italy and studied the viola and composition at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome...
  
   (1914–2005), conductor
• Bruno Giuranna
  Bruno Giuranna
  Bruno Giuranna is an Italian violist.He began his solo career in 1954 when he performed the world premiere of Giorgio Federico Ghedini's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra with Herbert von Karajan conducting...
  
   (b.1933)
• Roland Glassl
  Roland Glassl
  Roland Glassl is a professional German viola player. He has won the Lionel Tertis Competition as well as the International Competition in Vienna. Glassl hass collaborated with many leading artists, and is also a member of the Mandelring Quartet.-External references:*...
  
   (b.1972)
• Rosemary Glyde
  Rosemary Glyde
  Rosemary Glyde was an American violist and composer. Focusing on expanding the limited repertory for solo viola, she wrote and transcribed many works for that instrument, including Sergei Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata and Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites for viola...
  
   (1948–1994), composer
• Rivka Golani
  Rivka Golani
  Rivka Golani is widely considered to be one of the great violists of modern times. Her musicianship and virtuosity have been a source of inspiration to many players and composers...
  
   (b.1946)
• Jonny Greenwood
  Jonny Greenwood
  Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood is a BAFTA and Grammy-nominated musician and composer-in-residence for the BBC, best known as a member of English alternative rock group Radiohead. Greenwood is a multi-instrumentalist, but serves mainly as a guitarist and keyboard player. He is the younger brother...
  
  , lead guitarist of Radiohead
• Ebbe Grims-land
  Ebbe Grims-land
  Ebbe Grims-land is a Swedish composer and viola player. He is also one of Sweden's foremost mandolin players.Grims-land made his debut as violinist in Malmö in 1932 and has studied in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Vienna...
  
   (b.1915)

• Veronika Hagen
  Veronika Hagen
  -Biography:Born in Salzburg, she began to learn music at the age of six with her father, who was at that time concertmaster of the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg. She then continued her studies at the Musik Hochschule of Salzburg with Professor Helmut Zehetmair and at the Musik Hochschule of...
  
  
• John Harbison
  John Harbison
  John Harris Harbison is a composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.Harbison won the prestigious BMI Foundation's Student Composer Awards for composition at the age of sixteen in 1954. He studied music at Harvard University, where he sang with the Harvard Glee Club, and later at...
  
   (b.1938), composer
• Joseph Haydn
  Joseph Haydn
  Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer. He was one of the most important, prolific and prominent composers of the classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these genres...
  
   (1732–1809), composer
• Willy Hess
  Willy Hess (violinist)
  Willy Hess was a German violin virtuoso and violin teacher.-Biography:Born in Mannheim, he was a student of Joseph Joachim. He also studied with his father, who was a pupil of Louis Spohr....
  
   (1859–1939), violinist
• Raphael Hillyer
  Raphael Hillyer
  Raphael Hillyer is an American viola soloist, teacher, and was involved in the formation of the Tokyo String Quartet. His career includes co-founding the Juilliard String Quartet where he played in an ensemble for 23 seasons. Mr. Hillyer currently lectures and instructs viola at Boston University...
  
   (b.1914)
• Paul Hindemith
  Paul Hindemith
  Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, Germany, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
  
   (1895–1963), composer

• Nobuko Imai
  Nobuko Imai
  , is a Japanese classical violist with an extensive career as soloist and chamber musician. Since 1988 she plays an Andrea Guarneri of 1690.-Biography:...
  
   (b.1943)
• Yuko Inoue
  Yuko Inoue
  , is a Japanese classical violist. She studied violin at Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo. In 1978, she went to study with violist Nobuko Imai at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England...
  
  

• Leroy Jenkins (1932–2007)
• Otto Joachim (b.1910), composer

• Thomas Kakuska
  Thomas Kakuska
  Thomas Kakuska was an Austrian violist.He was professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna from 1971 and from 1993 visiting professor at the University of Cologne in Germany....
  
   (1940–2005)
• Jurgis Karnavičius (1884–1941), composer
• Gilad Karni
  Gilad Karni
  Gilad Karni is an Israeli violist who has played in the New York Philharmonic and is currently principal viola in the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich as well as a soloist and player in chamber ensembles...
  
  
• Kim Kashkashian
  Kim Kashkashian
  Kim Kashkashian is an Armenian-American violist who won the 2nd prize at the 1980 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the 1980 ARD International Music Competition in Munich...
  
   (b.1952)
• Milton Katims
  Milton Katims
  Milton Katims was an American violist and conductor. He was music director of the Seattle Symphony for 22 years . In that time he added more than 75 works, made recordings, premiered new pieces and led the orchestra on several tours...
  
   (1909–2006), conductor
• Martha Strongin Katz
  Martha Strongin Katz
  Martha Strongin Katz is a renowned violist and a distinguished member of the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she teaches viola and chamber music...
  
   (b.1942)
• Hugo Kauder
  Hugo Kauder
  Hugo Kauder was a mid-century Austrian composer, pedagogue, and music theorist who was born in Tobitschau, Moravia, now Tovacov, Czech Republic. He defied the atonal trend of his generation with his uniquely harmonic, contrapuntal style...
  
   (1888–1972), composer, violinist
• Nigel Keay
  Nigel Keay
  Nigel Keay was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand in 1955. He has been a freelance musician since 1983 working as a composer, violist, and violin teacher...
  
   (b.1955), composer
• Nigel Kennedy
  Nigel Kennedy
  Nigel Kennedy is an English violinist and violist.-Biography:Nigel Kennedy was born in Brighton, East Sussex, and comes from a musical lineage. His grandfather was Lauri Kennedy, a British-born musician and principal cellist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra who played with Fritz Kreisler, Jascha...
  
   (b.1956), violinist
• Dmitri Klebanov (1907–1987)
• Michael Klotz
  Michael Klotz
  Michael Klotz is an violist in the Amernet String Quartet.Klotz is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he was awarded the Performer's Certificate...
  
   (b.1978)
• Garth Knox
  Garth Knox
  Garth Knox, is a violist specialized in contemporary classical music. After studies at the Royal College of Music in London with Frederic Riddle, he became a member of Pierre Boulez’s Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris then joined the Arditti Quartet in London...
  
   (b.1956)
• Eriq Koontz (b.1961)
• Tosca Kramer
  Tosca Kramer
  Dr. Tosca Berger Kramer , was a New Zealand-born American violinist and violist. Kramer, along with her parents, was instrumental in bringing classical music performance and instruction to the state of Oklahoma....
  
   (1903–1976)
• Michael Kugel
  Michael Kugel
  Michael Kugel is a Russian viola player and composer.-Biography:Born in Kharkov, USSR, he studied at the Beethoven School of Music, at the Music College in Kharkov and later at the Leningrad Conservatory....
  
   (b.1946)

• Théophile Laforge
  Théophile Laforge
  Théophile Édouard Laforge was a French violist and first professor of viola at the Conservatoire de Paris....
  
   (1863–1918)
• Jaime Laredo
  Jaime Laredo
  Jaime Laredo is a violinist and conductor. Currently the conductor and Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, he began his musical career when he was five years old. In 1948 he came to North America and took lessons from Antonio DeGrass...
  
   (b.1941), violinist
• Steve Larson
  Steve Larson
  Steve Larson is the former lead guitarist for Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. Prior to Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, his previous bands include Dialectrics and Dead Hot Workshop, which he formed in 1989 with Brent Babb...
  
  
• Lim Soon Lee
  Lim Soon Lee
  Lim Soon Lee is a Singaporean conductor and violist.-Education:Soon Lee began his piano and violin training at a young age, under the tutelage of Goh Soon Tioe, Tan Kah Chin, Tan Kian Seng, Moses Wang, and Vivien Goh....
  
  
• Victor Legley (1915–1994), composer
• Harold Levin
  Harold Levin
  Harold Levin is an American violist, composer, and conductor.An Interlochen Arts graduate, Levin holds a BS from Ball State University, a MM from the University of Cincinnati, and a DMA from Rutgers University....
  
   (b.1956)
• Jodi Levitz
  Jodi Levitz
  Jodi Levitz is an American musician and academic.She is currently on the viola and chamber music faculties at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is the violist of the Ives Quartet....
  
  
• Ernest Llewellyn
  Ernest Llewellyn
  Ernest Victor Llewellyn CBE was an Australian violinist, violist, conductor and musical administrator. He was the founding director of the Canberra School of Music and he is commemorated in the concert venue there, Llewellyn Hall....
  
   (1915–1982), violinist, conductor
• James Lowe
  James Lowe (Conductor)
  James Lowe is a British conductor and violist.As well as holding various assistant conducting posts and holding the post of Associate Conductor of the RSNO between 2004 and 2007 he is the current artistic director of the New Bristol Sinfonia and of the West of Scotland Schools Symphony Orchestra....
  
   (b.1976), conductor

• Jef Maes
  Jef Maes
  Jef "Joseph" Maes was a Belgian composer.Encouraged by his friend, André Cluytens, he completed his study at the Flämi conservatory in Antwerp...
  
   (1905–1996), composer
• Jethro Marks
  Jethro Marks
  Jethro Marks is a Canadian/American classical violist. He is the founding violist of the Zukerman Chamber Players and the Associate Principal Violist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa....
  
  
• Uri Mayer
  Uri Mayer
  Uri Mayer is a Canadian violist and conductor.Mayer moved to Israel at a young age, and studied at the Conservatory of Music of Tel-Aviv and the University of Tel-Aviv...
  
   (b.1946), conductor
• Felix Mendelssohn
  Felix Mendelssohn
  Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period....
  
   (1809–1847), composer
• Yehudi Menuhin
  Yehudi Menuhin
  Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985. He is commonly considered one of...
  
   (1916–1999), violinist
• John Metcalfe
  John Metcalfe
  John Metcalfe is a British-based composer and violist, and a former member of the band the Durutti Column.- Biography :...
  
   (b.1964)
• Dejan Mlađenović (b.1961)
• Miroslav Miletić
  Miroslav Miletic
  Miroslav Miletić, Composer is a Croatian composer and viola player.-Education:Born in Sisak, Croatia, Miletić graduated violin from the Zagreb Music Academy in 1953, in the class of Prof. Stjepan Šulek and I. Pinkava, and chamber music in the class of Antonio Janigro...
  
   (b.1925), composer
• Shlomo Mintz
  Shlomo Mintz
  Shlomo Mintz is an Israeli violin virtuoso, violist and conductor. He regularly appears with orchestras and conductors on the international scene and is heard in recitals and chamber music concerts around the world....
  
   (b.1957), violinist
• Alexander Mishnaevski
  Alexander Mishnaevski
  Alexander Mishnaevski is a Russian-born American violist, the principal violist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Born in Moscow, he began violin lessons in his early childhood, when his father was principal violist with the local orchestra...
  
  
• Pierre Monteux
  Pierre Monteux
  Pierre Monteux was an orchestra conductor. Born in Paris, France, rue de la Grange Batelière. Monteux later became an American citizen.-Life and career:...
  
   (1875–1964), conductor
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...
  
   (1756–1791), composer
• Pedro Saglimbeni Muñoz
  Pedro Saglimbeni Muñoz
  Pedro Armando Saglimbeni Muñoz is the first solo viola at Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa and solo in important orchestras as the Sinfónica de Colombia, Nacional de Panamá, Orchestre Philharmonique Rhodanien, Sinfónica Portuguesa, Nacional do Porto and Orquestra do Norte.He is also Professor of...
  
  
• Henry Myerscough
  Henry Myerscough
  Henry Myerscough was a British violist.In addition to solo work and teaching, he formed the Fidelio Quartet with his brother, the violinist Clarence Myerscough, and performed for many years as a session musician, including The Beatles' "White" Album and Quatermass.He played a viola by luthier...
  
   (? –2007)

• Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan
  Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan
  is the eldest son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, which makes him the heir apparent to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan.-Early life and education:...
  
   (b.1960)
• Natalie Bauer-Lechner
  Natalie Bauer-Lechner
  Natalie Bauer-Lechner was a viola-player who is best known to musicology for having been a close and devoted friend of Gustav Mahler in the period between the break-up of her marriage in 1890 and the start of his to Alma Schindler in 1902...
  
   (1858–1921)
• Oskar Nedbal
  Oskar Nedbal
  Oskar Nedbal was a Czech violist, composer, and conductor of classical music.-Life:Nedbal was born in Tábor, in southern Bohemia. He studied the violin at the Prague Conservatory under Antonín Bennewitz...
  
   (1874–1930), composer
• Paul Neubauer
  Paul Neubauer
  Violist Paul Neubauer was the youngest principal player for the New York Philharmonic at 21 years of age, and currently teaches at the Juilliard School, and Mannes College The New School for Music. He performs with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center...
  
   (b.1962)
• Václav Neumann
  Václav Neumann
  Václav Neumann was a Czech conductor, violinist and viola player.Neumann was born in Prague where he studied at the Prague Conservatory, with Josef Micka , and with Pavel Dědeček and Metod Doležil . He co-founded, and played 1st violin in, the Smetana Quartet, before holding conducting posts in...
  
   (1920–1995), conductor
• Casimir Ney
  Casimir Ney
  Louis Casimir Escouffier ' was one of the foremost French violists of the 19th Century.- History :During the middle of the 19th century, Escouffier was highly active as a performer, primarily in string quartets...
  
   (1801–1877)
• Nokuthula Ngwenyama
  Nokuthula Ngwenyama
  Nokuthula Ngwenyama is an American solo violist of Zimbabwean and Japanese descent. She is a recording artist under EDI Records, and currently teaches at the Jacob's School of Music at Indiana University.- Background :...
  
   (b.1976)

• Heiichiro Ohyama
  Heiichiro Ohyama
  is a Japanese conductor and violist.He has a long-established reputation as a remarkable conductor and one of the nation’s most renowned violists. In addition to his post as Music Director and Conductor of the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, he is also the Principal Chief Conductor of Kyushu...
  
   (b.1947)
• David Oistrakh
  David Oistrakh
  David Fyodorovich Oistrakh was a Russian violin virtuoso who made many recordings and was the dedicatee of numerous violin works....
  
   (1908–1974), violinist
• Martin Outram
  Martin Outram
  Martin Outram is an English viola soloist and violist of the Maggini Quartet.-Biography:Martin Outram studied at Cambridge University and later at the Royal Academy of Music in London...
  
  

• Niccolò Paganini
  Niccolò Paganini
  Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His caprice in A minor, Op. 1 No...
  
   (1782–1840), composer, violinist
• Ian Parrott
  Ian Parrott
  Professor Ian Parrott , who retired from the Gregynog Chair of Music at Aberystwyth in 1983, is a prolific Anglo-Welsh composer and writer on music. His distinctions include the first prize of the Royal Philharmonic Society for his symphonic poem 'Luxor', and commissions by the BBC and Yale...
  
   (b.1916), composer
• Ödön Pártos
  Ödön Pártos
  Ödön Pártos [alternate English transcription: Oedeon Partos; Hungarian original: Pártos Ödön, Hebrew: עֵדֶן פרטוש ] , was a Hungarian-Israeli violist and composer...
  
   (1907–1977), composer
• Joseph de Pasquale
  Joseph de Pasquale
  Joseph de Pasquale is an American violist born in 1919. He was a student of William Primrose at the Curtis Institute of Music. For many years Joseph de Pasquale was the principal violist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and later the Philadelphia Orchestra. He performed and recorded with Jascha...
  
   (b.1919)
• Clara Petrozzi-Stubin
  Clara Petrozzi-Stubin
  Clara Petrozzi-Stubin is a Finnish violinist, violist, Musicologist and Composer of Peruvian origin.-Biography:...
  
   (b.1965), violinist, composer
• Allan Pettersson
  Allan Pettersson
  Gustav Allan Pettersson was a Swedish composer. Today he is considered one of the most important Swedish composers of the 20th century.-Biography:...
  
   (1911–1980), composer
• Cynthia Phelps
  Cynthia Phelps
  Cynthia Phelps is an American violist whose versatile career involves work as a chamber musician, solo artist, and orchestral musician. Phelps is currently the Principal Violist of the New York Philharmonic, a position to which she was appointed in 1992...
  
   (b.1961)
• Ashan Pillai
  Ashan Pillai
  Ashan Diresh Pillai is a British violist. He was educated as a music and academic scholar at Merchant Taylors School, London and then at the Royal Academy of Music, London, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and the Juilliard School, New York City...
  
   (b.1969)
• Jocelyn Pook
  Jocelyn Pook
  Jocelyn Pook is a British composer, pianist and viola player.- Biography :Jocelyn Pook’s distinctive style is a product of her diverse experiences in classical, commercial, and so-called world music...
  
   (b.1960), composer
• Diemut Poppen
  Diemut Poppen
  Diemut Poppen began violin lessons at the age of seven, but changed to the viola having been exposed to it through playing chamber music...
  
  
• Ari Poutiainen
  Ari Poutiainen
  Ari Poutiainen is a Finnish contemporary jazz violinist, violist, composer, and researcher. He is famous for using a rare, hybrid 5-string viola beside violin, his main instrument. He often plucks either instrument with his fingers, while holding it like a guitar...
  
   (b.1972)
• Milton Preves
  Milton Preves
  Milton Preves was a violist, conductor, and a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 52 years. He also was principal violist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 47 years....
  
   (1909–2000)
• William Primrose
  William Primrose
  William Primrose CBE was a Scottish violist and teacher, probably the best known viola player of all time.Primrose was born in Glasgow and studied violin initially. In 1919 he moved to study at the then Guildhall School of Music in London. From there he moved to Belgium to study under Eugène Ysaÿe...
  
   (1904–1982)

• Karl Traugott Queisser
  Karl Traugott Queisser
  Karl Traugott Queisser played trombone and viola in Germany as a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Felix Mendelssohn.He was Principal Viola of the Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1820 until 1843 where he also appeared as soloist on 27 occasions...
  
   (1800–1846)

• Julian Rachlin
  Julian Rachlin
  Julian Rachlin is a Lithuanian-born violinist and violist.-Background and early life:Born in Vilnius, he emigrated in 1978 with his musician parents to Austria. In 1983, he entered the Konservatorium Wien and studied violin in the Soviet tradition with Boris Kuschnir, while also receiving private...
  
   (b.1974), violinist
• Ottorino Respighi
  Ottorino Respighi
  Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral Roman trilogy: Fontane di Roma - "Fountains of Rome"; Pini di Roma - "Pines of Rome"; and Feste Romane - "Roman Festivals"...
  
   (1879–1936), composer
• Paul Reynolds
  Paul Reynolds
  Paul Reynolds may refer to:*Paul Reynolds , British actor*Paul Reynolds , BBC's World Affairs correspondent*Paul Reynolds , guitarist for early 80's synth pop band A Flock of Seagulls...
  
   (b.1973)
• Karen Ritscher
  Karen Ritscher
  Karen Ritscher is an American musician and academic.She is currently on faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory and has taught and performed extensively throughout the United States.Ms...
  
  
• Carol Rodland
  Carol Rodland
  Carol Rodland is an American viola player who studied with Karen Tuttle at the Juilliard school. She was Ms. Tuttle's teaching assistant for several years before taking a position as a viola teacher at the New England Conservatory. In February 2008, it was announced that Ms...
  
  
• Alessandro Rolla
  Alessandro Rolla
  Alessandro Rolla was widely acknowledged in his time as a violin and, especially, viola virtuoso, composer and teacher, though now practically unknown...
  
   (1757–1841), composer
• Paul Rolland
  Paul Rolland
  Paul Rolland was a violist and an influential American violin teacher who concentrated on the pedagogy of teaching fundamentals to beginning string students. He was famous for emphasizing that the physical demands of most violin techniques can be taught in the first two years of violin education...
  
   (1911–1977)
• Max Rostal
  Max Rostal
  Max Rostal was a violinist. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship.He was born in Cieszyn and studied with Carl Flesch. From 1930-33 he taught at the Berlin Hochschule, from 1944 to 1958 at the Guildhall School of Music, and then at the Musikhochschule Köln and the Conservatory...
  
   (1905–1991), violinist
• Simon Rowland-Jones
  Simon Rowland-Jones
  Simon Rowland-Jones is a violist, composer, and music editor. He is best known for his arrangement of the Bach Cello Suites for Viola, which is widely praised as one of the best scholarly editions of the work for viola....
  
   (b.1950)
• Miklós Rózsa
  Miklós Rózsa
  Miklós Rózsa or Miklos Rozsa was a Hungarian-born composer, best known for his film scores, most notably the score to the 1959 epic Ben-Hur.-Biography:...
  
   (1907–1995), composer

• Luigi Sagrati
  Luigi Sagrati
  Luigi Sagrati was an Italian violist.He began studying the violin very young, and graduated cum laude from the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In the immediate postwar period he began an intensive concert activity in Italy and abroad...
  
   (1921–2008)
• Philip Sainton
  Philip Sainton
  Philip Prosper Sainton was a British–French composer, conductor, and violist.-Biography:He was born in Arques-la-Bataille, in Seine-Maritime, France, grandson to violinist Prosper Sainton and contralto Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby.He started his music studies learning the violin...
  
   (1891–1967), composer, conductor
• Hermann Scherchen
  Hermann Scherchen
  Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.Born in Berlin, he was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens. He conducted in Riga from 1914 to 1916 and in Königsberg from 1928 to 1933, after which he left Germany in protest at the...
  
   (1891–1966), conductor
• Peter Schidlof
  Peter Schidlof
  Peter Schidlof was an Austrian-British violist and co-founder of the Amadeus Quartet.Born in Vienna, Schidlof fled Austria for England following the Nazi Anschluss in 1938. He won a scholarship to Blundell's School in Devon, but when World War II broke out in September 1939, he suddenly became an...
  
   (1922–1987)
• Franz Schubert
  Franz Schubert
  Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
  
   (1797–1828), composer
• Joseph Schubert
  Joseph Schubert
  Joseph Schubert was a German composer, violinist, and violist.Joseph Schubert was born in Varnsdorf, Bohemia to a musical family. He received his early musical education from his father, who was a kantor, and then in Prague...
  
   (1754–1837), composer, violinist
• Tibor Serly
  Tibor Serly
  Tibor Serly was a Hungarian violist, violinist and composer.He was one of the students of Zoltán Kodály. He greatly admired and became a young apprentice of Béla Bartók. His association with Bartók was for him both a blessing and a curse...
  
   (1901–1978), composer
• William Shield
  William Shield
  William Shield was an English composer, violinist and violist who was born in Swalwell near Gateshead, the son of William Shield and his wife, Mary, née Cash...
  
   (1748–1829)
• Paul Silverthorne
  Paul Silverthorne
  Paul Silverthorne is an English viola soloist and principal violist of the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta.-Biography:...
  
   (b.1951)
• Hans Sitt
  Hans Sitt
  Hans Sitt , was a German violinist, teacher, and composer. During his lifetime, he was regarded as one of the foremost teachers of violin. Most of the orchestras and conservatories of Europe and North America then sported personnel who numbered among his students...
  
   (1850–1922)
• Scott Slapin
  Scott Slapin
  Scott Slapin is an American violist and composer, recording for Eroica Classical Recordings and Red Mark.Slapin studied with renowned viola virtuoso Emanuel Vardi at the Manhattan School of Music. At the age of eighteen, he was one of the youngest graduates in the history of the school...
  
   (b.1974)
• Kay Slocum
  Kay Slocum
  Kay Brainerd Slocum is an American musician and historian, and has published books in music and medieval history. Slocum is currently the Gerhold Professor of History and Humanities at Capital University, Ohio, prior to which she taught music history and viola at Kent State University...
  
  
• Peter Slowik
  Peter Slowik
  Peter Slowik is a professor of viola at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he earned the school's teaching award. Before teaching at Oberlin, Slowik taught at Cleveland Institute of Music and at Northwestern University for 13 years, where he earned the McCormick Professorship for Teaching...
  
   (b.1957)
• Anton Stamitz
  Anton Stamitz
  Antonín Thadaeus Jan Nepomuk Stamic ["Anton Thadäus Johann Nepomuk Stamitz]" was a German composer and violinist....
  
   (1750–c.1800), composer
• Carl Stamitz
  Carl Stamitz
  Karl Stamic , who took the German form of his name Karl Philipp Stamitz and is now better known as Carl, was a Czech-German composer, violin, viola and viola d'amore virtuoso...
  
   (1745–1801), composer
• Johann Stamitz
  Johann Stamitz
  Jan Václav Antonín Stamic was a Czech composer and violinist. Johann was the father of Carl Stamitz and Anton Stamitz, also composers...
  
   (1717–1757), composer
• Scott St. John
  Scott St. John
  Scott St. John is a Canadian violinist and violist. He is a member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and on faculty at Stanford University, where he teaches violin and chamber music.-Biography:...
  
   (b.1969)
• Jennifer Stumm
  Jennifer Stumm
  Jennifer Stumm is a prominent young American concert violist. She is the winner of numerous major competitions and now performs widely in the U.S. and Europe.-Life:...
  
  
• Josef Suk
  Josef Suk (violinist)
  Josef Suk is a Czech violinist, the grandson of Josef Suk, the composer and violinist, and great-grandson of Antonín Dvořák.He studied at the Prague Conservatory with Jaroslav Kocián and the Prague Academy...
  
   (b.1929), violinist
• Jean Sulem
  Jean Sulem
  Jean Sulem is a French concert violist and teacher born in 1959. He has studied in the Paris Conservatoire with Serge Collot. He has played in the "Ensemble Contemporain" directed by Pierre Boulez. He is a founder member of the Rosamunde Quartet...
  
   (b.1959)

• Antoine Tamestit
  Antoine Tamestit
  Antoine Tamestit is a French violist.Tamestit, who studied at the Paris Conservatory, has performed at such venues as the Royal Concertgebouw, the Vienna Musikverein, and Carnegie Hall...
  
   (b.1979)
• Jan Tausinger
  Jan Tausinger
  Jan Tausinger was a Romania-born ethnic Czech violist, conductor and composer.- Biography :...
  
   (1921–1980), composer, conductor
• Lionel Tertis
  Lionel Tertis
  Lionel Tertis was an English violist and one of the first viola players to find international fame.Tertis was born in West Hartlepool, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, and initially studied the violin in Leipzig and at the Royal Academy of Music in London...
  
   (1876–1975)
• Gunter Teuffel
  Gunter Teuffel
  Gunter Teuffel is a musician.He made his diploma with highest honour under Jürgen Geise and Sandor Végh at the famous Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria...
  
   (b.1955)
• Marcus Thompson
  Marcus Thompson
  Marcus Thompson is an African American violist and viola d'amore player known for his work as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and educator....
  
  
• Katia Tiutiunnik
  Katia Tiutiunnik
  Katia Tiutiunnik is an Australian violist, scholar and composer. She is of Russian-Ukrainian and Irish descent....
  
   (b.1967), composer
• Giuseppe Torelli
  Giuseppe Torelli
  Giuseppe Torelli was an Italian violist, violinist, teacher, and composer.Torelli is most remembered for his contributions to the development of the instrumental concerto Giuseppe Torelli (April 22, 1658 – February 8, 1709) was an Italian violist, violinist, teacher, and composer.Torelli is most...
  
   (1658–1709), pedagogue, composer
• Walter Trampler
  Walter Trampler
  Walter Trampler was a German musician and teacher of the viola and viola d'amore.Born at Munich, he began to study music at the age of 6, learning from his father, a violinist. In his youth, he toured Europe performing as the violist of the Strub String Quartet...
  
   (1915–1997)
• Michael Tree
  Michael Tree
  Michael Tree is an American violist, born in Newark, New Jersey.-Biography:Michael Tree's principal studies were with Efrem Zimbalist on violin and viola at the Curtis Institute of Music...
  
   (b.1934)
• Karen Tuttle
  Karen Tuttle
  Karen Tuttle is an American viola teacher who is famous for her "coordination" technique, which emphasizes being comfortable while playing your instrument. She was originally a violinist who chose to become a violist when she wanted to study with William Primrose, whose technique and ease in...
  
   (b.1920)
• Michael Twomey
  Michael Twomey
  Michael Twomwey is a violist, composer and centipede educator and a fountain member of Dr. Cruz's Chicago-based Thorn-dyke String Quartet. In 2003, he found his long lost love Mark Alexander at the Soil Ensemble of the San Salva La Vatione Symphony...
  
   (b.1963)

• Chrétien Urhan
  Chrétien Urhan
  Chrétien Urhan was a violinist, organist, composer and player of the viola and the viola d'amore.- Career outline :His father first introduced him to the violin...
  
   (1790–1845)

• Roland Vamos
  Roland and Almita Vamos
  Roland and Almita Vamos are a husband and wife who are among the leading violin and viola instructors in the world. Their pupils have become prominent soloists, members of world reknowned chamber groups and orchestras, and laureates of prestigious international competitions...
  
   (b.1930)
• Jan Křtitel Vaňhal
  Johann Baptist Vanhal
  Johann Baptist Vanhal also spelled Wanhal, Waṅhall or Wanhall was an important classical music composer born in Nechanice, Bohemia to a Czech family.- Biography :...
  
   (1739–1813)
• Emanuel Vardi
  Emanuel Vardi
  Emanuel Vardi was born April 21, 1915 in Jerusalem and came to the U.S. in 1920 via Paris.Emanuel Vardi is one of the great viola players of the 20th century.- Early life :...
  
   (b.1915)
• Maxim Vengerov
  Maxim Vengerov
  Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov is a violin virtuoso who was born in the Soviet Union.-Biography:Vengerov was born to Aleksandr and Larissa Vengerov, a Jewish family in Novosibirsk...
  
   (b.1974), violinist
• Robert Vernon
  Robert Vernon
  Robert Vernon is a classical violist and teacher.Robert Vernon has served as the Principal Violist of the Cleveland Orchestra since 1976. Vernon occupies the endowed Chaillé H. and Richard B. Tullis Chair, and along with Franklin Cohen has served longer in a Principal position than any other...
  
   (b.1949)
• Maurice Vieux
  Maurice Vieux
  Maurice Edgard Vieux was a French violist whose teaching at the Conservatoire de Paris plays a key role in the history of the viola in France....
  
   (1884–1951)

• Geraldine Walther
  Geraldine Walther
  American violist Geraldine Walther joined the Takács String Quartet in 2005, replacing Roger Tapping as violist, after having been principal viola of the San Francisco Symphony since 1976. Previously, she was assistant principal viola of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Miami Symphony and Baltimore Symphony...
  
  
• Melia Watras
  Melia Watras
  Melia Watras is a prominent American violist. Known for her expertise in chamber music and contemporary music she has performed numerous commissions and world premieres as a soloist and co-founder of the award-winning Corigliano Quartet. Ms. Watras has performed in Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital...
  
  
• John Webb
  John Webb (composer)
  -Biography:He was educated in Essex where he started playing the piano and viola. He began to compose at 14, and two years later attended Colchester Institute. Here he studied piano with Frank Wibaut and composition with John Joubert at the Birmingham Conservatoire....
  
   (b.1969), composer
• Henryk Wieniawski
  Henryk Wieniawski
  Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish violinist and composer.-Biography:He was born in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, into a Jewish family. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka, had converted to Catholicism. His talent for playing the violin was recognized early on, and in 1843 he entered the Paris...
  
   (1835–1880), violinist
• Mark Wood
  Mark Wood (violinist)
  Mark Winthrop Wood is an electric violinist, as well as the founder of Wood Violins, a company that makes high quality, unique electric violins. He is also an Emmy-winning composer. His music and strings education program has been featured on news programs nationwide.He is a former member of the...
  
  

• Hong-Mei Xiao

• Eugène Ysaÿe
  Eugène Ysaÿe
  Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor. His brother was pianist and composer Théo Ysaÿe . He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein mentioned, "tzar"....
  
   (1858–1931), violinist

• Lev Zhurbin
  Lev Zhurbin
  Lev 'Ljova' Zhurbin is a composer, violist, and arranger. A frequent collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project Ensemble and the Kronos Quartet, Ljova is the author of over 70 original compositions for classical, jazz, and folk music ensembles...
  
   (b.1978), composer
• Tabea Zimmermann
  Tabea Zimmermann
  Tabea Zimmermann, born on October 8 1966 in Lahr, , is a German violist.She began learning to play the viola at the age of three, and commenced piano studies at age five...
  
   (b.1966)
• Pinchas Zukerman
  Pinchas Zukerman
  Pinchas Zukerman is a noted Israeli violinist, violist, and conductor who was appointed Music Director of Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra in April 1998....
  
  (b.1948), violinist