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Paul Laraia
1st Prize winner of the 13th Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the 14th Sphinx Competition, violist Paul Laraia is enjoying the early stages of a multifaceted career as soloist, chamber musician, and new music advocate. Acclaimed for offering “long lines with lyricsm and poise”, Paul has been soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Filharmonica de Bogata, New Jersey Symphony, Nashville Symphony, New Haven Symphony, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. As a principal member of the internationally acclaimed Sejong Soloists and as the violist of the Grammy Award winning Catalyst Quartet, Paul has given hundreds of performances globally in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, the Kennedy Center in DC, Seoul Arts Center, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series. Additionally, he has been an invited artist at major festivals such as the Yellow Barn, Sarasota, Vail International Dance, Festival Del Sole, incheon music hic et nunc!, Hong Kong Generation Next Arts, Sitka, Banff, Grand Canyon, and Cornell’s “Mayfest”, where he has performed with artists such as Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, Jorg Widmann, Vadim Repin, Edgar Meyer, Donald Weilerstein, Cho-lang Lin, Roger Tapping, Anthony Marwood, Daniel Phillips, and Paul Huang.
Paul comes from a Philadelphian viola lineage, having studied with Brynina Socolofsky, the disciple of pedagogue Leonard Mogill, and then with Choon-jin Chang (Principal viola, Philadelphia Orchestra) and Che-hung Chen, under scholarship through Temple University’s Center for Talented Youth and the Settlement Music School in South Philadelphia. In 2007, Paul entered the New England Conservatory of Music with full merit scholarship and began the most central stage of his training under Kim Kashkashian for 4 years, making musical friends and colleagues that continue to influence him to this day. Paul then studied with Canadian viola legend, Steven Dann at the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto for post grad work.
Paul performs on a beautiful Hiroshi Iizuka viola in the ‘viola d’amore’ style, a Belgian bow by Pierre Guillaume awarded by the Bishops Strings shop in London, and is a proud supporter of Pirastro’s Eva Pirazzi Strings. Paul’s Wigmore Hall debut recital will be in Feb. 2020.