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Ruth Kahn, viola
VRuth Ellen Kahn is Violist, Founder and Artistic Director of the renowned chamber music series, Musica Marin.
A graduate of The Juilliard School and native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Ms. Kahn, has performed on every important concert stage in this country including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, among others. Her extensive chamber music experience includes performing with such eminent artists as, Cynthia Phelps, Shmuel Ashkenazi, Maurice Bourgue, the Miro String Quartet, the Colorado String Quartet and West End Chamber Players of NYC. She has received numerous awards, prizes and critical acclaim, as well as invitations to perform for such organizations as the New York Viola Society and the Hertz Hall in Berkeley, California. She has also performed as soloist with the Mexico City Philharmonic and the New England Symphonic Ensemble.
Ruth has been artistic director of two chamber music series in both New York and New Jersey, one of which resulted in a recital in Carnegie Recital Hall as a recipient of the Artist's International Competition Award. Among the many orchestras with which she has played are the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the New York City Opera Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, the Carmel Bach Festival, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. Ruth is also an accomplished violinist, and co- concertmaster of The Russian Chamber Orchestra of San Francisco.
Internationally, Ruth has toured with the New England Symphonic and New York Chamber Ensembles to Morocco, Israel and Jordan, where they performed for the Royal Families. In addition, she has been invited numerous times to attend the Spoleto Festival in Italy.
Ms. Kahn is very active in the area of viola pedagogy and has been the assistant to Paul Doktor at The Juilliard School, taught master classes and has maintained a private studio in both the New York metropolitan and San Francisco Bay areas. She has been on the viola faculty of Orfeo Music Festival in Italy, U.C. Berkeley, California, and the San Domenico School.
Her teachers have included Karen Tuttle, Paul Doktor, Heiichiro Ohyama, Louis Kievman, and the world-renowned violist, William Primrose.
"The viola recital by Ruth Kahn showed off the naturally rich sound of her instrument..Kahn let loose with a welter of secure technical passages and produced double-stops that were vibrantly in tune, Kahn sunk into the dark sound of her viola and pulled the harmonies out with full color." -Paul Somers, Classical New Jersey