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Patricia McCarty, viola
From Bach to Keith Jarrett, Patricia McCarty’s performances on five continents have been acclaimed for communicating “a dark tone analogous to the quality of a fine tawny port” [Strad], & “the fine blue-flamed torch of her mind” [Ottawa Citizen]. Her recordings for Northeastern, ECM & Ashmont have received international accolades including Gramophone’s “Critics’ Choice” & Strad “Selection CD”.
She has appeared as soloist with the Detroit, Houston, Kyoto and Shinsei Nihon symphonies, Boston Pops, Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Turiae Camerata of Valencia, and in recitals including New York, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Valencia, Geneva, Caracas, five International Viola Congresses, and a debut at London’s Wigmore Hall hailed by the Times to be “an outstanding exhibition of string playing of the highest American class.” Winner of the First Silver Medal and Radio Prize in the Geneva International Competition when she was eighteen, Ms. McCarty graduated the following year magna cum laude from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Francis Bundra. She has also been awarded two National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Grants and the John Knowles Paine Award for performance of new American music.
As chamber musician Ms. McCarty has performed at festivals including Aspen, Marlboro, Tanglewood, Sarasota, Bay Chamber Concerts, Bowdoin, Aria (Canada), Hokkaido (Japan), and the Australian String Academy. Former member of the Lenox Quartet, she has also toured with Music from Marlboro, Boston Chamber Music Society, and Boston Symphony Chamber Players, with whom she has recorded works by Brahms and Dvorak. Other collaborations include musicians as diverse as composer Lou Harrison and his gamelan ensemble, contralto Maureen Forrester, violinist Joseph Silverstein, and jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, whose work Bridge of Light for viola and orchestra Ms. McCarty commissioned, premiered and has recorded for ECM.
Ms. McCarty has performed numerous world premieres, and her research of viola repertoire and pedagogy has been published in Strad, Symphony Magazine, Strings, American Viola Society Journal, American String Teacher and the book Playing & Teaching Viola, published in 2005 by American String Teachers Association. She has given master classes throughout the U.S., as well as in Canada, Venezuela, Australia and Spain, and her translated articles have appeared in Korean and Dutch string teaching publications. Former assistant principal violist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Patricia McCarty presently is faculty member of the Meadowmount School of Music, where she teaches viola, chamber music, and professional orchestral audition preparation. Her former students are employed in professional orchestras, chamber ensembles, university and pre-college faculties worldwide.