Erika Eckert
Violist, Erika Eckert, is currently Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ms. Eckert has also served on the faculties of The Cleveland Institute of Music, Baldwin Wallace College, and the Chautauqua Institution in New York where she served as the coordinator of the chamber music program for the Music School Festival Orchestra for three summers. Summer 2012, she will be on the faculty of both the Brevard Music Center and the North American Viola Institute.
As co-founder and former violist of the Cavani String Quartet, Ms. Eckert performed on major concert series worldwide, garnered an impressive list of awards and prizes, including first prizes at both the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and the Cleveland Quartet Competition, and appeared on NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and National Public Radio.
In recent seasons, Ms. Eckert has performed as guest-violist with the Takacs String Quartet, appearing with them in Canada, Colorado, Tennessee, Oregon, and Vermont. She has also performed on numerous faculty recitals at the University of Colorado as well as soloing with the Music in the Mountains Purgatory Festival Orchestra, Four Seasons Chamber Orchestra, the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Boulder Bach Festival, and the Boulder Chamber Orchestra.
Performing engagements have included the El Paso Pro Musica International Chamber Music Festival, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the Garth Newell Music Festival, Vail Bravo!, Music in the Mountains Chamber Music Festival, the Sitka Summer Music Festival Autumn Classics, Niagara International Chamber Music Festival, and Fontana Chamber Arts. Ms. Eckert has also performed chamber music recitals at the International French Horn, Flute and Double-Reed Conventions and solo performances at the SEAMUS and ICMC electronic music national and international conferences.
Teaching engagements have included presenting viola and chamber music pedagogy sessions, and coordinating the chamber music program at the American String Teachers Association International Workshops in Brisbane, Australia and Stavanger, Norway; presenting viola masterclasses at Juilliard, Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, Arizona State University, Governors School of South Carolina, Interlochen Arts Academy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, University of Memphis, and University of South Carolina; serving on the faculties of the Perlman Music Program, The Quartet Program, and the Takacs String Quartet Seminar; and coaching chamber music at the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Inc. Ninth Conference, the International School for Musical Arts, the Chamber Music Connection, the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Chamber Music Wyoming Young Artist Program, the Britt Institute Chamber Strings, and the Madeline Island Music Camp Adult Chamber Music Program.
Ms. Eckert serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Viola Society and for three years served as an adjudicator for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) Arts Recognition and Talent Search, the exclusive nominating agency for the Presidential Scholars in the Arts, and appeared in their Academy Nominated Documentary, Rehearsing a Dream.
