Lara St. John

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Lara St. John (born on April 15, 1971 in London, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian violinist of Scottish origin.

[edit] Biography

St. John was born into a musical family. Her father taught French and Spanish and coached basketball at a high school in nearby Arva, Ontario, and her mother is a music teacher. Her older brother Scott is a professor of music at the University of Toronto and plays violin and viola.

St. John started playing violin at the age of 2. When she was 5 she had her first solo performance. At the age of 10 she had her first performance in Lisbon. Two and three years later she toured Spain, France, Portugal and Hungary. Due to an Ontario law which permitted it, she was exempted from all school subjects except music. At the age of 14 she entered the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. After graduating there three years later she wanted to enter the Moscow Conservatory. While in Moscow, many teachers, including hers, were defecting, and due to the conservatory's rules she couldn't study with any other teacher so she had a chance to travel around the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe countries where she encountered the Roma people and their music. Her further musical academies include Guildhall School, United Kingdom, Mannes College of Music, New York and New England Conservatory in Boston. St. John was victorious at several competitions. In 1997 at a competition organized by the Canada Council for the Arts and an anonymous donor, she won a two year use of Lyall Stradivarius dating from 1702. Now she performs on a Salabue Gudagnini from 1779, thanks to Heini & Co. from Toronto and an anonymous donor.

St. John appeared in some controversial photos. For the cover of her debut album, Bach Works for Violin Solo, released in 1996 and presenting works of her favourite composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, she posed feigning to be naked, with a violin covering her chest and looking much younger than she actually was. The album sold 30,000 copies, a very high number for classical music. For the cover of her second album, Gypsy (reflecting her experiences travelling around Eastern Europe), she posed wearing a leather jacket with nothing underneath.

In 2003 St. John signed a contract with Sony Classical and recorded her first crossover album Re: Bach.

When not on tour, St. John lives in New York. According to her official web site she likes J. R. R. Tolkien, reptiles and the American Museum of Natural History.

Her music is available at Magnatune.

[edit] Discography

1996 — Bach Works for Violin Solo, released by Well Tempered Productions
1997 — Gypsy, released by Well Tempered Productions
2002 — Bach: The Concerto Album, released by Ancalagon Records
2003 — Re: Bach, released by Sony Classical
2007 — Bach: The Six Sonatas & Partitas for Violin Solo, released by Ancalagon Records
2008 — Hindson: Violin Concerto; Corigliano: Suite from the Red Violin, released by Ancalagon Records