Scott Slapin

Scott Slapin (born 1974[1]) is an American violist[2][3] and composer of music for the viola.[4][5]

Career

Slapin has written two albums of recital music featuring the viola[6][7] and was commissioned to write the required piece for the 2008 Primrose International Viola Competition.[5] He served on the committee for the first Maurice Gardner Composition Competition and co-premiered the winning work, Rachel Matthews' Dreams, at the 38th International Viola Congress.[8] At the age of eighteen he was performing daily as the solo violist in the New York City production of Gerald Busby's Orpheus In Love, a chamber opera about Orpheus recast as a viola player.[9] Slapin performs and records with his wife, Tanya Solomon, also a violist.[10] They won 'Best Chamber Performance of 2008' at the Tribute to the Classical Arts in New Orleans.[11] Slapin plays a viola built by Hiroshi Iizuka.[12]

Recordings

Slapin was the first person to record the complete cycle of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas (originally for violin) on viola,[13] a set which he rerecorded in 2006.[12] He has premiered and recorded many 20th and 21st Century recital works featuring the viola, and he is the featured soloist on the first album produced by the American Viola Society.[14] His 2008 recording, Paganini's 24 Caprices, marked the first time Paganini's 24 Caprices had been recorded on the viola since Emanuel Vardi in 1965.[2]

Education

Slapin graduated at the age of eighteen from the Manhattan School of Music,[15] where he studied with Emanuel Vardi.[5] In memory of Vardi, he wrote 'Capricious', a viola trio which references several of Paganini's Caprices.[5] Slapin's Nocturne is dedicated to his composition teacher and mentor Richard Lane.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Potter, Tully (January 2000). "Two Viola Recitals (review)". Strad 111 (1317): 72.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Williams, Rory (December 2008). "Violist Scott Slapin Explores Paganini's Caprices". Strings magazine. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  3. ↑ Moore, D (November–December 2004). "PROTO: Soundscapes (review)". American Record Guide: 162–3.
  4. ↑ Somers, Paul (July 22, 1989). "Youth is well-served in Brunswick Symphony". New Jersey Star Ledger.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Solare, Carlos Maria (Spring 2013). "All Viola, All the Time: Music for Multiple Violas by Scott Slapin". Journal of the American Viola Society 29 (1): page 80.
  6. ↑ Ross, Sarah (Autumn 2012). "All Viola, All the Time Music For Multiple Violas by Scott Slapin". Journal of the Canadian Viola Society (70).
  7. ↑ Solare, Carlos Maria (Spring 2010). "Reflection- Violacentric Music of Scott Slapin". Journal of the American Viola Society 26 (1).
  8. ↑ Olson, Christina; Cook, Ellen (Spring 2011). "The Maurice Gardner Viola Composition Competition". Journal of the American Viola Society 27 (1): p. 7.
  9. ↑ Holland, Bernard (December 16, 1992). "Orpheus in Love; Orpheus as Mediator Between 2 Worlds, But Just Which 2?". New York Times. Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  10. ↑ Solare, Carlos Maria (November 2005). "Sketches From the New World". Strad Magazine (Vol. 116 Issue 1387). p. 115.
  11. ↑ Coviello, Will (February 21, 2009). "The Tribute to the Classical Arts honors classical music, opera and dance Performances from 2008". Gambit: The Best of New Orleans (Gambit Communications). Retrieved August 6, 2012.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Magil (July–Aug 2007). "Bach Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas". American Record Guide (Issue 4). p. 70. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ↑ Knechtel, Baird (August 2004). "Review of Frank Proto's Soundscapes". Journal of the Canadian Viola Society.
  14. ↑ Bynog, David (Spring 2014). "The American Viola Society Proudly Announces Its First Recording". Journal of the American Viola Society 30 (1): p. 27.
  15. ↑ Bynog, David (Spring 2010). "Scott Slapin: Charting His Own Course". Journal of the American Viola Society 26 (1).
  16. ↑ Kardan, Sel (Fall 2005). "Sketches From the New World: American Viola Duos in the 21st Century". Journal of the American Viola Society 21 (2): 66.

External links