Thursday October 16th, 7 p.m., Esber Recital Hall
The associate principal viola of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performs a short recital followed by a masterclass featuring four Penn State viola students.
Violist Tatjana Mead Chamis has gained recognition through a wide variety of performances, from orchestral, solo, and chamber music to studio recording, as well as introducing and experimenting with new music. Associate principal viola of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2003, Mead Chamis has performed in Pittsburgh as well as abroad, appearing in the most renowned concert halls of Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
In 1993, at the age of 22, Mead Chamis joined the Pittsburgh Symphony under the directorship of Lorin Maazel, while still a student at the Curtis Institute of Music. She has since been featured on numerous performances as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra. In 2011, she premiered the Lionel Tertis transcription for viola of Elgar's Cello Concerto with the orchestra.
An avid chamber music player and recitalist, Mead Chamis has performed with some of today’s finest solo and chamber players. Since 1993, she has appeared repeatedly at the Caramoor International Music Festival in New York, making her debut in the Rising Star Series with Sir Andre Previn, and later as a member of the “Caramoor Virtuosi.” Other notable festivals include the Bravo Festival in Vail, Colorado, Tanglewood Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and the Green Bay Music Festival. She has performed chamber music with Lynn Harrell, Joshua Bell, Emmanuel Ax, and Gil Shaham, among others. Her concerts have been heard on “Performance Today” from NPR, and several of her recital and chamber music performances continue to be featured on WQED Pittsburgh.
At the age of 17, Mead Chamis made her solo debut with the Utah Symphony under the baton of Joseph Silverstein. She has since been featured as soloist with the Curtis Institute Symphony Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, and the Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestras in Brazil, as well as her solo appearances with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1994, Mead Chamis studied with Philadelphia Orchestra principal violist Joseph dePasquale. After starting her musical studies on the violin, she switched to the viola in Salt Lake City, Utah, under the tutelage of violist Mikhail Boguslavsky, co-founder of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra.
Mead Chamis spent a sabbatical year in Florianopolis, Brazil in 2012, along with her daughter, twin boys, and husband, Brazilian composer/conductor Flavio Chamis. In Brazil, she played several solo and chamber music recitals, and took the opportunity to collect a substantial amount of Brazilian music for the viola, which evolved into her next recording project.
During the 2014 season, Mead Chamis performed the American premiere of Boris Pigovat’s Requiem for Viola and Orchestra with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and gave recitals in Colorado, Utah and Pennsylvania.
Mead Chamis' visit to campus is supported by the School of Music's Eugene W. Lederer Endowment.
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