About
Residency Dates
  • June 2006 – June 2006
Region
USA

Violist Scott Slapin was born in 1974 into a family of musicians. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music by the age of eighteen, making him one of the youngest graduates in the school’s history. Scott’s solo CDs and original compositions have received critical acclaim in such publications as the American Record Guide, Strad and Fanfare, as well as from legendary string virtuosi ranging from Gary Karr to Ruggiero Ricci. He is the first person to have recorded the complete cycle of J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Violin on viola, and he has committed to disc many new and previously unrecorded works for viola on the Eroica Classical Recordings and Red Mark labels.

Scott began his professional career as the on-stage solo viola player in Gerald Busby’s chamber-opera Orpheus in Love (New York City 1992-1993). He has premiered other works by Busby including Muse for Solo Viola in Weill Hall, and he has commissioned, performed and recorded works by other outstanding American composers as well– such as Richard Lane, Patrick Neher and Frank Proto. Scott and his wife, violist Tanya Solomon , often perform as a duo, and they have played together throughout the United States and South America as members of the Philadelphia Virtuosi, the So Paulo Symphony Orchestra (Brazil), the Louisville Orchestra and the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans. Formerly principal violists of the Knoxville and Chattanooga symphonies, Scott and Tanya can be heard on their duo CD, Sketches from the New World: American Viola Duos in the 21st Century.

Slapin and Solomon received fellowships to Lucas Programs thanks to a James Irvine Foundation grant offering residencies to displaced Gulf Coast artists.