Carol Rodland

Biography

Praised by Fanfare for possessing a tone which is “larger than life, sweetly in tune, and infinitely variegated”, and for her “delicious” playing, Carol Rodland, violist, enjoys an international career as a concert and recording artist and pedagogue.  Recent performance highlights have included recitals with Catherine Rodland, organist, at Crawford Hall in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at the 38^th International Viola Congress in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at the Luna Nova Music Festival in Memphis,Tennessee; with pianist Tatevik Mokatsian at the Musikfestpiele Saar in Germany, and with pianist Marcantonio Barone live on WXXI Radio’s “Backstage Pass”.  Recent chamber music festival appearances have included performances at the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Craftsbury Chamber Players, and the Skaneateles Festival.  This season’s engagements also include a return appearance with the New York Women’s Ensemble at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. Ms Rodland’s solo recordings on the Crystal and Neuma labels have been critically acclaimed.  An active proponent of contemporary music, she has commissioned, premiered, and recorded new works by Kenji Bunch, Dan Coleman, Christopher Theofanidis, and Augusta Read Thomas, and introduced them to audiences across the globe.  In 2012, she was co-host of the highly acclaimed 40^th International Viola Congress.

A dedicated and much sought-after teacher, Ms. Rodland was appointed in 2008 to a tenured professorship at the Eastman School of Music.  Prior positions have included professorships at New England Conservatory, where she was recognized in 2005 with the “Louis and Adrienne Krasner Award for Excellence in Teaching”, at Berlin’s “Hanns Eisler” Hochschule, at Arizona State University, and as guest faculty at the Juilliard School.  In the summers, she is an artist-faculty member at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, California Summer Music, and the Karen Tuttle Coordination Workshop. She has also served on the faculties of the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Aria International Summer Academy, and the Chautauqua Institution. This season, she will join the faculty of the Perlman Music Program’s Sarasota Residency.

Ms. Rodland is the founder and artistic director of “If Music Be the Food…”, a benefit concert series launched in 2009 to increase awareness and support for the hungry through chamber music performances of the highest caliber.  The series’ mission is also to teach music students the importance of utilizing their art as a powerful force for change. “If Music Be the Food…” is a fully volunteer endeavor; all of the musicians donate their services, the venues donate the performance spaces, and audience members bring food or cash donations for the local food bank as the price of admission. Now in its fourth season, this concert series has inspired other prominent musical institutions in the US to implement initiatives based on this concept in their own communities, including “If Music Be the Food…” Tampa and Boston’s “Music For Food.”

Ms. Rodland made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a teenager and subsequently won first prizes at the Washington International Competition, the Artists International Auditions, and the Juilliard Concerto Competition, as well as the Universal Editions Prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. She has also been the recipient of Fulbright and Beebe Fund grants and Juilliard’s Lillian Fuchs Prize.  Ms. Rodland holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied on full scholarship with Karen Tuttle, as well as an Aufbaustudium Diplom, awarded “with distinction”, from the Musikhochschule Freiburg, where she studied with Kim Kashkashian. She had the unique privilege of serving as teaching assistant to both of her mentors.

Ms. Rodland plays on a viola made by Vincenzo Panormo in 1791. Her bow was made in 2010 by Benoit Rolland.  For further information, please visit www.carolrodland.com.