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Kim Kashkashian

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Kim Kashkashian is an American violist, born in 1952 in Detroit to Armenian American parents. Her father had a baritone voice and sang Armenian folk songs, which influenced her. She began violin at the age of eight and at twelve switched to the viola at the Interlochen Arts Academy. She then studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, among other places. She has built her career in the United States and Europe and is regarded as one of the best violists in the world.

Music and breakthrough

In the 1980s she was already recording works by Mozart and Schubert, such as the Divertimento K.563, the Kegelstatt Trio and a Schubert quartet. She also recorded a great deal of more recent music, including Shostakovich's viola sonata (1991) and the albums Elegies (1986) and Kammermusik no. 1-7 (1992). She worked with many great contemporary composers. In 2013 she won a Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

Influence

Kashkashian taught in Philadelphia, New York and Bloomington. In 1989 she moved to Germany and became a teacher in Freiburg and later at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin. In 2000 she returned to the United States and taught viola and chamber music at the New England Conservatory in Boston. In this way she contributed to the recognition of the viola as a solo instrument, with a warm, dark sound that inspires many composers.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Mozart's Divertimento K.563 in Kashkashian's recording. Notice the dark, warm tone of the viola among the other strings.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists