“If any contemporary violist continues to carry the torch of the composer-performer, it is Scott Slapin.”
Journal of the American Viola Society
“...brilliantly written... real lyricism... heartfelt’"
Fanfare
"Slapin is a real viola virtuoso..."
American Record Guide
“…a solid core of modern viola duo writing.”
Interlude
“Scott Slapin is great! It's hard to imagine better performances.”
20th Century Violin Virtuoso Ruggiero Ricci
0:00 Bach Sonata No. 1 Fugue
0:39 Slapin South Hadley Mass (Adagio)
1:45 Lane Sonata No. 3 (Wind in the Trees)
2:30 Hindemith Sonata Op. 25, Nr. 1 (mvt 4)
3:02 Slapin Sonata in C for two violas (Andante)
4:10 Slapin Adventures in Ancestry (Part 1)
5:20 Slapin Intermezzo for two violas
7:06 Paganini Caprice No. 3
7:50 Slapin Sonata in G for violin and viola (Allegretto)
8:31 Bach Partita No. 2 (Chaconne)
10:00 Kreisler Praeludium and Allegro
11:22 Slapin Lullaby
12:03 Paganini Caprice No. 10
12:35 Ernst The Last Rose of Summer
One of Scott's compositions
Scott with his Iizuka viola and violin and two paintings by William Sorrow
Scott with a painting by Emanuel Vardi
Click here to listen to the Slapin Anthology.
BIO
Scott Slapin is the composer of ten albums of Neo-Romantic music for viola and the soloist for many innovative viola recordings. His playing has received critical acclaim in Fanfare, Strad, Musical Opinion, Mundo Clásico, and the American Record Guide, and he has been profiled in the Journal of the American Viola Society, Strings Magazine, and on radio programs worldwide. His recital compositions have been performed by hundreds of violists internationally.
Scott has been commissioned by the American Viola Society, the Primrose International Viola Competition, the Penn State Viola Ensemble, and the Wistaria String Quartet, and he can be heard playing some of his compositions, solo Bach, and Paganini Caprices on various soundtracks for film and TV. He is the first person to have recorded the complete cycle of J.S. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas on viola. Other solo recordings include a rare, transposed-but-unarranged viola version of Paganini's 24 Caprices and the premiere recordings of viola works by Frank Proto, Richard Lane, Patrick Neher, Boris Pigovat, Robert Cobert, Blanche Blood, John Duke, Arthur Foote, Maurice Gardner, Ivan Langstroth, Frederick Slee, and Gustav Strube (the last seven of which can be heard on the American Viola Society's first album, Premieres.)
At eighteen, Scott (b. 1974) was one of the youngest graduates of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He grew up in a family of string players and studied violin/viola with Barbara Barstow and Emanuel Vardi and composition with Richard Lane. Scott made his debut as a composer in 1989 in the State Theater of his native New Jersey with an orchestral work, and his first full-time orchestral position brought him to Knoxville, Tenn., where he was principal violist with the city's symphony and chamber orchestras. He gave countless recitals, premiered solo works at Carnegie's Weill Hall and international viola congresses, wrote for and soloed with orchestras, served as a Lucas Artists fellow at the Montalvo Arts Center in California, and played regularly in the NYC-area Sutton Ensemble, the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops, and as the on-stage violist for the Off-Broadway run of Orpheus In Love--- a show about a viola-playing Orpheus.
Scott and his wife, Tanya Solomon, met touring as the viola section of the Philadelphia Virtuosi and performed together for more than twenty years as the award-winning Slapin-Solomon Viola Duo. Currently in the process of relocating to Newcastle, England, Scott and Tanya taught in Massachusetts at Mount Holyoke and Amherst colleges, respectively, and shared a stand in the São Paulo (Brazil) State Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, and as tenured members of the New Orleans-based Louisiana Philharmonic. They participated in Hurricane Katrina relief concerts nationwide with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic and won ‘Best Chamber Performance of 2008’ at the Big Easy Entertainment Awards for one of their many duo recitals.
Scott plays a viola and violin by Hiroshi Iizuka and teaches viola, violin, and composition worldwide via Skype. His students range in ability from beginners to advanced professionals and in age from teenagers to retirees. Many of his compositions for strings can be heard on The Slapin Anthology.
Listen to some of Scott's compositions (grouped by instrumentation) at YouTube:
- More than a dozen unaccompanied character pieces for viola
- Thirty viola duos
- Chamber music for strings
- music for viola choir
- concertos
- educational materials
- A mass "for the dead violist"
- A two-viola, one-act opera about Cremonus, God of the Viola
Some of Scott's other YouTube videos take in:
- Unaccompanied viola music (by Hindemith, Reger, Slapin, Proto, Dankner, Pigovat)
- Transcriptions for viola (by Bach, Paganini, Ysaye, Ernst, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Rossini, Mozart)
- Unaccompanied violin music (by Bach, Paganini, Slapin)
- Excerpts from many live recitals
- Duos from the Baroque to the present (Slapin-Solomon Viola Duo)
- Instructional videos for violists of all levels