“If any contemporary violist continues to carry the torch of the composer-performer, it is Scott Slapin.” -Journal of the American Viola Society
“Slapin’s magnificient playing says ‘Bring it on!’” -Fanfare
“Scott Slapin is great!” -Ruggiero Ricci
“well-designed music…emotionally expressive and varied” -New Jersey Star Ledger
“The virtuosity and musicality of Scott Slapin’s performances…surely cannot be improved upon.” -Musical Opinion
“Slapin is a real viola virtuoso…” -American Record Guide
Classical violist-composer Scott Slapin is a featured soloist and chamber musician on dozens of recordings and the first person to have recorded the complete cycle of J.S. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas on viola. He can be heard playing solo Bach, Paganini Caprices and his own compositions on various soundtracks for film and TV, and with his wife, violist Tanya Solomon, he has been concertizing as the award-winning Slapin-Solomon Viola Duo for more than twenty years. Their duo recordings have garnered praise in Strad, the New York Violist, the All Music Guide, and the Journals of the American and Canadian Viola Societies, and Scott's solo playing has received critical acclaim in the American Record Guide, Fanfare, Mundo Clásico, Strad, and Musical Opinion, among others.
Scott's more than sixty violacentric recital compositions have been performed by hundreds of musicians in concert halls throughout the world and can be heard on nine albums recorded by the Slapin-Solomon Viola Duo, the Wistaria String Quartet, the Penn State Viola Ensemble, and the American Viola Quartet. Scott has been commissioned by the Primrose International Viola Competition and the American Viola Society (AVS); he was a 2020 AVS artist in residence, and he is the soloist for the first album produced by the AVS, "Premieres". Scott served as committee member, judge, and performer for the inaugural Maurice Gardner Composition Competition and is a former fellow at the Montalvo Arts Center in California.
Scott was born into a family of string players in 1974. At eighteen, he was one of the youngest graduates of the Manhattan School of Music and performing daily as the solo violist for the New York City (1992-1993 Circle Repertory Theater) production of Gerald Busby's Orpheus In Love, a chamber opera about a viola-playing Orpheus. He premiered Busby's Muse for Solo Viola in Carnegie's Weill Hall, gave countless recitals, and wrote for and soloed with orchestras. He gained orchestral experience playing in the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops, the Knoxville Symphony and Chamber Orchestras (where he was principal viola), the Louisville Orchestra, the New Orleans-based Louisiana Philharmonic, and Brazil's São Paulo Symphony, sharing a stand in the last three with Tanya. Having met on a tour of the West with the Philadelphia Virtuosi in 1999, Scott and Tanya soon began performing as a viola duo, recording for Eroica Classical Recordings, ISG, and the American Viola Society, and developing the repertoire for two violas through commissions, arrangements, and Scott's own original compositions.
As displaced residents of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Scott and Tanya participated in benefit concerts nationwide including duo recitals, a performance of Bach's Sixth Brandenburg, and a gala with the New York Philharmonic. During the COVID pandemic of 2020, Scott revived his recital series "Greatest Hits from the Twenties" and transformed it into an online educational presentation, through which he presents the 500-year history of the viola and demonstrates excerpts from Bach's Sonatas, Partitas, and Suites (1720); Paganini's Caprices (1820); Hindemith's Solo Viola Sonatas (mostly 1920s); and some of his own more recent solo compositions (2020).
In addition to experience teaching at academies and colleges, Scott and Tanya have taught viola/violin privately for decades, reaching students on five continents via Skype. Scott also teaches composition. For information on taking private lessons with Scott or Tanya, please click here. Please also visit the Slapin-Solomon Duo's YouTube channel. Scott and Tanya live in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
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“…great talent not only as a violist but as a composer” -Journal of the American Viola Society
“Quite impressive… the work was well stated and at times very moving.” -The Home News (NJ)
“first rate viola virtuoso…” -Journal of the Canadian Viola Society
“instrumentista exceptional” -Mundo Clasico
“wonderful playing… sonorous and rich” -The New York Violist
“tonal and rhythmic command” -Strad Magazine
Scott demonstrating a Paganini Caprice on
the viola during a masterclass at the
Hartt School of Music.
Scott and Tanya giving a class on the
Bach Chaconne at the Lyra Festival and
Workshop at Smith College.
The Slapin-Solomon Duo premiering Scott’s
Four Seasons of New England at the
Gaylord Library in South Hadley, MA.
Scott performing his own piece, Capricious, with Tanya Solomon and Ila Rondeau at the 2012 Viola Congress in Rochester, NY. (photo by Dwight Pounds)
Composers Forum at the 2008 Viola Congress in Tempe, AZ. From left to right: Moderator James DeMars and composers Scott Slapin, Bruce E. Miller, and Kenji Bunch.
Scott premiering Rachel Matthews’ Dreams at the 2010 Viola Congress in Cincinnati, OH (with composer).
(photo by Dwight Pounds)
The Wistaria String Quartet recording an album of
Scott’s music.
Scott at Penn State coaching the viola ensemble, giving a masterclass, and playing a recital.
A recital at the Williston Northampton
School where Scott taught violin and viola and
coached the ensemble.
Slapin on the campus of Mt. Holyoke College where he taught viola and coached chamber music.
Scott presenting his educational series 'Greatest Hits from the Twenties' for Ron Houston's teaching studio in Texas.
Performing Elliot Corner’s Energico for solo viola
in Amherst, MA.
