Erika Eckert, viola
Erika Eckert is currently Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Colorado at Boulder and was a member of the faculty at the Brevard Music Center in 2011. She has also served on the faculties of The Cleveland Institute of Music, Baldwin Wallace College, and the Chautauqua Institution in New York. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Heidi Castleman. As co-founder and former violist of the Cavani String Quartet, Ms. Eckert performed on major concert series worldwide and garnered an impressive list of awards and prizes, including first prizes at both the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and the Cleveland Quartet Competition.
Performing engagements have included the El Paso Pro Musica International Chamber Music Festival, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the Garth Newell Music Festival, Vail Bravo!, Music in the Mountains Chamber Music Festival, the Sitka Summer Music Festival Autumn Classics, Niagara International Chamber Music Festival, and Fontana Chamber Arts. Ms. Eckert has also performed chamber music recitals at the International French Horn, Flute and Double-Reed Conventions and solo performances at the SEAMUS and ICMC electronic music national and international conferences.
Teaching engagements have included presenting viola and chamber music pedagogy sessions, and coordinating the chamber music program at the American String Teachers Association International Workshops in Brisbane, Australia and Stavanger, Norway; serving on the faculties of the Perlman Music Program, The Quartet Program, and the Takacs String Quartet Seminar; and coaching chamber music at the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Inc. Ninth Conference, the International School for Musical Arts, the Chamber Music Connection, the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Chamber Music Wyoming Young Artist Program, the Britt Institute Chamber Strings, and the Madeline Island Music Camp Adult Chamber Music Program. Ms. Eckert serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Viola Society and for the past three years has served as an adjudicator for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA) Arts Recognition and Talent Search, the exclusive nominating agency for the Presidential Scholars in the Arts, and appeared in their Academy Nominated Documentary, Rehearsing a Dream.
