“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! It's hard to imagine better performances.”
20th Century Violin Virtuoso Ruggiero Ricci
"Slapin is a real viola virtuoso..."
American Record Guide
"well designed music... emotionally expressive and varied"
Star Ledger, Newark, NJ
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's lyrical, Neo-Romantic recital compositions have been performed internationally by hundreds of viola players, and his solo playing has received critical acclaim in such publications as Fanfare, Strad, Musical Opinion, Mundo Clásico, and the American Record Guide. Scott is the first person to have recorded the complete cycle of J.S. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas on viola, and he is the soloist for the first album produced by the American Viola Society, Premieres. Many of his compositions for strings can be heard on The Slapin Anthology, drawing from nine albums of his music recorded by the Slapin-Solomon Duo, the Wistaria String Quartet, the Penn State Viola Ensemble, and the American Viola Quartet.
At eighteen, Scott (b. 1974, Newark, NJ) was one of the youngest graduates of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He studied composition with Richard Lane and violin/viola with Barbara Barstow and Emanuel Vardi. Scott was the second person (after Vardi) to record all of Paganini's 24 Caprices (transposed, but unarranged) on a viola in standard tuning. He can be heard playing Caprices, solo Bach, and some of his own compositions on various soundtracks for film and TV. Scott wrote for and soloed with orchestras, gave countless recitals, and premiered solo works in Carnegie's Weill Hall, at international viola congresses, and on many albums. Scott and his wife, violist Tanya Solomon, met touring with the Philadelphia Virtuosi and performed together as duo recitalists for more than twenty years, winning 'Best Chamber Performance of 2008' at the Big Easy Entertainment Awards in New Orleans, Louisiana, where they were tenured members of the state's philharmonic. In New York City, Scott was the on-stage violist for the Off-Broadway production of Orpheus In Love (about a viola-playing Orpheus); in Massachusetts, he taught viola and coached ensembles at Mount Holyoke College; and in California, he was a fellow at the prestigious Montalvo Arts Center. His first full-time orchestral position brought him to Knoxville, Tenn., where he was principal violist with the city's symphony and chamber orchestras, and he played on contract in symphony orchestras from Cincinnati to São Paulo.
Scott served as a committee member, judge, and performer for the inaugural Maurice Gardner Composition Competition and has been commissioned by the Primrose International Viola Competition and by the American Viola Society, where he was an artist in residence. He has written more than a dozen unaccompanied character pieces for viola; thirty viola duos; chamber music for strings; music for viola choir; concertos; a mass "for the dead violist"; and a two-viola, one-act opera about Cremonus, God of the Viola. Scott plays instruments by Hiroshi Iizuka; click on the following links to hear him play his Iizuka viola or violin (pictured below) in many videos at YouTube. Scott and Tanya currently teach privately in their home studio north of Burlington, Vermont as well as worldwide via Skype. Scott teaches viola, violin, and composition.