Curtis Macomber

Violinist Curtis Macomber is considered one of today’s most versatile soloists and chamber musicians, equally at home and committed to works from Bach to Babbitt, with a discography ranging from the complete Brahms String Quartets to Roger Sessions’s Solo Sonata to the complete Grieg Sonatas. His playing has been praised by the New York Times for its “thrilling virtuosity.” Recognized as a leading advocate of the music of our time, he has performed in hundreds of premieres, commissions, and first recordings of solo violin and chamber works by, among others, Carter, Davidovsky, Perle, Wuorinen, and Mackey. In 2008 he premiered and recorded the Martin Boykan Violin Concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. As first violinist of the award-winning New World String Quartet from 1982 to 1993, Mr. Macomber performed throughout the United States and Europe, and, with the Quartet, recorded 14 discs and was appointed Artist in Residence at Harvard. A founding member of the Apollo Piano Trio, Mr. Macomber has been violinist of the Da Capo Chamber Players since 2007, joined the Manhattan String Quartet in fall 2011, and is a member of the New York Chamber Soloists. He was for many years the violinist of Speculum Musicae and has appeared with the New York New Music Ensemble, Group for Contemporary Music, and Sea Cliff Chamber Players in chamber music series. He is a regular participant at La Musica in Sarasota and at the Monadnock Music Festival. He has recorded for Nonesuch, Koch, Bridge, Arabesque, Naxos, and Musical Heritage; CRI recently released his third solo recording, Casting Ecstatic. Mr. Macomber has been a member of the violin faculty of Manhattan School of Music since 1994 and of the chamber music faculty of the Juilliard School since 1998. He has taught at Tanglewood, Taos, and Yellow Barn. He holds his BM, MM, and DMA degrees from the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Joseph Fuchs and winner of the Loeb and Naumburg prizes.