Mary Elliott James, San Francisco Symphony violist for the past 5 years, has
been enthusiastically received as soloist and chamber music artist in Vienna
and London, as well as in her home state of California.
At the
age of 5, she began her piano studies, and augmented her musical education
with the violin at the age of 9. She later played viola in string quartettes,
which ultimately led to her present status as one of the leading violists in
the field of Chamber Music.
A recipient of the coveted Hertz
Scholarship, she has worked with such noted artists as Philip Burton of the
Griller Quartette in the United States, Lionel Tertis in London, and at the
State Academy of Music in Vienna, with Ernst Morowec, where she subsequently
received her diploma.
Her major successes as soloist have
ranged from the Carmel Bach Festival to the Vienna Bach Gemeinde, the
Konzerthaus Kammerorchester, and the Collegium Musicum. In Chamber Music she
had been equally successful in concerts for the International Society for
Contemporary Music, the Bach Festival of Carmel, the Ojai Festival, the Mills
College Chamber Music Series with Darius Milhaud and Leon Kirchner, the
University of California, and many others.
Included among the
many noted conductors she has played under are Bruno Walter, Sir Thomas
Beecham, Pierre Monteux, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, and at the present time,
Enrique Jordá.
__________
Biography supplied by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra,
featuring Mary James,
Violist. Approximate date: 1954.
