“If any contemporary violist continues to carry the torch of the composer-performer, it is Scott Slapin.”
Journal of the American Viola Society
“...brilliantly written... real lyricism... heartfelt’"
Fanfare
"Slapin is a real viola virtuoso..."
American Record Guide
“…a solid core of modern viola duo writing.”
Interlude
“Scott Slapin is great! It's hard to imagine better performances.”
20th Century Violin Virtuoso Ruggiero Ricci
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 is the composer of ten albums of Neo-Romantic music for viola and the soloist for many innovative viola recordings. His playing has received critical acclaim in Fanfare, Strad, Musical Opinion, Mundo Clásico, and the American Record Guide, and his recital compositions have been performed by hundreds of violists internationally.
Scott's compositions include more than a dozen unaccompanied character pieces; thirty viola duos; chamber music; music for viola choir; concertos; a mass “for the dead violist”; and a two-viola, one-act opera about Cremonus, God of the Viola, with commissions from the American Viola Society, the Primrose International Viola Competition, the Penn State Viola Ensemble, and the Wistaria String Quartet. Highlights of his music for strings can be heard on The Slapin Anthology.
In addition to rare, transposed-but-unarranged viola versions of the violin trilogy (Bach's Sonatas and Partitas, Paganini's 24 Caprices, and-- at YouTube only-- Ysaye's Six Solo Sonatas), Scott is the soloist for the premiere recordings of original viola works by Frank Proto, Richard Lane, Patrick Neher, Boris Pigovat, Robert Cobert, Blanche Blood, John Duke, Arthur Foote, Maurice Gardner, Ivan Langstroth, Frederick Slee, and Gustav Strube. His 1998 Sonatas and Partitas album was the first complete recording of its kind on viola, and he is the featured soloist for the first recording produced by the American Viola Society, Premieres (2014).
Scott (b. 1974) grew up in a family of string players and at eighteen was one of the youngest graduates of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. His main teachers have included Barbara Barstow and Emanuel Vardi for violin/viola and Richard Lane for composition. As a teenager, he made his debut as a composer with an orchestral work in the state theater of his native New Jersey (1989), and he performed daily as the on-stage violist for the Off-Broadway production of Gerald Busby's violacentric Orpheus In Love (1992-1993). He wrote for and soloed with orchestras, served as a Lucas Artists fellow at the Montalvo Arts Center in California, taught at colleges and academies in the Northeastern US, played in symphony orchestras from Cincinnati to São Paulo, and met his wife Tanya Solomon touring with the Philadelphia Virtuosi.
Scott and Tanya performed together for more than twenty years as the award-winning Slapin-Solomon Viola Duo and currently maintain private viola and violin teaching studios worldwide via Skype. Scott also teaches composition.
In addition to countless mixed recitals, Scott has given one-afternoon concerts (from memory) of the complete solo viola works of Hindemith and Reger and of Bach's Sonatas, Partitas, and Suites (BWV 1001-1012.) He has premiered contemporary solo works at Carnegie's Weill Hall and international viola congresses, and he can be heard playing Bach, Paganini, and some of his own compositions on various soundtracks for film and TV. A former artist in residence at the American Viola Society, Scott has been profiled in the Journal of the American Viola Society, Strings Magazine, and on radio programs worldwide. He plays a viola and violin by Hiroshi Iizuka.
Listen to some of Scott's compositions (grouped by instrumentation) at YouTube:
- More than a dozen unaccompanied character pieces for viola
- Thirty viola duos
- Chamber music for strings
- music for viola choir
- concertos
- educational materials
- A mass "for the dead violist"
- A two-viola, one-act opera about Cremonus, God of the Viola
Some of Scott's other YouTube videos take in:
- Unaccompanied viola music (by Hindemith, Reger, Slapin, Proto, Dankner, Pigovat)
- Transcriptions for viola (by Bach, Paganini, Ysaye, Ernst, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Rossini, Mozart)
- Unaccompanied violin music (by Bach, Paganini, Slapin)
- Excerpts from many live recitals
- Duos from the Baroque to the present (Slapin-Solomon Viola Duo)
- Instructional videos for violists of all levels