Yizhak Schotten (viola) was brought to the United States by the renowned violist William Primrose, with whom he studied at Indiana University and the University of Southern California. Other studies were with Lillian Fuchs at the Manhattan School of Music. His solo appearances with orchestras in this country and abroad have included performances with conductors Seiji Ozawa, Thomas Schippers, Sergiu Commissiona, Joseph Swensen, Arthur Fiedler and others. He has concertized in Israel, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Holland, Austria, Mexico, England, Canada and throughout the United States. His solo recitals have included Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York, Boston's Jordan Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, among others. In chamber music he has appeared at Bargemusic in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., at Symphony Hall in Boston, and the Concertgebouw in Holland. Mr. Schotten has also had numerous broadcasts on National Public Radio. Formerly a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he subsequently became principal violist of the Cincinnati and Houston symphony orchestras. In the summers he has also been on the faculties and performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Banff, Meadowmount, Interlochen, and appeared in the Tanglewood, Chamber Music Northwest, Montreal Skaneateles, and the Juneau Festivals. Abroad he has performed at the Taipei Philharmonic Festival in Taiwan, the Festival Internacional de Musica Clasica in Mexico, the Festival de Musique de Chambre de Montreal, and the Amsterdam Kamermuzik Festival in Holland. He is also Music Director of the Maui Classical Music Festival in Hawaii, Strings in the Mountains Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and SpringFest in Ann Arbor. In 1997, he represented the United States as a judge and performer at the Tertis International Viola Competition in England. Mr. Schotten was the Artistic Director of the XIV International Viola Congress and has been a featured artist at six other international Congresses. He has recorded six discs for Crystal Records. His C.R.I. recording of the Bloch Suite and the Hindemith Sonata Op. 25 #4 (world premiere recording) was chosen as "Critics' Choice" for three months in High Fidelity Magazine. Pearl Records recently included his playing on its anthology, "History of the Recording of the World's Finest Violists." Soon to be release is his disc of viola excerpts from twenty-three symphonic works with spoken and written commentary. He joined the faculty in 1985 after having taught at Rice University and the University of Washington. He was also on the American Federation of Musician's Congress of Strings faculty. He is very active giving master classes throughout the United States and abroad. He has given recitals and master classes in England at the Tertis International Competition at the Isle of Man, the Menuhin School in Surrey, and the Guildhall School of Music and Royal College of Music in London. He has also given master classes in Israel at the Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem Academies of Music and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia.
