Scott Slapin

Scott Slapin (b. 1974) grew up in a family of string players in New Jersey and studied violin/viola with Barbara Barstow and Emanuel Vardi and composition with Richard Lane. At eighteen he was one of the youngest graduates of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.

He is the composer of ten albums of Neo-Romantic music for strings, highlights of which can be heard on The Slapin Anthology, and he is the first person to have recorded the complete cycle of J.S. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas on viola. Excerpts from his Bach and Paganini 24 Caprices albums (transposed but unarranged) can be heard along with some of his own compositions on various soundtracks for film and TV. He is also the soloist for the premiere recordings of 20th and 21st Century 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. 

Scott has been commissioned by the Wistaria String Quartet, the American Viola Society, the Primrose International Viola Competition, and the Penn State Viola Ensemble, and he served as a committee member, judge, and performer for the inaugural Maurice Gardner Composition Competition. He has given countless recitals, written for and soloed with orchestras, premiered solo works at Carnegie's Weill Hall and international viola congresses, served as a Lucas Artists fellow at the Montalvo Arts Center in California, performed on stage Off Broadway (Orpheus In Love), and played in symphony orchestras from Cincinnati to São Paulo. 

Scott and his wife Tanya Solomon performed together for more than twenty years as the award-winning Slapin-Solomon Viola Duo. They met in 1999 touring with the Philadelphia Virtuosi and currently live in Vermont, where they teach privately. Scott and Tanya lived for several years in New Orleans, La., where they were tenured members of the state's philharmonic and based during Hurricane Katrina, and in Western Massachusetts, where they taught at Mount Holyoke and Amherst colleges, respectively. 

Scott's recital compositions have been performed by hundreds of viola players internationally, and he has been profiled in the Journal of the American Viola Society, Strings Magazine, and on radio programs worldwide. His playing has received critical acclaim in Fanfare, Strad, Musical Opinion, Mundo Clásico, and the American Record Guide. He plays a viola and violin by Hiroshi Iizuka and teaches viola, violin, and composition worldwide via Skype.