Lily Francis, Viola
Lily Francis is quickly establishing herself as one of the leading violinist/violists today. As a top prizewinner at the 2009 ARD Music Competition in Munich, she has performed with several of the leading orchestras in Germany, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Munich Radio Orchestra. She made her Weill Recital Hall debut in New York in May 2008 on the Distinctive Debuts series, and plays both violin and viola regularly in the USA, and throughout Europe.
A consummate chamber musician, Ms. Francis was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center CMS Two program from 2006–2009, which presented her in concerts in Alice Tully Hall and other notable NY venues. As the newest member of the Aronowitz Ensemble, winners of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and BBC New Generation Artists, she appears regularly in the UK, including performances at Wigmore Hall and The Forge. This seasons sees her performing as a returning artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as a concertmaster of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra in Austria, Spain and Germany, with the Aronowitz Ensemble at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and on tour in the UK with Musicians from Prussia Cove. Recent festival appearances have included Marlboro Music, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Society, OK Mozart, Music@Menlo, Chesapeake Chamber Music, Salt Bay Chamberfest, and International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove.
Ms. Francis has collaborated with many of the leading musicians of our time, including Mitsuko Uchida, Arnold Steinhardt, Kim Kashkashian, Paul Neubauer, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, and Peter Wiley, as well as several artists of other disciplines. As the violist of the Vertigo String Quartet, she recorded the score to Michael Hollinger’s award-winning play Opus, which began in Philadelphia, played in New York, and is currently touring the USA. Ms. Francis’ violin-playing hands were featured in Doug Aitken’s art-film Sleepwalkers, which was projected onto an outer wall of MoMA in New York City. She has also collaborated with the Boston Ballet School and the Rock School of Dance on choreographed pieces about Bach.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute (B.M. 2006) and New England Conservatory (M.M. 2008), Ms. Francis studied with Joseph Silverstein and Miriam Fried. Other teachers have included Philip Setzer, Brian Lewis, and Teri Einfeldt, Steve Tenenbom, and Gerhard Schulz. She plays an 1846 Pierre Silvestre violin and a 2004 Marco Coppiardi viola.