James Dunham, Viola

James Dunham’s rich quartet background includes having been violist of the Grammy Award winning Cleveland Quartet and founding violist of the Naumburg Award winning Sequoia Quartet. An impassioned advocate of new music, his collaborations on contemporary and standard repertoire with the American, Jupiter, Pacifica, Takács and New Zealand String Quartets have taken him around the world. Recently heard in performance and masterclasses at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Mr. Dunham is also a frequent presence in master classes and international chamber music competition juries. The Cleveland Quartet’s recording of John Corigliano’s String Quartet, written for their final tour, won the 1996 Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance. Formerly on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory (where he chaired the string department and received the Louis & Adrienne Krasner Teaching Excellence Award), Mr. Dunham is Professor of Viola at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music where he co-directs its Master of Music in String Quartet program.

 

 

Photo Credits: Natalie Gaynor