Nadia Sirota
Picture by Zoe Prinds-Flash
Gregg T. Alf Concert Viola 2002 “GA165”
“I have been absolutely thrilled with my Alf Concert Viola, and we have toured the world together! I was immediately drawn to its rich, complex tone, and the instrument has only gotten better in the decade and a half we’ve been working together. This is a phenomenal viola.”
Nadia Sirota
Nadia Sirota is a violist, conductor, and Peabody Award-winning producer and broadcaster. She is known for her “tenaciously good ear and her ability to throw herself bodily into the landscapes that composers bring to her.” (Pitchfork) In all branches of her artistic life, she aims to open classical music up to a broader audience. Nadia’s singular sound and expressive execution have served as muse to dozens of composers, including Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzoli, Marcos Balter, and David Lang.
Highlights of Nadia’s 2022-2023 season include a duo tour of The Netherlands with harp soloist Lavinia Meijer, featuring premieres by Ellen Reid, Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Nico Muhly and Philip Glass, and the world premiere of a new viola concerto in Tokyo by Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi, with the Music Future Band.
As a soloist, Nadia has appeared with orchestras around the world, including the Colorado and Detroit Symphonies, the National Arts Centre and Spanish National Orchestras, and the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France. To date, she has released four albums of commissioned music, first things first (2009), Baroque (2013), Keep In Touch (2016), and Tessellatum (2017). Nadia is a member of Bedroom Community, a collective of musically diverse artists who work and collaborate at Reykjavik’s Greenhouse Studios. She has also lent her sound to recording and concert projects by such popular artists as The National, David Bowie and Björk.
Nadia is a member of the acclaimed chamber sextet yMusic, whose virtuosic execution and unique configuration have attracted high profile collaborators including Paul Simon, Ben Folds and Anohni. Their ever-expanding repertoire features original works by prominent composers including Andrew Norman, Caroline Shaw, and Chris Thile.
Nadia is the co-founder of Eclipse Projects, an independent arts management and production company based in Los Angeles. She serves as creative associate at The Juilliard School and as artist-in-residence at UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. (Continued…)
Nadia won a 2015 Peabody Award for her podcast Meet the Composer, which she hosted and co-created. Ms. Sirota also received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for her work in radio, and Southern Methodist University’s Meadows Prize, awarded to pioneering artists and scholars with an emerging international profile. From 2018-2022, Nadia served as the New York Philharmonic’s Creative Partner, a position created for her. In this role, she helped create two series: Nightcap and Sound ON. Nadia received her undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang.