Kimberly Sparr

Equally skilled as a solo, chamber, and orchestral violist, Kimberly Sparr is the assistant professor of Viola at Texas Tech University and is a founding member of the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble. During the summers, she is the assistant principal viola of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra.

As an orchestral violist, Kimberly is the assistant principal violist of the Richmond (VA) Symphony and has performed with National Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, among others. She has performed under Christoph von Dohnanyi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Kurt Mazur, Seiji Ozawa, Gunther Schuller, Leonard Slatkin, and Yuri Temirkanov. Kimberly has appeared as a soloist with the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, The Amarillo Virtuosi, the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, and Texas Tech University Symphony Orchestra.

Her chamber music collaborations include performances with Lara St. John, Boris Allakhverdyan, Simone Dinnerstein, New Music Raleigh, Festival Mozaic, Lake George Music Festival, and Washington Musica Viva. She was a recipient of a three-year New Horizon Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival where she studied with Heidi Castleman and Victoria Chiang. She also was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Sarasota Music Festival.

Kimberly earned her Bachelor of Music degree from The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where she studied with Martha Strongin Katz. She holds a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory where she studied with James Dunham, and a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Maryland, where she studied under Daniel Foster.

She has participated in master classes and coachings with members of the Cleveland and Guarneri Quartets, Daniel Avshalomov, Lawrence Dutton, Jeffery Irvine, Karen Ritscher, Yitzhak Schotten, and Robert Vernon. In 2001, Kimberly was a Piatigorsky Foundation Artist and was the recipient of the Gunther Schuller Award from New England Conservatory.

Dr. Sparr has served on the faculties of the College of William & Mary and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. An avid proponent of teaching, Kimberly has been a teaching assistant to James Dunham and Daniel Foster and has coached young musicians in the Washington D.C. Youth Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Youth Orchestra, and at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.

Source: http://kimberlysparr.com/bio/ (31 July 2018)