Julie Rosenfeld

Violin

Julie Rosenfeld is first violinist of the Colorado Quartet, which won first prizes at both the first Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition, within ten days in April 1983. In the years since, the quartet has performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and the Far East, playing well over a thousand performances. Their recordings of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and contemporary American string quartets have been widely praised, and their performances of both the standard and modern repertoires have received critical accolades the world over. Throughout its history, the Colorado Quartet has commissioned new compositions by such important composers as Karel Husa, Ezra Laderman, George Tsontakis, Libby Larsen, Robert Capanna, Katherine Hoover, Richard Wernick, Laura Kaminsky, and Keith Fitch. At Symphony Space in New York City this past May, the quartet premiered a new quartet by Kirsten Volness, commissioned by BMI. To celebrate the quartet's 25th anniversary, Parnassus Records released their recordings of the complete Beethoven Quartets.

A native of Los Angeles, Rosenfeld studied with Jascha Brodsky at the Curtis Institute of Music, Yukiko Kamei at the University of Southern California (bachelor of music degree 1980), and Szymon Goldberg at Yale University (master of music degree 1982); other teachers include Nathan Milstein, Robert Mann, and Raphael Hillyer. She won first prize at the 1980 Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition and was a laureate at the 1982 Indianapolis International Violin Competition and the 1983 Munich Violin/Piano Duo and Carnegie Hall/Rockefeller Contemporary Music Competions. Rosenfeld has appeared as recitalist and soloist with orchestras throughout the United States and Europe and has recorded two albums of French chamber music with André Previn for BMG. She was concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein and served two seasons as concertmaster of the Harrisburg Symphony in Pennsylvania. She also has performed frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at the Marlboro, Newport, Santa Fe, and La Jolla Chamber Music Festivals.

Julie Rosenfeld is a sought-after teacher and chamber music coach, and since 2000 has been a visiting assistant professor at Bard College. She has taught at Yale University, Oberlin College Conservatory, Swarthmore, Amherst and Skidmore Colleges, the New School of Music in Philadelphia, and the European Mozart Academy in Poland. In addition, she teaches chamber music at the Soundfest Institute of String Quartets in Massachusetts each summer and in master classes at universities throughout the United States and Canada. She has adjudicated at many prestigious competitions, including the Banff International String Quartet Competition, Coleman Chamber Music Competition, Astral Artists of Philadelphia, Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York, and at the Juilliard School's violin concerto competitions.

Rosenfeld plays a violin made by Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini around 1760; her bow was crafted by Dominique Peccatte.