Aloysia Friedmann

Founder and Artistic Director violin & viola

Aloysia Friedmann continues to reinvent the role of a modern performer in the music world. Chamber Music America recognized Ms. Friedmann’s artistic leadership with its 2008 CMAcclaim Award, and in 2016, CMA invited Ms. Friedmann to their national board. In December of 2018, she was given the great honor of being named a Musical America Top Professional of the Year.

Ms. Friedmann graduated from The Juilliard School, and the New York Times praised her “fiery spirit” after her Carnegie Recital Hall debut. While living in New York City, she performed with New York’s most prestigious musical ensembles, including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and American Symphony Orchestra, and she was concertmaster of The Fairfield Orchestra. Her many Broadway credits include a special onstage role on Broadway alongside Dustin Hoffman in The Merchant of Venice, as well as hundreds of performances of Crazy for You, Candide, A Christmas Carol, and many other shows.

In Houston, Ms. Friedmann is associate concertmaster of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and is a frequent guest artist on both violin and viola in concert series at Da Camera and Rice University. She also served on the advisory council for Chamber Music Houston. Highlights of concerts in Houston include her solo viola performance of Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel in the chapel itself. Ms. Friedmann has also taught as an affiliate artist of viola and violin at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. This past season she was invited to play with the Houston Symphony on viola and the San Diego Symphony on violin for several of their main concert series programs.

In 2022 Ms. Friedmann played on The Who Hits Back! tour and for the Mainly Mozart Festival, of which she is a founding member. She also performed with the Olmos Ensemble in San Antonio. Prior to the Covid pandemic, she toured the Pacific Northwest, Vietnam, and France with pianist Jon Kimura Parker. They also appeared on KING-FM Rhine and Danube River Cruises. She has performed at the Seattle Chamber Music Society and festivals in Hong Kong, Santa Fe, Portland, Reno, Napa Valley, Maui, Ottawa, and San Antonio. She was a guest violist and teaching artist at the Sarasota Music Festival and has appeared with the Montrose Trio, and the New Orford String Quartet. Her chamber music colleagues have included Gervase de Peyer, Peter Schickele, Gary Hoffman, Jeffrey Kahane, the Miró Quartet, Cho-Liang Lin, Chee-Yun, Alisa Weilerstein, Gabriel Kahane, and Lynn Harrell. Versatile offstage as well, Aloysia has produced recordings for artists including Viktor Valkov, Lachezar Kostov, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, Jon Kimura Parker, and the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival.

Ms. Friedmann was the guest soloist in a Benaroya Hall performance of the Handel-Casadesus Viola Concerto conducted by Adam Stern, and she also appeared with Frederica von Stade in the 25th Anniversary Gala of the Noe Valley Chamber Music Series, giving the world premiere of Meditation by Jake Heggie.

Ms. Friedmann plays on a Grancino violin and a Grancino viola, both made in Milan in the late 1600s. Her viola was once owned by British composer and violist Rebecca Clarke. For additional information please visit aloysiafriedmann.com.

Sponsor: The Binkley Family

Artistic Leadership Sponsor: Katherine (Ann) Ferguson, in honor of Aloysia Friedmann and Jon Kimura Parker