Lara St John

Canadian-born violinist Lara St. John has been described as “something of a phenomenon” by The Strad and a “high-powered soloist” by The New York Times. She has performed as a soloist with the orchestras of Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver and the Boston Pops, among many others across North America.

In Europe, she has played with the Royal Philharmonic, NDR Symphony, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Bournemouth Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, Camerata Ireland, Belgrade Philharmonic, Amsterdam Symphony, Akbank Chamber Orchestra in Turkey, and others.

In Asia, she has made solo appearances with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, China Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Shanghai Symphony and Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra.

Latin America appearances have included the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, the São Paulo Symphony and Rio de Janeiro’s Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira.

In Australasia, she has performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra 2 and the Auckland Philharmonia.

She has given recitals in major concert halls in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Ravinia, Washington DC, Prague, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, Tokyo, and in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

In a 2011 review, the Los Angeles Times said, “Lara St. John happens to be a volcanic violinist with a huge, fabulous tone that pours out of her like molten lava. She has technique to burn and plays at a constant high heat.”

St. John founded Ancalagon, her recording label, in 1999, which she owns and manages. Her Mozart recording with her brother, Scott St. John, and The Knights, won the 2011 Juno Classical Album of the Year for Soloist with Large Ensemble Accompaniment. Gramophone said their performance was “very daring and it never sounds contrived,” while Whole Note said, “I simply can’t imagine a more satisfying recording of this glorious work.”

In its review of St. John’s Bach: Sonatas album with Marie-Pierre Langlamet, the principal harpist of the Berlin Philharmonic, The Independent said, it is “faithful, yet innovative … revealing the dragonfly poise, beauty and maneuverability afforded by the combination.” Strings magazine wrote: “St. John pulls from her 1779 ‘Salabue’ Guadagnini a tawny sound and subtle but wild interpretive concept that’s both highly addictive and totally authentic.”

José Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema, said of St. John’s recording with Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, Vivaldi – The Four Seasons and Piazzolla – The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires: “This stunning recording features the extraordinary violinist Lara St. John. She and the musicians of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra give an inspired performance.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote, “Lara St. John is as captivating in the seductive scenes of the Piazzolla as she is crisp, caressing and colorful in Vivaldi’s atmospheric paeans to nature,” while Audiophile Audition said, “Do we need another Four Seasons? With playing and sound like this, yes we do!”

St. John’s sixth recording, Hindson – Corigliano – Liszt/ Kennedy/St. John, with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was released in 2008 and featured two world-premiere arrangements: Matthew Hindson’s Violin Concerto and the Martin Kennedy/Lara St. John arrangement of Totentanz, by Franz Liszt, as well as The Red Violin Suite, by John Corigliano. The album had Gramophone saying, “It’s the sort of work that should get audiences running, not walking, back to concert halls on new-music nights.”

Bach: The Six Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo, St. John’s fifth recording, was described as “awe-inducing” by the Toronto Star, and “wild, idiosyncratic, and gripping” by the Los Angeles Times. The recording was released in autumn 2007 and was that year’s best-selling double album on iTunes.

Her third recording, Bach: the Concerto Album, appeared in Gramophone’s “strongly recommended” section, which said, “It is difficult to argue with such a technically dazzling and unfailingly musical interpretation.” The recording was released on iTunes Classical in June 2005, where it immediately reached No. 1.

Her debut CD, Bach: Works for Violin Solo, sold more than 50,000 copies and received resounding acclaim. The Chicago Tribune described St. John as having “superb technique and an irresistible vitality,” while US News and World Report called the recording “an exquisite performance.” Gramophone described her second album, Gypsy, as “a sizzling display” and The Strad called her “an electrifying player, as deeply satisfying in Bach as she is bewitchingly seductive in Waxman’s Carmen Fantasie.”

St. John has also recorded for Sony Classical. She has been featured in People, US News and World Report, on CNN’s Showbiz Today, NPR’s All Things Considered, Fox News, CBC and in a Bravo! special, Live at the Rehearsal Hall.

St. John began playing the violin when she was two years old. At age 4, she made her first appearance as a soloist with an orchestra, and she made her European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon when she was 10. She toured France, Hungary, Portugal and Spain at ages 12 and 13, was admitted to the Curtis Institute at 13 and, three years later, spent her first summer at Marlboro. Her teachers have included Felix Galimir and Joey Corpus.

St. John performs on the 1779 “Salabue” Guadagnini, thanks to an anonymous donor and Heinl & Co. of Toronto.