Guest Artist Bio

GUEST ARTIST

RACHEL LEE PRIDAY, VIOLIN

A consistently exciting artist, renowned globally for her spectacular technique, sumptuous sound and deeply probing musicianship, violinist RACHEL LEE PRIDAY has appeared as soloist with major international orchestras, among them the Chicago, Houston, National, Pacific, St. Louis and Seattle symphony orchestras, Boston Pops Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Germany’s Staatskapelle Berlin. Passionately committed to new music and creating enriching community and global connections, Rachel Lee Priday’s wide-ranging repertoire and multidisciplinary collaborations reflect a deep fascination with literary and cultural narratives.

Priday began her violin studies at the age of four in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, she moved to New York City to study with the iconic pedagogue Dorothy DeLay; she continued her studies at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division with Itzhak Perlman. She holds a B.A. degree in English from Harvard University and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where she worked with Miriam Fried. In the fall of 2019, she joined the faculty of the University of Washington School of Music as Assistant Professor of Violin.

Rachel Lee Priday has been profiled in The New Yorker, The Strad, Los Angeles Times and Family Circle. Her performances shave been broadcast on major media outlets in the United States, Germany, Korea, South Africa and Brazil, including a televised concert in Rio de Janeiro, numerous appearances on Chicago’s WFMT and American Public Media’s “Performance Today.” She has also been featured on the Disney Channel, “Fiddling for the Future” and “American Masters” on PBS, and the Grammy Awards.

Since making her orchestral debut at the 1997 Aspen Music Festival, Priday has performed with numerous orchestras across the United States, including those of Alabama, Bangor, Colorado, Knoxville, Rockford and Springfield (MA), as well as the New York Youth Symphony. In Europe and Asia, she has appeared at Germany’s Moritzburg Festival and with orchestras in Graz, Austria, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea, where she performed with the KBS Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Russian State Symphony Orchestra on tour.

Rachel Lee Priday performs on a Nicolo Gagliano violin (Naples, 1760), double-purfled with fleurs-de-lis, named Alejandro. Ms. Priday is represented by Parker Artists – www.parkerartists.com. www.rachelleepriday.com