PAUL LARAIA

viola

1st Prize winner of the 13th Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the 14th Sphinx Competition, violist Paul Laraia is enjoying the early stages of a multifaceted career as soloist, chamber musician, and new music advocate. Acclaimed for offering “long lines with lyricsm and poise”, Paul has been soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Filharmonica de Bogata, New Jersey Symphony, Nashville Symphony, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Acclaimed by The Strad for his "eloquent” and "vibrant" playing, award-winning violist Paul Laraia enjoys a multifaceted career as soloist, chamber musician, and new music advocate. 

He has performed as featured soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Filharmonica De Bogata, New Jersey Symphony, Nashville Symphony, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and been an invited artist at major festivals such as the Yellow Barn, Sarasota, Vail International Dance, Festival Del Sole, Incheon Music Hic Et Nunc!, Hong Kong Generation Next Arts, Sitka, Banff, Grand Canyon, and Cornell’s Mayfest. Chamber music collaborations include performances with world renowned artists such as Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, Yo-yo Ma, Jorg Widmann, Vadim Repin, Edgar Meyer, Donald Weilerstein, Cho-lang Lin, Roger Tapping, Anthony Marwood, Daniel Phillips, and Paul Huang.   

The New Jersey native first studied viola with Brynina Socolofsky, disciple of viola pedagogue Leonard Mogill. He continued studies on scholarship through Temple University’s Center for Talented Youth and the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, and entered the New England Conservatory of Music on full scholarship in 2007 to study with Kim Kashkashian.

In 2011, Laraia won First Prize at Detroit’s Sphinx Competition by unanimous vote, and maintains a close relationship with the Sphinx Organization and its mission to encourage diversity in classical music performers and audiences. In 2019, he competed in the 13th Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition held on the Isle of Man, and was awarded the First Prize and a Wigmore Hall recital in London. 

Paul Laraia performs on a beautiful Hiroshi Iizuka viola in the ‘viola d’amore’ style, a Belgian bow by Pierre Guillaume awarded by the Bishops Strings Shop in London, and is a proud supporter of Pirastro’s Eva Pirazzi strings.