Olivia De Prato

Austrian-born violinist Olivia de Prato has emerged as a major figure in New York's avant-garde scene, realizing textures ranging from traditional to experimental on her instrument. She has also been a member of several noted chamber ensembles and has been active as an educator. Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1983, De Prato is partly of Italian background and spent some of her childhood near Venice. She took up the violin at six and was identified by teachers as an exceptional talent, and in 1995 she enrolled in the preparatory school of the Vienna University of Music and Arts. Even as a teen she was winning prizes and giving concerts, including one with the Pro Arte Trio in Udine, Italy, in 1998 to benefit the Italian Red Cross. She entered the University of Music and Arts that year, continuing studies with Dora Schwarzberg. In 1999 De Prato performed her first solo recital in the U.S., and she took a master class with Alice Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California the following year. In 2001 she moved to the U.S., enrolling at the Eastman School of Music, but also continued to give concerts in Europe. She emerged as the concertmaster of Eastman's Philharmonia orchestra during her studies there. In 2005 De Prato moved to New York and soon became involved with the city's avant-garde music scene. She has performed in major experimental music festivals including the Lucerne Festival (under Pierre Boulez), the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Lincoln Center Festival, and Shanghai New Music Week, as well as touring internationally with jazz bassist-vocalist Esperanza Spalding. A member of the groups Signal and Victoire (the latter the hand-picked ensemble of composer Missy Mazzoli), De Prato co-founded and has been the first violinist of the Mivos Quartet. Her teaching and master class résumé is unusually long, including stints at Princeton, Brooklyn College, the City University of New York, New York University, the Shanghai Conservatory, the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, and Universidad Salvador in Brazil, among many others. In 2018, De Prato released the solo violin album Streya, featuring highly varied works written for her by six contemporary composers. ~ James Manheim