Michelle LaCourse

Chair of String Department; Associate Professor of Music, Viola | lacourse@bu.edu | 617.353.2683

Room 461, 855 Commonwealth Avenue

BM, MM, Artist Diploma, Peabody Conservatory of Music. Michelle LaCourse has appeared as soloist and chamber musician on four continents, including recent performances in Italy, Spain, Brazil, and South Korea. Her playing has been described by critics in such terms as “a miraculous blend of intense passion and artistic elegance” and “has a mastery of the instrument like a sixth sense, and with it reveals to us the most profound secrets.” An enthusiastic advocate for new viola repertoire, she has also commissioned and premiered several new pieces for the instrument. Her recent recording, “Chocolates: Music for Viola and Piano by James Grant” was released by MSR Classics (msrcd.com) in spring of 2009 to rave reviews.

Ms. LaCourse was formerly a member of the Lehigh Quartet, the Delphic String Trio and the Aeolian Trio. She has performed at numerous festivals such as Aspen, Eastern, Interlochen, Skaneateles, Musicorda, the Heifetz Institute, and the International Festivals of Campos do Jordão, Brazil, of Positano, Italy, and of Vianden, Luxembourg, as well as at some of the world’s leading concert venues, such as Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Kammermusiksaal and Washington’s Kennedy Center. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with the Baltimore Symphony and the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and was formerly principal violist of the Chamber Orchestra of Grenoble France.

She graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy, where she worked with David Holland, and holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she studied with, and was for many years teaching assistant to renowned pedagogue Karen Tuttle. Ms LaCourse was recently awarded Boston University’s 2009 Metcalf Cup and Prize, the university’s highest honor for excellence in teaching. She has given master classes at music schools across the United States, and during the summer months she also teaches and performs at the annual Karen Tuttle Viola Workshops and at BU’s Tanglewood Institute. Many of her former students currently enjoy playing and teaching positions around the globe.

© Photo by Susan Wilson