executive director

Violist John Stulz is a passionate promoter of new music. He regularly gives performances by the leading composers of our time both as a soloist and as a member of What’s Next? Ensemble and various other new music groups in Los Angeles, Boston and abroad. Highlights include the west coast premiere of Elliott Carter’s Figment IV for solo viola, the american premiere of Kryzstof Meyer’s Twelfth String Quartet, and a performance of Steven Mackey’s Physical Property for string quartet and electric guitar with the composer.

John has worked under Pierre Boulez and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporaine as a fellow of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra in Switzerland as well as George Benjamin and members of the Ensemble Modern with the Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie in Schwaz, Austria. In 2011, John studied contemporary European music intensively under Garth Knox, former violist of the Arditti Quartet and Ensemble Intercontemporaine.

John has served as principal violist of the USC Thornton Symphony Orchestra, Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, New England Conservatory Philharmonia and the Shleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra in Germany. With the later he has toured across Germany and Europe under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach including performances in Krakow, Prague, Budapest, Istanbul, Grenada, Hamburg, and Weissbaden. In 2008 John made his solo debut playing the Walton Viola Concerto with the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra.

In 2010, John graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California where he studied viola with Donald McInnes and served as a member of the contemporary music ensemble for four years under the direction of Donald Crockett. Additionally, John played for two years in a string quartet with Professor Midori Goto and studied composition privately with Erica Muhl and Veronika Krausas. He is currently living in Boston where he is pursuing his masters degree at the New England Conservatory of music studying under Kim Kashkashian.