Basrak Joins Studio Faculty

Cathy Basrak, assistant principal viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra occupying the Anne Stoneman Chair and Principal Viola of the Boston Pops, will join the NEC studio faculty beginning Fall 2015. Currently, she is teaching the orchestral repertory class at the Conservatory. 

A native of the Chicago area, Basrak has won numerous important awards, including Grand Prize in the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors National Concerto Competition, First Prize in the 1995 William E. Primrose Memorial Scholarship Competition, First Prize in the 1995 Irving M. Klein International String Competition, First Prize in the 1995 Julius Stulberg Auditions, and Second Prize in the 46th International Music Competition of the ARD in Munich. In addition, she has performed with the Brandenburg Ensemble and Boston's Metamorphosen Ensemble and appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago, Detroit, and Bavarian Radio symphony orchestras, and Boston Pops with John Williams. She has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

Basrak, who received her Bachelor of Music at the Curtis Institute of Music, counts among her teachers Joseph de Pasquale, principal viola of the BSO from 1947 to 1964, and Michael Tree of the Guarneri String Quartet.