Vicki Powell
Praised by the New York Times for her “probing introspection”, and by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a star” with “a voluptuous tone,” violist Vicki Powell has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Aspen Festival Orchestra, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and has been a featured artist at the Verbier, Spannungen, and Marlboro Music Festivals, among others.
Vicki is the recipient of a Gold Award in Music from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.
Other awards include Third Prize and the Sonata Prize at the 2011 Primrose International Viola Competition, as well as First Prizes of the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Competition, the Johansen International Competition, and the Aspen Low Strings Competition.
Since 2018 Vicki has held the position of Principal Viola of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
She has also been invited to play as Guest Principal of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Munich Chamber Orchestra.
An avid chamber musician, Vicki performs throughout Europe with the Boccherini String Trio (www.boccherinitrio.com). She has toured with Musicians from Marlboro, and appears frequently in chamber concerts at Konserthuset Stockholm. Recent highlights include performances at the Aldeburgh Festival with Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, Korsholm Music Festival, Olympic Music Festival, Zurich Tonhalle, and Berlin Konzerthaus. She has previously collaborated with such renowned artists as Anne Sofie von Otter, Janine Jansen, Christian Tetzlaff, Steven Isserlis, and Mitsuko Uchida.
In addition to her pursuits as a violist, Vicki has served as Director of the Verbier Festival Academy's "Reaching Out" program, where she helped enable musicians to harness and broaden their outreach, business, networking, and leadership skills in order to be innovative and active participants within their own communities. Ms. Powell has also collaborated with the Medair organization (relief.medair.org), which helps people who are suffering in remote and devastated communities around the world survive crisis, recover with dignity, and develop skills to build a better future.
Vicki is a graduate of the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin, Juilliard School, and Curtis Institute of Music, and studied with Máté Szűcs, Misha Amory, and Roberto Diaz. Her chamber music mentors include Rainer Schmidt, Pamela Frank, and Hatto Beyerle.
Photo © Ueda Photography